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‘Breakthrough’ drug for severe muscle wasting condition set for NHS rollout in England

Hundreds of children across England are set to benefit from a new drug which has been approved for rollout on the NHS to treat a severe muscle-wasting condition.

Givinostat is expected to enable eligible patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy to maintain their mobility for longer.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence confirmed the drug's availability after its manufacturer reached a commercial agreement with NHS England.

This decision marks a significant step for families affected by the rare genetic disorder.

While campaigners welcomed the long-awaited approval, they highlighted the "agonising" two-year process, during which many families were left without access to the drug as their child's condition continued to deteriorate.

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Source: The Independent, 8 May 2026

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‘Brain fog’ from Long Covid has measurable impact, study suggests

People experiencing Long Covid have measurable memory and cognitive deficits equivalent to a difference of about six IQ points, a study suggests.

The study, which assessed more than 140,000 people in summer 2022, revealed that Covid-19 may have an impact on cognitive and memory abilities that lasts a year or more after infection. People with unresolved symptoms that had persisted for more than 12 weeks had more significant deficits in performance on tasks involving memory, reasoning and executive function. Scientist said this showed that “brain fog” had a quantifiable impact.

Prof Adam Hampshire, a cognitive neuroscientist at Imperial College London and first author of the study, said: “It’s not been at all clear what brain fog actually is. As a symptom it’s been reported on quite extensively, but what our study shows is that brain fog can correlate with objectively measurable deficits. That is quite an important finding.”

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Source: The Guardian, 29 February 2024

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‘Boys’ club’ shutting women out of private hospitals

Just 6% of surgeons in private hospitals are women, says a report warning that a “private boys’ club” culture stops talented female doctors from getting work.

Research by the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS) found that for some specialties, such as orthopaedics, independent hospitals employ more male doctors than they do women.

Overall, only 488 of 7,934 surgeons at the country’s biggest private hospital chains are women — substantially lower than the proportion of female surgeons in the NHS.

More than half of the UK’s doctors are women, but surgery has traditionally been male-dominated and a series of reports in recent years warned of a culture of sexism and harassment.

Professor Felicity Meyer, a consultant vascular surgeon and chair of the Women in Surgery forum at RCS England, said: “The independent sector now delivers a growing share of surgical care, yet women remain strikingly underrepresented within its surgical workforce.

“RCS England’s own work has repeatedly shown that this is not just an issue of fairness, but one that affects the resilience, safety and sustainability of the profession as a whole and ultimately impacts patient safety."

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Source: The Times, 1 March 2026

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‘Borderline critical’ stock leads to new blood test restrictions

Local NHS organisations are increasing their efforts to conserve ubiquitous blood collection products amid concerns current measures are not working and stocks may run even lower. There is also a concern in east London that the message to reduce routine tests is not being heeded, with GPs not cutting back enough. 

However, this week the British Medical Association raised concerns over suspending routine tests, including “NHS Health Checks, monitoring of quality of care, and medication reviews”.

The union said: “It would also be unreasonable to ask healthcare staff to simply delay these tests until a later date — not only for the sake of our patients, but also the entire system, which is already tackling an enormous backlog of care.”

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Source: HSJ, 25 August 2021

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‘Blizzard’ of NHSE asks is ‘deluging’ trusts, warns chair

Trusts are battling a “blizzard” of new tasks from the centre as officials are “making it up as they go along” in the wake of the 10-Year Health Plan, a chair has complained.

Andrew George, chair of Oxleas Foundation Trust, last week told his board he believed some trusts, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care were “making it up as they go along to some extent” following major reforms pledged for the health service.

He further said that the “earned autonomy” promised to high-performing trusts in the plan was not yet a reality, with organisations being sent a “deluge” of documents to look through in wake of the 10YHP.

Professor George said the promise that top trusts would “be left to get on with it to carry on performing highly” did not feel like the current reality.

