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USA: Boston Scientific loses federal case over vaginal mesh product

Boston Scientific Corp. will have to pay a total of $26.7 million in damages to four women in a court ruling related to its vaginal mesh product.

Following a federal court trial in Miami,  jurors found that the company’s Pinnacle pelvic floor replacement kit had a faulty design and the company failed to effectively warn patients and doctors about the possible risks associated with the device. Pelvic organ implants are used to treat female patients experiencing major discomfort due to pelvic organ prolapse.

This was the first federal trial related to Pinnacle. Others lawsuits are pending.

Pelvic organ prolapse occurs when a pelvic organ—such as the bladder—drops (prolapses) from its normal place and pushes against the walls of the vagina. This can happen when the muscles that hold pelvic organs in place are weakened or stretched from childbirth or surgery. Many women will have some kind of pelvic organ prolapse. It can be uncomfortable or painful, but isn’t usually a big health problem. It doesn’t always get worse. And in some women, it can get better with time.

Boston Scientific officials told Reuters that they disagree with the verdict and have a strong case for post-trial motions and appeal.

Marlborough, Mass.-based Boston Scientific is one of seven companies, including Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon division and C.R. Bard, faced with lawsuits over similar mesh products. Officials with Endo International plc said in September it the company has set aside $1.6 billion to settle “substantially all” the cases against it and its American Medical Systems unit.

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Labour say there's been a 'massive increase' in NHS appointments - this begs to differ

Keir Starmer made slashing NHS waiting times one of his priorities, and his Labour government has already claimed it as one of its biggest achievements so far. But new data tells a different story - and the public aren't noticing an improvement.

"The target was never particularly ambitious," says the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) about Labour's plan to add two million extra NHS appointments during their first year in power.

In February, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced they had achieved the feat early. He recently described the now 3.6m additional appointments achieved in their first eight months as a "massive increase".

But new data, obtained by independent fact checking charity Full Fact and shared exclusively with Sky News, reveals this figure actually signalled a slowing down in new NHS activity.

The data also reveals how unambitious the target was in the first place.

We now know two million extra appointments over the course of a year represents a rise of less than 3% of the almost 70 million carried out in the year to June 2024.

Responding to the findings, Sarah Scobie, deputy director of independent health and social care think tank the Nuffield Trust, told Sky News the two million target was "very modest".

She said delivering that number of appointments "won't come close to bringing the treatment waiting list back to pre-pandemic levels, or to meeting longer-term NHS targets".

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Source: Sky News, 23 May 2025

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Patients from Nottingham killer's NHS trust carried out stabbings weeks before attack

Two men with paranoid schizophrenia stabbed members of the public in separate attacks weeks before Valdo Calocane's killings in Nottingham – and all were under the care of the same NHS trust, the BBC has found.

Josef Easom-Cooper and Junior Dietlin injured six men in the stabbings in Nottinghamshire in 2023.

Within weeks, Calocane - who also has paranoid schizophrenia - stabbed to death Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates on 13 June 2023.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust has been criticised over its care of Calocane, and in response to the BBC's findings, apologised to those "affected for any aspects of our care that were not of the high standard our patients deserve".

On 9 April 2023, Easom-Cooper stabbed a worshipper who was leaving an Easter Sunday service at St Stephen's Church in Sneinton.

Easom-Cooper's mother, Shelly Easom, said that as a teenager, her son was under the care of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Nottingham.

She said the stabbing could have been prevented if her son's paranoid schizophrenia had been taken more seriously.

"It's disgusting that it takes someone to either lose their life or be stabbed before somebody thinks 'oh, hang on a minute, maybe we need to do something here'.

"The mental health services in Nottingham have routinely and systematically let him down and also the victim," she added.

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Source: BBC News, 23 May 2025

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NHS rolls out ‘Amazon-style’ app for prescriptions to free up pharmacies

Millions in England can now track NHS prescriptions via the health service’s dedicated app, receiving "Amazon-style" updates on their medication status.

This new feature aims to reduce the administrative burden on pharmacies by minimising unnecessary calls and visits, freeing up staff to focus on patient care.

NHS England estimates that approximately 45% of calls to community pharmacies are from individuals checking on their prescriptions. The app now allows patients to track their prescriptions, showing whether they are ready for collection or have been shipped for delivery.

