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Judge blocks RFK Jr's changes to US childhood vaccine schedule

A federal judge on Monday blocked the US government from making sweeping changes to childhood immunisations, in a blow to Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's agenda.

Since taking office a year ago, Kennedy has sought to change and loosen vaccine regulations, including slashing the number of recommended shots for children from 17 to 11.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and other large medical groups had sued, saying Kennedy's changes violated federal law.

Judge Brian Murphy also suspended Kennedy's appointments to an advisory vaccine panel, many of whom were vaccine-sceptics. Kennedy was a longtime antivaccine activist before joining President Donald Trump's administration.

The ruling means a scheduled Wednesday meeting for the vaccine panel, called the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (Acip) will be postponed, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The Trump administration is expected to appeal the ruling.

In a statement, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the agency "looks forward to this judge's decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing".

Medical groups who brought the suit, meanwhile, lauded the decision, including the American Medical Association, the largest US professional organization for doctors, which called it "an important step toward protecting the health of Americans, particularly children".

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Source: BBC News, 17 March 2026

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Journal pressured to retract study on Covid-19 vaccine harms

A vaccine manufacturer based in India launched defamation proceedings against researchers who published a study that reported adverse events in people following Covid-19 vaccination.  

The manufacturer also sued the editor of the international journal which published the study and demanded that the offending article be retracted immediately.

The study at the centre of the controversy is a post-marketing safety analysis (phase IV) of Covaxin, one of India’s homegrown Covid-19 vaccines.

The researchers concluded that serious adverse events of special interest (AESI) after vaccination “might not be uncommon” and that the majority of AESIs in people persisted “for a significant period.”

Of the 635 participants involved, one-third reported developing AESIs such as new-onset skin disorders, nervous system disorders, menstrual and ocular abnormalities.

Serious AESI, such as stroke and Guillain-Barre syndrome, were experienced by 1% of participants, but no causal link could be established in the study.

The researchers called for “enhanced awareness and larger studies” to carefully examine the potential for long-term harms of the vaccine.

On May 18, 2024, ICMR wrote to the journal wanting a retraction of the article and of the “acknowledgement” the researchers made to ICMR for its support.

The letter criticised the rigour of the study – it said there was no control arm, there were no baseline values of participants, and that collecting participant data by telephone interviews created a “high risk of bias.”

On Aug 28, 2024, Nitin Joshi, chief editor of Drug Safety, wrote to the authors to say a “post-publication review” had been conducted and that he now agreed with the criticisms of the paper.

Joshi, despite reviewing the study before it was published, stated that he was intending to retract the article because he “no longer has confidence in the conclusions.”

So far, over 250 scientists, researchers, ethicists, doctors and patients have signed an open letter addressed to BBIL, ICMR and the editor at Drug Safety, demanding the lawsuit be withdrawn, and the study remain published.

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Source: Maryanne Demasi, 23 September 2024

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Joint executive team to be set up across DHSC and NHS England

A single joint executive team will be established at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England as part of the transition to one organisation.

It will provide unified leadership across both organisations, bringing policy and delivery together. The team will manage directors from related work areas from 3 November 2025 and will begin to combine resources.

In March, the Prime Minister announced NHS England would be brought back into DHSC to end the duplication resulting from two organisations doing the same job in a system currently holding staff back from delivering for patients. By stripping back layers of red tape and bureaucracy, more resources will be put back into the frontline rather than being spent on unnecessary admin.  

