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Avoid any ‘risky activities’ on ambulance strike day, says health minister

Health minister Will Quince has warned the public to avoid any “risky activities” on Wednesday as ambulance drivers stage strike action.

The NHS is set to be hit by major disruption as ambulance workers including paramedics, control room workers and technicians walk out in England and Wales.

During the strike, the military will not drive ambulances on blue lights for the most serious calls but are expected to provide support on other calls.

Mr Quince urged the public to avoid anything risky on Wednesday, telling BBC Breakfast: “Where people are planning any risky activity, I would strongly encourage them not to do so because there will be disruption on the day.”

The health minister did not offer examples of what might be defined as risky behaviour but told the public that in any emergency calling 999 should still be the first option.

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Source: The Independent, 20 December 2022

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Avoid A&E, says NHS as winter crisis bites early

The NHS is to launch a campaign urging the public to avoid A&E in an echo of appeals to protect the health service during the Covid pandemic.

The head of the NHS has instructed hospitals to prepare a public awareness campaign calling for people to “minimise” pressures on urgent and emergency services.

Such an instruction has never been issued so early in the year, and comes amid concerns that hospitals and ambulance services are already facing strains usually seen in the depths of winter.

People suffering a genuine emergency will still be encouraged to go to A&E, but on Friday night there were warnings that the campaign risks exacerbating the problems caused by patients staying away from the health service during Covid.

Prof Carl Heneghan, an urgent care doctor and professor of evidence-based medicine at the University of Oxford, said the NHS needed to be very careful about trying to dissuade the public from using services.

“The NHS seems to be the only business I know that doesn’t know how to deal with demand, and work with the needs of its customers,” he said.

“As an urgent care doctor, I need to be in front of the patient to do my job. It’s often too difficult for the new mum to know when it’s appropriate to turn to emergency services. These decisions are difficult – it’s the job of a doctor.

“Too often I see elderly patients who apologise for taking my time and I say ‘don’t apologise – you could have been 24 hours away from death’.”

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Source: The Telegraph, 19 August 2022

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Avoid “unproven and unethical” polygenic risk scores in embryo selection, say genetics experts

Geneticists have warned the public against buying polygenic risk score analyses, which some private fertility clinics claim can help parents using in vitro fertilisation in selecting embryos that carry the least risk of future disease.

It appears that at least one child has been born after such a procedure, but the use of polygenic risk score analysis in this respect is severely limited. No evidence shows that these tests can predict the likelihood of an unborn child being liable to a specific disease in the future, representatives from the European Society of Human Genetics wrote in the European Journal of Human Genetics.

Polygenic risk score analysis is mainly offered by fertility clinics in the US, although the practice is also being promoted in the UK.

Patients need to be properly informed on the limitations of its use and a societal debate, focused on what should be considered acceptable with regard to the selection of individual traits, should take place before any further implementation of the technique in this population.

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Source: BMJ, 26 January 2022

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Autumn date to fix blood transfusion services

Blood testing partnership Synnovis has warned that its hacked blood transfusion services may not be fully functioning again until the autumn.

Its systems fell victim to ransomware hackers and the pathology partnership says, external it has rebuilt many of the 60 which were affected.

The hackers made systems unusable unless a payment was received and caused significant disruption, with hundreds of operations and thousands of appointments cancelled.

Synnovis said the blood transfusion services would "continue to be stabilised over the summer".

The situation is also part of the reason the NHS made an urgent appeal for blood donors after warning stocks had dropped to "unprecedently low" levels.

Synnovis is a partnership between Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospitals NHS Trust and Synlab, a commercial testing firm.

It said more of its laboratories could now be reconnected to systems that enabled the service to receive test orders and return results electronically.

Core chemistry and haematology services have been restored at King’s College and Princess Royal University Hospitals, with Guy’s and St Thomas’, Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals to follow "in days". As a result it expected "to be able to increase the numbers and types of tests shortly".

Dr Chris Streather, medical director for NHS London, welcomed the news but said: “It will take further time for this to roll out, but we will soon start to see faster turnaround times for most routine blood tests." He said the delay in restoring blood transfusion services meant "that there will be a continued impact on planned operations and a need for hospitals to help each other by taking patients where needed".