Nearly 1,500 high street pharmacies, including Boots, have already adopted the technology. The service is expected to expand to almost 5,000 pharmacies within the next year.

Dr Vin Diwakar, clinical transformation director at NHS England, said: “We know that people want more control over how they manage their healthcare and the new prescription tracking feature in the NHS app offers exactly that.

“You will now get a near real-time update in the app that lets you know when your medicine is ready so you can avoid unnecessary trips or leaving it until the last minute to collect.

“The new Amazon-style feature will also help to tackle the administrative burden on pharmacists, so that they can spend more of their time providing health services and advice to patients rather than updates on the status of their prescriptions.”

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Source: The Independent, 23 May 2025

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‘No staffing growth’ policy implicated in patient’s death

Repeated refusals by NHS England to fund extra staff was a key factor in a patient’s death, a coroner has said.

The coroner warned that year-long delays to follow-up appointments at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital Foundation Trust were a factor in the death of Peter Anzani, a spinal injury patient who died from a blood clot in November last year.

NHS England turned down two requests to fund extra staff at the trust due to national policy and “a funding shortage”, a recent prevention of future deaths report has said.

That’s despite RJAH struggling with patient demand and staffing shortages, leading to longer waits for reviews and treatments, according to the report.

Adam Hodson, the coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, said in the report sent to NHSE and the hospital: “It is obvious that where patients are waiting for longer than is reasonable or necessary for  treatment or reviews, there is a real risk of deaths occurring. No patient should be waiting longer than absolutely necessary for treatment.”

He added: “It is concerning to hear that the trust do not appear to be being adequately supported financially by NHS England, and do not currently appear to be able to address their workplace staffing issues without additional financial support (which does not appear to be forthcoming).”

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Source: HSJ, 22 May 2025

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USA: Lawsuits are piling up as weight-loss drug users report losing their sight: ‘I definitely wouldn’t have taken it’

More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed on behalf of weight-loss drug users who claim that popular weight-loss medications such as Ozempic have caused a loss of vision.

Patients from New York and New Jersey have claimed that they suffered non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy after taking drugs containing semaglutide — the active ingredient in Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus. The condition is rare and includes a loss of blood flow to the optic nerve that causes sudden vision loss in one eye.

"People are just waking up and developing this [vision] condition,” Jason Goldstein, the lawyer representing the patients, told Newsday. “They wake and they totally can't see. A lot of them lose their peripheral vision. They could lose total vision. I have one client who lost it in both eyes."

One of the patients, 57-year-old Edward Fanelli, told the newspaper, "If it was on the label, I definitely wouldn't have taken it,” referring to a warning of potential vision loss.

Fanelli, a New Jersey resident, started taking Ozempic to treat his Type 2 diabetes in October 2022 and was diagnosed with the condition about eight months later. He could no longer do his job as a general contractor because of his vision loss.

Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, has defended its popular medications. Lauren Browdy Weiner, a spokesperson for the drug maker, said the condition is not considered a possible adverse reaction for drugs.

"Novo Nordisk is of the opinion that the benefit-risk profile of semaglutide remains unchanged,” she told Newsday.

She continued: “Patient safety is a top priority for Novo Nordisk, and we take all reports about adverse events from use of our medicines very seriously.

“This also relates to eye conditions, which are well-known comorbidities for people living with diabetes."

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Source: The Independent, 20 May 2025

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Trump’s cuts to international aid are stifling Africa’s HIV research (20 May 2025)

Cuts to international aid ordered by Donald Trump have caused many African HIV researchers to fear for the future of long-term research programmes.

In January, as one of his first acts after taking office, the US president froze all foreign aid and announced a 90-day review. That move and the firing of all but 15 employees at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) mean the agency has, in effect, been closed down.

Also under threat are US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants that support HIV research in Africa: cuts have affected funding for HIV-related research in specific populations, and a mechanism that awards grants to international collaborators has been suspended. US dollars have been key in mitigating the scourge of the virus, both through research and by providing lifesaving antiretroviral drugs.

Salim Abdool Karim is co-founder and director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. He says three USAID-funded collaborative grants for HIV research and one NIH grant related to tuberculosis have been terminated, totalling US$1.4 million.

