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USA: Flu visits reach highest levels since 2009 pandemic

Outpatient visits have surged to their highest levels since the peak of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, with influenza-related emergency department visits remaining very high across the US.

Notably, flu-related outpatient vists are now at their highest point since 2009, with 7.8% of visits for inflenza in the week ending 1 February 2025.

Nineteen states reported high respiratory virus activity and thirteen states reported very high activity.

The CDC reported that flu test positivity has risen to 31.6%, while COVID-19 positivity decreased to 4.9% and RSV positivity decreased to 6.6%. 

Emergency department visits for influenza remained very high, while visits for Covid-19 were low and RSV-related visits were moderate. 

Vaccination coverage for both COVID-19 and influenza remained low, and RSV vaccine uptake is also notably low for both children and adults. 

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Source: Becker's Clinical Leadership, 11 February 2025

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More than 20 states sue Trump administration over ‘devastating’ funding cuts for medical research

Attorney generals from 22 states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday over significant cuts to grant funding for universities, medical centers, and other research institutions last week.

The cuts would be “devastating” to staff members and faculty — and could even “prove deadly,” the 59-page lawsuit claimed. The new cap takes effect on Monday.

“The reduction of federal funding to the UCs as set forth in the NIH Notice would be devastating for the UC system,” the states noted. The University of California School system is the world's leading public research university system and the state’s third largest employer.

“UW has long relied on being able to negotiate these rates for years, and has built out its research facilities and headcount accordingly — nothing could have prepared UW for a sudden and stinging rebuke of the federal government’s previous positions,” they said of the University of Washington. “The impacts would be devastating not only to the many staff members and faculty who would likely lose their livelihood, but could also prove deadly.”

“A cut this size is nothing short of catastrophic for countless Americans who depend on UC’s scientific advances to save lives and improve healthcare,” UC President Michael Drake said.

“The discovery of new treatments would slow, opportunities to train the next generation of scientific leaders would shrink, and our nation’s science and engineering prowess would be severely compromised,” Harvard University President Alan Garber wrote.

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Source: The Independent, 10 February 2025

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Why does no one want Scotland’s £90k patient safety job?

Applications have re-opened for a £90,000-a-year patient safety role after two previous attempts to fill the role were unsuccessful.

MSPs passed a law creating the post of Scotland's first ever Patient Safety Commissioner in September 2023.

But despite a hefty salary, they have been unable to fill the post.

The first round of interviews in April last year was unsuccessful with the cross party panel of MSPs turning down all of the candidates who were interviewed.

The second round in November saw them offer the job to one candidate but they turned it down.

The Commissioner’s role is to “advocate for the systematic improvement in the safety of health care and to promote the importance of the views of patients and other members of the public in relation to the safety of health care".

It was created in the wake of a UK Government commissioned review of the hormonal pregnancy test Primodos, Sodium Valproate in pregnancy and transvaginal surgical mesh.

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Source: The Herald, 10 February 2025

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Professor James Reason, CBE, 1938-2025

Last week James Reason passed away. James, a British psychologist, was a key figure in patient safety and in the study of human factors and aviation safety. James wrote many books on human factors and risk management and received a CBE in 2003 for his services in the reduction of the risks in healthcare.

Among his many contributions was the introduction of the Swiss cheese model in his 1990 book, 'Human Error';  a conceptual framework illustrating how human errors can lead to catastrophic incidents when multiple layers of defence in a complex socio-technical system fail.  James also described the first fully developed theory of a just culture in his 1997 book, 'Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents'. 

Read Steven Shorrock's fitting tribute to James Reason here.

Paying tribute to James, Helen Hughes, Patient Safety Learning's Chief Executive, said:

"James Reason was a giant among safety scientists, human factors experts and healthcare leaders. He was fiercely intelligent and hugely committed to sharing his insights and knowledge to make our lives safer. He gave his time and energy to many, researchers, students, clinicians, always with quirky tenacity and humour. The comments shared to Steven’s excellent testimony show how well Jim was respected and loved. He will be much missed."

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'They made me feel my baby's death was my fault'

The mother of a week-old baby girl who died said she was made to feel her daughter's death was her fault.

Sarah Robinson said that after the birth of her daughter Ida Lock at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary in 2019, she had been asked by staff if she had smoked.

Lifelong non-smoker Ms Robinson told an inquest at Lancashire Coroners Court that a midwife had asked her if she was "sure" she had never smoked, because her placenta looked "gritty and fatty".