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Source: BBC News, 26 July 2024

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Automatic roll-out of patient access to GP records halted at eleventh hour

In an eleventh-hour decision NHS England has halted the automatic, blanket roll-out of a scheme that would have given all NHS patients in England prospective online access to their GP-held records the day before it was due to come in. 

The high-profile scheme to enable patents to automatically view their GP records via the NHS app by 30 November, has been a key digital promise by successive Conservative health secretaries. 

The last-minute u-turn came following a series of talks between the British Medical Association (BMA) and NHS England, in which the BMA made clear many practices would not be ready to roll out the programme in a safe way for patients, and that it didn’t comply with their data protection obligations. 

The BMA says the decision is the ‘right thing to do’ for patient safety. 

The BMA said in a statement that while some practices were ready to implement this, many expressed concerns over safety aspects and that it wasn’t fit for purpose at the present time. 

Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair of GPC England at the BMA, said: “We’re pleased to hear that NHS England has decided to review the pace and timing of the automatic, mass roll-out of the Citizens’ Access programme. This is, without doubt, the right thing to do for patient safety. 

“We want patients to be able to access their GP medical records, but this must be done carefully, with the appropriate safeguards in place to protect them from any potential harm.

“The deadline of 30 November was, for many practices, just too soon to do this, and removing it will come as a huge relief to GPs and their teams across the country.” 

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Source: Digital Health, 30 November 2022

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Autistic woman wrongly locked up in mental health hospital for 45 years

An autistic woman with a learning disability was wrongly locked up in a mental health hospital for 45 years, starting when she was just seven years old, the BBC has learned.

The woman, who is believed to be originally from Sierra Leone, and who was given the name Kasibba by the local authority to protect her identity, was also held on her own in long-term segregation for 25 years.

Kasibba is non-verbal and had no family to speak up for her. A clinical psychologist told File on 4 Investigates how she had begun a nine-year battle to release her.

The Department of Health and Social Care told the BBC it was unacceptable that so many disabled people were still being held in mental health hospitals and said it hoped reforms to the Mental Health Act would prevent inappropriate detention.

More than 2,000 autistic people and people with learning disabilities are still detained, external in mental health hospitals in England - including about 200 children. For years, the government has pledged to move many of them into community care, because they do not have any mental illness.

But all key targets in England have been missed. In the past few weeks, in its plan for 2025-26, external, NHS England said it aimed to reduce the reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people, delivering a minimum 10% reduction.

However, Dan Scorer, head of policy and public affairs at the charity Mencap, is not impressed. "Hundreds of people are still languishing, detained, who should have been freed and should be supported in the community, because we haven't seen the progress that was promised," he said.

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Source: BBC News, 4 March 2025

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Autistic teenager was stuck on general hospital ward for months

An autistic girl aged 16 spent nearly seven months in a busy general hospital due to a lack of suitable children's mental health services in England.

The teenager, called Molly, spent about 200 days living in a side-room of a children's ward at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. It is not a mental health unit.

Experts say a general hospital was not the right place for her, but she had nowhere else to go because of a lack of help in the community.

Agency mental health nurses were brought in because she needed constant, three-to-one observations to keep her safe. Her family says security guards were also often stationed outside her room.

Like many autistic people, Molly finds dealing with noise difficult. The clamour of the hospital overloaded her senses and her behaviour sometimes became challenging. She was restrained numerous times.

A spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System (ICS) said it was sorry Molly "did not receive care in an environment better suited to her needs", adding: "Molly's safety has always been our priority."

Campaigners describe the shortage of appropriate support for people with autism as a human rights crisis.

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Source: BBC News, 10 May 2023

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Autistic patient trapped in hospital ward for four months due to system failures

Two young people facing mental health crises were left on paediatric wards for months while different agencies across a health system struggled to find appropriate placements. 

The patients – who were both autistic and had learning disabilities, with special educational needs – were admitted to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust (MTW) last year after attending emergency departments more than 10 times within a two-month period.

