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Australia: No action taken against Victorian mental health services despite more than 12,000 complaints

After receiving more than 12,000 complaints about Australia's Victorian mental health services, the state’s regulator has not taken compliance action against a single mental healthcare provider in seven years.

This is despite the royal commission into the Victorian mental health sector last year finding systemic breaches of the law and human rights across the system.

Annual reports from Victoria’s mental health complaints commissioner (MHCC) showed that in the seven years since it was first established in July 2014, it received 14,160 inquiries, of which 12,470 were complaints. Yet no compliance notices were issued, despite the MHCC having regulatory powers to compel providers to improve.

The MHCC is an independent body that resolves complaints about Victoria’s public mental health services and makes recommendations for improvements.

The MHCC’s service provider complaint reports, obtained under freedom of information, show that some mental health services do not hand over data on the outcomes of complaints, in breach of the state’s Mental Health Act (2014).

The chief executive of Mind Australia – a community-based mental health provider, Gill Callister, said it was vital people with mental health concerns, their families and carers had access to “information about the performance and approach” of the mental health services they access.

“For a lot of people, a lack of transparency reinforces the view that they’re sitting at the bottom of the pile in terms of priority even when seeking information about their own care,” she said.

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Source: The Guardian, 25 May 2022

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Australia: New guidelines helping stem the tide of serious allergies in children

The rising rate at which Australian children are being admitted to hospital for serious food allergies has flattened since infant feeding guidelines were changed, new research shows.

The rate of hospitalisation for food anaphylaxis has increased in Australia in recent decades – but data suggests that changes to allergy prevention and infant feeding guidelines in 2008 and 2016 have helped to stem the rise in young children and teenagers.

In 2008, the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy guidelines were changed to recommend that allergenic solid foods should no longer be delayed, and in 2016 they were again updated to suggest such foods should be introduced in the first year of life.

Study co-author Prof Mimi Tang, an immunologist at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, said the greatest benefit of the updated guidelines was in children aged one to four.

Tang said there had been important changes to allergy prevention advice in the last 15 years. “Prior to 2008, all of the food allergy … prevention guidelines around the world were advising to delay the introduction of allergenic foods such as egg, milk and peanut until the ages of somewhere between two and four, depending on the food,” she said.

“The reason these recommendations were in place was based on theoretical concerns that the gut barrier was perhaps not as strong in young babies.”

But a growing body of evidence showed that delaying allergenic foods was associated with an increased risk of developing food allergies.

In the new study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Tang and her colleagues noted an ongoing increase in anaphylaxis hospitalisation rates in teenagers aged 15 and older at the time the research was completed. People in this age group were born before the 2008 changes to the Australian guidelines.

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Source: The Guardian, 24 February 2022

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Australia: National cosmetic surgery standards needed for patient safety

More than 100,000 doctors in Australia hold the right to call themselves cosmetic surgeons, without having undergone the specific training to be competent and safe.

President of the Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery and Medicine Dr Patrick Tansley says cosmetic surgery does not form part of the traditional medical training undertaken in Australia, due to the practice being relatively new.

“Society has moved faster than legislation has followed it,” he told Sky News Australia.

Dr Tansley said he is advocating for the introduction of a national standard to endorse this area of practice in Australia, where doctors would be placed on a public register for patients to review their accreditation.

“Once they had met those standards and then were endorsed, they could be placed on a public register, independently administered by the regulator AHPRA.

“And the public would then be able to see, with clarity and transparency, which of those doctors have been trained and accredited in cosmetic surgery.”

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Source: Sky News, 23 April 2022

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Australia: Monash IVF admits second bungled embryo implant

A second bungled embryo implant at Monash IVF has sparked a new investigation and the expansion of a review into the first incident, which led to a woman unknowingly giving birth to a stranger’s baby.

Monash IVF said in a statement on Tuesday that in June “a patient’s own embryo was incorrectly transferred to that patient, contrary to the treatment plan which designated the transfer of an embryo of the patient’s partner”.

