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Plan to scrap A&E target sparks furious backlash from medics

Plans to scrap the four-hour A&E target have sparked a furious backlash from doctors and nurses, with some claiming it is driven by ministers’ desire to avoid negative publicity about patients facing increasingly long delays.

A&E consultants led a chorus of medical opposition to the move. They pointedly urged NHS leaders and ministers to concentrate on delivering the long-established maximum waiting time for emergency care rather than finding “ways around” it.

Under the target, 95% of people arriving at A&E in England are meant to be treated and then discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours. But performance against the target plunged to a new record low of just 68.6% last month in hospital-based A&E units as a result of staffing problems, the decade-long squeeze on the NHS budget and the dramatic growth in the number of patients seeking care.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), which represents A&E doctors, was responding to Wednesday’s apparent confirmation by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, that the target  is set to be axed because it is no longer deemed to be “clinically appropriate”.

“So far we’ve seen nothing to indicate that a viable replacement for the four-hour target exists and believe that testing [of alternatives to the target] should soon draw to a close,” said Dr Katherine Henderson, the President of the RCEM. “Rather than focus on ways around the target, we need to get back to the business of delivering on it.”

The Emergency Care Association, to which 8,000 A&E nurses belong, said ministers should exercise “extreme caution” in decisions about the target because “it could cause significant detriment to patient safety within our emergency departments if the four-hour target was abolished”. There are fears that patients thought to have only minor ailments could come to harm by having to wait a lot longer than four hours because they also have a more serious condition.

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Source: The Guardian, 15 January 2020

 

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'My baby died of sepsis - we can stop more deaths'

New monitors that can detect the deadly blood condition sepsis are being fitted at a Scottish children's hospital. The equipment will be installed at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.

Charlotte Cooper, who lost her nine-month-old daughter Heidi to sepsis last year, said she had "no doubt" the monitors would help save babies' lives. She told BBC Scotland: "You don't have time to come to terms with the fact that someone you love is dying from sepsis because it happens so quickly."

Ms Cooper now wants to see the monitors installed in every paediatric ward in Scotland. "We need to do whatever we can to stop preventable deaths from sepsis in Scotland," she said.

The monitors record and track changes in heart rate, temperature and blood pressure, and can pick up early sepsis symptoms. The machines, which have been installed in a critical care area, use the  Paediatric Early Warning Scores to monitor the children for any signs of deterioration in their condition.

Sepsis Research said early warning of the changes would mean sepsis being diagnosed and treated faster.

The monitors were accepted on behalf of the hospital by senior staff nurse Sharon Pate, who said: "In a very busy paediatric word it is vital all our patients are monitored regularly and closely for signs of deterioration. The addition of these new monitors will greatly improve our ability to monitor patients and provide vital care."

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Source: BBC News, 4 February 2020

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Test and trace chief warned lack of transparency on performance could ‘destroy confidence’

The head of NHS test and trace has refused to give MPs any data on the first six days of the new service, leading health committee chair Jeremy Hunt to warn that a lack of transparency could “destroy confidence” in its work.

Baroness Dido Harding, who is leading the new effort, said she was working to validate performance data, which relies on people with COVID-19 symptoms isolating and being called by a team of tracers to identify others they have been in contact with.

MPs had wanted to know how many patients had been contacted within 24 hours as well as how many were willing to share their contacts, and the compliance with self-isolation advice.

But Baroness Harding said she would not share the information until the UK Statistics Authority was happy with the data and could ensure it can be trusted. The UKSA criticised the government earlier this week over its public use of test results data.

Chair of the committee and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was “disappointed” with her refusal and said it was hard for the committee to scrutinise services if it did not have the data, which she had been pre-warned it would ask for.

Leaked information on Tuesday suggested only two-fifths of coronavirus patients and one-third of their contacts were identified and contacted by the tracing service.

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Source: The Independent, 3 June 2020

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Mental health crisis referrals leap by almost 75%

Referrals to mental health crisis services in England have increased by almost 75% ‘post-pandemic’, senior NHS leaders have revealed.

