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NHS too reliant on overseas recruits, says union

The NHS in England is increasingly reliant on doctors and nurses recruited from outside the UK and EU, analysis has found.

Some 34% of doctors joining the health service last year came from overseas, a rise from 18% in 2014.

The government said overseas recruitment had always been part of its strategy, but unions have warned it is an unsustainable way of recruiting in the long-term.

Patricia Marquis, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) director for England, said ministers must do more to reduce the "disproportionate reliance" on international recruits.

The government is funding an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England - a 25% increase over three years.

However, last week a report by MPs concluded the large number of unfilled NHS job vacancies, about 110,000 in total, was posing a serious risk to patient safety.

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said it was "high time for the government to commit to a fully-funded, long-term workforce plan for the NHS" to tackle "chronic workforce shortages".

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Source: BBC News, 5 August 2022

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Lucy Letby trial: Nurse used syringe to force milk and air into baby, court is told

Lucy Letby used a plunger to force milk and air into one of the babies she is accused of attempting to murder, a medical expert has told a court.

The alleged attack caused the infant’s stomach to distend to such a degree that she then projectile vomited a “massive” amount of milk so violently that the material left her cot and splashed over a chair several feet away.

Staff at the Countess of Chester Hospital managed to save Baby G’s life but the incident was so catastrophic that it caused the child severe brain damage. Seven years later she still suffers from quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

Dr Dewi Evans, a consultant paediatrician called in by the prosecution, said the use of a plunger on the end of a syringe was the only explanation for the baby’s sudden collapse in the early hours of 7 September 7 2015.

Letby, 32, of Hereford, is accused of murdering seven children in the neonatal unit of the hospital in Cheshire, and of ten attempted murders, between June 2015 and June 2016. She denies all the charges.

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Source: The Times, 13 December 2022

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Covid XEC: What are the symptoms of new virus strain?

A new strain of Covid emerging in the UK is spreading as cases increase at a high rate, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.at a high rate, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.

Called XEC, the strain is a combination of the KS.1.1 and KP.3.3 variants. Figures from the UKHSA show that the admission rate for patients testing positive for the new strain rose to 4.5 per 100,000 people in the week to October 6. This was up from 3.7 a week earlier.

It is thought the XEC strain is more transmissible due to its numerous mutations, and presents symptoms similar to those of other Covid variants including tiredness, headaches, a sore throat and high temperatures.

Although self-isolation is no longer a legal requirement in the UK, the NHS has advised anyone who tests positive for Covid to avoid contact with others for at least five days. It is also recommended that contact with more vulnerable people be avoided for 10 days, to reduce the risk to them. As a general rule, it is advised anyone with symptoms at least wait for them to subside before returning to normal activities.

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Source: The Independent, 17 October 2024

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Coronavirus: Weakest patients could be denied lifesaving care due to lack of funding for NHS, doctors admit

NHS patients could be denied lifesaving care during a severe coronavirus outbreak in Britain if intensive care units are struggling to cope, senior doctors have warned.

Under a so-called “three wise men” protocol, three senior consultants in each hospital would be forced to make decisions on rationing care such as ventilators and beds, in the event hospitals were overwhelmed with patients.

The medics spoke out amid frustration over what one said was the government’s “dishonest spin” that the health service was well prepared for a major pandemic outbreak.

The doctors, from hospitals across England, said the health service’s existing critical care capacity was already overstretched and “would crumble” under the demands of a pandemic surge in patients who may all need ventilation to help them breathe.

Those denied intensive care beds could be those suffering with coronavirus or other seriously ill patients, with priority given to those most likely to survive and recover.

Doctors said this would lead to “tough decisions” needing to be made about the wholesale cancellation of operations to free-up beds.

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Source: Independent, 28 February 2020

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There are so many Covid patients, younger this time. But my hospital is full

"There can be no debate: this is now much, much worse than the first wave", says a NHS consultant.

"Truly, I never imagined it would be this bad.

Once again Covid has spread out along the hospital, the disease greedily taking over ward after ward. Surgical, paediatric, obstetric, orthopaedic; this virus does not discriminate between specialities. Outbreaks bloom even in our “clean” areas and the disease is even more ferociously infectious. Although our local tests do not differentiate strains, I presume this is the new variant.

The patients are younger this time around too, and there are so many of them. They are sick. We are full."

