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Nearly one in five UK care workers feel unsafe while on shift, survey finds

Nearly one in five UK care workers feel unsafe while on shift, according to a new survey highlighting the array of pressures facing the frontline workforce.

The stark finding comes as part of a global survey published on the fifth anniversary of Covid being declared a global pandemic, amid warnings from the World Health Organization of a looming shortage of 11 million healthcare workers by 2030.

In the report from Uni Global Union, which surveyed more than 11,000 health and social care workers from 63 nations, with 2,132 in the UK including doctors, more than a third reported experiencing or witnessing violence or harassment at work at least monthly.

And in what the union described as a global staffing crisis, less than half of those surveyed worldwide believed their career to be sustainable until retirement age.

In the UK, where more than 700 care workers were polled, two-thirds said they were frequently too short-staffed to provide a high quality of care to patients, defined in the survey as “when the number of staff is too low compared to the needs of patients”. This included 33% who said this was “always” the case, while just 8% said they were “never” or “rarely” short-staffed.

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Source: The Independent, 10 March 2025

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Virtual ward cost similar to inpatient care, says contentious study’s author

The cost of discharging patients to virtual wards becomes “equitable” with inpatient care over time, analysis suggests – despite initial findings that it was much more expensive.

A research project conducted at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals in 2022 published its results last year, which found the cost of avoiding a bed day in hospital by discharging a patient to a virtual ward was £935 per day, compared to an average cost of £536 per day for keeping a patient in a general inpatient hospital bed.

But, the study’s lead author has now told HSJ that, following a second year of monitoring, the cost of step-down virtual ward care had decreased to be roughly the same as traditional inpatient care.

The initial study sparked significant debate, and was met with criticism from NHS England, which said the results were “misleading”, particularly due to its limited scope and time frame. 

Having evaluated WWL’s virtual ward provision again in 2023, Martin Farrier, director of digital medicine at WWL and lead author of the original paper, said the cost of step-down virtual ward care was “still significant” but now “equitable” with keeping a patient in a hospital bed.

Dr Farrier said the majority of the cost per patient was from staffing, and this had fallen significantly in year two.

He said: “In the first year, [staff] said they were flat out, but they weren’t flat out, they were just getting used to their system. They sped up with time, [so] the capacity of the system becomes much larger… [There’s] a mixture of things going on. But what you then get… is the costs come down and they become equitable with the cost of hospital care.”

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Source: HSJ, 10 March 2025

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Grieving dad says NHS not learning from mistakes

A dad whose son died following a series of hospital errors has warned the NHS is still failing to learn from its mistakes after an increase in serious patient safety incidents.

Fraser Morton's baby son, Lucas, was one of six "unnecessary" baby deaths at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock nearly a decade ago.

The scandal sparked a shake-up of how safety incidents are reviewed but concerns have been raised about the quality and effectiveness of these investigations.

More than 800 safety incidents were reported in the NHS last year - a 41% increase from 2020 - and health watchdogs are now revamping the reporting system to improve scrutiny.

The rise in reported Significant Adverse Event Reviews (SAERs), which include avoidable deaths, comes as the NHS has faced unprecedented pressure since the Covid pandemic.

Mr Morton said he'd seen little of the promised changes, such as the appointment of an independent patient safety commissioner, since the death of his son in 2015.

He said: "In 2016, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Scotland's healthcare system was marking their own homework when it came to reviews and investigations and we've not made any progress since then.

Mr Morton's son Lucas died after a series of failings, including not properly monitoring his heartbeat during childbirth, but the death was not investigated as an SAER.

Only after pressure from the family and a BBC investigation was a fuller review launched with NHS Ayrshire and Arran then admitting Lucas's death was "unnecessary" and issuing the family an "unreserved apology".

Mr Morton added: "It is the lack of independent scrutiny that concerns me.

"Mistakes will always happen, but the NHS is the only high- risk, high-consequence organisation or sector that doesn't have an external regulator, a truly independent regulator you [can] compare to say the rail, airline or nuclear industry."

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Source: BBC News, 7 March 2025

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Doctors who treat trans patients say threats worsened after Trump’s orders

Panic buttons, security cameras and active-shooter drills: Those are some of the ways doctors who treat transgender children have armed themselves when facing violent threats over the years. Now, they’re warning the president’s actions could make things more dangerous.