Documents submitted to NHS England and Improvement’s November board meeting capture the scale of demand facing the sector, which national director Claire Murdoch described to fellow leaders as “huge”.

Bed occupancy rates in adult acute services have remained above the recommended ‘safe’ level of 85% since June 2020, performance reports suggest.

Above that threshold, experts warn that patient safety, out of area placements, and surge demand risks are likely to increase.

Ms Murdoch wrote in her report to the board that between 180,000 and 200,000 calls per month were being fielded by covid-19 response crisis lines in the first quarter of 2021-22 — more than 6,000 each day.

She added that there had been a 74% increase in referrals to crisis services ‘post-pandemic’: ”We’re now seeing huge demand and we’re back to pre-covid levels.” She said some people had not sought help during pandemic peak periods and this was leading to more severe demand."

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Source: HSJ, 25 November 2021

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Jailed women in UK five times more likely to suffer stillbirths, data shows

Women in prison are five times more likely to have a stillbirth and twice as likely to give birth to a premature baby that needs special care, new data collected by the Observer shows.

Following two baby deaths in prisons since 2019 there have been increasing concerns about safety for pregnant women and their babies.

Figures obtained through freedom of information requests made to 11 NHS trusts serving women’s prisons in England show 28% of the babies born to women serving a custodial sentence between 2015 and 2019 were admitted to a neonatal unit afterwards – double the national figure, according to data from the National Neonatal Research Database.

The findings come as the House of Lords prepares to vote this week on proposed changes to bail and sentencing laws that would improve the rights of pregnant women and mothers facing criminal charges.

A report published in September examined the circumstances of a baby’s death at Bronzefield prison in Surrey where an 18-year-old was left to give birth alone in her cell. 

When Anita rang her cell bell at 5.30am when she went into labour the guards said they would send somebody. It was only during the morning rounds at 7.30am that a nurse was called. She was transferred to hospital at 10.30am. Anita said: “Despite being in active labour the guards would not remove my handcuffs and ignored me when I asked them to call the baby’s father and my mum – who were eventually contacted by a doctor.”

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Source: The Guardian, 5 December 2021

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Care homes ‘could face widespread closures’ under social care reforms

Hundreds of England’s care homes could be closed and care rationed because the government has “seriously underestimated” the costs of a shake-up, experts are warning.

Widespread closures would leave hundreds of thousands of elderly and vulnerable residents homeless.

Those in the southeast, the east and the southwest would be hardest hit, according to a new study.

Under a package of social care reforms announced in September, ministers are aiming to make care fees fairer between private and state fee payers.

At the moment, residents who self-fund all their care pay up to 40% more on average than those eligible for state support, for whom their local authority arranges care, and care homes charge councils lower rates.

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Source: The Independent, 18 March 2022

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Pandemic care home death: Family to sue over mother's end-of-life consent

A man plans to sue a nursing home because, he says, during the pandemic his mother was put on end-of-life care without her family being told.

Antonia Stowell, 87, did not have the mental capacity to consent because she had dementia, say the family's lawyers. Her son, Tony Stowell, said if end-of-life care had been discussed, he would not have agreed to it.

Rose Villa nursing home in Hull says all proper process in Mrs Stowell's care was followed with precision.

As a prelude to legal action, Mr Stowell's lawyers have obtained his mother's hospital records which, they say, show she was diagnosed with suspected pneumonia while living in the home. End-of-life drugs were then prescribed and ordered by medical professionals.

In a statement, Rose Villa said: "We believe that our dedicated and professional team provided Antonia with the very best care under the direction of her GP and medical team, and all proper process in the delivery of this care was followed with precision."

Mr Stowell's lawyers, Gulbenkian Andonian solicitors, said his mother's hospital records reveal the decision to put her on end-of-life care was made two days before the family was told.

In their letter to the home announcing the planned legal action, they said Mrs Stowell could have had "48 additional hours on a ventilator with treatment… with the necessary implication that Antonia Stowell could still be with us today or at least survived".