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Source: The Guardian, 7 January 2020

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One in four NHS doctors tired to the point of impairment, survey finds

One in four doctors in the NHS are so tired that their ability to treat patients has become impaired, according to the first survey to reveal the impact of sleep deprivation on medics during the coronavirus pandemic.

Growing workloads, longer hours and widespread staff shortages are causing extreme tiredness among medics, leading to memory problems and difficulty concentrating, according to the report by the Medical Defence Union (MDU), which provides legal support to about 200,000 doctors, nurses, dentists and other healthcare workers.

The survey of more than 500 doctors across the UK, carried out within the past month and seen by the Guardian, uncovered almost 40 near misses as a direct result of exhaustion. In at least seven cases, patients actually sustained harm.

Despite encouraging signs the Omicron wave may be fading, doctors admitted the constant pressure of the past 22 months spent fighting coronavirus on the frontline was taking a toll on their technical skills and even their ability to make what should be straightforward medical decisions. Medics admitted for the first time sleep deprivation was causing real harm to patients in the NHS.

Almost six in 10 doctors (59%) reported their sleep patterns had worsened during the pandemic. More than a quarter (26%) of medics admitted being so tired that their ability to treat patients was “impaired”. Of these, one in six (18%) said a patient was harmed or a near miss occurred as a result.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 January 2022

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GP practices training receptionists to do blood tests

A number of London GP practices are training their receptionists to do blood tests, Pulse has learned.

Professor Sir Sam Everington, a GP and chair of Tower Hamlets CCG, told Pulse that ‘lots of practices’ in the area have taken the step, including his own.

Training a receptionist to carry out blood tests – which can be done in just six weeks – provides much-needed support to pressured practices, he said.

Dr Everington told Pulse: ‘A lot of our receptionists have signed up to be phlebotomists and they love it because actually, phlebotomy is not just about taking blood. 

"You get to know all the patients with long-term conditions and so our phlebotomists know all these patients."

He added that reception teams are a ‘fertile recruitment ground’ for a phlebotomist. They can ‘manage even the most terrified patients’ and have ‘amazing’ clinical skills.

Dr Everington suggested that training receptionists as phlebotomists can help build trust with patients who are suspicious about having to describe their symptoms for triage by reception staff.

But he said that the extra role just ‘acknowledges’ that all members of practice staff are ‘part of the clinical team’.

He told Pulse: "In our practice, we all train together. We have meetings together, the whole team, and it’s acknowledging in this modern world that actually every member of your staff is a clinician – part of the clinical team – because there are always things they will do or can do that will have an impact clinically."

"There isn’t a hidden supply of GPs out there in the next few years. It takes 10 years to train GPs so actually help is going to come from a wider team base."

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Source: Pulse, 31 March 2022

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Health of nation study calls on millions to sign up

Researchers are calling on five million UK adults to join what they hope will be one of the biggest studies in the world, to create the most detailed picture ever of the nation's health.

The aim is it to find better ways to prevent, spot and treat illnesses like cancer and dementia early on. It will involve collecting health and genetic data and creating a long-term repository of health information.

Our Future Health is part-funded by government, industry and charities. They hope to get their first set of results in the next few years.

Chairman of the programme, Prof Sir John Bell, said the ambition is to use the results to fundamentally shift the focus of healthcare systems to earlier diagnosis and prevention.

Invitations will go out this autumn to more than three million people in London, West Yorkshire, West Midlands and Greater Manchester. Over time it will be open to all UK adults.

Volunteers will:

  • fill in questionnaires about their lifestyles and any health problems
  • have blood tests for measurements such as blood sugar and cholesterol
  • have their height, weight and blood pressure measured
  • take genetic tests
  • consent to share their NHS records.

According to the plans the information will be used in a number of different ways.

Scientists will collate and combine this information and store it so that people cannot be identified, building up a bank of health and genetic data.

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Source: BBC News, 24 October 2022

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Patient transport firm loses case against short-staffing whistleblower

A manager has won his employment tribunal against a patient transport company he alleged had misled clients over staffing.

Richard Mott won a claim for unfair dismissal after being made redundant one day after raising concerns about Secure Care UK, a firm that transports mental health patients, who have often been detained under the Mental Health Act.

The tribunal heard the organisation had significant staffing difficulties, both for drivers and for manning the operations room.

The judgment issued this month said: “The claimant says and I accept that [chief executive] Femi Sanusi had instructed him to inform a client that they had staff available to cover an assignment when they did not."