They were left on a paediatric ward – one of the patients for four months – as this was the “only available place of safety as opposed to the optimum setting to meet their needs,” according to Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board’s “learning review” of children and young people with complex needs, which the two cases prompted. 

The review, which HSJ obtained under a Freedom of Information request, revealed several problems with joint working, despite a multidisciplinary team meeting regularly to discuss the young patients’ needs.

Since the review, a new escalation process has been introduced, urgent mental health risk assessments in the community have been enhanced and a three-month pilot of a self-harm service has been implemented at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, part of MTW.

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Source: HSJ, 17 November 2023

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Autistic man was 'loneliest man in the hospital'

A whistle-blower in the case of an autistic man who has been detained in hospital since 2001 says he feels complicit in his "neglect and abuse".

A BBC investigation found 100 people with learning disabilities have been held in specialist hospitals for 20 years or more, including Tony Hickmott. His parents are fighting to get him rehoused in the community.

A support worker at a hospital where Mr Hickmott has been detained said he was the "loneliest man in the hospital".

Mr Hickmott was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2001. His parents, Pam and Roy Hickmott, were told he would be treated for nine months, and then he would be able to return home.

He is now 44 - and although he was declared "fit for discharge" by psychiatrists in 2013, he is still waiting for authorities to find him a suitable home with the right level of care for his needs.

Following the report, Phil Devine, who worked in the hospital as a cleaner and a support worker, came forward to talk about conditions at the hospital. 

Mr Devine said only Mr Hickmott's basic needs were met. "Almost like an animal, he was fed, watered and cleaned. If anything happened beyond that, wonderful, but if it didn't, then it was still okay."

In 2020, the hospital was put into special measures because it did not always "meet the needs of complex patients". A report highlighted high levels of restraint and overuse of medication, a lack of qualified and competent staff and an increase of violence on many wards.

The hospital has now been taken out of special measures but still "requires improvement", according to the Care Quality Commission.

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Source: BBC News, 

 

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Autistic man facing abuse in mental health hospital must be given home ‘urgently’, NHS and council told

The NHS and a local council have been told to urgently find a home for a 28-year-old autistic man who is facing psychological and physical abuse within a mental health hospital, after an independent review of his care.

Nicholas Thornton has autism and learning disabilities and is currently being held in the Rochford mental health unit, in Essex, after a decade of being locked away in places not able to care for him adequately.

Now an independent safeguarding review into his care provided at the Essex hospital has ordered the local authority and NHS to find him a home in the community because his relationship with hospital staff has become so bad he is facing psychological and physical harm.

He is one of the 2,045 people with learning disabilities and autism trapped within inpatient units across England.

Mr Thornton has been in the unit, run by the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT), since May this year. He is not under a mental health section, nor does he need mental health treatment, but he is unable to leave because the local authority has not agreed on a place into which he can be discharged.

EPUT is currently facing a public inquiry probing the deaths of 2,000 patients following multiple reviews since 2016 from coroners, the police and health ombudsman criticising the care within the hospital.

A safeguarding report into Mr Thornton’s situation, seen by The Independent and Channel Four News, revealed staff working in the Rochford hospital told investigators they cannot adequately care for Mr Thornton themselves as they are not trained in supporting patients with autism.

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Source: The Independent, 13 December 2023

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Autistic girls much less likely to be diagnosed, study says

Females may be just as likely to be autistic as males but boys are up to four times more likely to be diagnosed in childhood, according to a large-scale study.

Research led by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden scrutinised the diagnosis rates of autism for people born in Sweden between 1985 and 2020. Of the 2.7 million people tracked, 2.8% were diagnosed with autism between the ages of two and 37.

They found that by the age of 20, diagnosis rates of men and women were almost equal, challenging previous assumptions that autism is more common among males.

“Our findings suggest that the gender difference in autism prevalence is much lower than previously thought, due to women and girls being underdiagnosed or diagnosed late,” said the lead author, Dr Caroline Fyfe.