But an independent investigation found there had been several problems during her delivery, and last year the hospital accepted there had been some failings.

In 2015, an independent review into maternity care at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust - which runs the Royal Lancaster Infirmary - found that 11 babies and one mother had died in preventable circumstance between 2004 and 2013.

The inquest heard Ms Lock had spent months questioning what she had done wrong following Ida's death.

After pushing the Lancaster Royal Infirmary for a full explanation about what had happened, the couple were offered a meeting on 27 December 2019.

They said they were ushered into a room off a ward, handed a number of medical records and left to go through them.

"The message from that meeting was that Ida was very poorly when she was born.

"I fell into a vicious circle, constantly questioning whether I was the reason that my daughter had died, and what had I missed," Ms Robinson said.

In the spring of 2020, the couple received the outcome of a Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) inquiry, which had found significant failings in Ida's delivery.

But an investigation the trust had completed – which the family were not involved in despite asking to be – found no failures, instead describing teamwork and record keeping as "outstanding".

The couple told the inquest they had to battle the trust to understand what had happened.

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Source: BBC News, 10 February 2025

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Nine in 10 women don’t know signs of heavy periods, research says

As few as one in ten women can pinpoint signs of heavy menstrual bleeding, as one of the UK’s top women’s health doctors says women and girls were “suffering in silence” from period problems, despite the availability of potential treatments.

Research by the charity Wellbeing of Women found that one in two women (51%) said their period negatively impacts their life, and the same proportion avoid exercise when on their period while nearly three in five (57%) experienced problems at work because of their period.

A Censuswide survey of 3000 people, commissioned by the charity, found that half of women also said their period symptoms had been dismissed, and just under a quarter said they felt their symptoms had been dismissed by a healthcare professional.

On Tuesday, the charity launched a new period symptom checker to help women and girls understand more about their menstrual cycle, which could help women talk to their GP about receiving better treatment.

The checker, which takes just four minutes to complete, asks various questions about health and reproductive symptoms, and at the end of the checker drafts a letter for women to give to their GP which can help open discussions about symptoms.

Wellbeing of Women said many women are "putting up with" disabling levels of pain and heavy bleeding, waiting for an average of two years before seeking help.

Professor Dame Lesley Regan, who was appointed as the first-ever Women's Health Ambassador for England under the Conservative government and is the chairwoman of Wellbeing of Women, said: "It is shocking that women are still suffering severe period pain and heavy bleeding in silence.

"A variety of medical treatments could be offered to girls and women with these distressing conditions.

"We hope that our new Period Symptom Checker will encourage women to speak up and seek help for their period problems.

"It aims to promote better engagement with GPs and other community healthcare professionals by creating a letter that outlines how their symptoms are affecting their everyday lives."

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Source: The Independent, 11 February 2025

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New AI initiative to transform urgent and emergency care in North East London

NHS North East London in collaboration with Health Navigator and UCLPartners have launched a new, three-year programme, providing preventative care for patients with long-term conditions. This comes at a time when urgent and emergency care services in North East London are facing unprecedented pressure and demand is at an all-time high.  

Through advanced AI screening technology and targeted, phone-based clinical coaching, patients at high risk of needing unplanned emergency care will be identified and offered personalised support from healthcare professionals trained in delivering preventative care and self-management techniques.   

The initiative is designed to identify and better support people with long-term conditions, like asthma, by taking a proactive and preventative approach to healthcare delivery.   

Forecasting models estimate that the programme will save 26,673 unplanned bed days in North East London hospitals across the three years of the programme, with an anticipated reduction of 13,000 A&E attendances annually.   

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Source: UCL Partners Health Innovation, 12 December 2025

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Time to act: hundreds of children sent out of area every day for mental health treatment

Royal College of Psychiatrists' analysis of the latest NHS England data shows a shocking 319 children and adolescents in England were forced to travel out of their area for mental health treatment from December 2023 to November 2024. This represents nearly one child every day.

These children and young people (under 18s) spent a total of 35,845 days away from their local area, also known as inappropriate Out of Area Placement (OAP)2 bed days, as a result of beds being unavailable in their local area.

To mark Children’s Mental Health Week, the Royal College of Psychiatrists is calling on the UK Government to set a target date to end OAPs in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) across England.

Extremely vulnerable children and young people with serious mental illnesses, such as eating disorders, self-harm and psychosis, are being treated miles away from their loved ones and support networks, as a result of inappropriate OAPs. With family and friends having to travel so far, visiting often becomes impossible, which only leaves unwell children feeling more isolated, lonely and can be harmful to their recovery.

