Jump to content
  • articles
    9,860
  • comments
    83
  • views
    12,528,139

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

Local control of NHS screening could jeopardise patient safety


Patients could be put at risk by plans to allow local NHS bodies to oversee the quality of health screening programmes for diseases such as breast and bowel cancer, experts have suggested.

At the moment, NHS England runs the Screening Quality Assurance Service (SQAS) to make sure local organisations comply with national standards, are safe and can be subject to inspections. There are 11 national screening programmes in England, including those for breast, cervical and bowel cancer, plus antenatal and newborn screening, abdominal aortic aneurysm and diabetic eye screening. At the moment, screening programmes must report all safety incidents to the SQAS and the SQAS inspectors visit local sites to pick up urgent issues and make recommendations.

Now, a report in the British Medical Journal questions plans by NHS England to allow local bodies to have more control.

Sue Cohen, former national lead of screening quality assurance at Public Health England, told the BMJ that devolving responsibility for SQAS to local organisations would be a “retrograde” step. She pointed to previous issues, such as in Kent where a lack of oversight of a cervical screening programme led to women with cancer not being picked up.

She said: “If you don’t have a quality assurance service that is properly resourced and has that ability to keep a national view, you will simply not have the oversight of the system and there is a bigger risk of incidents going undetected.”

Read full story

Source: Medscape News, 22 May 2024

Read more

LMC creates letter for GPs to reject hospital workload dumping ‘tsunami’

An LMC has created template letters to help practices reject secondary care workload dumping, including rejected referrals and requests to complete work on behalf of hospital trusts.

Cambridge LMC said it developed the tools amid a growing ‘tsunami’ of secondary care workload transfer into general practices.

One template letter tackles the rejection of a referral ‘on the basis that a proforma was not enclosed or completed in full’. It points out that the GMC requires GPs to refer when they ‘believe it is necessary to do so’ and that their ‘contractual obligations make no mention of a requirement to complete a proforma’.

Cambridgeshire LMC chief executive Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer told Pulse that ‘we need the temperature to rise on the understanding around pressures across general practice’.

Read full story

For more information on the issues raised, read a blog by Patient Safety Learning about the patient safety risks of rejected outpatient referrals.

Source: Pulse (19 August 2022)

Read more
 

LloydsPharmacy launches pilot programme to help and support mental health patients

LloydsPharmacy is piloting an innovative new service that offers extra help and support to mental health patients. Funded by The National Institute for Health Research Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (NIHR GM PSTRC), which is a partnership between The University of Manchester and Salford Royal, the pilot is being carried out in ten community pharmacies in Greater Manchester.

The new service, referred to as AMPLIPHY, enables pharmacists to provide personalised support to people who have been newly prescribed a medicine for depression or anxiety, or those who have experienced a recent change to their prescription.

The pilot programme has been funded and designed by researchers at the NIHR GM PSTRC in collaboration with LloydsPharmacy. Central to the programme is the ability for patients to lead the direction of support they receive. They set their own goals and objectives and the pharmacist supports them in these. 

Professor Darren Ashcroft, Deputy Director of the NIHR Greater Manchester PSTRC, said: "The NIHR Greater Manchester PSTRC focuses on improving patient safety across four themes, which include Medication Safety and Mental Health. AMPLIPHY covers two of these areas and we believe it has the potential to make a difference to patients, by providing enhanced support for their care in the community."

The pilot is set to run until April 2020 when its impact will be evaluated before a decision is made on the next steps.

Read full story

Source: News-Medical.net, 22 January 2020

Read more

Liz Truss: I’ll halt NHS doctor exodus

Liz Truss has pledged to halt the exodus of doctors from the NHS to tackle the Covid backlog and surging waiting lists.

The frontrunner in the Conservative leadership race is planning to unveil a series of radical reforms that will stop doctors from retiring early and entice retirees to return.

One in 10 consultants and GPs is expected to retire in the next 18 months because of pension rules that mean they are "paying to work". A source close to her said she would deal with it by “cutting red tape and dealing with issues in the pension and tax system that currently act as barriers for people wanting to return”.

It comes amid concerns that the NHS backlog after lockdown is causing more than 1,000 excess deaths per week - more than the figure now killed each week by coronavirus.

A source close to Liz Truss also said: “The Covid pandemic put unprecedented strain on our NHS, and the resulting backlog is seeing people struggling to get appointments and treatments. We must act to tackle it, and we will. We will make it easier for doctors and nurses who have recently left or are planning to leave the NHS but want to return or stay to do so.” 

