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‘Alarming’ rise in Americans with Long Covid symptoms

Some 6.8% of American adults are currently experiencing long Covid symptoms, according to a new survey from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealing an “alarming” increase in recent months even as the health agency relaxes Covid isolation recommendations, experts say.

That means an estimated 17.6 million Americans could now be living with long Covid.

“This should be setting off alarms for many people,” said David Putrino, the Nash Family Director of the Cohen Center for Recovery From Complex Chronic Illness at Mount Sinai. “We’re really starting to see issues emerging faster than I expected.”

When the same survey was conducted in October, 5.3% of respondents were experiencing long Covid symptoms at the time.

The 1.5 percentage-point increase comes after the second-biggest surge of infections across the US this winter, as measured by available wastewater data.

More than three-quarters of the people with long Covid right now say the illness limits their day-to-day activity, and about one in five say it significantly affects their activities – an estimated 3.8 million Americans who are now experiencing debilitating illness after Covid infection.

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Source: The Guardian, 15 March 2024

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‘Alarming’ data reveals high diabetes risk for pregnant women in English jails

Pregnant women in prison in England are three times more likely to be ­diagnosed with gestational ­diabetes than those on the outside, according to “alarming” new data.

Figures obtained through freedom of information (FOI) requests to NHS trusts providing healthcare to women’s prisons in England found 12% of women receiving care relating to pregnancy in 2023 were diagnosed with the condition, triple the national figure of 4%.

Laura Abbott, associate ­professor in midwifery at Hertfordshire University, said these figures were “alarming but not surprising”.

“We have known for many years that preterm birth is more common among ­incarcerated pregnant women, and this ­further highlights the severe health risks they face,” she said. “Gestational diabetes increases the risk of high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia, serious conditions that require early detection, good nutrition and careful obstetric management, which is extremely difficult in a prison setting. It can also increase the risk of stillbirth.”

There were 215 pregnant women in prison in England between April 2023 and March 2024, according to figures published by the Ministry of Justice. There were 52 births while in custody, 98% of which took place in hospital.

The NHS and Prison Ombudsman categorise all pregnancies in prison as high risk. Pregnant women in prison are seven times more likely to have a stillbirth and twice as likely to go into premature labour, according to data from FOI requests in 2022. In 2019, newborn Aisha Cleary died at HMP Bronzefield after her mother, who was in prison on remand, was left to give birth alone in her cell.

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Source: The Guardian, 23 February 2025

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‘Alarming setbacks’ in mortality rates among pregnant women, research shows

Progress to cut the number of women dying in pregnancy or childbirth has stalled or even reversed in recent years, with a death recorded every two minutes, the United Nations has said.

Years of gains had begun to plateau even before the pandemic and there had been “alarming setbacks for women’s health,” according to a new report from several UN agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO).

Maternal mortality rates had fallen widely in the first 15 years of the century, but since 2016, they had only dropped in two UN regions: Australia and New Zealand, and in Central and Southern Asia.

The rate went up in Europe and North America by 17% and in Latin America and the Caribbean by 15%. Elsewhere it stagnated.

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Source: The Telegraph, 23 February 2023

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‘Aggressive’ NHSE campaign insists trusts enable digital communications with patients

NHS England has launched a “very aggressive campaign” to ensure all acute trusts give patients the ability to make appointments and receive messages online. 

Details of the new “national requirement” which must be met by the end of 2023-24 were sent by NHS England to acute trust chief information officers on Friday.

NHSE wants all trust portals to integrate with the NHS App to enable patients to manage outpatient appointments and respond to messages through a single channel. 

Under NHSE’s requirements, the portals must:

  • Enable patients to view their outpatient appointments;
  • Enable the trust to send a waiting list validation questionnaire to patients;
  • Provide patients with a single point of access to contact the provider, for example to cancel appointments; and
  • Enable patients to access their correspondence from the trust.