The single Joint Executive Team will comprise of:

  • Professor Chris Whitty – Chief Medical Officer
  • Tom Riordan – Chief Operating Officer/Second Permanent Secretary
  • Matthew Style – Director General, System Development (working with Glen Burley who continues as NHSE’s Financial Reset and Accountability Director)
  • Duncan Burton – Chief Nursing Officer for England
  • Catherine Frances – Director General, Global, Public Health and Emergencies
  • Professor Lucy Chappell – Chief Scientific Adviser and Director General, Science and Research
  • Sally Warren – Interim Director General, Adult Social Care (recruitment to the permanent role began in July)
  • TBC – Interim Director General, Technology and Data (recruitment to the permanent role will take place during autumn)
  • Elizabeth O’Mahony – Interim Director General, Finance (recruitment to the permanent role began in August)
  • David Probert – Interim Director General, Performance and Delivery (and continuing as NHS England’s Interim Deputy CEO)
  • Jo Lenaghan – Interim Director General, People (recruitment to the permanent role began in August)
  • Dr Claire Fuller and Professor Meghana Pandit – Interim Medical Directors (recruitment to the permanent role will take place during autumn)
  • TBC – Interim Director General, Strategy and Healthcare Policy (recruitment to the permanent role began in July)
  • TBC – Interim Director General, Commercial and Growth (recruitment to the permanent role began earlier in September)

Joint regional teams are also being established to serve as the delivery arm of the centre, driving improvement and performance locally.

Regional leadership:

  • Louise Shepherd – Regional Director, North West
  • Fiona Edwards – Regional Director, North East & Yorkshire
  • Dale Bywater – Regional Director, Midlands
  • Clare Panniker – Regional Director, East of England
  • Caroline Clarke – Regional Director, London
  • Sue Doheny – Regional Director, South West (while Elizabeth O’Mahony is NHS England’s Chief Financial Officer)
  • Anne Eden – Regional Director, South East (until she leaves at the end of March)

Existing DHSC Regional Public Health Directors will begin to report into Regional Directors in the same area from 3 November, subject to appropriate consultation, while continuing to work with the Director General of Public Health and Emergencies.

National Priority Programmes are also being set up to drive delivery of the government’s key health priorities, drawing together teams and expertise from across the organisations and the country.

National Priority Programmes:

  • Mark Cubbon – National Priority Programme Director for Planned Care
  • Sarah-Jane Marsh – National Priority Programme Director for Urgent and Emergency Care
  • Duncan Burton – Interim National Priority Programme Director for Maternity, Women’s Health, Children & Young People
  • Dr Claire Fuller – Interim National Priority Programme Director for Neighbourhood Health 
  • Recruitment to the role of National Priority Programme Director for Mental Health, Learning Disability & Autism will start shortly.
  • Dr Amanda Doyle will continue as NHSE’s National Director of Primary Care and Community Services, and Glen Burley will continue as NHSE’s Financial Reset and Accountability Director, both reporting to the NHSE CEO.

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Source: Department of Health and Social Care, 18 September 2025

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Joint Commission Resources appoints two leading international healthcare experts to board of directors

The Joint Commission Resources (JCR) has announced the appointment of two world-class and leading healthcare experts to serve as international outside directors on its board of directors: Abdulelah M. Alhawsawi and Sangita Reddy.

As international outside directors, Dr. Alhawsawi and Ms. Reddy will provide their global expertise and direction to improve safety and quality of healthcare in the United States and abroad. They will be full voting members of the 13-person board of directors, which serves as JCR’s governing body. The board includes healthcare professionals, business executives and quality experts from around the world. 

“Dr. Alhawsawi and Ms. Reddy have dedicated their lives to transforming healthcare globally, and we are thrilled to welcome them to Joint Commission Resources’ Board of Directors,” says Jonathan B. Perlin, president and chief executive officer, The Joint Commission. “These board appointments bring unique international expertise and perspective on healthcare policy and the challenges and opportunities to advance quality and safety worldwide.” 

“We are so pleased that Dr. Alhawsawi and Ms. Reddy are joining Joint Commission Resources’ Board of Directors,” says Jean Courtney, interim president and chief executive officer, and chief operating officer, JCR. “They each bring in-depth and unparalleled international healthcare expertise. This will be invaluable as JCR continues to expand its mission to improve patient safety and quality of care around the globe.”

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Source: Joint Commission Resources, 16 August 2022

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Johnson and Johnson pays hundreds of women in Scotland harmed by mesh implants

The pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to settle a legal action by hundreds of Scottish women who claimed they suffered serious injuries from the company’s pelvic mesh implants.

