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Police start manslaughter inquiry into senior individuals at Letby hospital

Police investigating the hospital where the nurse Lucy Letby worked have widened their inquiries to include gross negligence manslaughter by senior staff.

Cheshire constabulary says it has expanded its inquiry into the Countess of Chester hospital despite growing questions around Letby’s convictions.

The former nurse is serving 15 whole-life prison terms after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another seven.

Police launched an investigation into corporate manslaughter and the actions of senior managers at the hospital after Letby’s original trial in October 2023.

But the inquiry will now include gross negligence manslaughter by unnamed individuals. The Guardian understands this includes managers.

Det Supt Paul Hughes, the senior investigating officer, said: “As our inquiries have continued, the scope of the investigation has now widened to also include gross negligence manslaughter.

“This is a separate offence to corporate manslaughter and focuses on the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals.

“It is important to note that this does not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder.”

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Source: The Guardian, 13 March 2025

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‘I had no voice’: black mental health patients on surviving a care system they say is racialised

It has been more than four decades since Devon Marston, a 66-year-old community organiser and musician, was taken to a psychiatric hospital where he was restrained, injected and forced to take medication. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

“Everything was said around me and about me, but no one asked me how I was doing,” he said. “I had no voice, and there was no one to say: ‘Don’t do that to him,’ or: ‘Listen to him, hear what he has to say.’”

The experience had a profound impact on his life and put him on a path to campaign for better care for minority ethnic people experiencing mental distress. However, progress has been painfully slow.

“Nothing has changed. Everything is still the same – only it’s more covered up now by clauses in the Mental Health Act that make it look fair but the equality and justice are not there,” he said.

The most recent data paints a frightening picture. Findings from the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) latest report show that the number of adults sent for very urgent mental health care from crisis teams more than doubled between 2023 and 2024.

The report, published on Thursday, also raised concerns about the overrepresentation of black people being detained under the act, finding they are 3.5 times more likely to be detained than white people.

The damning report warned that people are becoming more unwell while waiting for help and are stuck in a “damaging cycle” of hospital readmission.

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Source: The Guardian, 13 March 2025

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Discrimination hits record high for second year running

Discrimination against NHS employees reached its highest level for the second year in a row, while one in seven experienced physical violence from the public, according to the 2024 annual staff survey.

Results published for England showed the percentage of staff who had faced discrimination from the public in the past 12 months had risen from 8.5% in 2023 to 9.3% cent in 2024.

The figure has reached its highest level since the question was first asked in 2019, when it was 7.2%, and has risen year-on-year post-pandemic. This has also increased among managers, team leaders and colleagues, from 8.4% in 2020 to 9.2% in 2024.

More than half of respondents (54%) said the discrimination was due to their ethnic background.

Survey results also found 14.4% of staff had faced violence from patients, their relatives or other members of the public in 2024. This figure has increased slightly from 13.9% in 2023 but is below levels seen during covid.

More than 774,000 staff in England responded to 2024 survey between September and November 2024, the highest in its 20-year history, at a response rate of 50 per cent. This is up from 707,000 the previous year and 636,000 the edition before, out of a 1.5 million workforce.

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Source: HSJ, 13 March 2025

Read Patient Safety Learning's response to the NHS Staff Survey

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World’s largest quango scrapped under reforms to put patients first

Reforms to reduce bureaucracy, make savings and empower NHS staff to deliver better care for patients have been set out today (Thursday 13 March) by the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. 

NHS England will be brought back into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to put an end to the duplication resulting from 2 organisations doing the same job in a system currently holding staff back from delivering for patients. By stripping back layers of red tape and bureaucracy, more resources will be put back into the front line rather than being spent on unnecessary admin.  

The reforms will reverse the 2012 top-down reorganisation of the NHS which created burdensome layers of bureaucracy without any clear lines of accountability. As Lord Darzi’s independent investigation into the state of the NHS found, the effects of this are still felt today and have left patients worse off under a convoluted and broken system.

The current system also penalises hardworking staff at NHS England and DHSC who desperately want to improve the lives of patients but who are being held back by the current overly bureaucratic and fragmented system.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, said:

"This is the final nail in the coffin of the disastrous 2012 reorganisation, which led to the longest waiting times, lowest patient satisfaction and most expensive NHS in history.

