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CCTV to be used ‘pro-actively’ by trusts to combat abuse

Mental health trusts are exploring wider use of CCTV to review incidents of seclusion or restraint in response to high-profile abuse scandals, HSJ  has learned.

All providers of mental health, learning disability and autism services were ordered to review safety and asked to feed back to NHS England’s national team. The request was made in a letter from national director Claire Murdoch  sent in response to abuse allegations aired by BBC Panorama and Channel 4’s Dispatches.

The review is taking place alongside NHSE’s launch of a £36m three-year quality programme. This aims to identify providers and systems needing support, commission a culture and leadership development programme for all trusts, and produce a new model for safe inpatient care.

Results of trust-level reviews, seen by HSJ, show at least five providers aim to use CCTV more “pro-actively”, as a tool for boosting safety. 

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Source: HSJ, 27 February 2023

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CCG lead condemns ‘heartbreaking’ visiting rule at local hospitals

A GP commissioning leader has publicly criticised hospital visiting rules at local hospitals, after hearing that a stroke patient was denied seeing family or friends for six weeks.

Philip Stevens, a locality chair at Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), described the situation reported to him by one of his patients as “heartbreaking”, and has challenged visiting policies at Northampton General Hospital and Kettering General Hospital trusts. 

During a CCG governing body meeting, Dr Stevens called for explanation from the county’s director of public health, Lucy Wightman, who said trusts could choose their own rules.

Dr Stevens, who is also a GP at Brackley Medical Centre, argued that visitors were permitted in neighbouring counties, where he claimed there were similar covid case rates to Northamptonshire, which remains in tier 1 restrictions under the government’s framework.

He said: “I’ve been dealing this week with a family who, the wife’s husband, has been in Northampton General for six weeks now and has had no visitors at all during that time. He’s had a profound stroke and when he comes home he’ll need considerable community support which ordinarily the family would have been trained in but discharge is planned without any of that training.”

Mr Stevens said in an “adjacent county” hospital policy was that each patient would have ”one hour, one visitor each day” with 30-minutes in between visiting slots. While not named, trusts in neighbouring Cambridge and Lincolnshire both have policies that permit pre-booked visitors.

He added: “When I heard this story it seemed heartbreaking to me for this woman and her husband and I just wonder whether that this is a situation we should be challenging, particularly since it appears that the public health advice in an adjacent county may be different to that which is being offered within Northamptonshire.”

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Source: HSJ, 27 October 2020

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Caving ceilings and plummeting lifts: inside our NHS hospitals

The ceiling of an intensive care ward collapsed onto a patient on life support and hours later a falling lift broke a doctor’s leg in a 24-hour snapshot of Britain’s crumbling NHS hospitals last week.

Staff rushed to evacuate the ten-bed unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Harlow, Essex, and the local trust declared a major incident on Thursday morning as engineers carried out urgent safety checks and patients were moved to other wards.

The next day, a surgeon was in a lift at the Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel, east London, when the lift plummeted four floors. His leg was broken when the lift’s emergency brakes activated. Hospital managers shut down four other lifts pending a safety investigation. The day before, another lift in the hospital had also fallen.

The incidents signify that “chickens are coming home to roost” after years of underinvestment in NHS facilities, Dame Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Commons public accounts committee, said.

“It’s a sign of the crumbling infrastructure, not just of our hospitals but of the whole country,” she said. “These are not conditions that patients or hospital staff should have to work in.”

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Source: The Times, 17 March 2024

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Causes of death to be scrutinised in revamp of death certificates

Public protection and support for bereaved families are at the heart of a government overhaul of how deaths are certified.

From September, medical examiners will look at the cause of death in all cases that haven’t been referred to the coroner in a move designed to help strengthen safeguards and prevent criminal activity.

They will also consult with families or representatives of the deceased, providing an opportunity for them to raise questions or concerns with a senior doctor not involved in the care of the person who died.

The changes demonstrate the government’s commitment to providing greater transparency after a death and will ensure the right deaths are referred to coroners for further investigation.