The settlement came as four lead cases brought by women who suffered pain and other serious side effects from the implants, made by Johnson and Johnson subsidiary Ethicon, were about to reach court in Edinburgh.

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Source: BMJ, 2 June 2020

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Johnson and Johnson lose their application to appeal federal court's decision in favour of over 10,000 mesh injured Australian women

The High Court in Canberra, Australia, has ruled against big pharma giants Johnson and Johnson's application to appeal the Federal Court’s decision in favour of the survivors of their defective medical devices in November 2019.  This means the decision of the Full Federal Court, in favour of the Lead Applicant and group members, will stand.

Shine Lawyers', which has led the class action, has launched further actions against American Medical Systems (AMS), another manufacturer of mesh and tape implants supplied in Australia. The AMS implants, which are used to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence, have left many Australian women with severe complications. The legal group has also moved against Boston Scientific for defective vaginal mesh and sling implants received by women in Australia and opened a second Ethicon / Johnson & Johnson’s on behalf of women implanted with a defective mesh product on or after 4 July 2017.  The class actions were filed in the Federal court and MIA believe other class actions, including hernia mesh, are underway.

Kath Sansom, founder of the Sling the Mesh campaign, said "Brilliant news from Australia! Johnson & Johnson Loses High Court Appeal against the pelvic mesh verdict of 2019. This means J&J can no longer appeal the verdict! I realise compensation may still take time to be awarded to the 10,000+ mesh injured but at least the appeals are over! Congratulations to all the Australian mesh campaigners!"

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Johnson & Johnson reaches $300m settlement over pelvic mesh implants

Pelvic mesh implant manufacturer Johnson & Johnson group has reached a $300m settlement in two class actions, after thousands of women worldwide reported complications from the mesh products including chronic pain, painful sexual intercourse and incontinence.

It marks the largest settlement in a product liability class action in Australian history, and is subject to federal court approval.

Shine Lawyers led the Australian class actions and alleged Johnson & Johnson failed to properly test the devices and played down their risk to both surgeons and patients. Women have suffered complications including mesh exposure and erosion – when the mesh pokes through the vaginal wall or cuts through internal tissue – vaginal scarring, fistula formation, painful sex, and pelvic, back and leg pains. Some of these complications may occur years after surgery and can be difficult to treat.

Shine Lawyers’ Rebecca Jancauskas said the settlement would help support women’s ongoing treatment needs.

“We welcome this settlement which brings the litigation to an end,” she said. “If the federal court approves the settlement our focus will shift to the important task of distributing the settlement to group members.”

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Source: The Guardian, 12 September 2022

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Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $302M in pelvic mesh case

A California appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that Johnson & Johnson must pay penalties to the state for deceptively marketing pelvic mesh implants for women, but reduced the amount by $42 million to $302 million.

Johnson & Johnson had appealed in 2020 after Superior Court Judge Eddie Sturgeon assessed the $344 million in penalties against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon.

Sturgeon found after a non-jury trial that the company made misleading and potentially harmful statements in hundreds of thousands of advertisements and instructional brochures for nearly two decades.

The instructions for use in all of the company’s pelvic mesh implant packages "falsified or omitted the full range, severity, duration, and cause of complications associated with Ethicon’s pelvic mesh products, as well as the potential irreversibility and catastrophic consequences," Presiding Justice Judith McConnell of the appeals court said in a 3-0 ruling upholding the $302 million in penalties.

The products, also called transvaginal mesh, are synthetic and surgically implanted through the vagina of women whose pelvic organs have sagged or who suffered from stress urinary incontinence when they cough, sneeze or lift heavy objects.

Many women have sued the New Jersey-based company alleging that the mesh caused severe pain, bleeding, infections, discomfort during intercourse and the need for removal surgery.

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Source: Fox News, 12 April 2022

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Jesy Nelson ‘proud’ as NHS announces rollout of SMA screening for newborns

Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson has said she is “proud” of having reached a “major milestone” as a rollout of screenings for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is to begin earlier than expected.

