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Doctors using AI to predict heart attack risk more accurately

London doctors are using artificial intelligence to predict which patients with chest pains are at greatest risk of death. 

A trial at Barts Heart Centre, in Smithfield, and the Royal Free Hospital, in Hampstead, found that poor blood flow was a “strong predictor” of heart attack, stroke and heart failure. Doctors used computer programmes to analyse images of the heart from more than 1,000 patients and cross-referenced the scans with their health over the next two years. The computers were “taught” to search for indicators of future “adverse cardiovascular outcomes” and are now used in a real-time basis to help doctors identify who is most at risk.

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Source: Evening Standard, 15 February 2020

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Doctors used to diagnosing men may not spot 35,000 women with diabetes

Thousands of women may be missing out on a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes because the thresholds are geared towards men, research suggests.

Scientists assessed test results from more than one million patients across the country and concluded that the bar for diagnosis might be set too high for women. They calculated that, if thresholds were lowered slightly, an extra 35,000 women under the age of 50 in England would be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes — increasing the number in this age group with the condition by 17%.

Under the present guidelines, those 35,000 women would be given the all-clear and would miss out on the chance of earlier treatment and lifestyle advice, increasing their risk of complications in later life.

The team, led by doctors at the University of Manchester and including researchers from hospitals nationwide, stressed that their findings were preliminary, and needed further assessment before their hypothesis was confirmed. But, if proved correct, they believe that about 65 young women may be dying of diabetes each year without a diagnosis.

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Source: The Times, 1 October 2023

 

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Doctors use pandemic as excuse not to offer effective pain relief claim campaigners

Women are undergoing “painful and distressing” diagnostic tests as doctors use the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse not to offer them their choice of pain relief, HSJ has been told.

At least 70 women who have had hysteroscopies this year in English NHS hospitals said they were left in extreme pain following the procedures, with many suffering trauma for several days, according to a survey by the Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopies group.

Some women claimed doctors used COVID-19 as an “excuse” not to offer sedation or general anaesthetic. Others said they were offered an inpatient appointment with general anaesthetic, but were also told it would be a long wait and would likely be cancelled due to covid pressures.

Women also said they were told an outpatient procedure would reduce the time spent in hospital and consequently reduce the risk of contracting covid. The only pain relief on offer was often just ibuprofen and some women said facilities like recovery rooms were unavailable.

The vast majority of the women surveyed — more than 90% — said they were traumatised for a day or longer by the pain from the procedure,

A RCOG spokeswoman said: “We are concerned to hear that women are going through painful and distressing hysteroscopy procedures and that they feel COVID-19 is being used as an excuse not to offer a choice of anaesthetic."

“The covid-19 pandemic has put incredible strain on the health services, and the risk of transmission of the virus has meant they’ve had to adapt their procedures. Whilst all women should be offered a choice of anaesthesia and treatment settings for hysteroscopic procedures, an outpatient setting avoids hospital admission and reduces the risk of exposure to the virus."

“The RCOG guidance on this is very clear — all pain relief options should be discussed with women, as well as the risks and benefits of each. Women should be given the choice of a local or general anaesthetic. If the procedure is still too painful, no matter what anaesthetic options are chosen, it must be stopped and a further discussion of pain relief options should then take place. It’s vital that women are listened to and their choice is fully supported.”

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Source: HSJ, 21 December 2020

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Doctors urged to ask patients about gambling in new NHS mental health guidance

People who seek help for mental health issues should be asked about problem gambling in the same way they are asked about drugs, smoking and alcohol, new guidance has suggested.

According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), those who visit an NHS health professional in England for depression, anxiety or thoughts about self-harm or suicide because of a possible addiction, such as alcohol or drugs, could be at a greater risk of harm from gambling.

NICE said questions should be asked about patients’ gambling habits to ensure they could cope with their thoughts and urges. In new draft guidance, it suggested patients should be encouraged to assess the severity of their gambling by using a questionnaire available on the NHS website. Those who scored eight or higher should seek support and treatment from gambling services.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 October 2023

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Doctors urge government to fight poverty after rise in patients with Victorian diseases

Doctors have reported a rise in the number of patients with Victorian diseases such as scabies, as the Royal College of Physicians urged the government to do more to fight poverty.