Health Minister, Maria Caulfield said:

  • Reforming death certification is a highly complex and sensitive process, so it was important for us to make sure we got these changes right.
  • At such a difficult time, it’s vital that bereaved families have full faith in how the death of their loved one is certified and have their voices heard if they are concerned in any way.
  • The measures I’m introducing today will ensure all deaths are reviewed and the bereaved are fully informed, making the system safer by improving protections against rare abuses.

From 9 September 2024 it will become a requirement that all deaths in any health setting that are not referred to the coroner in the first instance are subject to medical examiner scrutiny.

Welcoming the announcement today, Dr Suzy Lishman CBE, Senior Advisor on Medical Examiners for Royal College of Pathologists, said:

“As the lead college for medical examiners, the Royal College of Pathologists welcomes the announcement of the statutory implementation date for these important death certification reforms.

“Medical examiners are already scrutinising the majority of deaths in England and Wales, identifying concerns, improving care for patients and supporting bereaved people. The move to a statutory system in September will further strengthen those safeguards, ensuring that all deaths are reviewed and that the voices of all bereaved people are heard.”

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Source: Gov.UK, 15 April 2024

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Catheter pilot scheme sees infections fall by 100%

A pilot scheme to reduce infections following catheter insertions has shown a 100% fall within a hospital trust.

NHS Supply Chain is now encouraging acute trusts in England to take advantage of the scheme which has shown to not only reduce infection rates but shorten patient length of stay and save clinicians’ time.

Catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are not uncommon and can cause patients significant pain, discomfort, confusion and anxiety for family and friends. They further impact healthcare with increased antibiotic use, prolonged hospital stays, increased clinical activity and risk of complaints and litigation. 

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust had audited its urethral catheterisation practice, and the way catheterised patients w19 July ere cared for in clinical areas. The audit highlighted a wide variation in care delivery leading to inconsistent outcomes for patients and staff.

After reviewing the available options, the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust decided to pilot the BARD® Tray which contains all the essential items to catheterise or re-catheterise a patient in one pack and includes the catheter with a pre-connected urine drainage bag. This unique ‘closed system’ prevents ingress of bacteria and helps avoid catheter related infection. 

NHS Supply Chain: Rehabilitation, Disabled Services, Women’s Health and Associated Consumables worked alongside supplier Beckton Dickinson to provide the tray products required by the trust.

During the three-month pilot, catheter related infection rates fell by 100% at the trust which coincided with a reduction in complaints and a reduced length of hospital stay for patients. Clinicians reported that the pack was intuitive and saved around five minutes per catheterisation, which during the pilot process meant saving 83 hours from 1,000 catheterisation procedures.

While the BARD® Tray was more expensive than the individual components that were currently purchased, the pilot study demonstrated the clinical and financial value that was delivered by the tray being implemented across an organisation. The overall cost of components is slightly cheaper, but due to reduced catheterisations, consumables spend fell by 24%.

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Source: NHS Supply Chain, 19 July 2022

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Catherine died on the operating table. Now police are investigating

Catherine O’Connor was 17 when she died, having lost 14 litres of blood during high-risk surgery on her back.

At her inquest, the surgeon who operated on her, John Bradley Williamson, told the coroner the procedure at Salford Royal Hospital in Greater Manchester had “progressed uneventfully” and “the blood loss was perhaps a little higher than one would usually anticipate but was certainly not extreme”. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.

Now Greater Manchester police are examining O’Connor’s death, in February 2007, and whether Williamson misled the coroner during the inquest in September that year.

Catherine's family are now demanding a new inquest into her death in 2007.

This is because in the days after O’Connor’s death, Williamson sent an internal letter to the head of the hospital’s haematology department, Simon Jowitt, describing the surgery as “difficult” and having involved “a catastrophic haemorrhage”. Williamson had also ignored advice to have a second surgeon present during the operation.

Officers led by Detective Inspector Michael Sharples have commissioned two expert reports and sought advice from the Crown Prosecution Service ahead of a meeting with the coroner, who has been asked to consider reopening O’Connor’s inquest.