He said: “There’s a deluge of stuff that we are being sent to confirm, to check and to everything else. So at the moment it doesn’t feel like that.”

Professor George added: “Stuff that’s happening at pace is therefore coming as a blizzard and is perhaps not as well thought through as it would be more conventionally done."

Oxleas chief executive Ify Okocha also echoed these sentiments, criticising the pace at which trusts had been asked to come up with five-year plans, as set out in guidance issued by NHS England.

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Source: HSJ, 10 September 2025

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‘Blame shunting’ by providers leads to poor emergency care, says NHSE

The ‘inability or unwillingness’ of some NHS and social care providers to work together has contributed to an ‘unimaginable’ deterioration in emergency care performance, according to NHS England

The claim is made in the urgent care recovery plan for 2025-26, released by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.

The plan includes a new target to reduce 12-hour accident and emergency waits and pledges to invest £370m of capital funding in improving urgent care and mental health facilities.

The plan said, “Each part of the system has responsibility for improving urgent and emergency care performance. However, blame shunting has become a feature in some poorly performing systems and can no longer be tolerated."

National urgent care director Sarah-Jane Marsh told HSJ that “the duty to collaborate and work together and do the best for patients is on all trust boards, and it shouldn’t rely on some overseer to make sure that happens. It’s a fundamental part of being a leader”.

Trusts will be told to ensure the proportion of patients waiting over 12 hours for admission, transfer or discharge from A&E remains less than 10%.

The 45-minute “maximum” ambulance handover time will become mandatory across all trusts ahead of winter, according to the plan. 

Chief executive of the College of Paramedics, Tracy Nicholls, said, “The plan sets out progressive structural proposals that have the potential to enhance public safety and strengthen paramedic autonomy. However, it may underestimate key challenges, including workforce readiness, the capacity of the mental health system, and practical implications of the Right Care, Right Person model. Without urgent alignment of funding, training, and alternative care pathways, there is a real risk that paramedics could be left navigating a reform process that shifts responsibility without equipping them with the necessary tools and support.

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Source: HSJ, 5 June 2025

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‘Black market’ Botox scars women for life

Practitioners with no professional medical qualifications use social media to target women and girls, an investigation by undercover Times reporters has found.

The medicines regulator has begun an investigation after undercover Times reporters found beauticians offering to inject women with “black market” Botox, putting them at risk of being disfigured for life.

Practitioners with no professional medical qualifications used social media to target women and girls, suggesting the treatments were safe and would enhance their looks. Many used products that have not gone through safety checks in Britain. Reporters confirmed that at least three practitioners advertising facial injections on social media sites were using cheap versions of Botox that are not licensed in the UK.

Campaigners say they are receiving increasing reports of disfigurements such as permanent facial scarring and large sores caused by injections with unlicensed versions of Botox, often carried out in people’s homes and at beauty salons.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it was reviewing the findings and would “take appropriate regulatory action where any non-compliance is identified”.

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said the practices uncovered were “totally unacceptable” and officials were looking into whether legal changes were needed “to ensure no one is harmed”.

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Source: The Times, 2 February 2022

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‘Biggest walkout NHS has ever seen’ will put patients at risk, health body warns

More patients than ever before will be put at risk when consultants and junior doctors begin the “biggest walkout the NHS has ever seen”, the body that speaks for health trusts has warned.

The latest round of industrial action in England, when consultants will strike in a dispute over pay on Tuesday and Wednesday and junior doctors on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, would force hospitals to cancel a higher number of appointments and operations than ever before, the NHS Confederation revealed.

Among the patients who were being placed in the greatest danger were the increasing number of people who have already had their operations cancelled due to strike action, and now face having their rescheduled appointments cancelled again, health officials have warned. That included growing numbers of cancer patients, who were expected to be more affected than in previous rounds of strikes.

The government will launch a consultation on Tuesday over plans to impose new regulations on striking doctors and nurses to ensure hospitals provide a minimum level of cover.

