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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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CEO: TV show sparked ‘overwhelming’ regulator scrutiny

An “overwhelming” number of regulators were involved with a trust after an undercover documentary exposed care failings, its chief executive has said.

Channel 4 aired hidden camera footage from Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust mental health inpatient wards in 2022. This revealed staff sleeping on duty and concerns over use of restraints.

Trust CEO Paul Scott said on Thursday: “Understandably, those with regulatory responsibilities were very interested in the Dispatches programme and our response to it. But the sheer volume of people who wanted some assurance that we were taking seriously and making improvements [was] overwhelming.”

He estimated he had attended around 19 boards or equivalent structures to provide assurance from different angles. “Nineteen regulators over one organisation felt overwhelming.”

Mr Scott made the comments during his evidence to the Lampard Inquiry, which is looking into thousands of mental health patient deaths in Essex between 2000 and 2023. The probe is expected to report its findings before the end of 2027.

In his written submission, Mr Scott had mentioned the “complexity of the nature and oversight of regulation” facing trusts from multiple parties within health and social care.

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Source: HSJ, 16 May 2025

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Warning over ‘dangerous’ nasal tanning sprays with cancer risk sold online

Unregulated nasal tanning sprays, touted across social media, are raising alarms with Trading Standards due to potential health risks, including a possible link to melanoma skin cancer.

These sprays, which contain Melanotan 2, a chemical that darkens skin pigmentation, are being sold outside current UK regulations.

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has issued a warning about these products, highlighting potential dangers beyond skin cancer. Users have reported nausea, vomiting, high blood pressure, and even changes in mole size and shape.

While marketed as cosmetics, bypassing regulations applied to medicinal products containing Melanotan 2, these sprays aren't subject to the same scrutiny as other beauty products.

This regulatory gap raises concerns about long-term health consequences, with studies suggesting a potential link to melanoma.

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Source: The Independent, 16 May 2025

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Hancock ignored call to test all NHS staff, Covid inquiry hears

The government ignored an early warning by two Nobel prize-winning scientists that all healthcare workers should be routinely tested for coronavirus in the pandemic, the Covid inquiry has heard.

The advice came in a strongly-worded letter sent in April 2020 by the chief executive of the Francis Crick Institute, Sir Paul Nurse, and its research director, Sir Peter Ratcliffe, to the then health secretary Matt Hancock.

NHS and care home staff were not offered Covid tests until November 2020 in England, unless they had symptoms of the disease.

Matt Hancock is due to appear at the inquiry next week, along with other health ministers from the four nations of the UK.

Giving evidence, Sir Paul, who won the Nobel prize for medicine in 2001, said it was "disturbing" that he did not receive a response to his concerns until July 2020.

"For the secretary of state to ignore a letter from two Nobel laureates in physiology or medicine for three months is a little surprising, I would say," he told the inquiry.

"Rather than acknowledge they couldn't do it, because that would have indicated a mistake in their overall strategy, they remained silent."

It was likely that the decision not to routinely test NHS and care home staff led to an increase in infections and deaths in the early stages of the pandemic, he added.

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Source: BBC News, 15 May 2025

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Tenth review into maternity care at Portiuncula Hospital now underway

According to the Irish times, it comes after a series of serious incidents, including seven cases of babies suffering brain injuries during or after birth since 2024.

A tenth review into maternity care at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe is now underway following the recent death of a baby. According to the Irish times, the HSE investigation, comes after a series of serious incidents, including seven cases of babies suffering brain injuries during or after birth since 2024.

Six of those infants required specialist cooling treatment. Two stillbirths in 2023 are also under external review.

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Source: Shannon Side, 16 May 2025

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NHS gave private firms record £216m to examine X-rays in 2024

The NHS handed private firms a record £216m last year to examine X-rays and scans because hospitals have too few radiologists.

The amount of money NHS organisations across the UK are paying companies to interpret scans has doubled in five years as demand rises for diagnostic tests.