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Source: The Times, 31 March 2024

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Cass review: how has report affected care for transgender young people?

At the heart of the controversy about how to meet the needs of young people questioning their gender has been the huge rise in referrals to the Tavistock – previously the only dedicated clinic in England and Wales treating children with gender dysphoria.

The clinic was closed one month before the Cass review into youth gender identity services, commissioned by NHS England and led by the British paediatrician Hilary Cass, which found that children had been “let down” by the NHS amid a “toxic” public discourse.

Her report recommended a significant shift in treatment away from medical intervention towards a more holistic approach to care, including therapy and treatment for coexisting mental ill health, neurodivergence or family issues, and to be provided by a network of regional hubs rather than concentrated in one location.

Fourteen months later and the exponential rise in referrals for NHS care has halted, with figures showing a sharp reduction from up to 280 referrals a month at the Tavistock to between 20 and 30 a month this year, a 10th of the earlier rate.

James Palmer, the medical director for specialised services at NHS England, who is responsible for implementing the recommendations of Cass, suggests a number of factors are behind the decrease. Young people can now only be referred for the youth gender service through mental health or paediatric specialists, rather than by a GP.

Palmer also believes the reduction is partly because of the “change in philosophy” brought in by Cass about hormone treatments. Her review concluded there was “remarkably weak evidence” that puberty blockers (prescribed to give young people experiencing distress and dysphoria about their bodies time to consider their next move) and cross-sex hormones (which masculinise or feminise people’s appearances) improve young people’s wellbeing and there was concern they may harm health.

Cass prompted a temporary ban on the use of puberty-blocking drugs, which was extended indefinitely by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, last December. Cross-sex hormones may be prescribed to 16- to 18-year-olds in rare cases but in practice none have been since the review.

“There’s also an impact – completely immeasurable – of the change in stance in this country and around the world,” Palmer adds. The Cass review was clear, he argues, that even social transition is “not a neutral act” and better information is needed about the outcomes for children who do so, as well as support for parents and schools. “But there is also an impact from the global political environment which has become less accepting of trans people and gender-questioning young people.”

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Source: The Guardian, 2 July 2025

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Cases of psychosis rise significantly over the past two years in England

Cases of psychosis have risen significantly in England during the pandemic, according to new NHS data.

The number of people referred to mental health services for their first suspected episode of psychosis increased by 75% between April 2019 and April 2021, figures showed.

The data, which has been analysed by the charity Rethink Mental Illness, showed that much of the increase in referrals has happened over the last year, after the first national lockdown.

The charity, Rethink Mental Illness, said that the data offers some of the first concrete evidence of the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the population.

It is calling on the government to invest more in early intervention for psychosis to halt the further deterioration in people’s conditions.

The NHS defines psychosis as “when people lose some contact with reality”. This could involve seeing or hearing things that other people cannot see or believing things that are not actually true.

People experiencing symptoms of psychosis need to seek medical help very quickly and charity Rethink Mental Illness is campaigning to get people faster access to vital treatment.

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Source: The Independent, 18 October 2021

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Cases of 'long Covid' on the rise as patients suffer after-effects months after recovery

'Long Covid' is leaving people with so-called ‘brain fog’ for months after their initial recovery, NHS experts have revealed.

Dr Michael Beckles, consultant respiratory and general physician at The Wellington Hospital, and the Royal Free NHS Foundation, said he has seen a number of patients suffering from ongoing effects of the disease. He said the main symptom being reported is breathlessness, with patients also describing a brain fog.

Dr Beckles said: "I'm seeing more and more patients who have had Covid-19 infection confirmed in the laboratory and on X-ray, who have cleared the infection, and are now still presenting with persistent symptoms. "Some of those symptoms are respiratory, such as breathlessness, chronic cough. "And some have other symptoms such as what the patients describe as brain fog, and I understand that to be a difficulty in concentration."

"Some still have loss of sense of taste or smell."