The lawyer dealing with the case, Fadi Farhat, told the BBC: "As a matter of law, there is a presumption in favour of treatment which would preserve life and prolong life, irrespective of one's age or condition.

"Therefore to deviate from that presumption means a patient, or family members, should be consulted as soon as that decision is made or contemplated."

He adds: "What is particularly concerning for me is this case occurred at the height of the pandemic. That should worry everybody because it demonstrates that rights can be suspended in times of crisis, when the very purpose of legal rights is to protect us during times of crisis."

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Source: BBC News, 9 January 2023

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Girl, 8, died of sepsis after GP sent her home due to ‘full hospital’

An eight-year-old girl died of sepsis hours after she was sent home by a GP who said that the local hospital was full and advised her mother to give her fluids and ibuprofen.

Mia Glynn visited a GP surgery twice in four days but her parents Soron, 39, and Katie, 37, were told to take her home, even though she displayed symptoms of group A strep.

Her parents, from Biddulph, Staffordshire, first took Mia to the doctor on 5 December 2022, after she had begun vomiting, had a severe headache and complained of a sore throat.

They returned to the surgery on 8 December after Mia, who hadn’t eaten properly for the past three days, had a raised heart rate, reduced urine output and was feeling sleepy.

The Glynns were told to take their daughter home because the hospital was full and they would have to wait in a corridor.

Mia slept in her parents’ bed that night but woke up in the early hours of 9 December, disorientated, with blue lips and rashes on her arms and legs. She complained of feeling hot but was cold to touch.

After being rushed to the hospital by an ambulance, she was given intravenous fluids and antibiotics, but went into suspected septic shock and suffered a cardiac arrest about 15 minutes after arriving. Despite attempts to resuscitate her, she died 20 minutes later. Her cause of death was given as sepsis caused by a group A strep infection.

Victoria Zinzan, a specialist medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell who is representing the couple, said: “Sadly through our work we see too many families affected by sepsis; with Mia’s death vividly highlighting the dangers of the condition. Early diagnosis and treatment is key to beating sepsis, therefore it’s vital people know what signs to look out for when it comes to detecting this incredibly dangerous and life-threatening condition.”

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Source: The Times, 15 September 2024

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Reviews of hospital-acquired covid deaths as ‘basic’ breaches found

Senior doctors are leading a programme of work to review deaths caused by hospital-acquired covid in the North West, which has had disproportionately high rates of nosocomial infections over the last three months.

According to internal NHS England papers seen by HSJ, a number of common themes have been identified as driving the infections in the region, including “breaches in the basic tenets of infection prevention control”, insufficient numbers of cleaning staff at some trusts, and a lack of consistent testing.

The papers say there is also evidence that covid occupancy rates above 20 per cent drives nosocomial transmission. Occupancy rates in the North West have been near or above this level since the start of December, but have still been significantly lower than other areas, such as London.

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Source: HSJ, 24 February 2021

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Whistleblowers flag ‘toxic management’ within maternity service

Former staff at a Midlands acute trust have raised concerns over a ‘toxic management culture’ and ‘unsafe’ staffing levels within its maternity services, HSJ has learned.

Two clinicians who recently worked within Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospital Trust’s maternity department have sent a letter to the Care Quality Commission outlining a series of concerns.

The letter, seen by HSJ, claimed there was a “toxic management culture alongside poor leadership” within the trust’s senior midwifery team.

It added: “This had led to 100 per cent turnover in staff within the middle management line… There is no confidence in the current leadership structure and no confidence that staff will be listened to and heard.”

HSJ also understands there are also concerns around the service within the trust’s management.

Although they do not raise direct patient safety concerns, the clinicians said the problems were “mostly long-standing” and had “deteriorated to the point where there is now a risk to patient safety”.

They added: “We are raising these concerns now with the CQC as we feel we have not been listened to and changed effected in a timely manner.”

