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Man dies at hospital after wrongly being fed jelly

An elderly man with swallowing difficulties died in hospital after he was wrongly fed jelly and choked.

Milton Keynes Coroner's Court heard that Edward Cassin, 67 should not have been given jelly as it turns to liquid in the mouth and causes choking with people with dysphagia.

Because of his dysphagia he was on a modified diet and required supervision when eating to mitigate the risk of choking.

Despite this, there was evidence he was repeatedly fed jelly - highlighted as a food he should not be given - through his stay in hospital.

He was not properly supervised and he aspirated.

He died four days later in Milton Keynes University Hospital on 28 June 2023 as he was waiting to be discharged to a new care home.

The trust said it had "made meaningful changes to policy and practice to prevent similar incidences happening in the future".

Assistant Coroner Sean Cummings recorded his medical cause of death as aspiration pneumonia, chronic dysphagia and type 2 diabetes.

He concluded his death was contributed to by neglect and if he had been treated for the developing aspiration pneumonia he would likely not have died at the time he did.

Caron Heyes, a director at Fieldfisher representing Eddie's family, said: "We were shocked that eight years after Public Health England issued clear guidelines about the dangers of feeding inpatients with dysphagia and learning disability, they are still not recognised in a major hospital."

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Source: BBC News, 20 February 2025

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NHSE steps up intervention over cancer delays

Two additional trusts have been placed in NHS England’s highest level of oversight for their performance on cancer and diagnostics.

West Suffolk Foundation Trust and University Hospitals Leicester (UHL) Foundation Trust have been moved into tier one of NHSE’s tiering frameworks on cancer and diagnostics.

The national body’s quarter four update, seen by HSJ, also shows:

  • A total of 17 trusts, some of the country’s biggest providers among them, are now in tier one for their performance on either cancer, diagnostics or electives.
  • Five trusts are in tier one for all three: Mid and South Essex; Norwich and Norfolk; Shrewsbury and Telford; Sheffield Teaching Hospitals; and University Hospitals Sussex.
  • Leeds Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, a major cancer centre, has been moved to tier two for its cancer performance. It was previously in tier one for cancer and electives.

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Source: HSJ, 20 February 2025

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England’s top doctors launch review to make postgraduate medical training ‘best in the world’

Two of England’s leading doctors are to oversee a significant review into postgraduate training for newly qualified medics.

National Medical Director Professor Sir Stephen Powis and Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty will lead the review as part of work to address concerns raised by resident doctors (previously known as junior doctors).

The review will be based on feedback from current resident doctors and students, locally employed doctors and medical educators, with a series of engagement events around the country starting from this month.

The review will cover placement options, the flexibility of training, difficulties with rotas, control and autonomy in training, and the balance between developing specialist knowledge and gaining a broad range of skills.

The national listening events in February and March will be followed by a call for evidence in the spring to ensure the widest possible range of views, experiences and ideas are captured. A report on the review’s findings is due to be published in the summer.

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Source: NHS England, 19 February 2025

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An invisible medical shortage: Oxygen

Oxygen is vital to many medical procedures. But a safe, affordable supply is severely lacking around the world, according to a new report.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people in poor nations died literally gasping for breath, even in hospitals. What they lacked was medical oxygen, which is in short supply in much of the world.

On Monday, a panel of experts published a comprehensive report on the shortage. Each year, the report noted, more than 370 million people worldwide need oxygen as part of their medical care, but fewer than 1 in 3 receive it, jeopardising the health and lives of those who do not. Access to safe and affordable medical oxygen is especially limited in low- and middle-income nations.

“The need is very urgent,” said Dr. Hamish Graham, a pediatrician and a lead author of the report. “We know that there’s more epidemics coming, and there’ll be another pandemic, probably like Covid, within the next 15 to 20 years.”

The report, published in The Lancet Global Health, comes just weeks after the Trump administration froze foreign aid programmes, including some that could improve access to oxygen.

Boosting the availability of medical oxygen would require an investment of about $6.8 billion, the report noted. “Within the current climate, that’s obviously going to become a bit more of a challenge,” said Carina King, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institute and a lead author of the report.