The singer, 34, campaigned for all newborn babies to be screened for SMA after her twins, Ocean Jade and Story Monroe Nelson, were diagnosed with the rare condition, which causes progressive muscle wastage.

In a letter addressed to Nelson and Giles Lomax, the chief executive of the charity SMA UK, health secretary Wes Streeting confirmed that screenings will be rolled out earlier than planned and begin as part of in-screening evaluations (ISE) from October 2026 instead of January 2027.

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Source: The Independent, 2 April 2026

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Jessica Brady's legacy inspires new life-saving GP safety rule

Patients with a potentially deadly illness will be diagnosed sooner through a new life-saving patient safety initiative called Jess’ Rule that is being rolled out across the NHS in England today.

Jess’s Rule is named in memory of Jessica Brady, who died of cancer in December 2020 at the age of 27, and will help avoid tragic, preventable deaths as GPs are supported to catch potentially deadly illnesses sooner. 

In the five months leading up to her death, Jessica had more than twenty appointments with her GP practice but eventually had to seek private healthcare. She was later diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma. With such an advanced disease there was no available treatment. She was admitted into hospital where she died three weeks later.

The new initiative will ask GPs to think again if, after three appointments, they have been unable to offer a substantiated diagnosis, or the patient’s symptoms have escalated.

While many GP practices already use similar approaches in complex cases, Jess’s Rule will make this standard practice across the country, aiming to reduce health inequalities and ensuring everyone – no matter their age or background – receives the same high standard of care.

Designed in collaboration with the Chair of Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and NHS England, Jess’s Rule will help to catch serious conditions earlier and support GPs with guidelines that bolster their clinical judgment, while encouraging them to reflect, review and rethink if they are uncertain about a patients’ condition.

Jess’s Rule could support GPs to ensure continuity of care for patients with persistent health concerns. This could involve arranging face-to-face consultations if previous appointments were remote, conducting thorough physical examinations, or ordering additional diagnostic tests.

It also encourages GPs to review patient records comprehensively, seek second opinions from colleagues, and consider specialist referrals when appropriate.

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Source: Department of Health and Social Care, 23 September 2025

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Jess Hodgkinson: Lack of medication contributed to mother's death

A woman who died shortly after giving birth to her daughter did not receive the correct medication, a coroner has ruled.

Jess Hodgkinson, 26, from Chesterfield, died from a pulmonary embolism in 2021.

Assistant coroner Matthew Kewley said there was a "failure" to ensure Ms Hodgkinson received blood thinners right up until the birth.

Chesterfield Coroner's Court heard Ms Hodgkinson had a high risk pregnancy due to severe hypertension.

On 21 April 2021, a consultant in Chesterfield prescribed a prophylactic dose of tinzaparin due to an increased risk of clotting, the inquest heard.

During the inquest, the consultant said the intention was for Ms Hodgkinson to continue to receive a daily dose of anticoagulant medication up until birth.

Ms Hodgkinson was transferred to a hospital in Sheffield the next day, but there was a "failure to communicate" the medication plan, Mr Kewley said.

After being discharged, clinicians in Chesterfield "failed to identify" Ms Hodgkinson was no longer receiving the medication, the coroner said in his ruling.

On 13 May, Ms Hodgkinson attended Chesterfield Royal Hospital and a decision was made to carry out an emergency Caesarean section. The procedure was successful and Ms Hodgkinson's baby was born. But after delivery, Ms Hodgkinson went into cardiac arrest and later died.

In his concluding remarks, Mr Kewley said: "There was a failure to ensure that Jess received anticoagulant medication that a clinician had intended should be taken until birth. This failure made a more than minimal, negligible or trivial contribution to Jess' death".

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Source: BBC News, 31 January 2023

 

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Jersey assisted dying plans for terminally ill approved

Jersey politicians have voted to approve plans to allow assisted dying for those with a terminal illness "causing unbearable suffering".

The States Assembly has been debating two routes through which people who have lived in Jersey for longer than a year, are 18 or over and have decision-making capacity could apply for assisted dying. A total of 32 members voted in favour while 14 voted against route one.

