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David Fuller: NHS mortuaries record 30 security breaches in five years

There have been more than 30 serious security breaches at NHS hospital mortuaries in the past five years, The Independent can reveal.

The figures come as local MPs demand a public inquiry into the crimes of NHS electrician David Fuller who sexually abused 100 corpses, including three children, over a period of 12 years.

The calls for a full inquiry have also been backed by Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth who said on Friday: “It is important the secretary of state listens to the concerns of the local MP and the families of those who have been involved, and establishes a full, swift public inquiry, so that lessons can be learned from this appalling incident and ensure this is never repeated.”

Fuller, aged 67, pleaded guilty on Thursday to the murders of two women, Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987.

Detectives searching Fuller’s home found four million images of sexual abuse he had downloaded from the internet on computer hard drives.

They also found footage he had filmed of himself carrying out attacks on the bodies of women at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, where he had worked since 1989.

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Source: The Independent, 5 November 2021

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Patients set to access new entries in TPP and EMIS health records

From next month, patients will be able to access all new entries in their online health records, if their GP practice use TPP or EMIS IT systems.

According to NHS Digital, patients who use online accounts – such as the NHS App – and whose surgery uses TPP, will be able to view entries from December 2021 onwards. While, patients on an EMIS system should expect to see theirs from ‘early 2022’. Practices which use the Vision system are still currently in discussions over access.

NHS Digital says that patients will not be able to see specific personal information, such as positive test results, until they have been ‘checked and filed’, so that GPs have the opportunity to contact them first. The body adds that the move, ‘supports NHS Long Term Plan commitments to provide patients with digital access to their health records’, and also shares its aim for patients to be able to request their historic coded records from 2022, through the NHS App.

As ’80 per cent of the 18 million NHS App users’ are said to want ‘easy access to their health records and personal information’, it’s hoped that the initiative will reduce queries around negative test results and referrals, and encourage patient awareness and empowerment in regards to their health.

However, NHS Digital does advise General Practice staff to ‘be aware that patients will be able to see their future records’, and to ensure ‘sensitive information is redacted as it is entered’ into systems, with a support package and training sessions available to guide clinicians and staff in these areas.

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Source: Health Tech Newspaper, 5 November 2021

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

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

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

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

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100 corpses sexually abused in two NHS mortuaries: The full story of David Fuller’s mortuary attacks

A man who murdered two women 34 years ago went on to sexually abuse 100 female corpses in hospital mortuaries, taking videos and images of his crimes, HSJ can reveal.

David Fuller was employed as an electrician and later a maintenance supervisor at the now closed Kent and Sussex Hospital, in Tunbridge Wells, and later the Tunbridge Wells hospital in Kent. Over a period of 12 years from 2008 to 2020 he used his access to the hospital mortuaries to sexually abuse the bodies of women and girls.

HSJ first learned of David Fuller’s crimes in June this year, but agreed to a request by Kent police not to publish before his trial concluded. They can now reveal all that they discovered.  

Police have identified 80 victims – from mortuary records and name tags visible in some of the photos and videos Mr Fuller took of the abuse – but 20 are currently unidentified.

Mr Fuller’s mortuary offences – which he admitted at a court hearing last month – only came to light when he was arrested for the 1987 murders of Caroline Pierce and Wendy Knell. Police searching his home in Heathfield, East Sussex, discovered millions of videos and photographs, some clearly showing him abusing the bodies.

To many of his colleagues at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, David Fuller was an affable and helpful maintenance supervisor who was always willing to carry out small tasks and was the “go to” man if a problem needed sorting. His arrest on murder charges last December was greeted with shock and disbelief by those who knew him.

Both the families of the women violated by Mr Fuller and some staff at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells are expected to need psychological help to deal with the enormity and nature of Fuller’s crimes.

Families will be offered a range of support, including psychiatric counselling, and will also be given a letter from Mr Scott, with a personal apology and containing an invitation for them to contact the trust if they want to.

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Source: HSJ, 4 November 2021

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First pill to treat Covid gets approval in UK

The first pill designed to treat symptomatic Covid has been approved by the UK medicines regulator.

The tablet - molnupiravir - will be given twice a day to vulnerable patients recently diagnosed with the disease.

In clinical trials the pill, originally developed to treat flu, cut the risk of hospitalisation or death by about half.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the treatment was a "gamechanger" for the most frail and immunosuppressed.

