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Death of three-day-old baby ‘avoidable’, coroner rules

The death of a three-day-old baby could have been avoided if medical professionals had acted differently, a coroner concluded.

Rosanna Matthews died three days after being delivered at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Kent in November 2020.

The hospital trust apologised, saying the level of care for Ms Sala and her daughter “fell short of standards”.

Ms Sala told the inquest midwives were "bickering" and appeared confused during her labour.

She claimed that if she had been allowed to start pushing when she wanted to, instead of waiting as midwives advised, Rosanna would have lived.

Rachel Thomas, then deputy head of gynaecology and midwifery, said there had been "errors in communication".

Following the conclusion of the inquest, the coroner ruled Rosanna died following a “prolonged period of avoidable hypoxia”, which led to brain damage.

The coroner, sitting in Maidstone, also found midwives at the hospital failed to recognise that Rosanna was already unwell with congenital pneumonia.

Ms Sala said her daughter could have lived had medical professionals acted differently on the day of her birth.

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Source: BBC News, 8 November 2022

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Death of football manager Steve Bruce's infant grandson leads to calls for urgent action

A coroner has called for action after the death of baby Madison Bruce Smith, who died after he was placed in an "unsafe sleeping position" in his cot by an unregulated maternity nurse.

The four-month-old grandson of football manager Steve Bruce was found unresponsive by his father, ex-Leeds United and Fulham striker Matt Smith, on the morning of 18 October 2024.

Madison could not be resuscitated at the family home in Trafford, Greater Manchester, and was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital where he was pronounced dead by paramedics.

Mr Smith and his wife, Bruce's daughter Amy, had employed Eva Clements through a company named Ruthie Maternity Services after their son had difficulties sleeping in the afternoons.

They believed Ms Clements was skilled, fully trained and vetted, and that the company was a well-established maternity and sleep support service, but Stockport Coroner's Court heard that neither was regulated.

In a short, narrative conclusion, senior coroner for south Manchester, Alison Mutch, said: "Madison died in circumstances where his cause of death could not be ascertained while asleep in his cot having been placed in a prone and unsafe sleeping position."

She said the "purported expertise" of untrained people posed a risk to all children where those unregulated services were used.

Issuing a prevention of future deaths report to the Secretary of State for Health, she said: "I hope the services can be regulated and, going forward, parents are not left in a situation where they believe they are employing someone who is qualified to advise them when they are clearly unqualified."

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Source: Sky News, 24 March 2026

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Death of baby after UK hospital missed vitamin jab ‘beyond cruel’, parents say

The parents of a baby boy who died at seven weeks old after a hospital did not give him a routine injection have described the failure as “beyond cruel”.

William Moris-Patto was born in July 2020 at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, where it was recorded in error that he had received a vitamin K injection – which is needed for blood clotting. The shot is routinely given to newborns to prevent a deficiency that can lead to bleeding.

His parents, Naomi and Alexander Moris-Patto, 33-year-old scientists from Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, want to raise awareness about the importance of the vitamin after a coroner concluded William would not have died had the hospital administered the injection. On Friday, the coroner Lorna Skinner KC described the omission as “a gross failure in medical care amounting to neglect”.

Alexander Moris-Patto, a researcher at the University of Cambridge who recently co-founded William Oak Diagnostics to test for deficiencies in babies, said: “What’s come out of the inquest for me is that the systems they [the trust] put in place to try to prevent this happening again are not satisfactory.”

He stressed the importance of the vitamin K injection, adding that about 1% of the UK population opt out of it. “We want people to know more about it, to understand how critical it can be, and for hospitals to take seriously the responsibility they have in those first precious hours of a baby’s life,” he said.

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Source: The Guardian, 29 October 2023

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Death of autistic teenager after parents wishes ignored prompts mandatory training for NHS staff

Every NHS and social care worker in England will have to undergo mandatory training on autism and learning disability following the death of a teenager, the government has said.

Eighteen-year-old Oliver McGowan, who had autism, died in November 2016 after being given anti-psychotic medication against his own and his parents’ wishes by staff at Bristol’s Southmead Hospital, part of the North Bristol NHS Trust. Oliver’s medical records showed he had an intolerance to anti-psychotic drugs and shortly after he was given the dose he developed severe brain swelling and died.

