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World-first AI system to warn of NHS patient safety concerns

Patients will receive better care thanks to a world-first AI early warning system being developed to automatically identify safety concerns across the NHS, helping stop failures before they escalate.  

It follows a pledge by the Health and Social Care Secretary to overhaul health and care regulation, root out poor performance and guarantee patients safe, quality care.

There have been growing concerns about safety in the NHS in recent years after a spate of scandals including in mental health and maternity services.

The new safety warning system, being developed as part of the government’s 10 Year Health Plan, will rapidly analyse healthcare data and ring the alarm bell on emerging safety issues.

Work on rolling out the system is already underway. A new Maternity Outcomes Signal System will launch across NHS trusts from November, using near real-time data to flag higher than expected rates of stillbirth, neonatal death and brain injury.  

When fully implemented, it could analyse hospital databases to identify patterns of abuse, serious injuries, deaths, or other incidents that can slip through the net, cause harm and stop hospitals from running safely. 

Where concerns are raised, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will deploy specialist inspection teams as soon as possible to investigate and take swift action.  

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: 

"While most treatments in the NHS are safe, even a single lapse that puts a patient at risk is one too many. Behind every safety breach is a person - a life altered, a family devastated, sometimes by heart-breaking loss.

"Patient safety and power are at the heart of our 10 Year Health Plan. By embracing AI and introducing world-first early warning systems, we’ll spot dangerous signs sooner and launch rapid inspections before harm occurs.

"This technology will save lives - catching unsafe care before it becomes a tragedy. It’s a vital part of our commitment to move the NHS from analogue to digital, delivering better, safer care for everyone."

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Source: Gov.UK, 30 June 2025

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Hundreds of NHS agencies to be scrapped

Hundreds of bodies responsible for overseeing and running parts of the NHS in England will be scrapped, the government has said.

The organisations to be abolished include Healthwatch England, which advocates on behalf of patients, and the National Guardian's Office, which supports whistleblowers.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the current system was too complex and the NHS needed "more doers and fewer checkers".

The changes are being made as part of Labour's 10-year health strategy set to be published next week.

In total 201 organisations will be scrapped, including bodies set up by the last Conservative government to develop health plans for their local areas.

The organisations to be abolished include:

  • Healthwatch England, set up in 2012 to speak out on behalf of NHS and social care patients, and to advise ministers when services were not up to scratch.
  • The National Guardian's Office, created in 2015 to encourage the NHS to support whistleblowers and train a network of 1,200 peer support 'guardians'.
  • The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB), which has recently carried out investigations into a range of subjects including the design of portable oxygen systems and the impact of ambulance delays.

The decision comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in March that NHS England, the administrative body responsible for the day-to-day management of the health service, would be axed and the system brought under closer government control.

Under the new strategy, the NHS will also trial a scheme linking the money a hospital receives directly to the quality of care it provides.

Patients will be asked to review their treatment and, if a low rating is given, a proportion of that funding could be diverted to a regionally-held NHS improvement fund rather than paid to the hospital itself.

The government said the scheme would only be introduced where there had been a track record of very poor service and evidence that patients were not being listened to.

The NHS Confederation warned it would have to be carefully designed to stop hospitals being penalised for issues beyond their immediate control such as difficulties recruiting staff and the poor state of some hospital buildings.

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Source: BBC News, 28 June 2025

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CQC quietly scraps ‘overall’ ratings for trusts

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is no longer giving “overall” ratings to trusts, it has emerged – instead only issuing a leadership rating at organisational level.

The new system was introduced last year, alongside other changes to the Care Quality Commission’s assessment framework, and so far has only been applied to a handful of trusts. Eventually, it is due to be applied to all trusts, and none will have an “overall” rating.

The CQC webpages for these trusts now state: “Our assessments of NHS trusts now focus on leadership. We no longer rate trusts overall for their safety, effectiveness and responsiveness or how caring they are. We do still publish those ratings for the services they provide.”

The providers are also expected to display the “well-led” overall rating on their website.

Previously, trusts were rated for all five domains (well-led, safety, effectiveness, caring, and responsive) at the trust level, and given an “overall” rating based on these.

Over the past decade, the trust-level “overall” rating has been used in the health system as a significant barometer of organisational success.

However, there has been an ongoing debate about the use of the single word/phrase ratings, ranging from “inadequate” to “outstanding”.