“We’re not pitting oxygen against other priorities, but rather that it should be embedded within all of those programs and within those priorities,” Dr. King said. “It’s completely fundamental to a functioning health system.”

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Source: The New York Times, 17 February 2025

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USA: Trump casts psychiatric and weight-loss drugs as threats to children

President Donald Trump has instructed his administration to scrutinize the “threat” to children posed by antidepressants, stimulants and other common psychiatric drugs, targeting medication taken by millions in his latest challenge to long-standing medical practices.

The directive came in an executive order Thursday that established a “Make America Healthy Again” commission led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has criticized the use of those drugs and issued false claims about them.

The order said the commission should prepare a “Make Our Children Healthy Again” assessment within 100 days that examines “the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs.” The directive comes as children and teens endure a mental health crisis exacerbated by the covid pandemic.

The medication review joins a slew of Trump administration policies upending the government’s approach to health, many of which are embroiled in legal challenges. They include attempts to remove vaccine information from health agency websites, to ban gender transition care for children and to cut billions in biomedical research funding.

Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the order follows concerns about doctors overprescribing the drugs and harming Americans of all ages. The president called for a review of prescription practices and use of the drugs to determine whether the government should offer new guidance on the medication.

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Source: The Washington Post, 18 February 2025

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MP claims Yorkshire NHS Trust's leadership has 'gone rogue' in letter to Health Secretary

The leadership of a Yorkshire NHS trust have “gone rogue” with governance “in free fall”, a city MP has alleged in a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting.

Bradford West MP Naz Shah, in a letter published in full on X to her 65,000 followers, has raised concerns about the running of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and called for the removal of chair Sarah Jones.

It comes after NHS England took enforcement action against the trust last summer following concerns raised by former chair Max Mclean, who resigned in October 2023 and is now pursuing a whistleblowing claim.

Reports said that since his resignation “there has been a subsequent deterioration in relationships between members of the board, including in relation to culture and behaviour, made by some members against others [which]... give rise to significant concerns as to how the board is operating”. It also warned the trust was on course to record a £14m financial deficit this year.

In her letter to Mr Streeting and NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard, Ms Shah said she has been raising “serious concerns” about the trust for 15 months and claimed there has been a “witch hunt” against governors who have raised concerns, with attempts to oust them.

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Source: The Yorkshire Post, 17 February 2025

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Cancer patients not getting right treatment, say doctors

Senior doctors responsible for monitoring cancer care in England and Wales are concerned failings in NHS services are contributing to up to half of patients not getting the right treatment for some cancers.

In evidence provided to the BBC, the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre (NatCan), external highlighted particular problems with prostate, kidney and colon cancers.

The expert group said it had found significant variation between hospitals and warned the problems accessing nationally-recommended treatments were putting lives at risk.

It carries out audits across nine major cancers - responsible for 80% of cases - and has found shortfalls across a range of different cancer types and stages.

Figures shared with the BBC show:

  • 30% of patients with high-risk prostate cancer do not get curative treatment with either surgery or radiotherapy, with performance varying between 20% and 43% across different services.
  • 34% of stage three colon cancer cases do not get chemotherapy within three months of surgery – at some hospitals the numbers exceed 60%.
  • 50% of stage four renal cell carcinoma patients, a type of kidney cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, do not get drug treatment – with performance varying between 20% and 85%.

NatCan said while a minority of patients would be choosing not to have treatment themselves and others may not be well enough, that could not fully explain the scale of the shortfall or variation between hospitals.

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Source: BBC News, 19 February 2025

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Life expectancy growth stalls across Europe as England sees sharpest decline, say researchers

Life expectancy improvement is stalling across Europe with England experiencing the biggest slowdown. Experts are blaming this on an alarming mix of poor diet, mass inactivity and soaring obesity.

The average annual growth in life expectancy across the continent fell from 0.23 years between 1990 and 2011 to 0.15 years between 2011 and 2019, according to research published in the Lancet Public Health journal. Of the 20 countries studied, every one apart from Norway saw life expectancy growth fall.

England suffered the largest decline in life expectancy improvement, with a fall in average annual improvement of 0.18 years, from 0.25 between 1990 and 2011 to 0.07 between 2011 and 2019.