Even before President Donald Trump attempted to ban gender transition care nationwide for young people, protesters routinely demonstrated outside clinics that treat trans youths. Some carried signs with violent messages and the names of doctors who treat trans children. One entered a Seattle clinic with a weapon, according to court records.

Now doctors say threats of violence are rising — along with fears of legal action — in the wake of Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order that labeled gender transition care for minors a “dangerous trend” and “a stain on our Nation’s history.” Dozens of providers gave sworn affidavits as part of a lawsuit four states filed challenging the legality of Trump’s executive order.

Providers in those Democratic-led states remain so afraid, many agreed to file affidavits challenging the order only if they could do so anonymously. Washington’s state attorney general led the legal effort.

“I am scared, not just for myself, but for my family,” one Seattle-based physician and professor wrote in court documents. “It is a terrifying time to be a doctor providing gender-affirming care.”

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Source: Washington Post, 9 March 2025

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Republican Medicaid cuts could shutter rural hospitals, maternity care

Rural hospitals across the United States fear massive Medicaid cuts favored by the Republican Party could decimate maternity services or shutter already struggling medical facilities in communities that overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump.

Nearly half of all rural hospitals nationwide operate at a deficit, with Medicaid barely keeping them afloat. Already, almost 200 rural hospitals have closed in the past two decades, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rural hospital leaders in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas who spoke to The Washington Post warned that the enormous cuts congressional Republicans are weighing could further destroy limited health-care access in rural America. Proposals to slash up to $880 billion over 10 years — which is expected to be accomplished largely by scaling back on Medicaid — would also impact those who do not rely on the programme but do rely on the medical facilities that are financially dependent on the programme’s reimbursements.

Heart attack and stroke victims may lose crucial time being ferried by ambulance to big-city hospitals, healthcare experts say. Rural nursing homes may vanish, straining families in the poorest of regions. Those who are pregnant may have no choice but to drive long distances for prenatal checkups and to give birth.

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Source: Washington Post, 9 March 2025

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Cancer tests and virtual wards targeted for new cuts

Recently-opened cancer testing centres and virtual wards will be among the services cut back as the NHS seeks to eliminate a £6.6bn forecast deficit, senior leaders have told HSJ.

Plans also include restricting treatments, extending waiting times, de-funding the third sector, and significant job cuts for clinicians as well as managers.

HSJ asked NHS trust and commissioner CEOs and finance directors across the country what actions would be required in their organisation, after NHSE last week demanded they “get a grip” of deficits and “accelerate” decisions.

Cost-cutting measures being proposed or considered locally include:

  • Closing community diagnostic centres (CDCs), and cancelling plans for more CDCs. 
  • Closing or reducing the size of virtual wards, whose expansion since Covid-19 has been repeatedly declared as one of the most significant reforms to shift care out of hospital.
  • Cuts to schemes to carry out more elective work, including reducing out-of-hours “waiting list initiative” sessions and cancelling planned “elective hubs”. 
  • Cutting staff numbers, most often corporate and non-clinical, but in some areas extending to reductions to clinical staff.
  • Extending waiting times for planned operations and treatment, especially for procedures which currently have short waits, such as ophthalmology, which are often provided by the private sector. One CEO said it required “rationing of care” in these areas. There will be further delays and limiting of patients’ “right to choose” to use private services which diagnose autism and ADHD.

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Source: HSJ, 10 March 2025

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Speedy finger-prick tests to diagnose strokes trialled in Cambridgeshire

Ambulance crews in Cambridgeshire are piloting the use of finger-prick blood tests to diagnose the deadliest form of stroke, with preliminary data suggesting they may be up to twice as effective as relying on patients’ symptoms alone.

The tests, which work on a similar principle to the lateral flow tests (LFTs) used to detect Covid, are designed to rapidly identify whether someone suspected of having a stroke has suffered a large vessel occlusion (LVO), where a blood clot blocks a major artery in the brain.

Although LVOs account for about a third of strokes, they are responsible for 95% of disabilities and deaths. However, a patient’s chances of recovery are markedly improved if they undergo a thrombectomy procedure to manually remove the clot within hours of symptom onset.

