Jump to content
  • articles
    9,854
  • comments
    83
  • views
    12,507,284

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

Doctors and pharmacists call for basic healthcare lessons so pupils don’t bother the NHS

Pupils should learn what health problems they must not bother the NHS with, doctors and pharmacists have said.

In a new strategy paper they call for a “wholesale cultural shift” towards more self-care, insisting this could both empower patients and reduce demand.

Conditions like lower back pain, the common cold and acute sinusitis can generally be treated without the need for GPs or hospital visits, experts said.

They called for the national curriculum to include requirements for both primary and secondary pupils to be taught to treat and manage common health problems at home. Medical students or pharmacists could go into school to offer lessons on “self-care techniques and signposting to appropriate use of NHS services”, they said.

The paper is from the Self-Care Strategy Group, a coalition of pharmacy bodies and GP and patient groups.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 9 January 2023

Read more
 

Doctors and nurses walk out of Zimbabwe hospitals over protective equipment shortage

Hundreds of healthcare professionals in Zimbabwe have refused to work without protective equipment, beginning strike action in a standoff with the government as the nation begins to see its first impacts of coronavirus.

With the risk of an outbreak increasing day by day, industry chiefs in the country have warned doctors face inadequate supplies of gloves, masks and gowns.

The president of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, Tawanda Zvakada, said doctors would return to the frontlines of the battle against the virus when adequate protection was provided. 

"Right now we are exposed and no one seems to care," he said, adding that doctors have inadequate stocks of gloves, masks and gowns.

Read full story

Source: Independent, 26 March 2020

Read more
 

Doctors and nurses vent anger as unvaccinated Covid cases delay vital operations

The NHS has a backlog of 5.8 million waiting for surgery and specialists are increasingly frustrated at how the unvaccinated have left them unable to tackle it.

Doctors and nurses have told of their anger and frustration at not being able to treat seriously ill patients as new figures show that more than 90% of Covid sufferers requiring the most specialist care are unvaccinated.

While the success of the vaccination rollout has reduced the overall impact of COVID-19 on hospitals, intensive care clinicians from across England have spoken out over the continuing pressure they are under.

Between 20% and 30% of critical care beds in England are occupied by Covid patients and three-quarters of those have not been vaccinated, according to the latest data up to July this year.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 4 December 2021

Read more

Doctors and nurses at London’s frontline hospital denied coronavirus vaccine

Doctors and nurses on the front line of the fight against coronavirus at the Royal London Hospital – which has the largest number of Covid patients in the capital – have been denied the Pfizer vaccine, The Independent has learnt.

Hospital bosses at Barts Health Trust have written to staff today expressing their frustration over the decisions by NHS England, which meant the northeast of London – where the rate of infections and hospitalisations are worst – has not been given access to any vaccines.

The Independent has learned that staff from the Royal London booked appointments to be vaccinated at University College London, but they were turned away because the vaccinations had been earmarked for NHS staff from University College London Hospital Trust.

The trust’s chief medical officer wrote to senior doctors on Monday warning them the crisis facing the hospital would get worse before it gets better.

Professor Alistair Chesser told staff: “It has been frustrating to see the vaccine delivered to other trusts and to GP surgeries but not to us in the last few days given the pressure we are under. Please be assured we are lobbying for our staff and our patients at the very highest levels and will not let this rest.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 22 December 2020

Read more

Doctors and nurses 'need more legal protection amid pandemic pressures'

Emergency legislation is needed to protect doctors and nurses from “inappropriate” legal action over critical Covid treatment decisions made amid the pressures of the pandemic, health organisations have argued.

A coalition of health bodies has written to Matt Hancock, the health secretary, calling for the law to be updated so medical workers do not feel “vulnerable to the risk of prosecution for unlawful killing” when treating coronavirus patients “in circumstances beyond their control”.

The letter, coordinated by the Medical Protection Society (MPS), states there are no legal safeguards for coronavirus-related issues such as when there are “surges in demand for resources that temporarily exceed supply”.

