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A surgeon was flagged as dangerous — she kept operating for ten years

Hospital bosses were warned about an NHS surgeon almost nine years before she was eventually suspended over botched operations on children.

A joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Sky News has discovered a confidential report written for managers at Cambridge University Hospitals Trust in 2016 that identified problems with the surgical technique and practice of Kuldeep Stohr, a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon.

A series of recommendations were made in the report but Stohr was allowed to continue operating. Managers at the hospital told staff the investigation into Stohr had not raised any concerns.

Almost a decade on, Stohr has been suspended by the trust after a new review identified at least nine children whose care “fell below the standard” expected. The trust has begun a review of 800 other patients, including around 560 children, 140 adults and 100 emergency patients, who were operated on by Stohr. It has also commissioned an investigation into what action was taken after the 2016 report.

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Source: The Times, 10 May 2025

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A quarter of paediatric deaths at hospitals are preventable, study finds

Investing in paediatric emergency care could save lives more than 2,100 lives each year, new research found.

The study also reported that a quarter of childhood deaths are preventable and investing in the care could save more children.

The price of such an investment would be modest, ranging from no cost to $11.84 per child, according to Oregon Health & Science University physicians.

Implementing new standards of paediatric care across hospital may have prevented an estimated 2,143 of the 7,619 paediatric deaths that occur in emergency departments or following admission from emergency departments each year, the study noted.

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Source: The Independent, 2 November 2024

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A quarter of inpatients at mental health trust have Covid

More than one in four inpatients at one of England’s largest mental health trusts were reported as covid-positive this week, according to data seen by HSJ.

Around 160 inpatients across South London and Maudsley (SLAM) Foundation Trust’s sites, or 28% of its total open beds, were reported as positive at the beginning of the week. 

Several other London mental health trusts have seen high rates of covid cases in recent weeks, as there has been enormous spread of the omicron variant in the capital, although rates have not been as high as at SLAM.

SLAM told HSJ that infection rates rose and fell in a reflection of community transmission, with covid-positive people being admitted, and there being spread within inpatient units.

While no wards have been closed and all of the trust’s services are open, visiting was suspended in mid-December due to what the organisation described on its website as a “high number of [covid] outbreaks”.

Several sources in the sector told HSJ there had been widespread omicron outbreaks in mental health units across England. They said the nature of psychiatric wards and use of restraints meant adhering to stringent social distancing measures, in the face of a highly infectious variant, was more difficult than in other settings.

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Source: HSJ, 6 January 2022

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A public defibrillator may be a mile away in deprived areas

In the most deprived areas of England and Scotland, the nearest 24/7 accessible defibrillator is on average a round trip of 1.8 km away—over a mile—according to a pioneering study supported by the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

The researchers, led by Dr Chris Wilkinson, senior lecturer in cardiology at Hull York Medical School, used data from national defibrillator network The Circuit to calculate the median road distance to a defibrillator with unrestricted public access across Great Britain's 1.7 million postcodes.

Among the 78,425 defibrillator locations included, the median distance from the centre of a postcode to a 24/7 public access defibrillator was 726.1 metres – 0.45 miles. In England and Scotland, the more deprived an area was, the farther its average distance from a 24/7-accessible defibrillator – on average 99 metres more in England, and 317 metres farther in Scotland for people living in the most compared with the least deprived areas. There was no link between defibrillator location and deprivation in Wales.

The researchers said they hoped the findings, presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in Amsterdam and published in the journal Heart, would lead to more equal access to defibrillators. They noted that there were over 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) annually in the UK; in England nearly 30% happened at weekends, and 40% between 6pm and 6am. 

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Read research study: Automated external defibrillator location and socioeconomic deprivation in Great Britain (28 August 2023)

Source: Medscape, 29 August 2023

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A new population-wide health data resource to accelerate research on COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease in England

For the first time, a new linked health data resource covering 54.4 million people – over 96% of the English population – is now available for researchers from across the UK to collaborate in NHS Digital’s secure research environment. This resource will enable vital research to take place into COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease, with the aim of improving treatments and care for patients.

This work has been led by the CVD-COVID-UK consortium in partnership with NHS Digital. The new resource links health data from GP records, hospital data, death records, COVID-19 laboratory test data and data on medications dispensed from pharmacies, and is accessible to CVD-COVID-UK consortium researchers in NHS Digital’s Trusted Research Environment (TRE) Service for England.

