Jump to content
  • articles
    9,848
  • comments
    83
  • views
    12,483,301

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

NHS whistleblowers: We lost jobs after reporting patient deaths

More than 50 NHS whistleblowers claim to have lost their jobs—with some driven to the brink of suicide—after standing up to protect patients’ lives as bosses bury their concerns.

The group of doctors and nurses said that they had been targeted after raising concerns about more than 170 patient deaths and nearly 700 cases of poor care.

One consultant said that it was the “biggest scandal within our country” and claimed the true number of avoidable deaths was “astronomical”. Instead of addressing the problems, the whistleblowers claim that NHS bosses are spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on hiring law firms and private investigators to investigate them instead.

Last year Rob Behrens, the health ombudsman, warned The Times Health Commission that patient safety was at risk due to “toxic” and hierarchical behaviour among NHS doctors. Professor Phil Banfield, the chairman of the council of the British Medical Association, which represents doctors, wrote in The Daily Telegraph that whistleblowing “is not welcomed by NHS management… NHS trusts and senior managers are more concerned with protecting personal and organisational reputations than they are with protecting patients.”

In one case, the NHS spent more than £4 million on legal action against a single whistleblower, which included £3.2 million in compensation. Among the clinicians interviewed, 40 said that their employer took “no positive action” to address patient safety concerns; 36 said that patients remained at risk at their place of work; 19 said that NHS trusts covered up the problems, and ten said that their employers had denied there was a problem.

Whistleblowers’ representatives are urging the government to require independent medical assessments for claims and to ban the suspension or exclusion of doctors for speaking out about patient safety.

Dr Naru Narayanan, president of the hospital doctors’ union, has called for an independent national whistleblowing body outside of the NHS to register protected disclosures and protect individuals against recriminations. The Times Health Commission recommended that a no-blame compensation scheme should be introduced for medical errors, with settlements determined according to need. Backed by Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, the scheme would help end the deadly cycle of NHS scandals and cover-ups and ensure families receive timely support.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 15 May 2024

Read more
 

Multiple opportunities missed to prevent suicide death at NHS mental health unit, inquest hears

A 40-year-old mother of four took her own life at an NHSmental health unit after multiple opportunities were missed to keep her safe, an inquest has found, prompting her family to call for a public inquiry.

Azra Parveen Hussain was allegedly the seventh in-patient in seven years to die by the same means while in the care of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHT).

Despite this, an inquest at Birmingham and Solihull Coroner’s Court last week heard that the Trust had not installed door pressure sensor alarms, which could have potentially alerted staff to the fatal danger these patients faced.

While BSMHT is now taking action to install pressure sensors at Mary Seacole House, where Hussain died on 6 May, Coroner Emma Brown noted a lack of national regulation or guidance on the risks presented by internal doors in patients’ bedrooms and is issuing a Prevention of Future Deaths report calling for this to be remedied across the country.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 28 March 2021

Read more
 

Intensive care units face ‘grim’ situation despite fall in Covid cases

The president of the Intensive Care Society has warned despite the fall in Covid cases, intensive care units in hospitals remain under substantial pressure, with Stephen Webb, a consultant in intensive care and deputy medical director at the Royal Papworth Hospital Trust, describing the situation as "grim".

“Cases of Covid infections are coming down but that’s not having much of an impact on hospitals and on intensive care units yet. The situation in ICUs is pretty grim at the moment and it’s grim for a completely different reasons from wave one and two of the pandemic.” Dr Webb told The Independent.

Read full story.

Source: The Independent, 5 August 2021

Read more
 

The Chinese doctor who tried to warn others about coronavirus

In early January, authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan were trying to keep news of a new coronavirus under wraps. When one doctor tried to warn fellow medics about the outbreak, police paid him a visit and told him to stop. A month later he has been hailed as a hero, after he posted his story from a hospital bed.

It's a stunning insight into the botched response by local authorities in Wuhan in the early weeks of the coronavirus outbreak.

Dr Li was working at the centre of the outbreak in December when he noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like SARS - the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003. On 30 December he sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them about the outbreak and advising they wear protective clothing to avoid infection. What Dr Li didn't know then was that the disease that had been discovered was an entirely new coronavirus.

Four days later he was summoned to the Public Security Bureau where he was told to sign a letter. In the letter he was accused of "making false comments" that had "severely disturbed the social order". "We solemnly warn you: If you keep being stubborn, with such impertinence, and continue this illegal activity, you will be brought to justice - is that understood?" 