The problem is that there are only 24 hospitals in the UK that can provide thrombectomy treatment, and LVO is difficult to diagnose without a brain scan because many other conditions show similar symptoms.

Unless a patient is lucky enough to live near a specialist centre, they will usually be assessed at a general hospital and then transferred. According to national audit data from 2022-23, it takes an average of three hours or more from arriving at a first hospital to arriving at a thrombectomy centre.

“Early identification of LVO strokes by ambulance clinicians could offer opportunities for fast-tracking patients to thrombectomy-capable hospitals, avoiding delays to care when taken to other non-specialist hospitals,” said Larissa Prothero, an advanced research paramedic at the East of England ambulance service NHS trust (EEAST), which is involved in the feasibility study.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 March 2025

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Inside the fight to improve outcomes for Black cancer sufferers

Getting tested for prostate cancer should’ve been easy for Paul Campbell. He wanted a check-up after seeing an advert on TV calling for men in their 40s to get thorough health checks.

He asked his GP but was immediately questioned about why he – a man who seemed otherwise healthy – would want a check-up.

“I had to fight my ground, I had to raise my voice. And eventually, I got the test,” Mr Campbell told The Independent. He was later diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer.

“Had I not been assertive and pushy, by the time I found out, it would have been stage 4.”

Mr Campbell is far from being alone in his experience. New research from the NHS Race and Health Observatory found “alarming levels” of discrimination towards patients from ethnic minorities and huge levels of mistrust in the NHS system.

The survey of 2,680 people found only 55% trusted primary care to meet their health needs most or all of the time, while a third of south Asian participants said they either rarely or never trusted primary care to meet their health needs.

On Friday, the NHS Race and Health Observatory roundtable brought together 20 key partners from local communities, the volunteer sector, the government and broader NHS to discuss the findings.

Professor Habib Naqvi, chief executive, NHS Race and Health Observatory, said: “We cannot have a two-tier NHS based upon patient ethnicity, background or circumstances. This report reflects the clear need to bring speed and urgency to reform the NHS, so that patients do not face discrimination and systemic barriers when seeking healthcare.”

These issues have a real impact on health outcomes.

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Source: The Independent, 9 March 2025

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Software bug at firm left NHS data 'vulnerable to hackers'

The NHS is "looking into" allegations that patient data was left vulnerable to hacking due to a software flaw at a private medical services company.

The flaw was found last November at Medefer, which handles 1,500 NHS patient referrals a month.

The software engineer who discovered the flaw believes the problem had existed for at least six years.

Medefer says there is no evidence the flaw had been in place that long and stressed that patient data has not been compromised.

The flaw was fixed a few days after being discovered.

In late February the company commissioned an external security agency to undertake a review of its data management systems.

An NHS spokesperson said: "We are looking into the concerns raised about Medefer and will take further action if appropriate."

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Source: BBC News, 10 March 2025

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Loved ones remembered on fifth anniversary of start of Covid

Former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen said that "a shadow passed over us" and recited a moving poem of Covid pandemic memories to mark the fifth anniversary since the outbreak of the deadly virus.

Emotional scenes played out across the UK on Sunday as the bereaved and their communities hosted hundreds of events to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the pandemic in a day of reflection.

Rosen, 78, was rushed to hospital with Covid and put into an induced coma in intensive care in March 2020.

Speaking at a memorial event in Staffordshire, the poet said "thanks to the expertise and care I received, I came through, but I look back over my shoulder and think of those who didn't".

The annual day is one of the recommendations set out by the UK Commission on Covid Commemoration, external.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: "As we mark five years since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, I know for many there is deep grief and loss that may never be relieved."

In London, sobbing could be heard as bereaved relatives, led by a Highland piper, joined well wishers to walk beside the National Covid Memorial Wall.

They passed 3,000 photographs of the faces of some of those who died, which represents just over 1% of the total death toll from Covid in the UK, organisers said.

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Source: BBC News, 8 March 2025

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Patients with Long Covid regain sense of smell and taste with pioneering surgery

Doctors in London have successfully restored a sense of smell and taste in patients who lost it due to long Covid with pioneering surgery that expands their nasal airways to kickstart their recovery.