His parents Paula and Tom McGowan have been campaigning for improved training for health and care staff and ministers have now backed their calls with new pilots and £1.4m of funding.

The new training will be named after Oliver and will start next year, with the aim to improve care for people with autism and learning disabilities using case studies and ensuring all staff understand the needs of patients with learning disabilities and autism.

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Source: Independent, 5 November 2019

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Deaf TikTok star who took poison ‘failed’ by NHS services, inquest hears

A TikTok star who died after consuming a poisonous substance she bought online told an NHS support worker about the purchase a month before her death, an inquest has heard.

Imogen Nunn took a poisonous substance and died in Brighton, East Sussex, on New Year’s Day 2023. The 25-year-old, who was deaf, raised awareness of hearing and mental health issues on her social media accounts, which gained more than 780,000 followers.

On Monday, an inquest into her death in Horsham heard that Nunn was “failed” by services that were meant to help her, according to a statement by her mother, Louise Sutherland.

The inquest was told that Nunn, who was called “Immy” by loved ones, had contacted her support worker at the deaf adult community team (DACT) at South West London and St George’s NHS trust on 23 November 2022, and told them she had “bought something online that she planned to take to end her life”.

She also made reference to a “pro-choice suicide forum”, the court heard.

In the statement read to the inquest, Thomas Beamont, representing Sutherland and Nunn’s father, Ray, said: “Ray and I believe that Immy felt hopeless and let down by the time of her death, and that she was failed.

“Immy didn’t want to die, but she was exhausted from fighting desperately for the help she needed.”

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Source: The Guardian, 17 March 2025

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Deaf people diagnosed with cancer face 'big barriers'

Coleen McSorley, who has been deaf from birth, was left upset and struggling to understand the details of her cancer diagnosis. Now one care centre is hoping to offer more support to others facing a similar challenge.

Coleen was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2020. At the time, Covid restrictions meant she was unable to bring an interpreter or her hearing parents to hospital appointments.

The 56-year-old said she was given wads of literature about her cancer - but like many people who have been deaf from birth, she struggles to read.

"English is my second language after British Sign Language," said the cleaner, from Stirling.

"At the hospital a big barrier was they were wearing too many masks. They were all talking at me but I didn't understand what they were saying, it was horrendous.

"I felt frustrated because I wanted them to pull down their masks so I could try to lip read a little bit, but they wouldn't and it was very confusing."

Coleen, who had stage three cancer, was treated with chemotherapy and had a mastectomy, found a local Maggie centre who supported her. Yvonne McIntosh, an oncology nurse and centre head at the Maggie's Forth Valley cancer care drop-in centre, says that even with an interpreter, a lot of information could be lost in translation.

"A lot of sense and meaning is lost and things can land differently so they don't come across with the same context," she said.

"When Coleen came to us she didn't know what the pills were that she was taking.

"She didn't understand about her treatment and didn't know how her medication worked for her."

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Source: BBC News, 4 February 2022

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Deaf people criticise hospital interpreter delays

A deaf man who spent 24 hours in hospital without the support of an interpreter said staff were shouting out his name despite being told he could not hear.

Terry Murray, from Rugby, is among a group of NHS patients to have been left feeling frustrated or vulnerable at a city hospital because of a lack of sign language interpreters.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Association for the Deaf (CWAD) said it had received more than 100 complaints over delays in getting access to interpreters at University Hospital Coventry.

The trust running the hospital said its interpreter service provider LanguageLine Solutions would be engaging with CWAD.

Mr Murray told BBC Radio CWR he was taken to hospital with potential brain issues and asked for an interpreter but was not given one for 24 hours.

He said he had a CT scan and an MRI but the staff could not explain anything for him because there was nobody who knew sign language.

"They just basically took me, put me in, I had the scan and then was told to leave," he said.

Another CWAD service user said such situations could have safety implications.

Helen Patterson, from Solihull, said she requested an interpreter four or five times in advance before hospital appointments but none had been there when she arrived.

She said it felt like a waste of her time and money, adding that she had sometimes been offered an interpreter over a video link but said there were often connection issues.

"If we're sat there as deaf people, we don't know if there's a fire alarm, if there's a bomb or if there's an emergency," she said.