The public-health physician, who founded CAPRISA with his wife Quarraisha Abdool Karim, an infectious-disease epidemiologist, says that these funding cancellations will stymie the centre’s research, which prioritises slowing the number of new HIV infections in young women and reducing deaths from HIV–tuberculosis coinfections in Africa.

“All our HIV-vaccine trials, and most of our HIV-treatment trials, will be stopped as these are funded by the NIH,” he says. Although he does not expect the suspended work to result in increased deaths, “it will, however, slow scientific progress on HIV vaccines and treatment”, he adds. He doesn’t think that USAID funding will be restored. “Although it has many great scientists, the United States government is now an unreliable funding partner. We have to mobilize our own resources.”

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Source: Nature, 20 May 2025

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NHSE tells ICBs to slow elective referrals

NHS England has told integrated care boards they need to slow down elective referrals dramatically – nearly eliminating year-on-year growth – with high-profile waiting list targets under threat.

Glen Burley, the NHS transformation executive team’s financial reset and accountability director, said the year-on-year increase in demand in 2025-26 needed to be just 0.2%, compared to a forecasted 1.8%. 

His letter to Integrated Care Board (ICB) chief executives, sent on Friday and seen by HSJ, set out “expectations” for ICBs on elective care demand management. It came as new data revealed the waiting list had grown for the first time in seven months.

Mr Burley said: “The elective care referral to treatment and cancer expectations for 2025-2026 require a significant step up in performance from the last few years, and, given the financial constraints in the system this year, the improvement can’t simply be delivered through additional capacity.”

The message reminds leaders that the single elective care target for ICBs proposed under the new national performance and assessment framework is the annual change in waiting list size. 

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Source: HSJ, 22 May 2025

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Staff locked in hospital during ‘unprecedented’ power cut

Staff were effectively “locked in” a hospital at night during a power cut that led to a major incident being declared last year, HSJ can reveal.

Details have emerged about the power failure and “unprecedented” disruption at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth following a Freedom of Information request made by HSJ.

The loss of power, which occurred between midnight and 2am, resulted in a failure of secure door access systems with some reported incidents “where staff were potentially locked in”.

Staff interviewed as part of a debrief after the major incident in August said this was a “serious risk” and raised concerns about why the doors defaulted to locked during the power cut.

The trust claims there were manual overrides in place but staff did not know about them.

A spokesperson for Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust said a “series of recommendations for improvement” made after the incident have since “been completed or have full plans in place for delivery”.

They said: “To ensure patient and staff safety, we have security measures in place on some of our doors to reduce the risk of unauthorised access to clinical and secure areas. These doors have manual overrides in place which are checked by our estates team working with our contractors on an ongoing basis.

“During this incident, general awareness of the manual override systems on our doors was raised, so we continue working with teams to ensure all staff are familiar with our plans and how to access areas during an incident.”

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Source: HSJ, 21 May 2025

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WHO members adopt a 'pandemic agreement' born out of the disjointed global COVID response

The World Health Organization's member countries on Tuesday approved an agreement to better prevent, prepare for and respond to future pandemics in the wake of the devastation wrought by the coronavirus.

Sustained applause echoed in a Geneva hall hosting the WHO’s annual assembly as the measure — debated and devised over three years — passed without opposition.

The treaty guarantees that countries which share virus samples will receive tests, medicines and vaccines. Up to 20% of such products would be given to the WHO to ensure poorer countries have some access to them when the next pandemic hits.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has touted the agreement as “historic” and a sign of multilateralism at a time when many countries are putting national interests ahead of shared values and cooperation.

Dr. Esperance Luvindao, Namibia’s health minister and the chair of a committee that paved the way for Tuesday’s adoption, said that the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted huge costs “on lives, livelihoods and economies.”

"We — as sovereign states — have resolved to join hands, as one world together, so we can protect our children, elders, frontline health workers and all others from the next pandemic," Luvindao added. "It is our duty and responsibility to humanity.”

The treaty’s effectiveness will face doubts because the United States — which poured billions into speedy work by pharmaceutical companies to develop Covid-19 vaccines — is sitting out, and because countries face no penalties if they ignore it, a common issue in international law.

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Source: The Independent, 20 May 2025

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FDA says it will limit access to Covid-19 boosters for Americans under 65

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday that it will limit access to seasonal Covid-19 boosters for healthy Americans under 65 without clear evidence of clinical benefit – a shift, critics say, that will make access difficult for people who are not high risk but want to be vaccinated against the disease.

