Jump to content
  • articles
    9,848
  • comments
    83
  • views
    12,483,518

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

‘Patient safety progress stopped in its tracks by covid’ says Hunt report

A report commissioned by Jeremy Hunt before he became Chancellor has highlighted how the pandemic ’stopped progress on patient safety in its tracks’ and called for more accurate data to be published on a range of measures.

The National State of Patient Safety was funded by Mr Hunt’s Patient Safety Watch charity and produced by Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation. 

It highlights a rise in rates of MRSA and C. difficile since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, as well as an increase in deaths due to venous thromboembolism and hip fractures. The report said the pandemic had also exacerbated issues associated with staff wellbeing, claiming there had been “notable rises” in staff burnout and ill-health.

The researchers described problems with the breadth and accuracy of available patient safety data and highlighted that only 44% of trusts currently fulfilled the obligation to report their own estimated number of avoidable deaths.

Although the report added that “data on rates of avoidable deaths are not a panacea”, it described them as a “snapshot of safety and harm and are most usefully used to initiate further work to understand the causes of unwarranted variation”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 27 November 2022

Read more

‘Patient safety must be central to design, development and rollout of EPR systems’

When safely implemented, electronic patient record (EPR) systems can help to support and improve care and treatment.

However, in recent years there has been growing awareness of the significant patient safety risks also associated with their implementation and use.

In a new report recently published, Patient Safety Learning makes the case that patient safety can, and must, be put firmly at the heart of the design, development and rollout of EPR systems.

Drawing on examples from the NHS and the findings of an expert roundtable, the report sets out the key patient safety risks associated with choosing and introducing new EPR systems.

Commenting on the report, Patient Safety Learning chief executive Helen Hughes said: “EPR systems have significant potential to improve patient care and treatment.

“However, we are increasingly seeing cases where poor implementation of these new systems results in direct and indirect harm to patients.

“If we are to fully realise their benefits, patient safety must be at the heart of their design, development and rollout.

“To ensure the safety of EPR systems, it is vital that patient safety incidents associated with them are reported and acted upon.

“We need more transparency in reporting and sharing knowledge, of both errors and examples of good practice.

“We hope that this report can kick off an informed and transparent debate about these issues, leading to action that supports the safer implementation of EPR systems and reduces avoidable harm.”

Read full story

Source: Health Tech World, 21 August 2024

Read more

‘Pathetic and dishonest’: trust’s deputy CEO blasts NHSE approach to cancer

NHS England’s approach to recovering cancer services has been described as ‘pathetic and dishonest’ by the deputy chief executive of a major trust.

Andy Welch, deputy chief executive and medical director of Newcastle Hospitals Foundation Trust, has publicly criticised comments made in November by NHSE’s national cancer director Dame Cally Palmer, who said “we have our foot on the gas” towards reaching cancer waiting time targets.

Mr Welch is an outspoken figure who has also slammed NHSE for “destroying” the morale of midwives through its “failed ‘continuity of care’ concept”, and described the potential “toppling” of the government as “brilliant” within the last three weeks alone.

The Newcastle medic is the chair of the Northern Cancer Alliance. His criticism of Dame Cally comes as performance against the flagship cancer target remains largely unchanged since last year.  

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 18 May 2023

Read more

‘Overwhelmingly negative narrative must stop’

NHS England’s chief strategy officer has called for a “reset” of the current “overwhelmingly negative narrative” about the health service.

Chris Hopson said there was a collective responsibility to present a more balanced picture, while still being honest about problems.

The service should do more to emphasise successes, improvements and where there is good performance, he said.

He acknowledged there were too many instances where good quality care could not be delivered due to current pressures on the service. But they were being addressed and improvements being made.

“We need to make sure that our staff, our patients but also the taxpayers hear that more balanced narrative,” he said at the Ambulance Leadership Forum event on Wednesday. Ambulance services – whose response times have sky-rocketed, well beyond their targets, over the past 18 months – have been at the centre of much recent negative coverage.

Mr Hopson argued that the constantly negative narrative was having an impact on staff – whose work was not being recognised – and creating a sense that the NHS was broken.

“That narrative is partly being driven by opponents of the NHS and also [those] who want to attack the government,” Mr Hopson said, although he acknowledged that it also reflected genuine instances of staff and patient experience.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 8 September 2022

Read more

‘Overheating’ incidents nearly double across NHS estates

The number of overheating incidents in clinical areas reported by NHS trusts has almost doubled over the last five years, with directors saying ageing estates make them vulnerable to extreme weather events.