“He told Mr Sanusi that ‘I do not work like this’. He went on to say that the [company] was in breach of CQC [Care Quality Commission] regulations, health and safety law and working time regulations. He said that the health and safety of patients and staff was in danger. He threatened to contact the CQC and the Information Commissioner.”

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Source: HSJ, 21 October 2019

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Reflecting on To Err is Human: 20 Years of Patient Safety Work

It’s been 20 years since the Institute of Medicine — known now as the National Academy of Medicine — published the groundbreaking report, To Err is Human. And in that time, the healthcare industry has seen vast changes, bringing patient safety and healthcare quality to the forefront.

The notion that patient safety issues are not only common, but they are preventable, challenge previously held industry beliefs, Craig Clapper, a partner in strategic consulting at Press Ganey, said during a recent interview with PatientEngagementHIT.com. 

In this article he discusses the progress that has been made and what still needs to be done.

Looking into the future, Clapper sees an industry that integrates patient safety as a key element of everything it does. While clinicians focus on boosting patient satisfaction, delivering good clinical outcomes, and fulfilling other obligations, they should feel and see the connection with patient safety.

“We should talk less about safety culture in isolation and more about how to make it about the entire patient experience,” Clapper concluded. “That'll be our biggest single advantage in the next decade. Instead of having a subculture for every outcome, we must have one seamless performance culture that can emphasize the safety, quality, and experience of care.”

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Source: PatientEngagementHIT, 26 November 2019

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“Mass hysterectomies” were carried out on migrants in US detention centre, claims whistleblower

Detainees held in an immigration centre in the US have been subjected to potentially unnecessary hysterectomies performed without informed consent, a nurse whistleblower has alleged.

Dawn Wooten, who filed a whistleblower complaint with the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, says she was demoted and her hours slashed after she complained about substandard medical care, questionable surgeries on women, and failure to protect detainees and staff from COVID-19.

A report of the charges1 was filed by four non-profit rights and welfare groups on behalf of the detained immigrants at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, which is operated by the private prison company, LaSalle Corrections.

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Source: BMJ, 16 September 2020

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Why India should worry about post-COVID-19 care

When 60-year-old Milind Ketkar returned home after spending nearly a month in hospital battling COVID-19, he thought the worst was over.

People had to carry him to his third-floor flat as his building didn't have a lift. He spent the next few days feeling constantly breathless and weak. When he didn't start to feel better, he contacted Dr Lancelot Pinto at Mumbai's PD Hinduja hospital, where he had been treated.

Dr Pinto told him inflammation in the lungs, caused by Covid-19, had given him deep vein thrombosis - it occurs when blood clots form in the body and it often happens in the legs.

Fragments can break off and move up the body into the lungs, blocking blood vessels and, said Dr Pinto, this can be life-threatening if not diagnosed and treated in time.

Mr Ketkar spent the next month confined to his flat, taking tablets for his condition. "I was not able to move much. My legs constantly hurt and I struggled to do even daily chores. It was a nightmare," he says.

He is still on medication, but he says he is on the road to recovery.

Mr Ketkar is not alone in this - tens of thousands of people have been reporting post-Covid health complications from across the world. Thrombosis is common - it has been found in 30% of seriously ill coronavirus patients, according to experts. These problems have been generally described as "long Covid" or "long-haul Covid".

Awareness around post-Covid care is crucial, but its not the focus in India because the country is still struggling to control the spread of the virus. It has the world's second-highest caseload and has been averaging 90,000 cases daily in recent weeks.

Dr Natalie Lambert, research professor of medicine at Indiana University in the US, was one of the early voices to warn against post-Covid complications.

She surveyed thousands of people on social media and noticed that an alarmingly high number of them were complaining about post-Covid complications such as extreme fatigue, breathlessness and even hair loss.

The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in the US reported its own survey results a few weeks later and acknowledged that at least 35% of those surveyed had not returned to their usual state of health.

Post-Covid complications are more common among those who were seriously ill, but Dr Lambert says an increasing number of moderately ill patients - even those who didn't need to be admitted to hospital - haven't recovered fully.

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Source: BBC News, 28 September 2020

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Trust warned by regulator after cluster of never events

The Care Quality Commission has ordered immediate improvements to a trust after it reported six never events inside eight months.

The watchdog has issued a warning notice to Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust after it carried out an announced inspection which focused on the trust’s surgical care group – where six never events had occurred between February and October last year.

In November, HSJ reported that a total of eight never events had been recorded in 2020, with trust chief executive Kate Shields saying it had raised fears the trust had not fully embedded safety improvements initiated as part of the special measures regime.

