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Hospital has 'closed its doors' to patients, LMC warns NHS England

GP leaders have written to NHS England to demand that an NHS hospital trust urgently restores routine referrals as it has 'closed its doors' to some patients, ‘destabilising’ practices in the process. 

Oxfordshire LMC said local GPs are ‘concerned and angry’ about the ‘ongoing closure’ to routine referrals across multiple ‘high-demand’ specialties by Oxford University Hospital Foundation Trust, while warning GPs are also being asked to carry out tests that should be done in hospital.

A ‘significant’ number of specialties are affected, including ENT, general gynaecology, dermatology, ophthalmology, endoscopy and urology, as well as plastics and maxillofacial, it added.

The hospital trust said it had remained open for urgent and emergency care and was accepting clinically urgent and suspected cancer referrals, while reinstating services to support 'the vast majority' of routine referrals.

But Oxfordshire LMC has this week written to NHS England and the council of governors at OUHFT to demand that there are ‘no further delays’ in restoring the services amid concerns of ‘patient harm’.

It said: ‘The LMC believes the continuing closure of some specialty services to routine referrals is now so serious for patients that it has taken a decision to formally raise the concerns of Oxfordshire’s GPs with NHS England.’ 

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Source: Pulse, 13 August 2020

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Hospital fined over death of patient who was given five times amount of drugs needed

A hospital has been fined £45,000 after the death of a leukaemia patient who was given five times the amount of drugs she needed.

Royal Bournemouth Hospital Trust ignored repeated warnings from inspectors raising concerns about the unit where the 80-year-old patient, who was taking part in a clinical trial, was given the wrong dose on two separate occasions.

The trust was fined at Bournemouth Crown Court on Monday after pleading guilty in August to supplying a medicinal product that was not of the nature or quality demanded.

Investigations revealed that, while staff spotted the incorrect dosage, they were wrongly told it was fine, meaning the pensioner, who was terminally ill, was given five times the prescribed amount over four days rather than a lower dose over 10 days.

An investigation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) found staff were working “beyond capacity”.

Inspections in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017 all found the unit was running over capacity and highlighted it as an issue that urgently needed addressing to prevent any mistakes being made.

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Source: The Independent, 12 December 2019

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Hospital failings led to woman’s death after weight loss surgery, coroner says

Failings at a hospital contributed to the death of a 55-year-old woman who suffered abdominal sepsis after weight loss surgery at the time of a junior doctors’ strike, a coroner has said.

Susan Evans returned to Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth, Hampshire, with stomach pains two days after undergoing elective gastric bypass surgery.

She was sent home without being seen by a member of the specialist bariatric team or a senior doctor, though hospital policy says this should happen, and became seriously unwell.

Evans returned to hospital and underwent two further operations but died a month after the original procedure.

In a prevention of future deaths report, the coroner Sally Olsen said neither written nor informal policies had been followed and failures “contributed more than minimally” to Evans’s death.

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Source: The Guardian, 1 January 2025

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Hospital failings continued after Alice Figueiredo death, leaked documents show

Just four months after a young woman died in a London mental health unit,, another patient tried to harm herself in startlingly similar circumstances, leaked documents seen by the BBC show.

Alice Figueiredo, a patient at Goodmayes Hospital, which is run by North East London Mental Health Trust (NELFT), attempted to harm herself using plastic or bin bags on 18 occasions, mostly taking them from the same shared toilet. On the 19th occasion, in July 2015, she managed to take her own life.

Just four months later, in November 2015, another young woman also on Hepworth ward attempted to harm herself using a bin bag. She survived.

Mental health campaigners say it suggests a worrying failure to learn from tragedies.

"It's shocking and distressing that this was still going on four months after Alice died," says Jane Figueiredo, Alice's mother. "The bin bags could and should definitely have been removed, but instead patients continued to be put at unnecessary risk."

NELFT says all bin bags have been removed and "it is committed to learning from every incident and continuously improving" the care it provides.

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Source: BBC News, 10 November 2025

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Hospital drug policies could ‘put Parkinson’s patients at risk’

Patients with Parkinson’s disease are being put at risk when they have spells in hospital due to a lack of timely medication, according to a new report.

Some 58% of people with Parkinson’s disease who were admitted to hospital in England last year said that they did not receive their medication on time during their stay.

Parkinson’s UK said that medication for people with the condition is “time critical” and a delay of 30 minutes can mean the difference between functioning well and being unable to move, walk, talk or swallow.

The charity also conducted freedom of information requests on English hospitals and found that one in four (26%) NHS trusts do not have policies that allow people with Parkinson’s to take their own medication in hospitals.

