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Wheelchairs and weight: 'I haven't been able to weigh myself for 22 years'

Weight management is a sensitive topic. Nevertheless, the measurement is often used as a marker to inform medical decisions or for someone's personal interest. But for many wheelchair users, accessing scales has proved near impossible.

"The last time I was weighed was about 22 years ago, " Lizzie tells the BBC podcast, Access All. "I think I was about 15."

As a result, now aged 37, Lizzie has been through three successful pregnancies, all without knowing how her body was adapting or how her baby was growing.

Based in Devon, she has a degenerative muscle-related impairment and uses a wheelchair. This makes weighing herself on traditional bathroom scales, which require you to stand still and independently on a small platform, a challenge.

There is equipment out there to help wheelchair users, like Lizzie. Chair scales enable someone to sit on a seat which records their weight and there are similar bed and hoist versions too. There are also wheel-on scales which are very large and involve subtracting the weight of the chair afterwards. But none of these seem widely available.

Dr Georgie Budd, who is based in Merthyr Tydfil, says this worries her. A wheelchair user herself she appreciates how difficult it can be for people to access scales.

"There's a lot of things that we use weight for in health - anaesthetics and drug dosing - and just to keep an eye on it as well for someone's general health. During pregnancy for example, if someone was losing weight I, as a GP, would actually be really quite concerned," she says.

Neither NHS England nor the government have guidance for doctors nor advice on what equipment to use and no figures are kept on how many hospitals have access to such equipment and where they are.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) previously considered the issue in 2014 and requested more research be carried out. But so far nothing has been started.

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Source: BBC News, 13 October 2023

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Muckamore inquiry: Staff accused of ignoring TB symptoms

The mother of a patient at Muckamore Abbey Hospital has described how her son contracted tuberculosis (TB) while at the hospital.

She said he had been left severely disabled after a series of associated strokes.

Patient P116 is now 40 years old and has suffered from severe epilepsy since he was a baby.

His mother told the inquiry into abuse at the hospital that her concerns over her son's health were ignored.

She said that even after he began developing symptoms - including losing six stone (38kg) of weight - staff seemed "not to care".

In the end, he was only diagnosed with TB after his mother took him to hospital herself.

Due to the delay in the diagnosis and the way the family's complaint was handled, a serious adverse incident review was carried out and P116's mother received a letter of apology from the then permanent secretary at the Department of Health, Richard Pengelly, and Theresa Villiers, who was Northern Ireland secretary at the time.

His mother told the inquiry her son's time in Muckamore remained a "major trauma" for the family and she still found it very difficult to talk about.

She told the inquiry she felt strongly that "independent expert support" should be given to patients abused or neglected in Muckamore, including specialist counselling for the patients and their families.

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Source: BBC News, 12 October 2023

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NHS Wales: Thousands of hours missing from A&E figures

The true picture of A&E waiting times in Wales has been seriously under-reported for a decade, the BBC can reveal.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has established thousands of hours are missed from monthly figures.

Senior A&E doctors have been raising the issue for months.

The Welsh government said it would ask health boards for assurances they were following the guidance "to ensure the data is absolutely transparent".

The RCEM said it could not measure "how bad" things were because thousands of patients subject to so-called "breach exemptions" were not included in the overall A&E waiting times.

The Welsh government initially disputed the RCEM's claim, but after seeing detailed figures - which were obtained through freedom of information (FOI) requests to health boards - it changed its position.

Wales' health minister has repeatedly claimed A&E waiting times in Wales have "bettered English performance".

But once the missing data is taken into account, it suggests the performance in Wales is worse.

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Source: BBC News, 16 October 2023

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NHS psych ward period provision criticised by patients

Imagine being on your period and "forced to beg for pads and tampons". According to 24-year-old Lara, that's common for her and others on mental health hospital wards in the UK.

When she posted about her experience online, people from across the country responded with their own similar stories.

Mental health hospitals have various rules in place for safety reasons, including access to certain items. However, NHS guidance states that period products should be available to anyone who needs them. Lara says this hasn't always been the case for her.