He added that it can be frustrating for patients because investigations after the infection can be normal, yet the symptoms persist.

Dr Beckles is part of a team of specialists at the new post-COVID-19 rehabilitation unit at The Wellington Hospital.

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Source: The Telegraph, 21 September 2020

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Cases double in NHS trust death and injury investigation

A police investigation into allegations of preventable deaths and injuries at an NHS trust has doubled the number of cases it is looking at, BBC News can reveal.

The claims centre on care and treatment provided by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust between 2015 and 2021.

Sussex Police started looking in 2023 into an initial 105 cases, but BBC File On 4 Investigates has learned that number is now more than 200.

The force says the investigation is "active and ongoing", but it will "not be providing specific details around case numbers at this time".

Police became involved after two whistleblowers raised allegations of medical negligence at two of the trust's departments - neurosurgery and general surgery, including concerns about at least 40 deaths.

The increase in cases is linked to more families having contacted the police.

Separate to this investigation, the BBC have spoken to the family of a patient who allege they were "lied" to by a senior surgeon in the trust's general surgery department, before he carried out an operation that left her with life-threatening injuries.

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Source: BBC News, 7 January 2025

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Caroline Criado Perez demands end of NHS Covid partner ban after having miscarriage alone

A prominent feminist campaigner and writer has described in devastating detail how she was left feeling “humiliated and alone” as she was forced to deal with a miscarriage without her partner.

Caroline Criado Perez, the author of Invisible Women, called on NHS trusts to allow partners to attend medical appointments, scans and emergencies in maternity services, because the refusal to do so was “traumatising an already traumatised woman”. She added: “It needs to stop, now.”

At the start of the coronavirus crisis, the majority of NHS trusts began preventing partners from accompanying pregnant women to the majority of maternity appointments, and reports suggest this is still the case in many areas.

In September the Guardian revealed that three-quarters of NHS trusts were not allowing birth partners to support women throughout their whole labour, despite being told by the NHS and Boris Johnson to urgently change the rules on visiting.

According to a November survey by the campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed (PTS), 82% of respondents said their local hospital had restrictions in place (for labour or scans), while 90% said that these restrictions were having a negative impact on their mental health.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 December 2020

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Caring GPs do more to prolong life than medication, study shows

Researchers at the University of Cambridge discovered that patients who had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes were up to 50 per cent less likely to die within a decade if their doctor showed empathy. In healthcare, empathy is defined as understanding the patient’s perspective, shared decision making between patient and doctor, and consideration how the illness may impact other areas of their life. But with financial and time pressures plaguing the NHS, doctors increasingly complain they do not have enough time to carry out the softer side of medicine. Now research, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, shows that showing care for a patient can be far more effective at prolonging life than giving drugs to lower cholesterol or blood pressure and so should be prioritised.

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Source: The Telegraph, 8 July 2019

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Carer caught on CCTV tormenting patient with learning difficulties for hours

A carer who was caught on camera tormenting his vulnerable patient over several hours has been jailed.

Enow Tambe was one of two carers responsible for looking after a man, aged 60, with learning difficulties and blindness. The man required constant care and lived in supported accommodation, as heard in Manchester Crown Court. The man's sister, worried about his care, installed CCTV which revealed the shocking nature of 33-year-old's Tambe's treatment.

He was seen shouting in the man's face, threatening to shave his head, poking him repeatedly and laughing at him when he had no choice but to urinate on the floor. After pleading guilty to being a carer causing ill-treatment of an individual, Tambe was sentenced to 11 months in prison.

Upon sentencing, Recorder Phillip Barnes said: "He was being bullied, harassed, belittled and abused for a number of hours. He was ignored and refused help when he asked for it. He was blind and couldn't see what was going on about him. He was shouted at in close quarters, he was threatened to have his head shaved. He was poked and prodded, not to harm but to intimidate, upset and bully."

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Source: Mirror, 18 September 2024

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Care workers charged following BBC Panorama probe

Two care workers have been charged with the ill-treatment of four people at a mental health unit which featured in an undercover BBC investigation.

