Jump to content
  • articles
    9,858
  • comments
    83
  • views
    12,514,191

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

 

Hospitals told to change the way they identify patients ill from Covid-19 and those testing positive

The NHS has been advised to change the way they identify patients who are sick from coronavirus and those who test positive. 

Up until now, hospitals have recorded patients sick from the virus and those who tested positive together, whether they presented with symptoms or not. The new advice has been given with the hope that it will reduce the numbers of patients in hospital for the virus.

Read full story.

Source: The Independent, 9 June 2021

 

Read more
 

Hospitals told not to test staff or patients for COVID-19

NHS hospitals have been banned from launching their own coronavirus testing for staff and patients who have symptoms – despite a nationwide shortage in tests.

Leaked NHS documents, passed to The Independent, show the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has now capped funding for COVID-19 testing in the health service, even though the lack of tests has left hospital doctors, nurses, teachers and other key workers forced to stay at home.

The diktat warned hospitals that, if they did choose to go ahead, the six figure costs would have to come from their own budgets.

The warning was sent just a day after testing tsar Baroness Dido Harding admitted to MPs that demand for coronavirus tests is three to four times the number available.

One senior NHS director told The Independent that NHS trusts had the ability to buy Covid-19 test capacity in local laboratories but now faced the risk of not getting the money to pay for it.

They said: “This is just barmy at a time when we have cases rising and we need to get test results for staff and patients who are isolating at home waiting for results.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 18 September 2020

 

Read more
 

Hospitals to review concrete risks to ‘maintain safety and confidence’

NHS boards have been told to obtain extra assurance around the risks to unsafe concrete beams in their estate, following the sudden closure of school buildings.

HSJ understands there was a call between national leaders and trust bosses yesterday, to ensure there are additional assessments of the risks around “reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete” in the NHS estate.

As part of this, trusts which have already identified the beams in their buildings have been told to plan for potential “RAAC failure, including the decant of patients and services where RAAC panels are present in clinical areas”, and to note the learnings from an “evacuation plan” that was tested in the East of England.

Around 40 hospital buildings across 23 trusts are currently understood to be affected by these lightweight panels, which can be on roofs, floors and walls.

Trust estates’ teams will already have undertaken assessments and have plans to mitigate the risks, with the government already providing a £700m fund to mitigate immediate safety risks until 2025.

But in light of fresh concerns around RAAC planks in school buildings, national leaders have asked for additional assurances to be obtained.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 5 September 2023

Read more
 

Hospitals test evacuations due to roof collapse fears

NHS England has called for a “deep dive” into local evacuation and shelter arrangements, amid ongoing concerns about outdated and unsafe estate.

NHS England’s director of emergency preparedness, resilience and response Stephen Groves wrote to trusts: “Following the publication of the updated evacuation and shelter guidance for the NHS in England, and recent work driven by the heightened risk associated with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), the 2022-23 EPRR annual deep dive will focus on local evacuation and shelter arrangements.”

The letter, sent at the end of last week, comes amid growing concerns about NHS estate, including RAAC planks which were used in constructing public sector buildings in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. 

Areas to be examined in the deep dive vary by type of organisation. However, according to a self-assessment tool referenced in the letter, questions for providers include: whether they have “a process in place to triage patients in the event of an incident requiring evacuation and/or shelter of patients”; whether there are “effective arrangements in place to support partners in a community evacuation, where the population of a large area may need to be displaced”; and whether “evacuation and shelter arrangements include resilient mechanisms to communicate with staff, patients, their families and the public, pre, peri and post evacuation”. 

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 5 August 2022

Read more
 

Hospitals substitute nurses as staffing crisis worsens

The number of hospitals falling short of their planned nurse staffing by 10% or more has almost tripled in five years. An analysis of unpublished workforce data by HSJ reveals the gap between the number of nurses hospitals think they need, and what they are able to staff it with, has grown since 2014.

The number of hospital trusts reporting a shortfall of 10% or more on their day shifts increased from 20 in June 2014 to 55 in June 2019 – nearly triple. 

Experts said the data showed the NHS was “drifting into massive skill mix change” as hospitals overstaff with support workers, while having to run shortfalls of nurses, despite evidence this has a “detrimental impact on patient outcomes including survival”.