Only half (52%) require staff responsible for prescribing and administering medication to have training on time critical medication, the charity found.

Parkinson’s UK has called for a number of measures to be put in place to make sure patients in hospital can get access to medications when needed including: ensuring there are medication self-administration policies for patients where it is safe to do so; more training for staff and better use of e-prescribing to keep on track of medication timings.

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Source: The Independent, 19 September 2023

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Hospital doctor admits professional misconduct over patient’s death after dispute with nurse about dislodged breathing tube

A hospital doctor has admitted professional misconduct over an incident in which a patient with meningitis suffered a fatal lack of oxygen to the brain following a dispute with nursing staff over whether a breathing tube had become dislodged.

Ilankathir Sathivel appeared before a medical inquiry to face a series of allegations over his treatment of a patient in February 2019 while working as a registrar anaesthetist at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown in Dublin.

The hearing before the Medical Council’s fitness-to-practise committee was told Dr Sathivel was making a number of admissions in relation to the care he provided to the 59-year-old male, identified only as Patient A, who had been admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit after being diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.

The committee was informed that Dr Sathivel accepted that his failure to have regard for the stated view of a clinical nurse manager, Rosanne Kenny, that Patient’s A endotracheal tube had become dislodged about 3.58am on February 24, 2019 constituted professional misconduct.

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Source: The Irish Independent, 29 May 2025

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Hospital doctor accused of sexual assaults on patients

The National Crime Agency and Interpol has been drafted in by detectives investigating a junior doctor accused of multiple sexual assaults on children and adults in A&E departments. 

Last year, Staffordshire police began an investigation into a 35-year-old medic's work at two hospitals, the Royal Stoke University Hospital in Staffordshire and the Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, West Midlands.

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Source: Sunday Times

Shared by Shaun Lintern Tweet, 29 January 2023

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Hospital disruption continues after fire

A fire at Southampton's main hospital has led to more than 200 patients being evacuated from wards and operations cancelled.

A major incident was declared after the blaze broke out in the endoscopy unit, in the west wing of Southampton General Hospital, at about 05:30 GMT.

The hospital said the fire had been contained and no-one had been injured, adding that patients in all affected areas were evacuated to safe areas elsewhere on the site.

In a statement just after 16:30, the hospital said the impact was "significant" with a number of planned operations on Monday being cancelled.

It said: "As part of the emergency response, our staff moved more than 200 patients to other areas of our hospital where they are being cared for.

"Our focus continues to be safe patient care and moving them to other wards and departments across our site."

The statement added: "The impact of the fire has been significant and will limit our ability to fulfil all planned activity tomorrow [Monday]."

Patients were moved to safe areas, including inside the main entrance of the hospital.

Some could be seen in their beds in the hospital's main lobby, which is usually busy with members of the public.

Following the fire, the hospital said its emergency department was diverting patients away unless their condition was life or limb-threatening.

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Source: BBC News, 1 February 2026

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Hospital discharges limiting home care in England, councils say

Vulnerable people face being denied basic preventive social care at home due to a wave of rapid discharges from hospitals that is sucking up resources, council bosses have warned.

Despite cross-party support for more early care at home, town hall officials are having to allocate resources to people with more complex needs, many discharged from hospital early as part of attempts to clear NHS backlogs.

It means thousands of others were “at risk of missing out [on care] or their needs escalating”, warned the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services in England (Adass) after its annual survey of England’s 153 council social care directors.

It revealed that only 1 in 10 directors were fully confident their budgets would meet their statutory duties – down from more than a third before the Covid pandemic.

Spending aimed at preventing people’s conditions from worsening was forced down by £121m over the past year. As the complexity of cases increases, councils overspent by £586m – the highest level for at least a decade, triggering raids on dwindling council reserves.

The findings were “unsustainable and worrying” said Melanie Williams, the president of Adass and director of adult social care at Nottinghamshire county council.

“Instead of focusing on investment in hospitals and freeing up beds, the new government must shift to investing in more social care, supporting unpaid carers, and providing healthcare in our local community to prevent people reaching crisis point and ending up in hospital in the first place,” she said.

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Source: The Guardian, 16 July 2024

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Hospital did not disclose DNACPR order until after grandfather’s death

The family of a man who died in hospital only discovered after his death that a Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) order had been put in place.

An investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman (PHSO) found that Barts Health NHS Trust failed in its duty to tell Ali Asghar and his family about the order. 

A DNACPR order means that, if someone’s heart or breathing stops, doctors will not attempt resuscitation. The decision is made by a doctor and does not require patient consent but a patient must be informed if they have capacity. If they do not have capacity their next of kin must be informed.