Despite the growth in privatisation, the NHS in England failed to read 976,000 X-rays and CT and MRI scan results within its one-month target – the highest number ever. Scans play a crucial role in telling doctors if a patient has cancer or a broken bone, for example.

The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), which collated the figures from doctors across the UK, said the £216m given to private firms in 2024 was “a false economy” which it blamed on the NHS’s failure to recruit enough specialists to read all the scans patients have in its hospitals.

The college said the growing outsourcing of scan analysis risked creating “a vicious cycle” in which NHS radiology services were increasingly weakened and its doctors drawn to private work.

Dr Katharine Halliday, the RCR’s president, said: “The current sticking plaster approach to managing excess demand in radiology is unsustainable and certainly isn’t working for patients, who face agonising waits for answers about their health.

“It is a false economy to be spending over £200m of NHS funds outsourcing radiology work to private companies, and evidence of our failure to train and retain the amount of NHS radiologists we need.”

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Source: The Guardian, 15 May 2025

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Trust in row with BMA over senior doctor

A hospital trust is involved in a row with the British Medical Association amid concerns over a ’bullying culture’, it has emerged.

HSJ has learned of tensions at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, including an ongoing dispute over a senior medic who has been off work for an extended period.

Meanwhile, in recent weeks, the union Unison has launched a survey of the trust’s staff about behaviour, and begun offering staff “don’t bully me” badges, according to flyers claiming there is a “bullying culture”.

The union’s organiser Sarah Brummitt said its survey had been launched in response to local reports of bullying concerns. She said: “The survey is open to all staff, and will hopefully give us a better understanding of what issues they are facing, if any.”

It follows several concerns raised over the past year about leadership and culture at the trust. The trust says it is “committed to fostering a respectful and inclusive working environment.”

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Source: HSJ, 15 May 2025

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Safety concerns found at maternity unit at major Scottish hospital as NHS health board given warning

NHS Tayside has been formally ordered to improve maternity services at Ninewells Hospital following an unannounced inspection by a health watchdog.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) expanded its safe delivery of care inspections following a neonatal mortality review last year to “provide women, birthing people and families with an assessment of the quality of care” in maternity services.

It carried out its first safe delivery of care inspection in an unannounced visit to maternity services at Ninewells in Dundee between 27 and 29 January this year.

This was followed up with another unannounced visit on February 12 due to concerns, including that breastfeeding equipment was being cleaned in a sink with kitchen utensils, which had not been addressed at the time of the return visit.

In an inspection report published on Thursday, HIS said after the revisit, “we were not assured that sufficient progress or improvement had been made with some of our concerns”, and it formally wrote to NHS Tayside to urge it to meet national standards for maternity services.

Concerns included “variations in oversight and governance observed in both the hospital inspection and maternity services, and a lack of oversight by senior managers within maternity services”. Other areas of improvement included “safe staffing, fire safety issues and the maintenance of the hospital environment”, according to HIS.

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Source: The Scotsman, 15 May 2025

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Cosmetic surgery patients are returning to the UK with superbugs

British patients who travel abroad for cheap cosmetic surgery are bringing back dangerous superbugs, nurses have warned.

Some NHS hospitals had a 30 per cent rise in infections caused by potentially fatal antibiotic-resistant bacteria, triggered by patients returning from operations overseas.

NHS nurses spoke of “horrific wounds”, infections, sepsis and deaths in patients over the past two years from complications after having surgery overseas — and suggested that foreign clinics should pay the NHS compensation when things go wrong.

Thousands of British patients faced with long NHS waiting lists and high costs for private surgery in are going abroad instead, most often to Turkey and eastern Europe.

Popular procedures include weight-loss surgery, breast procedures and “Brazilian butt lifts” (BBLs). Clinics often offer “package deals” of several procedures, which adds to the risk.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has urged people to “think very carefully” before going overseas for surgery — warning that the NHS is left to “pick up the pieces”.

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Source: The Times, 14 May 2025

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Trust admits it ‘cannot safely run’ maternity service

A trust is set to close one of its birthing units for at least six months after admitting it “cannot safely run” the service.