With so few specialist CAMHS beds available and services overstretched, many children are being treated in paediatric wards, without access to specialist mental health services during their stay, or even after discharge. These environments can feel overwhelming, particularly for those with neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism.

In addition to setting a target to end the use of OAPs for children, RCPsych is calling for increased availability of NHS CAMHS beds in areas where there is the greatest need. This can be achieved through the intelligent commissioning of beds in areas with persistently high occupancy rates, using models like provider collaboratives.

Rachel Bannister’s 15-year-old daughter was diagnosed with an eating disorder in 2014. She was sent to several hospitals far from the family home in Nottingham, including one in Scotland, hundreds of miles away. She was there for six months, including over Christmas.

Rachel said: “The whole family were devastated when she went away. I felt as if my heart had been ripped out and I had failed her. We are all still processing the trauma of it all many years later.

“During her time away, our telephone conversations revealed her longing for simple gestures such as a hug or a walk in the park. It was heart-wrenching for us to be unable to fulfil those basic needs.

“The lack of consistency in her care and treatment have hugely impacted her recovery. Additionally, it has been difficult and often impossible to involve wider family members or her social network in treatment, which I believe is fundamental to recovery."

Read full press release

Source: Royal College of Psychiatrists, 8 February 2025

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Mesh campaigners call for compensation

Women harmed by pelvic mesh implants are still waiting for government compensation a year after a major report called for urgent action. Patient safety commissioner Dr Henrietta Hughes, who made that recommendation, called it "an injustice" for the thousands of lives destroyed. 

5 News hears from Kath Sansom, campaigner and founder of Sling the Mesh.  Listen at 24 minutes.

 

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Woman stuck for 18 months on an NHS ward evicted from her hospital bed

"I feel very angry, upset, worthless, and like my mental health and my life does not matter," says Jessie, propped up in a hospital bed.

She is recording this in a video diary. Blue NHS curtains are drawn around the bed and all her possessions are stacked up in the tiny chaotic space this creates.

Among the piles of boxes and bags sit the dolls she holds to keep her calm.

Thirty-five-year-old Jessie spent 550 days in Northampton General Hospital. For nearly all that time, she was medically fit to leave but finding her a suitable place to go to was difficult.

The BBC has followed her story for more than five months as the NHS trust took costly High Court action against her, to have her evicted from the hospital bed she was occupying.

Jessie was eventually arrested and taken to a care home where she says she feels anxious.

Her story is an extreme example, but it demonstrates the acute pressures faced by a care system coping with more complex cases, the knock-on effect to the NHS, and how the person at the heart of it can feel lost.

North Northamptonshire Council, which is responsible for her housing and care, says it cannot comment because of an ongoing police investigation into Jessie's behaviour.

The hospital says it "is not the best environment for patients who are not in need of acute medical care".

The Department of Health and Social Care has told the BBC: "This is a troubling case which shows how our broken NHS discharge system is failing vulnerable people."

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Source: BBC News, 8 February 2025

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Nurses at psychiatric unit called teens 'pathetic'

Former patients at Scotland's biggest children's psychiatric hospital have spoken out about a culture of cruelty among nursing staff.

Patients who were teenagers when they were admitted to Skye House, a specialist NHS unit in Glasgow, told BBC Disclosure some nurses called them "pathetic" and "disgusting" - and even mocked their suicide attempts.

"It was almost as if I was getting treated like an animal," one young patient, being treated for anorexia, said.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it was "incredibly sorry" and has launched two inquiries into the allegations uncovered by the BBC's investigation.

Programme-makers spoke to 28 former patients while making BBC Disclosure's Kids on The Psychiatric Ward documentary.

One said the 24-bed psychiatric hospital, which sits in the grounds of Glasgow's Stobhill hospital, was like "hell".

"I'd say the culture of the nursing team was quite toxic. A lot of them, to be honest, were quite cruel a lot of the time," she added.

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Source: BBC News, 10 February 2025

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Corridor care and no privacy: Inside A&E at the height of the NHS winter crisis

Trollies hem the corridor and surround the central nursing hub in the acute centre of Newham Hospital’s emergency department, lined up end-to-end in the humming ward.

Most are occupied: some patients are too ill to sit up, while others are monitored by security. Doctors and nurses are assessing patients as other staff and family members try to squeeze past in the crowded space.