Top officials at the FDA outlined a new framework for approving Covid-19 vaccines, saying that the US would make the boosters available for Americans over the age of 65 and for adults and children above the age of 6 months with at least one condition that increases their risk of severe Covid-19.

The newly installed FDA commissioner Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad, the controversial director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, laid out the new guidelines in a commentary piece published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

They wrote that manufacturers would have to conduct randomized, controlled clinical trials before updated vaccines would receive approval for healthier people.

Elsewhere in the piece, the officials argued that the US is an outlier among countries in Europe and other high-income countries where Covid-19 boosters are recommended only for older adults and people at high risk. They estimate that more than 100 million Americans will still qualify for the annual shots under the new terms.

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Source: The Guardian, 20 May 2025

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Cutting mental health waiting times ‘could save UK £1bn a year’

Ministers have been told cutting waiting times for thousands of people in Britain’s mental health crisis could help employment and save the government £1bn a year.

According to research by Lancaster University, providing access to faster treatment across England through the NHS would help to improve the health of hundreds of thousands of people while bringing economic benefits for the nation at large.

In a new study to be published in the latest edition of the respected Review of Economics and Statistics academic journal, Prof Roger Prudon found that a one-month delay in the start of mental health treatment resulted in 2% of patients losing their jobs.

Drawing on data for waiting times from the Netherlands between 2012 and 2019, Prudon said a one-month reduction could help as many as 80,000 people get access to treatment annually, which would save more than €300m (£253m) in unemployment-related costs every year.

He said the same calculation could be applied to the UK, given a comparable prevalence in mental health problems, as well as similar treatment times and cost to the economy and public finances from unemployment.

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Source: The Guardian, 21 May 2025

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Delay in improving NHS maternity care ‘costs lives of hundreds of babies a year’

A delay in improving NHS maternity care is costing the lives of hundreds of babies a year, analysis has shown.

At least 2,500 fewer babies would have died since 2018 if hospitals had managed to reduce the number of of stillbirths and neonatal and maternal deaths in England, as the government falls behind on its commitment to halve the rate of those three events.

That is according to a joint report by the baby charities Tommy’s and Sands, which assesses NHS progress on meeting targets that were set in 2015.

Dr Robert Wilson, head of the Sands and Tommy’s joint policy unit, said: “Hundreds of fewer babies a year would have died since 2018 if the government had met its ambition to halve the rates of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in England by 2025.”

The 2,500 deaths are “the equivalent of around 100 primary school classrooms”, Wilson said.

The stubbornly high rates of stillbirth and neonatal death, despite efforts to tackle them, showed that ministers were doing too little to reduce the incidence of baby loss, Wilson claimed.

He said: “The response from government and policymakers to the ongoing crisis in maternity and neonatal care and the scale of pregnancy and baby loss in the UK is simply not good enough. Too many people continue to suffer the heartbreak of losing a baby.”

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Source: The Guardian, 20 May 2025

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‘World-first’ gonorrhoea vaccine to be rolled out in England

A vaccine for gonorrhoea will be rolled out in England as part of a world-first programme, officials have announced.

The move, hailed as a “landmark moment for sexual health”, will aim to tackle rising levels of the sexually transmitted infection (STI).

Gonorrhoea cases in England topped 85,000 in 2023, the highest since records began in 1918, with warnings over some strains being resistant to antibiotics.

The vaccine is an existing jab, known as 4CMenB, that is used against the meningococcal B disease, a serious bacterial infection that can cause meningitis and sepsis. It is used in the routine childhood programme and given to babies at eight weeks, 16 weeks and one year.

Dr Amanda Doyle, the national director for primary care and community services at NHS England, said: “The launch of a world-first routine vaccination for gonorrhoea is a huge step forward for sexual health and will be crucial in protecting individuals, helping to prevent the spread of infection and reduce the rising rates of antibiotic resistance strains of the bacteria.”

Eligible patients will be identified and contacted in the coming weeks, with the jab offered through local authority-commissioned sexual health services from 1 August.

At the appointment patients will also be offered jabs for mpox, human papillomavirus (HPV), and hepatitis A and B.