"When money is so tight, we cannot justify such a complex bureaucracy with 2 organisations doing the same jobs. We need more doers and fewer checkers, which is why I’m devolving resources and responsibilities to the NHS frontline.

"NHS staff are working flat out but the current system sets them up to fail. These changes will support the huge number of capable, innovative and committed people across the NHS to deliver for patients and taxpayers. 

"Just because reform is difficult does not mean it should not be done. This government will never duck the hard work of reform. We will take on vested interests and change the status quo, so the NHS can once again be there for you when you need it."

The reforms to deliver a more efficient, leaner centre will also free up capacity and help deliver significant savings of hundreds of millions of pounds a year, which will be reinvested in frontline services to cut waiting times through the government’s Plan for Change.

The changes will crucially also give more power and autonomy to local leaders and systems - instead of weighing them down in increasing mountains of red tape, they will be given the tools and trust they need to deliver health services for the local communities they serve with more freedom to tailor provision to meet local needs.  

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Source: GOV.UK, 13 March 2025

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Australia: Two women face court charged with manslaughter after home-birth death of NSW baby

Two women who police allege practised as unregistered midwives have been charged with manslaughter after a baby died after a home birth on the New South Wales mid north coast.

The women, aged 41 and 51, appeared in Coffs Harbour local court on Wednesday in relation to the newborn boy’s death in 2022.

Emergency services were called to a home in Karangi, north-west of Coffs Harbour, when the baby was unresponsive after the home birth on 11 September 2022, NSW police said in a statement.

Paramedics treated the baby before he was airlifted to Coffs Harbour base hospital where he died.

Police allege the younger woman was an unregistered midwife at the time of the birth while the older woman held no medical qualifications and had been practising unregistered home-birth midwifery.

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Source: The Guardian, 13 March 2025

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Starmer to scrap NHS England and bring health service back under 'democratic control'

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that NHS England will be abolished to "cut bureaucracy" and bring management of the health service "back into democratic control".

Starmer says it will put the NHS "back at the heart of government, where it belongs, freeing it to focus on patients, less bureaucracy, with more money for nurses," adding that it would also help cut waiting times, which he said had been falling for five months in a row.

NHS England was established in 2013 to give the health service greater independence and autonomy; it employs around 13,500 staff - three times more than the Department of Health.

Outlining his decision to ditch NHS England, Starmer said the move would reduce "duplication" and save money for the frontline services.

Starmer stresses that employees of NHS England are hugely qualified and says the government will not be abandoning anybody as it moves to scrap the body.

But, the PM says, we can't look people who want quicker appointments in the eye and say that we're fearful of taking big decisions.

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Source: BBC News, 13 March 2025

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ICBs ordered to cut costs by 50%

Integrated care boards have been told to cut their running costs in half by December.

ICBs had already been ordered to cut running costs by 20% over the past two years.

Sir Jim told the ICB CEOs the Treasury would cover the cost of redundancies, which are likely to be necessary, and that cuts must be made by the third quarter of 2025-26. HSJ understands they were also informed that trusts would be required to cut managerial costs.

The measures are part of a “financial reset” package due to be outlined by Sir Jim to NHS CEOs in London on Thursday. 

The cuts to integrated care board budgets will make it next to impossible for some individual ICBs to operate as a standalone organisations, or to carry out the full range of responsibilities originally given to them by the 2022 Health and Care Act.

One leader told HSJ the size and speed of the cut was “terrifying” and would throw management of the NHS “into chaos”. Another director briefed on the plan said it felt “like full panic mode and blunt cost cutting without clarity on purpose”.

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Source: HSJ, 12 March 2025

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India's frontline health workers fight for better pay and recognition

Thousands of frontline healthcare workers in southern India's Kerala state, who have been holding demonstrations for the past month seeking better pay and recognition, have vowed to continue their protest.

Kerala's 26,225 female workers, known as Accredited Social Health Activists or Ashas (Hindi for hope), have been holding protests near the state government headquarters in the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram.