"I've had a number of hospital admissions to psychiatric units and on one of my first they confiscated my period products," she says.

Lara's currently on one-to-one observations for her own safety, which means someone has to escort her to the toilet and watch her change a pad or tampon.

But she says her worst experience was when she's had to wear anti-ligature clothing - again for safety reasons.

"I was forced to remove my pants and sanitary pad - which meant I just had to bleed into the clothing," she says.

"I understand the need for safety to come first, but this experience was unhygienic, traumatising and embarrassing for people to see."

Eleanor is 20 years old and recently spent time in a mental health hospital.

At her "most unwell", she says she didn't have access to her own clothing and had to wear the same special clothing Lara spoke about.

"I'd have two or three people watching me changing and even though I know it's for my own safety, it's dehumanising," she says.

Newsbeat asked a number of unions, organisations and charities to comment on the experiences described but none wanted to provide one.

But one mental health professional, Kasper, did agree to discuss it.

Kasper agrees that safety is always a top priority but adequate period provision is often overlooked."I'm sure all trusts have a policy, but don't think it's always applied - and my observation is that it very much depends on what staff are on shift, especially when there can be lots of agency workers," Kasper says."We do keep products on my ward, but there's not much of a range.

"Patients can't access them and some staff don't know where they are either - so the onus is very much on patients, which can be tricky when they're unwell."

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Source: BBC News, 16 October 2023

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Alarm at rise in use of mixed-sex wards in NHS England hospitals

NHS England has recorded more than 120,000 breaches of its mixed-sex hospital accommodation guidance in the past six years, a 257% increase.

Guidance added to the NHS constitution in 2012 states that hospital patients will not share sleeping accommodation with members of the opposite sex “except where appropriate”. Exemptions include critical care wards or patients receiving treatment, such as chemotherapy, where they “may derive comfort from the presence of other patients with similar conditions”.

The guidance also says patients should not share toilet or bathroom facilities with members of the opposite sex and should not “have to walk through an area occupied by patients of the opposite sex to reach toilets or bathrooms”.

However, data from NHS England analysed by the Observer shows thousands of breaches every month, with patient dignity and safety put at risk. 

Caitlin (not her real name) worked on an acute mental health ward in a private hospital which switched from 12 women-only beds to 15 mixed beds. “Women on our ward often had a history of sexual or domestic abuse,” she said. “Some had tried to end their life in the wake of this, and a lot of them felt intimidated by the level of aggression shown by some men on the ward.”

Women and men had separate wings but shared a communal area. “A lot of the women were really fearful of the men,” she added.

Caitlin said the use of mixed-sex accommodation had a negative impact on some women’s recovery. “Women would stay in their rooms, not even coming out to watch TV,” she says. “Some acutely unwell women would display sexually disinhibited behaviour in the communal areas, which is a symptom of their diagnosis. They were put in a position where their dignity could not be protected.”

“Women make hundreds of conscious and unconscious decisions to keep ourselves safe from men,” said Karen Ingala-Smith, author of Defending Women’s Spaces. “Women should not have to be on their guard like this when they are in hospital.” 

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Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2023

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Be careful of celebrating staff as ‘heroes’, NHSE advises trusts

Trusts haven been warned to be careful of “contentious” approaches to staff recognition, such as those that mimic the “clap for carers” initiative organised during the pandemic.

NHS England has published a Staff Recognition Framework which stresses marking staff achievements is important. However, it also warns staff could also be demoralised by recognition they felt was derisory.

The framework says: ”During the pandemic, studies suggested the weekly 8pm ‘clap for carers’ movement and use of the word ‘heroes’ were contentious approaches to staff recognition. The NHS is always in the media spotlight. Don’t let this put you off but do consider the broader political and economic context.”

Recent strikes saw clinicians make the point that organised clapping was no substitute for increase-linked pay increases.

The document for senior leaders recommends “developing a recognition strategy” which takes a triple track “formal, informal and everyday” approach to celebrating staff achievement.

It said “evidence shows that pay alone will not influence staff wellbeing, engagement, and retention in the long-term – praise and social approval have also proved to be critical factors”. 