The second slowdown of life expectancy growth in Europe was in Northern Ireland (reducing by 0.16 years), followed by Wales and Scotland (both falling by 0.15 years).

Sarah Price, NHS England’s director of public health, said: “This important study reinforces that prevention is the cornerstone of a healthier society, and is exactly why it will be such a key part of the 10-year health plan which we are working with [the] government on.

“The slowdown in life expectancy improvements, particularly due to cardiovascular disease and cancer, highlights the urgent need for stronger action on the root causes – poor diet, physical inactivity, and obesity.”

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Source: The Guardian, 18 February 2025

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“Life-changing” services marks milestone of care

A mum-of-four has praised a hospital-at-home service – hailing it as a “life changing miracle” for her family.

Maria Hicklin, whose two young sons Roman, aged seven, and Ricco, aged two, have both battled respiratory conditions, knows firsthand the benefits of the Paediatric Virtual Ward delivered at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.

The service has treated over 2,000 children with 143 of these being via direct access to the virtual ward, effectively saving 3,800 bed days and making a cost saving of over £1.7 million.

Maria, from Oldbury, explained how it has helped her two boys: “The virtual ward service has transformed our experience and saved us money. We’ve had minimal hospital admissions and the medical team provides home visits, monitoring equipment, and offers continuous support.

“They’ve even helped build my confidence in administering medication. The team comes out within an hour if we need help, and they know the boys by name. Roman and Ricco are now comfortable and less anxious about their medical conditions.

“It’s a stark change from previous winters. Every cold and flu season, we were constantly rushing to A&E. It was destroying our family. 

“Roman is also autistic, and this made hospital visits even more traumatic. He wouldn’t eat hospital food, and the constant needles and medical procedures were overwhelming for him.”

NHS England introduced virtual wards to allow patients to get hospital-level care at home safely and in familiar surroundings, helping speed up their recovery while freeing up hospital beds for patients that need them most.

Dr Maria Atkinson, Consultant Paediatrician, said: “Our virtual ward allows us to provide acute medical care directly in patients’ homes, reducing the stress of hospital admissions and keeping families together during challenging medical periods.

“Roman has had a particularly challenging medical journey, having first contracted COVID-19 and then developed severe asthma and pneumonia, leading to repeated hospital visits. His younger brother Ricco suffers from viral-induced wheeziness, which added to the family’s medical challenges.

“This isn’t just about saving money. We’re providing personalised, compassionate care that keeps children in their home environment through admission avoidance, and by facilitating a reduced length of hospital stay this can support the entire family.”

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Source: NHS Sandwell and West Birmingham, 6 February 2025

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USA: Trump’s firings strike the nation’s health agencies

The United State's health agencies were upended over the weekend by a confusing, slow-motion rollout of terminations that left staff worried about the future of various projects, including those to improve maternal health, discover new cancer treatments and provide help for 9/11 responders.

Several thousand probationary employees across the Department of Health and Human Services were notified they would be terminated after four weeks of leave — fired in what some are calling a “Valentine’s Day massacre.” The termination notices, which arrived over the weekend, capped a chaotic week of speculation about when the cuts would come and who would be affected.

The terminations had a swift impact. The Food and Drug Administration’s top food official resigned Monday, citing the “indiscriminate firing” of 89 staff members from the agency’s food program and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rhetoric toward staff.

Overall, several thousand people from the more than 80,000 workers employed at HHS agencies were told they were terminated. All were probationary, meaning they had just a year or two on the job or had recently been promoted. Many worked on issues critical to consumers, such as improving health care, regulating food packaging or responding to infectious-disease outbreaks.

In interviews, they described a bewildering process that often required them to inform their own bosses they had been terminated.

The cuts swept across health agencies such as an emergency preparedness office, the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and more. Patient advocacy groups — as well as current and former employees — expressed deep alarm over the cuts.

“The cumulative effects of threatened cuts to federal health research funding and forced departures at our nation’s premier health agencies will put our global leadership and our nation’s health at risk,” a coalition of patient groups, including the Friends of Cancer Research and the American Diabetes Association, wrote in a joint statement.

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Source: The Washington Post, 18 February 2025

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USA: Why states are tackling physicians’ concerns about mental health treatment

Medical doctors face higher rates of burnout and depression than the general population and are twice as likely to die by suicide. The risks were magnified at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, but the problem existed long before that.