The CVD-COVID-UK consortium is a collaborative group of more than 130 members across 40 institutions working to understand the relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases. The consortium is managed by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre, led by Health Data Research UK.

The ability to link different types of health data from almost the entire population of England provides a more complete and accurate picture of the impact of COVID-19 on patients with diseases of the heart and circulation than has been possible before now. It will also provide the data to understand whether patients with COVID-19 are more likely to go on to develop diseases of the heart and circulation, such as heart attack and stroke.

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Source: HDRUK, 24 February 2021

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A mystery illness stole their kids’ personalities. These moms fought for answers

Before Sara Smythe began to disappear, she was thriving.

The youngest of four sisters, Sara was born with Down syndrome and lived the life of an active teen. At 13, the Toledo student was heading to middle school and loved soccer and swim practice, took dance and karate classes, and was a Girl Scout.

But in 2011, everything changed in a matter of weeks. Sara morphed from a sociable teen to a person who stopped talking and engaging with other people, and, at her worst, had full-blown catatonia.

Sara’s doctors were at a loss, but her mother, Eileen Quinn, wasn’t giving up. She embarked on what would become a 13-year quest, harnessing the power of a mother’s love to push the scientific community to pay attention to the mysterious regressions that some young people with Down syndrome were experiencing.

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Source: Washington Post, 12 May 2024

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A mysterious Adderall shortage reveals how America fails ADHD patients

Erik, a 26-year-old Seattle grocery clerk, who also has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has been unable to get his medications filled for months now – and he’s worried he’ll lose the first full-time job he’s ever had.

For people like Erik, ADHD medication is a prerequisite for basic functioning – and over the last year it’s become dramatically harder for patients like them to access care. Last October, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a shortage of Adderall, one of the most common stimulant medications for ADHD.

In recent months, patients have reported problems filling nearly every type of ADHD medication. What’s stranger is that no one seems to know why. Is it some kind of supply chain issue? A pandemic-era surge in demand? A government crackdown?

Official explanations have offered little clarity. The FDA’s announcement mentioned “intermittent manufacturing delays” at Teva, the producer of the branded version of Adderall, but few other details. The American Society of Health Pharmacists reports shortages of multiple ADHD drugs but says manufacturers have given no explanation.

The situation has left patients in turmoil.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 January 2023

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A mother blamed herself for her baby’s death for a decade. Now the hospital has admitted it made fatal errors

For a decade after her baby Kaiden was stillborn, Hayley Brunt blamed herself for the child’s death.

The “deep grief” in believing she had been to blame for her baby’s death sent Hayley’s mental health into a spiral so bad she made multiple attempts to take her life, and caused her extreme anxiety during later pregnancies.

Now Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) has admitted that its own mistakes led to the death of Kaiden in 2013.

Ms Brunt, 27, is one of almost 2,000 families whose maternity care will be scrutinised by an inquiry led by Donna Ockenden. The probe was launched by Sajid Javid, then the secretary of state for health and social care, after The Independent revealed in 2021 that dozens of babies and mothers had been harmed as a result of poor care by NUH services.

The trust is also facing a criminal investigation into alleged failings in its maternity care.

Speaking with The Independent, Hayley—who has since had three more children—said that shortly after Kaiden’s funeral she was told by a hospital doctor that his death had been due to her placenta “not working”.

“This led to me blaming myself and my body for what happened to him. The inconsolable grief for Kaiden’s loss and the blame I felt caused my mental health to spiral. I began suffering awful nightmares about Kaiden and his delivery, which continue today. I became so depressed and low that it led to me making a number of attempts to end my life. I have had more children since Kaiden’s death, and each of the pregnancies has been plagued with anxiety and fear that history will repeat itself,” Hayley said.

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Source: The Independent, 16 October 2024

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A massive US measles outbreak has slowed but the start of the school year brings renewed risk of spread

There have been more measles cases reported in the US in the past month – at least 89 confirmed cases since the start of July – than in most years since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter century ago, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And this year’s total – 1,356 confirmed cases since January – is higher than it’s been in more than 30 years. There have been 32 outbreaks this year, accounting for nearly 90% of all cases since January. Only 10 states remain at zero cases reported this year.