The Ombudsman is urging all healthcare providers to make sure their teams are trained to have these crucial conversations about end-of-life care in a timely and sensitive manner.

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Source: PHSO, 11 March 2025

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Hospital deploys new £700,000 computer system to improve patient safety in intensive care unit

A new £700,000 computer system has been deployed in an intensive care unit at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. The new Philips system will replace bedside charts, freeing up clinical time and improving patient safety at the NHS Grampian hospital.

ICU clinical director Dr Iain MacLeod said: “At the heart of this change is patient safety. The system records physical measurements like blood pressure and heart rate as well as blood results and parameters from the various machines used in ICU, such as dialysis machines and ventilators."

“It will also save on staff time. Currently medical staff members waste lots of time transcribing blood results from a computer onto sheets of paper. The new system allows this to happen automatically. That’s great from a timesaving point of view but more importantly there will be a reduction of errors that can happen when writing something down.”

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Source: FutureScot, 11 November 2019

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Hospital deep clean as baby skin infection detected

A small number of babies at a Belfast hospital have been found to have pseudomonas on their skin. The infants involved were being treated in the neonatal unit of the Royal Jubilee Maternity Service. Although the bacteria was found on their skin, it does not mean the babies were infected. Staff have put in place infection prevention measures and carried out a deep clean of the unit.

A spokesperson for the Belfast Health Trust said while the issue was unfortunate it wanted to reassure patients, their families and the public that the situation was being managed appropriately.

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Source: BBC News, 29 August 2019

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Hospital declares critical incident as beds full

A large number of people in hospital beds waiting for onward care has forced an NHS trust to declare a critical incident to "protect patient safety".

Isle of Wight NHS Trust said on Monday demand for its emergency departments was outstripping the number of free beds, leading to delays.

People are being asked to collect their relatives as soon as they are ready to be discharged.

In a statement, interim chief operating officer Victoria Lauchlan said: "We currently have a high number of people in hospital beds who are waiting for onward care arrangements in the community.

"We are working as an island healthcare system to do everything we can to ensure we can help better support these people to be discharged home with a package of care or to care and nursing homes.

"At this time we are asking people to help by collecting their relatives or friends as soon as they are ready to leave and helping with any additional care and support at home."

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Source: BBC News, 12 March 2024

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Hospital declared it may ‘refuse critical care’ as ‘overwhelmed’ by covid

A hospital in the South East today declared a level of critical care alert meaning that it may be forced into ‘refusal or withdrawal of critical care due to resource limitation’ because it has been ‘overwhelmed’ — but later claimed it was an ”administrative error”.

Data from an internal NHS dashboard for critical care, seen by HSJ, showed today Darent Valley Hospital, near Dartford in Kent, declared it was at “CRITCON level four”. 

CRITCON level four declarations are extremely rare. In guidance they are known as “Triage - emergency” and defined as: “Resources overwhelmed. Possibility of triage by resource (non-clinical refusal or withdrawal of critical care due to resource limitation).”

The definition continues: “This must only be implemented on national directive from [NHS England] and in accordance with national guidance.”

Dartford and Gravesham Trust, which runs the hospital, replied to HSJ more than five hours after it was contacted, and after publication of the story, to say: “This was a purely administrative error which was quickly rectified.” The level has not however been changed so far on the live dashboard, HSJ has confirmed.

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Source: HSJ, 7 January 2021

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Hospital criticised for ‘poor’ and ‘defensive’ investigations

A hospital trust has been criticised for its “poor” and “defensive” investigations into three deaths, which a coroner has linked to care by a single surgeon. 

Heidi Connor, senior coroner for Berkshire, investigated three deaths that occurred within three months at Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust. Each death followed surgery by consultant colorectal surgeon Daniel McGrath, whose “management” of each case was criticised by experts cited by the coroner. 

The coroner’s prevention of future deaths report about the death of Lorraine Parker, who died most recently of the three on 30 March 2024, was published last week and examined the trust’s death investigations processes across each of the three cases.

Ms Connor found the trust’s structured judgement reviews - which investigate care failings following a patient death - to be “at best, poor” and “at worst, defensive”, and warned the trust that its overall death investigation process “is not working well”. 

In addition, the coroner questioned “whether the trust has done enough to deal with the concerns about this particular surgeon” following the three deaths. 

There is no note of a restriction on Mr McGrath’s practice according to the General Medical Council register. However, Royal Berkshire told HSJ it has “worked closely with the coroner and the GMC” on measures to oversee his work. He has also been removed from surgical duties.