The protesters, who provide crucial medical support in the country's rural areas, say they plan to "lay siege" to the state secretariat in the coming week, if authorities continue to ignore their demands.

The Ashas, who number more than a million across the country, are fighting for better salaries and for official "worker" status.

The women are currently categorised as volunteers, which means they are not guaranteed any benefits from the government, despite playing a crucial role in delivering healthcare in rural and underserved areas.

In a country where millions of Indians, especially in the remote areas, do not have access to quality healthcare, the Asha workers have played a vital role over the years.

Their job involves going door-to-door to raise awareness about nutrition, sanitation, immunisation and providing neonatal and antenatal care, among other things.

They played a crucial role during the Covid pandemic, especially in Kerala which was first to report a Covid case, and have been credited for successfully containing outbreaks of Zika and Nipah viruses.

Dr Joe Thomas, a Melbourne-based public health policy analyst, believes India should change its perception of these community health workers whose contribution to primary health is universally recognised.

These workers are doing the job of midwives in Kerala after the state's health authorities froze recruitment of midwives, he told the BBC. "The maternity care support has slowly been shifted to Ashas."

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Source: BBC News, 13 March 2025

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‘First-of-a-kind’ daily pill for endometriosis treatment approved for NHS in England

A new daily pill that could transform the way endometriosis is treated has been approved for use on the NHS across England, the medicines watchdog has announced.

About 1,000 women a year living with endometriosis will be able to access relugolix-estradiol-norethisterone. The “first-of-a-kind” treatment, which was initially rejected by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), works by blocking the specific hormones that contribute to endometriosis while providing necessary hormone replacement.

The medication eliminates the need for multiple medications and regular trips to clinics for injections.

Unlike current injectable treatments which can initially worsen symptoms, the pill can be taken at home, works more quickly and combines hormones in one pill.

Endometriosis care has also long been recognised as substandard, with a previous report finding that on average women are waiting nearly nine years for a diagnosis in the UK.

A spokesperson for Endometriosis UK welcomed the decision by Nice, adding: “Endometriosis UK believes that women and those assigned female at birth in the UK should be able to choose the right treatment and management options for them.

“We recommend that treatment decisions are always made in partnership with the individual and their medical practitioner. There are far too few options available due to the historic lack of research into endometriosis.”

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Source: The Guardian, 13 March 2025

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Poor support ‘driving rise in deaths after discharge’

The rate of patients dying by suicide shortly after discharge from mental health units has increased in recent years, with researchers calling for better post-discharge support.

According to the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health annual report – an audit published by the Health Quality Improvement Partnership – the number and rate of deaths after discharge from a ward have been gradually increasing since 2017, after falling from 2013-17.

The rate in 2022, the most recent figures reported, was 14.1 per 10,000 discharges.

Isabelle Hunt, senior research fellow at the Manchester University and report co-author, told HSJ  the most recent figures should be “treated with caution”, but added that the rise in post-discharge suicides could be attributed to the case mix of patients. A “reduction in inpatient beds” could mean “a higher-risk group of patients are being managed by services” and being discharged when more unwell.

Dr Hunt said the increases could also be associated with changes in the circumstances patients are being discharged to.

“Around a quarter of patients who died by suicide within three months of discharge were known to have been discharged to housing, financial or employment problems and a fifth were discharged to poor social support,” Dr Hunt said.

“Awareness of the stressors patients may face after leaving hospital is a key element when judging the appropriateness of discharge, and greater involvement of families and carers is likely to provide a clearer picture of the circumstances a patient is returning to.”

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Source: HSJ, 12 March 2025

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New DHSC delivery unit to 'bring a laser-like focus on reform'

The Department of Health and Social Care is launching a delivery unit that promises to tackle some of the NHS’s most pressing problems.

The secretary of state's delivery unit will sit within DHSC and act as a mechanism through which the health secretary can hold NHS England and other relevant organisations to account for delivering on the government’s priorities, according to a job advert for the unit’s director.

It will “bring a laser-like focus on delivering the reform needed to drive improvement generally across health and care and specifically on the three things that surveys show matter most to the public”, the ad says – namely elective waiting times; urgent and emergency care waiting times and performance; and GP access.