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Source: HSJ, 31 March 2023

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‘Aggressive’ ministers legitimising bullying in trusts, Letby inquiry told

Bullying, aggressive behaviour, and other forms of inappropriate pressure from ministers and the leaders of central bodies can significantly contribute to the development of an unhealthy workplace culture at local level, an expert witness has warned the inquiry into Lucy Letby’s crimes.

THIS Institute director Mary Dixon-Woods has been instructed by the Thirlwall inquiry to report on NHS cultural issues.

She said in evidence on Thursday: “The outer context more broadly, from ministerial level down, is highly impactful for culture and behaviour in NHS organisations.

“Pressures and behaviours (including bullying or aggressive behaviour) from those at the centre may be implicated in poor cultures at the level of NHS provider organisations.

“As well as being an unpleasant experience for those on the receiving end, they will tend to indicate that these are legitimate ways to behave that can be reproduced within organisations themselves.”

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Source: HSJ, 27 September 2024

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‘Aggressive marketing’ fuels surge in patients seeking private referrals from GPs

Growing numbers of patients are requesting NHS-funded referrals to private providers “operating outside of agreed guidelines”, fuelled by long waiting lists and “aggressive direct marketing tactics”, GPs have warned.

The GPs report the biggest problems are, increasingly, for weight management and for services to diagnose neurological disorders such as ADHD and autism — both of which have long and growing waiting lists with many NHS services. 

National NHS choice rules, known as the “right to choose”, mean all ICBs must allow and fund patients to use any provider of these services, regardless of location and as long as it has a contract with another ICB. Choice of NHS community service providers, however, is limited, partly because they are funded by block payments.

The letter from Wessex LMC to ICB medical directors calls for “ICB action to address potential patient safety and quality issues relating to the ever-expanding market of ‘right to choose’ providers”.

“It does seem that some providers are using ‘right to choose’ as a way to access the NHS market where there are long waits for local NHS services, and they sometimes use aggressive direct marketing tactics to encourage patients to choose their service.

“The public would expect that if these providers are ‘available on the NHS’ then they would be practising in line with agreed guidelines and best practice but this doesn’t always seem to be the case.”

Examples of such problems include providers diagnosing conditions based only on remote consultations and surveys and GPs being asked themselves to carry out physical assessments that should be part of the specialist work.

The LMC says NHS specialist services were refusing to recognise some diagnoses made by the independent providers for accessing follow-up services and refusing to prescribe to the patients.

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Source: HSJ, 16 December 2024

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‘After my baby died, NHS colleagues mocked me’

Jack Hawkins used to love his job as a doctor at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. It was where he met his wife, Sarah, a senior physiotherapist. It was where, seven years later, the couple planned she would give birth to their first child, a daughter they would call Harriet. They trusted their colleagues to take care of them.

Their colleagues failed, horrifically. Harriet was stillborn after a catalogue of errors by midwives and doctors in 2016.

After a lengthy legal battle, the couple received £2.8 million in compensation in 2021 and have since been at the forefront of efforts to expose the NHS’s largest maternity scandal. Some 2,500 cases are now being examined.

Almost nine years after Harriet’s death, her parents continue to learn new and horrific details about what happened to her.

It can now be revealed that the hospital allowed her body to decompose so badly in the months after her death that she had to be “triple-bagged” when placed into a coffin for her funeral. Her parents only discovered the horrific failure last summer after forcing the trust to release a cache of internal emails.

A few months later they learnt that staff recorded a 2017 phone call made by Jack, a former medical consultant at the trust, without his consent, and played it at a meeting of senior midwives months later. In this meeting they allegedly “mocked” the grieving father.

Jack said the revelations made him feel sick. “It is an abuse,” he said. “This encapsulates the failures in values, behaviours and quality of care that has caused so much harm and death in Nottingham.”

Sarah added: “They couldn’t even look after Harriet when she was dead. How much more can they put us through? It’s never ending.”

Anthony May, a former chief executive at Nottingham county council, who was appointed to lead the trust and its response to the maternity scandal in 2022, said: “There are many examples of where we have compounded the harm experienced by Jack and Sarah through the way in which we have communicated with them and dealt with their inquiries and concerns. I am committed to improving the way in which we engage with Jack and Sarah, and the wider group of affected families.”