The coalition, which includes the British Medical Association and Doctors’ Association UK, wrote: “With the chief medical officers now determining that there is a material risk of the NHS being overwhelmed within weeks, our members are worried that not only do they face being put in this position but also that they could subsequently be vulnerable to a criminal investigation by the police.

“There is no national guidance, backed up by a clear statement of law, on when life-sustaining treatment can be lawfully withheld or withdrawn from a patient in order for it to benefit a different patient, and if so under what conditions. The first concern of a doctor is their patients and providing the highest standard of care at all times.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 16 January 2021

Read more

Doctors against Palantir’s NHS software put ‘ideology over patient interest’

Doctors who oppose the use of software developed by Palantir in the NHS have “chosen ideology over patient interest”, the UK boss of the tech giant has told MPs.

Louis Mosley appeared in front of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee on Tuesday as part of its innovation showcase.

The shared software system will aim to make it easier for health and care organisations to work together and provide better services to patients, but Palantir’s involvement sparked concerns about how patient data will be used.

When asked by MPs about how the company protects patient privacy, and if data would be processed outside of the UK, or be accessible by any foreign government, Mr Mosley said: “The critical thing to bear in mind about the way our software works and the way it’s deployed in the NHS, is that the data controllers – so those organisations that have that legal responsibility, in the NHS those are trusts, typically – they maintain control over their data.

“So each of them gets their own instance of our software, and they control who has access to it, they control what data is integrated into it, and they, in effect, implement and enforce the data protection policies that they deem appropriate.”

It comes after the British Medical Association (BMA) passed a motion stating the company is an “unacceptable choice” for the FDP at its annual representative meeting in Liverpool last month.

The union’s members voted in favour of the BMA lobbying against the introduction of Palantir software in the health service, and called for the Department of Health and Social Care to create an audit of the progress of the uptake of the systems throughout the NHS.

When asked about this, Mr Mosley said: “I was very disappointed to see that. I think the accusation that we lack transparency or this is secretive is wrong.

“I think the BMA has, if I may be frank, chosen ideology over patient interest.

“I think our software is going to make patient lives better; so making their treatment quicker, more effective, and ultimately the healthcare system more efficient.

“And I, as a patient, and a user of the NHS, I want it to be as quick and efficient as possible.

“I’m very sad, frankly, that the ideology seems to have taken precedence over those interests.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 8 July 2025

Read more
 

Doctors accuse trust of caving to political pressure to reopen ‘unsafe’ A&E

Senior clinicians say their trust board has caved into political pressure by making an ‘unsafe’ decision to re-open a small emergency department — having previously suggested this would not happen if there was a second wave of coronavirus.

In a letter to management at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, seen by HSJ, a group of 17 emergency medicine consultants have raised serious concerns over the planned re-opening of the accident and emergency department at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital next week.

The unit, which has long suffered from staffing shortages and temporary closures, was again closed on a temporary basis at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. When covid subsided in the summer, plans were put forward to reopen it in the autumn.

However, when announcing this, chief executive Karen Partington said: “It is really important that everybody recognises that if covid-19 cases begin to rise significantly, or other safety concerns are identified, we will need to revisit the situation.”

The letter from the clinicians, addressed to trust clinical director Graham Ellis, said: “We consider that the trust has been subjected to an undercurrent of external pressure which has resulted in an unsafe decision being taken to re-open the ED prematurely…"

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 30 October 2020

Read more

Doctors ‘should trust’ parents’ gut instincts about their children

Doctors trust a parent’s gut instinct that their child is becoming severely ill, research has shown, finding that it is a better indicator of health than medical tests.

The study analysed data from almost 190,000 A&E visits by children in Melbourne, Australia, where the parents were routinely asked: “Are you worried your child is getting worse?”

Parents’ intuition was “significantly” linked to the likelihood of admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), with children four times more likely to need ICU care if their parents had voiced concerns.

Read full article (Paywalled)

Source: The Times, 29 May 2025

Read more

Doctors ‘more frightened than ever’ to speak up about patient safety

A rising proportion of doctors will not blow the whistle over patient safety concerns for fear of retribution, leading medics said.