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Source: HSJ, 10 March 2021

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Surrey coroner criticises government Covid face mask guidelines after paramedic's death

A coroner has said she does not understand why frontline workers were not required to wear a mask during lockdown after hearing a paramedic had died with Covid. A two-day inquest into the death of Peter Hart, who died on his 52nd birthday, concluded on Tuesday (September 13) with assistant coroner Dr Karen Henderson ruling the father-of-three died of natural causes caused by Covid.

She said on the balance of probabilities he caught the disease while working at East Surrey Hospital, where he died on May 12, 2020. During the onset of the pandemic only healthcare workers tending to those suspected of having Covid-19 were required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). In accordance with national guidelines, Mr Hart, who was treating patients not suspected of having the virus, did not need to.

“Retrospectively it is difficult to comprehend why the national guidance said PPE did not need to be used for all patients and healthcare workers at the earliest opportunity,” Dr Henderson said. “Although there appears a lost opportunity to ensure maximum protection I make no finding of fact whether this contributed to Mr Hart’s death.

“Patients not suspected to have Covid were not expected to wear face masks. This is in effect a perfect storm and given evidence of Mrs Hart I am satisfied Mr Hart contracted Covid during his work at East Surrey Hospital,” she added.

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Source: Surrey Live, 13 September 2022

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The ‘virgin speculum’: proof that medicine is still rife with outrageous myths about women

An invitation to a cervical screening test upon your 25th birthday has become a necessary but often unwanted coming-of-age present. Despite years of education and advocacy about the benefits of screening, many women still do not attend. About 16 million women in the UK aged 25-64 are eligible for testing, but only 11.2 million took a test in 2022, the lowest level in a decade.

There unfortunately remains a false narrative that there are good reasons to be nervous about cervical screening tests. In reality, the test is not physically painful for the vast majority of women, although it can be a bit uncomfortable. However, the test can be needlessly emotionally painful, and for no good reason. This is in part because some women go through the experience of sitting with legs spread apart and “private parts” out, and then hear the nurse call for “the virgin speculum” to be used.

This is the archaic and unnecessarily sexualised term for the extra-small speculum. It should have no place being used in 2023, and it clearly creates feelings of vulnerability.

Next week it is Cervical Cancer Awareness week, and campaigners are hoping to shine a light on barriers to cervical screening testing that must be removed.

By creating feelings of vulnerability around testing, we are allowing cervical cancer to continue to go undetected. All women should be aware of the importance of attending their cervical screening test and do so with confidence, regardless of their sexual status. This will play a valuable role in reducing the mortality rate.

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Source: The Guardian, 19 January 2023

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Justice is being denied to too many families

Harry Richford's death underlines the need for the health secretary to bring back the national maternity safety training fund – and there are other issues that require urgent attention – The Independent reports. 

Harry Richford had not even been born before the NHS failed him. An inquest has concluded he was neglected by East Kent University Hospitals Trust in yet another maternity scandal to rock the NHS. His parents and grandparents have fought a tireless campaign against a wall of obfuscation and indifference from the NHS. In their pursuit of the truth they have exposed a maternity service that did not just fail Harry, but may have failed dozens of other families.

As with the family of baby Kate Stanton-Davies at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust, or Joshua Titcombe at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust, it has taken a family rather than the system to expose what was going wrong. It is known that there are about 1,000 cases a year of safety incidents in the NHS across England, including baby deaths, stillbirths and children left brain damaged by mistakes.

Last week, the charity Baby Lifeline, joined The Independent to call on the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to reinstate the axed maternity safety training fund. This small fund was used to train maternity staff across the country. Despite being shown to be effective, it was inexplicably scrapped after just one year. 

There are other issues that also need urgent attention. The inquest into Harry’s death, which concluded on Friday, lasted for almost three weeks. Without pro bono lawyers from Advocate, Brick Court Chambers and Arnold & Porter law firm, the family would have faced an uphill struggle. At present, families are not automatically entitled to legal aid at an inquest, yet the NHS employs its own army of lawyers who attend many inquests and can overwhelm bereaved families in a legal battle they are ill-equipped to fight. Even the chief coroner, Mark Lucraft QC, has called for this inequality of legal backing to end, but the government has yet to take action.

