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Future of the NHS, saviour of the high street? High hopes for health hub in a Barnsley shopping centre

It is a revolution that might just save the NHS – and the high street. Imagine being able to have your eyes tested, mole examined or get an appointment with a consultant without going to your local hospital – and maybe fit in some shopping or a cinema visit afterwards.

That, increasingly, is what people in Barnsley are doing after an unprecedented relocation of medical services from the district general hospital into a purpose-built outpatients centre in the Alhambra shopping centre, which is getting a new lease of life thanks to the experiment.

Those involved say the initiative – the first of its kind in the NHS – is trailblazing and revolutionary. After a recent visit, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, described it as “really inspiring”. He said: “What we’re seeing right here in the heart of Barnsley town centre is the future of the NHS.”

The outpatients centre has been created as a result of a collaboration between Barnsley hospital NHS foundation trust and the town’s Labour-run council. Hundreds of people a week are visiting it to have tests or treatment, including minor operations,for example to treat cataracts, blocked tear ducts or ingrowing eyelashes. Soon the number will rise to 1,000 or more.

It gives patients easier access to a range of non-urgent services than at the hospital on the town’s outskirts, where parking is limited. Through the extra footfall it is generating, it is also boosting custom for shops, cafes, restaurants and leisure facilities.

“It’s about having your mammogram while your husband wanders around at Sports Direct, or meeting your friend for a coffee after a dermatology appointment where someone looked at your rash,” says Michael Brown, the architect who designed the new facility.

The outpatient centre’s location is proving a hit with patients, partly because it is a quick walk from the bus and rail station, says Alan Heathcote, Barnsley hospital’s project manager. “Patient feedback has been very positive. And the themes are consistent: easier access, a better location, less walking, shorter waits and no need to battle for hospital parking”, he says. Parking near the Alhambra is plentiful and cheap.

The experience of the CDC so far suggests that offering care in a town centre location has helped to reduce “DNAs” – patients who don’t show up – by 24%.

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Source: The Guardian, 16 April 2026

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Future HSSIB investigation to examine mental health inpatient settings

Today it was announced by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care that the future Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) will undertake a series of investigations focused on mental health inpatient settings.

The investigations will commence when HSSIB is formally established on 1 October 2023. The HSSIB will conduct investigations around:

  • How providers learn from deaths in their care and use that learning to improve their services, including post-discharge.
  • How young people with mental health needs are cared for in inpatient services and how their care could be improved.
  • How out-of-area placements are handled.
  • How to develop a safe, therapeutic staffing model for all mental health inpatient services.

Rosie Benneyworth, Chief Investigator at HSIB, says: “We welcome the announcement by the Secretary of State and see this as a significant opportunity to use our expertise, and the wider remit that HSSIB will have, to improve safety for those being cared for in mental health inpatient settings across England. The evidence we have gathered through HSIB investigations has helped shed light on some of the wider challenges faced by patients with mental health needs, and the expertise we will carry through from HSIB to HSSIB will help us to further understand these concerns in inpatient settings, and contribute to a system level understanding of the challenges in providing care in mental health hospitals.

“HSSIB will be able to look at inpatient mental health care in both the NHS and the independent sector and any evidence we gather during the investigations is given full protection from disclosure. It is crucial that those impacted by poor care and those working on the frontlines of the inpatient settings can share their experiences, reassured that HSSIB will use this information to improve care and not apportion blame or liability.

“At HSIB we will begin conversations with our national partners across the system, as well as talking to staff, patients and families. This will ensure that when investigations are launched in October, we have identified and will address the most serious risks to mental health inpatients within these areas and will identify recommendations and other safety learning that will lead to changes in the safety culture and how safety is managed within mental health services.”

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Source: HSIB, 28 June 2023

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Fury in The Gambia over India cough syrup deaths

In September last year, Ebrima Sajnia watched helplessly as his young son slowly died in front of his eyes.

Mr Sajnia says three-year-old Lamin was set to start attending nursery school in a few weeks when he got a fever. A doctor at a local clinic prescribed medicines, including a cough syrup.