Alison Leary, Professor of Healthcare and Workforce Modelling at London’s Southbank University, told HSJ: “It’s concerning but understandable that trusts are filling that gap with unregistered support staff because we know from the evidence that skill dilution has a detrimental impact on patient outcomes including survival." Professor Leary said NHS trusts needed to do more on retaining nurses and recognising their value.

Read full story

Source: HSJ, 24 October 2019

Read more

Hospitals running with 20% fewer children’s doctors than they need, new figures reveal

Hospitals across the UK are running with 20% fewer children’s doctors than they need on daily shifts, new research shows.

NHS staff are facing “unacceptable” pressures as paediatric units report a shortfall of 20 per cent in doctors and trainees on shift, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has warned.

Top doctors have said the government’s plans to bring down waiting lists would be “doomed to fail” if the workforce gaps for children’s services were not filled.

Professor Steve Turner, president of the RCPCH, said the gaps were having a detrimental impact on the wellbeing, morale and training of doctors and ultimately impacted patient care.

He said: “This report highlights how paediatricians are being stretched far too thin every day.  It is completely unacceptable that our current paediatric services are only operating at 80 per cent capacity when the level of demand on these services is now higher than ever…We cannot allow 80 per cent to become the new normal.

“Our children and the clinicians who serve them deserve more. Investing in and reforming paediatric services is not only valuable but is fundamental to the future health and economic wellbeing of our country.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 10 December 2024

Read more

Hospitals report more than 3,500 serious patient incidents

Official data revealed that 389 of these incidents have occurred in the first six months of this year.

NHS health boards are duty bound to notify regulator Healthcare Improvement Scotland when a significant adverse event review (SAERs) has been commissioned following a major incident.

Category one events – the most serious incidents - must be reported and may have caused death, major injury, disfigurement or severe emotional or psychological trauma.

The Scottish Government revealed the figures following a written parliamentary question from Scottish Conservative MSP Tim Eagle.

The data revealed that since 2021, there have been 3,586 incidents reported to the regulator by local health boards and the Scottish Ambulance Service.

The Scottish Government said the 90-day guideline is in place to learn lessons from the significant incidents.

However, Mr Eagle, who represents the Highlands and Islands region in Holyrood, said the figures show that Health Secretary Neil Gray is “out of his depth” and described the data as “catastrophic”.

He told The Herald: “Since the pandemic, the number of significant adverse events in Scotland’s hospital has soared to alarming levels.

“The lethal combination of the SNP’s dire workforce planning and successive flimsy recovery plans has left our NHS in a constant state of crisis, with overstretched staff unable to deliver the standard of care patients deserve.

“These aren’t just statistics, they are patients who have suffered serious harm or even died because of the Nationalists’ catastrophic mismanagement of our health service.

“We cannot go on with business as usual. Neil Gray is out of his depth. He needs to back our common sense plans to cut bureaucracy, slash the ranks of middle managers and surge resources to the frontline.”

Read full story

Source: The Herald, 27 August 2025

Read more
 

Hospitals recruit vets to staff COVID-19 wards

Hospitals are turning to the veterinary workforce to fill staffing gaps on intensive care wards ahead of an expected peak of COVID-19 patients, HSJ can reveal.

Torbay and South Devon Foundation Trust has recruited 150 vets to enrol as “respiratory assistants”, amid preparations for a 10-fold increase of intensive care patients.

Another trust, Hampshire Hospitals FT, has asked vets and dentists to become “bedside support workers” as part of its response to COVID-19 pressures.

Read full story

Source: HSJ, 9 March 2020

Read more
 

Hospitals prosecuted over baby deaths

The trust at the centre of a maternity investigation is to be prosecuted by the Care Quality Commission over the deaths of three babies.

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust intends to plead guilty to the charges relating to care and treatment to the babies, it has said.

The trust is at the centre of the NHS’s largest ever maternity investigations, which is expected to cover around 2,500 cases. It has already been fined £800,000 after admitting failings in the care of Wynter Andrews, who died in 2019.

In a statement, the trust said: “We can confirm that the CQC is bringing charges against Nottingham University Hospitals Trust following an investigation into three deaths which occurred in our maternity services in 2021.

“We have co-operated with the CQC throughout their investigation, and intend to plead guilty to the charges when proceedings open.