He was one of eight people who police said were being investigated for "spreading rumours".

At the end of January, Dr Li published a copy of the letter on Weibo and explained what had happened. In the meantime, local authorities had apologised to him but that apology came too late.

For the first few weeks of January officials in Wuhan were insisting that only those who came into contact with infected animals could catch the virus. No guidance was issued to protect doctors.

"A safer public health environment… requires tens of millions of Li Wenliang," said one reader of Dr Li's post.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 4 February 2020

Read more

‘Substandard care’ for over-70s with ovarian cancer as 1 in 5 patients ‘gets no treatment’

Women aged 70 or over are receiving substandard care to tackle ovarian cancer with one in five patients in their seventies getting no treatment whatsoever, a new study has found.

A report from Ovarian Cancer Action revealed almost half of patients in their 70s do not undergo surgery to treat the disease, even though it provides the best long-term prognosis for one of the most common types of cancer in women.

In total, around one in five (22%) of ovarian cancer patients aged 70 to 79  and three in five women with ovarian cancer who were over 80 years old were given no treatment for the disease.

The inadequate healthcare given to older ovarian cancer patients causes a disproportionately high short term death rate for them, the study found.

The study found older patients are substantially less likely to be referred by their GP for diagnostic tests such as ultrasounds when ovarian cancer symptoms surface.

Dr Susana Banerjee, a consultant medical oncologist at The Royal Marsden, said: “With an ageing population, many more patients with ovarian cancer are over the age of 70, so there is an urgent need to understand the best way to effectively treat older women."

“Optimising patients for treatment through frailty assessments and interventions, sharing best practice across cancer centres and representing older patients in clinical trials are important steps towards ensuring equal access to effective and tolerable treatment that could help more women live beyond their diagnosis, with a good quality of life, no matter their age.”

Read more

Long Covid more common in women and children and lasts for months, warns latest review

Lasting effects of infection from coronavirus are more common in women and children than expected, with at least 10% of people infected suffering persistent symptoms for months, a new review has found.

Experts at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) examined more than 300 separate scientific studies for the analysis. It found many patients reported struggling to access testing and help from the NHS to treat their symptoms, which varied between patients, suggesting long Covid is a group of four possible syndromes affecting patients differently.

The report said: “Long Covid appears to be more frequent in women and in young people (including children) than might have been expected,” adding other sufferers could be experiencing an active disease, impacting on their organs and causing debilitating symptoms that would need ongoing treatment. In some patients, the effects included neurological changes in their brains while others showed signs of blood clotting and inflammation. Other patients reported anxiety, fatigue and damage to their lungs and heart.

It also warned there was evidence some long Covid patients could actually be getting worse, underlining the need to invest in services that will be needed to cope with what could be a long term problem.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 16 March 2021

Read more

NHS was ‘overwhelmed’ in January surge, study finds

The NHS “was largely overwhelmed” at the height of the UK’s Covid second wave in January, according to a study.

New research published in Anaesthesia, a journal of the Association of Anaesthetists, revealed the scale of the pressure on hospitals during the pandemic and how stretched some units were.

Based on surveys of all NHS hospitals, with more than half responding, the study found almost a third of anaesthetists were redeployed to look after critically ill patients, leaving 42% of operating theatres closed.

This meant operations, including for cancer and emergency surgery patients, had to be cancelled.

The research, by Professor Tim Cook, a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care at the Royal United Hospitals Bath Foundation Trust, said: “Three-quarters of critical care units were so expanded that planned surgery could not be safely resumed. At all times, the greatest resource limitation was staff.”

It is thought the findings are an underestimate of how bad the situation really was in some hospitals because the busiest units were less able to respond to the survey.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 19 May 2021

Read more
 

Fears over patient safety amid plans to ‘water down’ training for nurses

Health leaders have warned the public may be at more risk amid plans to simplify nursing training across the UK. Nursing leaders have also come out in opposition of the proposals by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) saying bosses could not be sure that the nurses they hired would have the skills required to care patients' safely.

Matthew Winn, chief executive of Cambridgeshire Community Services Trust, said "The changes being proposed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council will lead to a watering down of the educational and training standards of these specialist professionals. If courses are developed unilaterally by universities, as an employer I will have no idea if the district nurse is competent to undertake the role I am recruiting them to do.”

Read full story.