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Telegraph (20 August 2022)

Read more
 

Lives ruined as damage viewed as 'women's problems'

Many lives have been ruined because officials failed to hear the concerns of women given drugs and procedures that caused them or their babies considerable harm, says a review.

More than 700 women and their families shared "harrowing" details about vaginal mesh, Primodos and an epilepsy drug called sodium valproate. Too often worries and complaints were dismissed as "women's problems". It says arrogant attitudes left women traumatised, intimidated and confused.

June Wray, 73 and from Newcastle, experienced chronic pain after having a vaginal mesh procedure in 2009.

"Sometimes the pain is so severe, I feel like I will pass out. But when I told GPs and surgeons, they didn't believe me. They just looked at me like I was mad."

The chairwoman of the highly critical review, Baroness Julia Cumberlege, said the families affected deserved a fulsome apology from the government.

She said: "I have conducted many reviews and inquiries over the years, but I have never encountered anything like this; the intensity of suffering experienced by so many families, and the fact that they have endured it for decades. Much of this suffering was entirely avoidable, caused and compounded by failings in the health system itself."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 8 July 2020

Read more
 

Lives at risk from 'unacceptable' ambulance waits

Lives are at risk because patients are facing unacceptably long waits for a 999 response, paramedics across the UK have told a BBC investigation.

Average waits for emergency callouts for problems such as heart attacks and strokes are taking more than twice as long as they should in England. Targets are being missed in the rest of UK too, with some seriously-ill waiting up to nine hours for an ambulance.

There are numerous investigations ongoing into deaths linked to delays.

The problems have forced all ambulance services to be put on their highest levels of alert - meaning patients who can make their own way to hospital are told to do so. A number of services have also brought in the military to support crews. 

The BBC has received reports of numerous serious incidents across the UK.

Margaret Root, 82, waited nearly six hours for an ambulance to come following a stroke, and she then waited for another three hours outside hospital. When she was finally admitted, her family was told it was too late to give her the drugs needed to reverse the effects of the stroke.

Her granddaughter Christina White-Smith said her grandmother had been "hugely let down".

She said she did not blame the staff because they were "amazing" when they got to her grandmother, but said she is angry the NHS is not getting the help it needs.

"I don't think people are aware of the severity of the situation."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 11 November 2021

 

 

 
Read more

Liverpool NHS trust ordered to improve amid safety concerns

A Liverpool NHS trust has been rated as "requires improvement" by the health service watchdog due to concerns over care and safety.

The moves comes following inspections at Aintree University Hospital and Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

Inspectors said Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust required improvement in safety while it was classed as inadequate for leadership.

The trust said "immediate action" had been taken to address the concerns.

Ted Baker, chief inspector of hospitals at the Care Quality Commission, said the inspections in June and July highlighted concerns that the trust's leadership team "had a lack of oversight of what was happening on the frontline".

Mr Baker said "lengthy delays" and "poor monitoring" were putting patients at serious risk of harm, and the trust was rated as requires improvement overall.

He added: "We were particularly concerned about how long people were waiting to be admitted onto medical wards and by the absence of effective processes to prioritise patients for treatment based on their conditions.

"There weren't always the right number of staff with the right skills and training to treat people effectively or keep them safe in the trust's emergency departments and on medical wards."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 27 October 2021

Read more

Liverpool intensive care units '90% full' as city braces for second wave

Intensive care units in Liverpool’s hospitals are more than 90% full, according to a local health leader, as the city braces for a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

Councillor Paul Brant, cabinet member for adult health and social care at Liverpool City Council, warned that hospital services were once again being forced to care for patients critically ill with coronavirus.

"Our intensive, critical care beds are filling up very fast,” he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"The most recent figures I've seen suggest they are over 90 per cent full and our acute hospital trusts have occupancy levels of Covid-positive patients of over 250. At the current rate of increase, we would expect Liverpool to surpass the peak of the first wave probably within the next seven to 10 days."

Addressing the intensive care situation, he added: "They are not all Covid patients, I should say, but they are running very full and they are running with an increasing number of people who are Covid-positive."

He added: "It has become clear that the intensity of the demand on hospital services here in Liverpool is crowding out anything other than dealing with Covid."