Experts say that declining childhood vaccination rates across the US coupled with ongoing spread of measles in the US – and large outbreaks in neighbouring Canada and Mexico – are raising concerns as children start to gather for the new school year.

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Source: CNN, 6 August 2025

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A just culture for both staff and patients

"If we truly believe in a just culture for everyone and the benefits that can bring for patient safety, it has to give equal importance to being fair to patients and families as well as to staff, and inform practice and policy at every level," says James Titcombe, Peter Walsh and Cicely Cunningham in a recent commentary in HSJ. 

Although there is much to celebrate in the increased focus on 'just culture' – not least that this has become accepted parlance within the NHS mainstream and more widely in the regulatory community – from the perspective of patients and families, the narrative to date can seem somewhat one sided. 

From the perspective of those affected, the current system of variable quality local investigations, inquests, litigation, complaints and interactions with a host of other regulatory bodies and organisations can feel designed in such a way that ensures further harm is inevitable.

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Source: HSJ, 17 September 2019

 

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A home help for eight days after giving birth? Why Dutch maternity care is the envy of the world

To new parents processing the shock of delivery and swimming in hormones, newborns can feel like a tiny, terrifying mystery; unexploded ordinance in a crib. “We were totally unprepared,” says Odilia. Neither she or her husband had ever changed a nappy and had no idea the baby needed feeding every three hours. “If you’re a new mum or dad, you have no idea,” recalls Anouk, a new mother. “I’m a doctor,” says Zarah, another new mother, incredulously. “So, you would expect that I’d know something, and I knew some things, but you really don’t have any clue.”

The difference for these new parents, compared to the rest of us, is that they gave birth in the Netherlands. That meant help was instantly at hand in the form of the kraamzorg, or maternity carer. Everyone who gives birth in the Netherlands, regardless of their circumstances, has the legal right – covered by social insurance – to support from a maternity carer for the following week.

These trained professionals come into your home daily, usually for eight days, providing advice, reassurance and practical help. It’s a different role to midwives, who continue to monitor women and babies after the birth in the Netherlands; the maternity carer updates the midwife on the mother and baby’s health and progress as well as supporting the parents as they come to terms with their new child.

A maternity carer in the Netherlands, explains Betty de Vries of Kenniscentrum Kraamzorg, the organisation that registers maternity carers, “takes care of the woman the first week, advises her on breastfeeding and bottle feeding, hygiene, gives advice … everything to do with safe motherhood and a safe baby. She is there for the whole day most of the time so she can see how they are doing.” Her colleague, director Esther van der Zwan, adds: “It’s a lot of responsibility.” To prepare, maternity carers train for three years – a combination of academic and on-the-job placements – and have regular refresher training in everything from CPR to breastfeeding support.

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A high-security hospital is so under-staffed that patients are not safe, watchdog warns

One of Britain’s three high-security hospitals – where notorious people including Ian Huntley and Charles Bronson have been detained – is so understaffed that neither workers nor patients are safe, a damning new report has found.

Rampton Hospital in Nottingham faces severe staff shortages, leading workers to restrain patients and lock them away in their rooms and putting patients at risk of self harm, according to the Care Quality Commission.

In a report looking into the hospital, inspectors – who rated the hospital as inadequate – said there were around half the staff needed on one ward.

In one example of those at the hospital being at risk, a patient self-harmed with glass from their watch, while another was able to harm themselves with a CD while they were confined to their room.

One deaf patient was secluded several times on another ward for “being loud”, according to the CQC.

“We spoke with people in the learning disabilities services who told us they sometimes get locked in their room from dinner time until the next morning,” the report said. “They told us that they don’t like being locked in their rooms.”

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Source: The Independent, 17 January 2024

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A grandad went into hospital with stomach problems and had to have both legs and a hand amputated

A grandfather who went into hospital with stomach problems needed both of his legs and his left hand amputating after contracting a life-threatening infection.

Stephen Hughes, from Edmondstown, had been admitted to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant, in March 2022, with gallstones and aggressive stomach inflammation. This led to pancreatitis corroding a hole in the duodenum which caused a significant bleed into his gut. The 56-year-old's condition deteriorated and he was transferred to the ICU at the University Hospital of Wales as a patient in critical condition.