More than 40% of physicians, medical school students and residents cite fear of disclosure requirements on licensure forms as a main reason they don’t seek mental health care, according to the American Medical Association (AMA), which has been pushing for legislative and regulatory changes.

More states and health systems are amending licensure and credentialing forms to remove mental-health-related questions, such as asking about whether a doctor sought mental health care or treatment, or received a mental health diagnosis. Others have codified such changes into state law.

The rationale for asking about mental health was to ensure patient safety. The AMA says safety can be addressed with general language that asks whether a physician is suffering from any impairment that could interfere with patient care.

“Having any past diagnosis of a mental health need or a substance use problem is often not relevant,” said AMA President Jesse Ehrenfeld. “The key inquiry ought to be whether the impairment represents a current concern for safety and the physician’s ability to provide competent professional care.”

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Source: The Washington Post, 18 February 2025

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Almost 1 in 10 may have Long Covid, research finds

Almost one in 10 people in England think they could have long Covid, according to analysis of national data.

University of Southampton researchers examined information collected by NHS England that showed 4.8% of people reported having the condition.

The analysis of more than 750,000 responses to the GP Patient Survey also found that 9.1% of people believe they may have long Covid.

Long Covid is a chronic condition induced by Covid-19 infection, with symptoms including fatigue, feeling short of breath, brain fog, and heart palpitations.

The information also shows higher rates of long Covid in deprived areas and people with particular ethnic backgrounds, parents, carers and those with another long-term condition.

Professor Nisreen Alwan, who co-authored the study, said the analysis "adds further evidence of the unfairness of long Covid", with people who are "already disadvantaged in society more likely to be affected".

"It also shows us that many people aren't sure if they have it, and may need diagnosis, treatment and support."

He said the condition was "still a very significant issue impacting individuals, families, the economy and wider society".

"We need to do more to prevent it, diagnose it, and properly support people who are affected by it," he added.

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Source: BBC News, 18 March 2025

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Mum's 20-year fight for epilepsy drug compensation

"Who will look after our children when we're no longer here? At the moment that's nobody."

Catherine Cox, from Keyworth in Nottinghamshire, was one of thousands of women who took the epilepsy drug, sodium valproate, while pregnant, something which is now advised against.

Her son Matthew, now 23, was born with a range of conditions, including autism, ADHD, epilepsy and several learning disabilities.

At the age of 18 months, he was diagnosed with foetal valproate syndrome, indicating the medication his mother took was the cause of his problems. Mrs Cox has been campaigning for compensation ever since.

It is thought thousands of children in the UK have been left with disabilities caused by valproate since the 1970s.

Before undergoing fertility treatment, Mrs Cox was advised it was "fine" to continue taking valproate.

"To then find out that the medication that you have taken in good faith has caused the problems your child will carry for the whole of their life is an awful thing," she told the BBC.

Mrs Cox told the BBC she had grown weary of a lack of action from successive governments.

In February 2024, a report by the Patient Safety Commissioner, Henrietta Hughes, said there was a "clear" and "urgent" need to compensate those harmed by valproate, both financially and otherwise.

More than a year has since passed, and the government is still working on a response.

Mrs Cox said: "We have pulled various governments over time kicking and screaming to this point where they have acknowledged that the difficulties for up to 20,000 children were caused by this drug.

"As we go on, what we need is something to make up for their loss of potential."

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Source: BBC News, 17 February 2025

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'There could be no NHS dentists in two years'

A dentist says he feels "strangled" by NHS contracts and believes NHS dentists may not exist in two years' time.

Dr Harj Singhrao, who has a practice in Newbridge, Caerphilly, said money was allocated on a "one size fits all basis" meaning in high need areas like his, he had to lose money in order to provide good care.

It comes as the British Dental Association (BDA) Cymru published an open letter accusing the Welsh government of "peddling half- truths", adding more practices were looking to hand NHS contracts back.

The Welsh government said: "We are working to ensure the NHS dental contract is fairer for patients and to the dental profession."

Dentists who want to treat NHS patients sign a contract with the Welsh government, which then gives them money per patient under the condition of certain targets, such as seeing a certain number of new patients.