Somerset Foundation Trust will temporarily close the maternity unit at Yeovil District Hospital “for an initial period of six months” from next week, amid significant gaps in medical staffing.

The trust has said it “cannot safely run” the special care baby unit, which provides dedicated support for premature newborns, nor “safely provide care during labour and birth”.

The closure follows concerns being raised by the Care Quality Commission. The regulator rated maternity services at Yeovil “inadequate” last year and also issued a warning notice in January after finding its paediatric care “requires significant improvement”.

The CQC said the service did not have enough medical staff or emergency equipment to keep babies safe, and found not all staff followed infection control procedures.

Dr Iles added that senior paediatricians from Somerset FT’s Musgrove Park Hospital are helping to ensure paediatric inpatient and outpatient services at Yeovil remain open, including obstetric and midwifery antenatal clinics, scanning, antenatal screening services, and home births.

But she added: “We cannot care for any newborns who require care in a special care baby unit or safely provide care during labour and birth at the Yeovil maternity unit.

“We are committed to providing safe, high quality, and sustainable services for those who need them, but we must address these concerns and need the time and space to do this. I apologise again to anyone who is affected by these changes.”

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Source: HSJ, 15 May 2025

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No pay rise for managers of worst-performing trusts

Very senior managers at the worst-performing trusts and ICBs will not receive annual pay rises from this year, under new national rules.

The new very senior managers pay framework for trusts, foundation trusts and integrated care boards, published today, says some will for the first time be excluded for the annual pay uplift in 2025-26.

They are: 

  • VSMs at organisations in segment five of NHS England’s new national oversight framework, except where they are “exempt” because they are less than two years into the job. Segment five is being introduced for the worst-performing organisations which are also deemed in a “diagnostic” to need the most intervention. Organisations currently in RSP – of which there are 25 – are due to “automatically” enter segment five (see list below); and
  • Individuals who are “failing to meet their own objectives or targets” or are subject to investigation for “conduct and capability”.

VSMs at segment three and four trusts will get the 2025-26 pay award, but warns “new provisions are expected to apply” from 2026-27.

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Source: HSJ, 15 May 2025

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An ‘explosion’ in nurse lecturer cuts risks nursing jobs and patient safety

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is warning that a rapid rise in the number of nurse lecturer redundancies and severances shows the higher education financial crisis is spreading through nursing courses in England and posing a risk to domestic workforce plans.

This comes just days after the UK government announced immigration plans which could lead to an exodus of international nursing staff, and poses a serious risk to patient safety.

The RCN believes the UK government must take action to protect all nursing courses. The capacity and state of the educator workforce must be a key consideration in nursing workforce planning. The RCN say the crisis in higher education is a real threat to the supply of nurses into the workforce and poses a serious risk to patient safety, potentially derailing the government’s new NHS 10-Year Health Plan due to be published this summer.

A nurse educator workforce strategy and funded action plan which addresses recruitment and retention issues is needed, alongside those planned for the NHS and NHS workforce.

Freedom of Information requests, sent by the RCN to universities in England offering nursing courses, have revealed nurse educator jobs decreased in 65% of institutions between August 2024 and February 2025.

Nurse educators have a critical role to play in ensuring we have a nursing workforce that's sufficiently able and equipped to deliver high quality, innovative, safe and effective care to meet current and future population needs. They're essential to growing the nursing profession and keeping patients safe.

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Source: RCN, 15 May 2025

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Immigration changes a huge risk for social and healthcare provision, say sector leaders

Sweeping changes to immigration rules could cut the “lifeline” of international recruitment for the UK care sector and negatively impact the NHS, leaders have warned.

The government unveiled its Restoring Control over the Immigration System white paper on 12 May in which it said it would close social care visas to new applications from abroad because of “significant concerns over abuse and exploitation of individual workers.”

“The agreements will move the UK away from dependence on overseas workers to fulfil our care needs,” said the paper, which aimed to tackle longstanding levels of low pay and poor working conditions in the sector in other ways, such as through establishing fair pay agreements.

