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Tackling bullying in the NHS

The Social Partnership Forum (SPF)’s collective call to action tasks employers and trade unions in all NHS organisations to work in partnership to create positive workplace cultures and tackle bullying. To support this work, the SPF is publicising the views of NHS leaders and experts on this topic and signposting information, tools and resources and case studies which can help partnership initiatives.

Creating positive workplace cultures and tackling bullying in the NHS - a collective call to action

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Tackle hidden racism in the NHS to improve staffing

Racism is a significant issue affecting recruitment, retention, and patient care. With this in mind, the Royal College of Psychiatrists launched the Act Against Racism campaign, offering guidance and actions to combat racism in the workplace for better staff well-being and patient care, writes Adrian James

In June, HSJ revealed that mental health trusts in England are among the biggest users of locum doctors in the NHS. With one in seven medical posts in mental health trusts vacant, many providers now rely on locum doctors to deliver essential services to patients.

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Source: HSJ, 9 August 2023

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Systems and processes failed neurologist’s patients, inquiry finds

Systems and processes in place around patient safety failed in terms of the work of a Belfast-based neurologist, an inquiry has found.

Dr Michael Watt was at the centre of Northern Ireland’s largest ever recall of patients, which began in 2018, after concerns were raised about his clinical work.

More than 4,000 of his former patients attended recall appointments.

Almost a fifth of patients who attended recall appointments were found to have received an “insecure diagnosis”.

The final report following the Independent Neurology Inquiry found that problems with Dr Watt’s practice were missed for years and opportunities to intervene were lost.

It makes 76 recommendations to the Department of Health, healthcare organisations, General Medical Council and the independent sector.

“While one process or system failure may not be critical, the synergistic effect of numerous failures ensured that a problem with an individual doctor’s practice was missed for many years and, as this inquiry finds, opportunities to intervene, particularly in 2006/2007, 2012/2013, and earlier in 2016 were lost,” the inquiry found.

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Source: The Independent, 21 June 2022

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System’s trusts failing to tackle ‘completely unjust’ health inequalities

All three acute trusts in an integrated care system are failing to meet national requirements to tackle health inequalities after being overwhelmed by emergency and elective care pressures.

A report by Devon Integrated Care Board found progress on addressing variation in poor health outcomes had “slipped due to capacity issues.” Both Royal Devon University Healthcare Foundation Trust and Torbay and South Devon FT were rated “red” for a lack of headway.

All trusts were told by NHSE in 2021 to undertake a range of actions as part of work to reduce health inequalities during 2022-23.

These included publishing analyses of waiting times disaggregated by ethnicity and deprivation, using the waiting list data to identify disparities between different patient groups, and measuring access, experience and outcomes for patients from a deprived community or an ethnic minority background.

Sarah Sweeney, interim chief executive of National Voices, which represents health and care charities and patients, said she was “really concerned to see that some ICSs are not making as much progress on reducing health inequalities as expected and hoped”.

“These inequalities are completely unjust and preventable,” she said. 

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Source: HSJ, 30 January 2023

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System for assessing who needs to pay for NHS care ‘incentivises racial profiling’

The system for assessing who should be asked to pay for NHS services “incentivises racial profiling”, an investigation has found.

A study by the Institute for Public Policy Research found that overstretched NHS staff sometimes racially profile patients in order to determine who is not “ordinarily resident” in the UK, and therefore must pay for their care.

The report is critical of the more stringent charging regime introduced by NHS England over the past decade as part of a series of measures devised to create a hostile environment for people living in the UK without the correct immigration status. Overseas visitors officers have been appointed by NHS trusts, responsible for identifying chargeable patients, as part of a cost recovery programme launched in 2014.

One of the officers told the IPPR study they had felt forced to discriminate between patients based on their name. “If you’ve got a, I don’t know, Mohammed Khan and a Fred Cooper, you’re obviously going to go for [investigating] the Mohammed Khan … Even for someone who’s, you know, well I’d like to think hopefully open-minded, like myself, you’re just trying to save yourself time because there’s not enough hours in the day,” the officer said.

A hospital employee also reported that discrimination on the basis of ethnicity was used to determine who should be billed for treatment. “It’s a system that is designed to benefit [white] people like me, not people like … the patient on intensive care who is black and British and was unconscious and sent a bill. So why did someone think he was not eligible for care? Given he was unconscious most of the admission, significantly unwell, probably not his accent, more likely his skin colour,” the health worker said.