"We're at risk not having an interpreter present with us. We're very vulnerable."

National hearing loss charity RNID told the BBC that the NHS was "flouting equality law", adding that under the Accessible Information Standard, the NHS should be providing interpreters and accessible means of communication when needed.

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Source: BBC News, 4 October 2025

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Deadly Omicron should not be called mild, warns WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against describing the Omicron variant as mild, saying it is killing people across the world.

Recent studies suggest that Omicron is less likely to make people seriously ill than previous Covid variants.

But the record number of people catching it has left health systems under severe pressure, said WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

On Monday, the US recorded more than one million Covid cases in 24 hours.

The WHO - the UN's health agency - said the number of global cases has increased by 71% in the last week, and in the Americas by 100%. It said that among severe cases worldwide, 90% were unvaccinated.

"While Omicron does appear to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorised as mild," Dr Tedros told a press conference on Thursday.

"Just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising people and it is killing people.

"In fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick, that it is overwhelming health systems around the world."

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Source: BBC News, 6 January 2022

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Deadly new drugs found in fake medicines in the UK

Super-strength drugs linked to hundreds of deaths have been found in samples of fake medicines bought across the UK, the BBC can reveal.

We found more than 100 examples of people trying to buy prescription medicines such as diazepam - commonly used to treat anxiety, muscle spasms and seizures - and instead receiving products containing nitazenes.

The synthetic opioid drugs have been connected to 278 deaths across the country in a year, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA). Nitazenes can be stronger than both heroin and fentanyl, a prolific killer in the US.

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Source: BBC News, 29 October 2024

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Deadly infection risk in newborns could be higher than previously thought, study warns

Newborn babies could be at a higher risk of a deadly bacterial infection carried by their mothers than previously thought.

Group B Strep or GBS is a common bacteria found in the vagina and rectum which is usually harmless. However, it can be passed on from mothers to their newborn babies leading to complications such as meningitis and sepsis.

NHS England says that GBS rarely causes problems and 1 in 1,750 babies fall ill after contracting the infection.

However, researchers at the University of Cambridge have found that the likelihood of newborn babies falling ill could be far greater.

They claim one in 200 newborns are admitted to neonatal units with sepsis caused by GBS. Pregnant women are not routinely screened for GBS in the UK and only usually discover they are carriers if they have other complications or risk factors.

Jane Plumb, co-founded charity Group B Strep Support with her husband Robert after losing their middle child to the infection in 1996.

She said: “This important study highlights the extent of the devastating impact group B Strep has on newborn babies, and how important it is to measure accurately the number of these infections.

“Inadequate data collected on group B Strep is why we recently urged the Government to make group B Strep a notifiable disease, ensuring cases would have to be reported.

“Without understanding the true number of infections, we may not implement appropriate prevention strategies and are unable to measure their true effectiveness.”

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Source: The Independent, 29 November 2023

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Deadly cancer treatment delays now ‘routine’ in NHS, say damning reports

Hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to wait months to start essential cancer treatment, with deadly delays now “routine” and even children struck by the disease denied vital support, according to a series of damning reports.

Health chiefs, charities and doctors have sounded the alarm over the state of cancer care in the UK as three separate studies painted a shocking picture of long waits and NHS staff being severely hampered by a worsening workforce crisis and a chronic lack of equipment.

The first report, by Cancer Research UK, found that 382,000 cancer patients in England were not treated on time since 2015. The charity investigated how many patients had begun treatment 62 days or longer after being urgently referred for suspected cancer. The national NHS target – under which at least 85% of people should start treatment within 62 days – was last met in December 2015.

The second report, by the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), said delays in cancer care had become routine, with nearly half of UK cancer centres experiencing weekly delays in starting treatment. The RCR also warned of a “staggering” 30% shortfall in clinical radiologists and a 15% shortfall in clinical oncologists – figures it projects will get worse in the next few years.

The third paper, from four children’s cancer charities – Young Lives vs Cancer, Teenage Cancer Trust, Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, and Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group – said young patients were being failed by a lack of support after diagnosis.