The survey of 882 doctors found 89% were concerned about the impact of health inequalities on their patients, while 72% had seen more patients in the past three months with illnesses related to poor-quality housing, air pollution and access to transport.

The Royal College of Physicians found 46% of respondents said that at least half of their workload involved illnesses linked to social factors.

One doctor said that they had seen patients with two Victorian skin diseases, erysipelas and scabies, over the past three months. Another said they were seeing more people “with poor nutritional status due to poverty”, eventually leading to “prolonged and impaired recovery from acute illnesses”.

Several patients had contracted hypothermia. One doctor said it was due to the patient not being able to afford heating at home.

The Royal College of Physicians has called on the government to set out how its health mission will address these illnesses.

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Source: The Guardian, 3 April 2025

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Doctors union plans 72-hour strike

Junior doctors across England will walk out for 72 hours in March if a ballot for industrial action is successful, the British Medical Association has told ministers.

The BMA confirmed the move ahead of the opening of its ballot on Monday (9 January). The union is calling for real terms pay cuts over the past decade to be reversed, claiming the last 15 years have led to a 26 per cent decline in the value of junior doctors’ pay. 

Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said: “Pay erosion, exhaustion and despair are forcing junior doctors out of the NHS, pushing waiting lists even higher as patients suffer needlessly.”

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Source: HSJ, 8 January 2023

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Doctors tore down posters offering Martha’s Rule-style rights, teenager’s mother claims

Doctors tore down posters offering patients a secondary care review if they were worried about their condition in hospital, the mother of a teenager who died of sepsis claimed.

Merope Mills, who has campaigned for a similar policy called “Martha’s Rule” named after her 13-year-old daughter, claimed a small minority of “bad actors” in hospitals risked slowing down the initiative.

It comes as NHS England announced 100 hospitals with critical care units will be invited to sign up for the policy, which will be rolled out from April this year.

Martha died from sepsis in 2021 after staff at King’s College Hospital failed to move her to intensive care despite her family warning them her condition had deteriorated.

“When something similar to Martha’s Rule was introduced to Royal Berkshire Hospital, doctors actually pulled down the posters advertising the service to patients because they hated the idea of giving patients this kind of power,” Mrs Mills told the Today Programme.

“A small minority of bad actors whose arrogance, complacency or pride stops them listening and doing the right thing and that is what we are trying to challenge with Martha’s Rule. There are pockets of damaging cultures in hospitals around the country. Sometimes it is not a whole hospital, sometimes it is just a ward in a hospital, sometimes it is just a particular individual on a ward in a hospital.”

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Source: The Independent, 21 February 2024

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Doctors told to use 'least unsafe' option in Norwich hospital

An NHS hospital has been so overwhelmed that it told senior doctors to make “the least unsafe decision” when treating patients.

Medical groups have voiced concern that Norfolk and Norwich hospital trust’s instruction to its consultants this week showed it was struggling so much to cope with the number of people needing care that patient safety was being put at risk.

At the time the hospital had no spare beds, a full accident and emergency department, 35 patients waiting on trolleys to be admitted, and had declared a major internal incident.

In its message, seen by the Guardian, it said: “We would like you to know that the trust will support you in making difficult decisions that may be the least unsafe decision, and we would appreciate your cooperation over the coming days with this.”

The circular from the Norwich hospital added: “We are facing our most challenging situation with our trust today,” because it was so overcrowded and unable to find a bed for the 35 patients doctors had decided needed to be admitted as emergencies.

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Source: The Guardian, 20 December 2019

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Doctors told not to prioritise coronavirus over patients with other serious conditions

Doctors have been reminded not to prioritise coronavirus patients at the expense of others in new ethical guidance backed by royal colleges.

There are increasing concerns that patients are not getting treatment for serious problems, including strokes or heart attacks, because they are afraid to go to hospitals.