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 14 October 2020

Read more

Liverpool hospitals cut back on operations to cope with COVID-19 rise

Hospitals in Liverpool are scaling back non-urgent operations to help them cope with COVID-19 patients despite NHS bosses insisting that normal care continues during the second wave.

NHS trusts elsewhere in north-west England, as well as in the north-east and Midlands, are also preparing to cancel routine surgery such as joint replacements and hernia repairs amid a rapid rise in seriously ill coronavirus patients.

A potential second suspension of non-Covid care is looming despite warnings that this may lead to many thousands dying because their cancer, heart problem or other illness is not diagnosed or treated.

Steve Warburton, the chief executive of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS trust, acknowledged that doing less surgery would be “distressing” for patients affected but said the city’s three main acute hospitals had reached a “critical point”.

It is the first trust in England to make clear it cannot provide normal levels of non-Covid care during the second coronavirus surge, even though NHS England has told all hospitals to do so. The decision is likely to lead to other trusts doing the same.

Warburton said: “We will continue to prioritise surgery based in clinical need with a view to maintaining urgent and cancer surgery where possible.” He promised that the trust would continue to provide outpatient appointments “wherever possible” and keep giving patients diagnostic tests such as CT and MRI scans.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2020

Read more
 

Liver-branding transplant surgeon struck off medical register

A surgeon who burned his initials on to the livers of two patients during transplant surgery has been struck off the medical register.

Simon Bramhall, 57, admitted using an argon beam – used to stop livers bleeding during operations and to highlight an area to be worked on – to sign “SB” into his patients’ organs in 2013 while working at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth hospital.

On Tuesday, a review by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) concluded Bramhall’s actions were “borne out of a degree of professional arrogance” and that they “undermined” public trust in the medical profession.

Bramhall, of Tarrington, Herefordshire, was first suspended from his post as a consultant surgeon in 2013 after another surgeon spotted the initials during follow-up surgery on one of his patients. A photograph of the 4cm-high branding was taken on a mobile phone.

During his sentencing hearing in 2018, Bramhall was told one of the victims suffered serious psychological harm as a result of the branding. The surgeon later told police he branded the organs to relieve operating theatre tensions following difficult and long transplant operations.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 11 January 2022

Read more
 

Liver dialysis device safe and effective for treating liver failure

Researchers have completed the first successful in-patient trial of liver dialysis.

The DIALIVE device, invented by researchers at UCL’s Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, was found to be safe and effective, research suggests.

According to a new study, the device is associated with substantial improvement in the severity of symptoms and organ function in a greater proportion of patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF), when compared with patients receiving standard of care.

The next step would be a larger clinical trial, which if successful could see DIALIVE approved for clinical use within the next three years.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 1 June 2023

Read more

Little progress made on endometriosis, say experts

There has been "little progress" in improving the experiences of people living with endometriosis in the past 25 years, according to Leeds researchers.

Endometriosis is a disease in which tissue like that in the lining of the womb grows elsewhere in the body, causing debilitating pain.

Endometriosis UK and researchers at Leeds Beckett University (LBU) surveyed 1,800 patients, with many saying they felt "powerless" over their illness.

Lead researcher Prof Georgina Jones said the results were "troubling", and showed how living with endometriosis could "fundamentally impact a person’s sense of identity and place in the world".

She said: "We asked respondents to provide some words summarising their experience of endometriosis.

"While most of these were negative, for example, they described the debilitating pain, the frustration and loneliness they feel, a number described the sense of community felt by those living with the disease.

"This underlines how important peer support, both informally and in the way organised by Endometriosis UK, is to those with endometriosis."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 20 September 2024

Read more

Little evidence that penalties are getting US hospitals to improve

The US federal government has penalised 764 hospitals — including more than three dozen it simultaneously rates as among the best in the country — for having the highest numbers of patient infections and potentially avoidable complications.

The penalties — a 1% reduction in Medicare payments over 12 months — are based on the experiences of Medicare patients discharged from the hospital between July 2018 and the end of 2019, before the pandemic began in earnest. The punishments, which the Affordable Care Act requires be assessed on the worst-performing 25% of general hospitals each year, are intended to make hospitals focus on reducing bedsores, hip fractures, blood clots, and the cohort of infections that before Covid-19 were the biggest scourges in hospitals. Those include surgical infections, urinary tract infections from catheters, and antibiotic-resistant germs like MRSA.