“We are not able to comment any further at this stage.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 7 February 2025

Read more

Hospitals prepare for increase in children suffering rare disease triggered by Covid

Hospitals across the country are preparing for a significant increase in children needing treatment for a rare disease triggered by coronavirus.

Paediatric departments across the NHS are recalling children’s nurses who have been redeployed to help care for adult patients as well as freeing up specialist intensive care beds to be ready for more cases of the rare condition first identified after the first wave last year.

Because of how widespread COVID-19 infections have become in the last month, with the numbers of patients in hospital peaking at almost 40,000, experts believe they will see a larger number of children affected by the disease called Paediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PIMS).

Modelling by London’s Evelina Children’s Hospital, which treated around 110 children with PIMS during the first wave of the virus, suggested for every 200 adults admitted to hospital across London, there was one child admitted with PIMS at the Evelina.

This modelling cannot be used to predict admissions across the country, but paediatric experts believe they will begin to see a larger number of children with the condition with a peak expected in the next three weeks.

It is thought COVID-19 triggers an inflammatory response among a very small minority of children – of all children infected with COVID-19, less than half of one per cent went on to develop PIMS.

Those that do suffer severe inflammation in their blood vessels and can have damage to their heart. Symptoms of PIMS include a rash, fever and abdominal pain.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 4 February 2021

Read more

Hospitals ordered to take action to stop ambulances waiting longer than half an hour

Doctors’ leaders have reacted with incredulity to demands that all hospitals in England take “immediate steps” to find extra space for patients so that no ambulance waits longer than 30 minutes.

A letter from NHS England sent to the heads of NHS trusts, integrated care boards, and ambulance trusts acknowledged that this will not be easy “and that it may place additional burden on staff at an already challenging time.

The letter was sent on 15 July, in response to the increased pressure on ambulance services over the past year and in light of the current heatwave. It said, “All systems that are currently unable to offload ambulances within 30 minutes should now take further steps to create capacity within acute hospitals to ensure the rapid release of vehicles. This will require risk based decisions to be made about both the use of estate and deployment of clinical workforce.”

Vishal Sharma, chair of the consultants committee at the BMA, said, “The government should be ashamed that it has come to this. If hospitals had the space or the staff to allow them to care for these patients, they wouldn’t be waiting in ambulances at the hospital door in the first place. The sad fact is that after decades of underinvestment, our hospitals are under-resourced, under-bedded, and understaffed.”

 

Read full story

Source: BMJ, 18 July 2022

Read more

Hospitals need extra £400m a year to make maternity units safer

Making maternity wards safer for mothers and babies will need £400m of extra spending every year, hospital leaders have told The Independent.

They warn that without increased funding, the NHS will not be able to fully implement recommendations made by an inquiry into poor maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust – where dozens of babies died or were left brain damaged in the largest maternity scandal in NHS history.

Multiple maternity care failings at hospitals across the country in the past 12 months have sparked concerns over the safety of mothers and their babies with MPs on the Commons Health Select Committee launching an investigation into the issue last year.

Hospital leaders say even just covering existing shortfalls of 3,000 midwives and recruiting 20 per cent more obstetricians, will cost at least £250m a year. To pay for extra anaesthetists, neonatal nurses and other support staff could push the cost to more than £400m.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, told The Independent that ministers faced a choice of either making the extra cash available or forcing the NHS to cut money elsewhere.

In a letter to MPs on the committee, Mr Hopson urged them to demand extra funding in its forthcoming report on maternity safety in an effort to force ministers to confront the issue.

Read full story

Source: The Independent,9 February 2021,

Read more
 

Hospitals must update 100,000 pacemakers after safety fault

Hospitals are having to update more than 100,000 patients’ pacemakers – and replace hundreds of the devices – after the manufacturer discovered their batteries run down years early, HSJ has learned.

Medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific issued a field safety notice to trusts in December 2024, which stated that around 13% of its Accolade pacemakers manufactured before September 2018 have a battery flaw.

It means they are more likely to suddenly switch into a limited, back-up “safety mode”, which can be fatal for some patients who are fully reliant on their pacemaker.

Estimates of the numbers affected in the UK have never been issued, but the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has now told HSJ that 13,969 devices affected by the flaw were sold to 153 hospitals in the UK.