The Panorama programme, broadcast in 2022, revealed that patients were humiliated and bullied at the Edenfield Centre in Prestwich, Greater Manchester.

Support worker Sheryl Price, 45, of Eldergreen Close in Bolton, faces 14 charges, while 42-year-old nurse Sara Coleman, of Mitford Street in Stretford, is accused of five.

Both have been bailed and are due to appear at Manchester Magistrates' Court on 25 March.

A undercover Panorama reporter filmed staff at the Edenfield Centre - one of the UK's biggest mental health hospitals - using restraint inappropriately and patients enduring long periods of seclusion in small, bare rooms.

Staff swore at patients and on occasion were seen slapping or pinching them.

Some workers were sacked after the BBC's findings were broadcast.

The programme sparked an independent report, which found Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust repeatedly missed opportunities to act on concerns and had a culture of "suppressing bad news".

The trust was again rated "inadequate" by the Care Quality Commission earlier this year despite some improvements having been made.

Criticisms included issues with patient safety and pressures on staff, with some still feeling unable to speak up about their concerns.

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Source: BBC News, 9 November 2025

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Care watchdog to target NHS maternity units after baby death scandals

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is to target poorly performing NHS maternity units after a series of maternity scandals. It is drawing up plans to spot high-risk maternity units and will use data on their patient outcomes and culture to draw up a list of facilities for targeted inspection.

The watchdog has voiced concerns over the wider safety of maternity units in the NHS after a number of high-profile maternity scandals in the past year.

Almost two-fifths of maternity units, 38%, are rated as “requires improvement” by the CQC for their safety.

The Independent has joined with charity Baby Lifeline to call on the government to reinstate a national maternity safety training fund for doctors and midwives. The fund was found to be successful but axed after just one year.

On Tuesday, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, told MPs on the Commons Health and Social Care Committee that he was concerned about the safety of mothers and babies in some maternity units which had persistent problems.

“Those problems are of dysfunction, poor leadership, of poor culture, of parts of the services not working well together,” he said. “This is not just a few units; this is a significant cultural issue across maternity services.”

Now the CQC has confirmed it is planning to draw up a list of poor-performing units or hospitals where it suspects there could be safety issues. The new inspection programme will specifically look at issues around outcomes and teamworking culture although the full methodology has yet to be decided.

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Source: The Independent, 4 October 2020

 

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Care watchdog has warned that “exceptional” pressures on the NHS is affecting the care of patients across England

The care watchdog has warned patient care may be being affected by the current pressures on the NHS with healthcare workers suffering significant levels of stress.

Concerns have been raised in recent weeks after a surge in Covid-19 infections has resulted in record numbers of people calling for ambulances and attending emergency departments, overwhelming the service. 

Professor Ted Baker, the Care Quality Commission’s chief inspector of hospitals has said “It's imperative that not only do we deal with the immediate pressures on the system, we also need to deal with the underlying problems with the models of care. If we don't do that, patients will not be able to receive the care we want them to, and the pressure on staff to provide care under these difficult circumstances will continue.”

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Source: The Independent, 22 July 2021

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Care substandard at 39% of maternity units in England, NHS watchdog finds

Two out of five maternity units in England are providing substandard care to mothers and babies, the NHS watchdog has warned.

“The quality of maternity care is not good enough,” the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said in its annual assessment of how health and social care services are performing.

It published new figures showing it rated 39% of maternity units it inspected in the year to 31 July to “require improvement” or be “inadequate” – the highest proportion on record.

Ian Trenholm, the CQC’s chief executive, said maternity services were deteriorating, substandard care was unacceptably common and failings were “systemic” across the NHS.

Its latest state of care report said: “Our ratings as of 31 July 2022 show that the quality of maternity services is getting worse, with 6% of NHS services (nine out of 139) now rated as inadequate and 32% (45 services) rated as require improvement.

“This means that the care in almost two out of every five maternity units is not good enough.”