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Source: HSJ, 27 June 2025

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‘Resentment’ uncovered in ‘inadequate’ children’s unit

Inspectors have branded a hospital’s paediatric services “inadequate” and warned of “resentment” among medical staff following a trust merger.

Yeovil District Hospital – which recently closed its birthing unit after admitting it “cannot safely run” the service – has seen its paediatric services downgraded from “good” to “inadequate” following a Care Quality Commission inspection that took place in January.

The inspection report into YDH’s children’s and young people’s services, released today, described a lack of experienced staff and inadequate learning from serious incidents.

It also described a “level of resentment” among some medical staff following YDH’s merger with Somerset Foundation Trust in April 2023, which had prevented a “culture of continuous improvement”.

Last month, Somerset FT temporarily closed the special care baby unit and inpatient maternity services at YDH for at least six months after receiving a warning notice from the CQC in January about significant gaps in medical staffing.

The report said: “There was a level of resentment felt by some medical staff. Some staff told us the key leadership roles had been appointed and therefore felt new ways of working had been imposed upon them. There was not a culture of continuous improvement.”

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RFK Jr’s new vaccine panel votes against preservative in flu shots in shock move

A critical federal vaccine panel has recommended against seasonal influenza vaccines containing a specific preservative – a change likely to send shock through the global medical and scientific community and possibly impact future vaccine availability.

The panel was unilaterally remade by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic who has urged against the use of thimerosal despite a lack of evidence of real-world harm.

Across three votes, members voted in favor of restricting thimerosal in seasonal influenza vaccines across all age groups – with five in favor of the restriction, one abstention and one vote against.

“The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent – as far as we know – risk from thimerosal,” said Dr Cody Meissner, a panel member and professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine who was the lone “no” vote.

“I would hate for a person not to receive the influenza vaccine because the only availability preparation contains thimerosal – I find that very hard to justify.”

The panel, formally called the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is a critical link in the vaccine distribution pipeline – informing health insurers and clinicians alike about which vaccines to give patients.

Kennedy fired all 17 former members of the panel in June, citing conflicts of interest, and appointed eight new members, all of whom are ideological allies of the secretary.

None of the new members have published written conflict of interest disclosures or been added to a Trump administration-developed conflict of interest tracker for ACIP members, as of Thursday morning.

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Source: The Guardian, 26 June 2025

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People dying early of cancer costs UK economy £10.3bn a year, study finds

People dying early of cancer costs the UK economy £10.3bn a year, more than any other health condition, a study has revealed.

That is the total cost of the 350,000 years of lost productivity recorded across Britain every year because adults have died prematurely of the disease, according to Cancer Research UK (CRUK).

Each early death costs the economy an average of £61,000, according to the charity’s first research into how much the country loses as a result of the growing toll of cancer diagnoses and deaths.

In 2021, cancer caused the loss of more productive years of life than any other condition – 350,000 years. Heart problems led to 257,000 years of lost productivity that year, while diseases of the digestive system caused 123,000 lost years and breathing conditions 85,000 years.

Michelle Mitchell, CRUK’s chief executive, said: “Cancer has an immeasurable impact on patients and their loved ones. But this report reveals there is also a significant economic cost. Behind the figures in this report are real people – friends, family and co-workers – whose lives are being cut short by cancer. Through improving cancer survival, we can also have a positive impact on our economy.”

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Source: The Guardian, 27 June 2025

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One in four young people in England have mental health condition, NHS survey finds

Sharp rises in rates of anxiety, depression and other disorders have led to one in four young people in England having a common mental health condition, an NHS survey shows, with young women more likely to report them than young men.

The study found that rates of such conditions in 16- to 24-year-olds have risen by more than a third in a decade, from 18.9% in 2014 to 25.8% in 2024.

Results from the adult psychiatric morbidity survey showed that reports of common mental health conditions – a term that also includes panic disorder, phobias and obsessive compulsive disorder – occurred in 36.1% of women compared with 16.3% of men.

Sally McManus, one of the lead researchers on the survey, said the figures reflect many global trends disproportionately affecting young people.

“Young people are growing up worried about many aspects of their lives, from insecure employment and housing through to Covid and climate change. Young people may have been one of the one groups whose mental health was most affected by Covid,” she said.