Under the rules, anyone “not ordinarily resident” in the UK should be charged 150% of the NHS national tariff for most secondary (non-urgent) healthcare, but the report found that processes varied across the country, with a lack of consistent training and widespread confusion over the 130-page rules for the charging system.

Some healthcare staff told IPPR researchers that they disliked the extra burden of having to consider whether to refer a patient for charging, which they felt distracted them from their core medical responsibilities.

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Source: The Guardian, 23 November 2021

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System admits 10-year diagnostic waits

Adults across an integrated care system area are facing ‘unacceptable’ 10-year waits for an NHS assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the longest known wait for such services in England.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire integrated care board has warned in board papers of “exceptionally high waiting times for ADHD assessment and treatment for Worcestershire patients (10 years+), with workforce challenges and service fragility compromising service delivery”.

HSJ understands the long waits for ADHD diagnosis, which is a national problem, is predominately affecting adults with approximately 2,000 people on Herefordshire and Worcestershire’s ADHD list alone.

Local provider Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust also warned on its website that its paediatric services were also “experiencing unprecedented demand”.

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Source: HSJ, 19 July 2023

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Syphilis and gonorrhoea hit record levels in England

Gonorrhoea cases hit record levels last year, while syphilis diagnosis reached the highest level since just after the Second World War, new figures show.

New data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKSA) shows 8,692 cases of syphilis were recorded in 2022, the largest annual figures since 1948.

Gonorrhoea cases hit a high of 82,592 last year - a 50% increase compared to 2021. This is the highest number in any one year since records began in 1918, according to the UKHSA.

The public health authority said gonorrhoea cases are becoming “increasingly resistant” to antibiotics and are “at risk of becoming untreatable in the future.”

Overall there was a 24% increase in sexually transmitted infection diagnoses in 2022 and local council leaders warned sexual health services are “at risk of breaking point” as demand rises alongside real-term cuts to funding.

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Source: The Independent, 7 June 2023

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Symptoms to watch for as 10% of secondary pupils suffer long Covid

More than one in ten secondary school pupils and over a third of school staff who had COVID-19 have suffered ongoing symptoms, figures suggest.

The most common symptom reported by staff and pupils was weakness/tiredness, while staff were more likely to experience shortness of breath than pupils, according to a small study of schools in England.

The survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that about 35.7% of staff and 12.3% of secondary school pupils with a previously confirmed Covid-19 infection reported experiencing ongoing symptoms more than four weeks from the start of the infection.

Among those experiencing ongoing symptoms, 15.5% of staff and 9.4% of secondary school pupils said their ability to carry out day-to-day activities had been significantly reduced.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “This survey data reveals the largely hidden long-term effects of Covid on both students and school and college staff.

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Source: Wales Online, 28 September 2021

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Symptom tracker app reveals six distinct types of COVID-19 infection

British scientists analysing data from a widely-used COVID-19 symptom-tracking app have found there are six distinct types of the disease, each distinguished by a cluster of symptoms.

King’s College London team found that the six types also correlated with levels of severity of infection, and with the likelihood of a patient needing help with breathing - such as oxygen or ventilator treatment - if they are hospitalised.

The findings could help doctors to predict which COVID-19 patients are most at risk and likely to need hospital care in future waves of the epidemic.

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Source: Reuters, 17 July 2020

 

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Switch to cheaper drugs leaves Parkinson’s patients suffering ‘devastating effects’

Parkinson’s patients are suffering from “devastating effects” as GPs have started to switch to cheaper drugs which have different release rates into the body.

Parkinson’s UK put out a warning when a 65-year-old man who had been successfully managing the condition for 17 years suddenly needed help eating and getting dressed.

This happened after his branded medication Sinemet was changed to a cheaper form of the drug.

Barrie Smith - who comes from Birmingham - was left in pain, developed slow speech and experienced an uncontrolled tremor when his normal Sinemet medication was switched to a more generic form of medication last year without consultation. He called the effects “devastating”.