Providers reported that temperatures went above 26°C – the threshold for a risk assessment – more than 5,500 times in 2021-22, according to official data.

Overheating looks set to become an increasingly significant issue for NHS estates, HSJ was told, as climate change makes extreme weather events more frequent and more intense.

Janet Smith, head of sustainability at Royal Wolverhampton and Walsall Healthcare Trusts, said: “We’re feeling it now. And it’s not going to change unless we do something about it. We need a climate resilient estate to actually deliver sustainable care.”

An overheating incident is when the temperature surpasses 26°C in an occupied ward or clinical space in a day, with each area counting as a separate incident. When this happens, trusts should carry out a risk assessment and take action to ensure the safety of vulnerable patients.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 16 February 2023

Read more

‘Overdiagnosis’: some breast cancer treatments may have been unnecessary, study suggests

When Jenny* had a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer, she believed the major surgery to remove her breast, although traumatic, had saved her life.

She described feeling “rage” when at a follow-up appointment three years later, she said to her surgeon, “I would probably be dead by now” if she had not received the surgery, to which he replied: “Probably not.”

It was only then, after she had already undergone invasive and life-changing treatment, that Jenny learned about “overdiagnosis”.

While breast cancer screening programs are essential and save lives, sometimes they also detect lumps that may never go on to cause harm in a woman’s lifetime, leading to overtreatment, and psychological and financial suffering.

Jenny is 1 of 12 women from the UK, US, Canada and Australia whose stories were published in the medical journal BMJ Open. It is the first study to interview breast cancer patients who believe they may have received unnecessary and harmful treatment, highlighting the effect this has had on their lives.

“The usual story of breast cancer screening is ‘screening saves lives’,” an author of the study and a professor of public health at the University of Sydney in Australia, Alexandra Barratt, said.

“This study reports the other side of the story – how breast cancer screening can cause harm through overdiagnosis and overtreatment.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 8 June 2022

Read more

‘Over a year behind’ on key maternity target, NHSE admits

Pregnant women and new mothers are facing wide variation in access to mental health support, new figures suggest, as NHS England admits national performance on a key long-term plan goal to expand services is ‘over a year behind trajectory’.

Analysis of access rates for perinatal mental health services from NHS Digital shows the rates of women accessing support within the past 12 months range from 3.7 per cent in Humber and North Yorkshire to 15 per cent in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICS.

The long-term plan target is for 66,000 women per year to be accessing specialist perinatal services, which can help with conditions such as post-partum psychosis, by March 2024. NHSE admitted in its papers that “although access is increasing, performance remains over a year behind trajectory”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 25 May 2023

Read more

‘Outstanding’ trust drops to ‘requires improvement’ after staff ‘let down by senior leaders’

An ‘outstanding’ trust’s Care Quality Commission rating has been dropped to ‘requires improvement’, after inspectors found potential safety risks and a disconnect between board and ward.

A highly critical report on University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust also downgraded its well-led rating to “inadequate” and recommended the trust be placed in segment four – the bottom tier – of NHS England’s system oversight framework. Its main tertiary centre – the Royal Sussex County Hospital – was also rated “inadequate”, including for safety.

Deanna Westwood, Care Quality Commission’s director of operations in the South, said “staff and patients were being let down by senior leaders, especially the board, who often appeared out of touch with what was happening on the wards and clinical areas and it was affecting people’s care and treatment”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ,12 May 2023

Read more

‘Outstanding’ rated trust given CQC warning notice after staff raised alarm

An acute trust currently rated ‘outstanding’ has been served with a warning notice by the Care Quality Commission, after senior doctors’ safety concerns prompted an inspection.

Inspectors visited University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust days after HSJ reported on a letter from consultants highlighting “an extremely unsafe situation” and calling for elective work to be moved away from one of the trust’s main hospitals.

The inspection looked at surgical areas at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, and maternity services at four sites – the RSCH, St Richard’s in Chichester, Worthing Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

In a letter to all staff, seen by HSJ, chief executive Dame Marianne Griffiths said the trust was “striving to improve” but that “the last four months are like nothing I have ever seen before. Like others we are facing unprecedented daily challenges”.

She said: “High patient numbers combined with continuing to work through the pandemic with the stringent infection prevention and control processes that entails make for a challenging work environment.”