The department is offering £125,000 a year for a director to lead the unit’s “small, multidisciplinary team”, who will be tasked with “tracking and challenging” delivery of the health secretary’s priorities, including manifesto commitments.

The unit will work to “raise the profile of delivery” throughout the department and will “operate in lockstep with departmental strategy functions”, according to the candidate pack for the role.

It will “share responsibility for ensuring that the delivery issues of the day are tackled in ways that do not defer problems for the long term and do not make implementation of the long-term strategy emerging from the 10-year plan more difficult”.

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Source: Civil Service World, 7 March 2025

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Antisemitic abuse rises within NHS and staff are the ‘worst culprits’

NHS staff are more likely than members of the public to perpetrate antisemitic abuse in hospitals and doctors’ surgeries since the October 7 Hamas attacks, according to complaints compiled by an influential charity.

The file includes a Jewish doctor being given a hijab as a secret santa present and a patient having pro-Palestine stickers plastered across his room as he lay fighting for his life.

Meanwhile, a group of therapists who complained about a colleague posting messages supporting Hamas online were subject to a countercomplaint for “micro-aggressions”. A patient waiting to be discharged from hospital was told: “Get your Jewish ambulance to come and get you.”

Dave Rich, policy director at the Community Security Trust, said: “It is essential that hospitals and NHS trusts deal with this trend of rising antisemitism quickly and firmly and set a clear example that anti-Jewish prejudice has no place in the NHS.”

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Source: The Times, 6 March 2025

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USA: Patient Safety Awareness Week

This week in the USA is Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW). Now in its 23rd year, this annual recognition event aims to encourage everyone to learn more about healthcare safety.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)'s theme for this year’s PSAW is “The Power of A: Awareness, Assessment and Action.” IHI Vice President Patricia McGaffigan, said: “It’s time for everyone in health care, in partnership with patients, families, and the communities we serve to leverage the power of ‘A’ [Awareness] and operationalize what matters for safety.”

Check out the full article via AORN: https://go.ihi.org/4i7Z5t3

Join IHI for a PSAW webinar on Thursday 13 March at 11:00 am.

PatientSafetyWeek.thumb.jpg.8da4796765fbf805a2455f2475dfbaf8.jpg

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How systems are managing the radiologist shortage

A radiology shortage has been plaguing health systems in the US for a few years and is expected to get worse in coming years — but systems are making changes to reduce its impact.

A shortage of up to 42,000 radiologists is expected by 2033. Currently, the radiology technologist vacancy rates are up to 18.1%, compared to 6.2% three years ago. Further complicating the matter, the number of imaging studies has increased by up to 5% per year, but the number of radiology residency positions has increased by only 2%. If current imaging rates remain standard, there will be an estimated 16.9% to 26.9% increase in imaging utilization by 2055.

"We (the industry) waited too long to start discussing the shortage," leaders from Evanston, Ill.-based Endeavor Health told Becker's. "Had we been proactive in understanding this phenomenon, we could have avoided some of the deficit. Now we are in reaction mode and trying to catch up." 

With America's aging population, many radiologists are also going to be retiring in coming years, with fewer radiologists coming up to replace them.

And the challenges for health systems do not end there.

"The relatively higher fixed costs smaller private groups bear for billing services, malpractice insurance, benefits, etc. make it increasingly difficult to offer competitive wages, so recruitment and retention in a competitive market become challenging," they said. "We have also experienced unplanned increases in teleradiology pricing over the last year, resulting in a negative margin for this volume subset as the reimbursement for most interpretations outweigh the professional fee collections."

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Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 5 March 2025

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‘We’re on the edge of chaos’: families with trans kids fight for care as bans take hold

Aryn Kavanaugh was sitting in her living room in South Carolina when her 17-year-old daughter came into the room and said: “I’m really scared. I think people are gonna die.” Katherine, who is using her middle name for her protection, told Kavanaugh that she thought transgender youth may be the target of violence due to the hate generated by Donald Trump’s recent action.

On 28 January, Trump issued an executive order to ban access to gender-affirming care for youth under 19 years old. It directed federal agencies to deny funding to institutions that offer gender-affirming medical care including hormones and puberty blockers.