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Source: The Times, 2 March 2025

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‘Advice to GPs’ will count towards elective care target

Avoiding GP referrals by providing ‘advice and guidance’ will contribute significantly towards NHS performance on the government’s elective care targets, according to draft NHS plans seen by HSJ.

Under the elective recovery plan, hospital specialists are being asked to offer more advice when GPs are deciding whether to refer a patient for an outpatient appointment, which would avoid some patients being added to waiting lists.

This is aimed at reducing instances where GPs may want to be risk averse and refer a patient when they might be unsure whether a secondary referral is needed.

New documents seen by HSJ, shared in draft by NHSE last week, reveal this avoided activity will be counted in assessing if the service or individual trusts have hit key government targets to increase activity.

NHS England has agreed with government to carry out 10% more ‘clock-stop’ activity in 2022-23 than was taking place pre-covid, but this is “after accounting for the impact of an improved care offer through system transformation, and advice and guidance”.

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Source: HSJ, 28 February 2022

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‘A test from yesterday is not enough’: The perks and perils of at-home Covid testing

The spread of the Omicron variant, which is racing through the population at a staggering speed, has brought renewed focus to the value and reliability of the at-home lateral flow test (LFT).

These rapid testing devices were initially viewed with caution by some scientists, who were concerned that the LFTs simply weren’t effective enough in detecting infections.

But as more data has accumulated over the past year, the consensus around the devices has shifted and become far more positive.

Research from University College London, published in October, suggested that LFTs are likely to be more than 80 per cent effective at detecting Covid, and up to 90 per cent effective for those who are most infectious.

However, the emergence of Omicron has changed the conversation. Its rapid acceleration throughout the UK, with more than a million infections expected by next week, has placed the country’s key testing routes – both at-home (LFT) and lab-based (PCR) – under immense strain.

“Testing capacity will almost certainly fail to keep up with Omicron,” said Dr Jeffrey Barrett, director of the Covid-19 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. “Even with best efforts we can scale supply linearly, but demand will grow exponentially.”

Experts have called on the government to temporarily drop the reliance on PCR lab testing, which typically takes 24 hours or more to return a result but is seen as more reliable, in favour of the lateral flow devices. These can be taken from the comfort of your own home and give a result in a matter of minutes.

“LFT will be good enough, especially on people showing symptoms,” said Alan McNally, a professor of microbial evolutionary genomics at Birmingham University.

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Source: The Independent, 17 December 2021

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‘A real gift to women’s health’: The Pap smear era is over. Enter the DIY test

Thousands of Australian women who had previously feared uncomfortable Pap smears and speculum examinations have now had cervical screening tests for the first time because of a new option to take their own swab in private.

The federal government expanded eligibility for a new self-collected cervical screening test in July 2022, resulting in a 25-fold increase in people doing their own tests.

In the past, some people have avoided a potentially life-saving cervical screening test with a doctor because they had suffered sexual violence or trauma, had cultural objections, or had a bad experience with a test in the past.

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Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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‘A national scandal’: Hundreds of victims of cancer-linked pregnancy drug call for public inquiry

At aged 50, Susie Martin has already undergone her fair share of health procedures. She has endured dozens of surgeries - once going through five procedures in a single year - and will need to have screening for the rest of her life.

She believes it’s all because of a drug her mother was given by medics during pregnancy.

Ms Martin is one of the hundreds of victims of a “silent scandal” involving the pregnancy drug diethylstilbestrol - a synthetic form of the female hormone oestrogen, commonly known as DES, which has been linked to cancer. Like many others, she says the drug, also known as DES, caused her to develop a lifelong gynaecological condition. She now lives in fear for her health, facing tests each year to ensure she hasn’t developed cancer.

A campaign group of more than 300 people, including Ms Martin and her mother Jennifer Bradley, is calling on the government to launch a public inquiry to address what it describes as a national scandal.