Dr Rowan Wathes, Associate Director of the Parkinson’s Excellence Network at Parkinson’s UK, said: “Changes to brands or manufacturers can trigger a significant deterioration of symptoms. It is vitally important for prescribers to specify the Parkinson’s medication brand or generic manufacturer on prescriptions for people with Parkinson’s. ”

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Source: The Independent, 30 January 2023

You may also be interested in the following blogs written by Parkinson's UK for the hub:

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Swift action needed to prevent 'cancer catastrophe' as NHS fails to meet target

Swift action is needed from the Scottish Government to prevent a “cancer catastrophe”, campaigners have claimed, as new figures showed the NHS has again failed to meet a key waiting times standard.

Ministers have set the target of having 95% of patients begin treatment within 62 days of being referred for help because cancer is suspected.

But the latest data showed another decline in performance against this in the period July to September, with only 83.1% beginning treatment in this timeframe – down from 84.1% in the previous quarter and below the 87.3% that was achieved in July to September last year.

None of Scotland’s health boards met the goal of starting to treat patients within two months of referral – and nor was this target achieved for any cancer types.

The latest figures from Public Health Scotland showed that in NHS Orkney, only two out of five (40%) of patients referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer began treatment within two months, the lowest rate in Scotland.

And less than three quarters (71.8%) of those suspected of having bowel cancer began treatment within two days, compared to 76 per cent of those with cervical cancer, 91.5% of those with lung cancer and 92.7% of those with breast cancer.

It comes as the number of people being referred to help increased by almost a third from the same time last year.

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Source: The Scotsman, 14 December 2021

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Swedish PM warned over 'Russian roulette-style' Covid-19 strategy

Criticism is mounting in Sweden of the government’s approach to Covid-19, with academics warning that its strategy of building broad immunity while protecting at-risk groups – similar to that initially adopted by the UK – amounted to “Russian roulette” and could end in disaster.

The prime minister, Stefan Löfven, on Sunday night called on all Swedes to accept individual responsibility in stopping the rapid spread of the virus as the number of patients in intensive care in Stockholm continued to rise sharply.

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Source: 23 March 2020, The Guardian

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Swedish expert praises leading work in patient safety in Scotland

Swedish expert has praised Scotland for leading work in improving patient safety, with a decade-long programme which is now expanding into social care.

Dr Pelle Gustafson (below), chief medical officer, of Swedish patient insurer Löf, said he was “particularly impressed” by the work in Scotland over the past 10 years during a meeting of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), which has been in existence for around 13 years, was set up to make patient safety a priority in NHS Scotland, drawing on lessons from the airline industry such as introducing checklists.

Gustafson was asked by Tory MP Dr Luke Evans which country he would hold at the “very top of the pillar” for preventative work during an evidence session on NHS litigation reform last week.

He responded: “If you take all preventive work as regards patient safety, I would say that I am personally very impressed by Scotland.

“In Scotland, you have a long-standing tradition of working. You have development in the right direction.

“You have a system that is fairly equal all over the place and you also have improvement activities going on. I am very impressed by Scotland.”

He added: “I am particularly impressed by the Scottish work over the last 10 years. There are a lot of things that we, in the Nordic countries, can learn from Scotland too.”

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Source: The National, 16 January 2022

 

 

 

 

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Swedish appeals court ups surgeon's sentence for 'harm' during experimental windpipe transplants

 

A Swedish appeals court on Wednesday increased a prison sentence for an Italian surgeon over experimental stem cell windpipe transplants on three patients who died.

Dr Paolo Macchiarini made headlines in 2011 for carrying out the world’s first stem cell windpipe transplants at Sweden’s leading hospital and had been sentenced to no prison time by a lower court.

But the Svea Court of Appeal concluded that there were no emergency situations among two of the three patients who later died, while the procedure on the third could not be justified. The appeals court sentenced the Italian scientist to 2 1/2 years in jail for causing the death of three people between 2011 and 2014.

“The patients have been caused bodily harm and suffering,” the appeals court said of the two men and one woman. The patients, it concluded, “could have lived for a not insignificant amount of time without the interventions.”

Macchiarini denied any criminal wrongdoing. Once considered a leading figure in regenerative medicine, Macchiarini has been credited with creating the world’s first windpipe partially made from a patient’s own stem cells.

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Source: ABC News, 21 June 2023

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Sweden: surgeon convicted of bodily harm over synthetic trachea transplant

A Swedish court has found an Italian surgeon, once hailed for pioneering windpipe surgery, guilty of causing bodily harm to a patient, but cleared him of assault charges.

Paolo Macchiarini won praise in 2011 after claiming to have performed the world’s first synthetic trachea transplants using stem cells while he was a surgeon at Stockholm’s Karolinska University hospital. The experimental procedure was hailed as a breakthrough in regenerative medicine.