The regulations, which would cover urgent, emergency and “time-critical” hospital-based health services, would mean that employers could issue a “work notice” compelling doctors and nurses to work during industrial action, in order to maintain “necessary and safe levels of service”. Clinicians who still take industrial action could run the risk of losing their job.

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Source: The Guardian, 19 September 2023

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‘Big personalities’ accused of bullying thought to be ‘bullet proof’, finds review

Doctors at an acute trust believe their clinical leaders have failed to tackle the ‘big personalities’ accused of being aggressive bullies, a review has found.

The probe at University Hospitals of North Midlands Trust was prompted by a survey carried out last year by the British Associations of Physicians of Indian Origin, after concerns were raised by its members.

The review was undertaken by Birmingham-based equalities charity Brap, and Roger Kline, a research fellow at Middlesex University Business School. It found the trust was not an outlier in statistical measures of bullying and harassment, but suggested the situation was still worse than leaders would wish.

They said: “The most common reason people cited for bullying/harassment they experienced was the personality, attitude, and disposition of their managers and colleagues… it is felt senior clinical leaders have, in the past, failed to tackle these ‘big personalities’.

“It is worth noting feedback from interviews suggesting many doctors feel they have endured poor behaviour – talking over people during meetings, criticising work in public, aggressive questioning – for years, and have simply become inured to it.

The reviewers found that as a consequence, certain people within the organisation were perceived to be “bullet proof”, and added: “We would suggest the trust needs a big, long-term plan to ‘rehumanise’ the organisation.

“The trust’s existing culture has permitted, and continues to permit infringements in behaviour… While this is not condoned by senior leaders in the trust, the lack of a plan to proactively tackle a legacy of overlooking poor behaviours has allowed them to persist.”

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Source: HSJ, 6 April 2022

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‘Big consolidation’ of ICBs coming, says new NHSE chief exec

A “big consolidation” of integrated care boards is being planned, according to new NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey.

In his first interview as NHSE’s “transition chief executive”, Sir Jim Mackey said the governnment’s decision to cut ICB running costs by 50 per cent by October had already lead to “a lot of the smaller [ICBs]… talking to each other about merger”.

As well as addressing the fate of ICBs, Sir Jim told HSJ  he “absolutely” supported the establishment of provider-led accountable care organisations in the NHS but that only parts of the NHS could successfully deliver them.

He also pledged to “stick up for the NHS” in disagreements with ministers.

Sir Jim said NHSE was “trying to resist” insisting ICBs combine or merge to cover a minimum population, but he added: “I think people are doing that naturally and the conversations at the minute look like we’re going to have quite a big consolidation.”

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Source: HSJ, 1 April 2025

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‘Beyond the evidence’: media reports overhype ketamine’s use as a depression treatment, review finds

Many media stories about ketamine as a treatment for psychiatric disorders such as depression “go well beyond the evidence base” by exaggerating the efficacy, safety and longevity of the drug or by overstating the risks, an analysis has found.

Researchers examined 119 articles about ketamine and mental illness published by major print media in Australia, the US and UK over a five-year period. They found articles peaked in 2019, when the US Food and Drug Administration approved a ketamine-derived nasal spray known as esketamine for treatment-resistant depression.

Researchers found 37% of articles contained inaccurate information, largely related to efficacy, safety information and the longevity of the effect of the treatment. Ketamine treatment was portrayed in an “extremely positive light” in 69% of articles, the review found.

“Overly optimistic statements from medical professionals regarding efficacy or safety may encourage patients to seek treatments that may not be clinically appropriate,” says the paper, published  in the journal BJPsych Open.

“Disconcertingly, some articles included strong statements about treatment efficacy that went well beyond the evidence base. Conversely, exaggeration of the risks may discourage patients from pursuing a treatment that may be suitable for them.”

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Source: The Guardian, 8 June 2023

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‘Below-standard care’ surgeon named — 800 patients to be reviewed

The care of hundreds of NHS patients — many of them children — is being urgently reviewed because concerns about a surgeon at one of England’s leading hospitals.