“She just felt like the world was crumbling around her. So we talked it out and tried to stay super positive,” said Kavanaugh, a parent of two trans children. “I think she really feels like we’re on the edge of chaos.”

In a victory for trans kids and their families, a federal judge in Maryland blocked the ban on 4 March. The preliminary injunction extended a mid-February restraining order that blocked Trump’s directive and will remain in effect until further order from the US district court for the district of Maryland. In the meantime, the order prohibits the government from withholding federal funding to healthcare facilities that provide treatment to trans youth.

Still, the executive order sent parents, children and medical providers into a tailspin as they deciphered its impacts. Some hospitals immediately cancelled appointments and turned away new patients to adhere to the directive..

Some parents say that their children’s mental health severely declined in the weeks following the executive order. And as a result, families have gone to great lengths to ensure that their trans kids continue to receive care, including considering moving abroad or stocking up on puberty suppressants.

“We have seen dozens of families affected across the United States, in many, many states that have been left and abandoned without care that they need,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior counsel and healthcare strategist at the LGBTQ+ civil rights organization Lambda Legal. “This is an unlawful executive order because it seeks to override the congressional mandate to condition federal financial assistance on non-discrimination, and this order seeks to require discrimination as a condition of federal funding.”

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Source: The Guardian, 12 March 2025

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Mental health charities struggling to cope with GP-referral influx

Mental health charities in England are struggling to cope with the number of sick patients referred to them by GPs, with under-qualified professionals increasingly tasked with treating the seriously ill.

Experts told the Guardian that some desperate GPs were “signposting” patients to services not always equipped to deal with them.

These are provided by unregulated charities, which employ practitioners who are not always transparent about their qualifications or level of competence.

Some charities reported struggling to cope with demand, with their staff, who do not need the specific qualifications required by the NHS, finding themselves tasked with helping the sickest patients.

“The issue is that people are desperate,” said Jaime Craig, who will be appointed chair of the Association of Clinical Psychologists in May. “There’s very limited access to services, and so people go to the GP and they say: ‘Well, I’ve had a flyer from this person who’s offering counselling, why don’t you try them?’

“To be fair to GPs, sometimes their local areas don’t have an awful lot to offer in terms of mental health support and they are struggling with the amount of people coming in for psychological or counselling support.

“But there’s a big problem because the patient can’t know whether what is being suggested on a leaflet or a website is OK unless someone does some vetting.”

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Source: The Guardian, 12 March 2025

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Ten died of cancer after NHS blunder in England meant they were not invited for screening

Ten people have died from cancer and up to 10 more have been diagnosed with the disease after a blunder meant they were not invited to NHS screening programmes.

Health officials failed to invite more than 5,000 patients in total for routine checks after an IT error affected bowel, breast and cervical cancer screening programmes, as well as abdominal aortic aneurysm screening.

In a written ministerial statement on Tuesday, health minister Ashley Dalton said that NHS England had written to those affected this week.

The letters were sent to patients who are still eligible for a screening programme, or who were previously eligible for a programme but now exceed its upper age limit. NHS England has also set up a helpline.

The mistake occurred when the GP registration process of the patients was “not completed correctly, meaning their details were not passed to NHS screening system”, Dalton said.

“Records indicate that up to 10 patients have been diagnosed with a relevant cancer and were not invited for certain screening,” she added.

“The impact on these patients is not yet known and a clinical harm assessment process will be undertaken, based on expert clinical advice.

“It is with deep sadness that I must report that records also indicate that around 10 people who were not invited for screening may have died from a relevant cancer.”

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Source: The Guardian, 11 March 2025

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MS patients in England to benefit from major roll out of take-at-home pill

Thousands of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in England are to become the first in Europe to benefit from a major roll out of an immunotherapy pill.

Current treatments involve regular trips to hospital, drug infusions, frequent injections and extensive monitoring, which add to the burden on patients and healthcare systems.

The new tablet, cladribine, can be swallowed at home, and needs to be taken only 20 times in the first two years of a four-year cycle. The regime consists of a maximum of 10 days of treatment in the first year and 10 days in the second; no additional treatment is needed in the next two years.