Chief nurse Maggie Davies said: “The safety of our patients is always our number one priority. Our services remain under unprecedented pressure and our staff are working hard to provide the highest standards of care to all our patients.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 5 November 2021

Read more

‘Outrageous’ long A&E waits for mental health patients increase 150%

Mental health patients who arrive at emergency departments (ED) in crisis are increasingly facing ‘outrageous’ long waits for an inpatient bed, with some being forced to wait several days.

HSJ research suggests ED waits of more than 12 hours have ballooned in 2022, and are now around two-and-a-half times as high as pre-Covid levels.

Early intervention for patients in mental health crisis is deemed to be crucial in their care and recovery.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said the findings are a “massive concern”, while the Royal College of Psychiatrists described them as “unacceptable”.

RCEM president Katherine Henderson said the experience of mental health patients in accident and emergency departments “is not what it should be from a caring healthcare system”.

She said: “We have massive concern for this patient group. We feel they are getting a really poor deal at the moment.

“The bottom line is there are not enough mental health beds. There are not enough community mental health services to support patients and perhaps therefore prevent a crisis and the need for beds in the first place.

“Mental health crisis first responder teams work – a mental health practitioner working with the ambulance service can prevent the need for an ED visit.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 19 July 2022

Read more
 

‘Out of control’: rise in STDs, including 26% syphilis spike, sparks US alarm

Sharply rising cases of some sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including a 26% rise in new syphilis infections reported last year, are prompting US health officials to call for new prevention and treatment efforts.

“It is imperative that we ... work to rebuild, innovate, and expand (STD) prevention in the US,” said Leandro Mena of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a speech on Monday at a medical conference on sexually transmitted diseases.

Infections rates for some STDs, including gonorrhoea and syphilis, have been rising for years in the US. Last year the rate of syphilis cases reached its highest since 1991 and the total number of cases hit its highest since 1948. HIV cases are also on the rise, up 16% last year.

An international outbreak of monkeypox has further highlighted the nation’s worsening problem with diseases spread mostly through sex.

David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, called the situation “out of control”.

Officials are working on new approaches to the problem, such as home-test kits for some STDs that will make it easier for people to learn they are infected and to take steps to prevent spreading it to others, Mena said.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 20 September 2022

Read more

‘Out here all alone’: Texas health officials’ pleas for help were ignored by CDC as measles cases grew, report says

Officials in Texas scrambled to control the number of measles cases spreading throughout the western part of the state, largely without help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, earlier this year, according to a new report.

Just days after the first measles case was reported in Texas, the Trump administration took office and ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to halt all public communications, according to an email obtained by KFF Health News.

Soon after, the administration began conducting mass layoffs, sending various agencies, including the CDC, into chaos and confusion, several CDC officials told KFF Health News.

When officials in West Texas began reaching out to the CDC for guidance on how to handle the measles outbreak earlier this year, they were apparently met with simple responses or complete silence from a “stressed” agency.

Katherine Wells, the director of public health in Lubbock, Texas, emailed her public health colleagues saying, “My staff feels like we are out here all alone.”

Even after the administration’s halt on communications ended, CDC scientists said there was “a lot of confusion and non-answers over what communications were allowed.”

Last week, health officials said that the measles outbreak in West Texas had ended. But thousands of people, including children, were likely infected with the potentially deadly disease and it’s likely the country will see more outbreaks, experts say.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 25 August 2025

 

Read more

‘Only two weeks of stock’ at key supplier after Iran-linked cyber attack

NHS England believes there is only two weeks’ stock of crucial surgical equipment and other products following an Iran-linked cyber-attack on a major medical technology supplier.

The centre is urgently working to understand the actual extent of supplies currently held by trusts and the potential risks to patient safety of the supply disruption.

Read full article   (paywalled).

Source: Health Service Journal, 19 March 2026

Read more

‘Online hospital’ to open in 2027, says PM

Plans for a new NHS “online hospital” service to deliver millions of appointments each year by “digitally connecting patients to specialist clinicians” are set to be unveiled by the prime minister today.

The new service will be branded “NHS Online” and be accessible through the NHS App.

It is scheduled to go live in 2027 and will deliver “up to 8.5 million extra GP and consultant-led elective services in its first three years”, Sir Keir Starmer is expected to pledge in his speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

NHS England said the increased capacity will help cut demand and reduce waiting times, saying the announcement was “a huge step forward for the NHS”. 