Over the next few days, Lamin's condition deteriorated as he struggled to eat and even urinate. He was admitted to a hospital, where doctors detected kidney issues. Within seven days, Lamin was dead.

He was among around 70 children - younger than five - who died in The Gambia of acute kidney injuries between July and October last year after consuming one of four cough syrups made by an Indian company called Maiden Pharmaceuticals.

In October, the World Health Organization (WHO) linked the deaths to the syrups, saying it had found "unacceptable" levels of toxins in the medicines.

A Gambian parliamentary panel also concluded after investigations that the deaths were the result of the children ingesting the syrups.

Both Maiden Pharmaceuticals and the Indian government have denied this - India said in December that the syrups complied with quality standards when tested domestically.

It's an assessment that Amadou Camara, chairperson of the Gambian panel that investigated the deaths, strongly disagrees with.

"We have evidence. We tested these drugs. [They] contained unacceptable amounts of ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol, and these were directly imported from India, manufactured by Maiden," he says. Ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol are toxic to humans and could be fatal if consumed".

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Source: BBC News, 21 August 2023

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Fury greets cuts to funding for social care’s contribution to integration

Confirmation the government has cut hundreds of millions from budgets partly designed to boost health and care integration has been met with fury, with the decision described as leaving the social care reform agenda in ‘tatters’.

It was revealed last month that the £1.7bn promised in 2021’s social care white paper to strengthen the sector, and especially its contribution to more integrated services, was set to be drastically cut by ministers.

Today’s announcement has confirmed the investment originally ear-marked for “investment in knowledge, skills, health and wellbeing, and recruitment policies [to] improve social care as a long-term career choice” has been cut from £500m to £250m, the £300m promised to “integrate housing into local health and care strategies" cut to zero. The white paper also promised “at least £150m” for investment in digital and technology, but today’s government announcement has capped this at £100m. Overall cuts to the series of reform programme are in the region of £600m. Only £520m has been allocated, and it is unclear where the rest of the original £1.7bn will be spent.

Sarah McClinton, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the plan “takes us backwards” and “leaves the government’s vision for reform in tatters”, adding that it “ducks the hard decisions and kicks the can down the road again until after the next election.”

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Source: HSJ, 4 April 2023

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Fury at ‘do not resuscitate’ notices given to Covid patients with learning disabilities

People with learning disabilities have been given do not resuscitate orders during the second wave of the pandemic, in spite of widespread condemnation of the practice last year and an urgent investigation by the care watchdog.

Mencap said it had received reports in January from people with learning disabilities that they had been told they would not be resuscitated if they were taken ill with COVID-19.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said in December that inappropriate Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices had caused potentially avoidable deaths last year.

DNACPRs are usually made for people who are too frail to benefit from CPR, but Mencap said some seem to have been issued for people simply because they had a learning disability. The CQC is due to publish a report on the practice within weeks.

The disclosure comes as campaigners put growing pressure on ministers to reconsider a decision not to give people with learning disabilities priority for vaccinations. There is growing evidence that even those with a mild disability are more likely to die if they contract the coronavirus.

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Source: The Guardian, 13 February 2021

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Fury as minister says strikers choosing to harm

Ambulance unions have reacted with anger after the health secretary said they had "taken a conscious choice to inflict harm on patients".

Steve Barclay said unions had refused to work with the government at a national level on how they would cover emergency calls during strike action.

Unison said it was "utterly shocked" by the comments, while the GMB union said they were "insulting".

Paramedics are among those striking in England and Wales on Wednesday.

Control room staff and support workers who are members of the Unison, GMB and Unite unions are also involved.

NHS bosses are warning patient safety cannot be guaranteed during the action, although unions say life-threatening callouts will still be responded to by an ambulance.

They also argue patients are already being put at risk due to waiting times and the pressure on the health service, made worse by staff shortages.

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Source: BBC News, 21 December 2022

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Further cuts will kill off NHS dental services, chancellor told

Jeremy Hunt has been told that any cuts to the health budget will in effect “kill” dental services across the UK and deny millions of patients access to a dentist on the NHS.