Whilst at UHW, his family said that the NHS staff worked tirelessly to stop the internal bleeding he was suffering. His gallbladder was removed on September 8th, 2022, and stents were placed along his arteries. Although these operations were successful, his family claims that Mr Hughes caught sepsis from the feeding tube in his neck on 11 September 2022 whilst recovering.

Stephen’s body prioritised sending blood to his vital organs which resulted in his outer limbs being deprived of blood and oxygen. Stephen then had to have life-altering operations, which resulted in both of his legs being amputated towards the end of September, and his left hand being amputated at the start of October. He was later discharged on 31 October.

A spokesperson for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: “As a Health Board we are unable to comment on individual patient cases, however we appreciate how life altering operations are particularly distressing for the individual and also their loved ones.

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Source: Wales Online, 9 September 2023

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A critical hospital bed shortage could soon hit the US

Hospitals in the United States, already overflowing this winter amid what experts have deemed a “quademic” could face even more occupancy issues and — deadly consequences — within the next decade.

The nation is on track for a critical hospital bed shortage by 2032, researchers have said. The shortage is largely driven by a reduction of staffed hospital beds, potentially preventing life-saving care for patients.

“We’ve all heard about increased hospital occupancy during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, but these findings show that hospitals are as full, if not more so, than they were during the pandemic, even well into 2024 during what would be considered a post-pandemic steady state,” Dr. Richard Leuchter, assistant professor of medicine at UCLA Health, said in a statement.

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Source: The Independent, 19 February 2025

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A common drug used to treat heart attacks may not help and could have fatal consequences for women

A type of drug used to help treat heart attacks does not work on the majority of patients and may actually contribute to hospitalisation and death for women, new research has found.

Beta-blockers are medicines that are used to lower blood pressure and cause the heart to beat more slowly and with less force. They have been used as first-line treatment after heart attacks for decades, according to CNN.

However, a study published Saturday in the European Heart Journal found that women with little heart damage after suffering heart attacks who were treated with beta-blockers were significantly more likely to have another heart attack or be hospitalized for heart failure further down the line.

These women were also nearly three times more likely to die compared with women not given the drug, the study found. This was especially true for women receiving high doses of beta-blockers, according to lead study author Dr. Borja Ibanez.

Despite this, the same is not true for men, the research found.

Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver, told CNN that women being more susceptible to harm caused by beta-blockers than men was “actually not surprising.”

“Gender has a lot to do with how people respond to medication,” Freeman told the outlet.

“In many cases, women have smaller hearts. They’re more sensitive to blood pressure medications. Some of that may have to do with size, and some may have to do with other factors we have yet to fully understand.”

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Source: The Independent, 31 August 2025

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A ‘war on children’: as US changes Covid vaccine rules, parents of trial volunteers push back

As the Trump administration contemplates new clinical trials for Covid boosters and moves to restrict Covid vaccines for children and others, parents whose children participated in the clinical trials expressed anger and dismay.

“It’s really devastating to see this evidence base officially ignored and discarded,” said Sophia Bessias, a parent in North Carolina whose two- and four-year-old kids were part of the Pfizer paediatric vaccine trial.

“As a parent and also a paediatrician, I think it’s devastating that we might no longer have the option to protect kids against Covid,” said Katherine Matthias, a paediatrician in South Carolina and a cofounder of Protect Their Future, a children’s health organization.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, head of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has called for new trials using saline placebos for each of the routine childhood vaccines recommended by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), even though these vaccines have already been tested against placebos or against vaccines that were themselves tested against placebos.

Marty Makary, the head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s vaccines chief, outlined a plan in a recent editorial to restrict Covid boosters for anyone under the age of 65 without certain health conditions.

For everyone else between the ages of six months and 64 years old, each updated Covid vaccine would need to undergo another randomized controlled clinical trial, Makary and Prasad said.

It’s not clear when, how or whether this plan will be implemented officially.

On Tuesday, top US health officials said on the social media site X that they would remove the recommendation for Covid vaccination from the childhood immunization schedule, and would also cease recommending it for pregnant people, who have much higher risks of illness, death and pregnancy complications with Covid.

On Friday, the CDC appeared to contradict that announcement by keeping Covid vaccines as a routine immunization for children – though the agency now says health providers “may” recommend the vaccine, instead of saying they “should” recommend it.