The guidelines were drawn up by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) amid worries that a shortage of ventilators and beds could force doctors to make difficult decisions on which patients get lifesaving treatment.

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Source: The Times, 2 April 2020

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Doctors told not to fear reprisal during coronavirus outbreak

NHS national leaders are set to reassure doctors they should not fear regulatory reprisals, within reason, if they end up working outside their areas of expertise during the coronavirus outbreak.

HSJ understands the UK’s four chief medical officers and the General Medical Council are drafting a letter to be sent to all UK doctors, which will contain the reassurances, as the system braces for a sharp rise in covid-19 cases. The letter will also urge doctors to be flexible and not to resist new ways of working, with senior figures expecting many clinicians working in other specialities or locations during the outbreak.

The letter will say doctors, while still expected to follow good medical practice, should not fear reprimand from their employers or national bodies such as the GMC, NHS England or other regulators.

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Source: HSJ, 11 March 2020

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Doctors to take legal action against GMC over ‘inaction’ on Covid vaccine misinformation

A group of doctors, including some GPs, has begun legal proceedings against the GMC based on what they say is a failure to act on Covid-19 vaccine misinformation.

On Friday, the group, whose members wish to remain anonymous, sent a formal pre-action protocol letter to the GMC, which is a warning that legal action is imminent. 

In January, these doctors called on the regulator to investigate Dr Aseem Malhotra’s fitness to practise due to what they claim is his ‘high-profile promotion of misinformation about Covid-19 mRNA vaccines’.

Dr Malhotra, a consultant cardiologist, campaigner and author, has over half a million followers on Twitter, with most recent posts focusing on the Covid vaccine.

The upcoming action, which is led by lawyers from the Good Law Project, is based on the GMC’s refusal to carry out an investigation.

Professor Trish Greenhalgh, a GP and academic in primary care at the University of Oxford who has been in touch with the group, told Pulse the ‘scandal is that the GMC do not think it’s their job to investigate doctors who have massive, massive followings on social media and who fan the flames of disinformation’. 

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Source: Pulse, 5 June 2023

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Doctors to stage five-day strike before Christmas

The British Medical Association has announced a fresh round of strikes in England in the long-running pay dispute.

Resident doctors, the new name for junior doctors, will stage a five-day walkout from 17 December.

This will be the 14th strike by the doctors' union since March 2023 and is expected to cause significant disruption, particularly in hospitals.

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Source: BBC News, 1 December 2025

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Doctors to refuse overtime in major dispute with hospital trust

Doctors at a major teaching trust are to refuse overtime and extra shifts from next week, HSJ has learned, amid escalating tensions with executives over a decision to stop paying premium rates for locum shifts.

Resident doctors and consultants will cease taking up overtime, extra sessions and waiting list work at University Hospitals Birmingham unless they are paid at rates agreed by the British Medical Association.

The BMA confirmed this morning that doctors were in official dispute from today, with the union officially recommending members not work outside their contracted hours for less than rates the BMA advises, laid out in local dispute cards.

Rinesh Parmar, BMA West Midlands regional consultants committee chair, said: “We have been successful in negotiating with other trusts to prevent them making unilateral changes to rates for extra-contractual work and it is disappointing that managers at UHB do not see fit to follow national guidance for the benefit of their patients and staff.

“Without offering appropriate rates for work, the trust runs the risk that doctors will simply not pick up these extra shifts. This will inevitably lead to burnt out doctors, understaffed wards and patients who will have to suffer with poor and delayed care.”

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Source: HSJ, 8 November 2024

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Doctors to overhaul car wreck rescue techniques amid new evidence

There are plans for a major overhaul of how people are rescued from car wrecks amid growing evidence that current methods where people wait to be cut free may be harmful.

Last year there were 127,967 casualties and 1,560 deaths in England caused by motor vehicle collisions. During the same period, more than 7,000 patients needed to helped out of the vehicle through a process known as extrication, where rescue crews use “Jaws of Life” and other tools to pry apart the wreckage, and then carefully lift people out.