The British Medical Association (BMA) surveyed doctors from around the UK in 2018 and again in 2024.

A rising proportion said they would not feel confident raising concerns about patient care – 26% of 1,578 doctors in 2024 compared with 10% of around 7,900 doctors surveyed in 2018.

Three in five (61%) of those polled in 2024 said they may not raise concerns because they were “afraid” they or colleagues could be “unfairly blamed or suffer adverse consequences”.

Meanwhile 45% said they feel that their managers discourage them from raising concerns – up from 20% cent in 2018.

The BMA said that doctors are now “more frightened than ever” to speak up when they see patient safety issues, or levels of care at risk.

Professor Philip Banfield, chairman of council at the BMA, is set to highlight a culture of “protectionism rather than accountability”.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 23 June 2024

Read more

Doctors ‘intimidated and belittled by colleagues’

Resident doctors face “intimidating” communications from nurses and have been reduced to tears by consultants in a hospital service with long-standing medical training concerns.

Acute internal medicine at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust is one of a small number of services nationally under “enhanced monitoring” by the General Medical Council because of concerns over the training and treatment of resident doctors.

BHRUHT has been subject to this status for seven years. But HSJ can reveal that an education quality review by an NHS England team last year found there were still major problems.

The report, which was released to HSJ this month after a Freedom of Information request, said the NHSE team observed trainees working in acute internal medicine – known as the acute medical take – “crying as a direct result of inappropriate communication with emergency department consultants”.

Corridor care was becoming “somewhat normalised”, according to the findings, with corridors set up like wards. There were cases of patients “going missing” or being transferred before being reviewed by a consultant, and there was poor communication between trainees and consultants.

Some patients did not get a consultant review even if they had been there for 24 hours, and workload in the same day emergency care unit “felt unsafe and chaotic”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 31 March 2026

Read more

Doctor's bid to be removed from register rejected

A doctor's bid to be voluntarily removed from the medical register on health grounds has been rejected.

It means Dr Heather Steen, who is accused of failings following the death of Claire Roberts in 1996, will still face a fitness to practice tribunal.

The tribunal would have been halted if she had been removed from the register, as she would no longer have been a doctor.

Claire Roberts died at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, where Dr Steen worked, in October 1996.

The nine-year-old's death was examined as part of the hyponatraemia inquiry.

Her father Alan said his family welcomed the decision to refuse the paediatrician's application.

He said the tribunal hearing was "in the public interest" and should proceed "to maintain public confidence in the medical profession, the regulatory process and to ensure that professional standards are upheld".

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 28 March 2022

Read more

Doctor: We're getting self-harming 10-year-olds in A&E

The pandemic has had a deep impact on children, who are arriving in A&E in greater numbers and at younger ages after self-harming or taking overdoses, writes Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Children are a lost tribe in the pandemic. While they remain (for the most part) perplexingly immune to the health consequences of COVID-19, their lives and daily routines have been turned upside down.

From surveys and interviews carried out for the Born in Bradford study, we know that they are anxious, isolated and bored, and we see the tip of this iceberg of mental ill health in the hospital.

Children in mental health crisis used to be brought to A&E about twice a week. Since the summer it's been more like once or twice a day. Some as young as 10 have cut themselves, taken overdoses, or tried to asphyxiate themselves.

There was even one child aged eight.

Lockdown "massively exacerbates any pre-existing mental health issues - fears, anxieties, feelings of disconnection and isolation," says A&E consultant Dave Greenhorn.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 2 February 2021

Read more
 

Doctor worked in NHS for six months despite sexual harassment allegations

Serial killer Lucy Letby has been compared to Harold Shipman at a public inquiry opened up into the circumstances around the nurse’s murders.

The Thirwall Inquiry, which began on Monday, is looking into the events surrounding the crimes of Lucy Letby, including the failures of the hospital staff and leadership to respond to concerns raised.

The inquiry’s opening came amid growing speculation over the evidence used to convict Letby over the killings at Chester Countess Hospital last year. Chairwoman Lady Justice Thirwall started the hearing by stating it had caused “an enormous amount of stress” for the families of victims.