The second route, for those who are not terminally ill but who have an incurable medical condition causing unbearable suffering, was rejected by a majority of 27 to 19.

Plans for legalising assisted dying were voted on in principle by the assembly in 2021, but the aim of the vote was to decide how it could work in practice.

With a decision now made, the process for drafting a law could take about 18 months, with a debate then taking place by the end of 2025.

If a law is approved, it is expected a further 18-month implementation period would then begin, meaning the earliest for it to come into effect would be summer 2027.

Speaking after the debate, Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham said "robust safeguards" would be "enshrined in law." He thanked the assembly for a "thoughtful, respectful and considered" debate.

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Source: BBC News, 22 May 2024

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Jeremy Hunt’s safety programme has stalled, say bereaved families

Bereaved families have been left feeling like their efforts to improve patient safety have been ‘in vain’ as progress of a government programme instigated by Jeremy Hunt appears to have ‘stalled’.

The Learning from Deaths programme board, which was set up in 2017 to develop guidance for trusts working with families on investigations of deaths, has not met since June 2019.

Josephine Ocloo and David Smith, two bereaved family members who were on the board, have written to HSJ, saying the programme’s progress has “stalled”.

They added many of the issues it was set up to consider have not yet been addressed, including the need for a national inquiry into unresolved historical cases, the independence of the NHS’ investigatory systems, lack of effectiveness of the duty of candour, and the disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities and those with mental ill-health or learning disabilities.

They said: “We now have serious concerns that what these families went through [in November 2017] in recalling — and effectively reliving — their experiences, in order to ensure the terrible things that happened to them could not happen to others, was in vain…

“If [the issues] are not to be addressed by the new board, the families will have every right to feel betrayed and to feel as if they have been used as pawns in a political game. Once again, harmed and let down by a system that has used us and then cast us aside.”

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Source: HSJ, 26 February 2021

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Jeremy Hunt: It’s crazy that six people can meet in a pub while mums endure the misery of lone births

Covid has brought many hidden tragedies: elderly residents in care homes bereft of family visits, families in quarantine missing loved one’s funerals, and mums forced to go through labour alone. 

Much of this has been necessary, however painful, but Jeremy Hunt fears we’re getting the balance badly wrong in maternity care. That’s why he is backing The Mail on Sunday’s campaign to end lone births, which has been championed in Parliament by Alicia Kearns.

Infection control in hospitals is critically important, but mothers’ mental health can’t be pushed down the priority list. 

Imagine the agony of a new mum sent for a scan on her own, only to be told that her much longed-for baby has no heartbeat. Or the woman labouring in agony for hours who is told she is not yet sufficiently dilated to merit her partner joining her for moral support.

"I have heard some truly heartbreaking stories, which quite frankly should have no place in a modern, compassionate health service. One woman who gave birth to a stillborn baby alone at 41 weeks; another woman who was left alone after surgery due to a miscarriage at 12 weeks," says Jeremy.

Perhaps most concerningly of all, there are reports of partners being asked to leave their new babies and often traumatised mothers almost immediately after birth. That means they miss out on vital bonding time and mums lose crucial support to help them recover mentally and physically, in some cases with partners not allowed back to meet their new child properly for several days.

"This is a question of basic compassion and decency – the very values that the NHS embodies and the reason we’re all so proud of our universal health service – so we need every hospital to commit to urgent action without delay."

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Source: MailOnline, 19 September 2020

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Jeremy Hunt warns NHS spending ‘will unravel’ without workforce plan

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned extra funding for the NHS “will unravel quickly” without the extra doctors and nurses needed.

The health committee chair said today that the lack of any mention of workforce training budgets in the Chancellor’s speech on Wednesday was “the big gap” in news for the NHS.

Before the budget, Mr Hunt, who served as health secretary for six years and who has accepted he did not do enough to increase staffing levels in the NHS, said a workforce plan for the NHS was needed.

In the budget documents, released after the Chancellor Rishi Sunak had finished speaking, the Treasury confirmed only that it would continue to fund workforce training and repeated existing promises around 50,000 extra nurses.