“Monash IVF has extended its sincere apologies to the affected couple, and we continue to support them,” the fertility company said.

The first error was announced in April. In that case, a patient at one of its Queensland clinics had an embryo incorrectly transferred to her, meaning she gave birth to a child of an unrelated woman.

The mistake was blamed on human error. Monash IVF asked senior counsel Fiona McLeod to investigate.

Lawyers described the incident as a legal and ethical nightmare while Monash IVF said it was confident it was an isolated incident.

The latest incident happened in a Victorian laboratory. The state’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, confirmed the Victorian health regulator was investigating.

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Source: The Guardian, 10 June 2025

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Australia: Fatal medication mistakes and surgery mix-ups among record number of ‘harm events’ in Victorian hospitals

Fatal medication errors killed 18 patients and four died or were seriously harmed after objects were left inside their bodies after surgery, a review into harmful events at Victorian hospitals in Australia has revealed.

The deaths are among 245 sentinel or “harm events” uncovered in the 12 months to the end of June 2023, according to a Safer Care Victoria report, up 2% on the previous year.

Four people died or were seriously harmed due to a foreign object staying in their body after surgery, including surgical sponges or dressings which can lead to infections.

Swabs are counted during procedures and the report said most errors were due to staff changing over during surgery, when a procedure involved two stages or when a dressing was modified.

Surgery or invasive procedures were performed on the wrong side of a patient’s body three times while one person underwent the wrong procedure.

Eighteen patients died due to a medication error and eight needed life-saving intervention, with prescribing issues and wrong dosages most commonly to blame.

The total number of harmful events in the year to 2023 was the highest on record since Safer Care Victoria was established in 2017.

Its chief executive, Louise McKinlay, said it was important to learn from every single event so it was not repeated.

“We’re seeing a stabilisation in the number of sentinel events being reported to us – this demonstrates an improving culture of transparency on safety risk issues and a willingness to learn from patient harm,” she said.

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Source: The Guardian, 6 September 2024

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Australia: Disability carer sentenced to six years’ jail over death of patient due to criminal neglect

The carer who admitted the manslaughter of Adelaide woman Ann Marie Smith, who had cerebral palsy, has been jailed for at least five years and three months for her criminal neglect.

Sentencing Rosa Maria Maione in the Supreme Court, Justice Anne Bampton said the 70-year-old was grossly negligent, with her care for Smith falling well short of the standard expected.

“You did not mobilise her from the chair in which she was found. You did not toilet her properly and you did not clean her properly,” she told Maione on Friday.

“You did not feed her a nutritional diet or monitor her intake. You knew you were not capable of properly supporting her and you did not seek assistance in providing for Ms Smith’s needs."

“Despite the deterioration in Ms Smith’s health, you did not seek assistance from your supervisor or medical professionals until it was too late.”

Justice Bampton said Maione had absolutely no insight into Smith’s physical condition leading up to her death.

“Your incompetence, lack of training, lack of assertiveness and lack of supervision produced an environment where you failed to provide appropriate care,” she said.

“Every person living with a disability, every person who requires support, every parent, carer and support worker of persons living with a disability, I have no doubt shudders with fear when they hear of the utter lack of care and human dignity afforded to Ms Smith in those last months of her life.”

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Source: The Guardian, 18 March 2022

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Australia: brain surgeon defends slapping patient after surgery

The high-profile Australian neurosurgeon Charlie Teo admits making an error by going “too far” and damaging a patient, but maintains she was told of the risks.

The doctor on Monday appeared at a medical disciplinary hearing to explain how two women patients ended up with catastrophic brain injuries.

Teo also defended allegations that he acted inappropriately by slapping a patient in an attempt to rouse her after surgery, contrasting it with Will Smith’s notorious slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards last year.

“It wakes them up and it wakes them up pretty quickly. And I will continue to do it.”

Charlie Teo tells inquiry he ‘did the wrong thing’ in surgery that left patient in vegetative state

One of the issues the panel of legal and medical experts is considering is whether the women and their families were adequately informed of the risks of surgery.