Source: The Independent, 08 August 2021

Read more
 

NHS race body commits to avoiding blanket terms such as ‘BAME’

An independent body set up by the NHS to tackle health inequalities has formally committed to never use blanket acronyms such as “BAME” after feedback that they are not representative.

The NHS Race and Health Observatory launched a four-week consultation with the public in July on how best to collectively refer to people from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups.

The Observatory said it has become the norm in public policy to use initialisms to refer to a “hugely diverse” group of people, but that renewed scrutiny has been spurred on by the Black Lives Matter movement.

It said terminology that “crudely conflates” different groups “does not just erase identities; it can also lead to broad brush policy decisions that fail to appreciate the nuance of ethnic inequality in the UK”.

Generic collective terms such as “BAME”, “BME” and “ethnic minority” are “not representative or universally popular”, the Observatory said after receiving responses from 5,104 people.

It found no single, collective umbrella term to describe ethnic groups was agreed by the majority of respondents.

The body had previously said it was committed to avoiding the use of acronyms and initialisms, but has now formalised this as one of five key principles it is adopting in its communications.

Where possible it will be specific about the ethnic groups it is referring to, but where collective terminology is necessary it will “always be guided by context and not adopt a blanket term”.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 26 November 2021

Read more
 

NHS England waiting times for cancer referral and treatment at record high

The numbers of cancer patients facing delays in seeing a specialist for the first time and starting their treatment have hit record highs in England, amid fears that overstretched NHS services can no longer provide prompt care.

The disclosure comes as a new row over how quickly hospitals can clear the record 6 million-strong NHS backlog has forced ministers to delay publication of the long-awaited plan to tackle it.

Half a million people in England with suspected cancer will have to wait longer than the supposed two-week maximum to see an oncologist this year, an analysis for the House of Commons library reveals.

The number of patients confirmed to have the disease who are unable to start treatment such as surgery or chemotherapy within the 31 or 62 days that hospitals try to guarantee is expected to exceed 75,000 for the first time.

Experts, who claim significant shortages in the NHS cancer workforce are to blame, fear delays in getting diagnosed and starting care could reduce a patient’s chances of survival. Cancer charities highlighted the “unimaginable distress and anxiety” they induce in patients.

“Cancer care is in crisis,” the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said. “As this new analysis shows, terrifyingly large numbers of people are waiting longer than they should to receive vital cancer care and treatment with the insecurity of not knowing.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 6 February 2022

Read more

Autistic girl, 14, unlawfully detained in hospital, high court judge finds

A 14-year-old autistic girl was unlawfully detained in hospital and restrained in front of scared young patients, a high court judge has found.

On one occasion last month the teenager managed to break into a treatment room where a dying infant was receiving palliative care. She was restrained there by three security guards, Mr Justice MacDonald said in a judgment in the family court that ordered Manchester city council (MCC) to find the girl a suitable community care placement instead of what he described as the “brutal and abusive” and “manifestly unsuitable” hospital environment.

Nurses witnessed the girl screaming “very loudly” and sounding “very scared” when repeatedly held down on her hospital bed so that she could not move her legs, arms or head, before being tranquillised. Other children on the ward were frightened to witness the frequent battles between the girl and security guards, the judge said.

The judge noted that the teenager made “regular and determined” efforts to run away, sometimes using screwdrivers to try to unlock doors and windows, and running away from her family on walks. 

He described the teenager as having an autistic spectrum disorder and a learning disability. She demonstrated “complex and extreme behaviour” that could not be controlled even within a school environment involving six adults to one child supervision, he added.

Despite this, the council and NHS trust decided to have the girl be detained in hospital on a general paediatric ward “solely as a place of safety”, without applying for the necessary court order to do so, the judge found. She did not require any medical treatment, the judge said.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 5 April 2022

Read more

Nearly half of trust’s beds filled by patients fit to be discharged

A chief executive has described her ‘considerable regret’ that growing difficulty in discharging patients has resulted in nearly half of her trust’s inpatients being clinically ready to leave.

Debbie Richards, who leads Cornwall Partnership Foundation Trust, a community and mental health provider, highlighted the issue at the trust’s board meeting last month, amid a “dearth of adult social care provision” across the country.

In her update to the board, Ms Richards said delays in finding onward care for patients awaiting discharge meant “almost 50 per cent of our community hospital beds are occupied by patients who have no medical need to be in hospital”.