The report said: “The findings of recent reviews and reports … show the same concerns emerging again and again. The quality of staff training, poor working relationships between obstetric and midwifery teams and a lack of robust risk assessment all continue to affect the safety of maternity services. These issues pose a barrier to good care.”

Staff not listening to women during pregnancy and childbirth is a recurring problem, Trenholm said. Their concerns “are not being heard” by midwives and obstetricians “in the way that they should”.

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Source: The Guardian, 21 October 2022

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Care providers ask for doubled fees to care for people discharged from hospitals

Care providers are demanding double the usual fees to look after thousands of people who need to be discharged from hospitals to ease the crisis in the NHS.

Care England, which represents the largest private care home providers, said on Sunday it wanted the government to pay them £1,500 a week per person, citing the need to pay care workers more and hire rehabilitation specialists so people languishing in hospital can eventually be sent home.

The rate is about double what most local authorities currently pay for care home beds, an amount Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, described as “inadequate”.

The demand comes as the health secretary, Steve Barclay promised “urgent action” with up to £250m in new funding for the NHS to buy care beds to clear wards of medically fit patients. The money will be used to buy beds in care homes, hospices and hotels where people are looked after by homecare providers, as well as pay for hospital upgrades. Stays will be no longer than four weeks until the end of March.

The use of hotels as care homes began during the pandemic and has been controversial, with reports of problems with hygiene and supplies of specialist equipment. The charity Age UK last week criticised their renewed use as “not an appropriate place to provide high-quality care for older people in need of support to recuperate after a spell in hospital”.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 January 2023

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Care increasingly disrupted by building failures as NHS repair bill grows

The increase in estates-related problems disrupting clinical services comes despite the government handing out £600m to trusts last year to modernise their facilities, and at a time when the NHS is struggling to bring down elective waiting lists and handle high emergency demand.

Annual figures published by NHS Digital yesterday show nearly 7,000 “clinical service incidents caused by estates and infrastructure failure” in 2020-21. This marks a 15% increase on the previous year, although it is less than the level of growth in 2017-18 (25 per cent) and 2018-19 (22%).

The incidents are defined as infrastructure failures which cause delays, cancellations or other interference with clinical services. This includes issues like power outages, building defects, and even a lack of estates and facilities staff such as porters.

High-risk estate is defined as needing “urgent priority” to prevent “catastrophic failure, major disruption to clinical services, or deficiencies” in safety which are “liable to cause serious injury and/or prosecution”.

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Source: HSJ, 15 December 2021

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Care homes under threat as family visa crackdown blocks 100,000 workers

A government crackdown on visas for overseas workers could put overstretched care homes under threat of closure, with tens of thousands fewer staff coming to the UK, The Independent can reveal.

Applications for Britain’s health and care worker visa are at a record low after care workers were prevented from bringing children and other dependants with them in a bid to curb climbing migration numbers.

Between April 2023 to March 2024, when the new rules came in, there were 129,000 applicants, but that plummeted to just 26,000 in the year to March 2025, according to government figures.

The revelation comes as care homes struggle to retain staff, with more than 100,000 vacancies across England last year - a rate of 8 per cent and three times the national average.

Age UK warned that overseas recruits were “keeping many services afloat” and some care homes could be forced to shut if they could not find alternatives, piling more pressure on NHS hospitals.

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Source: The Independent, 6 May 2025

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Care homes still breaking Covid rules despite fatal outbreaks, inspectors say

Care homes in England operated by profitable chains have been branded unsafe by inspectors, who found serious failures in efforts to control the spread of coronavirus in its latest wave.

In the last month 40% of care homes inspected by the Care Quality Commission in England were judged to be inadequate or in need of improvement. Several handling fatal coronavirus outbreaks were revealed to have broken laws meant to keep residents safe.

Some of the worst failings uncovered in reports filed in the last month include CCTV showing PPE being used wrongly on 63 occasions in one home, infected residents mixing in communal areas with Covid-free residents, chronic staff shortages, and a care home manager continuing to work after showing Covid symptoms.