Doyle added: “NHS teams across the country are now working hard to plan the rollout and ensure we hit the ground running, while the routine mpox vaccination programme builds on the vital progress the NHS has made in recent months in reaching as many eligible people as possible.”

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Source: The Guardian, 21 May 2025

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NHS facing another national maternity services review

Another major inquiry into patient safety within NHS maternity departments is being considered, HSJ has learned, this time by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body.

HSJ has previously reported about concerns that trusts have been swamped with “overwhelming reporting requirements” and unclear regulation and standards on maternity as the result of a series of high profile reviews undertaken in recent years.

HSSIB carries out thematic reviews of safety issues which do not apportion blame. It has not looked into maternity since it was launched in 2023.

Chief executive Rosie Benneyworth told HSJ: “There are national issues in maternity… it was increasingly hard for us to explain why we were not looking at maternity as it appears to meet our criteria.” These criteria include systemic failings in multiple providers.

Dr Benneyworth continued: “We are very keen that we don’t duplicate other work. The focus for us is making recommendations into national bodies. But we are very aware with maternity there has been an enormous amount of work.”

The HSSIB investigation could examine why recommendations from other bodies and inquiries have not been implemented. It may also examine “risk management” and whether learning has been shared after incidents. It could lead to a series of reports published over a year.

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Source: HSJ, 20 May 2025

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Trust ‘selectively targeted’ by workplace regulator after rise in work stress

The national workplace regulator has told an ambulance trust to do more to tackle staff stress as part of a programme in which it is “selectively targeting” high-risk organisations.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspected East of England Ambulance Trust for the first time in September 2024, after the NHS Staff Survey showed an increase in work-related stress. 

East of England has had well-documented cultural issues over the past few years and has been ordered to make improvements by the Care Quality Commission and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. However, early last year it was released from NHS England’s special measures.

The trust said the HSE identified a number of actions it should take, including:

  • Implementing measures to reduce unplanned overtime at the end of shifts.
  • Developing protocols to protect staff from exposure to abuse.
  • Reviewing mandatory training and ensuring appropriate line management and clinical supervision are available.
  • Updating its work-related stress risk assessment. 

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Source: HSJ, 19 May 2025

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Aid cuts forcing people in 70 countries to miss out on much-needed medical care, WHO warns

People in at least 70 countries are missing out on much-needed medical treatment thanks to aid cuts by the US and other nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) director has said – in a stark warning about the colossal impact of these moves.

The Donald Trump-sanctioned slashing of US-funded programmes under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the most prominent example. But Germany, France and the Netherlands have also taken an axe to aid spending, while the UK is set to cut foreign assistance spending by billions of pounds.

"Patients are missing out on treatments, health facilities have closed, health workers have lost their jobs, and people face increased out-of-pocket health spending," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an address to the World Health Assembly.

“Many ministers have told me that sudden and steep cuts to bilateral aid are causing severe disruption in their countries and imperilling the health of millions of people,” Dr Tedros added.

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Source: The Independent, 19 May 2025

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‘My son is falling through the cracks of the child mental health system’

A six-year wait for ADHD treatment on the NHS highlights a growing crisis. One mother tells of her frustrations:

I wasn’t surprised by the children’s commissioner report out today, calling for urgent action to tackle waiting lists in mental health care for children.

Ten years ago, I received a call from my son's reception teacher. They asked me to come in and said he was showing some developmental delays, and autistic traits. Within six months my son, who is now 15, was diagnosed with autism and ADD (attention deficit disorder) and medicated.

Fast forward to his younger brother, and he has been languishing on a waiting list for six years.

The school referred him to CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services) to be assessed for ADHD in November 2021. The school could see how much I was struggling and sent CAMHS an email each week asking where he was on the waiting list. Despite this, it took until October 2024 for him to be diagnosed with ADHD. By then he was in secondary school.

Something Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, said really stuck out to me. She said: “The numbers in this report are staggering — but these are not numbers, these are real children.”

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Source: The Times, 19 May 2025

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Official UK records confirm cyberattacks put NHS patients at risk of clinical harm

Two cyberattacks affecting the NHS last year put patients at risk of clinical harm, according to official data obtained by Recorded Future News.

The data, recorded by the government under the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations and obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, does not identify specific incidents but highlights the growing threat that financially motivated cyber incidents pose to public safety.