Bright fluorescent lights beam down and dozens of monitors make incessant noise over the chatter of patients, families and hospital workers, with no privacy to speak of.

This is the reality of England’s NHS in winter, with a record 96% of hospital beds currently full.

Newham Hospital has to use corridors as care spaces, like many hospitals across England, because demand for care is so high (The Independent)

Anna Morgan, a consultant in emergency medicine and the clinical lead, says corridor care is an unavoidable necessity in an under-pressure department running at double its capacity.

“It is a very crowded, very busy department at the moment, for today and the last few days,” she tells The Independent. “This department was originally built with the idea of having about 250 patients, is what we’re told. And we quite regularly now get over 500 a day... so that is a challenge.”

Gemma Davies, the deputy associate director of nursing in urgent and emergency care, says private areas to carry out personal care or confidential conversations with patients are “at a premium”.

“So all the things that we would normally do in quite a controlled space, and having monitoring equipment, then becomes almost like ‘Move this to there, move that to there, move that’, and it’s almost like playing nursing Jenga with patients,” she says.

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Source: The Independent, 9 February 2025

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Hospitals prosecuted over baby deaths

The trust at the centre of a maternity investigation is to be prosecuted by the Care Quality Commission over the deaths of three babies.

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust intends to plead guilty to the charges relating to care and treatment to the babies, it has said.

The trust is at the centre of the NHS’s largest ever maternity investigations, which is expected to cover around 2,500 cases. It has already been fined £800,000 after admitting failings in the care of Wynter Andrews, who died in 2019.

In a statement, the trust said: “We can confirm that the CQC is bringing charges against Nottingham University Hospitals Trust following an investigation into three deaths which occurred in our maternity services in 2021.

“We have co-operated with the CQC throughout their investigation, and intend to plead guilty to the charges when proceedings open.

“We are not able to comment any further at this stage.”

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Source: HSJ, 7 February 2025

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CDC scientific report resumes publication after unprecedented pause

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) resumed publishing its weekly scientific report Thursday after an unprecedented pause, but information about the bird flu virus that was supposed to appear remained on hold even as the outbreak spreads.

Three studies about the H5N1 bird flu virus were scheduled to be released in the weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on 23 January according to multiple CDC officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. But release of the results was abruptly halted when the Trump administration instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications on 21 January.

The weekly document is the agency’s primary vehicle for disseminating public health information and recommendations. Health officials, clinicians and researchers are among those who rely on the studies for vital guidance. Until last month, the MMWR has been published without interruption since 1952, even during government shutdowns.

“Although I’m encouraged that the MMWR is being published again, I’m surprised and concerned that it doesn’t contain any reports on bird flu spreading in animals and people, the new strain of mpox spreading or other emerging health threats,” said Tom Frieden, a former CDC director for the Obama administration.

“If political decisions determine which health threats to highlight, we’ll all be less safe,” Frieden said. “I hope the new Administration will see the value in CDC publishing information on health threats every week, without political interference.”

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Source: Washington Post, 6 February 2025

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Abandoned in the middle of clinical trials, because of a Trump order

The stop-work order on USAID-funded research has left thousands of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to monitoring or care.

Zsanda Zondi received a startling phone call last Thursday, with orders to make her way to a health clinic in Vulindlela, South Africa, where she was participating in a research study that was testing a new device to prevent pregnancy and HIV infection.

The trial was shutting down, a nurse told her. The device, a silicone ring inserted into her vagina, needed to be removed right away.

The US Agency for International Development, which funded the study, has withdrawn financial support and has issued a stop-work order to all organisations around the globe that receive its money. The abrupt move followed an executive order by President Trump freezing all foreign aid for at least 90 days. Since then, the Trump administration has taken steps to dismantle the agency entirely.

Ms. Zondi’s trial is one of dozens that have been abruptly frozen, leaving people around the world with experimental drugs and medical products in their bodies, cut off from the researchers who were monitoring them, and generating waves of suspicion and fear.

In interviews, scientists — who are forbidden by the terms of the stop-work order to speak with the news media — described agonizing choices: violate the stop-work orders and continue to care for trial volunteers, or leave them alone to face potential side effects and harm.

In England, about 100 people have been inoculated with an experimental malaria vaccine in two clinical trials. Now, they no longer have access to the clinical trial staff if that vaccine were to cause an adverse reaction in their bodies. Had the trial not been frozen, the participants would be coming to a clinic routinely to be monitored for adverse physical effects, and to have blood and cell samples taken to see whether the vaccine was working. The participants are meant to be followed for two years to assess the vaccine’s safety.