But allegations soon emerged that the procedure had been carried out on at least one person who had not been critically ill at the time of the surgery.

During the May trial, held in the Solna district court, prosecutors argued that the surgeries on three patients in Sweden constituted assault, or alternatively bodily harm due to negligence, as Macchiarini disregarded “science and proven experience”.

The district court agreed with the prosecutors, but cleared Macchiarini on two counts as the patients’ health was in such a dire state. “Given the patients’ condition, the district court finds that the procedures on the first two patients were justifiable,” it said in a statement.

However, in the third patient, the court found him guilty of "causing bodily harm". 

"At the time of the third procedure, the experience from the first procedures was such that the surgeon should have refrained from letting yet another patient go through the operation", the court said.

Macchiarini was handed a suspended sentence.

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Source: The Guardian, 16 June 2022

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Swann reveals future of Northern Ireland health service post COVID-19

Northern Ireland faces a massive challenge rebuilding health and social care in the wake of the first COVID-19 wave, Health Minister Robin Swann has said.

Speaking at the Northern Ireland Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Swann said that the rebuilding process can secure better ways of delivering services but will require innovation, sustained investment and society-wide support.

He said that services will not be able to resume as before and that rebuilding will be significantly constrained by the continuing threat from COVID-19 and the need to protect the public and staff from the virus.

“Our health and social care system was in very serious difficulties long before Coronavirus reached these shores. The virus has taken the situation to a whole new level. The Health and Social Care system has had its own lockdown – services were scaled back substantially to keep people safe and to focus resources on caring for those with COVID-19."

The Health Minister said that despite the pressures, there are opportunities to make improvements.

“I have seen so many examples of excellence, innovation and commitment as our health and social care staff rose to the challenges created by COVID-19. Decisions were taken at pace, services were re-configured, mountains were moved. Staff have worked across traditional boundaries time and time again. I cannot thank them enough. We must build on that spirit in the months and years ahead. Innovations like telephone triage and video consultations will be embedded in primary and secondary care.”

Mr Swann added that the health system can't go back to the way it was and that it must be improved.

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Source: Belfast Telegraph, 9 June 2020

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Swamped NHS mental health services turning away children, say GPs

Children and young people who are anxious, depressed or are self-harming are being denied help from swamped NHS child and adolescent mental health services, GPs have revealed.

Even under-18s with an eating disorder or psychosis are being refused care by overstretched CAMHS services, which insist that they are not sick enough to warrant treatment.

In one case, a crisis CAMHS team in Wales would not immediately assess the mental health of an actively suicidal child who had been stopped from jumping off a building earlier the same day unless the GP made a written referral. In another, a CAMHS service in eastern England declined to take on a 12-year-old boy found with a ligature in his room because the lack of any marks on his neck meant its referral criteria had not been met.

The shocking state of CAMHS care is laid bare in a survey for the youth mental health charity stem4 of 1,001 GPs across the UK who have sought urgent help for under-18s who are struggling mentally. CAMHS teams, already unable to cope with the rising need for treatment before Covid struck, have become even more overloaded because of the pandemic’s impact on youth mental health.

Mental health experts say young people’s widespread inability to access CAMHS care is leading to their already fragile mental health deteriorating even further and then self-harming, dropping out of school, feeling uncared for and having to seek help at A&E.

“As a clinician it is particularly worrying that children and young people with psychosis, eating disorders and even those who have just tried to take their own life are condemned to such long waits”, said Dr Nihara Krause, a consultant clinical psychologist who specialises in treating children and young people and who is the founder of stem4.

“It is truly shocking to learn from this survey of GPs’ experiences of dealing with CAMHS services that so many vulnerable young people in desperate need of urgent help with their mental health are being forced to wait for so long – up to two years – for care they need immediately.

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Source: The Guardian, 3 April 2022

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Swab 'left inside patient for months after surgery'

A consultant urologist left a 6.5cm swab in a patient after surgery and failed to identify it in a scan three months later, an inquiry has heard.

The public inquiry concerns the work of Aidan O'Brien at the Southern Trust between January 2019 and June 2020. It heard Mr O'Brien endangered or potentially endangered lives by failing to review medical scans.

He previously claimed the trust provided an "unsafe" service and was trying to shift blame on to its medics.