Changing recommendations could affect doctors’ and parents’ understanding of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.

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Source: The Guardian, 2 June 2025

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A ‘tsunami’ of coronavirus survivors could overwhelm NHS rehabilitation services, experts warn

The health service will face a “tsunami” of coronavirus survivors discharged from hospitals needing long-term physical and mental support that the NHS will struggle to provide, The Independent has been told.

Coronavirus can leave patients with lasting physical damage and scarring to their lungs, meaning many could struggle to breathe and move around as well as they did before – in some cases permanently.

Patients admitted to intensive care can also suffer physical effects of being paralysed weeks and almost half who are ventilated with a tube in their windpipe will experience a form of delirium that can include terrifying hallucinations and leave survivors with lasting mental problems including post-traumatic stress.

Experts have warned a long-term lack of funding of NHS rehabilitation services and post-discharge care for ITU patients means the health service will struggle to help the thousands of patients who beat the virus but face a long road to recovery.

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Source: 3 May 2020

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93-year-old left ‘screaming in pain’ on floor during 25-hour ambulance wait

The Welsh ambulance service has apologised after a 93-year-old woman was left “screaming in pain” while lying on the floor with a broken hip during a 25-hour ambulance wait.

Elizabeth Davies fell at her care home on Saturday and was finally picked up at 1.15pm on Sunday and admitted to Ysbyty Gwynedd hospital in Bangor on Monday, where she endured another 12-hour wait before being admitted to a ward. A hip fracture was later confirmed in surgery.

Her family have said the incident, which occurred before a 24-hour strike on Wednesday by ambulance workers, was “unacceptable”. Her son, Ian Davies, from Pwllheli, said: “It was very upsetting to have to see her lying on the floor screaming in pain for over 24 hours.”

After her injury, staff at the care home, where Davies has lived for 17 years, are understood to have propped a pillow under her head and tried to make her comfortable on the wooden floor, using a small heater to keep her warm in case she went into shock, as well as providing an absorbent pad so she could urinate.

Her son, a community care worker, said: “They called for an ambulance but were advised an ambulance wouldn’t be available for six to eight hours as they were so busy.

“They said my mother would be a priority because of her age. The care home then called us and we came immediately.

“I don’t blame the ambulance staff because they are told what jobs to do and my mother wasn’t on the list.”

It is understood the care home made nine calls, with a 10th made by Ian Davies.

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Source: The Guardian, 20 December 2022

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90,000 three-year waiters revealed in unpublished data

The huge numbers of very long waits for NHS mental health care have been exposed in new data – revealing figures much larger than those waiting for physical health treatment.

The previously unpublished figures show one million adults and children are waiting for a mental health “first contact” appointment in England. 

Of those, about 90,000 – nearly one in ten – have already been waiting more than three years. 

Some 420,000 (42%) have been waiting longer than a year.

That is more than double the 198,868 year-long waiters on the “referral to treatment” list at the same point - in January this year - which is almost entirely for help with physical health problems. There is no directly comparable measure for “first contact” in physical health services.

Similarly, 195,887 (19% of the total) have been waiting for longer than two years for a mental health first contact, according to the figures, which is thousands of times bigger than the just 139 RTT two-year waits.

Centre for Mental Health chief executive Andy Bell said the data was of “major concern”. He stressed the NHS must “put mental health access and waiting time standards on a par with those for elective physical health care”.

“They are just as pressing, just as serious,” Mr Bell said. “They must be placed on the same level, with the resources, transparency and accountability we need to bring the long waits down.

“Delays of months or even years can cause deep and prolonged distress as well as affecting people’s work, education, and relationships.”

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Source: HSJ, 8 July 2025

Source: HSJ, 8 July 2025

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90 deaths at hospital in Brighton being investigated as possible manslaughter

The number of patient deaths being investigated as possible manslaughter at a troubled NHS hospital has more than doubled to 90, the Guardian can reveal.

The growing number of allegedly suspicious deaths, up from an initial total of 40, has forced Sussex police to ask the Home Office for extra resources in dealing with its expanding inquiry into University Hospitals Sussex (UHS), known as Operation Bramber.

It is examining allegations of medical negligence and cover-up in the general surgery and neurosurgery departments of Brighton’s Royal Sussex County hospital, part of UHS, between 2015 and 2021.