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Source: BMJ, 13 May 2025

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A surgeon was flagged as dangerous — she kept operating for ten years

Hospital bosses were warned about an NHS surgeon almost nine years before she was eventually suspended over botched operations on children.

A joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Sky News has discovered a confidential report written for managers at Cambridge University Hospitals Trust in 2016 that identified problems with the surgical technique and practice of Kuldeep Stohr, a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon.

A series of recommendations were made in the report but Stohr was allowed to continue operating. Managers at the hospital told staff the investigation into Stohr had not raised any concerns.

Almost a decade on, Stohr has been suspended by the trust after a new review identified at least nine children whose care “fell below the standard” expected. The trust has begun a review of 800 other patients, including around 560 children, 140 adults and 100 emergency patients, who were operated on by Stohr. It has also commissioned an investigation into what action was taken after the 2016 report.

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Source: The Times, 10 May 2025

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Baby death NHS trust reaches 'turning point'

Two maternity units in Kent have shown signs of improvements three years after a damning independent review found up to 45 babies might have survived if they had received better care, a report has said.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) report rated maternity services at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate as good, two years after they were downgraded to inadequate.

The CQC said "significant improvements" had been made at both units to safety, leadership, culture, the environment and staffing levels.

Tracey Fletcher, chief executive of East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, said the report was "an important milestone in our continuing work to improve our services".

Serena Coleman, CQC's deputy director of operations in Kent, said: "We found significant improvements and a better quality service for women, people using the service and their babies.

"This turnaround in ratings across both services demonstrates what can be achieved with strong and capable leaders who focus on an inclusive and positive culture."

Kaye Wilson, chief midwife for the South East at NHS England, said: "This report marks a turning point for services at East Kent and is the result of the commitment, determination and sheer hard work of midwives, obstetricians and the whole maternity team."

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Source: BBC News,15 May 2025

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Top doctor warns government ‘neglecting’ old people as figures suggest thousands of A&E patients died waiting for bed

The UK's top A&E doctor has accused the government of “neglecting the oldest and sickest patients” as figures suggest a record 320 people a week may have died needlessly in A&E last year due to waits for hospital beds.

Dr Adrian Boyle, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine president, has warned that current government policy on A&E is focused on cutting waits for “cut fingers and sprained ankles” while neglecting older people, who are most likely to die and spend days on trollies.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) estimates there were more than 16,600 deaths of patients linked to long waits for a bed, an increase of a fifth on 2023 and a record since new A&E data has been published.

The figures come after the NHS’s target to see 95% of patients within four hours was cut to 78% for 2025/26. There is no national target for the number of people waiting 12 hours, the length of time linked to excess emergency care deaths, but last year more than 1.7 million patients waited 12 hours or more to be admitted, discharged or transferred from A&E.

Dr Boyle said the figures were “the equivalent of two aeroplanes crashing every week” and were devastating for families.

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Source: The Independent, 15 May 2025

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Councils and trusts to help failing GP practices under ‘neighbourhood’ plan

Nominated “integrator” organisations – which could be NHS provider trusts or councils – will help GP practices “at risk of failure”, under new plans for London’s neighbourhood health service.

Proposals were published this week by the capital’s five integrated care boards, NHS England’s London region, local councils, the Greater London Authority, London Health and Care Partnership, and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, with support from the Londonwide Local Medical Committees. The work was carried out jointly with the PPL consultancy.

Their plans say that “place partnership” teams – subdivisions of the ICBs, normally matching boroughs – will have to decide “footprints of neighbourhoods”, based on local information and data, such as mapping of capacity, demand, local assets and needs.

Many existing primary care networks (which are partnerships of GP practices) are likely to have to “re-align”, it indicates, as neighbourhood team “boundaries [will] not automatically be defined by existing PCN footprints, except where these boundaries align with recognisable neighbourhoods”. Some PCNs that don’t match may agree ways to work across several smaller integrated neighbourhood teams (INTs).