Both women had terminal brain tumours and had been given from weeks to months to live. They were left in essentially vegetative states after the surgeries and died soon after.

“We were told he could give us more time,” one of the husbands said, according to court documents. “There was never any information about not coming out of it".

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Source: The Guardian, 27 March 2023

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Australia: Ambulance ramping is a signal the health system is floundering. Solutions need to extend beyond EDs

Healthcare systems across Australia are buckling in the wake of COVID waves and the flu season. Pictures of ambulances piling up outside hospitals have become commonplace in the media. Known as “ramping”, it’s the canary in the coalmine of a health system.

As a major symptom of a health system under stress, state governments across Australia are investing unprecedented amounts into ambulance services, emergency departments (EDs) and hospitals. South Australia has committed to an increased recruitment of 350 new paramedics. Likewise, New South Wales has committed to 1,850 extra paramedics.

Victoria, meanwhile, has committed an additional A$162 million for system-wide solutions to counter paramedic wait times, on top of the A$12 billion already committed to the wider health system. This could begin to alleviate the system pressures that lead to ambulance ramping.

But what happens when the paramedics return yet again to ED with another patient? Will they simply end up ramped again?

We also need to consider better care in the community – and paramedics could play a role in this too.

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Source: The Conversation, 21 July 2022

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Australia: After decades of pain, ‘thalidomiders’ welcome national apology but still mourn loved ones

“Gut-wrenching,” says Lisa McManus. She is looking for words to describe how she and other thalidomide survivors feel ahead of a historic apology by Anthony Albanese for government failings in the tragedy.

She is grateful for recognition of the medical disaster and relieved that a decade of advocacy has come to fruition. Around 80 of the 146 recognised survivors will witness the apology in Canberra on Wednesday in what McManus hopes will be “a step in the healing process”.

But she is also frustrated that too many others have not lived to see the day.

Thalidomide caused birth defects including “shortened or absent limbs, blindness, deafness or malformed internal organs”, according to the Department of Health.

The drug was not tested on pregnant women before approval, and the birth defect crisis led to greater medical oversight worldwide, including the creation of Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration. Survivors and independent reports have criticised the government of the day for not acting sooner to remove thalidomide from shelves when problems became apparent.

McManus leads Thalidomide Group Australia, having lobbied governments for a decade for an apology and better support. She’s “extremely grateful” for the apology, and says many survivors are anxious, excited and nervous – but that the apology itself can’t be the end.

“I’m relieved it’s happening, I just can’t say ‘thank you’,” McManus says. “I’m very happy to think it’s here, but it won’t fix things, and I don’t want the government thinking they will deliver this and it’ll all be fine.”

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Source: The Guardian, 28 November 2023

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Australia: ‘Medicine safety is a priority for us all.’

Stakeholders from across various sectors in Australia attended a medicine safety forum convened in Canberra on Monday.

Held by the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF), Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA), the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA), NPS MedicineWise and academic partners Monash University and University of Sydney, the forum challenged participants to ‘think differently’ on the safe use of medicines in Australia.

This included brainstorming on what success in improving medicine safety would look like in 10 years.

“Medicine safety is a priority for us all and we each have a role to play,” PSA National President Associate Professor Chris Freeman said. “It was inspiring to see the sector work together today to proactively identify those measures we can cooperatively pursue to make a real difference and protect patients.”

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Source: AJP.com.au

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Australia to ban recreational vaping in major public health move

Recreational vaping will be banned in Australia, as part of a major crackdown amid what experts say is an "epidemic".

Minimum quality standards will also be introduced, and the sale of vapes restricted to pharmacies.

Nicotine vapes already require a prescription in Australia, but the industry is poorly regulated and a black market is thriving.

Health Minister Mark Butler says the products are creating a new generation of nicotine addicts in Australia.

Also known as e-cigarettes, vapes heat a liquid - usually containing nicotine - turning it into a vapour that users inhale. They are widely seen as a product to help smokers quit.