In a statement he said: "Today is a historic day for our country, as the UK is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral that can be taken at home for Covid."

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Source: BBC News, 4 November 2021

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Covid: Hospital-linked deaths in Scotland under investigation

A special Crown Office unit set up to probe Covid-linked deaths is considering 827 cases in Scotland's hospitals, latest figures show.

The unit was set up to consider the circumstances of Covid-linked deaths such as those in care homes. But the prosecution service has also received reports of hundreds of hospital-related virus deaths.

Prosecutors will eventually decide if these deaths should be the subject of a fatal accident inquiry or prosecution.

As of 7 October, Crown Office figures show Scotland's biggest hospital, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, has the highest number of reported Covid-linked deaths at 113.

This was followed by the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley and Glasgow Royal Infirmary which both had 71 Covid-related deaths referred to the Crown Office.

The figures do not include deaths at home addresses or hospices, or where a care home resident died in hospital after contracting COVID-19 in a home.

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Source: BBC News, 4 November 2021

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North Devon District Hospital staff shortages 'put patients at risk'

A hospital in Devon has been told it "requires improvement" as patient safety has been put at risk by staff shortages.

The North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in July 2021 following concerns about its staffing levels.

The CQC found the hospital’s medical care services were limited because there were not enough members of medical or nursing staff available.

But staff were praised for treating patients with compassion and kindness.

The report added that care was not always provided "in a timely manner" and the CQC’s head of hospital inspection, Cath Campbell, believes the situation is concerning.

She said: "When we inspected the medical care services at North Devon District Hospital, we found a high number of vacancies with a reliance on agency staff, and not addressing issues around the availability and responsiveness of medical staff for deteriorating patients. This put patients at risk of harm.

"Although nursing staff were quick to identify and act when they spotted patients who were at risk of deteriorating, medical staff did not always attend to these patients quickly."

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Source: ITV News, 3 November 2021

 

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Inequalities responsible for thousands of adverse birth outcomes in black and Asian women

Socioeconomic inequalities account for an estimated quarter of stillbirths, fifth of preterm births, and a third of births with fetal growth restriction, according to a study published in the Lancet of over one million births in England

The nationwide study across England’s NHS was carried out by the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit team, who analysed birth records between April 2015 and March 2017 to quantify socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities in pregnancy outcomes.

They found that an estimated two thirds (63.7%) of stillbirths and half (55.0%) of births with fetal growth restriction in black women from the most deprived neighbourhoods could be avoided if this population had the same risks as white women living in the most affluent 20% of neighbourhoods.

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Source: BMJ, 2 November 2021

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Mandatory Covid jabs to be imposed on NHS staff despite warnings

Mandatory Covid vaccinations will be imposed on NHS staff, despite fears it could cause a workforce exodus, The Independent understands.

Sources have confirmed the government is expected to make an announcement tomorrow on plans to make jabs a condition of employment for the 1.3 million NHS staff in England.

Ministers are likely to delay the new requirement until next spring, after health bosses raised concerns over the impact it would have on NHS staffing levels during this winter.

Earlier this week. NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts in England, warned the imposition of vaccinations could drive staff out of the NHS. Around 100,000 workers are yet to have a Covid vaccination.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, warned the government needed to acknowledge the risk to patient safety if thousands of unvaccinated NHS staff opted to leave their jobs rather than have the vaccine.

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Source: The Independent, 3 November 2021

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NHS waiting list patients ask if life is worth living

Huge waiting lists have left patients questioning whether their lives are worth living, a surgeon has warned.

Paul Williams, an orthopaedic surgeon at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, dubbed the effect of long delays on mental and physical health "horrific".

A health think-tank said waiting times were the biggest challenge the NHS in Wales has ever faced. The Welsh government said it wanted to "radically transform" how healthcare was delivered.

Mr Williams said: "To be living with pain from an arthritic joint is terrible.

"We sent out a questionnaire recently and many of the patients have actually replied that they're questioning if their life is worth living because of the pain they're in."

The latest figures for the Welsh NHS showed another record high for those waiting for hospital treatment.

The number of patients waiting more than 36 weeks has grown from 25,634 in February 2020 to 243,674 by August 2021. The longest waits included 56,279 people who needed orthopaedic or trauma treatment.

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Source: BBC News, 3 November 2021

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‘It’s incredible’: HPV vaccine saves thousands of women from cervical cancer, UK study shows

The NHS vaccination programme to prevent cervical cancer has so far stopped thousands of women from developing the disease and experiencing pre-cancerous changes to cells, a study has found.