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Source: HSJ, 14 May 2025

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System is failing people with simultaneous mental health and substance misuse problems

People who have both substance misuse problems and mental health disorders are being overlooked by the NHS, leading to avoidable harm and even suicides, say experts.

Better coordination between services, monitoring of outcomes, and training for clinicians on how to treat the conditions simultaneously are needed to tackle this problem, said the authors of a report1 on co-occurring substance misuse and mental health (CoSUM) disorders.

The report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists says people with CoSUM disorders experience poorer health, worse engagement with work, and higher mortality and rates of suicide than people who have either a mental illness or a substance misuse disorder.

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Source: BMJ, 13 May 2025

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USA: Columbia to pay $750m to hundreds of victims of gynaecologist

An ex-doctor is now costing Columbia University over $1 billion after a new sex abuse settlement with nearly 600 victims in a deal approved in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday.

Columbia University agreed to the record-breaking $750 million settlement with 576 victims of disgraced gynaecologist and convicted sex criminal Robert Hadden — with a per-case average of $1.3 million, the attorney for the victims announced. 

"This settlement is not about money — it's about accountability," said victim Laurie Maldonando.

"Columbia University enabled sadistic abuse," said Maldonando, who was a patient of Hadden’s for nearly a decade, "and now, they’ve been forced to face the truth."

In 2023, Hadden was sentenced to 20 years in prison for preying on — and sexually abusing — hundreds of vulnerable patients during his years as a gynaecologist at prestigious Big Apple hospitals, including ones associated with Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian.

"For far too long, Columbia and New York-Presbyterian have prioritized protecting their reputations over protecting their patients," said attorney Anthony T. DiPietro, who has battled with Columbia in court on behalf of hundreds of Hadden victims since 2012. 

DiPietro said he discovered a "smoking gun" that year — a letter penned by the then-head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia in 1995, apologizing for "Hadden’s assault" and undercutting the institution’s claims they were unaware — by digging around the Utah basement of a client.

The attorney had already secured $277 million in previous settlements against Columbia for Hadden victims, bringing the hospitals' total payouts to just over $1 billion with Monday’s agreement.

"We deeply regret the pain that his patients suffered, and this settlement is another step forward in our ongoing work and commitment to repair harm and support survivors," said a spokesperson for the university, who "commended" the survivors for their "bravery." 

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Source: Fox News, 6 May 2025

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The RCPsych cannot support the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill for England and Wales in its current form

The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) is calling on MPs to consider serious concerns about the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill for England and Wales, ahead of the pivotal Commons Report stage debate and Third Reading.  

With too many unanswered questions about the safeguarding of people with mental illness, the College has concluded that it cannot support the Bill in its current form. 

RCPsych is once again sharing its expert clinical insight to support MPs in making informed decisions ahead of the debate in Westminster on Friday 16 May 2025.  

During the Committee stage of the parliamentary process, the College raised questions about the assessments of the coordinating doctor and independent doctor, and is now raising further questions about the multidisciplinary panel (which would include a psychiatrist) being proposed by the Bill. 

Dr Lade Smith CBE, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: 

"After extensive engagement with our members, and with the expertise of our assisted dying/assisted suicide working group, the RCPsych has reached the conclusion that we are not confident in the Terminally Ill Adults Bill in its current form, and we therefore cannot support the Bill as it stands. 

"It’s integral to a psychiatrist’s role to consider how people’s unmet needs affect their desire to live. The Bill, as proposed, does not honour this role, or require other clinicians involved in the process to consider whether someone’s decision to die might change with better support. 

"We are urging MPs to look again at our concerns for this once-in-a-generation Bill and prevent inadequate assisted dying/assisted suicide proposals from becoming law."

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Source: RCPsych, 13 May 2025

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Charity boss slams 'reprehensible' health trusts

Health trusts have repeatedly tried to prevent coroners from issuing Prevention of Future Death reports in order to protect their reputations, an inquiry has heard.

Deborah Coles, director of the charity Inquest, told the BBC the "reprehensible" behaviour was a pattern "played out across the country" but was "exemplified" in Essex.