She is Kuldeep Stohr, a specialist paediatric orthopaedic consultant at Cambridge University Hospitals Trust. Stohr, who spoke of seeing 200 patients a month at Addenbrooke’s Hospital during a 2022 webinar, has been suspended by the trust after an initial review in January identified nine children who had suffered care “below the standard” the trust would expect.

This review was conducted by James Hunter, a surgeon and the national clinical leader for paediatric trauma and orthopaedics at NHS England, who found that the quality of some children’s lives had been affected.

Now the trust has worked with Hunter to identify 800 of Stohr’s patients to be assessed by a team of experts in a new review. Of these, about 560 are children and 140 are adults. Another 100 adults and children who were treated as emergencies at the Cambridge hospital will have their care reviewed.

Many of the cases involving Stohr are linked to osteotomies — a surgical procedure where a bone is cut to reshape or realign bones such as those in the legs. Some families fear the operations were not performed correctly, with some children having to have multiple operations over several years. There are concerns about poor post-surgery follow-up and alleged delays in complications being recognised and treated.

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Source: The Times, 5 April 2025

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‘Beginnings of safety culture’ emerging at ‘cover-up’ trust

An ambulance trust at the centre of an inquiry into alleged cover-ups has shown signs of improvement, according to the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

North East Ambulance Service Foundation Trust has been accused of withholding information from coroners. An ongoing inquiry chaired by former acute trust chief executive Dame Marianne Griffiths is looking at how it deals with serious incidents, whistleblowers’ concerns and whether the trust complies with the “duty of candour” as well as its processes around inquests. 

The CQC report suggests it has made progress on many of these areas since inspections last year – which triggered a warning notice – and has raised the rating for its emergency and urgent care division from “inadequate” to “requires improvement”. 

The inspectors said it was a “mixed picture” but they had seen “the beginnings of a safety culture emerging within the trust”.

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Source: HSJ, 7 July 2023

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‘Basic’ gaps left trusts exposed to cyber attacks

Two recent cyber attacks that cost the NHS millions of pounds and led to patients’ data being published online could have been mitigated with basic security measures, an integrated care board has found.

Wirral University Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust was hit by a “targeted” cyber attack in November, which lasted about nine days, then three other trusts in Merseyside were hit in early December in an unconnected incident.

WUTH was forced to take its Cerner electronic patient record system offline, while some activity was either cancelled or rescheduled, which the trust has confirmed amounted to a loss of around £3m. A report to its board said its cancer performance “will take months to recover”.

In an update to ICB executives, chief digital information officer John Llewellyn said: “The incidents above may have been mitigated if core cyber security standards had been adhered to… There are still significant gaps in compliance with basic security standards in multiple organisations which, in turn, lead to vulnerabilities for all organisations because of the interconnected/cross organisational patient flows, clinical services (such as pathology and imaging) and supporting digital infrastructure and clinical systems.

“These are just examples, however, and there are many other technical aspects to cyber risk that need to be shared, understood and proactively managed in order to manage and mitigate these as effectively as possible.”

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Source: HSJ, 6 February 2025

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‘Barely a spare bed in the NHS’, nurses warn as flu cases soar and alarm raised over winter crisis

NHS leaders have warned hospitals are “busier than ever” for this time of year, as new figures show the number of people in hospital with flu is four times higher than in the same period last year.

Nurses have said there is “barely a spare bed in the NHS” and that staff and patients are “desperately worried” about the coming weeks and months.

Health leaders have warned that the service is facing a “quad-demic” of disease going into winter amid rising cases of flu, Covid-19, norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, urged eligible people to get vaccinated as soon as possible amid growing fears over the health service’s capacity to cope with a “quad-demic”.