But in Australia, vapes have exploded in popularity as a recreational product, particularly among young people in cities.

Vapes are considered safer than normal cigarettes because they do not contain harmful tobacco - the UK government is even handing them to some smokers for free in its "swap to stop" programme.But health experts advise that vapes are not risk-free - they can often contain chemicals - and the long-term implications of using them are not yet clear.Read full story

Source: BBC News, 2 May 2023

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Australia struggles to contain worst diphtheria outbreak in decades after over 220 cases reported

Australia is grappling with its “biggest diphtheria outbreak“ in decades as the bacterial infection continues to spread through Northern Territory.

The country’s top medical body is now urging all Australians to ensure they are fully vaccinated against diphtheria following a resurgence of the Victorian-era disease.

Most of the nearly 220 cases reported so far are in Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia, and Queensland.

Diphtheria can cause swollen glands, breathing problems and fever. The bacterial disease mostly affects children.

It was considered almost eradicated following a vaccination rollout that began in the 1930s.

The current outbreak is being blamed on a dip in vaccination rates. Cases began to rise in 2025, prompting the Northern Territory Centre for Disease Control to declare an outbreak in March.

Almost all cases have involved Indigenous Australians, which has pushed health authorities to work with Aboriginal agencies to improve immunisation.

Health authorities were awaiting the outcome of an investigation into a suspected diphtheria death, which could be the first fatality from the disease in almost a decade.

"We've been recording case numbers nationally for about 35 years and this, by a very big distance, is the biggest outbreak of diphtheria we've ever seen,” federal health minister Mark Butler said.

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Source: The Independent, 20 May 2026

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Australia needs to “get real on medicine safety”

Australia needs to “get real on medicine safety”, Federal Parliament heard this week.

Speaking in the House of Representatives, Julian Hill (ALP, Vic) said “too many Australians are being seriously injured, sometimes with lifelong impacts or dying, because of the weakness in our pharmacovigilance system”.

Mr Hill, Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, referred to a recent study by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia which “estimated the extent of the problem at 250,000 annual hospital admissions as a result of medication related problems and 400,000 additional presentations to emergency departments, likely because of medicine related problems.

There’s an annual cost of $1.4 billion, and yet 50 per cent of this harm is estimated to be preventable,” he said.

“I have spoken before about my concerns in this area, and so have many other advocates, but the  government is still not taking these issues seriously. Every day of inaction means Australians are at risk of death or serious harm from medicines when it could be avoided”.

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Source: AJP.com.au, 28 November 2019

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Australia confirms first diphtheria death amid worst outbreak in decades

Australia has recorded its first diphtheria death in almost a decade as the country grapples with the worst outbreak of the vaccine-preventable disease in decades.

In March, the Northern Territory (NT) declared an outbreak of diphtheria with cases also in Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland. Cases started rising in late-2025 with a sharp increase in February.

This year, there have been 245 cases, marking the largest outbreak in Australia since 1991, mainly in remote Indigenous communities.

On Tuesday, NT's health minister said autopsy results from an overseas lab found diphtheria was the cause of a man's death in April at Royal Darwin Hospital, the first such case since 2018.

In recent weeks, the government has ramped up vaccination efforts in areas most at risk and the number of new cases was now falling, health officials said on Tuesday.

"Our government has taken this situation very seriously, and we are working hard to understand the causes and working to contain the situation," NT Health Minister Steve Edgington said.

Since 30 March, there have been 10,407 vaccinations, he said.

Authorities are urging affected communities to update their vaccinations, especially teenagers and adults who need to get booster shots.

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Source: The Independent, 26 May 2026

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Austerity since 2010 linked to tens of thousands more deaths than expected

Austerity measures introduced by David Cameron’s coalition government after 2010 can be linked to tens of thousands of additional deaths, according to a damning new study.

A paper published by researchers at the University of York concluded that reductions in funding to health can be linked to an extra 57,550 fatalities.

Researchers looked at the healthcare spending of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat government after 2010.