It follows the head of the National Cyber Security Centre, Richard Horne, telling cybersecurity practitioners earlier this month that their work was “not just about protecting systems, it’s about protecting our people, our economy, our society, from harm.”

One of the two incidents is likely to be the ransomware attack on pathology services provider Synnovis, which severely disrupted care at a large number of National Health Service (NHS) hospitals and care providers in London by delaying and cancelling operations and appointments. 

Criminals similarly disrupted care in an attack on Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, causing delays to cancer treatments as reported by The Register.

The government data records no incidents that led to excess fatalities or excess casualties, the two highest categories for NIS incidents.  Two incidents, however, passed the threshold of the third category of causing potential clinical harm to more than 50 patients, with clinical harm defined as harm resulting from medical care or the lack of it.

Patient safety concerns in England and Wales, potentially including concerns resulting from cyberattacks, are investigated by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB).

HSSIB’s chief executive Dr Rosie Benneyworth told Recorded Future News that while the board hadn’t “carried out specific investigation work examining the impact of cyberattacks […] as expert independent investigators, we understand the impact of emerging risks, and we can see that there is potential with a cyber attack to make patient safety incidents more likely.”

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Source: The Record, 19 May 2025

 

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Senior doctor accused of failures in case that gave rise to Martha’s rule

A senior doctor has been accused of wrongly failing to escalate the care of a 13-year-old girl whose death led to the adoption of Martha’s rule, which gives the right to a second medical opinion in hospitals.

At a disciplinary tribunal in Manchester, Prof Richard Thompson was also said to have provided a colleague with “false and misleading information” about the condition of Martha Mills.

Martha died on 31 August 2021 at King’s College hospital (KCH) in south London after contracting sepsis. In 2022, a coroner ruled that she would most likely have survived if doctors had identified the warning signs of her rapidly deteriorating condition and transferred her to intensive care earlier, which her parents had asked doctors to do.

Thompson, a specialist in paediatric liver disease, and the on-duty consultant – although he was on call at home – on 29 August 2021, is accused by the General Medical Council (GMC) of misconduct that impairs his fitness to practise.

Opening the GMC’s case at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service on Monday, Christopher Rose said, based on a review of the case by Dr Stephen Playfor, a medical examiner at Manchester Royal Infirmary, Thompson:

  • Should have taken more “aggressive intervention” between noon and 1pm on 29 August, including referring Martha to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
  • Should have gone into the hospital from about 5pm to carry out an in-person assessment of a rash Martha had developed.
  • Gave “false, outdated and misleading information” in a phone call at approximately 9.40pm to Dr Akash Deep in the PICU team.

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Source: The Guardian, 19 May 2025

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UK ‘the sick person of the wealthy world’ amid increase in deaths from drugs and violence

The UK is becoming “the sick person of the wealthy world” because of the growing number of people dying from drugs, suicide and violence, research has found.

Death rates among under-50s in the UK have got worse in recent years compared with many other rich countries, an international study shows.

While mortality from cancer and heart disease has decreased, the number of deaths from injuries, accidents and poisonings has gone up, and got much worse for use of illicit drugs.

The trends mean Britain is increasingly out of step with other well-off nations, most of which have had improvements in the numbers of people dying from such causes.

The increase in drug-related deaths has been so dramatic that the rate of them occuring in the UK was three times higher in 2019 – among both sexes – than the median of 21 other countries studied.

The findings are contained in a report by the Health Foundation thinktank, based on an in-depth study of health and death patterns in the 22 nations by academics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). “The UK’s health is fraying,” they concluded.

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Source: The Guardian, 20 May 2025

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‘Life saving’ rapid test not available at most CDCs

Patients are facing “unnecessary and worrying” waits because a rapid heart failure test is not available at most of the NHS’s 169 community diagnostic centres (CDC), experts have told HSJ.

An analysis by HSJ of data from the Alliance for Heart Failure found that as of October 2024 virtually no trusts and ICBs reported offering rapid NT-proBNP in their CDCs.

The rapid version gives a result with minutes, while a regular test must be sent away to a lab for analysis.

The research, exclusively shared with HSJ, also found that CDCs offering the rapid NT-proBNP test are mainly located on hospital-based sites – and not in the community.

A further 14 trusts operating across 10 integrated care systems said that the rapid test is, or might be, added to their CDC offer.