In the first proof that the programme launched in England 13 years ago is saving lives, the Cancer Research UK-funded study found that cervical cancer rates in women offered the vaccine between the ages of 12 and 13 (now in their 20s) were 87% lower than in an unvaccinated population.

Researchers said cases in this age group, which are rare, dropped from about 50 per year to just 5.

There were also reductions in cervical cancer rates of 62% in women offered vaccination between the ages of 14 and 16, and 34% in women aged 16 to 18 when vaccination was introduced.

Professor Peter Sasieni, lead study author, from King’s College London, said: “It’s been incredible to see the impact of HPV vaccination and now we can prove it prevented hundreds of women from developing cancer in England.

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Source: The Guardian, 4 November 2021

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Covid pressure forces cancellation of most operations

Planned operations including ”priority two” procedures were postponed at short notice at one of England’s largest hospital trusts earlier this week due to rising covid compounding other operational pressures, HSJ understands.

Several sources said Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust cancelled the large majority of elective operations scheduled for Tuesday 2 November due to rising occupancy in intensive care and throughout the trust, particularly linked to increasing numbers of covid patients.

The postponed operations included ‘priority two’ cases, which must be undertaken within one month to avoid further harm and deterioration, a well placed source told HSJ.

The trust said it did not, however, cancel ‘priority one’ urgent operations, which must be performed within 72 hours. It said most elective operations resumed on Wednesday as pressure had “eased a little” since Tuesday. Some daycase surgery was also postponed, it said, as areas had to be repurposed for emergency care.

One concerned family member of a Leeds patient whose operation was cancelled, who contacted HSJ, said: ”My relative is on the cardiology list and might not be fit enough for the op if there are further delays — that could be fatal.”

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Source: HSJ, 4 November 2021

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Research confirms impact of COVID-19 on doctors’ mental health

The COVID-19 crisis triggered high levels of anxiety and depression among doctors in the UK, Italy and Spain, a new study has found

The research of 5,000 survey responses, across the three countries, found Italian doctors were most likely to have suffered during the crisis last year.

The study, published in PLOS ONE, measured the mental wellbeing of doctors in Catalonia (Spain), Italy and the UK during June, November and December 2020.

It found that around one in four medical doctors in Italy had experienced symptoms of anxiety in June and December 2020, with around one in five reporting symptoms of depression over the same period.

In Catalonia around 16% of doctors reported anxiety and around 17% experienced depression. In the UK around 12% of doctors reported anxiety and around 14% had symptoms of depression.

The study is among the first cross-country analysis of mental wellbeing among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and the first to focus on medical doctors.

Across all countries, female doctors and doctors under 60 were more likely to have anxiety or depression.

Professor Quintana-Domeque, professor of economics at the University of Exeter Business School, who carried out the study said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has been classified as a traumatic event, with healthcare workers arguably having the most direct and longest exposure to this disease."

“The results of this study suggest that institutional support for healthcare workers, and in particular doctors, is important in protecting and promoting their mental health in the current and in future pandemics.”

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Source: The Independent, 3 November 2021

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Cancer detection fell in Scotland during pandemic

About 1,600 fewer people than expected were diagnosed with the three most common cancers during the first nine months of the Covid pandemic.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) has attempted to work out how restrictions put in place at the start of coronavirus affected diagnosis of the disease. The statistics show that breast cancer diagnosis was down by 19%, bowel cancer by 25% and lung cancer by 9%.

The data also showed cancer was not being diagnosed at the earliest stages. This is when treatment is most successful.

Cancer Research UK called for urgent action to prevent progress on cancer survival going backwards.

David Ferguson, from Cancer Research UK in Scotland, said the PHS report reinforced fears that opportunities to diagnose cancer at an early stage were missed during the pandemic.

He said: "Urgent action is needed. Cancer survival wasn't good enough before the pandemic. Too many people are waiting far too long for diagnosis and treatment so this must be addressed."

He called for a "road map" to tackle staff shortages and backlogs.

"If swift action isn't taken, our fear is that cancer survival in Scotland could go backwards," he said.

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Source: BBC News, 3 November 2021

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Leak reveals hour-long ambulance delays have quadrupled in 12 months

Ambulance handover delays lasting more than 60 minutes have increased four-fold compared to this time last year, according to internal NHS data.