Most patients diagnosed with Covid-19 recover fully. But the infectious disease can lead to serious long-term effects. About six in every 100 people who get Covid develop Long Covid, with millions of people affected globally, according to the World Health Organization.

Losing a sense of smell and taste are among more than 200 different symptoms reported by people with Long Covid.

Now surgeons at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) have cured a dozen patients, each of whom had suffered a profound loss of smell after a Covid infection. All had experienced the problem for more than two years and other treatments, such as smell training and corticosteroids, had failed.

In a study aiming to find new ways to resolve the issue, surgeons tried a technique called functional septorhinoplasty (fSRP), which is typically used to correct any deviation of the nasal septum, increasing the size of nasal passageways.

This boosts airflow into the olfactory region, at the roof of the nasal cavity, which controls smell. Doctors said the surgery enabled an increased amount of odorants – chemical compounds that have a smell – to reach the roof of the nose, where sense of smell is located.

They believe that increasing the delivery of odorants to this area “kickstarts” smell recovery in patients who have lost their sense of smell to Long Covid.

Prof Peter Andrews, a senior consultant surgeon in rhinology and facial plastic surgery who led the research, said surgery increased the airway by about 30%, so airflow also increased by about 30%.

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Source: The Guardian, 7 March 2025

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Inquiry into claims Nottingham victim records were accessed

A hospital trust is investigating reports staff may have "inappropriately" accessed the medical records of the three people killed in the Nottingham attacks.

Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, were stabbed to death by Valdo Calocane in the city in June 2023.

Dr Manjeet Shehmar, medical director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said the trust was investigating "concerns that members of staff may have inappropriately accessed the medical records" of the three victims.

She said the families had been informed of the investigation and would be updated.

"The families of Ian, Grace, and Barnaby have already had to endure much pain and heartache and I'm truly sorry that this will add further to their suffering," Dr Shehmar said.

"Through our investigation, we will find out what happened and will not hesitate to take action as necessary."

The claims of the medical records being accessed inappropriately were first reported by the Daily Mirror, external.

The newspaper quoted the victims' families as saying the alleged actions were "sickening" and "not just alleged data breaches but gross invasions of privacy and civil liberty".

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Source: BBC News, 6 March 2025

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Ministers delaying inquiry into treatment of migrant carers, RCN says

Ministers are dragging their heels on an investigation into the mistreatment of migrant carers, the country’s largest nursing union has said, as it continues to receive complaints about low pay, substandard accommodation and illegal fees.

Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, has written to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, to urge her to speed up her promised investigation into the abuse of foreign care workers.

Despite the government’s promises to clamp down on abusive practices by rogue employers and agencies, the RCN says it continues to receive more than 100 calls a year from nurses who say they are being mistreated.

Ranger said in her letter: “The RCN is deeply concerned by reports of exploitative workplace practices that many international educated nursing staff in the care sector face. Our members report a range of issues from long working hours, excessive repayment fees to exit contracts, substandard and crowded accommodation, and illegal work finding fees.”

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Source: The Guardian, 7 March 2025

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Worst trusts for food, cleanliness and privacy revealed

The best and worst trusts for food, cleanliness and privacy – as judged by patients and staff – have been revealed.

Whittington Health Trust has been named among the worst five acute trusts on all the above measures, in the latest national assessment of care environments.

Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust was the only mental health trust in the bottom five on all these counts. 

NHS England published the results of a patient-led assessment of the care environment (PLACE) last month. A team of patients and staff judged the scores on non-clinical aspects of the trust environment.

A Whittington Health spokesman said it had a wide-ranging plan for improvements, including refurbishments and enhanced catering. 

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Source: HSJ, 6 March 2025

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Woman secretly filmed her mum being abused in care home

A woman secretly filmed her mother's mistreatment in a care home after concerns she raised about her care were ignored.

Nicola Hughes, who is a registered nurse, hid a covert camera in a radio in her mother's bedroom at Barrogil House in Fife.

The footage revealed staff roughly handling Janette Ritchie and shouting at her. One carer was filmed holding bedclothes over her head and saying "Rest in Peace".

Five people were dismissed last year after the care home was made aware of the footage.

However, the family continued to have concerns about standards, which they raised with the Care Inspectorate – and it has now upheld four complaints against the home.