The researchers said the results of their paper confirmed what had been reported in previous studies.

But the conclusions of causal impact of social care, public health and healthcare expenditure on mortality in England, published in the BMJ Open journal, make “a major contribution by additionally estimating the effect of social care expenditure,” its authors said.

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Source: The Independent, 15 October 2021

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Austerity increased rates of premature births in UK, research says

Austerity measures, originally introduced by the coalition government in 2010, led to a dramatic increase in premature births and low-weight births, a new study has shown.

Birth rates in Scotland found “marked increases” in babies born smaller or prematurely were particularly evident in the most deprived areas, according to the researchers.

The study, published in the European Journal of Medicine, showed trends in low birth rates and premature birth changes within one to three years after austerity was implemented. Premature birth was the main driver of smaller weights.

For babies born in the 20 per cent most deprived areas premature birth rates increased by around 25 per cent, after declining year on year prior 2012.

Researchers said: “Hugely concerning changes to health outcomes have been observed in the UK since the early 2010s, including reductions in life expectancy and widening of inequalities. These have been attributed to UK government ‘austerity’ policies which have profoundly affected poorer populations.”

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Source: The Independent, 3 November 2024

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Austerity has led to NHS quality of care declining in key areas

The quality of care that the NHS provides has got worse in many key areas and patients’ long waits to access treatment could become even more common, research has found.

The coalition government’s austerity programme in the early 2010s led to the heath service no longer being able to meet key waiting time targets, the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation said.

Austerity ushered in “really concerning deterioration across the board” in the overall quality of NHS care, as judged by patients’ experience and prevention of ill-health, not just speed of access.

Analysis by the two thinktanks’ joint Quality Watch programme, which monitors more than 150 indicators of care quality over time, found that in England:

  • Fewer people with long-term heath conditions such as cancer, diabetes and depression, are getting enough help to manage their condition.
  • Breast cancer screening rates for women aged 53-74 have fallen.
  • It has become harder for patients to see a named GP.
  • Only 6% of midwives think their maternity unit has enough staff to do its job properly.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 July 2023

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Attitudes to long Covid are straight out of the ME playbook

Dr Kelly Fearnley caught COVID-19 in November 2020, after being redeployed to work on a coronavirus ward. Ten months on, she’s still living with debilitating symptoms of the condition known as long Covid.

The latest estimates, published in June, suggest more than two million people in the UK have had long Covid since the pandemic began, while figures released by the Office for National Statistics in April show that more than 120,000 of those are NHS staff.

Dr Fearnley discusses with iNews her experience of being taken to hospital after becoming seriously unwell. Dr Fearnley had a high resting heart rate and wasn’t able to get out of bed. She had pins and needles and was experiencing attacks of breathlessness, as well as violent shaking of her entire body. Yet, after running tests, she says the senior doctor she saw made it clear they believed Dr Fearnley was suffering from anxiety.

“I was [treated as] an anxious little girl. My concerns weren’t taken seriously. Despite being a doctor myself, I felt let down by my colleagues at a time when I needed help but help wasn’t there,” Dr Fearnley said. “Sadly, I know my experience isn’t uncommon. I know a lot of long haulers have had their symptoms dismissed as anxiety.”

But Dr Fearnley’s experience is also not unique to long Covid patients. “There’s a long history in medicine of dismissing hard-to-diagnose and hard-to-treat patients as having psychological or behavioural problems,” says Brian Hughes, Professor of Psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

“Historically, these problems have also been far more likely to emerge where illnesses primarily affect women,” he added.

There are countless examples of this, but the condition that’s been most closely linked to long Covid is myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) – also known as chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS. 2020 research into GPs’ knowledge and understanding of the condition found that between a third and half of GPs did not accept ME as a “genuine clinical entity“. As a result, patients have continued to have their symptoms disbelieved or dismissed as psychological for decades. 

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Source: iNews, 9 September 2021

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Attention ADHD waiting lists ‘clogged by patients returning from private care to NHS’

Waiting lists for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in England are being clogged by patients returning to NHS care after difficulties with private assessments, a trust has warned.