Rachel Langdale KC, counsel to the inquiry, then appeared to stamp down the validity of the convictions by comparing Letby to other serial killers, including GP Harold Shipman and nurse killer Beverley Allitt, who she said were manipulative and skilled at hiding in plain sight.

Shipman was found to have killed 250 of his patients while Allitt was convicted of killing four babies in the 1990s.

Ms Langdale said the third part of the inquiry would consider the wider NHS, including the current culture, governance and management structures.

She said: “History tells us that serial killers are deceptive, manipulative and skilled at hiding in plain sight.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 10 September 2024

Read more
 

Doctor with Long Covid who suffered violent shakes and hallucinations attacks Boris Johnson's plan to 'live with virus'

A doctor who has suffered violent shakes and hallucinations during her ongoing 15-month battle with long COVID has criticised the government's plan to "live with the virus".

Dr Kelly Fearnley told Sky News she contemplated ending her own life due to the debilitating long-term effects of coronavirus, which she caught while working on a COVID ward in November 2020.

The 35-year-old from Leeds, who was previously fit and healthy, initially had flu-like symptoms before she suffered shortness of breath and painful rashes over her body, as well as swelling around her eye.

More than a year later, she is still unable to return to work due to the effects of long COVID, which have included violent shakes lasting up to 14 hours at a time, hallucinations, night terrors, severe pins and needles in her arms and legs, and a resting heart rate of 140 beats per minute.

With Prime Minister Boris Johnson set to unveil his "living with COVID" plan on Monday, Dr Fearnley branded it a "strategy of denial, driven by the need to cut costs" and she felt "angry and let down".

Read full story

Source: Sky News, 20 February 2022

Read more
 

Doctor with Long Covid found to have multiple blood clots in his brain

A doctor who became very unwell with COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic was later found to have multiple blood clots in his brain which could easily have killed him.

Dr Ian Frayling started suffering with a "bone-cracking" fever, muscle pain and a "cough like no other" in March 2020, weeks before the national lockdown was announced by the UK and Welsh governments.

His condition then took a turn for the worse when he started experiencing problems with his breathing and encountering such extreme brain fog that entire days would pass him by.

The 62-year-old said his "frightening" range of symptoms, which also included irritable bowel syndrome, disruptive sleep and difficulty with coordination, persisted for many months and left him a fatigued shell of his former self.

After sharing his story with WalesOnline 12 months ago, Dr Frayling was invited to meet the Senedd's health committee in March 2021 to give evidence of his battle with Long Covid. It led to a respiratory consultant reaching out to him and offering him a full clinical assessment at the University Hospital Llandough.

Not only did she find problems with his heart and blood pressure, which were to be expected, but a referral for CT scans in May 2021 revealed that he was living with several blood clots in his brain which were very likely to be attributed to the after-effects of coronavirus. It meant suffering a catastrophic stroke was highly likely.

After being given the deeply distressing news, Dr Frayling said his mind began turning to other people with Long Covid who may be experiencing similar neurological symptoms but are waiting many months to be referred to see a specialist doctor by their GP.

"The consultant used her clinical skills and expertise [to properly assess me and give me a CT scan]. I'm one of the lucky ones. A GP can't directly send people off for these kind of tests, so there could be thousands of people with Long Covid, just like me, who aren't getting the help they need and are just being fobbed off."

Read full story

Source: Wales Online, 28 November 2021

Read more

Doctor warns poor care at root of outcry over medical test leaving women in agony

A leading consultant has warned that poor care is at the root of a growing outcry over an invasive medical test that has left women in agony.

Dr Helgi Johannsson, vice-president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, has spoken out about the hysteroscopy after the Sunday Mail revealed the suffering of a series of female patients.

His intervention comes amid a growing backlash around the procedure used to investigate and treat problems in the womb, with more than 3000 women now reporting being left with post-traumatic stress and excruciating pain.

The test involves a long scope being inserted into the womb, often without anaesthetic, leaving one in three in pain.