Clare Fletcher, partner at the Broudie Jackson Canter solicitors, which represents the group, said: “This is the silent scandal, with victims suffering in pain for decades with limited medical support and no government recognition for what they have been through.

“It is one of the most devastating pharmaceutical failures in UK history and the people whose lives have been marred by it deserve answers.”

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Source: The Independent, 4 November 2025

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‘A historic wrong’: Government set to announce compensation for victims of contaminated blood scandal

A scheme handing payments to those affected by the contaminated blood scandal will be announced this week, as ministers scramble to help those harmed by the “historic wrong”.

Whitehall sources confirmed that a programme handing interim payments will be confirmed in the coming days, once officials have ironed out issues to ensure that victims are not taxed on the payments or have their benefits affected by them. It is thought that ministers accept recent recommendations that infected people and bereaved partners should get “payments of no less than £100,000”.

More than 4,000 people are in line for the payment. Kit Malthouse, the cabinet office minister, has been prioritising the scheme in the last week to ensure payments are made as soon as possible.

“The infected blood scandal was a tragedy for everyone involved, and the prime minister strongly believes that all those who suffered so terribly as a result of this injustice should receive compensation as quickly as possible,” said a No 10 source. “He has tasked ministers with resolving this issue so that interim payments can be made to all those infected as soon as possible, and we will set out the full details later this week.”

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Source: The Guardian, 6 August 2022

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‘A healthy kid dies and there has been no change’: parents’ anger over lack of warnings for blockbuster asthma drug

Harry Miller was a popular teenager, appreciated for his sharp humour, ability to get on with anyone and eagerness “for the next adventure”.

In the autumn of 2017, he was struggling with difficult thoughts and feelings of anger. Harry, who was 14 and lived in south-west London, confided his inner turmoil to friends and family.

“I’m just having these anger rages,” he told his mother one day. “It’s like I just go crazy suddenly and I can’t control it. I don’t know what’s going on.”

Two years previously, Harry had been prescribed the drug montelukast for his asthma. Unbeknown to his parents, a range of psychiatric reactions had been reported in association with montelukast treatment, including aggression, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Harry’s parents, Graham and Alison Miller were not properly warned of the potential side effects.

Their son was referred to the NHS child and adolescent mental health services in January 2018, but he missed an appointment because it was sent to the wrong person.

On 11 February 2018, Harry was found dead in the family home, with an inquest later recording a verdict of suicide. He was described in a tribute by friends at St Cecilia’s Church of England school in Southfields, south-west London, as a “super star burning brightly”.

Two years after his death, his father read an online warning about the adverse reactions involving montelukast by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It said these could very rarely include suicidal behaviour. Graham Miller said: “It is an absolute outrage that parents are being given psychoactive substances to give to their children without proper warning of the risk.”

This weekend, the MHRA has confirmed that the drug is under review. A montelukast UK action group is calling for more prominent warnings of the drug’s possible side effects.

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Source: BBC News, 3 March 2024

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‘A growing threat to human health’: we are ill-equipped for the dangers of fungal infections

About 2 million people die a year as a result of a core group of fungi, and the WHO is concerned we are unprepared for the future.

In October, the World Health Organization released its fungal priority pathogens list, the first global effort to create a mycological “most wanted” list of the 19 fungi most dangerous to humans . “Despite posing a growing threat to human health, fungal infections receive very little attention and resources globally,” the report said. “This all makes it impossible to estimate the exact burden of fungal infections, and consequently difficult to galvanise policy and programmatic action.”

Fungi are the most populous life form on the planet, with an estimated 12 million species existing worldwide. Only a fraction of these species infect humans, but they are responsible for roughly a billion infections each year. “Most of those are superficial things like athlete’s foot, that no one’s particularly bothered about, but there is a core group that causes life-threatening infections, and particularly in susceptible populations such as the very old or young, and those with immune systems that don’t work properly,” says Mark Ramsdale, an associate professor of mycology at the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology in Exeter.