The inspectors visited three of the trust’s sites where the never events had happened. These were: Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, St Michael’s Hospital in Hayle and West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance.

The inspectors reported that governance processes were “not effective enough” to ensure that changes were made across the trust, and that lessons from incidents and near misses were “not shared with the whole team and wider service to ensure patient safety”.

Their report also stated the trust’s safety checklist for surgical procedures had improved but was not fully compliant with the World Health Organisation’s standards.

However, the CQC found staff apologised and provided patients with information when things had gone wrong, and that there was an open culture in which staff felt able to raise concerns.

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Source: HSJ, 17 February 2021

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One in two care workers verbally and physically abused by care home residents

Nearly half of care workers in care homes have been both physically and verbally abused by the residents they are supporting, according to new research.

A poll of 2,803 staff working in care homes revealed 17% have received verbal abuse from residents and 11% have been subject to physical abuse.

A spokesperson for carehome.co.uk, said: “All over the UK, care workers are doing physically and emotionally demanding jobs on often low pay and long hours. Yet at the same time, the rewards of working in a care home can be huge, as you can build strong relationships with the people you care for and make deep, emotional connections."

“Lashing out at staff is often a sign of frustration and it is vital care homes give staff dementia training so they can find the reasons behind this challenging behaviour. Care workers do such an important job and with around three-quarters of people in care homes having dementia, it is vital care workers are given adequate support and specialist training to care for them.”

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Source: Carehome.co.uk, 10 May 2019

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Hospitals experiencing "perfect storm"

NHS bosses have warned as Covid-19 infections rise, the demand for A&E ha surged, colliding with holiday season. 

According to reports, hospitals are being told to brace themselves as admissions to hospital for patients with Covid have risen by more than 30 per cent over the past week.

Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals, chief executive Dame Jackie Daniel has said, “We are going through the ‘perfect storm’ of high numbers of Covid patients in hospital, high Covid infections in the community, which is affecting staff and our families, unprecedented levels of urgent and emergency demand and peak holiday season, all of which comes after 18 months of exhausting work.”

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Source: The Independent, 25 July 2021

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Evidence is insufficient to back mandatory NHS staff vaccination, says House of Lords committee

A House of Lords committee has raised several concerns about the proposed legislation to make vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for all NHS staff in England, particularly whether the benefits of vaccinating the remaining 8% of NHS workers were proportionate and how the NHS would cope with losing the 5.4% who don’t want to be vaccinated.

The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee said that the government’s plans had not been thoroughly thought through, leaving the House of Lords unable to scrutinise the proposed legislation.

On 9 November England’s health and social care secretary, Sajid Javid, announced that all staff who work in health and social care settings regulated by the Care Quality Commission will have to be fully vaccinated by 1 April 2022.2 “We must avoid preventable harm and protect patients in the NHS, protect colleagues in the NHS, and protect the NHS itself,” he said.

But in a report published on 30 November the committee said that the benefit of increasing the protection from vaccinating staff who had not yet taken up offers of the jab “may be marginal” and that the government had failed to publish any contingency plans on how it would cope with the loss of staff who do not want the vaccine.

The report said that of the 208 000 NHS staff who weren’t currently vaccinated 54 000 (26%) would take up the vaccine under the law and 126 000 (61%) would leave their jobs.

“Given the legislation is anticipated to cause £270m in additional recruitment and training costs and major disruption to the health and care provision at the end of the grace period, very strong evidence should be provided to support this policy choice. DHSC [Department for Health and Social Care] has not provided such evidence,” it said.

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Source: BMJ, 3 December 2021

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Incessant noise of tinnitus can feel like torture

Tinnitus Week 2022 is taking place from 7-13 February and the British Tinnitus Association are calling for the establishment of a Tinnitus Biobank

The UK urgently needs a biobank library of human tissue samples so experts can study and find better treatments, or a cure, for "ringing in the ears", says the BTA.

More than seven million adults in the UK are thought to have tinnitus. This stressful and upsetting condition of hearing whooshing, buzzing or other intensely annoying sounds with no external source is poorly understood. For some, it becomes difficult or impossible to lead a normal life.

A survey by the charity, carried out in November with 2,600 people with tinnitus, suggests almost one in 10 living with the condition has experienced thoughts about suicide or self-harm in the past two years. One in three thought about their condition every hour - causing them anxiety and sadness. The BTA says other people with tinnitus share similar experiences of feeling isolated, debilitated and stressed.