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Source: The Guardian, 26 June 2025

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Baby died of hospital infection despite ‘overcrowding’ warning

A baby died with an infection caught on a neonatal unit, despite earlier warnings about outbreaks due to its “approach to overcrowding” of cots, HSJ has learned.

The death happened at Leeds General Infirmary between December 2022 and March 2023, during an outbreak of the Serrratia healthcare-associated infection on the L43 unit.

An internal paper from March 2023 seen by HSJ refers to “the death of one neonate being directly attributed to an organism associated with cross-transmission within L43”. 

The paper also reveals that – following earlier outbreaks on the unit, including both Serrratia and Klebsiella in 2021 – experts from the UK Health Security Agency had predicted there would be more outbreaks, due to the unit’s “approach to overcrowding”.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust had apparently tried to reduce the number of cots on the L43 unit in September 2022 from 34 to 22, with two additional “surge” cots.

But regional demand pressure meant it failed to keep numbers down, with an average of 26 cots occupied in December 2022 and numbers hitting 32 on some days, according to information seen by HSJ. The unit takes some of the sickest babies from across the region.

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Source: HSJ, 26 June 2025

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Patient waited more than two weeks in emergency department

Conditions in emergency departments (EDs) are "soul destroying", a doctor has said after it was revealed that one patient waited more than 330 hours inside a unit.

New figures, obtained by BBC News NI, show that in a seven-month period to January this year, one patient waited two weeks at the Ulster Hospital, while another waited 11 days at the Mater in Belfast.

Dr Clodagh Corrigan, deputy chairwoman of the British Medical Association in Northern Ireland, said conditions in EDs for staff and patients were "horrific".

In a statement, the Department of Health (DoH) acknowledged that waiting times in EDs "fall well below the standard of care that we strive to provide".

Dr Corrigan, who is a specialist doctor, has called on the department to spend its money more effectively.

A Freedom of Information request from BBC News NI revealed that every health trust in Northern Ireland experienced patient waits of about week or more.

The Northern Health Trust said a wait of more than 10 days for a patient in Antrim Area Hospital was because they needed to be isolated in a side room for other people's safety.

"If there's space, it's taken up by somebody," said Dr Corrigan.

She added that patients who might be vomiting or suffering from diarrhoea were queuing for the one toilet available in a unit.

"It's a soul-destroying work environment. You can't give the care you want to give," she said.

"You certainly aren't giving the care you're trained to give. It's not the care you'd want your family to receive."

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Source: BBC News, 26 June 2025

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Weight-loss jabs linked to hundreds of cases of life-threatening illness and 10 deaths

Weight-loss jabs have been linked to hundreds of people falling ill with a life-threatening illness and 10 deaths, the UK’s drugs regulator has warned.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is investigating after 294 people suffered acute and chronic pancreatitis after taking tirzepatide, the active ingredient of Mounjaro, and semaglutide, used in Ozempic and Wegovy.

While none have been proven to be caused directly by the GLP-1 drugs, which are also used to treat diabetes, there are fears that not enough is known about the links, prompting health officials to launch a new study into the harmful side effects.

It comes just days after Mounjaro was made available at GP surgeries across England, while Ozempic and Wegovy can be obtained on the NHS through a weight management referral; however, Mounjaro and Wegovy can be purchased online privately.

It’s believed around 1.5 million people currently take weight-loss jabs – 4 per cent of households in the UK – with their popularity soaring and the NHS’s top doctor, Sir Stephen Powis, saying they could soon become the most commonly used drug.

Dr Simon Cork, senior lecturer in physiology at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “The percentages for pancreatitis seen in clinical trials was small, but we know that many people are now purchasing these medications privately. Small percentages in large numbers means an increasing number of people developing these conditions, although they still remain rare.”

However, Dr Cork said it was important to recognise that the risks associated with obesity outweighed those attached to taking the medications.

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Source: The Independent, 26 June 2025

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First meeting of new CDC vaccine panel reveals policy chaos sown by RFK Jr

The first meeting of a critical federal vaccine panel was a high-profile display of how the US health secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr has injected chaos into vaccine policy infrastructure.

Wednesday’s meeting was held amid controversy, not only regarding the new members unilaterally appointed by Kennedy, but also the questions they would consider, their conflicts of interest and views on vaccines, and the scheduled speakers.

The panel, the advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), develops recommendations for how to administer vaccines to the American public.