The research calculated that in childhood, boys were diagnosed on average nearly three years earlier than girls – the median age at diagnosis was 15.9 for girls, but 13.1 for boys. Overall, boys were three to four times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with autism under the age of 10, although girls were found to “catch up” by the time they were 20, owing to a rapid increase in autism diagnosis during adolescence.

“These observations highlight the need to investigate why female individuals receive diagnoses later than male individuals,” the authors conclude.

Patient and patient advocate Anne Cary, writing in a linked editorial, said the research supported arguments that it was “systemic biases in diagnosis, rather than a true gap in incidence” that were behind the discrepancy in diagnosis rates.

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Source: The Guardian, 4 February 2026

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Autistic girl, 14, unlawfully detained in hospital, high court judge finds

A 14-year-old autistic girl was unlawfully detained in hospital and restrained in front of scared young patients, a high court judge has found.

On one occasion last month the teenager managed to break into a treatment room where a dying infant was receiving palliative care. She was restrained there by three security guards, Mr Justice MacDonald said in a judgment in the family court that ordered Manchester city council (MCC) to find the girl a suitable community care placement instead of what he described as the “brutal and abusive” and “manifestly unsuitable” hospital environment.

Nurses witnessed the girl screaming “very loudly” and sounding “very scared” when repeatedly held down on her hospital bed so that she could not move her legs, arms or head, before being tranquillised. Other children on the ward were frightened to witness the frequent battles between the girl and security guards, the judge said.

The judge noted that the teenager made “regular and determined” efforts to run away, sometimes using screwdrivers to try to unlock doors and windows, and running away from her family on walks. 

He described the teenager as having an autistic spectrum disorder and a learning disability. She demonstrated “complex and extreme behaviour” that could not be controlled even within a school environment involving six adults to one child supervision, he added.

Despite this, the council and NHS trust decided to have the girl be detained in hospital on a general paediatric ward “solely as a place of safety”, without applying for the necessary court order to do so, the judge found. She did not require any medical treatment, the judge said.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 April 2022

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Autistic children wait up to five years for an NHS appointment

Children are having to wait up to five years for an NHS autism appointment, according to figures obtained by the Observer that lay bare the crisis in children’s mental health services.

Figures acquired under the Freedom of Information Act show that 2,835 autistic children referrals at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust have still not had a first appointment an average of 88 weeks after being referred. The longest wait at the time the response was sent in January stood at 251 weeks – nearly five years.

Meanwhile, 1,250 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) referrals at the trust have yet to have a first appointment, having waited an average of 46 weeks – and 195 weeks in the worst case.

Across 20 NHS trusts that provided figures, children with outstanding autism referrals have waited nearly six months on average for their first appointment.

Cathy Pyle’s daughter, Eva, spent 20 months waiting for an autism assessment from her local NHS child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Surrey, having already had to wait 11 months for a mental health assessment after she became increasingly distressed during her first year of secondary school, culminating in self-harm.

“The sensory aspects of her autism are really significant,” Pyle told the Observer. “So she found the crowding in the corridors, the jostling, being pushed and shoved – she found the noises really, really unbearable.”

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP, Labour’s shadow cabinet minister for mental health, said: “The NHS does an incredible job with the resources that it has, however, long waits for treatment have a considerable impact on patients and families. It’s unacceptable that a six-month wait has become the standard for autism referrals, with many others waiting years to be seen, on the Conservatives’ watch. Waiting so long for treatment will have a detrimental impact on a child’s development.”

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Source: The Guardian, 4 April 2022

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Autism diagnosis wait times hit 300 days

The average wait for an autism diagnosis in England has hit 300 days, according to new NHS data.

That is up 53% from 12 months prior and exceeds the NICE target of 91 days.

The National Autistic Society described such wait times as appalling, warning "autistic people shouldn't miss out on vital support because they haven't got a timely assessment."

A government spokesperson said it had made £4.2m available this year to improve services for autistic children.

Rose Matthews, 63, from County Durham, said receiving an autism diagnosis had been "lifesaving - and I don't say that flippantly".

Before receiving their diagnosis at the age of 59, Rose, who uses "they" and "them" as personal pronouns, said: "My life was unravelling.