But many experts including the Health Foundation and think tanks as well as NHS leaders have said what is needed is a properly costed long term workforce plan so that the NHS can train enough staff to meet future patient demand.

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Source: The Independent, 28 October 2021

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Jeremy Hunt launches charity to monitor patient safety

Former health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has set up a patient safety charity which will establish data he can use to report on levels of avoidable harm in healthcare.

The charity, Patient Safety Watch, will commission research from leading universities on the scale of patient harm, with the aim to create an agreed methodology that will allow trends in the level of harm in healthcare to be tracked over time.

Mr Hunt said he wanted to fill a gap in hard data on safety issues: "The bit of the jigsaw that is missing is the hard data on the number of avoidable deaths, avoidable harm, is it going up is it going down, and taking a view across the whole system," he said.

"We intend the remit of the charity to be a narrow one which is about establishing credible data around patient safety issues".

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Source: HSJ, 9 October 2019

Patient Safety Learning's response:

We welcome today's announcement by Jeremy Hunt MP that he is setting up a new charity, Patient Safety Watch. At Patient Safety Learning we are committed to providing an independent voice for improving patient safety and collaborating with healthcare organisations, charities and patients to drive system-wide change. 

In our report, A Blueprint for Action, we set out the six foundations of safe care for patients and the practical actions needed to deliver these. Improved data and insight is one of these foundations and has a key role to play in helping to raise patient safety standards across health and social care. Highlighting examples of good practice and shortfalls in patient safety performance is needed not to blame, but to learn and improve. Patient Safety Watch's proposed focus on improving research and reporting into levels of patient safety incidents and avoidable harm in the NHS can play an important role in making the case for improvement and change. We look forward to working with Patient Safety Watch and on the actions needed to make the patient-safe future a reality.  

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Jeremy Hunt joins BMA call to stem ‘bleed’ of NHS doctors

The former health secretary Jeremy Hunt will join doctors’ representatives today in a call to stem the “bleed” of GPs or risk endangering patients.

Polling shows that almost nine in ten GPs fear that patient safety is being put at risk by shortages of family doctors and too little time for appointments.

The government has admitted that it will fail to fulfil an election pledge to recruit 6,000 extra full-time GPs by 2024.

Hunt is campaigning with the British Medical Association and the GPDF, which represents local medical committees, in calling for the government to put forward a GP workforce plan to “rebuild general practice”.

He said: “The workforce crisis is the biggest issue facing the NHS. We can forget fixing the backlog unless we urgently come up with a plan to train enough doctors for the future and, crucially, retain the ones we’ve got.

“As someone who tried hard to get more GPs into local surgeries but ultimately didn’t succeed because the numbers retiring early exceeded those joining, I’m passionate about fixing this.”

The campaign wants the government to deliver on its pledge for an extra 6,000 GPs in England and action to tackle the reasons for GPs leaving the profession, such as burnout. It says that a plan is needed to reduce GP workload, which would improve patient safety.

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Jeremy Hunt criticises children’s hospital over ‘cover up’ case

Former health secretary and chair of the Commons health committee Jeremy Hunt has criticised Great Ormond Street Hospital after it was accused of covering up errors that may have led to the death of a toddler.

Writing for The Independent, Mr Hunt, who has set up a patient safety charity since leaving government, said it was “depressing” to see how the hospital had responded to the case of Jasmine Hughes, which has now been taken to the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman for a new investigation.

Mr Hunt said the hospital had chosen to issue a “classic non-apology apology of which any politician would be proud” and added he was left angry over the hospital’s “ridiculous decision” to stop talking to Jasmine’s family and the refusal to apologise for what went wrong.

The MP for South West Surrey said the case was symbolic of a wider problem in the health service of a blame culture that prevents openness and transparency around mistakes.

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Source: The Independent, 24 November 2020

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Jeremy Hunt calls contaminated-blood scandal a huge failing of democracy

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has told a public inquiry institutions and the state can sometimes "close ranks around a lie".