The Royal College of Pathologists and the British Society for Echocardiography have both called for it to be made available in all CDCs. They have claimed this would cut unnecessary waits for patients, reduce inappropriate referrals and ease pressure on diagnostic services. 

“This is an essential test which should be available in all CDCs”, said Dan Augustine, president of the British Society for Echocardiography.

“Many people who are suspected of having heart failure are currently referred for echocardiograms. For those who do not have heart failure, this means an unnecessary and potentially worrying wait. It also puts added pressure on already struggling echocardiographers.”

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Source: HSJ, 19 May 2025

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Teenager living in 'continuous pain' after Dr Yaser Jabbar carried out 'inappropriate' operations

A 15-year-old boy who was operated on twice by a now unlicensed Great Ormond Street surgeon says he is living with "continuous" pain.

Finias Sandu has been told by an independent review the procedures he underwent on his legs were "unacceptable" and "inappropriate" for his age.

The teenager from Essex was born with a condition that causes curved bones in his legs.

Aged seven, a reconstructive procedure was carried out on Finias's left leg, lengthening the limb by 3.5cm.

A few years later, the same operation was carried out on his right leg which involved wearing an invasive and heavy metal frame for months.

He has now been told by independent experts these procedures should not have taken place and concerns have been raised over a lack of imaging taken prior to the operations.

His doctor at London's prestigious Great Ormond Street Hospital was former consultant orthopaedic surgeon Yaser Jabbar. Sky News has spoken to others he treated.

Mr Jabbar also did not arrange for updated scans or for relevant X-rays to be conducted ahead of the procedures.

The surgeries have been found to have caused Finias "harm" and left him in constant pain.

"Every day I'm continuously in pain," he told Sky News.

"It's not something really sharp, although it does get to a certain point where it hurts quite a lot, but it's always there. It just doesn't leave, it's a companion to me, just always there."

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Source: Sky News. 18 May 2025

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Warning NHS making same mistakes that led to Mid Staffs scandal as bosses ‘consider cutting hospital beds’

NHS leaders are being forced to consider cutting hospital beds, closing hospitals, and even reducing services for children and cancer patients, a new study has claimed.

In a bid to meet savings targets from the government and reduce its £6.6 billion deficit, hospital leaders are now cutting or rationing patient care, according to think tank the King’s Fund.

The study reveals NHS leaders said they have been forced to cut services thought of as not essential including hospital beds, community paediatric services, community phlebotomy, mental health support for cancer patients.

Hospital leaders also claimed they may have to consolidate hospital beds for services such as stroke or critical care beds.

The cuts come in a bid to meet government savings demands, called “eyewatering” by NHS leaders, to reduce the £6.6 billion deficit facing the NHS.

The government has been warned it could be repeating the mistakes made under a previous Labour government that led to the Mid Staffordshire scandal, in which between 400 and 1,200 patients, from January 2005 to March 2009, were estimated to have died as a result of poor care, by the Mid Staffordshire Hospitals trust.

A public inquiry into the scandal, led by Sir Robert Francis, revealed in 2013 that the failures were in part a consequence of the trust’s focus on achieving financial balance.

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Source: The Independent, 18 May 2025

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GPs asked to find undiagnosed infected blood victims

GPs will be asked to find undiagnosed infected blood victims, following a national inquiry’s concern that hundreds affected by the scandal could be living unaware.

Around 400,000 new patients registering at GP practices each year will be asked if they had a blood transfusion before 1996 and offered tests for Hepatitis C, under new rules from NHS England.

The drive comes in response to recommendations from the Infected Blood Inquiry into the scandal that left 30,000 patients infected with HIV and hepatitis, and killed more than 3,000 people from the 1970s to the 1990s.

The inquiry, led by Sir Brian Langstaff, suggested hundreds of people infected during childbirth may still be living undiagnosed and unaware.

The scandal has been dubbed the “biggest disaster in the history of the NHS”, and earlier this month, the government admitted some patients will die before they get compensation.

In the final inquiry report, published in May 2024, Sir Langstaff recommended that patients who might have had blood transfusions before 1996 should be tested for Hepatitis C.

NHS England has said around 400,000 people born before 1996 will now be asked if they received a historic blood transfusion, with those who did then being offered a test for Hepatitis C.

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Source: The Independent, 19 May 2025

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