Looking at how the trust handled investigations into the three deaths, the coroner’s report noted the trust did not carry out a “detailed [Patient Safety Incident Response Framework] report”, which supports responses to patient safety incidents, into any of the deaths. 

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Source: HSJ, 1 May 2025

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Hospital Covid ‘hotspots’ mapped out in a new HSIB report

Hospital hotspots for COVID-19 have been highlighted in a new report by safety investigators.

The report by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) makes a series of observations to help the health service reduce the spread of coronavirus in healthcare settings. Hospital hotspots for COVID-19 included the central nurses’ stations and areas where computers and medical notes were shared, the HSIB found.

The investigation was initiated after a Sage report in May which found that 20% of hospital patients were reporting symptoms of Covid-19 seven days following admission – suggesting that their infection may have been acquired in hospital. In response to the report, NHS England and NHS Improvement confirmed they would publish nosocomial – another term for hospital acquired infections – transmission rates from trusts, the HSIB said.

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Source: Express and Star, 28 October 2020

 

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Hospital covered up baby’s death, says senior coroner

A senior coroner has accused Chelsea and Westminster Hospital of a cover-up over the death of a baby who died when midwives failed to act on clear signs that his mother was in distress.

Elton Deutekom was pronounced dead 37 minutes after his birth in January 2022. During labour his mother had a placental abruption — when some or all of the placenta separates from the wall of the womb. This was not picked up by her care team, and Elton was starved of oxygen.

Doctors at the west London hospital did not refer the incident to the coroner and wrongly told the NHS’s healthcare safety investigation branch (HSIB) that Elton had been stillborn and no investigation was required, an inquest into his death was told.

It was not until his parents learnt of this anomaly in the records that an investigation was carried out by the HSIB, which uncovered serious failings in his care.

Professor Fiona Wilcox, the senior coroner, said: “I need to say this on the record and in public — this feels like there has been an attempt at a cover-up.” She later repeated: “I am concerned there is an element of cover-up in this death. I will say it categorically.”

Concluding that Elton had died from natural causes to which neglect contributed, the coroner said there had been “gross” failings in his care. She said that if the midwives had adequately monitored his heart rate, acknowledged his mother’s pain and recognised hypoxia — oxygen deficiency — he would have been delivered earlier and would have survived.

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Source: The Times, 21 November 2024

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Hospital complaints fall after phone call scheme

The introduction of daily telephone calls from hospital wards to relatives has led to a drop in complaints, hospital managers have said.

The United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) claims it is the "first in the country" to introduce regular calls to a designated patient contact.

The trust, which started the calls as a pilot scheme two years ago, has now rolled the project out to 45 of 52 wards in Lincoln, Grantham and Boston.

The scheme has been nominated for recognition at The Patient Experience Network National Awards.

Patient experience manager, Jane Thompson-Burt, said: "Sometimes you get multiple members of the family phoning into the wards and you're trying to pass on information so staff are being taken away from their clinical role."

Since the introduction of the scheme, ULHT said the number of "avoidable complaints" regarding communication had reduced from 134 in the 2022/23 financial year to 51 in 2023/24.

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Source: BBC News, 24 September 2024

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Hospital chiefs keen to restart operations as covid peak passes

Several acute trust chief executives have told HSJ they are keen to resume more planned operations, as the peak of new coronavirus cases has passed and many hospital beds remain empty.

Some trust leaders said they believed routine elective surgery could be restarted as early as next week. There is also tension between NHS hospitals — some of which are keen to resume their own planned care, especially the more urgent operations — and a desire to use private hospitals, which have been booked out by NHS England.

The government said yesterday the number of people in hospitals with COVID-19 has fallen by 10% over the last week. Around 42% of acute beds are now unoccupied, according to figures seen by HSJ. The peak of new infection cases in hospitals was at about 3,000 on 1 April — the number is now about half that figure.

However, there will be fears nationally about the NHS seeking to return to normal and being caught out by ongoing COVID-19 pressures, or by a second peak of infections. 

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Source: HSJ, 24 April 2020

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Hospital chiefs 'increasingly frustrated' with UK testing failures

Hospital leaders have launched a strident attack on the government’s coronavirus testing strategy, as it became clear that the target of 100,000 daily tests by 30 April would be comprehensively missed.

NHS Providers, which represents foundation trusts in England, rounded on ministers for “a series of frequent tactical announcements” to expand testing criteria, and dismissed the 100,000 target as a “red herring” that distracted from their failures.

Just 33,000 people were tested for COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour period – a record high for a single day – according to official figures. Dominic Raab, the first secretary of state, said that more than 52,000 tests were carried out, but this total is apparently bolstered by 19,000 retests.