Dr Johannsson, a consultant anaesthetist at Charing Cross Hospital in London, said: “It sounds like a lot of this is poor care and badly handled, and emotionally badly handled, and (they) didn’t stop when they were supposed to.

“Stories of being held down to finish the procedure are just awful. It’s important that we make the OH as good as we can possibly make it, including some sort of inhalation sedation, but having the ability to say stop when you need to is so important and a measure of good care.”

Read full story

Source: Daily Record, 7 May 2023

Further reading on the hub:

Read more

Doctor warned Nottingham attacker could kill

A doctor warned three years before the Nottingham attacks that Valdo Calocane's mental illness was so severe he could "end up killing someone."

This was one of a series of missed opportunities over three years that could have prevented the killings, Calocane's mother and brother told BBC Panorama in their first interview. The doctor's warning appeared in a 300-page summary of medical records the family received only after Calocane was sentenced for the killings, which they have shared with Panorama.

The chief executive of Nottinghamshire's NHS trust said he would do everything he could to stop such a tragedy happening again.

Calocane was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2020 and was sectioned four times in less than two years.

In June 2023, he went on a rampage through the streets of Nottingham, killing students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both aged 19, with a knife as they returned from a night out, before stabbing to death Ian Coates, 65, near the school where he worked as a caretaker. Calocane then stole his van and crashed into three other people, inflicting serious injuries.

The warning was given by one psychiatrist while the medical team reviewed Calocane on the ward and was set down in medical records held by Nottinghamshire NHS trust.

Elias and Celeste, Calocane's brother and mother, said the mental health system was "broken" and led to a "tragedy that could have been prevented."

Read full story

Source: BBC news, 12 August 2024

Read more

Doctor told cancer patient she had anorexia despite three ‘red flag’ signs

A woman was “fobbed off” by her doctors who failed to diagnose her colon cancer for a year, an investigation revealed.

In May 2019, Charlie Puplett, 45, expressed concern at her GP surgery in Yeovil, Somerset, about unexplained weight loss, lack of appetite and a change in bowel habits.

But the surgery did not test her for colon cancer – with one doctor suggesting she had anorexia and was “in denial”, she said.

She was not diagnosed until almost a year later when she was rushed to hospital after vomiting blood.

Ms Puplett’s experience was detailed in an investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), which found that her symptoms should have been “red flags” leading to urgent testing within two weeks, and said she had been “failed” by her doctors.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 4 June 2023

Read more

Doctor to take the stand at Covid-19 Inquiry to expose UK officials

Next week public hearings commence for Module 3 of the Covid-19 Inquiry, with a focus on the experience of healthcare during the pandemic. An eminent medic will take the stand on 12 September at the Covid-19 Inquiry to give testimony of how UK healthcare officials have systematically denied overwhelming scientific evidence that Covid-19 is airborne.

Dr Barry Jones chairs the COVID-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance (CATA) which is a Core Participant in the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. The Alliance includes professional associations representing 65,000 healthcare workers as well as individual experts. Since 2020, CATA’s membership have been seeking to persuade UK Health Officials to align national guidance to the scientific facts about how the disease is transmitted and how healthcare workers need to be protected from infection.

He will also challenge official assertions that healthcare workers did not need respiratory protective equipment when working close to infected patients or in poorly ventilated areas, except in an arbitrary set of situations. This position reveals the startling fact that since the outset of the pandemic, and despite all the evidence, health officials in the UK stubbornly continue to deny airborne transmission of the disease.

Proportionately, the UK reported a higher death rate of healthcare workers in the initial phase of the pandemic than almost anywhere in the world. In line with CATA’s evidence for Module 1, the Covid-19 Inquiry has already determined that the UK “prepared for the wrong pandemic” – one that is largely transmitted by droplets and touch.

As a result billions of pounds were wasted on inappropriate PPE. This ineffective PPE resulted in thousands of healthcare workers becoming infected in the workplace and transmitting Covid-19 to patients and co-workers. Not only were healthcare workers refused access to Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE), but many were instructed to remove their own RPE, including those working in close quarters with infected patients and some staff were disciplined for asking for suitable RPE.