Malcolm Hilton, an ear, nose and throat expert at University of Exeter's Medical School, says a national biobank for tinnitus would be massively beneficial, and might reveal better ways for managing the condition.

"There are many treatments available for tinnitus and it is disappointing that people still come away with the message that they have to 'learn to live with it' without support."

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Source: BBC News, 7 February 2022

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Vulnerable women are being failed by maternity services, report finds

Current models of maternity care in the UK are failing to reach pregnant women living in adverse social circumstances, research commissioned by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has found.

Georgina Jones, one of the report’s authors and professor of health psychology at Leeds Beckett University, told The BMJ, “Women are often living in a tangled web of complex inequalities that is beyond their control, and this impacts on the care they receive and the outcomes of that care . . .We’ve really been letting down these women in the way that our maternity and reproductive health services are currently delivered, and strategies and care pathways need to be identified and put in place to remedy this.”

A number of recommendations have been made in the paper including:

  • Understanding it is the vulnerable, minoritised and disadvantaged women in society that have an increased risk of maternal death. These women are often living in an entangled web of complex inequalities that is beyond their control, which impacts on the care they receive and the outcomes of that care.
  • Strategies and care pathways need to be identified and put in place to improve their situation. These women have been let down in the way that our maternity and reproductive health services are currently delivered.
  • We need to find a better way of recording social determinant data. The current way of doing this is inadequate and not fit for purpose, and it doesn’t provide us with enough information to really understand how the complex circumstances of the woman impacts on her maternal outcomes.
  • The research shows current models of care are still failing pregnant women who have lived in adverse social circumstances prior to, during and after pregnancy. Maternal outcomes are particularly poor for socially disadvantaged women affected by pre-existing physical or mental health problems; those who misuse substances; those who have a lower level of education; those who are overweight, undernourished or poorly sheltered; and those who are at increased risk due to the threat of abusive and unsupportive partners, families and peers.

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Source: BMJ, 10 February 2022

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Heart-disease risk soars after COVID — even with a mild case

Even a mild case of COVID-19 can increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular problems for at least a year after diagnosis, a new study1 shows. Researchers found that rates of many conditions, such as heart failure and stroke, were substantially higher in people who had recovered from COVID-19 than in similar people who hadn’t had the disease.

What’s more, the risk was elevated even for those who were under 65 years of age and lacked risk factors, such as obesity or diabetes.

“It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, it doesn’t matter if you smoked, or you didn’t,” says study co-author Ziyad Al-Aly at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and the chief of research and development for the Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System. “The risk was there.”

People who had recovered from COVID-19 showed stark increases in 20 cardiovascular problems over the year after infection. For example, they were 52% more likely to have had a stroke than the contemporary control group, meaning that, out of every 1,000 people studied, there were around 4 more people in the COVID-19 group than in the control group who experienced stroke.

The risk of heart failure increased by 72%, or around 12 more people in the COVID-19 group per 1,000 studied. Hospitalization increased the likelihood of future cardiovascular complications, but even people who avoided hospitalization were at higher risk for many conditions.

“I am actually surprised by these findings that cardiovascular complications of COVID can last so long,” Hossein Ardehali, a cardiologist at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, wrote in an e-mail to Nature. Because severe disease increased the risk of complications much more than mild disease, Ardehali wrote, “it is important that those who are not vaccinated get their vaccine immediately”.

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Source: Nature, 10 February 2022

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Full extent of NHS dentistry shortage revealed

Nine in 10 NHS dental practices across the UK are not accepting new adult patients for treatment under the health service, a BBC investigation has found.

BBC's research shows no dentists taking on adult NHS patients could be found in a third of the UK's top-tier councils. And eight in 10 NHS practices are not taking on children.

The Department of Health said it had made an extra £50m available "to help bust the Covid backlogs" and that improving NHS access was a priority.

BBC News contacted nearly 7,000 NHS practices - believed to be almost all those offering general treatment to the public.

The British Dental Association (BDA) called it "the most comprehensive and granular assessment of patient access in the history of the service".

While NHS dental treatment is not free for most adults, it is subsidised.

The BBC heard from people across the UK who could not afford private fees and said the subsidised rates were crucial to getting care.

The lack of NHS appointments has led people to drive hundreds of miles in search of treatment, pull out their own teeth without anaesthesia, resort to making their own improvised dentures and restrict their long-term diets to little more than soup.