In addition, last autumn, Boston Scientific issued a software update for the problem, which it said should be made via in-person appointments. The MHRA said this means a further 97,557 devices across 308 UK hospitals, in addition to the initial 13,969, should be updated.

Acute trusts are now in the process of calling in the patients affected, HSJ has learned.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 26 February 2026

Read more

Hospitals may be forced to move Covid patients elsewhere

Several hospitals in the north of England are already at full capacity and may have to start moving patients to other regions, doctors have warned.

Consultants fear that if Covid infection rates do not begin to fall significantly the NHS will be overwhelmed in less than a month from now.

Members of the British Medical Association have reported that Intensive Care Units (ICU) in a number of regions, including Manchester, Liverpool and Hull, are close to capacity as the number of people hospitalised with COVID-19 continues to grow.

Dr Vishal Sharma, chairman of the BMA’s consultants committee, told The Telegraph: “Capacity in the north of England is at the limits and in some places above the limit. Our next concern is ICU capacity, which is always tight at this time of year, even without Covid.”

Dr Sharma said some general ward beds could be adapted to provide intensive breathing support for Covid patients, and the re-opening of Manchester’s Nightingale Hospital may also take the pressure off ICU departments.

But more radical steps may have to be taken if numbers of hospitalised patients continue to rise.

“We may have to move patients around the country to create extra capacity, but if the whole country starts to struggle things will get very difficult."

Read full story

Source: The Telegraph, 

Read more
 

Hospitals made money from scandal surgeon Ian Paterson

Private hospitals may have made more than £3 million from the actions of the disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson, a think tank has claimed.

Paterson was jailed in 2017 for carrying out unnecessary surgery on ten patients in private hospitals. However, it is believed he harmed about 750 patients, many of whom he wrongly led to believe they had cancer. He was paid each time he operated but the private hospitals would have received a separate payment for each operation, the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI) said. 

CHPI wants the inquiry set up by the government into Paterson’s actions to examine the financial incentives that could affect how private hospitals treat patients. David Rowland, director of CHPI, said: “The current financial incentives to over-treat patients weigh heavily against the weak measures which are in place to protect patients.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 19 August 2019

Read more

Hospitals Liverpool Covid admissions will 'devastate' other hospital care

The large number of COVID-19 patients being admitted to hospitals at the centre of the second wave will “devastate” care for people with other illnesses, a top doctor has said.

Dr Tristan Cope said Liverpool’s acute hospitals would not be able to continue providing normal care because of the high number of people being treated for serious Covid symptoms. Unless the surge in coronavirus admissions slowed down it would “have a devastating effect on planned care, such as operations”, he said.

Cope is the medical director of Liverpool university hospitals NHS trust, where almost all critical care beds are already full because the city’s high infection rate has placed intense pressure on the trust’s three hospitals: the Royal Liverpool, Broadgreen and Aintree.

“Liverpool hospitals are under enormous pressure with admissions of sick Covid patients. We are used to pressure, but this is over and above that,” Cope tweeted last week.

“We have the highest number of Covid patients in the UK, nearly as many now as at the peak of the first wave. We also have more Covid patients in ICU [intensive care units] than any other trust in the UK.”

Cope said: “If we don’t reduce the rate of infection in the community and Covid admission rates continue to rise, it will inevitably have a massive effect on non-urgent care."

“If we don’t get control of [the] spread of the virus in the community and admissions continue at the current rate, our hospitals will not be able to cope. This will have a devastating effect on planned care, such as operations.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2020

Read more

Hospitals knew a heart device led to more patients' deaths - but they kept using it

Dozens of patients were put at risk after two of the UK's leading transplant centres continued fitting a heart device - despite knowing of concerns it had a higher mortality rate than its rival product.

Concerns were raised by the NHS about the device in 2018. Of the patients who were subsequently fitted with the mechanical pump, half went on to die within three years.

LVADs have been life-savers for decades and, for a number of years, hospitals had a choice of two devices - the HeartWare HVAD, sold by the Irish-American company Medtronic, and the Heartmate III, sold by US manufacturer Abbott.

In October 2018, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), which oversees transplants in the UK, conducted a preliminary audit comparing how the two pumps had performed. A more detailed analysis followed in April 2019.