Naser Turabi, the charity’s director of evidence, said the crisis was causing widespread treatment delays that “negatively impact” patients. “One study has estimated that a four-week delay to cancer surgery led to a 6-8% increased risk of dying, and delays can also reduce the treatment options that are available. There are also the psychological effects – with waiting causing major stress and anxiety for cancer patients and their loved ones.”

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Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2024

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Deadly ‘sloth virus’ detected in UK for first time as health watchdog issues urgent warning

A deadly malaria-like “sloth virus” has been detected in Britain for the first time, triggering a warning from the UK’s health watchdog to those with symptoms to seek urgent medical help.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data has revealed there were three cases of Oropouche virus reported in Britain between January and June this year.

The tropical disease is usually found in South America and can cause fevers, headaches, pain behind the eyes, and in rare instances lead to meningitis and death, the watchdog warned.

“If a person becomes unwell with symptoms such as high fever, chills, headache, joint pain and muscle aches following travel to affected areas, they should seek urgent medical advice,” the UKHSA warned.

All three cases were people who had returned to the UK after travelling abroad to Brazil after a surge of virus infections across the region.

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Source: The Independent, 18 August 2025

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Deadlock over NHS pay putting patients in danger, chief nurses warn

Deadlock over NHS pay is putting patients in danger and risks hardening the position of unions, 10 chief nurses have warned.

Unions have warned that the government is making no moves towards resolving the strikes, with one general secretary accusing the government of lying about the state of negotiations.

In a joint statement shared with the Guardian, chief nurses from 10 leading hospitals known as the Shelford group highlighted their concern that patients’ health could suffer as a direct result of the increasing disruption the stoppages are causing.

Tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance workers in England will stage what will be the biggest strike in the NHS’s 75-year history on Monday.

In a plea to the government and health unions, but especially ministers, the 10 Shelford group chief nurses stress that they want both sides to end their standoff as a matter of urgency “because of the impact on the patients and communities we serve.

“Industrial action means appointments cancelled, diagnostics delayed [and] operations postponed. The longer industrial action lasts, the greater the potential for positions to harden, waits for patients to grow, and risks of harm to accumulate.”

This week will see just one day – Wednesday – when there are no NHS strikes. Nurses will strike again on Tuesday, physiotherapists will stage their second walkout on Thursday and ambulance personnel will stage a further stoppage on Friday.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 February 2023

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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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David Fuller: NHS failures enabled killer to abuse bodies

Mortuary abuser David Fuller was able to offend without being caught because of "serious failings" at the hospitals where he worked, an inquiry has found.

Between 2007 and 2020, Fuller abused the bodies of at least 101 women and girls in Kent hospitals.

Inquiry chair Sir Jonathan Michael said "there were missed opportunities to question Fuller's working practices".

He added the abuse "had caused shock and horror across our country and beyond".

The inquiry has made 17 recommendations to prevent "similar atrocities".

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Source: BBC News, 28 November 2023

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Daughter 'made to wait as mother died alone'

An elderly woman died alone in a care home while her daughter was left waiting in a nearby room, an ombudsman says.

When the daughter went into her mother's room at the Puttenham Hill House Care Home in Guildford, Surrey, she found she had died.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said the care home had not protected the woman's dignity. Surrey County Council has apologised to the family for the distress caused.

The council had arranged and funded the woman's care at the Bupa-run home.

A Bupa spokesman said it had apologised to the family and introduced "comprehensive measures" to prevent such a situation happening again.

The woman's daughter had complained she had been called too late to the care home when her condition deteriorated in August 2019.

When she arrived she was left in a waiting area and not told her mother was seriously ill, the ombudsman said. When she went into her mother's room 15 minutes later it was apparent her mother had died, and she found dried blood on the floor and oxygen pipes in her mother's nose.

The agency nurse looking after the woman never spoke to the daughter, the ombudsman said.

An inquest found the woman died from a brain haemorrhage, which would have been difficult to spot.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: "The daughter was not able to be with her mother as she died and her mother should not have been alone in the final moments of her life."

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Source: BBC News, 23 March 2021

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Date set for mental health deaths inquiry evidence

An inquiry looking into mental health deaths in Essex will begin hearing evidence on 9 September.

The Lampard Inquiry will investigate the deaths of more than 2,000 patients in the care of NHS trusts in Essex between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2023.

Evidence will be heard in public in Essex and live-streamed online over a three-week period.