This year’s list of penalised hospitals includes Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago; a Cleveland Clinic hospital in Avon, Ohio; a Mayo Clinic hospital in Red Wing, Minnesota; and a Mayo hospital in Phoenix. Paradoxically, all those hospitals have five stars, the best rating, on Medicare’s Care Compare website.

Eight years into the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program, 2,046 hospitals have been penalised at least once, a KHN analysis shows. But researchers have found little evidence that the penalties are getting hospitals to improve their efforts to avert bedsores, falls, infections, and other accidents.  

“Unfortunately, pretty much in every regard, the program has been a failure,” said Andrew Ryan, a professor of health care management at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, who has published extensively on the programme.  

“It’s very hard to capture patient safety with the surveillance methods we currently have,” he said. One problem, he added, is “you’re kind of asking hospitals to call out events that are going to have them lose money, so the incentives are really messed up for hospitals to fully disclose” patient injuries. Academic medical centers say the reason nearly half of them are penalised each year is that they are more diligent in finding and reporting infections.

Read full story

Source: Kaiser Health News, 8 February 2022

Read more
 

Little evidence that locum GPs pose greater risk to patient safety, study finds

Existing claims that locum GPs present a greater risk of harming patients are unfounded, according to new research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. It found that there is little evidence that locum doctors, including GPs, have a 'detrimental' impact on patient care delivery.

Researchers from the University of Manchester looked at 42 international papers, including 24 from the UK, on the impact of locum doctors working in various healthcare settings to determine whether this group is more likely to harm patients than permanent doctors. 

Previous reports highlight longstanding and growing concerns about the quality, safety and cost of locum doctors among a range of stakeholders such as policymakers, employers, regulators and professional bodies. These include locum GPs being less aware of local policies and less familiar with the patient's healthcare history and lacking commitment. 

However, the researchers found there is 'very limited evidence' to support claims that these healthcare professionals deliver lower quality of care than their permanent counterparts. 

Read full story (registration required)

Source: Pulse, 12 November 2019

Read more
 

Lip fillers: Call for tighter regulation after botched treatments

Lip fillers have grown increasingly popular but the industry is "like the wild west", experts warn, with many patients left in pain and embarrassed by their appearance.

As Harriet Green left a salon after getting an injection to add volume to her lips, she was reassured the excess swelling would go down. But three months later her lips were still so bloated she could not close her mouth properly.

The 22-year-old from Acle in Norfolk needed three corrective procedures - costing a total of more than £700 - to get them back to normal.

Dr Saba Raja, a GP who runs her own aesthetics clinic in Norwich, says she is increasingly having to correct treatments which have gone wrong, describing the experience as "really distressing".

"Every month I'm getting enquires from young girls who have gone to a non-medical practitioner for lip or tear trough fillers under the eye and had complications.

"They often try to contact the practitioner but due to lack of training they are unable to deal with the complications. It is becoming more and more of a problem."

Dr Raja describes the industry as "like the wild west", with people injecting patients "out of the back of their cars" and in kitchens.

"Anti-wrinkle injections (Botox) are prescription-only but the injector can be anybody who has been on a day course. Dermal filler (for the lips and face) is not even a prescription-only medication, you can buy it off any website," she says.

"A lot of non-medical practitioners are buying cheap filler online, with no idea where it has come from. We really need strict regulations and minimum training standards."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 9 May 2023

Read more

Links between primary and secondary care must be ‘streamlined’ says NHSE

All trusts should pick a “designated lead” for improving how they work with primary care, according to new NHS planning guidance. 

The guidance for 2024-25 published by NHS England today states: “Every trust should have a designated lead for the primary–secondary care interface.”

It also asks integrated care boards to “regularly review progress” on how secondary care services are working with primary care.

NHSE recovery plans include trying to cut the number of patients effectively referred back to GP practices by other services, in order to reduce GP workload.

The guidance states: “Streamlining the patient pathway by improving the interface between primary and secondary care is an important part of recovery and efficiency across healthcare systems”.

The planning guidance — published on Wednesday night after months of delays — also said systems should continue to develop integrated neighbourhood teams, including by trying to “improve the alignment of relevant community services” to primary care network footprints. 

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 27 March 2024

Read more
 

Lincolnshire Trust fined after patient suffered serious avoidable harm

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust has been ordered to pay a total of £111,204 in fines and legal costs after pleading guilty to failing to provide safe care and treatment to an elderly patient, causing them avoidable harm, following a sentencing hearing on Friday, 25 March at Boston Magistrates’ Court.