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Source: HSJ, 12 October 2023

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‘Vital’ safety deadline thought to have been missed by most trusts

Most trusts are thought to have missed the deadline to launch a new national incident reporting system that has already been beset with difficulties and delays.

Seventy per cent of more than 150 patient safety managers polled during a patient safety management network meeting last month said their organisation would not meet the 30 September go-live deadline for the new learning from patient safety events (LFPSE) incident reporting system.

LFPSE is a key part of NHS England’s safety strategy and replaces the historic national reporting and learning system.

The new reporting system was originally due to be implemented by March 2023. However, this deadline was pushed back six months, after widespread concerns were raised by patient safety managers, which included software quality, incident reporting form complexity and lack of time for testing.

Managers have pinned the latest launch delay on RLDatix – the vendor which provides incident software for more than 60% of trusts  – claiming it could not provide the functionality needed and its releases were “not fit for purpose”.

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Source: HSJ, 16 October 2023

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Mother may win new hearing into daughter's death

A mother’s claim that a hospital failed to provide suitable experts for a coroner to determine the cause of her daughter’s death could lead to a second inquest.

The attorney-general has acknowledged in a letter to the mother of Gaia Young that although the facts of the case did not suggest that NHS officials had been in contempt of court they “may amount to a reason to seek a fresh inquest”.

The dispute centres on the circumstances of the death of Gaia Young, 25, who died at University College Hospital, London, in 2021 after being admitted for a sudden headache and vomiting, having spent the day cycling.

At her inquest in February 2022 the coroner gave a narrative ruling, stating that “a missed chance” by doctors when she arrived at the hospital led to her death, concluding that the cause of death was unclear. Her mother, Lady Dorit Young, has argued that doctors misread her daughter’s condition and failed to treat her appropriately as she deteriorated. Young told the inquest that the hospital sent a doctor to the hearing to give evidence who was insufficiently skilled to assist the coroner, and that the hospital had more suitably qualified experts available.

In the letter, Young said a court had ordered the hospital to “ensure the attendance at the inquest of such medical witness or witnesses to give oral evidence as are best able to assist [the coroner] with the likely cause of the deceased’s cerebral oedema and thus her death”. Lady Young believes that her daughter died from a metabolic encephalopathy — a brain injury — and asked for a neurological specialist to attend the inquest. She said the expert who attended was “not appropriately qualified or experienced” and that the inquest “was uninformed and uninformative: a waste of time and money”.

Truth For Gaia provides open access to coroner’s inquest papers, transcript, medical records and post-mortem reports.

Source: The Times, 16 November 2023

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Government ‘dithering’ on regulating ‘dangerous rise’ in physician associates has 'harmed patients'

The government ignored expert warnings to regulate physician associates (PAs) for more than two decades and now patients have come to harm, doctors have said.

A leading doctors’ union blamed the “dithering of successive governments” for the “extremely dangerous” increase in PAs carrying out doctors’ duties.

Jeremy Hunt, then health secretary, told a House of Lords committee in 2016 that the government was “committed to introducing legislation for regulatory reform” and it was “a question of finding a parliamentary slot”, citing Brexit debates as a cause of the delay.

Seven years, two consultations and at least two deaths later, regulation of PAs is still a year away, following a series of delays that the Faculty of Physician Associates itself has called “disappointing”.

Dr Matt Kneale, co-chair of the Doctors’ Association UK, told The Telegraph the lack of regulation “poses a significant risk to both patient safety and the overall standard of care within the NHS”.
He said supervising doctors taking on the accountability for PA was not a “tenable long-term solution”.

“Regulation could and should have been introduced earlier to prevent instances of patient harm. The lack of action for over two decades is concerning and requires urgent action,” he added.

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Source: The Telegraph, 14 October 2023

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Why didn’t wife and mother get ‘miracle’ stroke treatment, grieving family ask

A primary school teaching assistant died from a stroke after hospital staff told her family that the life-saving treatment she needed was not available at weekends.

Jasbir Pahal, 44, who had four children and was known as Jas, died in November last year after suffering a stroke. Her family was told she could only be treated with aspirin because a procedure to remove the blood clot was only available from 8am to 3pm, Monday to Friday.