"Making a decision to put cameras into someone's room is nerve-wracking because you're frightened - frightened of consequences for me, for my mum. You're frightened about what you're going to find on these cameras," Nicola said.

"What I discovered was absolutely heartbreaking.

"My mum was getting left overnight without any welfare checks being completed. Unfortunately, my mum's incontinent so she was left lying in her own urine.

"Staff verbally abusing her, emotionally abusing her - telling her that she's stinking, telling her that she's stupid. Using my name against her."

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Source: BBC News, 4 March 2025

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‘I was devastated’: MP hopes her story will help improve maternity care for disabled women

When doctors tried to work out whether Marie Tidball would need a specially designed birth plan, one asked her to lie fully clothed on the bed and spread her legs in the air so they could see how far they could open.

The incident was one of several occasions when Tidball, now a Labour MP, felt neglected during her pregnancy and early motherhood because of the NHS’s failure to adapt on account of her physical disabilities. Tidball has physical impairments affecting all four of her limbs and had major surgeries on both her hips and legs as a child.

She is speaking publicly about her experiences for the first time to highlight a report showing that disabled mothers and their children have significantly worse neonatal and postnatal NHS care than others.

Speaking about the doctor’s request to open her legs, Tidball told the Guardian: “I was shocked, really, that that was their approach, rather than actually looking properly at some of my medical history and the notes around my hips.

“They didn’t think about how that orthopaedic surgery might interact with birth, but also [about] carrying the baby and the way the baby was lying in uterus. They just hadn’t really thought those intersections through.”

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Source: The Guardian, 5 March 2025

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NHSE names critical care doctor as interim national director of patient safety

An interim national director of patient safety has been appointed, after the permanent postholder was seconded to the Care Quality Commission.

Professor Ramani Moonesinghe will replace Aidan Fowler, who is to be the CQC’s interim chief inspector of healthcare. His secondment is expected to last six months and will be full time.

Professor Moonesinghe has been NHSE’s clinical director for critical and perioperative care since 2020. She played a key part in the pandemic, leading on the NHS’s critical care response.

She works as a consultant in anaesthetics, perioperative and critical care medicine at University College Hospitals London Foundation Trust and is a professor of perioperative medicine at University College London, where she leads on a patient safety research collaborative. She is also head of the Centre for Perioperative Medicine and the Research Department for Targeted Interventions at UCL.

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Source: HSJ, 6 March 2025

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Social care delays take 6% off A&E performance, NHSE estimates

NHS England has for the first time put a figure on the potential impact on A&E performance of eliminating discharge delays for patients going into adult social care packages.

Amanda Pritchard told MPs NHSE’s analysis suggested eliminating discharge delays for patients who receive adult social care (ASC) packages when they leave hospital could “theoretically” improve the A&E four-hour target by 6 per cent points.

She said the figures suggest “around two-thirds of bed days lost to delayed discharges are associated with individuals accessing adult social care, community care and/or care home services on discharge. A third of these delays – around a fifth overall - are for individuals accessing adult social care packages on discharge.”

The outgoing NHSE CEO added: “Eliminating the lost bed days for just the third of delays for individuals accessing adult social care packages on discharge… if all other things were equal, including the rate of admissions and rate of flow through hospitals, theoretically… could potentially improve performance by up to 6 per cent.”

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Source: HSJ, 5 March 2025

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Mental health complainants fear reprisals

Mental health patients subjected to abuse on wards do not formally complain as they "do not want to expose themselves to any risk of revenge" from staff, academics say.

A study by Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, and the University of Hertfordshire, involving 21 patients and two carers, uncovered more than 750 incidents of violence and coercion by staff, few of which were reported.

The researchers suggested social workers should be present on wards, with staff also required to wear body cameras to protect patients.

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said staff committing acts of violence should be removed and prosecuted.

Claims of violence and coercion allegedly committed by staff included patients being physically restrained, verbally abused, being moved with force and being deliberately ignored.

Eight patients told researchers that one or two staff were responsible for abuse against them, while 18 said acts were witnessed by other patients or staff.

Only four official complaints were made, according to researchers, with just one upheld.

Mr Munt said: "The preoccupation for many patients is that they do not want to expose themselves to any risk of revenge."