If these targets are not met, dentists may have to pay some money back as a penalty.

Dr Singhrao is the principal dentist at Newbridge Dental Care and had to pay £50,000 back to the Welsh government.

He said this was because he took on too many new NHS patients, but had to close a position at his practice as a result.

He said the formula of treating every patient across Wales equally "does not work".

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Source: BBC News, 17 February 2025

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‘Fix poverty, fix health’: A day in the life of a ‘failing’ NHS

A GP surgery in one of the most deprived areas in the north-east of England is struggling to provide care for its patients as the health system crumbles around them.

In the depths of the winter flu season, the Guardian video producers Maeve Shearlaw and Adam Sich went to Bridges medical practice to shadow the lead GP, Paul Evans, as he worked all hours keep his surgery afloat.

Juggling technical challenges, long waiting lists and the profound impact austerity has had on the health of the population, Evans says: 'We are seeing the system fail'.

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Source: The Guardian, 18 February 2025

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NHS England launches first advertising drive to boost breast cancer screenings

Women in England will be encouraged to attend potentially life-saving screenings for breast cancer in TV, radio and online adverts as part of the first NHS awareness campaign for the disease.

Women in the UK are invited for their first routine mammogram between the ages of 50 and 53, with further invitations arriving every three years until they reach 71, after which they can request screening.

It is estimated that the programme – which is aimed at people without symptoms – prevents 1,300 deaths each year in the UK, and figures suggest it picked up cancers in 18,942 women across England last year alone. Without screening, the NHS says, such cancers may not have been diagnosed or treated until a later stage.

While breast screening levels in England are rising, they remain lower than before the pandemic, with data from NHS England released in October revealing uptake was 64.6% in 2022-23, compared with 71.1% in 2018-19. Among those invited for the first time, the most recent figure was just 53.7%.

Now NHS England is attempting to increase attendance through a campaign supported by charities including Breast Cancer Now and Cancer Research UK, with celebrities, TV doctors, NHS staff and cancer survivors sharing open letters to women.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 February 2025

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NHSE launches £37bn framework for ‘new hospitals’

NHS England has launched a £37bn framework for the largest hospital-building drive in decades, in a bid to bolster market capacity.

It is hoped this will address concerns over a lack of construction market capacity that has been considered a potential threat to the programme.

The agreement is for major capital works in the New Hospital Programme, which has faced significant delays since being set up to deliver 40 projects by 2030.

The government claimed the original Conservative plan was unrealistic and further shifted timelines last month –  with nearly half now starting construction after that date.

NHSE said the Hospital 2.0 framework agreement would cover hospital building, refurbishment and ancillary works – including design – for schemes.

The contract notice said: “NHSE is seeking expressions of interest from suppliers with suitable major project experience, capacity and the capability to deliver complex hospital build and refurbishment construction works.”

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Source: HSJ, 17 February 2025

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Deaf TikTok star who took poison ‘failed’ by NHS services, inquest hears

A TikTok star who died after consuming a poisonous substance she bought online told an NHS support worker about the purchase a month before her death, an inquest has heard.

Imogen Nunn took a poisonous substance and died in Brighton, East Sussex, on New Year’s Day 2023. The 25-year-old, who was deaf, raised awareness of hearing and mental health issues on her social media accounts, which gained more than 780,000 followers.

On Monday, an inquest into her death in Horsham heard that Nunn was “failed” by services that were meant to help her, according to a statement by her mother, Louise Sutherland.

The inquest was told that Nunn, who was called “Immy” by loved ones, had contacted her support worker at the deaf adult community team (DACT) at South West London and St George’s NHS trust on 23 November 2022, and told them she had “bought something online that she planned to take to end her life”.

She also made reference to a “pro-choice suicide forum”, the court heard.

In the statement read to the inquest, Thomas Beamont, representing Sutherland and Nunn’s father, Ray, said: “Ray and I believe that Immy felt hopeless and let down by the time of her death, and that she was failed.

“Immy didn’t want to die, but she was exhausted from fighting desperately for the help she needed.”

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Source: The Guardian, 17 March 2025

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The Coventry experiment: why were Indian women in Britain given radioactive food without their consent?