Patients thinking about having children can also safely conceive in the third and fourth years of the treatment cycle. This is an important development, as MS is most commonly diagnosed in women in their 20s and 30s.

The NHS in England is the first healthcare system in Europe to widely introduce the drug to patients with active relapsing-remitting MS after it received the go-ahead from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

As well as benefits for the patient, the rollout is expected to save thousands of clinical hours each year, freeing up NHS capacity by reducing the need for hospital appointments and time consuming treatments.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 March 2025

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Prescriptions for ADHD drugs jump 18% year-on-year, figures show

Prescriptions for drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have jumped 18% year-on-year since the pandemic, research suggests.

Experts said increasing awareness of ADHD, including via social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, is likely to have encouraged more people to seek diagnosis and treatment for the condition.

However, they warned that “misinformation on these platforms may lead to misconceptions about symptoms, diagnosis and treatment”.

Another reason behind the rise could be the “strong association between the impact of the (Covid) pandemic and the worsening of ADHD symptoms”, they said.

Dr Ulrich Muller-Sedgwick, ADHD champion at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said people with ADHD need access to timely and effective assessment, “followed by the appropriate treatment”.

He added: “We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of people coming forward for ADHD support in recent years.

“There are many reasons for this, including improved recognition of ADHD in women, greater public awareness and the impacts of the pandemic which exacerbated many people’s symptoms.

“The right diagnosis and care, including medication and reasonable adjustments, can greatly benefit people’s health and support them to reach their full potential at school, university or work.

“We know that expanding ADHD services through targeted investment would help ensure people receive the vital care they need.”

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Source: The Independent, 11 March 2025

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Surgeon with ‘complete freedom’ harmed dozens of patients

An orthopaedic surgeon with “almost complete clinical freedom” is likely to have harmed nearly 100 patients, a long-running investigation has found.

The review examined 382 elective complex upper limb procedures at Walsall Healthcare Trust in the West Midlands. It found treatment was “sufficiently sub-optimal to have caused moderate or serious harm” in 24% of cases.

As well as the surgeon who carried out the procedures being “apparently not fully competent to perform” them, there was a lack of robust oversight and poor coding, and notes which made it difficult to establish what had happened.

The cases studied involved “procedures of concern”, meaning the rate of harm among other all patients operated on by the surgeon is likely to be lower.

Surgeon Mian Munawar Shah was stopped from carrying out some operations after concerns were raised about his work in 2020 and was later suspended from patient-facing work. He also worked at a nearby private hospital, Spire Little Aston, but work there is not covered by the reviews published today.

After two external reviews, the trust decided to notify and recall patients who had undergone complex upper limb surgery done by him. Some hand and wrist surgery was also examined and found to involve poor or very poor care, including cases where the wrong bone was removed.

The final reviews were completed in September, and findings have been published by the Trust.

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Source: HSJ, 11 March 2025

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USAid cuts could create untreatable TB bug ‘resistant to everything we have’

Dangerous new forms of tuberculosis (TB) for which there is no treatment could emerge as a result of US aid cuts, a top doctor has warned.

Dr Lucica Ditiu, who heads the Stop TB Partnership, said she feared that interruptions to people’s treatment would allow the airborne bug to mutate into a new, untreatable form.

Moreover, a lack of diagnostic services, which have also been badly affected by the Trump administration’s aid cuts, would allow TB to spread more easily, she said.

Programmes working to detect, treat and research new ways to fight TB are among nearly 10,000 health projects worldwide that received notices at the end of February that the US was terminating their funding after a review of aid spending.

The US has historically provided between $200m (£155m) and $250m a year in bilateral funding to poorer countries for their work on TB, the World Health Organization said last week, warning that “abrupt funding cuts” would “cripple TB prevention and treatment efforts, reverse decades of progress, and endanger millions of lives”.

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Source: The Independent, 10 March 2025

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Doctors didn't warn women of 'risky sex' drug urges

Patients prescribed drugs for movement disorders - including restless leg syndrome (RLS) - say doctors did not warn them about serious side effects that led them to seek out risky sexual behaviour.

Twenty women have told the BBC that the drugs - given to them for RLS, which causes an irresistible urge to move - ruined their lives.