But experts said that while NHS Online would be “an interesting initiative and helpful for some”, detail was “largely lacking at this stage” and there were “difficult questions” to address about how it would be staffed and funded, and how patients would be passed between digital and physical services.

A Number 10 statement said: “Patients will always have the choice between NHS Online and their local hospital. Those who opt in to the service will also access and track prescriptions, be referred for scans and tests, and receive clinical advice on managing their condition – all from the comfort of their own home.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 30 September 2025

Read more

‘One woman took out 13 of her own teeth’: the terrifying truth about Britain’s dental crisis

In England, only a third of adults – and half of children – now have access to an NHS dentist. As those in pain turn to charity-run clinics for help, can anything stop the rot?

It is over an hour before the emergency dental clinic is due to open, but Jodie Manning is taking no chances. She hasn’t been able to eat for four days – “I can’t physically bite down any more” – and is determined to get an appointment. 

Aged 19, she has been to hospital with severe toothache “three-and-a-half times” in the previous year. The half is when they sent her home without treatment; on the other occasions, she was kept in overnight after collapsing from pain and dehydration, when even drinking liquids hurt her swollen mouth. Morphine has become her crutch: she fell asleep in college recently after taking the powerful painkiller. Like many of those waiting grimly in line, she has been struck off by her NHS dentist after not attending for two years, even though surgeries were shut to all but emergency cases during Covid.

The same desperation can be seen across England, particularly in the north and east. Only a third of adults – and less than half of English children – now have access to an NHS dentist, according to the Association of Dental Groups (ADG). At the same time, three million people suffer from oral pain and two million have undertaken a round trip of 40 miles for treatment, the ADG calculated recently, calling dentistry “the forgotten healthcare service”. Tooth extraction is now the most common reason for a child to be admitted to hospital, costing the NHS £50m a year.

The decline of NHS dentistry has deep roots. Years of underfunding and the current government contract, blamed for problems with burnout, recruitment and retention. Dentists are paid a flat fee for services regardless of how long a treatment takes (they get the same amount if they extract one tooth or five, for example). Covid exacerbated existing challenges, with the airborne disease posing a health risk for dentists peering into strangers’ mouths all day.

As the British Dental Association put it in its most recent briefing: “NHS dentistry is facing an existential threat and patients face a growing crisis in access, with the service hanging by a thread.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 24 May 2022

Read more

‘One part of the solution’: how virtual NHS wards are now a reality

Harold Chugg spent much of early 2023 in a hospital bed because of worsening heart failure. During his most recent admission in June, the 75-year-old received several blood transfusions, which led to fluid accumulating in his lungs and tissues.

Ordinarily, he would have remained in hospital for further days or weeks while the medical team got his fluid retention under control. But Harold was offered an alternative: admission to a virtual ward where he would be closely monitored in the comfort of his own home.

Armed with a computer tablet, a Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuff and weighing scales, Harold returned to his farm near Chulmleigh in north Devon and logged his own symptoms and measurements daily, which were reviewed by a specialist nurse in another part of the county.

Virtual wards provide hospital-level care in people’s homes through the use of apps, wearables and daily “virtual ward rounds” by medical staff, who review patient data and follow up with telephone calls or home visits where necessary.

More than 10,000 such beds are already available across England and at least a further 15,000 are planned. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also funding their expansion.

But while proponents claim patients in virtual wards recover at the same rate or faster than those treated in hospital, and that the wards’ provision can help cut waiting lists and costs, some worry that their rapid expansion could place additional strain on patients and caregivers while distracting from the need to invest in emergency care.

“Virtual wards, if they deliver hospital-level processes of care, are just one part of the solution, not a panacea,” said Dr Tim Cooksley, a recent ex-president of the Society for Acute Medicine.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 7 February 2024

Read more

‘One nurse per ward’ warning over next week’s strike

A major acute trust has warned ahead of next week’s nursing strike that it will face ‘very severe staffing shortages’ in children’s A&E, with ‘as few as one nurse per ward’, much less critical care capacity, and fewer operating theatres open than on Christmas Day.

Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust’s medical director said in a note, seen by HSJ,  that the hospital would only have 60 to 70% of its critical care beds open and that “it is not possible to guarantee patient safety on our wards over the forthcoming weekend” with severe staffing shortages in “almost all areas”. 

The Royal College of Nursing is planning no derogations (exceptions) to its planned 48-hour walkout, from 8pm on Sunday until 8pm on Tuesday, whereas its previous action has exempted emergency care. 