About 1.5 million people die a year as a result of these infections, says Ramsdale – although that may be an underestimation, because fungi predominantly infect people who already have major health problems. “The primary cause of death will probably be leukaemia or heart transplant, or whatever,” he says. “But the thing that actually kills the patient is a fungal infection, so there is a strong element of underreporting going on.”

Underestimating them would be a mistake.

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Source: The Guardian, 10 February 2023

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‘A future worth fighting for’: five health experts on the state of the NHS at 75

 

As the NHS turns 75, it is under unprecedented pressure: record waiting lists, demand for care and delays in discharging patients who are well enough to go home are putting all parts of the health service under immense strain. 

Sickness absence is at record levels, while nearly 170,000 NHS workers in England quit their jobs last year. Recent strikes by nurses, ambulance staff and junior doctors, coupled with the historic decision by consultants and radiographers to strike, too, show the depth of anger.

Five experts spell out what’s needed to make the health service thrive again.

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Source: The Guardian, 3 July 2023

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‘A fundamental lack of awareness that these people are actually human’

The Government’s “blanket erasure” of older people with learning disabilities is leaving a growing population unsupported and piling further pressure on family carers, new research will warn.

Byline Times has seen early findings from a forthcoming national study which outlines the urgent need to avoid a crisis by creating a government strategy for this unacknowledged community.

With around 1.5 million people with learning disabilities in the UK, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)’s ‘Growing Older Planning Ahead‘ research lays bare the Government’s short-sighted approach to learning disability support. 

The study estimates around 81,000 over-50s within this population in England alone, many of whom are not in contact with services. In addition, figures show that between 2012 and 2030 in England, the number of learning disabled people needing social care will have increased by almost 70% (from more than 140,000 to 235,000).

Sara Ryan, MMU Professor of Social Care who led the three-year project, said: “Ageing opens up all sorts of different things, you turn down the dial on some things and up on others. If you’re lucky enough, you have a lot to look forward to – but for people with learning disabilities, there’s a blanket erasure of age.”

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Source: Byline Times, 3 May 2023

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‘A fake Ozempic jab nearly killed me – it’s time for the Government to step in’

A 45-year-old mother who almost died after injecting herself with a life-threatening amount of insulin she thought was Ozempic is calling on the Government and social media companies to crack down on the online counterfeit weight-loss jab trade.

Michelle Sword, a receptionist from Carterton, Oxfordshire, first took Ozempic without any issues after she was prescribed it by a legitimate online pharmacy in early 2021. Ms Sword said she completed an online questionnaire and gave a false BMI that she knew would qualify her the drug. “I just told them what they wanted to hear,” she said.

Ms Sword said she takes responsibility for her actions, but criticised rogue sellers for taking advantage of people with insecurities and selling a product that “can kill you”.

She also wants the Government and social media companies to step in to tackle the trend. “I think the drug was in such infancy in what we knew about it that they weren’t able to “police” who got it, who took it, who sourced it. I think they [the Government] need to look at that.”

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Source: inews, 26 November 2023

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‘A doctor told me I could be here for months’: patients stuck in England’s hospitals

A Guardian analysis has found that as many as one in three hospital beds in parts of England are occupied by patients who are well enough to be discharged, with a chronic lack of social care meaning many do not have suitable places to go. 

Barry Long's 91-year-old mother has Alzheimer’s and was admitted to Worthing hospital on 30 May after a minor fall. She was a bit confused but otherwise unhurt, just a bit shaken. Whilst in hospital, she caught Covid and had to be isolated, which she found distressing, and became increasingly disoriented.

She was declared medically fit to be discharged but no residential bed could be found for her. Then, in August, she was left unsupervised and fell over trying to get to the toilet and she fractured her hip, which required surgery. 

Her hip was just about healed when she caught her shin between the side bars and the frame of the bed, cutting her shin so badly that she is being reviewed by a plastic surgeon to see if it needs a skin graft.