NHS data seen by HSJ suggests there were around 28,900 ambulance handovers lasting longer than an hour during a four-week period in October. This was almost four times higher than the 7,772 hour-long handovers recorded in October 2020.

It is also significantly higher than the 17,137 seen in January 2021, which was the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week NHS England wrote to trusts and integrated care systems telling them to take urgent action to “immediately stop all delays” to ambulance handovers, and that “corridor care” is “unacceptable as a solution”.

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Source: HSJ, 3 November 2021

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#MedSafetyWeek November 2021: support the safety of vaccines

This week is the MHRA's sixth annual #MedSafetyWeek social media campaign. download.png.f9b00951306c16d145bc53ac95f13abf.png

This year’s campaign theme is reporting suspected side effects following vaccination. This forms part a global effort by national medicines regulatory authorities from over 60 countries and their stakeholders to raise awareness about the importance of reporting.

Vaccines are life-saving medicinal products that are given to protect individuals against serious infections and sometimes the most effective way to prevent infectious diseases.

The MHRA are calling on all healthcare professionals (HCPs), national immunisation programme staff, as well as patients, their carers and families to report suspected side effects from vaccines or medicines to the MHRA Yellow Card scheme.

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Delay mandatory COVID vaccinations until spring, urges NHS leader

Mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for all health service staff should be delayed until spring to enable the health service to get through the busy winter period, an NHS leader has urged.

Ministers have been considering whether or not to introduce mandatory jabs for all NHS staff in England. Health and social care secretary Sajid Javid said last week he is ‘leaning towards’ making the jabs compulsory as there are about 100,000 NHS workers not fully vaccinated.

NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said that if the government was to press ahead, it should delay until April to ensure the NHS can get through the ‘difficult winter’.

Plans for mandatory jabs for staff who work or volunteer in care homes in England were announced in June, with an 11 November deadline for staff to have had both doses of vaccine, unless medically exempt.

However, Loss of vaccine-hesitant staff may compromise patient safety. Mr Hopson cited cases in Cornwall where NHS staff have been drafted in to help the social care sector.

"If we lose large numbers of unvaccinated staff, particularly over the winter period, then that also constitutes a risk to patient safety and quality of care," he told BBC Breakfast.

"We know that we’ve got a very, very difficult winter coming up and we know the NHS is going to be absolutely at full stretch. ‘So it makes sense to set the deadline once that winter period has passed. We know that January, February and often early March is very busy, so that’s why we’re saying that an April 2022 deadline is a sensible time.’

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Source: Nursing Standard, 1 November 2021

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Trusts spending £1m+ a year on settlement deals with gagging clauses

Trusts are still spending at least £1m a year on settlement agreements with staff containing ‘gagging clauses’ despite a crackdown on these conditions in recent years, HSJ research reveals.

Freedom of information responses reveal 214 settlement agreements with confidentiality conditions worth £4.6m across three years

NDAs — which are also known as “confidentiality clauses” or “gagging clauses” and prevent parties to a settlement agreement from disclosing its details — also seem to be becoming less popular. HSJ’s FOIs revealed 119 settlement agreements with an NDA with a total value of £2.16m, in 2018-19. In 2019-20, this fell to 87 such agreements with a total value of £1.5m. In 2020-21, there were 41 settlement agreements with such a clause, with a total value of £1.04m.

A source with knowledge of confidentiality agreements in the NHS said: “Following some high-profile whistleblowing cases a few years ago… NHS organisations have been far more cautious in imposing confidentiality obligations in settlement agreements.”

Numerous health secretaries have issued warnings about NDAs potentially being used to silence staff. In 2019, former health and social care secretary Matt Hancock said: “Settlement agreements that infringe on an individual’s right to speak out for the benefit of patients are completely inappropriate.”

In 2013, then health secretary Jeremy Hunt said he would ban clauses in compromise agreements — as settlement agreements were then known — preventing NHS staff from raising patient safety concerns. After the Mid Staffordshire report was published, he wrote to all trust chairs, asking them to review the confidentiality clauses they were using.

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Source: HSJ, 1 November 2021

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The mesh fightback begins: How thousands of women are being left in agony on waiting lists

"What has happened to us is home-grown, institutionalised female genital mutilation," says Mary Lodato, 63, a mother of three and a university researcher, from Kettering in Northamptonshire.

"It has been a systemic failure in health and care and it was totally avoidable."