In her report to the board, Ms Richards said: “Despite having over 5,000 care home beds in Cornwall, the majority of these are full, or care home providers are unable to offer beds because of a lack of staffing.

“Where there is capacity, this tends to be for lower-level residential beds where unfortunately there is much less demand.”

Siobhan Melia, chair of the NHS Community Network and CEO of Sussex Community FT, said the “dearth of adult social care provision” was the biggest limiting factor in discharging delayed patients home, followed by high staff vacancies and sickness absence."

She called for a national long-term funding settlement for social care and reform of the sector to address the key challenges.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 10 May 2022

Read more

NHS prescription charges in England to be frozen

NHS prescription charges in England are to be frozen for the first time in 12 years, the government has confirmed.

Single prescription charges, which the Department of Health said would normally rise "in line with inflation", will remain at £9.35 until next year.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said freezing the costs would "put money back in people's pockets".

Faith Angwet, a single mother of two, said she had to choose between paying for prescriptions to treat for her high blood pressure, or using that money to feed her children.

She said the price freeze "won't go far" because "it's not necessarily the outgoings affecting me, everything is going up in price and I'm not able to afford everything I use to be, including my prescription".

Claire Anderson, of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said people who do not qualify for free prescriptions because of their income, age, or medication type, often had to make decisions about which medicines they need.

"Those medicines are prescribed for a reason because that patient needs that treatment," she told the BBC.

And Laura Cockram, chairwoman of the Prescription Charges Coalition, who welcomed the freeze, said the government should review the list of those who qualified for free prescriptions.

She said the prescription exemption charge list was put together more than 50 years ago, when conditions like HIV "didn't even exist" and at a time there "weren't life saving treatments for things like asthma, Parkinson's and MS".

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 16 May 2022

Read more

Fears of Long Covid crisis as demand for rehabilitation services surges

Health officials are calling for urgent intervention from the government to meet the steep surge in demand for occupational therapy in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to healthcare professionals from both the NHS and the private care system, demand for occupational-therapy-led rehabilitation services in Britain has increased by a staggering 82 per cent over the past six months alone.

Swelling pressure on already “overloaded” rehabilitation services has stirred up stark warnings from members of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT), who say the level of demand for the service they provide “isn’t sustainable” as there isn’t a large enough workforce to meet the need.

A revealing survey carried out by the college has raised grave questions about the prospect of providing timely rehabilitation for people recovering from short and long-term illnesses who need urgent support to enable them to carry out their daily activities.

The survey of of 550 occupational therapists working in the UK found that 84 per cent are now supporting people whose needs have become more complex because of delays in treatment brought about by the pandemic.

As a result of this, coupled with a wider increase in the number of people requiring help, 71 per cent of the RCOT’s respondents felt there were not enough occupational therapists to meet the demand.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Independent, 22 May 2022

Read more

Ambulance handover delays in England may harm 1,000 patients a day

More than 1,000 patients a day in England are suffering “potential harm” because of ambulance handover delays, the Guardian can reveal.

In the last year, 414,137 patients are believed to have experienced some level of harm because they spent so long in the back of ambulances waiting to get into hospital. Of those, 44,409 – more than 850 a week – suffered “severe potential harm”, with delays causing permanent or long-term harm or death.

In total, ambulances spent more than 1.5m hours – equivalent to 187 years – stuck outside A&Es waiting to offload patients in the year to November 2024, the Guardian investigation found.

Experts said the figures were “staggering” and showed how the NHS was in a more “fragile” state than ever before, amid a “perfect storm” of record demand for A&E, soaring numbers of 999 calls, and an increasingly sicker and ageing population.

The analysis of NHS data by the Guardian and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) highlights the huge scale of the challenge facing Keir Starmer as he prepares to set out how he plans to rescue the NHS.

Anna Parry, the managing director of AACE, which represents the bosses of England’s 10 regional NHS ambulance services, said the data “speaks for itself”.

She added: “These figures underline what the ambulance sector has been saying for a long time – that thousands of patients are potentially being harmed every month as a direct result of hospital handover delays.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 5 January 2025

Read more
 

Government seeks refund for millions of coronavirus antibody tests

The Government will look for a refund for millions of coronavirus tests ordered from China after scientists found they were too unreliable to be used by the public.

Ministers will attempt to recoup taxpayers' money spent on the fingerprick tests after an Oxford University trial found they returned inaccurate results.