"My career was unravelling."

They said their GP had "deeply misguided ideas about what being autistic meant" and brushed them aside.

Joey Nettleton-Burrows, policy and public affairs manager for the National Autistic Society (NAS), said: "We do see lot of misunderstanding from people, and it can include health and social care staff, but I wouldn't say it is common with GPs."

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Source: BBC News, 15 December 2023

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Autism diagnosis six years longer for girls, research finds

"I knew I always felt different, but I didn't know I was autistic."

For Rhiannon Lloyd-Williams, it would take until she was 35 to learn just why she felt different.

Now research by Swansea University has found it takes on average six years longer to diagnose autism in women and girls than in males.

A study of 400 participants found that 75% of boys received a diagnosis before the age of 10 - but only 50% of girls.

It also found the average age of diagnosis in girls was between 10 and 12 - but between four and six for boys.

Now charities in Wales are calling for greater investment into services to help better understand autism in females and speed up a diagnosis.

"The parents responding to the study said there was a marked impact on the girls mental health while waiting for a diagnosis," said Steffan Davies, who carried out the research.

"Girls represented in the study had a lot more pre-existing diagnosis, which suggests they are being misdiagnosed with anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and that tends to defer from the root diagnosis which tends to be autism."

Autism UK said this gender gap has long been an issue and is the down to the diagnosis criteria and research used, which has been focused around young boys.

"Many girls end up missing out on education, because the environment they're expected to learn in is just too overwhelming, while accessing healthcare can be difficult. Women are often not believed," said executive director Willow Holloway.

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Source: BBC News, 23 May 2022

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Author of gov review forms group to fight ‘woeful’ DHSC response

A Tory peer has attacked the Department of Health and Social Care’s ‘woeful’ response to the patient safety review she authored and has revealed she intends to create a cross-party group to force action.

Baroness Julia Cumberlege - who led the “First Do No Harm” report on device and medicine safety– has said she has “not had a whisper” from the department over the report’s key recommendations since it was published in July.

She told HSJ’s Patient Safety Congress she is setting up a cross-party parliamentary group to “pressure” the department to adopt the report’s recommendations.

The report arose from The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, which spoke to more than 700 people, mostly women, who suffered avoidable harm from surgical mesh implants, pregnancy tests and the anti-epileptic drug sodium valproate.

The report discovered “a culture of dismissive and arrogant attitudes” including the unacceptable labelling of many symptoms as “attributable to ‘women’s problems’”. It concluded that the NHS has “either lost sight of the interests of all those it was set up to serve or does not know how best to do this.”

Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock and minister Nadine Dorries have apologised to the women who were harmed but the department has so far not responded to the report’s other eight recommendations in detail.

Baroness Cumberlege said the cross party group would “[try] to open up a firmly shut departmental door. A department that doesn’t seem to get it.” She said: “We have been disappointed [in the department’s response] because we hoped by now we would have some sort of inclination about what’s going on."

“The response from the department on the other key recommendations has been woeful. The reason they give is ‘there is a terrible amount of work to do’”.

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Source: HSJ, 11 November 2020

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Australians urged to get whooping cough vaccination as infections rise more than tenfold in year

Health authorities across Australia are urging people to get vaccinated as cases of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, continue to surge.

The latest national data shows more than 26,700 cases reported so far in 2024, compared with 2,451 cases for all of 2023. The numbers are being driven by cases in Queensland and NSW.

Data published on Thursday shows more than 12,700 of the cases reported are in NSW – the highest level since 2016. In Queensland, there have been almost 8,600 cases, compared with just over 100 cases in the same period in 2023.

Victoria has seen more than 4,000 cases, while in South Australia, cases are at a six-year high; health authorities there have alerted to almost 550 infections so far in 2024.

Babies less than six months old are at greatest risk of severe disease and death, because they are too young to get vaccinated. This means pregnant women, parents and carers of babies, grandparents and other people in close contact with babies need to be vaccinated to protect them.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 September 2024

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Australian women win landmark vaginal mesh class action against Johnson & Johnson

Hundreds of women left in debilitating pain by faulty transvaginal mesh devices have won a landmark case against multinational giant Johnson & Johnson.