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Source: The Independent, 26 January 2020

 

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Cosmetic surgeon struck off after botched ops

A cosmetic surgeon who did not have adequate insurance for operations that went wrong has been struck off.

Dr Arnaldo Paganelli worked privately for The Hospital Group in Birmingham. The Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service ruled his actions constituted misconduct.

Four women took their case to the body and the tribunal heard evidence about his time at Birmingham's Dolan Park Hospital where he made regular trips from Italy to work.

Lead campaigner Dawn Knight, from Stanley, County Durham, said too much skin was removed from her eyes during an eyelift in 2012 and they became "constantly sore".

She told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme she felt relieved Dr Paganelli "cannot injure anyone else on UK soil" and called for the government to tighten regulation around cosmetic procedures to protect the public.

"The process has been long, emotional and exhausting. This situation must never be repeated. After all, when are you more vulnerable than when under aesthetic at the hands of a surgeon who has no insurance?"

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Source: BBC News, 12 August 2020

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GP surgeries offered £1,000 to cancel second dose Covid jab appointments in roll-out chaos

GPs are being paid £1,000 to cancel second dose appointments for Covid jabs and given a script to follow to deal with angry patients amid growing chaos in the roll-out of the vaccine programme.

Practices have been offered the payments to cover the workload of postponing hundreds of patients who were set to have their second dose and booking new ones in their place.

NHS sources said the shift has contributed to delays in rolling out the programme. Some GPs have refused to postpone the appointments, with practice managers saying it was "too cruel" to dash the hopes of those who were booked for a second jab.

In December, everyone given a first vaccine by Pfizer was told to come back for their second dose three weeks later. But the strategy was changed 10 days ago in a bid to get a first dose to more of the population more quickly.

Patients are now being told they will have to wait 12 weeks for the second dose, with a reassurance from health officials that the longer gap could strengthen its effectiveness.

By the time the plan was changed, around one million people had already been booked in for their second dose. GPs are now under orders to postpone such appointments and instead give the slots to those awaiting a first dose. 

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Source: The Telegraph, 8 January 2021

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Paramedics are ‘leaving in droves’ as ambulance callouts almost double

The number of calls for an ambulance in England have almost doubled since 2010, with warnings of record pressures on the NHS that are seeing A&E patients stuck in corridors and many paramedics quitting the job.

Ambulance calls have risen by 10 times more than the number of ambulance workers, according to a new analysis of NHS data carried out by the GMB union. An increase in people seeking emergency treatment, GPs unable to cope with demand and cuts to preventive care are all being blamed for the figures.

While the figures represent all calls for an ambulance, some of which go unanswered and do not lead to a vehicle being sent, they reveal the increasing pressures that have led to claims that patient safety is being put at risk by ambulance waiting times. There has been a significant increase in the number of the most serious safety incidents logged by paramedics in England over the past year.

Paul, a paramedic and GMB deputy branch secretary, said he had recently seen a crew waiting almost 10 hours between arriving at hospital and transferring a patient to hospital care. “They arrived at the hospital at 20.31,” he said. “They then cleared from the hospital at 05.48 in the morning. The impact of the lack of resources is affecting the ambulance service.

“We are also seeing people become aggressive to the ambulance crew, because they’ve waited hours upon hours in an ambulance."

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Source: The Guardian, 12 June 2022

 

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NHS patient 'stuck in hospital with months to live'

A woman who may only have months to live has told the BBC she is "angry and frustrated" at being in hospital five months after being cleared to go home.

Charlotte Mills-Murray, 34, said attempts to organise care at her family home had been repeatedly delayed.

Charlotte lives with intestinal failure caused by a severe form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which weakens her body's connective tissue.

She was admitted to St James's Hospital in Leeds in June 2022 following an infection, and a new Hickman line - a tube that allows feeding and the administering of pain relief - was inserted.

By November, Charlotte was told she was well enough to be cared for at home, but she remains in hospital following delays in the hiring and training of staff able to support her.

With limited access to a hoist which would enable her to use her wheelchair, Charlotte said she had spent 10 months "stuck in bed".