Giving evidence at the infected-blood inquiry, he said it could be seen as a "huge failing of democracy" that victims had waited so long for justice.

At least 5,000 people contracted HIV or hepatitis C in the 1970s and 80s, after being given contaminated blood products and transfusions on the NHS. More than 2,400 have died as a result.

Jenni Richards QC asked whether a 2012 briefing for new ministers in the health department - "almost certainly" not shown to Mr Hunt at the time - stating, under a heading "Key facts", hepatitis C and HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) infection had been a problem in the 1970s and 80s, "before it was possible to screen donors and make products safer", suggested the contamination had been an "unavoidable problem".

Mr Hunt, health secretary for six years until July 2018, replied: "I mean, that briefing is wrong and it shouldn't say that.

"At the very least, ministers should be aware as politicians that this is contentious and disputed by families - but I'm afraid it tries to suggest the issue is closed when it is not."

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Source: BBC News, 27 July 2022

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Jeremy Hunt ‘ignored’ NHS staff shortages while health secretary

Jeremy Hunt has been accused of ignoring serious NHS staff shortages for years and driving medics out of the profession while health secretary after he intervened this weekend to warn of a workforce crisis.

Promoting his new book, 'Zero: Eliminating Unnecessary Deaths in a Post-Pandemic NHS', Hunt said tackling the “chronic failure of workforce planning” was the most important task in relieving pressure on frontline services. Now the chair of the health and social care committee, he said the situation was “very, very serious”, with doctors and nurses “run ragged by the intensity of work”.

But his comments drew sharp criticism from healthcare staff, who said Hunt – the longest-serving health secretary in the 74-year history of the NHS – failed to take sufficient action to boost recruitment while in the top job between 2012 and 2018. Instead, critics said, his tenure saw health workers quit the NHS in droves for jobs abroad or new careers outside medicine. There are now 100,000 vacancies in the NHS, and the waiting list for treatment has soared to 6.4 million.

“There’s an avalanche of pressure bearing down on the NHS. But for years Jeremy Hunt and other ministers ignored the staffing crisis,” said Sara Gorton, the head of health at Unison, the UK’s largest health union. “The pandemic has amplified the consequences of that failure. Experienced employees are leaving at faster rates than new ones can be recruited.”

“Hunt has recently been an articulate analyst of current issues, particularly workforce shortages, but these haven’t come out of the blue,” said Dr Colin Hutchinson, the chair of Doctors for the NHS. “At the time he could have made the greatest impact, his response was muted. We have to ask: was the service people were receiving from the NHS better, or worse, at the end of his time in office? At the time when it most mattered, he was found wanting.”

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Source: The Guardian, 15 May 2022

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Jeane Freeman launches partnership between Ireland and Scotland amid ongoing health crisis in NHS Scotland

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman announced the launch of a Joint Learning Fellowship programme between Ireland and Scotland, as the NHS in Scotland reels from one crisis to the next.

Ms Freeman and the Irish Health Minister, Simon Harris, announced the initiative, which will offer two three-month placements for Scottish and Irish senior policymakers or health service workers so they can learn more about what works in each system.

However, the move came on the same day The Times reported that Glasgow's 'super-hospital' was permitted to open despite the ventilation systems failing to meet the necessary safety standards.

Outbreaks of infection which are thought to have spread through the ventilation system at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) have led to the deaths of two patients.

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Source: The Scotsman, 20 September 2019

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JCVI chief calls for mandatory masks in hospitals amid Covid surge

It would be “sensible” for hospitals to reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing, the chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has said, as several trusts in England and Wales announced the move.

When NHS rules on wearing masks in England were dropped on 10 June, local health bodies were given the power to draft their own policies. Their guidance, however, is no longer legally enforceable.

Figures from NHS England show there were about 10,658 patients hospitalised with coronavirus on Monday. Infections have doubled in a fortnight across England – with about 1,000 patients being admitted with the virus each day.