The case was taken by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) under regulations 12 and 22 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

The case against  United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust involved the care of an elderly patient, Iris Longmate, who was admitted to the Greetwell Ward at Lincoln County Hospital on 20 February 2019.

On March 3, 2019 Iris fainted and fell unsupervised from a commode, and was found face down on the floor in her room. Iris sustained spinal injuries and a cut to the head as a result of the fall, but then also suffered significant burns to her thigh and left arm as a result of being pressed against a radiator whilst being assessed by staff following the fall.

Iris was subsequently transferred to Queens Medical Centre for assessment and treatment. She sadly contracted pneumonia in hospital and died on March 14, 2019.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust pleaded guilty to a single offence of failure to provide safe care and treatment causing avoidable harm to Iris, for which the trust was fined £100,000. The court also ordered the trust to pay £170 victim surcharge and £11,034 costs to the CQC.

The trust was found to not have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that safe care and treatment was provided, resulting in avoidable harm to Iris. In pleading guilty to the offence of causing avoidable harm to Iris, the trust also acknowledged that other patients on the Greetwell Ward had also been exposed to a significant risk of avoidable harm.

Fiona Allinson, CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals, said: "This death is a tragedy. My thoughts are with the family and others grieving for their loss."

"People have the right to safe care and treatment, so it’s unacceptable that patient safety was not well managed by United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust," she said. "Had the trust addressed the issues with the exposed heating pipes before Iris fell, she wouldn’t have suffered such awful burns injuries."

Read full story

Source: Medscape, 2 April 2022

Read more

Lincolnshire hospitals declare 'critical incident' over staff shortages

A critical incident has been declared at four Lincolnshire hospitals because of staff shortages due to COVID-19.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said it was taking "additional steps to maintain services" at all its hospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham.

The trust's medical director, Dr Colin Farquharson, said there were "significant staffing pressures due to absence related to COVID-19".

But he said essential services "remain fully open".

According to a leaked email seen by The Sunday Times, the trust declared a critical incident on Saturday night "due to extreme and unprecedented workforce shortages".

It issued an "urgent appeal" for clinical and non-clinical staff to offer extra time supporting colleagues "over the next 72 hours".

It also asked staff to "consider limiting social contacts with people outside of work".

Original tweet on Twitter:

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 3 January 2022

Read more

Likely cause of mystery child hepatitis outbreak found

UK experts believe they have identified the cause of the recent spate of mysterious liver problems affecting young children around the world.

Investigations suggest two common viruses made a comeback after pandemic lockdowns ended - and triggered the rare but very serious hepatitis cases.

More than 1,000 children - many under the age of five - in 35 countries are thought to have been affected. Some, including 12 in the UK, have needed a lifesaving liver transplant.

The two teams of researchers, from London and Glasgow, say infants exposed later than normal - because of Covid restrictions - missed out on some early immunity to an adenovirus, which normally causes colds and stomach upsets, and adeno-associated virus 2.

Noah, three, who lives in Chelmsford, Essex, needed an urgent liver transplant after becoming dangerously ill with hepatitis. His mother, Rebecca Cameron-McIntosh, says the experience has been devastating.

"He'd previously had nothing wrong with him," she says. "And for it to suddenly go so quickly. I think that's what kind of took us by surprise.

"We've just assumed it was one little problem that will get easily sorted out - but actually it just kept on snowballing."

Noah's recovery has been good - but he will need to take immunosuppressant drugs fo life, to stop his body rejecting the new liver he received.

Rebecca says: "There is something really heartbreaking about that because you go along following the rules, do what you are supposed to do to protect people that are vulnerable and then, in some horrible roundabout way, your own child has become more vulnerable because you did what you were supposed to do."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 26 July 2022

Read more
 

Like thousands of others I have ‘long Covid’ — it’s time doctors started taking us seriously

"It’s March and I’m lying awake at 3am struggling to breathe. There’s a heaviness in my chest. I’m terrified at the speed and inconsistency of my heartbeat, but I’m too afraid to call for medical help again. They’ve told me that it will get better and I need to persevere. I live on my own, and I’m trying to control my panic."

Six months later Louise Cole is still dealing with the symptoms. Like thousands of others, it turns out she has “long Covid”. Like them, Louise has struggled to be taken seriously by doctors. 