A report by drugs firm GSK - seen by the BBC - shows it learned in 2003 of a link between the medicines, known as dopamine agonist drugs, and what it described as "deviant" sexual behaviour. It cited a case of a man who had sexually assaulted a child while taking the drug for Parkinson's.

While there is no explicit reference to this side effect in patient leaflets, the UK medicines regulator told us there was a general warning, external about increased libido and harmful behaviour. GSK says a risk of "altered" sexual interest is also referred to in the leaflets.

Some of the women who described being drawn to risky sexual behaviour told us they had no idea of what was causing it. Others said they felt compelled to gamble or shop with no history of such activities. One accumulated debts of more than £150,000.

In a statement, GSK told the BBC Ropinirole had been prescribed for more than 17 million treatments and undergone "extensive clinical trials". It added the drug had proven to be effective and had a "well-characterised safety profile".

"As with all medicines, [it] has potential side effects and these are clearly stated in the prescribing information," it said.

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said that while a specific reference to "deviant" sexual behaviour is not included in warnings, such impulses vary and a general warning about activities which may be harmful is included.

It also said that it is important for healthcare professionals to explain the possible risk to patients and not all experience these types of side effects.

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Source: BBC News, 11 March 2025

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US CDC plans study into vaccines and autism, sources say

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, despite extensive scientific research that has disproven or failed to find evidence of such links.

The CDC's move comes amid one of the largest measles outbreaks the U.S. has seen in the past decade, with more than 200 cases and two deaths in Texas and New Mexico. The outbreak has been fueled by declining vaccination rates in parts of the United States where parents have been falsely persuaded that such shots do more harm than good.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, whose role includes authority over the CDC, has long sowed doubt over the safety of the combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). In a cabinet meeting last week, Kennedy initially downplayed news that a school-aged child had died of measles in Texas, the first such death in a decade, calling such outbreaks ordinary and failing to mention the role of vaccination to prevent measles.

Last weekend Kennedy published an opinion piece on Fox News that promoted the role of vaccination, but also told parents vaccination was a personal choice and urged them to consult with their physician.

HHS and CDC cited what they described as skyrocketing autism rates in a joint statement on Friday.

"CDC will leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening," the statement said. "The American people expect high quality research and transparency and that is what CDC is delivering."

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Source: Reuters, 7 March 2025

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NHS England to cut workforce by half as Streeting restructures

NHS England will lose half its staff and a huge swathe of its senior management team as part of a brutal restructuring under its new boss.

Its workforce will shrink from 13,000 to about 6,500 as entire teams are axed to save money and avoid “duplication” with officials at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

NHS England staff said they were “in shock and awe” at the scale of the job cuts, which go far beyond the loss of 2,000 posts to save £175m announced just weeks ago.

The DHSC will also become smaller as a result of a process that will see it working much more closely from April with NHS England, though it will shed far fewer staff than the latter. The changes will give Wes Streeting, the health secretary, far more control over the organisation that is responsible for the operational performance of the health service in England.

“These changes represent the biggest reshaping of the NHS’s national architecture in more than a decade,” said Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents NHS trusts in England.

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Source: The Guardian, 10 March 2025

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Drug shortages putting patients at risk, pharmacists warn

Patients are being put at risk of serious illness as pharmacists are unable to dispense vital medications due to drug shortages, industry leaders have warned.

At least once a day drug supply problems mean pharmacies are unable to dispense a prescription, according to a survey of 500 pharmacies by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).

Currently if a prescription is out of stock, patients need to go back to their GP to get an alternative medication. But this can delay care and increase the risk of serious illness.

That’s because the pharmacist is not permitted to make a substitution even if they have a safe alternative in stock, this is except in very limited circumstances where a Serious Shortage Protocol has been issued by the NHS.

The NPA, which represents 6,000 independent community pharmacies, is calling on the government to grant greater flexibility for pharmacists to substitute medication or strength of a drug when it is safe to do so.

The NPA says it is “madness” to send someone back to the GP and warned the current situation poses a risk to patient safety. It said it could lead to patients potentially going without vital medication, such as some types of antibiotics, presenting a serious risk to their health.

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Source: The Independent, 10 March 2025

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