"Since the operation, my mum is pretty much bedbound and lives in a state of confusion and anxiety", says Barry. "Her physical health and mental wellbeing have deteriorated considerably in the almost five months she has spent in the care of the NHS. She spends all day practically trapped in bed, staring into space or with her eyes shut, just rocking to and fro. She has little mental stimulation."

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Source: The Guardian, 13 November 2022

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‘A critical emergency’: America’s Black maternal mortality crisis

America is facing an intensified push to pass stalled federal legislation to address the US’s alarming maternal mortality rates and glaring racial disparities which have led to especially soaring death rates among Black women giving birth.

Maternal mortality rates in the US far outpace rates in other industrialised nations, with rates more than double those of countries such as France, Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany. Moms in the US are dying at the highest rates in the developed world.

Overall maternal mortality rates in the US spiked during the pandemic. Maternal deaths in the US rose 40% from 861 in 2020 to 1,205 in 2021, a rate of 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births. For Black women, these maternal mortality rates were significantly higher, at 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021.

These racial disparities in maternal health outcomes have persisted and worsened for years as the number of women who die giving birth in the US has more than doubled in the last two decades.

The CDC noted in a review of maternal mortalities in the US from 2017 to 2019, that 84% of the recorded maternal deaths were preventable.

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Source: The Guardian, 23 July 2023

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‘A bleak picture’: Nurse vacancies increase across English NHS

New data from NHS Digital on the latest vacancy statistics shows as of June 2021 there were 38,952 registered nurse vacancies across the health service, with the Royal College of Nursing saying news of worsening nurse shortages should “stun” ministers into taking action. 

RCN England director, Patricia Marquis, has said: “As health and care services head into what will be a very difficult winter, this should stun ministers to address the rising number of nursing vacancies and prevent further risk to patient care. After the pressures from the last 18 months we also know that many experienced nurses are considering leaving the profession. These are skills that cannot be replaced quickly. Unless there is an urgent investment in the nursing workforce, starting with an increase in pay that reflects their skill and professionalism, and there is accountability for workforce planning at ministerial level, we will be dealing with the fallout for years to come.”

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Source: Nursing Times, 26 August 2021

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‘A bit of a nightmare’: fuel shortages starting to affect vulnerable patients

Patients are starting to suffer because health and care workers are unable to purchase fuel.

The fuel crisis is starting to have an effect on the care of vulnerable patients, community and mental health service providers have warned. Many petrol stations are running short of fuel as a result of panic buying, after the oil firm BP warned that it would have to close some of its petrol stations because of the lack of lorry drivers. Currently there is a shortage of about 100,000 HGV drivers.

Crystal Oldman, chief executive for the Queen’s Nursing Institute, which represents community nurses, told the journal HSJ that the fuel shortage was already affecting them: “This potentially means nurses cannot get to the patients they need to if they are unable to access fuel. At the very least, it will mean more time searching for petrol stations that have a supply, taking valuable time from their working day and more unpaid overtime will be undertaken as nurses will always prioritise their patient care.”

Patient transport has also been affected. A source at a patient transport provider in the West Midlands told HSJ that it had been “a bit of a nightmare”. The provider had had to turn down a request for a patient going to London because of the fuel shortage and because of climate protesters disrupting motorway transport: “Ultimately those patients are either at home and distressed carrying a big risk in the community or [accident and emergency] departments which [are not] the right settings.”

Read the full article here
Source: Future Care Capital

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‘40,000 put at risk last month’ while waiting in ambulance

More than 38,000 patients were put at risk of harm during March – more than 4,000 of them seriously – while they waited in an ambulance outside hospital, according to estimates shared with HSJ.

The number of hour-plus delays to handing over patients from ambulances to emergency departments in March was the highest ever recorded, following steep increases since last summer.

Figures collected by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), and shared with HSJ, reveal that one trust recorded a delay of 23 hours during March. 

Based on its detailed information about the length of handover delays, AACE has produced an estimate of the likely number of patients harmed while waiting to he handed over, using a model initially developed in research published last year. This found 85 per cent of those who waited more than an hour could have suffered potential harm.