The chancellor has told members of the cabinet that “everything is on the table” as he seeks to find tens of billions of pounds in savings after ditching the economic plan of Liz Truss, who said on Thursday she was standing down as prime minister. Health is one key area expected to be hit.

But in an email to Hunt seen by the Guardian, the head of the British Dental Association (BDA) said in plain terms that because NHS dentistry had already “faced cuts with no parallel anywhere in the health service” over the last decade, any further reduction in funding could trigger its collapse.

“In blunt terms, NHS dentistry is approaching the end of the road,” Martin Woodrow, the BDA chief executive, wrote in the memo. “There is simply no more fat to trim, short of denying access to an even greater proportion of the population.”

In the memo to Hunt, Woodrow wrote: “Recent NHS England board papers confirm officials are euphemistically ‘taking steps to maximise access from existing resources’. We know what that means. Yes, we recognise the unparalleled pressures on public spending. Equally, we cannot escape the hard fact that a service millions depend on materially lacks the resources to underpin any rebuild.

“You have also spoken of the need for all departments to seek ‘efficiency savings’. Since the financial crash, NHS dentistry has faced cuts with no parallel anywhere in the health service, going into the pandemic with lower government contributions – in cash terms – than it saw a decade ago.

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Source: The Guardian, 21 October 2022

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Funding overhaul for mental health beds revealed

National NHS officials have proposed a major shift in the funding model for inpatient mental health beds for children and young people, information seen by HSJ reveals.

A report on child and adolescent mental health services by Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT), an NHS England national programme, recommends a move away from the current ‘payment per bed day’ model to a system which funds particular outcomes or “therapeutic models”.

It appears the proposal in the GIRFT recommendations seen by HSJ would apply to both NHS and independent provision, although some NHS providers are already less likely to receive funding on a ”per bed day” basis.

Ananta Dave, consultant CAMHS psychiatrist at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust, told HSJ that having agreed therapy and outcome measures as recommended by the report would not only boost patient experience but also lead to better results.

“One inpatient bed can actually be the equivalent of 100 young people being looked after in the community. So these are precious resources we are talking about, hence the quality of inpatient units is really important.

“It should not just be a tick-box exercise that a bed exists. Instead, it is about the quality of that service. If you simply go by the number of bed days, you’re unlikely to meet your target or meet your ambition of reducing the spend on inpatient services.”

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Source: HSJ, 16 May 2022

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Funding for winter clinics axed despite NHSE backing

Community clinics credited with easing pressure on A&E and GP practices nationally last winter have not yet been funded for this year, and many may not be able to open, HSJ has learned.

Several local and regional sources said they were concerned no funding had been announced for acute respiratory hubs, despite respiratory illness already starting to rise.

Last year national funding was announced in December and – despite the late notice – NHS England collected evidence showing that, once they were opened, ARI hubs reduced acute respiratory infection attendances by up to two-thirds, and released GP appointments.

The hubs, normally held at community clinics, offer urgent same-day appointments for those with suspected ARI problems to patients referred in by other services.

David Bramley, deputy director in NHSE’s NHS@Home team, said on a webinar on Tuesday: “This year, perhaps unsurprisingly, we are seeing ARI rates beginning to climb… but we’re also not expecting any additional funding for ARI hubs this year.”

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Source: HSJ, 10 November 2023

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Funding ‘cliff-edge’ threatens to ‘distress’ families and hamper NHS recovery

Government plans to cut off funding for hospital discharge at the end of March will slow down the NHS recovery of planned care, and threatens ‘distress’ for families asked to quickly take over patients’ care.

Since the pandemic began the Department of Health and Social Care has funded measures to smooth discharge from hospital, to help free up capacity. From September last year this was via a £588m national pot for up to six weeks’ funded care and support after discharge. 

But a letter from NHS England director of community health Matthew Winn last week confirmed the funding will cease at the end of March, with local NHS organisations or councils liable for the continued funding of discharge packages in the 2021-22 financial year.