Prof Andrew Pollard, who is also the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, which developed the AstraZeneca jab, said there were an “extraordinary” number of cases at the moment. “I certainly know more people now who have had Covid than at any time in the past,” he told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“Because there’s so much in the community, anything we can do in our hospitals to reduce the potential outbreaks make sense and so the mandatory mask wearing in hospitals is very sensible policy,” he added.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 July 2022

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Javid sets new target for trust digitisation

Electronic patient record (EPR) systems must be implemented in at least 90% of NHS trusts by the end of next year, the health secretary has announced at HSJ’s Digital Transformation Summit.

Speaking at the event with digital healthcare leaders in Birmingham, Mr Javid said an estimated one in five trusts are currently without EPR systems implemented. He said: “We have seen some brilliant progress {on digital transformation] but it’s not always been consistent across the board.”

He said: “We must see these disparities as just as unjust as disparities in access to education and employment.”

And added: “Electronic patient records are the essential prerequisite for a modern, digital NHS."

Mr Javid said 40% of social care providers were grappling with entirely paper based records, and he also wanted them to all adopt electronic records. 

He also outlined the intended future of the NHS App, and the government’s ambition for this to be used by 75 per cent of adults in England by March 2024. Currently it is just over half of all adults.

Mr Javid said he wanted the app to be the “future front door for interaction with the NHS”, and will be used by patients to directly communicate with their healthcare providers, to receive personalised health advice and to access test results.

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Source: HSJ, 24 February 2022

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Javid ‘unconcerned’ as Covid admissions rise 46% in a fortnight

Admissions of covid positive patients to English hospitals are once again rising steadily across England.

The seven day total of new confirmed covid cases in hospitals on 12 March (the latest data available) stood at 9,642. This is 46% higher than the seven day total of 6,612 recorded on 25 February, the day before the current rise began.

Asked on Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday about the rise in Covid infections, health and social care secretary Sajid Javid said there was “nothing in the [covid] data that gives us any cause for concern”.

The Covid admissions figures used include patients who are already covid-positive when admitted, are diagnosed on admission, or are diagnosed while in hospital, so in some cases have caught Covid while in hospital.

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Source: HSJ, 15 May 2022

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Jasper Brooks inquest: Baby died due to 'neglect' at hospital

A coroner has found neglect contributed to a baby's death at the hospital where he was born.

Jasper Brooks died at the Darent Valley Hospital in Kent on 15 April 2021. The coroner found gross failures by midwives and consultants at the hospital and says Jasper's death was "wholly avoidable".

Jasper was a second child for Jim and Phoebe Brooks. Due to a complication during pregnancy of her first child, Phoebe was booked in to have an elective Caesarean section to deliver Jasper. But in April 2021 those plans changed overnight.

A check-up found Phoebe had raised blood pressure. She was told to remain in hospital and that the C-section would happen the following morning - nine days earlier than planned - when there were more staff on duty.

Jasper's parents say the midwives caring for Phoebe repeatedly failed to listen to her and Jim's concerns - that she was shaking violently, feeling sick, and thought she was bleeding internally.

"We felt like an inconvenience - no-one wanted to deal with me that night," Phoebe says. "The doctor didn't want to do my C-section, the midwife that's meant to be looking after me, she just doesn't really care.

"I remember saying clearly to her, 'my whole body is shaking - something's happening, and no-one's taking the time to listen to what I'm saying or listen in on my baby'."

At the inquest hearing, midwife Jennifer Davis was accused by the family's barrister, Richard Baker KC, of "failing to act on signs of blood loss, failing to determine if Phoebe was in active labour, and failing to call a senior doctor when necessary".

Jasper was born without a heartbeat, so a resuscitation team was called. But during the inquest, the family learned that further errors were made because the correct people failed to attend the resuscitation.

There was no consultant neonatologist on site - a doctor with expertise in looking after newborn infants or those born prematurely. Intubation, the process of placing a breathing tube into the windpipe - which should only take a few minutes - did not occur for 18 minutes. There was also a delay in administering adrenaline to try to stimulate Jasper's heart.

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Source BBC News, 24 October 2023

 

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