The failure is a significant setback because it had been hoped the antibody tests would show who had already built up immunity, therefore offering a swifter route out of lockdown.

Read full story

Source: The Telegraph, 6 April 2020

Read more

Healthcare professional is referred to regulator for delaying seeing a patient because of lack of PPE

A healthcare professional is facing a fitness to practise investigation for delaying attending to a COVID-19 positive patient because of inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE), in what may be the first case of its kind.

The revelation came from a healthcare regulatory solicitor, Andrea James, who tweeted, “Was expecting it, but still disgusted to have received first #FitnessToPractise case arising from NHS trust disciplining healthcare professional who expressed concern about/delayed attending to a Covid+ patient without PPE (NHS Trust having failed to provide said PPE). For shame.”

Doctors and nurses reacted with outrage to the tweet, and the Medical Protection Society issued a strong statement condemning the move. But James said that her client wanted to remain anonymous and declined to identify the profession or the regulator involved. She said that the treatment in question was expected to be an aerosol generating procedure.

Rob Hendry, medical director at the Medical Protection Society (MPS), said, “It is appalling enough that healthcare professionals are placed in the position of having to choose between treating patients and keeping themselves and their other patients safe. The stress should not be compounded by the prospect of being brought before a regulatory or disciplinary tribunal.

“MPS members who are faced with regulatory or employment action arising from a decision to not see a patient due to lack of PPE can come to us for advice and representation. However, it should not come to this: healthcare workers should not be held personally accountable for decisions or adverse outcomes that are ultimately the result of poor PPE provision.”

Read full story

Source: BMJ, 12 August 2020

Read more
 

Seven NHS hospital trusts to receive share of £8.7m for e-prescribing

A further £8.7million is to be dished out to seven NHS hospital trusts to introduce digital records and e-prescribing. The money is part of a £78million investment which was announced in February 2018 and aims to accelerate the roll out of electronic prescribing systems across the NHS.

The latest funding is part of the third wave of the investment, which will be handed out over three years. In 2018/ 19, £16.2 million was awarded, £29.4 million was given in 2019/20 and another £12 million will be invested later this year.

The seven trusts which will benefit from this latest round of finding are:

  • Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust (£1.7m)
  • Solent NHS Trust (£988,000)
  • Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust (£637,000)
  • United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (£1.26m)
  • North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust (£2m)
  • East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (£1.6m)
  • Birmingham Community NHS Trust (£531,000)

National director of patient safety, Dr Aidan Fowler, said: “Patient safety is of paramount importance and is something we are continuously looking at ways to improve, whether through new technology, such as the introduction of electronic prescribing, or by building a safety culture where all NHS staff feel supported and safe to speak up.”

Read full story

Source: Digital Health, 1 October 2020

Read more
 

Surgery delays left dementia patient housebound

A woman with dementia was effectively left housebound for the last eight years of her life due to surgical delays, an investigation found.

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales said the individual worried about being "caught short" due to incontinence and it affected her family relationships.

Her son complained about the care she received at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Denbighshire, in particular. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has since apologised to the family.

Ombudsman Nick Bennett said it was clear there was "significant injustice" in the case of the individual, who was identified in the report findings as Mrs B.

The patient's son complained there had been surgical delays for a rectal prolapse issue dating back to 2011, concerns over inpatient medical care provided by an elderly care consultant, and a delayed diagnosis of terminal ovarian cancer during a hospital stay.

The ombudsman found that clinical decision-making by colorectal surgeons "was not in keeping with accepted clinical practice".

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 2 March 2021

Read more

Long Covid: More than 1 million experiencing symptoms in UK

More than one million people in the UK are suffering from signs of Long Covid, the Office for National Statistics has said.

This is a significant increase in previous estimates of persistent and debilitating symptoms and follows the January surge in coronavirus infections across the UK.

The ONS said a total of 1.1 million people in the UK reported experiencing Long Covid symptoms lasting beyond four weeks after infection with COVID-19 that were not explained any something else.

Long Covid can include chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, so called ‘brain fog’ as well as serious organ damage to the kidneys, heart and lungs. The ONS found the symptoms were impacting on the day to day lives of 674,000 people, with almost 200,000 people reporting their ability to carry out normal activities had been severely limited.