The first hearings are expected to include opening statements as well as evidence from those impacted by mental health deaths.

The inquiry was announced in November 2020 after warnings from health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and a damning Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report in 2019, external into the deaths of two men in Essex.

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Source: BBC News, 20 June 2024

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Data watchdog demands answers on Palantir patient data access

The national patient data watchdog has said it will investigate how Palantir staff came to have access to identifiable patient data in the federated data platform, despite previous assurances that this would not be the case.

In a statement published yesterday afternoon by the National Data Guardian (NDG), Nicola Byrne said the watchdog would “seek clarification” over why it was not previously informed that external contractors would be able to view identifiable patient data.

Reports emerged last month that staff from companies working on the FDP, including Palantir, would be granted “unlimited access” to identifiable patient data through the National Data Integration Tenant environment. This is where NHS organisations will submit raw data before identifying features are removed or pseudonymised.

In this week’s statement, Dr Byrne said there has been “subsequent confirmation from the [FDP] programme team that some external contractor staff also have access to identifiable patient information”.

The NDG is an independent adviser to the government and the health service and has no statutory investigatory or enforcement powers. The watchdog said: “We need to be confident that the positions presented to us are accurate, consistent, and clearly reflected in public-facing transparency materials. We have also emphasised the need for timely engagement with the NDG whenever significant programme decisions change in ways that may affect public trust, as in this case.”

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Source: HSJ, 4 June 2026

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Data show 5000 fewer hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome during pandemic

Around 5000 fewer people were admitted to hospitals in England for acute coronary syndrome than expected from January to the end of May this year, an analysis has shown. The results, published in the Lancet, indicate that many patients have missed out on lifesaving treatments during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This decline started before the UK lockdown began on 23 March and “was qualitatively similar throughout the country, with only minor variations … in different demographic groups,” the authors wrote.

Among patients admitted to hospital with acute myocardial infarction there was a “sustained increase in the proportion ... receiving [a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute myocardial infarction] on the day of admission and a continued reduction in the median length of stay,” they added.

“The reduced number of admissions … is likely to have resulted in increases in out-of-hospital deaths and long-term complications of myocardial infarction and missed opportunities to offer secondary prevention treatment for patients with coronary heart disease,” they concluded.

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Source: BMJ, 15 July 2020

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Data reveals a possible increase in risk of treatable blood disorder from AstraZeneca Vaccine

New analysis from Scotland has found there may be a possible, though small, increased risk of developing a condition called idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) after administration of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Vaccine. 

Doctors assure patients that the condition is treatable and often mild and it is more often seen in those who have pre-existing health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or kidney disease. 

The condition has also been seen in patients after taking other vaccines including the flu, MMR and hepatitis B.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 June 2021

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Data regulator issues new guidance for healthcare sector on transparency

The UK’s data protection regulator has published new guidance for health and social care organisations it says will help them be more transparent about how personal information is being used.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the new guidance would provide regulatory certainty to organisations on how they should keep people properly informed as technology is increasingly used to deliver care and carry out research.

The regulator said focus on the issue was needed as the health and social care sector routinely handles sensitive information about the most intimate aspects of peoples’ health, and that under data protection law, people have a right to know what is happening to their personal information.

Being transparent is essential to building public trust in health and social care services

Anne Russell, head of regulatory policy projects at the ICO, said the ever-increasing use of technology meant personal data was more important than ever, and so therefore was more transparency.

“Being transparent is essential to building public trust in health and social care services,” she said.

“If people clearly understand how and why their personal information is being used, they are likely to feel empowered to share their health information to both access care and support initiatives such as medical research.

“As new technologies are developed and deployed in the health sector, our personal information is becoming more important than ever to boost the efficiency and public benefit of these systems.

“With this bespoke guidance, we want to support health and social care organisations by improving their understanding of effective transparency, ensuring that they are clear, open and honest with everyone whose personal information is being used.”

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Source: The Independent, 15 April 2024

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Data on weight loss jab link to suicidal thoughts needs ‘urgent clarification’

Data that suggests a weight loss jab may be linked to people having suicidal thoughts needs urgent clarification, experts have said.