Jennifer Burns, president of the British Geriatrics Society (BGS), which has previously written to the government to urge an extension of the scheme, told HSJ: “The BGS is incredibly concerned… The disappearance of funding for care in the six-week period after discharge creates a cliff edge in the very near future. We urge the government to reconsider this decision and commit to recurrent discharge funding in the upcoming Budget.”

Miriam Deakin, NHS Providers director of policy and strategy, said the government’s funding had “played a crucial role in freeing up hospital beds [and] managing capacity”, despite the delays caused by other parts of the system during the coronavirus winter surge. 

Ms Deakin warned: “Trust leaders are keen to see this funding continue in the longer term. This new way of working does not come without a financial cost, particularly for community services and their staff who are now much more thinly stretched, supporting patients with a wider range of more complex needs at home and in other community settings. We would therefore urge government to continue discharge to assess funding from April 2021.” 

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Source: HSJ, 18 February 2021

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Fumes from idling ambulances stuck outside A&Es endangering staff

An ambulance trust is having to protect its staff from the effects of fumes – including potential cancer risk – as they are spending so long in their vehicles outside hospitals.

South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust (SWASFT) has carried out a risk assessment of the impact of diesel engine emissions after following concerns from staff, many of whom are spending hours waiting to handover on each shift. The region has faced the worst handover delays to emergency departments in recent years.

Ambulance engines normally have to be kept on while waiting, to keep essential equipment running, and sometimes for warmth. But with queues of a dozen or more ambulances at times, staff and patients can be exposed to substantial emissions for long periods.

The trust’s risk assessment – which has been seen by HSJ – warns exposure to diesel emissions is associated with eye and upper respiratory tract irritation, while prolonged exposure can lead to coughing, increased sputum production and breathlessness.

There is also “epidemiological evidence which indicates that sustained occupational exposure to diesel engine exhaust emissions may result in an increase in the risk of lung cancer”.

It gives a risk rating of 20 – one of the highest possible – which, under the trust’s policies, indicates “activities must not proceed” until mitigations are in place.

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Source: HSJ, 27 March 2024

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Full-body scans of 100,000 people could change way diseases are detected and treated

Scientists expect to gain unprecedented insights into human ageing and the earliest signs of disease after scanning 100,000 people from head to toe in the world’s largest whole body imaging project.

The completion of the decade-long task means qualifying researchers worldwide will have access to 1bn de-identified images of the hearts, brains, abdomens, blood vessels, bones and joints of volunteers alongside medical histories and rich data on their genetic makeup, health and lifestyle.

Subsets of the images compiled by UK Biobank, which follows the health of half a million people in Britain, have already underpinned breakthroughs in how the heart influences psychiatric disorders and shown that the scans can predict dozens of future diseases. They also suggest no amount of alcohol consumption is healthy.

“Researchers now have an incredible window into the body,” said Naomi Allen, the chief scientist at UK Biobank. “For the first time, researchers can study how we age and how diseases develop in stunning detail and at a massive scale.”

“We hope that the findings … will change the way the world detects and treats disease before people get sick,” she added.

UK Biobank is now re-scanning 60,000 volunteers to see how people’s brains, bodies and bones change in the years after their first scan. Louise Thomas, a professor of metabolic imaging at the University of Westminster, has looked at body scans taken two years apart. “The results were shocking. The amount of visceral fat, the bad fat in the abdomen, had increased,” she said. Muscle also becomes more fatty. “As we get older, we become more and more marbled,” she said. “We’re becoming wagyu beef.”

Medical advances made from the images are expected to transform procedures in the NHS. One of Thomas’s colleagues automated the detection of aneurysms – life-threatening bulges in blood vessel walls. While men are already screened for them, women are not, even though they are more serious in women. “We can do lots of things we weren’t able to do before. It’s quite extraordinary,” Thomas added.

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Source: The Guardian, 15 July 2025

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Full picture of how covid is hitting hospitals in the north

The most comprehensive picture so far of how covid’s second wave has hit the NHS in the north of England is revealed in new figures obtained by HSJ.