The AACE report said that patients who waited the longest were at greatest risk of some level of harm and the risk of severe harm tripled for those waiting for more than four hours compared with waiting for 60 to 90 minutes.

AACE managing director Martin Flaherty told HSJ: “We expect the situation to be no better when we collate our figures for April.

“The most significant problem remains hospital handover delays which continue to increase exponentially, with tens of thousands of ambulance hours being lost due to hospital handover delays, causing enormous knock-on effects out in the community, where delays in people receiving the ambulance resource they need are the obvious result.

“However, the human cost, in terms of direct harm that is being caused to patients through these combined delays at hospitals and in the community, as well as to the health and wellbeing of our ambulance crews, is substantial."

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Source: HSJ, 29 April 2022

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'Years of unnecessary chemotherapy stole my youth'

A brain cancer patient who says he was prescribed chemotherapy tablets for 16 years, even though NHS guidelines say they should only be taken for six months, has said he feels his youth was stolen from him.

Jonathan Jones was diagnosed with anaplastic astrocytoma in 2007 when he was 17 and took temozolomide tablets until November 2023, when he was 33.

Since he has raised his case with lawyers, more than 30 other brain cancer patients at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) have raised similar concerns.

The NHS trust said it was committed to providing the safest possible care and had commissioned an independent inquiry.

Prof Ian Brown, the oncologist who oversaw Mr Jones's care, is being investigated by the General Medical Council (GMC). The BBC has attempted to contact the retired professor several times.

Mr Jones, now aged 36, said: "I lost my freedom, I couldn't do anything at the time. I had 16, 17 years taken away from me."

Mr Jones was told he would need to stay on his tablets to stay alive, and when he questioned the treatment, he said the reply was: "Do you want to die? If you don't carry on taking the chemo, you'll die."

Guidelines say temozolomide should be taken post radiotherapy for a maximum of six cycles, external. This is usually over six months.

There are a wide range of side effects associated with temozolomide including muscle weakness, memory issues and, in rare cases, secondary cancers and liver damage.

Another patient, Samantha Smith from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, says she took temozolomide for six-and-a-half years while under the direction of Prof Brown at UHCW.

She said she had suffered from teeth and gum decay, mobility issues and chronic fatigue.

Ms Smith said: "You never expect anybody to turn around and say to you 'by the way, you've had too much'."

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Source: BBC News, 2 October 2025

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'World-first' study examines period pain in teens

A new study will seek to identify changes in the brain when teenagers experience period pain and whether it is linked to developing chronic pain in later life.

In what is described as a world first, researchers at the University of Oxford will conduct a trial of 11 to 20-year-olds using a range of tests including MRI scans.

Half of the 120 volunteers recruited into the RoADPain, external project will suffer from period pain and half will not.

Dr Katy Vincent, Professor of Gynaecological Pain, said not enough was known about severe period pain despite it being "incredibly common".

"I think it's really important that we take period pain seriously," she said.

"About 30% to 40% of teenagers and young women will have periods that are so painful that they can't go to work, can't go to school, can't do their normal activities.

"If we can reduce the risk of people developing chronic pain in the future, that would be so much easier than trying to treat it once it's developed."

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Source: BBC News, 17 October 2024

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'Witch hunt' NHS Trust boss steps down

The boss of a NHS trust that asked hospital staff for fingerprints and handwriting samples as it hunted a whistleblower is stepping down.

Dr Stephen Dunn will leave West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust in the summer after seven years as chief executive.

An independent inquiry into the way management handled the affair is expected to report in the autumn.

In 2018, Jon Warby received a letter two months after the death of his wife, Susan. It claimed mistakes were made during her bowel surgery. An inquest into her death was subsequently told how she had been given glucose instead of saline fluid via an arterial line.

The Doctors' Association described the hospital's attempt to find the author of the letter a "witch-hunt".

A subsequent Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection said the way internal investigations had been conducted by the hospital was "unusual and of concern".

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Source: BBC News, 28 July 2021

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