What Mary is referring to are complications due to implanted surgical mesh, designed to treat post-childbirth pelvic damage in women, which has left thousands effectively crippled as the material disintegrated inside their bodies, and sheared into the tissue, causing a range of devastating symptoms including pain, difficulty walking and sexual dysfunction.

An eight-year Good Health campaign to get official recognition of the problem led to the establishment of a government inquiry under the leadership of former Conservative health minister Baroness Julia Cumberlege.

Although the inquiry report was published in July 2020, some of its key recommendations have still not been implemented, leaving thousands of women suffering and not getting the help they need.

Seven specialist NHS mesh removal clinics were meant to open in April this year in London, Cambridge, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Leicester. But the affected women claim a shortage of specialists has meant that only two are functioning — at University College London Hospital and Southmead Hospital in Bristol (which was not on the original list).

They also say that it's extremely difficult to get a referral to one of these new centres and even if they do, waiting times can stretch into years.

"To the doctors who originally treated us, these operations weren't anything major — but to us it was a catastrophically painful loss of work, family life and intimacy," says Mary. 

Mary's story is one familiar to almost 10,000 women who have joined an anti-mesh group called Sling the Mesh, and a number of other support organisations.

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Source: Mail Online, 1 November 2021

Blogs from Kath Sansom, Sling the Mesh

Regulatory flaws: Women were catastrophically failed in the mesh, Primodos and Sodium Valproate tragedies

Ineffective medical device recalls are a patient safety scandal

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‘Climate of fear’ faces staff who voice bullying concerns at major trust

A major trust’s Freedom To Speak Up Guardian has warned that a failure to address staff concerns about alleged bullying and long-standing ‘dysfunctional behaviours’ is damaging confidence and resulting in the loss of high-quality staff.

Professor Julian Bion, presenting a half-yearly report to University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust’s board, revealed that the majority of the 41 reports to the FTSU service between April and October this year had expressed a “fear of detriment” when raising concerns.

Just under half (44%) of 34 concerns raised by the contacts related to “problematic attitudes and behaviours”, ranging from reports of micro-aggressions to overt bullying.

Professor Bion, UHB’s FTSU guardian since 2019, told HSJ such concerns are always “complex and sensitive issues” and recognised that the trust is handling them during “difficult circumstances” for the NHS. UHB has seen very large numbers of covid patients throughout much of the pandemic.

But he warned the board that several “common themes” were emerging in UHB’s complaints process – including a fear of detriment, “problematic” delays to cases being resolved, and a lack of response from divisional departments.

Suggesting there is a “disinclination” within the trust to address concerns, he said: “Very often, these dysfunctional behaviours are known about for a long time but they haven’t been addressed.”

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Source: HSJ, 2 November 2021

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Scotland to rollout diabetes test for Type 1 patients

Misdiagnosed Type 1 diabetes patients could be freed from the need to take insulin after a new test is rolled out.

Scotland will become the first country to offer the C-peptide blood test to all patients who have had a Type 1 diagnosis for at least three years. The test shows how much insulin a patient's body is producing itself.

A pilot by NHS Lothian allowed some people who had been taking insulin to stop or reduce the treatment. The test will be available from 1 November.

C-peptide testing, which has been used as part of diagnosis for some patients for many years, can help distinguish whether a patient has Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. C-peptide is made in the body at the same time as insulin. By testing levels of C-peptide, doctors can work out how much insulin a diabetes patient is making themselves.

If C-peptide is present in significant amounts, it might indicate that the person does not have Type 1 diabetes at all, and consequently may not need daily insulin injections.

The tests will be offered at hospital diabetes centres.

Public Health Minister Maree Todd said that tackling diabetes was a priority for the Scottish government and that she wanted everyone living with diabetes to access safe, effective healthcare, treatment and support.

She said: "Type 1 diabetes is a significant health challenge right across the world."

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Source: BBC News, 31 October 2021

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It’s scandalous so few pregnant women in the UK are vaccinated against Covid

It is coming up to a year since the first mRNA vaccines were approved for use against COVID-19, and almost seven months since they were approved for expectant mothers. The initial government advice was was that they should hold off getting a jab, but since more data has become available, medical experts have been encouraging women to get vaccinated. But there has been no big government awareness campaign, despite pregnant women being identified as a vulnerable group. The proportion of fully vaccinated pregnant women in the UK is as low as 15% (in the US, it is more than twice that, at 33.8%).