Test capacity was now more than 73,000 a day, he said – still considerably below the target set by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, at the start of April.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 April 2020

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Hospital chief quits in protest at ‘cover-up’ over baby deaths

An NHS hospital has been accused of posing a continuing risk to patients by “covering up” leadership failures, including not properly investigating the deaths of two babies.

Dr Max Mclean, chairman of Bradford Teaching Hospitals trust, has quit in protest at the conduct of the trust’s chief executive, Professor Mel Pickup, after no action was taken over serious concerns about her performance.

In a blistering resignation letter, Mclean said he “cannot, in good conscience, work with a CEO who has fallen so short of the standards expected of her role that there is a genuine safety risk to patients and colleagues”. He is calling for senior national NHS figures to establish new leadership at the trust, and has written to the head of NHS England to share his concerns about Pickup, who has been in post since 2019.

Mclean told The Times there were parallels with the Lucy Letby scandal, when management ignored the concerns of whistleblowers. “Patients are at risk, babies are at risk, and there could be avoidable deaths unless there is a change of leadership,” he said.

The former detective chief superintendent who has chaired the trust since 2019, raised nine serious issues about Pickup’s performance, which he said were confirmed by an independent investigation that concluded last month.

However, the trust’s board met on October 2 and decided there would be no further action against Pickup, leaving Mclean with “no option” but to resign and speak publicly.

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Source: The Times, 10 October 2023

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Hospital CEOs will get ‘fair’ treatment over ambulance delays, says Barclay

Health secretary Steve Barclay says trust chief executives should be held accountable for ambulance handover delays in a ‘fair’ way that recognises factors outside their control.

Mr Barclay made a wide ranging speech at a Policy Exchange event on Thursday. However, the content of the speech was much less radical than earlier press reports in which it was suggested he would tell the NHS to “scrap targets”, “declare war on pointless pen-pushers”, and deprioritise “cancer, maternity and mental health”. 

Last month, the health secretary summoned the chief executives of six of the NHS trusts which are recording the longest waits for ambulance handovers at their emergency departments.

Mr Barclay was asked by HSJ what the consequences would be for leaders who failed to improve the situation. He said: “It’s not about blaming the chief executives, it’s about understanding what are their challenges and how do we then get clarity on that.

“Once we’ve agreed on that, then you can have performance management to hold individual chiefs to [account on] the bits that are within their control, distinct from bits that may be the ambulance trust’s or others in the system.”

He said the government and NHS England would ask what was “within the chief exec’s control” and how a trust’s performance compared to that of its peers? Trusts would be asked to “comply” with best practice or explain why they were not. The Department of Health and Social Care and NHSE would then be able to decide “what are the things where it [the trust] needs wider support?”

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Source: HSJ, 2 September 2022

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Hospital caring for Nottingham triple killer left patients worse than when they went in, damning report finds

Patients at the hospital that treated killer Valdo Calocane were discharged too soon and released in a worse state into the community, the NHS safety watchdog has found.

Serious failings by Nottinghamshire Hospital Foundation Trust in keeping patients and the public safe have been identified in a review from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

More than 1,200 patients are waiting to be seen by community services, the report found. Meanwhile, several hundred who are receiving treatment did not have a clinician overseeing their care,the CQC found.

The review was launched by the government following the conviction of killer Valdo Calocane, who was under the care of the NHS trust’s community services.

The CQC review said patients reported that crisis services are either “useless” or detrimental to their health.

The three broad areas of concern, highlighted in the CQC’s report, were:

  • High demand for services was leading to long waiting times for care and a lack of oversight of those waiting.
  • The trust does not have enough staff to keep patients safe in the community and within some hospital services.
  • Senior leaders at the trust do not have clear oversight of the risks and issues within the service.

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Source: The Independent, 27 March 2024

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Hospital cancels operations as Covid patient numbers soar

A hospital in Yorkshire has said it is cancelling planned surgeries for at least two weeks as the number of coronavirus patients there hits levels not seen since May.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals said it was being forced to stop non-urgent surgery and outpatient appointments for two weeks from Tuesday because of the numbers of severely ill COVID-19 patients.

In statement the hospital said it had seen a spike in admissions in the last few days with 100 coronavirus patients now on the wards with 30 patients needing oxygen support – the highest number of any hospital in the northeast and Yorkshire region.

It also said more patients were needing ventilators to help them breathe in intensive care.

The trust is the latest to announce cancellations, joining the University Hospitals of Birmingham, Nottingham University Hospitals and Plymouth Hospitals as well as those in Liverpool and Manchester where hundreds of Covid patients are being looked after.

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Source: The Independent, 21 October 2020

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