The latest data confirms that parts of the North West region now have more coronavirus patients in hospital beds than they did in the spring. It comes amid intense public debate about the best way to fight covid, and whether or not it is close to swamping the NHS.

Collected from local NHS sources in a joint HSJ and Independent investigation, the information shows for example that:

  • Lancashire and South Cumbria had 544 confirmed covid hospital patients yesterday (around 15-18% of the bed base), about 20 more than during the April peak.
  • Liverpool University Hospitals – which remains the most severely affected trust – had 408 confirmed covid patients yesterday (20-25% of bed base), whereas it never topped 400 in the spring.

The data is sent routinely by trusts to NHS England but most of it is not published – something some politicians are now calling for.

As of yesterday, there were nearly 6,100 confirmed-covid patients across England, about 650 of whom were in critical care, and 560 receiving mechanical ventilation, according to information shared with HSJ.

The number of “unoccupied” hospital beds is much lower now than in the spring, when they were cleared out in anticipation of a major hit. In the North West, up to 5,500 acute beds were reported as “unoccupied” in the spring, whereas the figure now is about 2,500 (around 14-18% of the bed base).

However, critical care is the major pinch point in the most affected areas, with nearly half of the mechanical ventilation beds open at Liverpool’s hospitals (29 of 62) occupied by confirmed covid patients; and a third of those across the North West (178 of 556).

However, hospitals in the area have opened very few extra critical care “surge” beds so far. The total numbers of mechanical ventilation (a subset of critical care) beds open in LUH and the rest of the region has not increased much in recent weeks, and falls well short of what they have declared they could open as potential surge capacity, if they cancelled large amounts of non-urgent care and reorganised staffing and wards.

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Source: HSJ, 23 October 2020

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Full extent of NHS dentistry shortage revealed

Nine in 10 NHS dental practices across the UK are not accepting new adult patients for treatment under the health service, a BBC investigation has found.

BBC's research shows no dentists taking on adult NHS patients could be found in a third of the UK's top-tier councils. And eight in 10 NHS practices are not taking on children.

The Department of Health said it had made an extra £50m available "to help bust the Covid backlogs" and that improving NHS access was a priority.

BBC News contacted nearly 7,000 NHS practices - believed to be almost all those offering general treatment to the public.

The British Dental Association (BDA) called it "the most comprehensive and granular assessment of patient access in the history of the service".

While NHS dental treatment is not free for most adults, it is subsidised.

The BBC heard from people across the UK who could not afford private fees and said the subsidised rates were crucial to getting care.

The lack of NHS appointments has led people to drive hundreds of miles in search of treatment, pull out their own teeth without anaesthesia, resort to making their own improvised dentures and restrict their long-term diets to little more than soup.

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Source: BBC News, 8 August 2022

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FT suffering ‘ridiculous’ cash shortage after national support withheld

The former national NHS finance director has declared it “ridiculous” his trust is operating with only enough cash to cover one day, after NHS England withheld deficit support.

Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust has been hit by the withholding of deficit support funding to the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System this financial year, due to concerns over the latter’s financial position.

This contributed to a significant drop in cash balances in September, according to University Hospital of Liverpool Group board papers. The trust finance report said it ended the month with £5.5m in the bank, which was equivalent to “one operating cash days”.

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Source: HSJ 17 November 2025

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Frontline training programme on diabetes ‘improves patient safety’

A concise training programme aimed at informing healthcare staff about diabetes has the potential to significantly improve patient safety, according to researchers.

The programme, which was developed by the North West London Collaboration of Clinical Commissioning Groups, has been linked with a reduction in diabetes-related errors.

The Diabetes 10 Point Training Programme was initially created with the aim of improving inpatient safety by ensuring frontline staff have access to diabetes training.

Researchers from the CCG collaboration noted that the annual National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA) had made for “grim reading with errors, harm, increased length of stay and mortality”.