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Source: BBC News, 6 March 2025

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Most areas cut eating-disorder help for under-18s

Most areas in England are planning cuts to specialist eating-disorder services for children and young people this year, an analysis shows.

Of the nation's 42 NHS integrated care boards, 24 are due to reduce spending for under-18s in 2024-25, once inflation is taken into account.

Overall spending is due to go up by 2.9%, with budgets rising in the other areas, but the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), which carried out the analysis, said this was too little to cope with increased in demand.

NHS England said improving care was "vital" and more action was being taken in the community to support young people before their condition became a crisis.

Spending had been increasing for a number of years but "more work needs to be done", an official added.

Veronika, 20, has been struggling with an eating disorder for five years.

"Shrugged off" by services in the past, she says cuts could be "catastrophic" for people like her.

"It will have a knock-on impact and people won't want to seek help even from their GP, even for physical-health monitoring," Veronika says.

"It will just spiral on and on.

"It is horrible living day in and day out with it.

"And if you are not seen quick enough, I know myself how quickly things can spiral in a matter of weeks or days.

"It is going to be tragic for some and just long and horrible for others".

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Source: BBC News, 5 March 2025

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Boots recalls paracetamol over labelling error

The UK High Street pharmacy chain Boots is asking customers to return packs of 500-milligram paracetamol tablets because a labelling error incorrectly states they are a different painkiller, aspirin.

More than 110,000 packs, with the batch number 241005 and expiry date "12/2029" on the bottom, are affected.

Customers can receive a full refund without a receipt.

Boots and the supplier, Aspar Pharmaceuticals Limited, have begun a full investigation.

The outer cardboard packaging is correctly labelled: "Paracetamol 500mg Tablets" but the inner foil blister pack of pills instead reads: "Aspirin 300mg Dispersable Tablets".

The affected packs should not be used or kept, even if the error is known, as this could lead to an incorrect dose.

Dr Stephanie Millican, from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said: "Patient safety is always our priority.

"It is vitally important that you check the packaging of your Boots Paracetamol 500mg Tablets 16s - and if the batch number is 241005, you should stop using the product and return it to a Boots store for a full refund.

"If you are unsure which pack you have purchased or have taken Boots Paracetamol 500mg Tablets and experienced any side effects, seek advice from a healthcare professional.

"Please report any suspected adverse reactions via the MHRA's Yellow Card scheme.

"If you have any questions or require further advice, please seek advice from your pharmacist or other relevant healthcare professional."

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Source: BBC News, 4 March 2025

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Warning over rapid at-home prostate tests

t-home tests for men worried about prostate cancer can give inconsistent and inaccurate results, BBC News has found.

The tests, which resemble a Covid lateral flow strip, turn positive if a high level of a protein called PSA is detected in a drop of blood.

Of five rapid tests analysed by the BBC, one did not work, three were negative or all-clear, but one returned a false positive result - all from the same blood sample.

Prostate Cancer UK said it had significant concerns about the sale of the tests given their "questionable accuracy" and the absence of a doctor to interpret the results.

There is no national prostate cancer screening programme in the UK, unlike for breast, bowel and cervical cancer.

Instead, the onus is on men to request a blood test from their GP once they are over 50 years old, external, or from 45 for higher risk groups.

That NHS test, which is processed in a laboratory, measures the level of PSA released by the prostate, a small gland involved in the production of semen.

A high PSA level does not mean you have cancer but is a warning sign which can then lead to further scans and tests to rule out the disease.

Dozens of companies now sell self-testing kits designed to measure PSA levels.

The UK medicines regulator, the MHRA, says in its guidance that over-the-counter PSA kits are "not a reliable indicator of prostate cancer" and must not "claim to detect cancer".

"As your experience shows, these rapid tests appear to have questionable accuracy," says Amy Rylance, assistant director of health improvement at Prostate Cancer UK.

"That's a big problem because they can falsely reassure people who really do have elevated levels of PSA and should seek further testing, or they can cause undue worry among people who are absolutely fine."

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Source: BBC News, 5 March 2025

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National Academies is altering pending reports to appease Trump administration, some members say

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine is scrubbing pending reports of words such as “health equity,” “marginalized populations,” and “restorative justice” and replacing them with vaguer terms in an effort to appease the Trump administration, according to a letter protesting the actions sent to the organisation’s leaders and obtained by STAT. 