It has now emerged that the life-saving treatment, called mechanical thrombectomy, was available at an NHS hospital trust just a 40-minute drive away from the Calderdale Royal hospital in Halifax where she was being treated, but there were no arrangements for such transfers.

Jasbir’s husband, Satinder Pahal, 49, said: “We have paid the ultimate price for this deficient service. Despite our pleas to save Jas’s life, all they could do was to give her an aspirin.

“My wife was a vegetarian, never drank alcohol or smoked. She was fit and healthy and she wasn’t given the chance to survive. Jas was the centre of our worlds and her loss will impact us for ever.” The family are calling for urgent action to prevent future deaths."

The Observer reported last month of warnings by the Stroke Association charity and clinicians about the regional variations in access to mechanical thrombectomy. It has been described as a “miracle” treatment, with some patients who were at risk of death or permanent disability walking out of hospital the day after the procedure.

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Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2023

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Patient declared dead woke up in hospital

An ambulance trust has apologised after a patient who was declared "dead" later woke up in hospital.

As first reported by The Northern Echo, the individual was taken by paramedics to Darlington Memorial Hospital on Friday. The newspaper reported they had been declared dead following an incident earlier that day.

The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) apologised to the patient's family and said an inquiry had begun.

The patient has not been identified or their current condition revealed.

NEAS director of paramedicine Andrew Hodge said: "As soon as we were made aware of this incident, we opened an investigation and contacted the patient's family.

"We are deeply sorry for the distress that this has caused them.

"A full review of this incident is being undertaken and we are unable to comment any further at this stage.

"The colleagues involved are being supported appropriately and we will not be commenting further about any individuals at this point."

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Source: BBC News, 17 October 2023

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‘High use of agency staff’ contributed to care failings exposed by hidden cameras

High use of agency staff contributed to the care failings exposed at a mental health trust by undercover reporters, an internal inquiry has found.

Essex Partnership University Trust was at the centre of a Channel 4 documentary last year which raised concerns over care, including the use of restraints and patient observations.

The trust initially refused to release the final report after a freedom of information request by HSJ, but has now released a redacted version on appeal. 

The report identified a number of concerns in relation to patient and staff safety, saying factors that contributed to these concerns included high usage of temporary staff and high patient acuity on the two acute mental health wards recorded.

The internal inquiry looked into allegations of the inappropriate use of restraints raised in the documentary. This section, which contained redactions, found restraint was taught to be used as a last resort, but suggested high temporary staffing levels and a “lack of confident and adequately skilled staff” contributed to guidance not being followed.

Another concern was around staff sleeping on duty and the use of mobile phones during patient observations. The internal inquiry found there was an “absence of visible leadership and role modelling” to ensure this did not happen during clinical practice.

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Source: HSJ, 17 October 2023

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Soaring congenital syphilis rates in US risk lives of thousands of babies

Health advocates in the USA are calling on the Biden administration to declare a public health emergency over a steep rise in congenital syphilis cases. The easily treated infection has quintupled in 10 years and can have harrowing impacts on children.

Congenital syphilis happens when a baby contracts syphilis from its mother. Up to 40% of babies born to untreated mothers will be stillborn or die. Others can be left with severe birth defects such as bone damage, anaemia, blindness or deafness, and “neurological devastation”.

“There is not a single baby that should be born in the US with syphilis,” David Harvey, the executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, told the Guardian. “We will be judged very severely as a country and a society for allowing this to happen to babies, when it is so easy to diagnose, treat and prevent this disease.”

Rates of the disease have reached a nearly 30-year high just as supplies of the preferred medication, called Bicillin L-A, are in short supply. Syphilis can be cured with between one and three shots of the medication.

Pfizer is the only manufacturer of the medication, a form of the first antibiotic ever synthesized, penicillin. The company said it does not expect shortages to be resolved before 2024, and blamed low supply partly on the increase in syphilis cases.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 October 2023

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Study finds ChatGPT may be better than a GP at following depression guidelines

ChatGPT , the artificial intelligence tool, may be better than a doctor at following recognised treatment standards for depression, and without the gender or social class biases sometimes seen in the physician-patient relationship, a study suggests.