There have been national warnings about the significant safety threat posed, but the CUH message, sent to all staff by medical director Ashley Shaw, sets out a more stark picture of critical services scaled back.

It says: ”Our current information indicates there will be a severe shortage of nurses in almost all ward areas, with as few as 1 nurse per ward per shift."

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 26 April 2023

Read more

‘One in five’ patient referrals bounced back to GPs, warns watchdog

A new report has condemned ‘serious issues’ with NHS referral processes, amid findings that one in five patient referrals made by GPs went into a ‘black hole’.

Healthwatch England said that 21% of people they spoke to with a GP referral to another NHS service were rejected, not followed up on or sent back to general practice.

The watchdog said that more support should be given to help GP and hospital teams to reduce the numbers of people returning to general practice due to ‘communication failures’ following a referral.

According to the findings, the failures were due to GP teams not sending referrals, referrals going missing between services, or being either booked or rejected by hospitals without any communication.

Louise Ansari, Healthwatch England’s national director, said that thousands of people told the watchdog that the process is ‘far from straightforward.’

She said: "Falling into this “referrals black hole” is not just frustrating for patients but ultimately means people end up going back to their GP or visiting crowded A&E departments to get the help they need.

"This adds more burden to already stretched services, making things even harder for the doctors and nurses trying to provide care."

Read full story

Source: Pulse, 20 February 2023

Read more

‘Obfuscations and failures’ in trust’s handling of death, damning review finds

There were ’obfuscations, difficulties and failures’ in a scandal-hit trust’s handling of a baby’s death, a damning review has found, although it cleared the organisation’s former chair of ’serious mismanagement’.

A fit and proper person review into the conduct of former Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust chair Ben Reid, who left in August 2020, has been published by the board.

The report follows complaints about Mr Reid’s conduct from the family of baby Kate Stanton-Davies, who died in the trust’s care and whose case – alongside that of Pippa Griffiths – sparked the original Ockenden inquiry.

In March 2022, the final Ockenden report into maternity services at Shrewsbury found poor maternity care had resulted in almost 300 avoidable baby deaths or brain damage cases in the most damning review of maternity services in the NHS’s history.

Report author Fiona Scolding KC said she does not believe Mr Reid “lied” or acted unethically in his handling of complaints from the family and therefore this does not disqualify him from holding office within the terms of such a review.

However, the report is highly critical of the trust, with Ms Scolding concluding it is “undoubtedly true” the provider had not dealt with Kate’s father Richard Stanton and her mother Rhiannon Davies in an “open and honest” way in respect of their daughter’s death.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 13 October 2022

Read more

‘Not fit for purpose’: Patients waiting years for wheelchairs from NHS’ leading provider

The son of a man with motor neurone disease who died while waiting for a wheelchair from the NHS’ leading provider has accused them of "sincerely failing his dad".

John Clarke, 67, was diagnosed with the disease in April. The NHS integrated care board in Stoke-on-Trent told him that AJM Healthcare would be providing his wheelchair and, following an assessment in May, he was told that it would be delivered in July.

His family said they were then offered a different wheelchair, which was far too heavy, and instead resorted to buying him a second-hand wheelchair from eBay.

Ben Clarke, John's son, told ITV News: "It’s not something anyone should have to face.

"If you’re faced with a terminal illness and you’ve got limited time left, you don’t want to be fighting what you take to be the professionals from the off.

Eight-year-old Summer Calvin is struggling at the hands of the same provider.

She has a rare genetic condition which means she can’t walk or speak. It means that Summer is abnormally tall for her age and she grew out of her wheelchair in September 2022. But her family say the replacements being offered by AJM Healthcare haven’t been suitable. 

"We were told that they had a certain list of chairs that they could pick from, and they were only allowed to use those ones," Summer's mother Larissa Evans told ITV News.

AJM Healthcare describes itself as the NHS’ leading provider of wheelchair services. The company supplies approximately 150,000 registered users, representing around 20% of all wheelchair service needs for NHS England.

Yet over the past 12 months, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has seen a sharp rise in complaints. Most relate to people not receiving new wheelchairs or the correct parts, and the waits range from a month to two years.

Read full story

Source: ITV News, 8 November 2024

Read more

‘None of us feel safe’: attacks on A&E nurses double in six years as waits rise

Attacks on A&E nurses have almost doubled over the last six years, with incidents often involving patients frustrated at waiting so long for care.