“Since at least the 1980s, firefighters have been trained with movement minimisation as the absolute paradigm,” said Dr Tim Nutbeam, an NHS emergency medicine consultant, and medical lead for the Devon air ambulance. “They’ve been told that one millimetre of movement could turn someone into a wheelchair user, so will often disassemble the car around the patient, to avoid movement of the neck.”

Yet, doing so takes time – 30 minutes on average – and if that person has another serious injury, such as a head, chest, or abdominal injury, every minute counts.

Nutbeam began researching the issue and discovered that trapped patients were almost twice as likely to die as those who were rapidly freed from the wreckage. Further, that the prevalence of spinal injuries among such patients was, in fact, extremely low – just 0.7% – and in around half of these cases, they had other serious injuries needing urgent medical attention.

“Our absolute focus on movement minimisation works for maybe 0.3% of patients, but it extends the entrapment time for 99.7% of them,” Nutbeam said. “Potentially hundreds of people in this country have died as a result of extended entrapment times, and if you multiply that worldwide, it’s many, many people.”

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Source: The Guardian, 6 July 2022

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Doctors suggest COVID-19 could cause diabetes

A cohort of scientists from across the world believe that there is a growing body of evidence that COVID-19 can cause diabetes in some patients.

Prof Francesco Rubino, from King’s College London, is leading the call for a full investigation into a possible link between the two diseases. Having seen a rise in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in people who have caught coronavirus, some doctors are even considering the possibility that the virus ‒ by disrupting sugar metabolism ‒ could be inducing an entirely new form of diabetes.

Rubino and others set up a registry to start pooling and analysing reports of cases. The principal investigators of the registry which has received reports from more than 350 individual clinicians who suspect they have encountered one or more cases of Covid-induced diabetes — have said the numbers were hard to ignore.

“Over the last few months, we’ve seen more cases of patients that had either developed diabetes during the Covid-19 experience, or shortly after that. We are now starting to think the link is probably true – there is an ability of the virus to cause a malfunctioning of sugar metabolism,” said Rubino.

If there was a biological link, it would be difficult to prove without a substantial database, he noted. “We said it’s worth embarking on an investigation because this – especially given the size of the pandemic – could be a significant problem.”

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Source: The Guardian, 19 March 2021

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Doctors start five-day strike as hospital bosses warn of disruption

Patients are being told to expect disruption as doctors start their five-day strike in England, with NHS bosses saying they are struggling to keep as many services going as they have done in recent walkouts.

NHS England said with a wave of flu placing pressure on hospitals, non-urgent services would be affected by the strike, which began at 07:00 Wednesday.

This is the 14th walkout by resident doctors, the new name for junior doctors, in the long-running pay dispute.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the strike had been timed to inflict most damage on the NHS and put patients at risk, but the British Medical Association said it would work with NHS bosses to ensure safety.

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Source: BBC News, 17 December 2025

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Doctors report 13,000 cancelled operations in UK over two months

UK hospitals have cancelled at least 13,000 operations over the last two months as they struggle to cope with record demand for NHS care and people sick with Covid-19.

Figures collected by A&E doctors showed that 13,061 planned surgeries had to be called off during October and November because of shortages of beds and staff.

However, the cancellations occurred at just 40 of the several hundred NHS hospitals across the four home nations, so those 13,061 are likely to be a major underestimate of the scale of the problem.

Dr Adrian Boyle, a vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), which published the data, said the cancellations represented “a stark warning for the months ahead”.

He also warned that A&E units across the NHS are “verging on crisis” because of their growing inability to provide timely care to the increasing numbers of patients seeking help. “Urgent and emergency care is verging on crisis and it is impacting and derailing elective care, meaning surgery for patients with serious conditions is delayed,” he added.

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Source: The Guardian, 7 December 2021

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Doctors repeatedly told a woman stress was causing her symptoms. Then they pulled out a volleyball-size tumor.

Again and again, Hannah Catton told doctors something was wrong with her body. Again and again, she said, the doctors dismissed her concerns.