The Australian class action against companies owned by Johnson & Johnson was won on behalf of 1,350 women who had mesh and tape products implanted to treat pelvic prolapse or stress urinary incontinence, both common complications of childbirth.

The devices all but ruined the lives of many. Women have been left in severe, debilitating and chronic pain, and often unable to have intercourse. The vast majority also suffered a significant psychological toll. The mesh eroded internally in many cases, has caused infections, multiple complications, and is near impossible to completely remove, Australia’s federal court has heard.

The devices were not properly tested for safety before being allowed on to the Australian market, though Johnson & Johnson and the associated companies clearly knew the potential for serious complications. 

The companies were accused of launching a “tidal wave” of aggressive promotion at doctors, marketing the devices as cheap, simple to insert, and a relatively risk-free way to boost profits. All the while, their potential dangers were minimised, downplayed or ignored, both in communications to doctors and patients, the plaintiffs alleged. When patients complained of pain, they were frequently disbelieved.

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Source: The Guardian, 21 November 2019

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Australian junior doctors launch legal action against managers over working conditions

Registrars at an Australian hospital have launched legal action against its management amid claims that they are being worked beyond exhaustion while being denied their mandatory clinical training.

The alleged plight of the doctors at Melbourne’s Sunshine Hospital has become the latest instalment in a growing list of complaints among doctors in training over excessive workload pressures, exploitation, harassment, and bullying across the country’s public hospital system.

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Source: BMJ, 12 August 2019

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Australian doctors struggling to meet demand of patients seeking help for Long Covid, inquiry told

Long Covid clinics across Australia are being inundated with requests for assessments from patients struggling with ongoing symptoms, an inquiry has heard.

Doctors told the federal parliamentary inquiry into long and repeated coronavirus infections that they were struggling to keep up with demand as waitlists increased.

At least 10 million Australians have been infected with Covid and it is estimated 3-5% will develop Long Covid at some point.

“Our waitlist is increasing because what we’ve observed is that it can take some time for the recognition of post-Covid conditions, particularly with the fatigue-predominant types, to reach us,” Royal Children’s hospital Associate Prof Shidan Tosif told the inquiry on Wednesday.

Patients are usually referred to specialist clinics through a GP and while there is no official cure, symptoms can sometimes be treated on a case-by-case basis.

The inquiry by the House of Representatives health committee is investigating the economic, social, educational and health impacts of long Covid and repeat infections.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2022

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Australian doctor suspended amid investigation into woman’s death after abortion

A doctor working at a women’s health clinic in Melbourne has been suspended as a regulator revealed it was aware of concerns about other practitioners there. The facility’s boss claims it is a “witch hunt”.

It follows the death of 30-year-old mother Harjit Kaur, who died in January at the Hampton Park Women’s Clinic after what was described as a “minor procedure”.

It was later identified as a pregnancy termination.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) has confirmed Dr Rudolph Lopes’ registration had been suspended but did not reveal the reason behind the decision.

His registration details show he was reprimanded in 2021 for failing to respond to the regulator’s inquiries.

“[The regulator] has received a range of concerns about a number of practitioners associated with the Hampton Park Women’s Clinic,” Ahpra said in a statement.

“[The regulator] has established a specialist team to lead a co-ordinated examination of these issues which involve multiple practitioners across a number of professions and across a number of practice locations.”

Ahpra chief executive, Martin Fletcher, said he was “gravely concerned by the picture that is emerging.”

“We have taken strong action to protect the public while our investigations continue,” Fletcher said.

“National boards stand ready to take any further regulatory action needed to keep patients safe.

“While the coroner continues to examine the tragic death of a patient, our inquiries are focusing on a wider range of issues that our investigations bring to light.”

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Source: The Guardian, 15 March 2024

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Australia’s health ministers agree to make 'Quality Use of Medicines' and medicines safety a National Health Priority Area

At last week’s meeting in Perth, Australia, the COAG Health Council discussed a number of national health issues, one of which was the Quality Use of Medicines.