The findings were published in Family Medicine and Community Health. The researchers said further work was needed to examine the risks and ethical issues arising from AI’s use.

Globally, an estimated 5% of adults have depression, according to the World Health Organization. Many turn first to their GP for help. Recommended treatment should largely be guided by evidence-based clinical guidelines in line with the severity of the depression.

ChatGPT has the potential to offer fast, objective, data-based insights that can supplement traditional diagnostic methods as well as providing confidentiality and anonymity, according to researchers from Israel and the UK.

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Source: The Guardian, 16 October 2023

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Senior doctor calls for ‘black alert’ safety system in UK general practice

Britain’s top family doctor is calling for a “black alert” system to be introduced in general practice so that doctors can warn when surgeries are dangerously over capacity.

It comes as a report reveals that almost half of GPs can no longer guarantee safe care for millions of patients, as a shortage of medics means they are unable to cope with soaring demand.

Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), which represents 54,000 family doctors across the UK, wants a patient safety alert system introduced that is modelled on the operational pressures escalation levels (Opel) warnings – known as “black alerts” – already used by hospitals.

It would enable practices and GPs to flag unsafe levels of workload, triggering support from their local health system. GP surgeries would be able to temporarily suspend non-priority activities – including some regular health checkups, certain routine but mandatory staff training and non-urgent paperwork – during periods of excessive workload. This would allow surgeries to reprioritise routine and non-urgent activity and ensure patient safety is prioritised.

Hawthorne said: “General practice is a safety-critical industry yet GPs have none of the mechanisms that other safety-critical professions, such as the air traffic industry, have in place to protect them.

“Our number one priority is the safety of our patients, but GPs are doing more and more to try to meet the rising demand for our services. When you’re fatigued, you’re more likely to make mistakes and our survey shows that many GPs are no longer able to guarantee that the care they are providing to their patients is as safe as it could be.”

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Source: The Guardian, 17 October 2023

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Offer stroke patients three hours a day of rehab, NHS urged

Stroke patients should be offered extra rehabilitation on the NHS, say updated guidelines for England and Wales.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) had previously recommended 45 minutes a day.

But it believes some patients may need more intensive therapy for recovery and is suggesting three hours a day, five days a week.

Experts welcome the advice, but question how feasible it will be for a stretched health service to deliver.

NICE accepts it may be "challenging", but it says patients and families deserve the best care possible. That includes help regaining speech, movement and other functions caused by the damage that happens to the brain during a stroke.

NHS England has said increasing the availability of high quality rehabilitation is a priority. More people than ever are surviving a stroke thanks to improvements in NHS care, it added.

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Source: BBC News,18 October 2023

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Two trusts to miss deadline for eliminating ‘distressing’ wards

At least two trusts are set to fall short on a high-profile pledge to eradicate ‘dormitory’ style wards in mental health facilities, with delays caused by cost pressures and shortage of materials and labour.

In 2020, ministers said more than 1,200 beds in mental health dormitories across more than 50 sites would be replaced with single, en-suite accommodation by March 2025. Around £400m was allocated to achieve this.

However, information gathered by HSJ via freedom of information requests suggests there will be at least 37 dormitory beds still in use beyond that date.

In 2018, the Care Quality Commission said: “In the 21st century, patients, many of whom have not agreed to admission, should not be expected to share sleeping accommodation with strangers, some of whom may be agitated”. Patients have told HSJ they felt “distressed”, “unsafe” and “intimidated” on dormitory style wards.

Leaders of trusts impacted by delays told HSJ of rising cost pressures, shortages of construction materials and availability of labour.

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Source: HSJ, 17 October 2023

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Over the counter genetic tests in UK ‘fail to identify 89%’ of those at serious risk

Over the counter genetic tests in the UK that assess the risk of cancer or heart problems fail to identify 89% of those in danger of getting killer diseases, a new study has found.

Polygenic risk scores are so unreliable that they also wrongly tell one in 20 people who receive them they will develop a major illness, even though they do not go on to do so.