They didn’t listen in late 2018 when she told them about her frequent urinary tract infections. They didn’t listen months later when she returned to tell them she was having irregular periods. And they didn’t listen when she complained of bloating, constipation, diarrhea and extreme pain.

Catton was telling them her body was in rebellion. Almost a dozen physicians told her otherwise: She was young and healthy, so it was probably nothing — just a little too much stress. One told her she was overweight and losing a few pounds might ease her symptoms.

Almost three years passed after Catton’s symptoms first emerged, during which she saw about 10 doctors. Then, in October, she collapsed in pain and took herself to the emergency room. From one of her ovaries, surgeons pulled a cancerous blob weighing roughly 4½ pounds and stretching nearly eight inches — about the size of a volleyball.

After her years-long crusade to be heard, Catton, now 24, wants other women and doctors to learn from her experience. Women should learn the warning signs of ovarian cancer and forcefully advocate for themselves, she said, while doctors need to become better versed in recognizing the symptoms. More importantly, Catton said, physicians need to listen to patients instead of dismissing them.

Catton knew early on that something was wrong, that it wasn’t just stress. Despite that, she acquiesced to the doctors because she didn’t “want to be a patient that wastes time.”

She’s not alone, clinical psychologist Bella Grossman told Northwell Health’s Katz Institute for Women’s Health in the article “Gaslighting in women’s health: No, it’s not just in your head.” Men tend to be more persistent with their doctors when they have concerns about their health, Grossman said.

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Source: Washington Post, 9 February 2022

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Doctors reduce their hours to avoid punitive pension tax bills

About three quarters of GPs and hospital consultants have cut or are planning to cut their hours because of the doctors’ pensions crisis. About 42% of family doctors and 30 % of consultants have reduced their working times already, claiming that they are being financially penalised the more they work. A further 34% and 40 per cent respectively have confirmed that they plan to reduce their hours in the coming months because they fear losing out, according to a survey of more than 6,000 doctors by the British Medical Association.

The government has launched an urgent consultation over the issue, which is the result of changes to pension rules limiting the amount that those earning £110,000 or more can pay into their pensions before they are hit with a large tax bill.

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Source: The Times, 1 August 2019

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Doctors raise safety fears at Birmingham hospitals

Whistleblowers at one of England's worst performing hospital trusts have said a climate of fear among staff is putting patients at risk.

Former and current clinicians at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust allege they were punished by management for raising safety concerns, a BBC Newsnight investigation found.

One insider said the trust was "a bit like the mafia".

The trust said it took "patient safety very seriously". It said it had a "high reporting culture of incidents" to ensure accountability and learning.

Staff concerns included a dangerous shortage of nurses and a lack of communication leading to some haematology patients dying without receiving treatment.

The deaths of 20 patients in the haematology department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which is run by the trust, led to a review in 2017 by consultant Emmanouil Nikolousis.

Mr Nikolousis, who left the trust in 2020, told the BBC he was shocked by the failings he found and believes patients' lives could have been saved.

A report by Mr Nikolousis criticised a lack of "ownership" of patients and a lack of communication among senior clinicians. In some cases this led to patients dying without having received treatment, he said.

"Certainly there should have been different actions done," he said. "They could be saved. Certainly, when you don't have an action done, then you don't really know the outcome."

Mr Nikolousis said he felt he had no option but to quit after his findings were ignored and his position was made "untenable". He left the NHS after 18 years.

"They were trying, as they did with other colleagues, to completely sort of ruin your career," he said.

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Source: BBC News, 1 December 2022

 

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Doctors raise concerns about NICE guidelines on chronic primary pain

Doctors in pain management have raised concerns about the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence’s guidance on treating chronic primary pain, which they said do not reflect clinical practice or current evidence.

Patients could be left in “despair,” said the British Pain Society, because of the recommendation that the only drugs that doctors should prescribe are certain antidepressants. Commonly prescribed drugs, including paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, benzodiazepines, and opioids, should not be used to treat chronic primary pain, said NICE. Instead patients should be offered exercise programmes, therapy, and acupuncture.