Of those reporting symptoms, almost 700,000 reported having a Covid infection in the previous three months, but 70,000 said it was over a year since their infection.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 1 April 2021

Read more

‘Unprecedented’ rise in drug overdoses in England linked with synthetic opioid

According to public health reports, there has been a sharp rise in drug overdoses, particularly heroin, over the past 10-14 days with the synthetic opioid isotonitazene implicated in some cases. In several areas of the country including five London boroughs, Hampshire, Essex, West Sussex, Dorset and Thames Valley, there has been 46 poisonings, resulting in 16 deaths, although currently, investigations are still ongoing. 

In a National Patient Safety alert issued on 18 August 2021, Public Health England (PHE) have instructed all NHS organisations to ensure staff are made aware of the risk of severe toxicity resulting from the synthetic opioid, and that all organisations that treat emergency cases should ensure staff are able to treat suspected cases “using naloxone and appropriate supportive care”.

Roz Gittins, director of pharmacy at the charity Humankind, said "People also need to know where they can get hold of naloxone, as well as being reminded to carry it with them and to let people know where they keep it. If advice and support is required then the local substance misuse service should be contacted for specialist support. We hope that the current consultation to widen naloxone provision will be successful and that improved funding will lead to naloxone being distributed more widely to help reduce the risk of accidental opioid overdoses."

Read full story.

Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal, 18 August 2021

Read more
 

One percent of the population make up a third of ambulance call outs

The British Red Cross have found that that 367,000 people, which equates to around one percent of the population in England attend A&E up to 346 times a year.

These figures accounted for nearly one in three ambulance call outs and over one in six A&E visits.

The research analysis found that a fifth of those repeatedly attending A&E lived alone and also often lived in deprived areas of the country.

Frequent users also accounted for 29% of all ambulance call outs and 16% of non-minor-injury A&E visits.

The data also revealed that people in their twenties were more likely to repeatedly visit A&E than any other age category.

Mike Adamson, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said: 'High intensity use of A&E is closely associated with deprivation and inequalities - if you overlay a map of frequent A&E use and a map of deprivation, they're essentially the same.'

Read full story

Source: National Health Executive, 29 November 2021

Read more

More than 1,000 ‘definitely unvaccinated’ staff at one trust

At least 1,000 staff at the country’s largest NHS trust are still unvaccinated with a week to go until the deadline, it can be revealed.

Senior leaders at University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust (UHB), which has a total workforce of over 20,000 people, told a board meeting that 9% of staff, including substantive and active bank workers, had an ‘unknown’ or ‘unvaccinated’ status as of yesterday.

Like many trusts, UHB is still working through hundreds of records manually, and seeking to contact staff, to establish which are truly ‘unvaccinated’ rather than ‘unknown’, the trust’s chief people officer, Cathi Shovlin, said.

But she confirmed to the board today that of approximately 1,799 substantive-only staff listed as unknown or unvaccinated, “at least” 1,171 of those in scope are definitely not vaccinated.

She said the mandatory vaccine programme was “having a significant impact on staff, who range in emotions from disbelief that this will go ahead through to fear of the vaccine, their job, their career, through to anger about the mandate itself”, Ms Shovlin told executives.

Low uptake has been found particularly among healthcare support workers, porters, housekeeping and cleaners, she said. Diagnostic services, outpatients and surgery, particularly operating departments, were among clinical areas with lower vaccination rates.

And there has also been reduced uptake in females, particularly women aged 20 to 35, and among Asian, Black British and Black Caribbean staff.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 27 January 2022

Read more

‘Lack of respect’ for children at ‘inadequate’ hospital

Staff failed to provide kind and compassionate care and did not treat children with respect at a private hospital downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’, a report by health inspectors has revealed.

Huntercombe Hospital Stafford was placed in special measures in 2016, but was rated “good” by the Care Quality Commission two years later.

Now, its first inspection under provider Huntercombe Young People Ltd in October 2021 has exposed a raft of safety concerns and instances of poor care. Huntercombe Young People Ltd took over the service in February 2021. 

Heavy reliance on agency staff, workers spotted with their “eyes closed” on observations, and staff not respecting young people’s pronouns were among concerns inspectors flagged.

Staff observation of patients was also found to be “undermined” by a blind spot where people could self-harm unseen, the CQC report, published today, said.

Children also told the CQC they felt staff did not always understand their mental health condition or know how to support them, particularly those on the psychiatric intensive care ward with eating disorders or autism.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 10 March 2022

Read more

© 2026 Patient Safety Learning. All rights reserved.

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

×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.