Nurses have been punched, spat at, pinned up against a wall, had a gun pointed at them and been threatened with having acid thrown at them, according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

NHS figures show that the number of incidents of violence against nurses in A&E units in hospitals in England rose from 2,122 in 2019 to 4,054 in 2024 – a 91% increase.

“Behind these shocking figures lies an ugly truth,” said Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the RCN, which obtained the data using freedom of information laws.

“Dedicated and hard-working nursing staff face rising violent attacks because of systemic failures that are no fault of their own. Every incident is unacceptable,” she said.

Rachelle McCarthy, a charge nurse in the east Midlands, said that in her A&E department “even patients you would expect to be placid are becoming irate because of just how long they have to wait”.

Once she was punched “square in the face” by “a drunk, 6ft 2in bloke”, she said.

In another incident a patient in the waiting room of the A&E where the senior sister Sarah Tappy works in east London punched her in the head, knocking her unconscious. “The violence is awful. And it’s just constant. Nurses. Doctors. Receptionists. None of us feel safe,” she said.

A senior A&E nurse in England’s south-west said she had seen violence against staff in her wards many times, including a patient “pinning a nurse up against a wall” and another colleague being punched by a patient “in the groin and stomach”.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 12 August 2025

Read more

‘No staffing growth’ policy implicated in patient’s death

Repeated refusals by NHS England to fund extra staff was a key factor in a patient’s death, a coroner has said.

The coroner warned that year-long delays to follow-up appointments at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital Foundation Trust were a factor in the death of Peter Anzani, a spinal injury patient who died from a blood clot in November last year.

NHS England turned down two requests to fund extra staff at the trust due to national policy and “a funding shortage”, a recent prevention of future deaths report has said.

That’s despite RJAH struggling with patient demand and staffing shortages, leading to longer waits for reviews and treatments, according to the report.

Adam Hodson, the coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, said in the report sent to NHSE and the hospital: “It is obvious that where patients are waiting for longer than is reasonable or necessary for  treatment or reviews, there is a real risk of deaths occurring. No patient should be waiting longer than absolutely necessary for treatment.”

He added: “It is concerning to hear that the trust do not appear to be being adequately supported financially by NHS England, and do not currently appear to be able to address their workplace staffing issues without additional financial support (which does not appear to be forthcoming).”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 22 May 2025

Read more

‘No solution’ after firm’s closure leaves children waiting for diagnosis

A trust has paused autism assessments of primary school-aged children after being unable to find a “cost effective” provider.

Northampton General Hospital Trust has struggled to source an affordable provider for autism assessments for children aged 5 to 11 in West Northamptonshire after its previous provider, Target Autism, was shut at the end of August on the retirement of its owners.

The trust said in board papers that it has “currently no solution” for what it called a “significant challenge”, despite the provider’s closure being public since at least March.

Services for children with special educational needs in the county already face significant challenges, with families describing years-long waits for assessments. The Care Quality Commission identified “systemic failings” in West Northamptonshire’s SEND provision in March. 

Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board, in its own board papers, raised “serious concerns about the risk of reduced services and impact on children and families”. It said they are experiencing “pathway uncertainty” and “inadequate communication” about waiting times and service gaps. 

Many impacted families have already waited years for an assessment, and had not received adequate communication over the closure of Target Autism, according to feedback collected by a local parents and carers group, West Northants Voices in Partnership.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 23 October 2024

Read more

‘No rush’ to transfer NHSE staff as abolition faces delay

There is no longer a “rush” to transfer the employment of NHS England staff to the Department of Health and Social Care, Sir Jim Mackey has told them.

Speaking at an internal staff briefing, the chief executive said the process of merging NHSE functions with DHSC – and cutting both their central staffing in half – would be “more of a gradual, managed process” than signalled in the spring.

HSJ has also learned there is now serious doubt about whether legislation can be drafted and passed through Parliament in time to formally abolish NHSE “within the next two years”, the timetable set in July’s 10-Year Health Plan.

In comments seen by HSJ, Sir Jim told NHSE staff last week: “The transformation process won’t be that big, dramatic overnight thing that we thought was going to be the case…

“We’re still heading towards a similar sort of objective, around the scale of the reduction and… joint working with DHSC, but it’s going to be more of a gradual, managed process now over the next couple of years…"

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 2 October 2025

Read more

© 2026 Patient Safety Learning. All rights reserved.

Patient Safety Learning is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission Registration number 1180689.

×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.