The major NHS trust said people referred by GPs to private clinics using health service funding were increasingly asking to be transferred back after care stalled.

These include cases where private clinics are able to diagnose ADHD but their assessments do not always comply with guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, or where providers lack staff with the appropriate qualifications to support continued prescribing.

The consequences for patients can be severe. Some are facing prescription costs of more than £200 a month after GPs said they could no longer work with private clinics under shared care agreements.

The father of one man whose shared care agreement was withdrawn after three years said: “With no warning, the GP practice announced they would stop prescribing within six months because the provider was ‘out of area’. They’ve referred my son to the local NHS service, MPFT [Midlands partnership university NHS foundation trust], but waiting times exceed six months – guaranteeing a treatment gap.

“My son holds down a responsible job and has bought his own home. None of this would have been possible without medication. Without it, he struggles to focus at work, can’t manage daily organisation and experiences overwhelming anxiety. His consultant has warned of ‘predictable harms’ if treatment stops.”

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Source: The Guardian, 23 January 2026

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Attacks on health workers in conflict zones at highest level ever – report

Attacks on health workers, hospitals and clinics in conflict zones jumped 25% last year to their highest level on record, a new report has found.

While the increase was largely driven by new wars in Gaza and Sudan, continuing conflicts such as Ukraine and Myanmar also saw such attacks continue “at a relentless pace,” the Safeguarding Health in Conflict coalition said.

Researchers recorded more than 2,500 incidents of “violence against or obstruction of healthcare” in 2023, including the killing or kidnapping of health workers and the bombing, looting and occupation of hospitals.

The coalition called for national and international prosecutions of “war crimes and crimes against humanity involving attacks on the wounded and sick, health facilities and health workers.”

Its report highlighted cases of attacks on children’s hospitals and sites running immunisation campaigns, leaving people vulnerable to infectious diseases. It also warned of a new trend in which drones armed with explosive weapons are used to target health facilities.

Leonard Rubenstein, of the Johns Hopkins school of public health, who chairs the coalition, said violence inflicted on healthcare workers and facilities had “reached appalling levels”. The report included examples where workers had been deliberately targeted, and others where combatants were reckless or indifferent to the harm caused, he said. “The lack of restraint we are seeing, from the beginning of conflicts, suggests to me that the law on protecting healthcare has had no meaning to combatants.”

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Source: The Guardian, 22 May 2024

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Attacks in Wales on workers up to almost 3,000

"I shouldn't have to work out my escape route when I walk into a property."

Paramedic Joanna Paskell was a victim of one of the near-3,000 attacks on emergency workers in Wales last year.

The patient who punched her got a 12-month community order, but it left the 45-year-old suffering with anxiety and meant she was off work for four months.

"It took four security guards to calm her down so she could be treated," said Mrs Paskell, who has worked with the ambulance service for more than 25 years.

She said at first she tried to laugh it off, but it was only when getting ready for her next shift, five days later, that she felt the emotional toll.

"All I want to do is make a difference - that's why I joined this job. We can't do that if we're working in fear of our own safety."

Last year there were 2,838 assaults against police officers, firefighters, ambulance staff, NHS workers and prison staff - a 4.9% rise.

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Source: BBC News, 30 May 2022

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At-risk NHS workers told to put their health first as volunteer doctor dies

Healthcare professionals have been told to consider not treating patients with the COVID-19 coronavirus if they themselves would be put at risk, part of new ethical guidance that calls on doctors to prioritise some ailments over the pandemic.

The new recommendations for healthcare professionals over 70 years, or with pre-existing conditions, to put themselves first when tackling the pandemic comes following the death of a doctor who returned to the frontlines as a volunteer following a call to arms from the government.

The guidance from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) makes up part of a sweeping list of ethical considerations faced by healthcare workers in the face of the global pandemic.