She gave evidence at the Lampard Inquiry, which is looking into the deaths of more than 2,000 people being treated by NHS mental health services in Essex between 2000 and 2023.

In her evidence to the inquiry, Ms Coles said the "lack of candour" on the part of mental health trusts in Essex was the reason a statutory public inquiry needed to be held.

"It's difficult to say how traumatising that is for families when they sit in at an inquest… and then see legal representatives try and effectively stop a coroner from making a Prevention of Future Deaths report, external, which is ultimately about trying to safeguard lives in the future - and I find that reprehensible," she said.

"We are talking here about trying to protect lives and also remember those who've died where those deaths were preventable."

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Source: BBC News, 13 May 2025

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GPs split over assisted dying plans, BBC research suggests

Family doctors in England are deeply divided on the issue of assisted dying, BBC research on plans to legalise the practice suggests.

The findings give a unique insight into how strongly many GPs feel about the proposed new law - and highlight how personal beliefs and experiences are shaping doctors' views on the issue.

BBC News sent more than 5,000 GPs a questionnaire asking whether they agreed with changing the law to allow assisted dying for certain terminally ill people in England and Wales.

More than 1,000 GPs replied, with about 500 telling us they were against an assisted dying law and about 400 saying they were in favour.

Some of the 500 GPs who told us they were against the law change called the bill "appalling", "highly dangerous", and "cruel". "We are doctors, not murderers," one said.

Of the 400 who said they supported assisted dying, some described the bill as "long overdue" and "a basic human right".

It comes as MPs will this week again debate proposed changes to the controversial bill, with a vote in parliament expected on whether to pass or block it next month.

If assisted dying does become legal in England and Wales, it would be a historic change for society.

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Source: BBC News, 14 May 2025

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Government has no clear plan for NHS England abolition, say MPs

The government is abolishing NHS England without a clear plan for how it will be achieved and how it will benefit frontline care, a cross-party group of MPs has warned.

Ministers announced in March that the body responsible for overseeing the health service in England would go, with its functions brought into the Department of Health and Social Care.

But the Public Accounts Committee said it was concerned about the uncertainty being caused and urged the government to set out a clear plan within the next three months.

The government said the move would eliminate "wasteful duplication" and that detailed planning had started.

Alongside the changes at a national level, the 42 local health boards responsible for planning services are also having to shed around half of their 25,000 staff.

Committee chair and Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said the changes to NHS England and local health boards amounted to a major structural reform.

He said strong decision-making and experienced staff would be vital to manage a period of "huge pressure" for the NHS.

"It has been two months since the government's decision to remove what, up until now, has been seen as a key piece of machinery, without articulating a clear plan for what comes next – and the future for patients and staff remains hazy," he added.

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Source: BBC News, 14 May 2025

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NHS medical negligence liabilities hit £58.2bn amid calls to improve patient safety

The NHS’s total liabilities for medical negligence have hit an “astounding” £58.2bn amid ministers’ failure to improve patient safety, an influential group of MPs have warned.

The Commons public accounts committee (PAC) said the “jaw-dropping” sums being paid to victims of botched treatment and government inaction to reduce errors were “unacceptable”.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has set aside £58.2bn to settle lawsuits arising from clinical negligence that occurred in England before 1 April 2024, the PAC disclosed.

“The fact that government has set aside tens of billions of pounds for clinical negligence payments, its second most costly liability after some of the world’s most complex nuclear decommissioning projects, should give our entire society pause,” said Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the PAC chair.

“This is a sign of a system struggling to do right by the people it is designed to help,” he added.

The PAC urged ministers to take urgent steps to reduce “tragic incidences of patient harm” and to also end a situation where lawyers take an “astronomical” 19% of the compensation awarded to those who are successful in suing the NHS. That amounted to £536m of the £2.8bn that the health service in England paid out in damages in 2023-24 – its record bill for mistakes.

“Far too many patients still suffer clinical negligence which can cause devastating harm to those affected,” and the ensuing damages drain vital funds from the NHS, the report said.

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Source: The Guardian, 14 May 2025

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