The Council’s resulting communique highlights that medicines are the most common intervention in healthcare and can contribute to significant health gains – but can also be associated with harm.

“Half of all medication related harm is preventable and a coordinated national approach that identifies and promotes best practice models and measures progress towards reducing medication related harm has the potential to improve the health of Australians and create savings across the health care system,” it notes.

At the meeting, the Health Ministers agreed to make the Quality Use of Medicines and Medicines Safety the 10th National Health Priority Area

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Source: Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 4 November 2019

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Australia: Two women face court charged with manslaughter after home-birth death of NSW baby

Two women who police allege practised as unregistered midwives have been charged with manslaughter after a baby died after a home birth on the New South Wales mid north coast.

The women, aged 41 and 51, appeared in Coffs Harbour local court on Wednesday in relation to the newborn boy’s death in 2022.

Emergency services were called to a home in Karangi, north-west of Coffs Harbour, when the baby was unresponsive after the home birth on 11 September 2022, NSW police said in a statement.

Paramedics treated the baby before he was airlifted to Coffs Harbour base hospital where he died.

Police allege the younger woman was an unregistered midwife at the time of the birth while the older woman held no medical qualifications and had been practising unregistered home-birth midwifery.

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Source: The Guardian, 13 March 2025

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Australia: Research explores ways to stop painful chemo for kids

 Ongoing research underway at The University of Queensland in Australia is focusing on stopping children undergoing chemotherapy from feeling pain and other debilitating side effects.

Dr Hana Starobova from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience has been awarded a Fellowship Grant from the Children’s Hospital Foundation to continue her research to relieve children from the side effects of cancer treatments.

“Although children have a higher survival rate than adults following cancer treatments, they can still be suffering side-effects well into their adulthood,” Dr Starobova said.

“A five-year-old cancer patient could be suffering severe pain, gastrointestinal problems or difficulty walking 20 years on from treatment.

“There has been a lack of studies on children, which is an issue because they are not just small adults — they suffer from different cancers, their immune systems work differently and they have a faster metabolism, all of which affect how treatments work.

“Our aim is to treat children before the damage happens so that the side-effects are dramatically reduced or don’t occur in the first place.”

Dr Starobova is currently analysing how specific drugs could prevent a cascade of inflammation caused by chemotherapy drugs, which lead to tingling and numbness in hands and feet, and muscle pain and weakness that makes everyday tasks, like walking and doing up buttons, a challenge.

She is focusing on Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in children, with over 700 children diagnosed in Australia each year.

“We are studying the most commonly used chemotherapy treatment for children, which is a mix of drugs that are very toxic, but have to be used to treat cancer fast and stop it becoming resistant to the drugs,” Dr Starobova said.

“It’s a fine balance — too little chemotherapy and cancer won’t be killed but sometimes the side effects are so bad, patients have to stop the therapy.

“I hope that by having a treatment to reduce side-effects, it will be one less thing for these kids and their families to worry about.”

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Source: The Print, 15 August 2022

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Australia: Patients of retired dentist warned of bloodborne viruses, including HIV

Authorities in Australia have issued a warning to patients of a retired dentist, urging them to test themselves for bloodborne viruses due to "poor infection control practices" at the clinic.

Thousands of patients at Dr William Tam's clinic in Strathfield, western Sydney may have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, the New South Wales state health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Ministry urged patients to see a doctor and test for such viruses, thought it noted that the "risk is low".

Tam is now retired and de-registered as a dentist, the statement said.

"The poor infection control practices at Dr Tam's practice means all former patients may be at low risk of a blood borne virus infection, which can have serious and long-lasting health impacts," Dr Leena Gupta, the public health clinical director of the Sydney Local Health District, said in the ministry statement.

"People with HIV, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C may not have any symptoms for decades, so it is important that people at risk of these infections are tested, so that they can access treatment as appropriate."

Gupta said they believed Tam had seen thousands of patients in the last 25 years, but there were no records that could be used to contact them.

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Source: The Guardian, 13 May 2026

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