The ACIP meeting is high-stakes and will be widely watched within the scientific community, as former members argue that the nation’s vaccine approval, research and distribution systems are being dismantled.

The panel’s decisions are highly influential in deciding which vaccines the CDC ultimately recommends for children and adults. In turn, those recommendations form the basis of how health insurers decide which vaccines to cover, and thus have a direct impact on the price and availability of vaccines to the American public.

Experts consider the current situation so dire that outside groups are attempting to develop a system to provide vaccines to Americans in spite of Kennedy’s attempts to disrupt the system.

“What we’re seeing today, and if this were to continue, the medical public health professionals and the entire country are no longer going to trust ACIP,” said Dr Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on School Health. “That’s very clear.”

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Source: The Guardian, 25 June 2025

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Patients dying of sepsis because medics too slow to spot it, warns NHS watchdog

Sepsis is causing thousands of deaths a year, a charity has said, as the NHS’s safety watchdog warned that doctors and nurses are too often slow to identify and treat it.

“The recognition of sepsis remains an urgent and persistent safety risk”, despite previous reports highlighting the large number of deaths it causes when diagnosed too late, according to the Health Services Safety Investigations Body.

Too often, relatives were ignored when they raised concerns about the condition of a loved one who later died of sepsis, the HSSIB said on Thursday.

It urged NHS trusts and staff in England to learn from mistakes which the UK Sepsis Trust estimates play a key role in as many as 10,000 avoidable deaths every year UK-wide.

The report from HSSIB is the latest in a series from bodies including the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) and Care Quality Commission to reveal the large number of patients who die every year after NHS staff take too long to diagnose it.

“There have been initiatives to improve the recognition and timely treatment of sepsis over the last 20 years, yet it has persisted as a safety risk,” HSSIB said.

It published reports of three cases involving patients – named only as Barbara, Ged and Lorna – for whom a delay in spotting sepsis had severe consequences. Two of the patients died and the third had to have her leg amputated below the knee after starting on antibiotics too late.

The three incidents “show a consistent pattern of issues around the early recognition and treatment of sepsis”, said Melanie Ottewill, HSSIB’s senior safety investigator.

Dr Ron Daniels, the founder and chief medical officer of the UK Sepsis Trust, said that since the success of hospitals in England in 2016-19 at identifying and promptly treating sepsis, the NHS’s performance “has slipped backwards considerably”. That is because a financial incentive offered to hospitals, to screen anyone who might have sepsis and give them antibiotics within an hour – the approach recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – ended.

“The quality of care has returned to its pre-2016 level – that is, a postcode lottery in patients’ chances of their sepsis being spotted. I’m appalled,” Daniels said.

“We estimate that of the 48,000 people a year who die of sepsis, at least 10,000 more lives could be saved if the NHS prioritised sepsis as an urgent clinical issue.”

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Source: The Guardian, 26 June 2025

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500 families in Oxford call for maternity unit to be investigated

Hours after giving birth, with her son rushed away to a high dependency unit, as she lay broken and bleeding, Morgan Joines overheard a midwife blaming her. 

Her son had been born with wet lung after an emergency and traumatic caesarean section.

"I overheard [the midwife] tell a student nurse I was the reason my son was ill, because I was too lazy to push," she told Sky News.

"I was broken. I genuinely believed for ages afterwards that I had failed my son."

Her son was born at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, part of the Oxford University's Hospital Trust. Morgan is one of more than 500 families who say they have been harmed by maternity care at the Trust.

On Monday, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, announced a "rapid" national investigation into NHS maternity services.

A taskforce, chaired by Mr Streeting and made up of experts and bereaved families, will first investigate up to ten of the most concerning maternity and neonatal units.

And campaigners - calling themselves the Families Failed by OUH Maternity Services - are calling for Oxford to be on that initial list.

The CQC flagged issues around maintaining patient dignity, and said medicines were not always safely stored and managed. The unit did not manage the control of infection consistently it said, and wards were not always kept clean.

One mum told the campaign group she thought she was going to die after being left alone while in labour and denied pain relief.

Another said she is reluctant to consider having another child and feels a "profound loss of trust in the NHS".

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Source: Sky News, 26 June 2025

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Patients with long-term conditions have worse experience

Patients with long-term conditions and those from a minority ethnic background have a significantly worse experience of NHS care, according to polling shared exclusively with HSJ. 