Because of the complexity of her condition, Charlotte only has months to live. She believes her situation merits greater urgency because of the increased risk of infection in hospital.

Charlotte qualifies for 24-hour home care support through the NHS Continuing Healthcare scheme, but she said decisions over how this would be put in place had been slow and unclear.

The BBC has found a 16% rise over the past year in the number of patients in England who are in hospital despite being well enough to leave.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it was "fully committed to speeding up the safe discharge of patients who no longer need to be in hospital" and was making £1.6bn available in England over the next two years to support this, on top of £700m of extra funding in 2022 to ease NHS pressures over the winter.

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Source: BBC News, 9 April 2023

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Teaching trust’s staff ‘utterly rinsed and completely wiped out’ by elective targets

A major London trust’s critical care staff have urged leaders to review elective work targets amid serious concerns over workload, safe staffing and burnout, HSJ  has learned.

In a letter to Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust’s board, staff represented by trade union Unite said they had “repeatedly” raised concerns about the provider’s approach to elective work, as well as winter pressures and second wave planning, and the implications this has had for “the health, safety and wellbeing of both staff and patients”. 

The letter — which was also addressed to the trust’s health and safety committee and has been seen by HSJ —  said: “Our primary concern is that the trust’s endeavours, and understandable need to square these circles, may be unrealistic given the current pressures on staffing and the high rates of sickness and burnout the trust is continuing to experience.

“This is especially in critical care, where we are concerned this may compromise patient safety and is already damaging staff wellbeing and morale.”

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Source: HSJ, 18 December 2020

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Beds for children hit ‘crisis point’ amid covid demand surge

Availability of inpatient child and adolescent mental health services beds — particularly for eating disorders — has reached ‘crisis point’, with young people left waiting on a standard paediatric ward or at home as demand surged during the covid pandemic.

A report to Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in January read: “Availability of tier four beds [inpatient mental health beds for children and adolescents, commissioned centrally by NHS England] in the South East and across the country is at crisis point and providers have to compete for the small pool of beds."

“Waits for beds or being placed far from home is a distressing and unacceptable experience for children and young people and families and places an additional burden on other parts of the system such as paediatric wards.”

The report noted a “demand upsurge to the highest levels in the last three years” since the pandemic. It stated, in mid-January, the CCG had two patients awaiting eating disorder beds being managed on paediatric wards as they had become “physically too unwell to be managed at home”. Four others also waiting for a CAMHS bed were being managed at home. 

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Source: 16 February 2021

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New approach to safety incidents will see fewer investigations

Major reforms have been set out on how NHS organisations should respond to patient safety incidents, which are aimed at ensuring better engagement with patients and families.

The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), published today, replaces the serious incident framework and provides guidance to trusts on how and when they should conduct investigations.

According to NHSE, a key aim is to allow trusts to focus resources on where investigations will have the greatest impact, rather than investigating all incidents as they did under the old framework.

NHSE said the more flexible approach should make it easier to address concerns specific to health inequalities, as incidents can be learnt from that would not have met the serious incident definition.

However, it does not affect the need for a patient safety incident investigation following a never event’ or maternity incident; this is still required.

Helen Hughes, chief executive of charity Patient Safety Learning, said the new framework “places an emphasis on individual organisations assessing their patient safety risks”, and provided a “welcome acknowledgement of the importance of engaging patients and families as part of the investigation process”.

However, she said there would need to be a “significant training programme for staff in a range of human factors informed approaches”, to ensure reviews lead to safety improvements.

She added: “What is being proposed is a complex innovation in the NHS’s approach to incident investigation. Its success to a large part will depend on having the right organisational leadership and resources to support this transition. [NHSE has] now provided a set of tools and a timetable for this. However, ultimately this initiative should be judged on its implementation and effectiveness in reducing avoidable harm.”

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Source: HSJ, 16 August 202

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Social workers in England begin using AI system to assist their work

Hundreds of social workers in England have begun using an artificial intelligence system that records conversations, drafts letters to doctors and proposes actions that human workers might not have considered.