That such a small porportion of pregnant women are fully vaccinated in the UK, seven months after vaccines were approved for them, is nothing short of a scandal. And more women and their babies are at risk of dying because of it. Recent figures for England show that one in six critically ill patients are unvaccinated pregnant women with Covid. Of the 20 pregnant women requiring the highest level of life-saving care, 19 were unvaccinated and one had received one dose.

These are frightening statistics, but on their own they do not seem to be enough to persuade pregnant women to get vaccinated. In order to do that, it’s important to understand why we are seeing such high levels of hesitancy...

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Source: The Guardian, 29 October 2021

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GPs to follow new digital standard for sending medicines and allergy information

A new information standard has been developed for sharing digital information on medication and allergies across different parts of health and social care services.

The standard, which aims to reduce medicines errors comes into effect this month. NHS and social care organisations will have to show compliance by March 2023.

GP practices, hospitals, mental health trusts, pharmacists, community teams and residential care homes will all have to meet the standard when transferring medication and prescription information between teams.

The standard will be particularly helpful in reducing medication errors when patients transfer between care locations NHS Digital said.

Having specific requirements in place for how medicine and allergy information is transferred will also provide clinicians with a more detailed and consistent source of medicines related information across all care settings and allow them to obtain medicines information more quickly and efficiently, they added in a document outlining the changes. 

The standard defines how the send and receive messages involving medicines information are constructed, and how the data within is structured so that it is machine-readable when sent between different IT systems.

Dr Simon Eccles, deputy CEO of NHSX and national chief clinical information officer said:

‘This new standard will make medicine prescribing safer for patients and easier for clinicians, reducing errors in prescription and improving the monitoring of medications that can cause harm.

‘This is the result of a true collaborative effort between NHSX, NHS Digital, industry and the frontline that will make a real difference to the care and support local clinicians can provide to their patients."

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Source: Pulse, 28 October 2021

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Patients must be warned of breast implant risks, FDA says

A decade after scientists identified a link between certain implants and cancer, the US Food and Drug Administration has ordered “black box” warnings and a new checklist of risks for patients to review.

Federal regulators have placed so-called black box warnings on breast implant packaging and told manufacturers to sell the devices only to health providers who review the potential risks with patients before surgery.

Both the warnings and a new checklist that advises patients of the risks and side effects state that breast implants have been linked to a cancer of the immune system and to a host of other chronic medical conditions, including autoimmune diseases, joint pain, mental confusion, muscle aches and chronic fatigue.

Startlingly, the checklist identifies particular types of patients who are at higher risk for illness after breast implant surgery. The group includes breast cancer patients who have had, or plan to have, chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

That represents a large percentage of women who until now were encouraged to have breast reconstruction with implants following their treatment.

Reactions to the new requirements were mixed. While some doctors welcomed the new warning system, others worried that the potential risks and side effects would not be conveyed adequately by plastic surgeons who were eager to reassure patients the procedure is safe and that the new checklist would be handled in a dismissive manner.

But Dr. Mark Clemens, a professor at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who serves a liaison to the F.D.A. for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Society, said the black box warning and checklist represented “a huge step forward for patient safety and implants.”

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Source: The New York Times, 27 October 2021

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Covid booster jabs offered at NHS walk-in clinics in England

Covid booster jabs are now being given at walk-in clinics in England as the NHS aims to increase vaccine uptake before what is expected to be a challenging winter.

From Monday, anyone in an eligible group who had their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine at least six months ago can turn up at one of hundreds of sites to get their top-up without making an appointment. The walk-in centres are also offering vaccinations to 12- to 15-year-olds.

The move follows criticism of the booster campaign, with only about half of the 12 million people in England eligible so far for a third vaccine dose having received one. The vaccine rollout to teenagers has lagged behind that of countries including France, Italy and Spain.

People entitled to a booster jab are: those aged 50 and over, people who live and work in care homes; frontline health and social care workers; people aged 16 and over with a health condition that puts them at high risk of getting seriously ill from Covid-19; those aged 16 and over who are a main carer for someone at high risk from the virus, and; people aged 16 and over who live with someone who is more likely to get infections.

Nikki Kanani, a GP and the deputy lead for the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme, said: “NHS staff are making it as easy as possible for people to get their top-up vaccination, and from today people can now go online, find their nearest site and go and get their booster without delay.

“The booster is not just nice to have. It is really important protection ahead of what we know will be a challenging winter.”

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Source: The Guardian, 1 November 2021

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