The survey by Ipsos, for the umbrella group National Voices, asked about people’s experience of person-centred and integrated care. A representative sample of 984 adults were interviewed around the beginning of this month. 

It found a significantly higher percentage of individuals with multiple long-term conditions – who are much more likely to be heavy users of the NHS – disagreed with the statement that “all the different professionals caring for you worked well together” (21% disagreed versus 11% among other adults).

The same percentage disagreed that “when you moved between services, settings or areas, there was a plan for what would happen next”.

A large majority (81%) were confident they could access information and advice to manage their own physical health, while it was a little less (70%) for mental health. But again, people with multiple LTCs were around twice as likely to say they could not get the necessary information or advice. 

Just 8% said they were not listened to when using NHS services – but this doubled to 16% among those with multiple long-term conditions.

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Source: HSJ, 25 June 2025

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Watchdog 'acted irrationally' over gender clinic, court told

The High Court has heard claims that the health regulator, the Care Quality Commission, "acted irrationally" when it registered England's first private clinic offering gender treatment to under-18s.

The case, brought by a former nurse and a mother who wishes to remain anonymous, claims the watchdog did not consider all relevant information and should also have imposed conditions on the clinic.

The CQC says there is ample evidence that the clinic is committed to the safety and best interests of its patients.

Lawyers for the Gender Plus Healthcare Clinic, which was rated outstanding last year, called the legal action "fatally flawed".

The former nurse, Susan Evans, and the mother are challenging the CQC's decision to register the clinic in January last year.

They are also challenging a decision made last December to continue the registration and to allow the clinic to prescribe cross-sex hormone treatment to 16- and 17-year olds.

Tom Cross KC, barrister for the two women, told the court that in deciding the clinic should continue to be registered, "the CQC has acted irrationally".

He argued that the decision did not factor in some of the conclusions of last year's Cass Review into gender treatment for young people "which serve as important safeguards for children within the cohort and were obviously material".

Mr Cross expressed concern that the private clinic lacked the safeguarding measures required by the NHS and urged the court "at the very least" to require the CQC "to think again about the adequacy of the safeguards".

For the CQC, Jamie Burton KC said the regulator had found no evidence of "improper decision-making or anything that might flag a concern" and that the clinic was found to be "committed to the safety and best interests of its patients" and was acting "in line with national guidance".

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Source: BBC News, 24 June 2025

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The plan to vaccinate all Americans, despite RFK Jr.

Professional medical societies, pharmacists, state health officials and vaccine manufacturers, as well as a new advocacy group, are mobilising behind the scenes to preserve access for vaccines as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. works to upend the nation’s decades-old vaccine system, according to public health experts.

The groups are discussing ordering vaccines directly from manufacturers and giving greater weight to vaccine recommendations from medical associations. And they are asking insurance companies to continue covering shots based on professional societies’ guidance instead of the federal government’s, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the conversations, including some who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private discussions.

The moves come as Kennedy has replaced members of the key federal vaccine advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that decides which vaccines are recommended for whom and whether they’ll be covered by insurance. Kennedy fired the 17-member committee earlier this month and handpicked eight new members, several of whom are vaccine critics.

But the extraordinary effort to create parallel systems of recommending, and perhaps even providing, vaccines faces major challenges, and some of the more ambitious goals have yet to be ironed out.

There is no guarantee that health plans will cover every shot without guidance from the CDC panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. States, which determine school vaccine entry requirements, may make different decisions. And potential competing recommendations could sow confusion among doctors as well as patients if it becomes unclear which recommendations to follow.

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Source: The Washington Post, 24 June 2025

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Millions of children at risk as vaccine uptake stalls

Progress in vaccinating children against a variety of life-threatening diseases has stalled in the past two decades - and even gone backwards in some countries - a new global study suggests.

The situation has been made worse by the Covid pandemic, leaving millions of children unprotected from diseases such as measles, tuberculosis and polio.

The researchers are calling for a concerted effort to provide better and more equal access to vaccines.

Child health experts warn that cuts to international aid budgets that fund vaccination programmes, combined with vaccine scepticism, are creating a "perfect storm".

The global childhood vaccination programme has been a huge success.

Since 1974, more than four billion children have been vaccinated, preventing an estimated 150 million deaths worldwide.