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Source: BMJ, 9 April 2021

 

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Doctors pressured not to make a fuss over Lucy Letby, trial told

A consultant has said that doctors were put under pressure by hospital management not to make a fuss when they raised concerns about nurse Lucy Letby.

Dr Ravi Jayaram said his team first raised concerns about unusual episodes involving babies in October 2015 but nothing was done

Ms Letby, 33, is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

He told the court the matter was raised again in February 2016 and the hospital's medical director was told at this point.

The consultants asked for a meeting but did not hear back for another three months, the court heard.

Ms Letby was not removed from front-line nursing until summer 2016.

Dr Jayaram told jurors that he wished he had bypassed hospital management and gone to the police.

He said: "We were getting a reasonable amount of pressure from senior management at the hospital not to make a fuss."

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Source: BBC News, 28 February 2023

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Doctors practising despite sexual assault and rape allegations

Hundreds of doctors and nurses have been left free to practise unchecked despite being accused of serious sexual assault and rape in the last six years, The Independent can reveal.

Between 2018 and 2024, some 248 doctors faced allegations of rape, sexual assault or attempted rape without their licences being suspended, according to new figures from the General Medical Council (GMC).

The Independent can reveal:

  • Between 2018 and 2024, 11 doctors were accused of possessing indecent images of children but no interim orders were made.
  • Over the same period, 261 doctors faced no restrictions despite allegations of physical assault.
  • In 2018, one doctor accused of murder had no restrictions placed on their ability to practise.
  • A doctor found to have sexually assaulted colleagues was able to practise as long as he informed the GMC of his job movements.

The shocking figures, obtained via a freedom of information (FOI) request, call into question the decision-making of the UK’s two biggest health watchdogs after a series of exposés by The Independent.

Helen Hughes, chief executive of the charity Patient Safety Learning, said the figures were “deeply troubling” from both patient and staff safety perspectives.

She said: “In healthcare, patients are often faced by a significant power imbalance. When serious allegations are made against healthcare professionals, there must be robust processes in place to safeguard both staff and patients while these are being investigated.”

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Source: The Independent, 12 August 2024

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Doctors plan to leave NHS in growing numbers due to burnout, GMC warns

A growing number of doctors plan to leave the profession due to burnout and dissatisfaction, the General Medical Council has said, highlighting fears that the government’s long-term strategy for the NHS may have come too late.

The GMC’s annual report on the medical workforce said the benefits of measures announced by the government in the NHS long-term workforce plan in June, such as the ambition to create more medical school places, “will only start to be seen a decade from now”.

The report found that the number of licensed doctors increased in 2022, with 23,838 joining and 11,319 leaving. However, it said there were “still high vacancy rates and workforce pressure”, and that the rate of doctors leaving the profession was returning to pre-pandemic levels, at 4% last year.

The GMC warned there were “worrying signs” that a growing number “plan to leave the profession as a result of high levels of dissatisfaction and high risk of burnout”. It added that there may be “a limited window of opportunity to address current issues” before more medics leave.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 November 2023

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Doctors paid up to £200,000 overtime to tackle NHS backlog

Senior doctors are charging the NHS premium rates for overtime, as pressure to cut waiting lists is allowing some to make more than £200,000 a year from additional work, a BBC News investigation has found.

That is nearly double the average basic pay for a full-time consultant in England.

Many of the consultants earning the most are thought to be part-time, allowing them to work significant amounts of overtime for rates exceeding £200 an hour – more than four times normal pay.

In response, Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC: "I don't think the rates are acceptable. Every penny that goes into the NHS needs to be well spent."

But the British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors' union, pointed out the NHS would not have to rely so much on overtime were it not for staffing shortages.

And hospitals said covering for strike days and sickness had also been factors.

The findings come as the government invests more money in the NHS, to increase the number of appointments and operations it can offer – a key election promise made by Labour.

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Source: BBC News, 5 November 2024

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