That is the conclusion of an in-depth review of the performance of polygenic risk scores, which underpin tests on which consumers spend hundreds of pounds.

The findings come amid a boom in the number of companies offering polygenic risk score tests which purport to tell customers how likely they are to get a particular disease.

Academics at University College London (UCL) who undertook the research are warning that such tests are so flawed they should be regulated “to protect the public from unrealistic expectations” that they will correctly identify their risk of a particular disease.

The authors concluded: “Polygenic risk scores performed poorly in population screening, individual risk prediction and population risk stratification.

“Strong claims about the effect of polygenic risk scores on healthcare seem to be disproportionate to their performance.”

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Source: The Guardian, 17 October 2023

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Locum warned after dispensing error in ‘staffing crisis’ leads to patient death

A locum responsible pharmacist has been issued a warning after a patient died when he dispensed the wrong strength of oxycodone during a staffing crunch, the regulator has revealed.

Paresh Gordhanbhai Patel supplied 120mg rather than the prescribed 20mg of oxycodone hydrochloride to an “elderly” patient while working two locum shifts as responsible pharmacist at Crompton Pharmacy at Whitley House Surgery in Chelmsford.

After taking one tablet, the patient died from an “accidental” oxycodone “overdose”, the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC) fitness-to-practise (FtP) committee heard at a hearing held on 11-13 September.

Mr Patel admitted that he was “stressed and overtired” when he failed to notice a “discrepancy” between the prescribed strength of oxycodone and what he ordered and dispensed,

The regulator heard that Mr Patel was “over-conscientious” and felt compelled “at a human level” to help out at the under-staffed pharmacy, despite the fact that it was “not safe to do so”, it added.

Mr Patel admitted that his errors “amounted to misconduct” and conceded to the committee that his fitness to practise was “impaired” because he “breached one of the fundamental principles of the pharmacy profession.”

The regulator heard that Mr Patel had “immediately” admitted his mistake to the pharmacy and did so again at the coroner’s inquest, where he also publicly apologised to the patient’s family.

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Source: Chemist and Druggist, 12 October 2023

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Thousands of complaints against nurses rejected without probe amid concerns rogue staff going unchecked

Thousands of complaints made against nurses and midwives were rejected by the watchdog without investigation last year as it battles a huge backlog amid concerns rogue staff are being left unchecked.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council has rejected hundreds more cases a year since 2018, including 339 where nurses faced a criminal charge, 18 for alleged sexual offences and 599 over allegations of violence in 2022-23, according to data shared exclusively with The Independent.

The new figures come after The Independent revealed shocking allegations that nurses and midwives accused of serious sexual, physical and racial abuse are being allowed to keep working because whistleblowers are being ignored and that the NMC was failing to tackle internal reports of alleged racism.

And now, a new internal document, obtained by The Independent, reveals more staff have come forward to raise concerns since our expose.

Former Victims’ Commissioner Dame Vera Baird KC said the backlog of complaints was “worryingly high” and called for urgent action to tackle it.

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Source: The Independent, 19 October 2023

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Naga Munchetty: I was failed and gaslit by NHS despite debilitating periods

Naga Munchetty has said she spent decades being failed, gaslit and “never taken seriously” by doctors, despite suffering debilitatingly heavy periods, repeated vomiting and pain so severe that she would lose consciousness.

The BBC presenter, newsreader and journalist told the Commons women and equalities committee on Wednesday that she was “deemed normal” and told to “suck it up” by NHS GPs and doctors during the 35 years she sought help for her symptoms.

Munchetty was finally diagnosed with adenomyosis, a condition where the lining of the womb starts growing into the muscle in its walls, in November last year.

She said she was consistently told by doctors that “everyone goes through this”.

“I was especially told this by male doctors who have never experienced a period but also by female doctors who hadn’t experienced period pain,” said Munchetty.

Munchetty’s diagnosis came after she had bled heavily for two weeks and experienced pain so severe she asked her husband to call an ambulance. Only then was she taken seriously, seeing a GP who specialised in women’s reproductive health. That GP advised her to use private healthcare to avoid lengthy NHS waiting lists.