There are also growing internal concerns within the trust about surgeons who continue to operate at the hospital, despite their alleged negligence being reviewed by police.

Earlier this month, a group of anaesthetists asked the trust’s medical director for guidance on what to tell patients who inquire about the safety of surgeons about to operate on them.

A source at the trust said: “It’s a very valid question. The anaesthetists are in an awkward position of having to anaesthetise the patients before surgery with consultants under suspicion.”

There have been calls to suspend some surgeons while police investigate. The source added: “I think the reason they have been allowed to continue, is that the trust does not want to show they have made any mistakes.”

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Source: The Guardian, 25 February 2025

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80% of coronavirus patients on ventilators in New York die

Eight in ten coronavirus patients placed on ventilators in New York City have died, according to officials.

New York state has recorded more cases than any country other than America itself. The tally rose by 10,000 in 24 hours to 159,937, ahead of Spain and Italy, which at different times have reported the most infections in the world. The US, which now holds the position, had 463,433 confirmed cases yesterday and the national death toll was 16,504.

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Source: The Times. 10 April 2020

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8 things people living with endometriosis want you to know

Endometriosis is not uncommon – in fact, it’s believed to affect one in 10 women/people who menstruate. Yet it’s still widely misunderstood, and those affected can struggle for years before getting proper help.

Because it’s associated with the menstrual cycle (it occurs when cells similar to those that grow in the womb lining grow outside the womb too, resulting in inflammation, scar tissue or adhesions and blood-filled cysts/endometriomas), it’s often dismissed as being ‘just bad periods’. But endometriosis is a medical condition which can have a huge impact.

To mark Endometriosis Month, Abi Jackson helps bust some misconceptions around this common condition.

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Source: The Independent, 1 March 2021

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791 medical graduates could miss out on NHS junior doctor training

The highest ever number of medical students have been told there are no places for them this year, despite the health service’s crippling shortage of medics.

The risk that young would-be doctors may not be allocated to start their training at a hospital in the UK has sparked concern among the medical students affected, as well as medical organisations.

Pressure is growing for action to close the gap between the number of training places available across the NHS and the number of graduates seeking one, so medical talent is not wasted and hospitals hire as many fresh recruits as they can to help tackle the widespread lack of medics.

Doctors are worried that the mismatch between demand for and supply of training places will lead to the NHS missing out on medics it sorely needs and that some of those denied a place will either go to work abroad instead or give up medicine altogether. The most recent official figures showed that the NHS in England is short of almost 8,200 doctors.

Dr Dustyn Saint, a GP in Norfolk, tweeted the health secretary, Sajid Javid, about the situation, saying: “Sajid Javid sort this out! You know how much general practice needs these people in a few years, standing by and doing nothing is inexcusable.”

Another doctor said: “It’s bonkers that 800 would-be doctors could be denied training places at a time when the NHS in England is short of 8,200 doctors.”

The British Medical Association has voiced concern about the large number of unallocated medics. “Now we have a situation where a record number are left with unnecessary uncertainty about where they are headed this August,” said Khadija Meghrawi, the co-chair of its medical students committee. “In a time where student mental health is declining, this additional source of uncertainty and stress is particularly unfair.”

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Source: The Guardian, 15 March 2022

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700 anaesthetists may not secure a training job this summer, warns royal college

A perfect storm of pandemic pressures, changes to the medical curriculum and inadequate Health Education England funding threatens to leave 700 anaesthetists without a job this summer, HSJ has learned.

The news comes as the NHS prepares to tackle the huge backlog of elective care work that has built up during the pandemic. Anaesthetists will play a critical role in the recovery effort. 

Each year around 300 higher training, or ST3, places for anaesthetists are offered by the NHS. However, this year there are over 1,000 applicants for these posts. The oversupply has been created by the inability of trainees to seek work overseas because of the pandemic and a change in the curriculum overseen by the Royal College of Anaesthetists.  

Royal College of Anaesthetists’ council member Helgi Johannsson told HSJ  he was concerned trainees could become “so demoralised” after failing to secure a a job that they might switch to another specialty.

“We need those trainees to come through,” he said. “There is a shortage of anaesthetists with around 10 per cent of consultant jobs unfilled and we need to protect our supply line and get on top of our elective backlog.”

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Source: HSJ, 7 May 2021

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