On Tuesday, the inquiry into Mr O'Brien's clinical practice heard almost 600 patients received "suboptimal care".

Counsel for the inquiry Martin Wolfe KC said the 6.5cm swab was left inside a patient by Mr O'Brien during a bladder tumour operation in July 2009.

The error was described as a "never event'.

At a CT scan appointment three months later in October 2009, a mass inside the patient's body was discovered by the reporting consultant radiologist. While he did not say it was a swab, he did "highlight the abnormality", said Mr Wolfe.

A report was sent to Mr O'Brien but, the Inquiry heard, he did not read it and no one took steps to check out the abnormality.

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Source: BBC News, 9 November 2022

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Sustained rise in long-stay patients stuck in hospital, leaked figures reveal

According to leaked figures, the number of patients ready to be medically discharged has been rising since the spring and is now higher than the winter, but levels are believed to still be substantially lower than pre-covid. These figures come after reports hospitals are facing increased pressure to free up beds for incoming patients. 

David Oliver, consultant geriatrician and former national clinical director for older people, has said "Thanks to additional funding and capacity in community health and social care services, fantastic collaborative working across systems and new rules and permissions, and innovative service models, we saw far fewer delays and far slicker discharge for patients needing ongoing support outside hospital. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t sustainable. Both in my local experience and speaking to colleagues from around the country, we are now back to pre-pandemic levels of delays and worse. This is bad for patients, leaving them stranded in hospital when they’d be better off in their own home and other settings and bad for other patients needing hospital care, including those on waiting lists, as flow through acute beds is impaired."

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Source: HSJ, 11 August 2021

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Sussex woman forced to sleep in wheelchair due to lack of care staff

A woman has been left to sleep in her wheelchair several nights a week and remain in bed for the rest of it due to a lack of social care in her local area.

Mandy Page, 53, who lives alone in Hove, has difficulty getting into and out of bed on her own and previously had carers to provide support in the morning and evenings.

However, since before Christmas she has had no care support in the evenings after the MyLife East Sussex agency told her it was no longer covering her care, and that the agency believed her care was now being provided by her local authority.

Page receives dialysis three times a week at Royal Sussex county hospital, and on those days arrives home, by hospital transport, after 6pm. This means that without help getting out of her wheelchair and into bed she must sleep in the wheelchair.

“It’s very stressful, because at the moment I’m in bed every day. I can’t get up without help, and I can’t get back to bed on a dialysis day,” Page said. “On a dialysis day, I go to dialysis and I’m in my wheelchair. Every other day, I’m in bed all day and all night. That’s no life.

Page’s situation exemplifies the crisis in social care. England has faced chronic shortages of care workers, with a survey by Care England finding that 95% of care providers struggle to recruit and retain staff. In 2020/21, there were around 105,000 vacancies at any one time in the social care sector, and more than a third of the sector’s staff left their jobs during the year.

Page says the lack of adequate social care has taken a negative toll on her quality of life, and has meant she hasn’t been able to undertake everyday tasks.

Rob Persey, the executive director for health and adult social care at Brighton and Hove council, said the council had not been able to source a new provider for Page since her earlier care was withdrawn.

“This is a national as well as a local problem as there are insufficient home care staff to meet demands. Various local initiatives, including additional funding, have been taken to increase the home care workforce, but so far they have only had a limited impact."

“We recognise Mandy does not want respite care, and acknowledge this is a completely unacceptable situation for her,” he said.

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Source: The Guardian, 28 February 2022

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Sussex police widen inquiry into Brighton hospital deaths

A police investigation into allegations of cover-up and medical negligence over dozens of deaths at the Royal Sussex county hospital (RSCH) in Brighton has been expanded to include more recent cases, amid internal claims about dangerous surgery.

In June the Guardian revealed that Sussex police were investigating the deaths of about 40 patients in the general surgery and neurosurgery departments at the RSCH.

The force initially said the investigation, since named Operation Bramber, related to allegations of medical negligence in these departments between 2015 and 2020.

It has now extended the scope of the investigation to more recent cases, amid internal allegations that the departments continue to be unsafe and fail to properly review serious incidents.

An insider said the police should review what was considered to be an avoidable death after a procedure in July. The source said some of the surgeons remained a danger to the public. “You would not want your family members touched by these people,” they said.