He said: “For a while there have been warnings of a ‘tripledemic’ of Covid, flu and RSV this winter, but with rising cases of norovirus this could fast become a ‘quad-demic’ so it’s important that if you haven’t had your Covid or flu jab to follow the lead of millions of others and come forward and get protected as soon as possible.”

Commenting on the figures, Patricia Marquis, executive director for England for the Royal College of Nursing, said: “There is barely a spare bed in our NHS, with sky-high flu admissions and thousands stuck in hospital unable to be discharged due to a lack of capacity in social care.

“Before the cold weather hits, nursing staff and patients are desperately worried about what the coming weeks and months may bring.”

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Source: The Independent, 5 December 2024

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‘Babies are still being damaged’ Tory peer warns ‘evasive’ ministers

The government has been told it is ‘not sustainable’ to continue to delay its response to a major review on patient safety as ‘babies are still being damaged’.

The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review spoke to more than 700 people, mostly women who suffered avoidable harm from surgical mesh implants, pregnancy tests and an anti-epileptic drug, and criticised “a culture of dismissive and arrogant attitudes” including the “unacceptable labelling of many symptoms as “attributable to ‘women’s problems’”.

The review’s author Baroness Julia Cumberlege told HSJ that “time is marching on” for the Department of Health and Social Care to implement the recommendations of her July report, which include setting up a new independent patient safety commissioner.

The Conservative peer said pressure was building on government to adopt the findings of the review, since it had been endorsed by Royal Colleges and has already been adopted by the Scottish government. She said the government had given “evasive” answers in parliament on the issue.

In an exclusive interview with HSJ, Baroness Cumberlege said:

  • There is a crowded field of regulators but “there’s a void” for a service that listens and responds to patients’ safety concerns.
  • She feels “diminished” that women’s concerns are still being dismissed by clinicians, but said young doctors are a cause for hope.
  • She is “very optimistic” report will be implemented – but the NHS has to have the will to make changes.

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Source: HSJ, 13 October 2020

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‘Axe under pillow’: paramedics urged to take police escorts to 1,200 dangerous homes

Paramedics are being told to take a police escort to more than 1,200 addresses for fear of attack, The Times has revealed.

The College of Paramedics said the figure was outrageous and called on courts to implement tougher sentences for assaults on paramedics.

Ambulance services have marked hundreds of addresses after violence towards crew. Notes on addresses include “patient keeps axe under pillow — serrated knife hidden round the house and is known to be a risk”, “shoots/throws acid”, and “patient is anti-ambulance”.

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Source: The Times, 4 June 2023

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‘Arrogance and bullying’ persist from ‘less understanding’ regulators, say trusts

NHS England and the Care Quality Commission are becoming less understanding of the pressures on trusts, their leaders report, with one CEO complaining “the arrogance and bullying continues to get worse”. 

This is the finding of a new survey of trust chiefs, chairs and directors by NHS Providers, shared with HSJ and published in a new report on regulation today.

It found two-thirds of trust leaders felt NHSE had a good understanding of “the pressures that NHS providers are facing” — down from 74% cent in a similar NHSP regulation survey in 2019, and 75% in 2018.

NHSP found: “Leaders from the acute sector were much more likely to say regulators understood the pressure they were under than those from the mental health or community sectors.”

One combined acute/community CEO said: “Not only have the number of requests increased but now they are coming from multiple levels, [integrated care system], regional and national.”

Meanwhile, most respondents welcomed regulators’ proposed changes to their approach – for example, by the CQC to a “risk based” approach, and NHSE towards collaboration – but many indicated they did not feel these were being put into practice.

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Source: HSJ, 26 July 2022

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‘Archaic’ and risky patient records still used by most GP practices

Most GP practices in England are still using ‘archaic’ Lloyd George paper records despite a commitment to digitise them, HSJ has found.

NHS England’s 2019 GP contract included a commitment to do away with the so-called “Lloyd George envelopes” – named after the early 20th century prime minister who introduced a pre-NHS health insurance scheme – and digitise them by 2022-23. The NHS stopped issuing new envelopes for first-time registrations in January 2021.