In nearly half a century until 2023, researchers say vaccine coverage doubled.

But since 2010 progress has stagnated, to the extent that there are now wide variations in vaccine coverage around the world.

A study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, external, says measles vaccinations have declined in nearly 100 countries.

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Source: BBC News, 25 June 2025

 

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First NHS cyber attack death confirmed

A cyber attack caused a long wait for a blood test result which contributed to the death of a patient, HSJ can reveal.

The ransomware attack on the Synnovis pathology system last June saw more than a thousand operations cancelled as the laboratories used by two major hospital trusts were unable to report.

Since then, a harm review process has been taking place across: Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College and Lewisham and Greenwich hospitals; primary care across six boroughs; and two mental health trusts.

This morning, a spokesperson for King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust told HSJ: “Sadly, one patient sadly died unexpectedly during the cyber-attack. As is standard practice when this happens, we undertook a detailed review of their care.

“The patient safety incident investigation identified a number of contributing factors that led to the patient’s death. This included a long wait for a blood test result as a result of the cyber-attack impacting pathology services at the time. We have met with the patient’s family, and shared the findings of the safety investigation with them.”

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Source: HSJ, 25 June 2025

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The 10-Year Plan vision for FTs and ICBs

A new operating model proposed by the government’s 10-Year Health Plan will radically reform the role and governance of foundation trusts and integrated care boards.

HSJ has seen a recent draft of the plan, which states that the strongest foundation trusts will be allowed to become “integrated health organisations”. These will be given the responsibility of managing the budget for the health and care of a designated population.

Meanwhile, the plan says elected mayors will take over from local authority leaders on integrated care boards, and the new role of the boards will often involve shaping the provider market.

The draft plan says the Department of Health and Social Care will seek to approve the first “new FTs” in 2026.

The authorisation will be undertaken by a unit within the DHSC, whose work will be overseen by an independent group of experts. There will be no return for Monitor, the standalone FT regulator.

The plan reveals FTs will no longer be required to have governors. The public and staff representatives will be replaced by more “dynamic” ways of reflecting their views.

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Source: HSJ, 23 June 2025

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Areas of England to get extra NHS funding announced

NHS funding will be diverted to working-class communities, the health secretary is set to announce.

Wes Streeting is expected to announce the measure as part of the upcoming NHS 10-year plan, set to be focused on closing health inequalities, during a speech in Blackpool today.

About £2.2bn will be spent on staff, medicines, new technology and equipment in rural communities, coastal towns and working-class regions, according to the Department of Health.

The money, which was previously set aside to plug financial holes in the health service, can now be reinvested where it is "most needed", the department said.

It added that NHS leaders have spent months cutting "wasteful" spending, such as on "back office" functions and agency staff, while reducing forecast deficits by health trusts.

GP funding will be reviewed under the new plan, as surgeries serving working-class areas receive an average of 10% less funding per patient than practices in more affluent areas.

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Source: Sky News, 25 June 2025

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‘Robustly manage’ staff who ‘lack compassion and openness’, NHSE tells trusts

Trust chief executives have been told to “robustly manage” staff who repeatedly “demonstrate a lack of compassion or openness” over failings in maternity care.

It comes after health and social care secretary Wes Streeting announced a rapid investigation into failings at 10 trusts.

NHSE CEO Sir Jim Mackey and chief nursing officer Duncan Burton have written to trust leaders, saying: “We can’t accept the status quo.” The letter warns of “challenging conversations” to come with leaders in some organisations.

It does not provide examples of what “robust” management would involve. It says every trust with responsibilities for maternity and neonatal care needs to:

  • Be rigorous in tackling poor behaviour and culture by addressing examples of this without delay;
  • Listen directly to families who have experienced harm when concerns are raised or identified while also creating the conditions for staff to speak up;
  • Retain a “laser focus” on tackling inequalities, discrimination and racism within services. It promises a “new anti-discrimination programme” from August to support leadership teams to improve culture and practice. Trusts should also accelerate plan to provide enhanced continuity of care for those in the most deprived neighbourhoods; and
  • Review its approach to reviewing data on maternity and neonatal services, monitoring outcomes and experience.

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Source: HSJ, 24 June 2025

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Deaths linked to new crisis care policy

Coroners have issued multiple warnings about deaths linked to police refusing to respond to people in mental health crisis, prompting fresh concerns about “gaps in support”.