They added: “This is not a historic issue, it is ongoing. The same surgeons that were involved in previous problems remain in place.” They cited a woman who lost the power of speech in April after an alleged mistake in surgery to remove a brain tumour led to a stroke, and a man who was left with a brain abscess in May after being operated on despite a heightened risk of infection.

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Source: The Guardian, 13 September 2023

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Suspected Covid outbreaks in UK hospitals double in a week

Suspected Covid outbreaks in hospitals across the UK have doubled in a week, official figures reveal – though the number of people admitted to wards with the virus is falling across much of England.

As parts of the NHS battle to cope with a surge in infected staff and patients, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data show there were 66 acute respiratory infection incidents in UK hospitals in the seven days to 16 December.

Coronavirus was confirmed in most of these incidents, according to a UKHSA document reviewed, by the Guardian. It represents a doubling in outbreaks compared with the previous week (33) and is the highest total recorded since the third week of January 2020.

Most of the outbreaks happened in London, with 28 recorded in the last week, almost half of all those in England (62). Nine were recorded in West Midlands hospitals, six in the east of England and five in the east Midlands.

Hospitals are scrambling to try to stop the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreading between patients and staff, NHS leaders said, while trying to cope with more pressure than last year.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “The safety of staff and patients is a key priority of trust leaders, and trusts are doing everything they can to keep nosocomial [hospital-acquired] infections to a minimum, including following stringent infection control measures and social distancing rules.”

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Source: The Guardian, 22 December 2021

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Survivors of contaminated blood scandal awarded interim payments

Survivors of the contaminated blood scandal have been awarded interim government payments after a 40-year battle, but thousands of parents and children of the victims have still received nothing.

Ministers have accepted the urgency of the need to make the £100,000 payments to about 3,000 surviving victims, after being warned that those mistakenly infected with HIV and hepatitis C were dying at the rate of one every four days.

But parents and children of the victims accused the government of perpetuating the scandal by failing to recognise their own trauma and loss in today’s announcement.

Contaminated blood products administered in the 1970s and 1980s to up to 6,000 people have already led to the deaths of more than 2,400 people in the biggest treatment scandal in NHS history.

The government said it intends to make payments to those who have been infected and bereaved partners in England by the end of October. The same payments will be made in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Announcing the plan, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, said: “While nothing can make up for the pain and suffering endured by those affected by this tragic injustice, we are taking action to do right by victims and those who have tragically lost their partners by making sure they receive these interim payments as quickly as possible.

“We will continue to stand by all those impacted by this horrific tragedy, and I want to personally pay tribute to all those who have so determinedly fought for justice.”

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Source: The Guardian, 17 August 2022

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Survey shows high levels of abuse of UK doctors by patients

More than half of UK doctors have seen or experienced abuse by patients or their relatives in the last year, including incidents in which they have been spat at and threatened.

Doctors have variously had their hair ripped out, been backed up against a wall and been racially abused, a survey and dossier of testimonies collated by a medical organisation has revealed.

Long delays for care and staff shortages are cited as the main triggers for what NHS leaders say is an increased readiness by the public to be aggressive towards frontline staff.

The research by the Medical Protection Society (MPS) found that 56% of the doctors questioned had experienced or witnessed a situation involving verbal or physical abuse over the last year.

Almost half said incidents had occurred because of a lack of staff, while 45% blamed it on patients’ frustration at having to wait a long time to be treated.

One doctor told the MPS how a “patient’s partner threatened to kill me as he felt his wife had waited too long to be seen”, while another said: “I had a handful of my hair ripped out despite the patient being in handcuffs and with the police.”

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Source: The Guardian, 22 June 2023

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Survey shows 60% of health visiting teams affected by Covid-19 redeployment

The redeployment of health visitors to support the national coronavirus response has left remaining staff with increased workloads, worsened mental health and fears that the needs of children are being missed, a new survey has revealed.

In the wake of Covid-19, University College London (UCL) gathered the views of 663 health visitors in England to find out how the pandemic had affected their work. Overall, 60% of respondents reported that at least one member of their team had been redeployed between 19 March and 3 June. Of teams that had lost staff, 41% reported that between six and 50 colleagues had been moved elsewhere during that period.

The combination of increased caseloads and limited face-to-face contacts left “widespread concern” among health visitors that the needs of many children would be missed in the peak of the outbreak, found the survey. Study authors raised concerns about the “significant negative impacts” that increased workload and pressures had on staff wellbeing and mental health.

Read the full article here.

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