“The way in which healthcare workers were abandoned to their fates and their professional knowledge was disregarded has left a scar on the UK’s healthcare system,” says Kamini Gadhok, former CEO of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and Vice Chair of CATA. “The mental health crisis in the NHS and staff shortages all have their roots in the disregard for life and expertise that professionals experienced through the pandemic.”

CATA’s ongoing concern has been that Health and Safety regulations and scientific principles were set aside through the pandemic in favour of Infection Protection and Control (IPC) guidance which did not even take account of advice from the Government’s own scientific experts.

Dr Barry Jones, Chair of CATA, is clear that “those responsible for the IPC guidance failed our healthcare workers, failed our patients and failed our communities.”

Read full story

Source: British Occupational Hygiene Society, 5 September 2024

Further reading on the hub:

 

Read more

Doctor tells woman ‘it’s not as if you’re dying’ after miscarriage pain

A woman with endometriosis was “gaslighted” by doctors over severe period pain for more than a decade and told by one doctor “It’s not as though you’re dying” after suffering a miscarriage.

Jenny Ockona-Mensah, has spent decades being “fobbed off” by NHS services over “consuming” period pain and was just 20 years old when doctors suggested her only options were to get pregnant or go on the pill.

The London therapist’s story comes as the organisers of a poll warned women are being treated as “second class” citizens by the NHS.

A poll of 2,000 women found more than a third have been forced to take time off work due to gynaecological conditions. Of those, more than 41% were off work for three months.

The findings indicated 42% cent of women who suffer pain that impacts their daily lives said the NHS does not provide adequate pain management.

Praful Nargund, Labour councillor and trustee for Create Health Foundation, which carried out the survey, told The Independent: “The scale of this problem is staggering. It’s unacceptable.

“I’m both astonished and terrified at the same time, astonished that in 2024 we accept this level of problem for 51 per cent of the population and terrified because of what this means for my wife, for my two young daughters, for my mum. You know that they will have a worse experience of healthcare throughout their life, the way women’s health services are at the moment.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 10 October 2024

Read more

Doctor suspended for sterilising woman without permission

A consultant gynaecologist who admitted sterilising a woman without her permission has been suspended from practising for 12 months.

The woman - known as Patient A - was sterilised by Dr David Sim following an emergency caesarean section.

Dr Sim previously admitted that the sterilisation was not necessary to save the woman's life or prevent harm to her health.

The procedure took place at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry in September 2021.

On 1 December, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) found his fitness to practice was impaired.

The tribunal previously heard Dr Sim and the patient had discussed sterilisation twice over a period of years, but the patient had never consented or expressed any wish to undergo sterilisation.

When she required the emergency caesarean section, Dr Sim delivered the baby and blocked the patient's fallopian tubes to permanently impair their normal function.

Dr Sim previously admitted to the tribunal that this was in violation of the woman's reproductive rights.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 5 December 2023

Read more

Doctor struck off for falsely diagnosing children with cancer

A paediatrician has been struck off for falsely diagnosing children with cancer to scare their parents into paying for expensive private treatment.

Dr Mina Chowdhury, 45, caused "undue alarm" to the parents of three young patients - one aged 15 months - by making the "unjustified" diagnoses so his company could cash in by arranging tests and scans, a medical tribunal found.

Chowdhury, who worked as a full-time consultant in paediatrics and neonatology at NHS Forth Valley, provided private treatment at his Meras Healthcare clinic in Glasgow. But the clinic made losses, despite "significant" potential income from third-party investigations and referrals for treatment – with patients charged a mark up fee of up to three times the actual cost. In all three cases, Chowdhury gave a false cancer diagnosis, without proper investigation, before recommending “unnecessary and expensive” private tests and treatment in London.