But Freedom of Information requests submitted by HSJ have revealed that the famous brown paper records, some of them many decades old, are still widely used in England.

Where they are still used, staff typically use electronic records for new information, but have to find and consult the paper records occasionally, when they need older information. This is less efficient than if the records had been digitised, and storing the paper records takes up several rooms in many practices.

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Source: HSJ, 5 June 2023

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‘Appalled’ NHSE director orders safety review at all providers

The NHS’ mental health director has branded abuse exposed at a city inpatient unit as “heartbreaking and shameful” and ordered a national review of safety across all providers.

In a letter to all leaders of mental health, learning disability and autism providers, shared with HSJ, Claire Murdoch responded to BBC Panorama’s exposure of patient abuse at the Edenfield Centre run by Greater Manchester Mental Health FT by warning trusts they should leave “no stone unturned” in seeking to eradicate and prevent poor care.

An investigation by the programme found a “toxic culture of humiliation, verbal abuse and bullying” at the medium-secure inpatient unit in Prestwich near Manchester.

In response, Ms Murdoch said the mindset that “it could happen here” must be at the front and centre of national and local approaches, adding that trusts which already adopt this outlook are most likely to identify and prevent toxic and closed cultures.

She also urged all boards to urgently review safeguarding of care in their organisations and identify any immediate issues requiring action now, such as freedom to speak up arrangements, complaints, and care and treatment reviews. A separate national probe into the quality of inpatient care is due to launch imminently.

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Source: HSJ, 30 September 2022

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‘Apocalyptic’ A&E waits that could be driving 1,000 patient deaths a month

A&E waits are now “apocalyptic” and “worse than ever imagined” leaked NHS data shows, and could be driving 1,000 patient deaths a month, The Independent can reveal.

Almost 700,000 people have waited more than 12 hours in A&E in the first seven months of 2022, according to leaked NHS data.

The “hidden” monthly trolley waits, not published in national data, have more than doubled this year in comparison to 2019.

Dr Katherine Henderson, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, warned data shows trolley waits are “worse than ever imagined” and said it is “scandalous” the real figures are not published despite promises.

Dr Henderson warned the deterioration in A&E waiting times is the result of “decades of underfunding” and “unheeded warnings” over staffing and social care.

In one message to staff in Nottinghamshire, seen by The Independent, hospital leaders said last week patients were waiting more than 40 hours for beds in A&E, while some areas of the hospital were running on a 1:14 staffing ratios and patients were waiting at home with no care.

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Source: The Independent, 1 August 2022

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‘Angry’ NHSE pressures prestigious trust to make ‘public apology’

NHS England is trying to force a prestigious cancer trust to publicly apologise to a group of whistleblowers, after being ‘shocked’ by the way it responded to a review into their concerns.

As HSJ reported in January, an external review into The Christie Foundation Trust supported multiple concerns which had been raised by staff about a major research project with pharma giant Roche.

The review had also noted how 20 current and former employees, some of whom were “long-standing, loyal, senior staff”, had described bullying behaviours and felt they had suffered detriment because they spoke out.

In response to the review, trust chair Christine Outram and chief executive Roger Spencer issued a bullish report listing numerous “inaccuracies” and characterised the concerns as being limited to a “small number of staff who are dissatisfied or aggrieved”.

It did not thank the staff for raising the issues, nor apologise for the experiences they had. However, HSJ has now learned that NHSE is trying to ensure the trust issues a public apology.

At a meeting with some of the whistleblowers on 11 February, David Levy, medical director for NHSE North West, said he was “shocked” and “frankly a bit angry” at the trust’s response, saying it reflected badly on the organisation, HSJ understands.

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Source: HSJ, 9 March 2022

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‘Angry’ families to launch their own maternity inquiry after losing faith in NHS probe

Dozens of families say they have been forced to launch their own inquiry into a troubled maternity care service after being shut out by an NHS review.

