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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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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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