Councils in Swindon, Barnet and Kingston are among seven now using the AI tool that sits on social workers’ phones to record and analyse face-to-face meetings. The Magic Notes AI tool writes almost instant summaries and suggests follow-up actions, including drafting letters to GPs. Two dozen more councils have or are piloting it.

By cutting the time social workers spend taking notes and filling out reports, the tool has the potential to save up to £2bn a year, claims Beam, the company behind the system that has recruited staff from Meta and Microsoft.

But the technology is also likely to raise concerns about how busy social workers weigh up actions proposed by the AI system, and how they decide whether to ignore a proposed action.

The British Association of Social Workers welcomed AI systems that free up time for face-to-face work, but said they “must never replace relationship-based social work practice and decision-making”.

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Source: The Guardian, 28 September 2024

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‘Significant risks to patient safety and trust’s reputation’ uncovered by external review

A trust’s gastroenterology service was ‘in a very poor state with significant risks to patient safety’ and had poor teamworking which “blighted” the service, an external review found.

The problems in the service at Salisbury Foundation Trust, Wiltshire, were so severe that the Royal College of Physicians suggested it should consider transferring key services such as management of GI bleeds and the care of hepatology patients to other hospitals.

The service was struggling with poor staffing which had led to increased reliance on a partnership with University Hospital Southampton Foundation Trust, outsourcing and the daily use of locum consultants, according to the report. The trust board had identified “inability to provide a full gastroenterology service due to lack of medical staff capacity” as an extreme risk.

The report said: “This review was complex and necessary as the gastroenterology service is in a very poor state with significant risks to patient safety and the reputation of the trust. We found a wide range of problems which now need timely action to ensure patients are safe.”

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Source: HSJ, 7 June 2021

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New report demonstrates the importance of working with patients to reduce digital health inequalities

A recent report based on research and case studies of good practice in combatting digital health inequalities demonstrates the importance in working with patients who are digitally excluded.

The report, Putting patients first: championing good practice in combatting digital health inequalities, is the second report by the Patient Coalition for AI, Data and Digital Tech in Health. 

This report focuses on digital health inequalities and the impact that digital exclusion is having on health in the UK. It highlights different reasons for disparities in a person’s ability to access and use digital health technology and provides insights into the severity of the UK’s digital inequalities.

The Coalition report concludes recommending that the Government and NHS should:

  • Engage with those digitally excluded
  • Ensure patients have a choice
  • Ensure the language is appropriate for all audiences
  • Learn from good practice.

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Source: The Patients Association, 9 May 2022

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Makers of Wegovy and Ozempic issue warning over deadly weight-loss copycats

Healthcare giant Novo Nordisk has said it was aware of reports of 10 deaths and 100 people left in hospital who had taken compounded copies of its weight-loss and diabetes drugs.

U.S. regulations allow compounding pharmacies to copy brand-name medicines that are in short supply by combining, mixing or altering drug ingredients to meet demand.

Novo Nordisk’s popular weight-loss injection Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic, both known chemically as semaglutide, were until recently in shortage in the United States.

Given all the regulatory surveillance of Novo Nordisk’s production of the two drugs, CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said it was puzzling that people in the United States could inject themselves with a product that was not regulated, approved or inspected.

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Source: The Independent, 7 November 2024

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Addenbrooke's surgeon suspended after performing wrong operation

An orthopaedic surgeon falsified records and lied to a patient after he performed the wrong operation on her. 

Alan Norrish admitted performing the wrong type of partial knee replacement on his patient in January 2018 at the Nuffield Hospital in Cambridge. Having realised his mistake the former Addenbrooke's consultant tried to cover it up by falsifying records and doing "revision" surgery six days later.

Mr Norrish has been suspended for a year following a medical tribunal. He told the hearing of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) he was "shocked" and "upset" when he realised his mistake. It was found he had lied in a letter to a hospital matron about the reason for the second operation, which was carried out on 25 January 2018.

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Source: BBC News, 30 August 2019

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Patient Safety Learning is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission Registration number 1180689.

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