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Source: The Independent, 2 April 2020

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At-home hepatitis C test identifies hundreds with silent but deadly virus

The NHS has identified 225 people with a silent but deadly virus as part of a national drive to stamp out the disease and uncover more victims of the infected blood scandal.

The significant discovery was made after more than 100,000 at-home hepatitis C tests were requested since the service's launch in May 2023, including 15,463 in the week after the Infected Blood Inquiry published its final report in May 2024.

Health officials said that 105,998 people have ordered an at-home NHS hepatitis C test online since the service was launched in 2023.

Among those diagnosed under the NHS scheme so far, NHS England said that seven in 10 are from deprived communities.

The most common risk factors reported by positive cases include injecting drug use, sharing needles and other drug paraphernalia and a history of prison.

It is understood that only a very small number identified after ordering a test online had a positive result after receiving contaminated blood.

In May this year, NHS England also launched a system which means that people of a certain age who newly register with GP practices in England will be asked if they had a blood transfusion prior to 1996 in a bid to find more victims of the infected blood scandal.

Professor Meghana Pandit, NHS national medical director, said “We want to make it easier for people to access care before hidden viruses like hepatitis C cause people serious harm.

“The home testing service is available to everyone, and through targeted outreach to people at higher risk we are helping thousands avoid serious illness and reducing health inequalities in the process.

“If you or someone you know might be at risk, order a free and confidential test today via the NHS hepatitis C testing website – it could save your life.”

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Source: The Independent, 20 August 2025

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At-home cervical screening tests offered in England

Women who have delayed coming forward for cervical screening will be offered a test to be taken at home, NHS England has said.

The DIY test kits, available from January, contain a long cotton-wool bud to swab the lining of the vagina.

The test is for human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes most cervical cancers, and women between the ages of 25 and 64 are offered it every few years.

The Department for Health and Social Care in England said the scheme would tackle "deeply entrenched barriers" that keep women away from cervical screening.

This can be due to embarrassment, discomfort, lack of time as well as religious or cultural concerns.

Just 68.8% of women currently take up the offer of cervical cancer screening - well below the NHS England target of 80%.

Younger women, those with a disability, ethnic minority communities and LGBT+ groups are more likely to miss appointments.

A recent trial showed the rollout of home test kits across England could increase the proportion screened to 77% over three years.

Hazel Stinson, 49, from Kent, suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and was last able to visit the GP for a cervical screening six years ago.

She says she is "absolutely thrilled" that at-home testing is being rolled out across England.

"This will mean that I and millions of other people just like me will be able to have the test when otherwise they might not be able to do it," she added.

Ms Stinson said as someone with chronic fatigue, which is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME, "the most important thing is to advocate for yourself".

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Source: BBC News, 24 June 2025

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At least 70 ‘Never Events’ at hospitals in Northern Ireland in last five years

At least 70 incidents that ‘should never be allowed to happen’ have taken place at hospitals in the north in the last five years.

As severe pressure on the health service continues to grow, figures obtained by The Irish News through Freedom of Information requests show that 70 so-called ‘Never Events’ have occured since 2019.

The data also shows that two deaths were caused as a result of such incidents in the last five years, one in the Belfast trust area and one in the South Eastern trust area.

‘Never Events’ in the NHS are defined as ‘wholly preventable’ incidents where there are ‘strong systemic protective barriers’ in place to avoid them. Each incident has the potential to cause serious harm or death.

The data provided to The Irish News from the five health and social care trusts in the North show that the Belfast Trust alone was responsible for 37 Never Events.

SDLP MLA Colin McGrath says the figures are “extremely worrying” and that he has written to Health Minister Mike Nesbitt for an “urgent assessment” of the number of incidents.

“’Never Events’ by their very title should never occur but the sheer scale of them is worrying,” the South Down MLA said.

“It is most concerning too to hear that people have died as a result of these events - underlying the serious nature of them.

“I have written to the Minister on the back of these figures secured by the Irish News and have asked for an urgent assessment of them to ensure learning from the incidents is achieved to reduce their occurrence in the future.”

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Source: The Irish News, 5 August 2024

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