In 2019, Shahnaz Akhter, a postdoctoral researcher at Warwick University, was chatting to her sister, who mentioned a documentary that had aired on Channel 4 in the mid-1990s. It was about human radiation experiments, including one that had taken place in 1969 in Coventry. As part of an experiment on iron absorption, 21 Indian women had been fed chapatis baked with radioactive isotopes, apparently without their consent.

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Source: Guardian, 11 February 2025

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Former chair takes trust to tribunal over whistleblowing claim

The former chair of Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust is taking the trust to an employment tribunal after claiming he was unfairly dismissed for raising concerns about investigations into preventable baby deaths.

Max Mclean, a former police detective, left BTH in October 2023 following an “irretrievable breakdown” in his relationship with CEO Mel Pickup after he raised concerns about neonatal incidents in 2021.

The incidents resulted in two newborn baby deaths and another baby being born with a permanent disability.

Mr Mclean, who joined the trust in 2019, said he was forced to choose between immediate resignation or dismissal by an “unlawfully constituted board” after raising concerns to Ms Pickup and NHS regulators.

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Source: Health Service Journal, 11 February 2025

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Pledge of two million extra NHS appointments met, PM says

The government has met a key election pledge to deliver two million extra NHS appointments in England in its first year, the prime minister has said.

The target was achieved between July and November last year, when there were almost 2.2 million more elective care appointments compared to the same period in 2023, the government said.

That period was affected by doctor strikes, however, which would have suppressed the number of available appointments.

Sir Keir Starmer said the "milestone is a shot in the arm for our plan to get the NHS back on its feet and cut waiting times", while NHS England chief Amanda Pritchard said there was "much more to do to slash waiting times for patients".

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Source: BBC News, 16 February 2025

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NHS faces £5.7bn bill for patching up hospitals before demolishing them

The repairs bill at 18 crumbling hospitals is set to soar to £5.7bn because replacing them will take so long, new analysis shows. 

Reconstruction of 18 of the 40 new hospitals in England first promised by Boris Johnson in 2019 will not start until at least 2030 – the date by which all 40 were originally meant to open – to help spread the cost, amid stretched public finances.

NHS trust bosses have warned that some of the 18 hospitals hit by the delays, such as St Mary’s in London, will collapse before work starts because they are already in such an advanced state of disrepair.

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Source: Guardian, 16 February 2025

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NHS hires diversity staff on double the salary of junior doctors

NHS trusts are hiring equality and diversity staff on twice the salary of a junior doctor as the health secretary attacked “misguided” agendas, The Times can reveal.

Wes Streeting said that “ideological hobby horses need to go” after stating that one NHS staff member had boasted of holding an “anti-whiteness” stance.

There have been a slew of recent job postings offering roles in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) at salaries that exceed specialist junior doctors.

They include an NHS England EDI secondment position covering the southwest of England offering a pro rata salary of £122,000 per year, and a head of EDI role at a London trust with a salary of £91,336.

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Source: The Times, 15 February 2025

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Our newborn died due to NHS errors — we were treated with contempt

For the past three years, Ryan Parker and Emmie Studencki should have been watching their baby son Quinn grow up. He would be almost four now, preparing to start school in the autumn and playing with his sisters Ajla and Hazel.

Instead, the couple from Barrowby, Lincolnshire, have faced an “inhumane” battle with the NHS and its regulator to get justice for Quinn. He died in July 2021 from care so bad it has now been judged criminal.

Quinn died after being starved of oxygen because his mother suffered a placental abruption. In the preceding week, staff failed to give his parents crucial safety information and signs to look out for. Medical notes include reference to a suspicion of a placental abruption but they were not told this was the working diagnosis when his mother was sent home.

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Source: The Times, 16 February 2025

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Most NHS users in England affected by dysfunctional admin, report finds

Patients routinely have to chase up test results, receive appointment letters after their appointments and do not know when their treatment will occur because the NHS is so “dysfunctional”.

That is the conclusion of research by two major patients’ organisations and the King’s Fund, which lays bare a host of problems with the way the health service interacts with it users.

Sixty-four percent of people in England who used the NHS or arranged care for someone else over the last year encountered a problem involving its administration or communication.

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Source: Guardian, 17 February 2025

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