They highlighted that a workforce with knowledge of diabetes was “crucial to inpatient safety”, and said that complex diabetes care could be delivered by non-specialists with adequate training.

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Source: Nursing Times, 29 April. 2021

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From stargazing to mole-gazing

Astrophysics and dermatology are colliding through a new research project led by the University of Southampton – with potentially lifesaving consequences.

The project, dubbed MoleGazer, will take algorithms used for detecting exploding stars in astronomical imaging data and develop them to be used to spot changes in skin moles and, therefore, detect skin cancer.

MoleGazer, led by Professor Mark Sullivan, Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University, and Postdoctoral Researcher Mathew Smith, has been awarded a Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). It is the first time the University has won such a grant.

Currently, patients at high risk of developing skin cancer are photographed at regular intervals and a consultant visually compares images to detect changes. MoleGazer could automate this process, potentially leading to earlier diagnoses and improved survival rates.

“It’s a really exciting project that came along from nowhere,” added Professor Sullivan. “It also highlights the importance of blue sky science – curiosity-driven scientific research will always have a fundamentally important role to play.”

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Source: University of Southampton, 10 January 2020

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From checklists to more personalised care

Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust has made a major shift in how they assess and respond to risk, putting patients’ voices and lived experience at the heart of every safety decision. 

In a move designed to improve care, prevent harm, and deliver efficient, more compassionate support, the trust has moved away from relying on static checklists or fixed scoring systems, and is instead working with patients to explore their individual circumstances, triggers, strengths, and needs.

The change is already helping staff respond faster and more effectively when a person’s situation changes, ensuring that they receive the right help at the right time. 

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Source: Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust, 17 February 2026

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From ‘brain fog’ to heart damage, COVID-19’s lingering problems alarm scientists

The list of lingering maladies from COVID-19 is longer and more varied than most doctors could have imagined. Ongoing problems include fatigue, a racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, achy joints, foggy thinking, a persistent loss of sense of smell, and damage to the heart, lungs, kidneys and brain.

The likelihood of a patient developing persistent symptoms is hard to pin down because different studies track different outcomes and follow survivors for different lengths of time. One group in Italy found that 87% of a patient cohort hospitalized for acute COVID-19 was still struggling 2 months later. Data from the COVID Symptom Study, which uses an app into which millions of people in the United States, United Kingdom, and Sweden have tapped their symptoms, suggest 10% to 15% of people—including some “mild” cases—don’t quickly recover. But with the crisis just months old, no one knows how far into the future symptoms will endure, and whether COVID-19 will prompt the onset of chronic diseases.

One such patient is Athena Akrami. Her early symptoms were textbook for COVID-19: a fever and cough, followed by shortness of breath, chest pain, and extreme fatigue. For weeks, she struggled to heal at home. But rather than ebb with time, Akrami’s symptoms waxed and waned without ever going away. She’s had just 3 weeks since March when her body temperature was normal.

“Everybody talks about a binary situation, you either get it mild and recover quickly, or you get really sick and wind up in the ICU,” says Akrami, who falls into neither category. Thousands echo her story in online COVID-19 support groups. Outpatient clinics for survivors are springing up, and some are already overburdened. Akrami has been waiting more than 4 weeks to be seen at one of them, despite a referral from her general practitioner.

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Source: Science, 31 July 2020

 

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Fresh review into ‘doctors being bullied with regulatory referrals’

Investigators have begun a further review of how a major trust handles disciplinary and professional standards cases, including allegations leaders had targeted some doctors with referrals to the medical regulator, HSJ has learned.

The claims were part of a raft of concerns raised about University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust over recent months, including BBC Newsnight reporting that a large number of General Medical Council referrals had led to no action; and claims of whistleblowing doctors “being bullied… by the threat of referrals to the GMC”.

One external review of UHB, whose report was published in March, already examined the issue, and said it had identified 17 cases which contradicted Newsnight’s claim, with two referrals resulting in criminal conviction and removal from the medical register.