The results were stark. Of the 119 patients who had received the Medtronic device, 45% - or 54 patients - had died within two years. In contrast, just 15% - 15 out of 97 patients - who were given the Abbott pump had died over the same period. Similarly, the number of complications - such as strokes or needing a new pump - were significantly higher for the Medtronic device. The audit said there were "no significant differences" between the types of patients who received each device.

One of the UK's six transplant centres, the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, did not wait for the NHS analysis. It had picked up on the growing international concerns and had stopped using the Medtronic device in February 2018 "after considering the results of two randomised controlled trials", as their clinicians "considered the Heartmate III as superior".

However, Harefield Hospital continued to solely use the Medtronic device until early 2021, shortly after the manufacturer had issued a safety notice. The Freeman Hospital continued until June 2021, when the manufacturer withdrew it from sale "in the interest of patient safety".

The regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), continued to approve the device for use after the 2019 analysis, though it had not been informed by the NHS of the data's existence.

Read full article.

Source: BBC News, 12 November 2025

Read more

Hospitals issue warning about key NHS waiting list target as winter crisis looms

The government will not meet its ambition of getting NHS waiting times down to 18 weeks without investing in primary care, children’s services and mental health, NHS leaders have warned.

Healthcare chiefs also warned there is a “fundamental mismatch” between demand for services and what the NHS is able to do.

The boss of a trust that provides community and mental health services warned children are being “let down” amid “enormous” waiting lists.

“It’s really disappointing to see how absent children are, first of all in terms of policy, and I couldn’t account more strongly the extent to which I think they are being let down collectively,

“Waiting lists are enormous and are simply growing as things stand...there is a fundamental mismatch between demand and capacity as things stand,” they said.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 12 November 2024

Read more

Hospitals in England with worst A&E waits revealed

A&E waiting times have deteriorated so much this winter that at some hospitals in England more than half of patients have had to wait more than four hours.

BBC analysis of data for December and January shows Hull University Hospitals, Wye Valley and Shrewsbury and Telford were worst for A&E waits.

The best trust out of the 107 providing data, Northumbria Healthcare, had fewer than 10% waiting more than four hours.

NHS England said plans were being put in place to support struggling trusts.

Source: BBC, 13 February 2023

Read full story

Read more

Hospitals in England told to keep performing urgent cancer surgery

NHS bosses have instructed hospitals to keep performing urgent cancer surgery despite Covid pressures, after a growing number cancelled procedures because they did not have enough intensive care beds or available staff.

They have told England’s regional directors of cancer to ensure treatment of people who need cancer surgery within four weeks gets the same priority as care of patients who have Covid.

The move was unveiled in a letter, obtained by HSJ, sent last Friday by Amanda Pritchard, the chief operating officer at NHS England and NHS Improvement. It was also signed by Cally Palmer, the NHS’s national cancer director, and Prof Peter Johnson, a highly respected specialist who is the NHS’s national clinical director for cancer.

They have acted after unease among cancer specialists that growing numbers of hospitals, including all those in London, had cancelled urgent operations. Hospitals have felt obliged to do so either because they did not have enough intensive care beds for patients who might need one after their cancer procedure or because surgical staff had been repurposed to help care for Covid patients.

Doctors voiced alarm at the scale of recent postponements of what the NHS classes as “priority two” operations. That means they should be done within 28 days to ensure that someone with cancer does not see their disease spread or become inoperable because it was delayed.

More than 1,000 cancer patients in London are now waiting to have “priority two” or “P2” urgent surgery, but none have been given a new date for when it will happen, HSJ reported last week.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 18 January 2021

Read more
 

Hospitals in England set to receive £850m

Twenty hospitals in England due to receive an extra £850m funding for upgrades to outdated facilities and new equipment have been revealed. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will formally announce the plans – part of NHS spending pledges totalling £1.8bn – at a Lincolnshire hospital today. Ahead of his visit to Lincolnshire, Mr Johnson said the new money – less than 1% of the annual NHS budget – would mean "more beds, new wards, and extra life-saving equipment".

But responding to the funding announcement, the Health Foundation said "years of under-investment in the NHS's infrastructure means this extra money risks being little more than a drop in the ocean". Ben Gershlick, from the charity, added that NHS facilities in England were "in major disrepair", with a £6bn maintenance backlog.

Read more

Hospitals in England reducing staff and services as part of NHS ‘financial reset’

Hospitals in England are cutting staff, closing services and planning to ration care in order to make “eye-watering” savings demanded by NHS bosses.