More than 70 families who claim they were harmed by maternity care in Swansea are set to launch a “family-led” maternity review after they lost faith in an inquiry commissioned by Swansea Bay Health Board.

Leading maternity safety expert, Donna Ockenden warned the Health Board had “failed” families and that the current review would be “worthless and meaningless” without their engagement.

Swansea Bay University Health Board in Wales announced it would commission an independent review into its maternity and neonatal services following concerns raised by families over deaths and injuries to babies during birth and by women who have suffered traumatic births due to alleged poor care.

However, nine months on from the review announcement, families now feel they have been ignored by the review’s key staff and believe the process is not independent of the health board.

Rob and Sian Channon lead the Swansea Bay Maternity Campaign Group. Their son, Gethin, was born in March 2019 at Singleton Hospital, and due to multiple failings by the maternity service, he now suffers from quadriplegic cerebral palsy, a severe disability that requires care 24 hours a day.

An independent review by Dr Bill Kirkup in 2022 into Gethin’s care, found several failings and revealed the hospital tried to “downplay” the mistakes it made.

Mr Channon told The Independent: “We lost faith months ago.”

This came after families felt ignored by those directing the review including the former chair who declined to meet with families directly.

He said: “We’ve just become really angry that we’re having to do this now. We can’t let what happened to Gethin happen to others. I’m furious, I’m sickened about this, I’ve been dealing with this since December, we didn’t want it it’s not our job to fix that maternity unit.”

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Source: The Independent, 8 October 2024

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‘Almost half of healthcare workers had covid-19’ at some hospitals

Almost half of healthcare workers at some hospitals were infected with COVID-19 during the height of the first wave, the director of a biomedical research centre has told MPs.

Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, told MPs today that COVID-19 had infected up to 45% of healthcare workers during ”the height of the pandemic” at some hospitals, according to the centre’s research.

Chief medical officer Chris Whitty also told the Health and Social Care Committee that there was more evidence that COVID-19 was transmitted between staff, rather than from patients to staff, and there was “just as much risk as people being in their break rooms than on wards”.

Sir Paul told MPs the Francis Crick Institute contacted Downing Street in March and wrote to health secretary Matt Hancock in April to emphasise the importance of regular systematic testing for all healthcare workers as it was “quite clear” that those without symptoms were likely to be transmitting the disease.

He said hospital staff “were infecting their colleagues, they were infecting their patients, yet they were not being tested systematically.”

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Source: HSJ, 21 July 2020

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‘Alarming’ rise in type 2 diabetes among UK under-40s

The number of people under 40 in the UK being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is rising at a faster pace than the over-40s, according to “shocking” and “incredibly troubling” data that experts say exposes the impact of soaring obesity levels.

The UK ranks among the worst in Europe with the most overweight and obese adults, according to the World Health Organization. On obesity rates alone, the UK is third after Turkey and Malta.

The growing numbers of overweight and obese children and young adults across the UK is now translating into an “alarming acceleration” in type 2 diabetes cases among those aged 18 to 39, analysis by Diabetes UK suggests.

There is a close association between obesity and type 2 diabetes. There is a seven times greater risk of type 2 diabetes in obese people compared with those of healthy weight, and a threefold increase in risk for those just overweight.

“This analysis confirms an incredibly troubling growing trend, underlining how serious health conditions related to obesity are becoming more and more prevalent in a younger demographic,” Chris Askew, the chief executive of Diabetes UK, said.

He added: “While it’s important to remember that type 2 diabetes is a complex condition with multiple other risk factors, such as genetics, family history and ethnicity, these statistics should serve as a serious warning to policymakers and our NHS.

“They mark a shift from what we’ve seen historically with type 2 diabetes and underline why we’ve been calling on the government to press ahead with evidence-based policies aimed at improving the health of our nation and addressing the stark health inequalities that exist in parts of the UK.”

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Source: The Guardian, 1 November 2022

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