The National Academies, or NASEM, are widely seen as the nation’s leading science organisation and to many, its conscience. The organisation has been responsible, over the past two decades, for creating and publishing some of the nation’s most seminal reports on health disparities, such as the 2003 report Unequal Treatment which unequivocally stated that racism within healthcare was one driver of the nation’s health disparities. 

The letter, signed by 100 of the academy’s members, said those signing the letter were “deeply disturbed” by the accommodations and said they understood the academy was “taking unilateral action to remove specific words or concepts from pending reports” and such “excessive anticipatory censoring” impacted the scientific rigor and integrity of the reports. Many NASEM reports are a year or more in the making and require the time and expertise of academy members, who are considered leaders in their fields. 

The letter specifically cited an upcoming report, “Blueprint for a National Prevention Infrastructure for Behavioral Health Disorders” that was scheduled to be released in early February but has not been released and said that authors had learned that staff have been instructed to replace words in the report including the term “health equity.” That replacement of certain words, the letter states, appears “designed to appease the current administration.”

Removing the term equity was particularly upsetting to the letter’s authors. “Equity is a core part of NAM’s mission. Our understanding is that staff are being told that these terms are being deleted because equity is not a matter of science. Yet that term alludes to a core value to which we in medicine and public health are deeply committed,” the letter read. Stripping the term, the letter said, “goes against our values as members, the published principles of NAM/NASEM, and decades of scientific work on health inequities,” it continued. 

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Source: STAT, 20 February 2025

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RFK Jr praises unconventional treatments but not vaccines in Fox interview about Texas measles outbreak

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised unconventional treatments, but didn’t mention vaccines, in an interview on Fox News about the expanding measles outbreak in West Texas.

In the prerecorded interview, Kennedy said that the federal government was sending vitamin A to the epicenter of the outbreak in Gaines County. He added that the government was also helping to arrange ambulance rides.

While officials from the health department have previously said that they were sending doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to the state, Kennedy, who has a history of vaccine-skeptic views, didn’t mention vaccination as an option during an interview.

Kennedy instead claimed that doctors in Texas had experienced “very, very, good results” by treating the disease using the steroid budesonide, the antibiotic clarithromycin, as well as cod liver oil, which the secretary said has high amounts of vitamins A and D.

The chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, Dr. Sean O’Leary noted when speaking to The New York Times that doctors sometimes use vitamins to treat children with measles, but added that cod liver oil is “by no means” a treatment based in evidence. He said he had never heard of a doctor using cod liver oil to treat the disease.

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Source: The Independent, 5 March 2025

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Nationwide roll out of AI tool that predicts falls and viruses

An AI tool is being rolled out across the NHS that can predict a patient’s risk of falling with 97% accuracy, preventing up to 2,000 falls and hospital admissions each day. 

The predictive tool, developed by Cera, is being used in more than two million patient home care visits a month, monitoring vital health signs such as blood pressure, heart rate and temperature, to predict signs of deterioration in advance so it can then alert healthcare staff.

It is in use across more than two-thirds of NHS integrated care systems and helps to provide care at home by flagging up to 5,000 high-risk alerts a day, reducing hospitalisations by up to 70%.

Dr Vin Diwakar, national director of transformation at NHS England, said: “This new tool now being used across the country shows how the NHS is harnessing the latest technology, including AI, to not only improve the care patients receive but also to boost efficiency across the NHS by cutting unnecessary admissions and freeing up beds ahead of next winter, helping hospitals to mitigate typical seasonal pressures.

“We know falls are the leading cause of hospital admissions in older people, causing untold suffering, affecting millions each year and costing the NHS around £2 billion, so this new software has the potential to be a real game-changer in the way we can predict, prevent and treat people in the community.

“This AI tool is a perfect example of how the NHS can use the latest tech to keep more patients safe at home and out of hospital, two cornerstones of the upcoming 10-year Health Plan that will see shifts from analogue to digital, and from hospital to community care.”

The software will also be used to detect the symptoms of winter illnesses like Covid, flu, RSV, and norovirus, allowing NHS and care teams to intervene before hospital care is needed.

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Source: Digital Health, 5 March 2025

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