The spate of problems relates to a small minority of care homes but coincides with a tripling of fatalities linked to the virus among care residents in England and Wales.

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Source: 4 February 2021

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Care homes ignore lifting of Covid curbs and shut out visitors

Sarah was only allowed to see her 78-year-old mother through a small, double-glazed window that opened 2in at the bottom. There had been a Covid outbreak in her care home and her family were barred from entry, contrary to government guidelines.

But this was not December 2020. It was two months ago.

“It was just horrific,” said Sarah. “Mum said, ‘I feel like I’m in prison.’ And it was hard for us to disagree.” Sarah and her sisters kept pushing for visitor rights, offering to wear full PPE, but the home, which charged £1,050 a week, instead issued a 28-day eviction notice, saying they “could not meet the family’s needs”.

In March this year, all restrictions on care homes were lifted. In a Covid outbreak — two or more positive tests — “visits should happen in all circumstances”. Each resident is allowed one visitor, and this does not need to be the same person throughout the outbreak. However, privately run homes are not following government guidelines. 

“We saw a massive, tragic loss of life at the beginning of the pandemic among this demographic,” said Helen Wildbore, director of Relatives and Residents Association. “But now care homes have swung dramatically to the other extreme and they have become medically risk averse at the cost of people’s mental health and quality of life. We know people in isolation who have just given up the will to live, who feel like they have been abandoned.”

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Source: The Times, 23 October 2022

You may also be interested to read these two original blogs posted on the hub:

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Care homes and hospitals told to stop shutting out visitors

Care homes and hospitals will be forced to allow visitors under plans being drawn up by the government.

Helen Whately, the care minister, said shutting out relatives showed a lack of humanity. Covid-19 rules mean some of the country’s most vulnerable people still cannot have loved ones at their bedside.

Whately, who has told of her personal grief and frustration at being barred from visiting her critically ill mother, is now developing laws to give residents and patients a right to receive visitors.

Although official visiting restrictions were dropped in the spring in England, there are still widespread reports of care homes and hospitals refusing to let in relatives or imposing stringent conditions that ministers do not believe are justified by public health guidance.

Hundreds of care homes still refuse to accept visitors entirely, according to government figures, while others restrict residents to one relative at a time. 

Campaigners report residents losing weight because their relatives cannot go in to help them at mealtimes amid staff shortages. They also fear residents are being left in bed for long periods because staff know there will be no visitors to check on them. Whately said that she was “determined to fix” the issue, adding: “No one can be in any doubt now how much visits matter”. 

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Source: The Times, 11 November 2022

Related reading on the hub:

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Care homes ‘could face widespread closures’ under social care reforms

Hundreds of England’s care homes could be closed and care rationed because the government has “seriously underestimated” the costs of a shake-up, experts are warning.

Widespread closures would leave hundreds of thousands of elderly and vulnerable residents homeless.

Those in the southeast, the east and the southwest would be hardest hit, according to a new study.

Under a package of social care reforms announced in September, ministers are aiming to make care fees fairer between private and state fee payers.

At the moment, residents who self-fund all their care pay up to 40% more on average than those eligible for state support, for whom their local authority arranges care, and care homes charge councils lower rates.

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Source: The Independent, 18 March 2022

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Care home workers in England face mandatory Covid jabs under plans

Care home workers in England could be legally required to have a COVID-19 vaccination under plans being considered by the government.

According to details of a paper submitted to the COVID-19 operations cabinet subcommittee last week and leaked to the Telegraph, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the health secretary, Matt Hancock, have agreed to the proposal in order to protect vulnerable residents.

The move would prove highly controversial and could result in legal challenges. The cabinet subcommittee paper warned a large number of social care workers may quit if the change is made, and said that lawsuits on human rights grounds could be possible. A government spokesman insisted “no final decisions have been made” but did not rule out jabs being made compulsory for care workers. The government is also reviewing the introduction of vaccination passports.

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Source: The Guardian, 22 March 2021

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