Parents previously told the tribunal of their shock and upset at receiving Chowdhury’s diagnoses during consultations between March and August 2017. He told the parents of a 15-month-old girl - known as Patient C - that a lump attached to the bone in her leg was a "soft tissue sarcoma" and a second lump had developed. Chowdhury urged them to see a doctor in London who could arrange an ultrasound scan, a MRI scan and biopsy in a couple of days, saying: "If things are happening it is best to get on top of them early." He also warned that it would be "confusing" to return to the NHS for treatment. But the parents spoke to an A&E doctor and an ultrasound scan revealed that the lumps were likely fat necrosis.

Patient C later was discharged after her bloods tests came back as normal. The child’s mother told the tribunal that she and her husband had been "very upset" at Chowdhury’s diagnosis. She was also left "angry" after she later read Dr Chowdhury’s consultation notes and realised they were a "total falsification" of what was discussed.

Read full story

Source: Medscape, 18 July 2022

Read more

Doctor struck off for ‘repeated dishonesty’ over death of child in 1995

A doctor who attempted to cover up the true circumstances of the death in 1995 of a four-year-old patient has been struck off.

Consultant paediatric anaesthetist Dr Robert Taylor dishonestly misled police and a public inquiry about his treatment of Adam Strain, who died at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, a medical tribunal found.

The youngster was admitted for a kidney transplant at the hospital following renal failure but did not survive surgery in November 1995.

Six months later an inquest ruled Adam died from cerebral oedema – brain swelling – partly due to the onset of dilutional hyponatraemia, which occurs when there is a shortage of sodium in the bloodstream.

Two expert anaesthetists told the coroner that the administration of an excess volume of fluids containing small amounts of sodium caused the hyponatraemia.

But Dr Taylor resisted any criticism of his fluid management and refused to accept the condition had been caused by his administration of too much of the wrong type of fluid.

In 2004 a UTV documentary When Hospitals Kill raised concerns about the treatment of a number of children, including Adam, and led to the launch of the Hyponatraemia Inquiry.

The tribunal found Dr Taylor acted dishonestly on four occasions in his dealings with the the public inquiry, including failing to disclose to the inquiry a number of clinical errors he made and falsely claiming to detectives he spoke to Adam’s mother before surgery.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 22 June 2022

Read more

Doctor shortages pushing Scottish NHS to ‘breaking point’

Doctor shortages are jeopardising patient safety and rota gaps are pushing the NHS to “breaking point”, Scottish physicians have warned.

A lack of doctors in NHS Scotland due to unfilled vacancies, sick leave and a shortage of staff is often putting patients’ welfare at risk, a survey of consultants has found. More than a third of Scottish doctors (34%) reported, in the Royal Colleges’ annual census, that trainee rota gaps occurred at least daily, while 16% warned they are causing “significant patient safety problems”.

A further 78% of those who responded said rota gaps potentially cause patient safety problems, but that there are solutions in place.

Read full story

Source: The Scotsman, 14 October 2019

Read more

Doctor reveals ‘grim’ realities on NHS wards with staff giving ‘end-of-life’ care to patients on trollies

A doctor has described the harrowing reality of Britain’s A&E wards as she revealed staff were sometimes forced to give end-of-life care to patients in corridors on trollies.

Dr Rachel Clarke, a top palliative care doctor, shared the “grim” conditions found in NHS hospitals as she claimed “Dickensian” conditions are now the norm.

The former journalist who later retrained as a doctor recalled how she turned up for a morning shift to see a “broken” team and ten ambulances queuing outside the hospital with patients.

“You can’t really exaggerate how grim and crisis laden conditions are,” she told the former Downing Street director of communications Andy Coulson on his Crisis What Crisis? podcast.

“You know, we all see the news headlines. I walk into the A&E handover in the morning and I see a team who look absolutely broken from the night shift,

“There are ten ambulances queueing outside each with a patient, some of those patients are dying, they literally can’t even get into the hospital. There are patients in corridors on trollies.

“I might have to have an end of life conversation with a patient on a trolley in a corridor who doesn’t even have a curtain around them. It’s horrific, it’s sort of Dickensian. This is how broken the NHS is at the moment.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 5 September 2024

Related reading on the hub:

 

Read more

© 2026 Patient Safety Learning. All rights reserved.

Patient Safety Learning is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission Registration number 1180689.

×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.