Munchetty and Vicky Pattison, a television and media personality, were giving evidence as part of the committee’s inquiry into the challenges that women face being diagnosed and treated for gynaecological and reproductive conditions.

The committee is also considering any disparities that exist in diagnosis and treatment, and the impact of women’s experiences on their health and lives.

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Source: The Guardian, 19 October 2023

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Woman's 'complete shock' at skin cancer misdiagnosis

A woman has spoken of her "complete shock" at being misdiagnosed with cancer and undergoing surgery when she never had the condition at all.

Megan Royle, 33, from East Yorkshire, was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2019.

As part of her treatment, she underwent immunotherapy and her eggs were frozen due to the risk to her fertility.

But after she was given the all-clear in 2021, a review showed she never had cancer and she has now won compensation from the two NHS trusts involved.

Ms Royle, from Beverley, said: "You just can't really believe something like this can happen, and still to this day I've not had an explanation as to how and why it happened.

"I spent two years believing I had cancer, went through all the treatment, and then was told there had been no cancer at all."

"You'd think the immediate emotion would be relief and, in some sense, it was - but I'd say the greater emotions were frustration and anger."

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Source: BBC News, 18 October 2023

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Birmingham NHS trust sacks staff after sexual harassment claims

A hospital trust has dismissed three members of staff following complaints of sexual harassment.

The sackings by University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust were revealed at the launch of its sexual safety charter on Monday.

Sexual safety was one of the areas highlighted in a review of the trust's culture.

UHB said sexism, misogyny and sexual harassment would not be tolerated in the workplace.

The trust has been subject to three enquiries following a BBC investigation into its culture.

The second of these investigations, by Prof Mike Bewick, identified a new line of inquiry into allegations of misogynistic behaviour and sexual harassment.

Prof Bewick said the trust had begun formal investigations and there was a widening of the scope of the enquiry to accommodate the sensitive nature of these concerns.

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Source: BBC News, 19 October 2023

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Finance directors need to do more to keep patients safe, warns watchdog

Financial directors need to take responsibility for safety, which should be at the core of how the NHS runs services, the leadership of the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) said at its launch Wednesday.

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch is now an independent body – and has been renamed HSSIB – although maternity investigations are hosted by the Care Quality Commission.

Questioning how many finance directors across the NHS take responsibility for safety, HSSIB’s interim chief investigator Rosie Benneyworth said: “We need a position where finance directors in every organisation are as responsible for safety as the person leading the safety agenda and vice versa, the safety person works with the finance agenda to support them.

“Often you see the finance director and safety lead don’t work effectively together and we need to change that.”

Dr Benneyworth said progress will not be made unless operational delivery, financial delivery and safety are tackled “in the same breath”.

HSSIB’s new chair Ted Baker also called for safety to become a core part of running services “in the way running the accounts is”, as it is currently still seen “as an add-on”.

He stressed that safety “drives efficiencies, enables innovation and saves costs”.

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Source: HSJ, 19 October 2023

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Two-thirds of England’s maternity units dangerously substandard, says CQC

Almost two-thirds of maternity units provide dangerously substandard care that puts women and babies at risk, the NHS watchdog has said in a damning report.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated 65% of maternity services in England as either “inadequate” or “requires improvement” for the safety of care – up from 54% last year.

Services are beset by a host of problems, including serious staff shortages and internal tensions, which mean that too many mothers and their babies receive care that is not good enough, it said.

Women too often face delays in accessing care, do not receive the one-to-one care from a midwife to which they are entitled or experience communication problems with staff looking after them, including being shouted at by midwives.

The CQC judged overall quality of care to be inadequate or require improvement at 85 maternity units, almost as many at which it rated it to be either good or outstanding – 87. The number of units offering substandard care has soared by 30 in the last year, from 55 to 85.

It said that, having inspected 73% of all maternity units, “the overarching picture is one of a service and staff under huge pressure. People have described staff going above and beyond for women and other people using maternity services and their families in the face of this pressure.

“However, many are still not receiving the safe, high-quality care that they deserve.”

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Source: The Guardian, 20 October 2023

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