It said there was “nothing exceptional” about the referral numbers or types at UHB, or their outcomes, but also noted that medical staff told the review about “dysfunctional processes for maintaining higher professional standards”, and “expressed a perception that there was a rather rapid process to escalate to a GMC referral”.

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Source: HSJ, 21 June 2023

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Fresh nurse strike dates announced in England

Nurses will go on strike again on 18 and 19 January in England unless pay talks are opened, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said.

Nurses at more hospital trusts than before will be involved in the strike action in the new year, the union said.

Meanwhile, the GMB union has called off a second day of ambulance strikes planned in England and Wales for 28 December.

But it announced a new co-ordinated walkout on 11 January.

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Source: BBC News, 23 December 2022

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Fresh inquiry ordered into death after reports are rejected

NHS England has ordered a new independent investigation into the death of an autistic man nearly 10 years ago, after a previous report was effectively quashed.

Anthony Dawson died aged 64 from a burst gastric ulcer in an NHS-run care home in May 2015. An inquest found there were gross failings in his care, and his death was contributed to by neglect.

NHS England commissioned an independent investigation in 2017 from Sancus Solutions at a cost of £25,000. But its report — which went through seven drafts — was heavily criticised by Anthony’s sister, Julia, who said the drafts had significant factual errors and ignored aspects of his care.

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Source: HSJ, 19 November, 2024

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Fresh calls to end dangerous corridor care in Welsh A&E departments

A renewed campaign to end the practice of treating patients in hospital corridors has been launched across Wales, as pressure mounts on political parties ahead of the May Senedd elections.

The BEDS – End Corridor Care in A&E campaign has warned that corridor care remains widespread in Welsh NHS hospitals, putting patient safety, dignity and staff wellbeing at risk.

Campaigners say the issue has become a major concern for voters, with growing frustration that repeated warnings from frontline clinicians have not yet led to meaningful change.

Read full article.

Source: The Bangor Aye, 8 January 2025

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Fresh allegations of whistleblower mismanagement at ‘witch hunt’ trust

Fresh concerns have been raised about the treatment of whistleblowers by managers at a trust recently embroiled in a high-profile bullying scandal, the hospital’s workforce director has disclosed.

A series of further accusations have been made against managers at West Suffolk Foundation Trust, where executives were recently judged to have led an “intimidating, flawed” hunt for a whistleblower, prompting a series of high-profile departures.

The trust’s executive director for workforce detailed in a paper for the hospital’s July board meeting how managers had been hunting to identify staff who had raised concerns through supposedly confidential channels.

The report, by executive director of workforce and communications, Jeremy Over, said: “Feedback has been given indicating that some people have had a poor experience when speaking up.

“In two separate cases, where people spoke up in confidence, it was reported that the managers were then asking and wishing to find out who had spoken up making the individuals very uncomfortable.

“Another case reported that the individual was ‘told off’ by their manager for ‘going about their heads’ [sic] and another where staff felt discouraged from raising any points or suggestions as these were taken [as] a personal offence [by] the senior staff. In a further case, the person speaking up was criticised [for] doing so.”

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Source: HSJ, 3 August 2022

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French surgeon accused of abusing 299 patients, mostly children, says he did ‘hideous things’

A 74-year-old surgeon accused of abusing 299 people, most of them children, while they were anaesthetised or recovering from operations has told a French court he did “hideous things” and is prepared to take responsibility for them.

Joël Le Scouarnec is accused of raping or sexually abusing the victims, whose average age was 11, during a 30-year career, and detailing the abuse in notebooks.

“I’ve done hideous things,” the 74-year-old told a court in Vannes on Monday, the opening day of his trial. He said he was “perfectly aware that these wounds cannot be erased or healed” and he was ready to “take responsibility” for his actions.

Almost all the children were unaware of the alleged abuse until police knocked at their doors having discovered their names in the handwritten “black books” found at Le Scouarnec’s home.

The abuse is alleged to have taken place between 1989 and 2014, when Le Scouarnec worked at more than a dozen private and public hospitals in Brittany and other parts of western France.

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Source: The Guardian, 24 February 2025

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