Several coroners have raised concerns about the “Right Care, Right Person” (RCRP) policy – agreed across the police force and NHS – since it was introduced nationally in 2023. This includes two new Prevention of Future Death reports issued during the same week.

The policy was introduced despite concerns in the NHS and from patient groups, after police forces said they were attending far too many incidents of people in mental health crisis. They argued they were under huge demand pressure and that these calls should be the responsibility of the NHS. However, health services are also often unable to respond.

Rebecca Sutton, assistant coroner for County Durham and Darlington, said in her report into the death of Sophie Cotton that there was “a refusal to the request that the police attend, even when a family member was expressing the view that there was a real and immediate risk to life”. Ms Cotton died by suicide in January this year, and was found after her family forced entry into her house, hours after they raised serious concerns about her welfare.

Ms Sutton also said the RCRP advice to contact mental health services “appears to have disregarded the fact that the mental health crisis team do not have the power to enter locked premises”.

In response to the recent coroners’ concerns, a National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesperson told HSJ: “We are closely monitoring any comment from coroners on RCRP to ensure that if there is any learning for policing or our partners, that it is disseminated nationally.”

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Source: HSJ, 24 June 2025

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Families call to meet PM over maternity failings

Parents involved in an independent review into Nottingham's maternity services say they want to meet Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to talk about the failings in care across the NHS.

On Monday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced a "rapid" investigation into maternity care in England.

Sarah and Jack Hawkins, whose daughter Harriet was stillborn in 2016 following maternity failings at Nottingham City Hospital, are calling for more action in the form of a statutory public inquiry.

Earlier this year Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust - which is at the centre of the largest ever review into NHS failings - was given a record £1.6m fine over failings around the deaths of three babies.

Dr Hawkins said similar reviews into NHS failings had taken place and not achieved the results families had wanted, which is why he has backed calls for a national judge-led public inquiry.

"I think we're very clear that it's been tried before in various subtly different ways, and it will not work," he said.

"What we absolutely have to have is a statutory public inquiry, where people give evidence under oath, and are at risk of perjury in a court, just like the Post Office inquiry.

"There are thousands and thousands of avoidably dead babies and children in this country, in a system run by the state."

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Source: BBC News, 24 June 2025

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At-home cervical screening tests offered in England

Women who have delayed coming forward for cervical screening will be offered a test to be taken at home, NHS England has said.

The DIY test kits, available from January, contain a long cotton-wool bud to swab the lining of the vagina.

The test is for human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes most cervical cancers, and women between the ages of 25 and 64 are offered it every few years.

The Department for Health and Social Care in England said the scheme would tackle "deeply entrenched barriers" that keep women away from cervical screening.

This can be due to embarrassment, discomfort, lack of time as well as religious or cultural concerns.

Just 68.8% of women currently take up the offer of cervical cancer screening - well below the NHS England target of 80%.

Younger women, those with a disability, ethnic minority communities and LGBT+ groups are more likely to miss appointments.

A recent trial showed the rollout of home test kits across England could increase the proportion screened to 77% over three years.

Hazel Stinson, 49, from Kent, suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and was last able to visit the GP for a cervical screening six years ago.

She says she is "absolutely thrilled" that at-home testing is being rolled out across England.

"This will mean that I and millions of other people just like me will be able to have the test when otherwise they might not be able to do it," she added.

Ms Stinson said as someone with chronic fatigue, which is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME, "the most important thing is to advocate for yourself".

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Source: BBC News, 24 June 2025

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Manage ADHD like diabetes, says NHSE taskforce

An inability to access NHS attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services has resulted in a “significant growth” in the use of unregulated private providers, according to a report from a national taskforce.

The first report of NHS England’s ADHD taskforce found the long-waiting lists to access ADHD diagnosis and treatment services was resulting in “two-tier access… one for those who can pay and another for those who cannot”, which “drive health inequalities”.

Published on Friday, it called on policymakers to “shift rapidly to accessible, regulated and generalist models of care in the community, including primary care and other sectors outside the NHS”.

It called on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to reconsider that ADHD always requires a highly specialised, secondary care workforce.

“[NICE] should clearly define the meaning of specialist to enable greater involvement of primary care…this approach would align ADHD management with the way other common conditions, such as diabetes, are managed.” 

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Source: HSJ, 22 June 2025

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