Rehabilitation centres face being shut, talking therapies services cut and beds for end-of-life care reduced as part of efforts by England’s 215 NHS trusts to comply with a “financial reset”.

Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England’s new chief executive, has ordered them to make unprecedented savings during 2025-26 to avoid a projected £6.6bn deficit becoming a reality.

But trust bosses are warning that delivering what for some equates to 12% of their entire budget in “efficiency savings” will affect patients and waiting times.

“These [savings targets] are at eye-wateringly high levels”, said Saffron Cordery, the interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts. “It’s going to be extremely challenging.”

Trusts have to make, in some cases, deep cuts in order to stay in the black this year, despite the government having given the NHS an extra £22bn for last year and this one.

A survey it conducted among trust leaders found that diabetes services for young people and hospital at-home-style “virtual wards” were among the areas of care likely to be scaled back.

Trusts are planning to shrink their workforce by up to 1,500 posts each to save money, even though they fear that could damage the quality or safety of care provided.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 9 May 2025

Read more

Hospitals in England ranking highly for empathy ‘have better patient outcomes’

Patients and staff fare better at hospitals that rank highly on empathy, research suggests, with institutions also benefiting financially by spending less on agency staff, locums and consultants.

The finding comes from the first study to rate NHS trusts in England according to an empathy score that is drawn from information on the organisation’s culture, leadership behaviour and practitioner empathy, among other factors.

The report found that even modest increases in a trust’s overall empathy score were associated with widespread benefits, such as a better chance of the trust holding a “good” or “outstanding” rating for effectiveness and patient safety by the Care Quality Commission, the health and social care services regulator.

Small improvements in empathy were also linked to better staff wellbeing, with higher scoring trusts reporting less burnout and absenteeism than those that scored lower. Expenditure on agency staff and external consultants was also lower in trusts with higher empathy ratings, the researchers found.

“More empathic organisations have better patient outcomes, staff wellbeing and financial bottom lines,” said Prof Jeremy Howick at the University of Leicester, the study’s lead author. “Empathy helps patients because they feel listened to. If you’re not listening to the patient, or they don’t feel able to share all their symptoms, you won’t understand what they are going through and you cannot make an accurate diagnosis.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 4 June 2026

Read more

Hospitals in England pay £5,200 for one agency doctor's shift

Hospitals in England have paid out as much as £5,200 for a shift by a doctor through an agency, according to figures obtained by Labour through Freedom of Information requests.

That is the latest in an intensifying debate over workforce shortages in the NHS in England.

Labour blamed the high agency fees on Conservatives, arguing they had failed to train enough doctors and nurses. A Conservative spokesperson said "record numbers" had been recruited.

The most expensive reported shift was £5,234 - paid by a trust in northern England. This covers the agency fee and other employer costs as well as the money going to the doctor.

The NHS Confederation said the "staffing crisis" was so "desperate" that NHS trusts were being forced to pay large fees to make sure rotas were "staffed safely".

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: "Trusts are having to breach the caps on how much they pay for agency doctors because of the extremely high levels of demand they are facing for their services.

"The staffing crisis is so desperate that they either pay these fees or find that their rotas cannot be staffed safely, leading to reduced services for patients. This is particularly true in parts of the country where the NHS can struggle to recruit new staff."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 12 December 2022

Read more
 

Hospitals in England offered unlimited bonuses for taking patients off waiting lists

Hospitals in England are being offered unlimited bonus payments to remove people they decide do not need treatment from their waiting lists amid warnings that thousands of patients most in need are still facing unacceptable delays.

The waiting list for hospital treatment fell for the sixth month in a row in February, according to data published on Thursday.

In an attempt to cut waiting lists and free up consultants to see those most in need, NHS trusts have this week been ordered to “validate” their entire waiting list. This will involve reviewing every patient and removing anyone who could be treated elsewhere or does not need an appointment with a specialist. Those whose symptoms have eased or who have already used private healthcare to undergo surgery, for example, will also be removed.

Hospitals will receive an “incentive payment” for each patient they remove, and a payment cap of 5% of a trust’s waiting list is being scrapped, according to documents seen by the Guardian. It means there is no limit to the payments NHS trusts could receive for taking patients off their lists.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 10 April 2025

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.