According to a new study, figures from a World Health Organization (WHO) database suggest a bigger proportion of reports about the drug semaglutide (Wegovy) mentioned suicidal thoughts.

This is when compared to liraglutide (another weight loss drug, also known as Saxenda).

This study using the WHO database found a signal of semaglutide-associated suicidal ideation, which warrants urgent clarification

This was particularly the case among patients who also reported taking antidepressants, the study found.

The researchers of the study, published in Jama Network Open, say the findings warrant “urgent clarification”.

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Source: The Independent, 20 August 2024

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Data on Long Covid in UK children is cause for concern, scientists say

Scientists have warned that emerging data on Long Covid in children should not be ignored given the lack of a vaccine for this age group, but cautioned that the evidence describing these enduring symptoms in the young is so far uncertain.

Recently published data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that 13% of under 11s and about 15% of 12 to 16 year olds reported at least one symptom five weeks after a confirmed COVID-19 infection. 

Although children are relatively less likely to become infected, transmit the virus and be hospitalised, the key question is whether even mild or asymptomatic infection can lead to Long Covid in children, said Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London.

“The answer is that it certainly can, and the Long Covid support groups contain a not insignificant number of children and teens,” Altmann said.

Frances Simpson, a lecturer in psychology at Coventry University and co-founder of the Long Covid Kids group, said she was very worried about the emerging data on Long Covid in children. “We just think that there should be a much more cautious and curious approach to long Covid rather than a kind of a sweeping generalisation that children are OK, and that we should just let them all go back to school without any measures being put in place.”

One issue, she said, is the sizeable gap between acute infection and Long Covid kicking off. Some children are initially asymptomatic or have mild symptoms but then it might be six or seven weeks before they start experiencing long Covid symptoms, which can range from standard post-viral fatigue and headaches to neuropsychiatric symptoms such as seizures, or even skin lesions."

At the moment there is no consensus on the scale and impact of long Covid in adults, but emerging data is concerning. For children, the data is even more scarce.

Recent reports from hospitals in Sweden and Italy have generated concern, but this data is not from national trials – they are single-centre studies – and include relatively small patient numbers, said Sir Terence Stephenson, a Nuffield professor of child health at University College London.

Stephenson was awarded £1.36m last month to lead a study investigating Long Covid in 11- to 17-year-olds. “I don’t have a scientific view on what long Covid is in young people is – because frankly, we don’t know,” he said.

Preliminary results are expected in three months.

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Source: The Guardian, 2 March 2021

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Data on deaths in mental health and learning disability units will now be published, NHS announces

The NHS will this week begin to publish the numbers of people who are dying from coronavirus in mental health and learning disability units, the government has announced.

England's national medical director Stephen Powis told the Downing Street daily press briefing that the figures would be published on an "ongoing basis" after calls to paint a clearer picture of the problem.

It comes as figures from the Care Quality Commission showed a sharp increase in deaths among mental health patients compared to last year.

Asked by The Independent whether the numbers could be made public, he replied: "Yes, I can commit that we will publish that data.

"We've been looking at how we can do that; we publish deaths daily, we're looking at how we can report on those groups and I can commit that from next week we'll be publishing data on learning disabilities, autism, and mental health patients who have died in acute hospitals and we will do that on an ongoing basis."

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Source: The Independent, 9 May 2020

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Data on Covid care home deaths kept secret 'to protect commercial interests'

COVID-19 death tolls at individual care homes are being kept secret by regulators in part to protect providers’ commercial interests before a possible second coronavirus surge, the Guardian can reveal.

England’s Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland are refusing to make public which homes or providers recorded the most fatalities amid fears it could undermine the UK’s care system, which relies on private operators.

In response to freedom of information requests, the regulators said they were worried that the supply of beds and standards of care could be threatened if customers left badly affected operators. The CQC and Care Inspectorate share home-by-home data with their respective governments – but both refused to make it public.

Residents’ families attacked the policy, with one bereaved daughter describing it as “ridiculous” and another relative saying deaths data could indicate a home’s preparedness for future outbreaks.

“Commercial interest when people’s lives are at stake shouldn’t even be a factor,” said Shirin Koohyar, who lost her father in April after he tested positive for Covid at a west London care home. “The patient is the important one here, not the corporation.”

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Source: The Guardian, 27 August 2020

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