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Source: BBC News, 8 August 2022

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No mental health data taken in cyber attack, NHSE confirms

No patient data held by mental health trusts was taken following a cyber attack this summer, NHS England has confirmed.

The regulator told HSJ it had received confirmation from tech firm Advanced, which was the subject of a cyber attack in July, that no data had been breached on its Carenotes electronic patient record. The EPR is used by around a dozen mental health trusts.

The process of reconnecting trusts fully back to Carenotes also started this week, after providers spent two months with limited or no access to their EPR.

HSJ previously revealed that senior NHS chiefs feared patient data may have been taken or accessed by those responsible for the cyber attack, who issued ransom demands to Advanced.

Since then, experts have been brought in to investigate any potential data impact following the attack.

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Source: HSJ, 21 September 2022

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Scottish Government orders review as neonatal deaths higher than expected

Healthcare Improvement Scotland have been commissioned to lead a review into the neonatal death rates.

It follows the higher than expected deaths in both March 2022 and September last year, as published by Public Health Scotland.

At least 18 babies under four weeks old died in March – a rate of 4.6 per 1,000 births.

The wider inquiry is understood to have been triggered because the mortality rate passed an "upper control" threshold of 4.4 per 1,000 births. The average mortality rate among newborns is just over 2 per 1,000 births.

The Scottish Government said the investigation is expected to take no longer than six to nine months once the review team is formed.

Public health minister Maree Todd said: “Every death is a tragedy for the families involved. That is why earlier this year I committed to this review to find out if there is a reason for the increase.

“I appreciate how difficult this time is for anyone affected and I would encourage them to access support if they wish to do so. There is information about organisations and help available on the National Bereavement Care Pathways Scotland as well as the Scottish Government website.”

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Source: The Scotsman, 30 September 2022

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Covid vaccine priority for 'severe' asthma

People previously admitted to hospital or needing "continuous or repeated" steroid use because of asthma are to be prioritised for the Covid vaccine.

The most severe cases will fall into priority-group four, the "clinically extremely vulnerable", who should have received a letter advising they shield.

And the government has now confirmed the rest who meet the above category will be included in group six, the clinically "at risk", including some but not all those usually eligible for a free flu jab.

It follows patients' calls for clarity.

The government said it was following independent experts' advice.

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Source: BBC News, 11 February 2021

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Nurse ‘bullied’ for wearing cross wins unfair dismissal case

A Christian nurse who claimed she was discriminated against for wearing a cross at work has won her case for unfair dismissal.

Mary Onuoha, a theatre practitioner at Croydon University Hospital in London, said she was bullied and harassed for refusing to remove her necklace in 2018.

But an employment tribunal has ruled Croydon Health Services NHS Trust discriminated against and harassed Ms Onuoha over her refusal to remove the jewellery. The trust told her the necklace was a safety risk and must not be outwardly visible.

Ms Onuoha, supported by Christian Legal Centre, said she had worked at the hospital for 13 years before being asked to remove the symbol.

The tribunal found the employer’s uniform policy arbitrary, with many staff allowed to wear necklaces and other religious symbols were permitted.

Following the ruling, Christian Legal Centre chief executive Andrea Williams said the trust’s interpretation of uniform guidance had led to a campaign of harassment against a devoted, experienced, and highly professional nurse, who was in effect hounded out of the NHS.

Ms Onuoha said she was investigated and suspended from clinical duties when she refused to remove the item and she was demoted to receptionist duties. In June 2020, she went off work with stress and said she felt she had no alternative but to resign.

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Source: Nursing Standard, 6 January 2022

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Benefits of ADHD medication outweigh health risks, study finds

The benefits of taking drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder outweigh the impact of increases in blood pressure and heart rate, according to a new study.

An international team of researchers led by scientists from the University of Southampton found the majority of children taking ADHD medication experienced small increases in blood pressure and pulse rates, but that the drugs had “overall small effects”. They said the study’s findings highlighted the need for “careful monitoring”.

Prof Samuele Cortese, the senior lead author of the study, from the University of Southampton, said the risks and benefits of taking any medication had to be assessed together, but for ADHD drugs the risk-benefit ratio was “reassuring”.

“We found an overall small increase in blood pressure and pulse for the majority of children taking ADHD medications,” he said. “Other studies show clear benefits in terms of reductions in mortality risk and improvement in academic functions, as well as a small increased risk of hypertension, but not other cardiovascular diseases. Overall, the risk-benefit ratio is reassuring for people taking ADHD medications.”

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Source: The Guardian, 6 April 2025

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