"While for some life is slowly returning to normal, the same cannot be said for long-term COVID-19 patients. Forgetting us is not an option — not least because the burden of caring for people like me is something the NHS and government will have to reckon with. Something must be done to ease our suffering — and that starts with paying us some attention."

Read full story

Source: Evening Standard, 11 September 2020

Read more
 

Lifting lockdown could lead to more deaths from Covid

While most of the UK is double vaccinated, there is still a steady rise in the number of Covid cases, raising concerns about the safety of the unlocking of the UK. 

On Monday 19th July, England will lift Covid restrictions including mandatory mask wearing as well as limits on indoor mixing. However, if someone is notified by the NHS app, they will still need to self-isolate, a rule that will no longer apply from 16th August if the person is double vaccinated. 

Read full story.

Source: CNN 18 July 2021

Read more

Lifestyle changes saving thousands from diabetes

Thousands of Britons have avoided being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes thanks to an NHS programme aimed at early intervention.

The Diabetes Prevention Programme identifies people at risk of developing the condition and gives them a nine-month plan to change their lifestyles.

Researchers at the University of Manchester found that the programme resulted in 18,000 fewer people in England being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 2018 and 2019 — a 7% reduction.

It focuses on eating and exercise habits and enables participants to join peer support groups and receive instruction from health coaches.

The programme also offers a digital service that helps participants monitor their progress using wearable technology and mobile phone apps.

Emma McManus, a research fellow at the university, said that diabetes was a “growing problem” for the country. The NHS spends about 10 per cent of its annual budget on treating it.

“However, if you change your lifestyle, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes reduces,” she said. “Our research has shown that the programme has been successful in reducing the number of new cases of diabetes.”

Emma Elvin, a senior clinical adviser at Diabetes UK, said: “This research adds to the evidence that many type 2 diabetes cases can be delayed or prevented with the right support and further highlights how the NHS diabetes prevention programme can be a real turning point for people at risk of type 2 diabetes.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 28 March 2022

Read more

Lifestyle changes and vaccination ‘could prevent most liver cancer cases’

Three in five liver cancer cases globally could be prevented by reducing obesity and alcohol consumption and increasing uptake of the hepatitis vaccine, a study has found.

The Lancet Commission on liver cancer found that most cases were preventable if alcohol consumption, fatty liver disease and levels of viral hepatitis B and C were reduced.

The commission set out several recommendations for policymakers, which it estimated could reduce the incidence of liver cancer cases by 2% to 5% each year by 2050, preventing 9m to 17m new cases of liver cancer and saving 8 million to 15 million lives.

Prof Jian Zhou at Fudan University in China, who led the research, said: “Liver cancer is a growing health issue around the world. It is one of the most challenging cancers to treat, with five-year survival rates ranging from approximately 5% to 30%. We risk seeing close to a doubling of cases and deaths from liver cancer over the next quarter of a century without urgent action to reverse this trend.”

The commission author Prof Hashem B El-Serag of Baylor College of Medicine in the US said: “Liver cancer was once thought to occur mainly in patients with viral hepatitis or alcohol-related liver disease. However, today, rising rates of obesity are an increasing risk factor for liver cancer, primarily due to the increase in cases of excess fat around the liver.”

The commission’s recommendations included that governments boost HBV vaccination and implement universal screening for adults; introduce minimum alcohol unit pricing and sugar taxes along with warning labels; invest in early detection of liver damage and cancer; and improve palliative care for sufferers.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 28 July 2025

Read more

Life-saving world first NHS test to rule out pre-eclampsia in pregnant women

A same-day blood test that can rule out pre-eclampsia, in pregnant women is being rolled out across the NHS in England. The test, known as placental growth factor (PLGF) testing, is already being used in three quarters of maternity units in England.

NHS clinical director for maternity and women‘s health Matthew Jolly said: “Pre-eclampsia is a life-threatening condition for both mum and baby if left untreated and this is why the NHS takes every precaution possible when soon-to-be mums have some of the early signs, like high blood pressure. This new way of testing means we can rule out the condition in a much quicker and easier way - it removes the stress that comes with the uncertainty around not having a diagnosis and will reassure thousands of pregnant women every year.”

Read full story.

Source: The Independent, 25 August 2021

Read more

© 2026 Patient Safety Learning. All rights reserved.

Patient Safety Learning is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission Registration number 1180689.

×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.