An anonymous scientist who worked on the trial said: “It’s unethical to test anything in humans without taking it to the full completion of studies. You put them at risk for no good reason.”

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Source: New York Times, 6 February 2025

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Woman’s life cut short by delayed lung cancer diagnosis

A hospital’s failure to diagnose a woman’s cancer denied her precious time with her family, England’s Health Ombudsman has found.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is urging hospitals to improve processes to avoid delays in diagnosis.

A woman underwent a CT scan at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust towards the end of November 2017 to investigate a potential liver problem.

While nothing significant was found on her liver, the scan revealed a nodule – a small dense area - and a possible pulmonary embolism on her left lung.

In December, the woman was referred to a clinic to treat the pulmonary embolism. The consultant at the clinic wrote to her GP asking she be referred for another CT scan three months later to investigate the nodule. This was not done and a review in mid-April 2018 revealed the follow-up scan had not been carried out.

An urgent CT scan towards the end of May 2018 revealed the woman had lung cancer, of which she died aged 81 in February 2019.

The Ombudsman found the woman should have been diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2017, around six months earlier.

The Trust should not have passed the matter back to the woman’s GP and did not appropriately follow up the lung nodule’s finding.

Though PHSO cannot say exactly what would have happened, there is evidence the woman may have lived longer if the diagnosis had been made sooner.

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Source: PHSO, 6 February 2025

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We aborted healthy babies after NHS mistakes, couples tell BBC

Two couples have told the BBC they went through with abortions after an NHS trust mistakenly told them their unborn babies had serious genetic conditions.

They say errors by doctors at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust led to them terminating their pregnancies.

Another family say a last-minute scan on the day they were due to have an abortion changed their minds and they are now the parents of a healthy nine-year-old boy.

The trust, which is currently at the centre of the largest maternity inquiry in the history of the NHS, said its foetal medicine teams strived to provide "compassionate and professional" care.

Ms Carly Wesson and her partner Carl Everson were expecting their first child in January 2019, when a 12-week scan indicated their baby had a high chance of having Down's Syndrome.

They were offered a test, known as chorionic villus sampling (CVS), to check if their baby had any genetic or chromosomal conditions.

Two days later, the foetal care team at City Hospital in Nottingham told them the initial results indicated their daughter had a rare genetic condition called Patau's Syndrome, which often results in miscarriage, stillbirth, or the baby dying shortly after birth.

Results from a more detailed analysis of the sample were due back two weeks later. The couple asked if it might show a different outcome, but they say their consultant advised them it would not. The couple decided to have an abortion.

Six weeks after the abortion, they were asked to attend a meeting at City Hospital, which they assumed was a routine follow-up.

"[The consultant] just walked in and the first thing she said was 'I have got something to tell you, your results have changed'," says Ms Wesson.

The second test, called a long term CVS culture, showed their daughter had no chromosomal abnormality.

When they asked if their daughter would have survived, Ms Wesson says the doctor told the couple: "Well, you could have miscarried anyway."

"That's always stuck with me - it was almost malicious," she says.

An investigation into the death carried out by the trust said the second test showed "all 50 cells studied had a normal chromosome compliment".

The first test result - which the couple say was the basis on which they decided to terminate the pregnancy - had been a false positive.

This is "a well-recognised hazard of early CVS results", the investigation found.

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Source: BBC News, 6 February 2025

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Mesh victims still wait for financial compensation

Women harmed by pelvic mesh implants are still waiting for government compensation a year after a major report, external called for urgent action.

Patient safety commissioner Dr Henrietta Hughes, who made that recommendation, called it "an injustice" for the thousands of lives destroyed.

Some women were left in permanent pain, unable to walk, work or have sex, after the surgery to treat incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.

The government says it remains "fully focused" on how best to support patients and prevent harm.

A Department of Health and Social Care official said: "Our sympathies are with those affected.

"This is a complex area of work and Health Minister Baroness Gillian Merron met with some of those affected before Christmas, and has committed to providing an update to the patient safety commissioner at the earliest opportunity."

Dr Hughes said: "It is very disappointing that women who have suffered so much harm are still waiting for redress.

"They need redress now and the government must act immediately."

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Source: BBC News, 7 February 2025

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New push to stop sending patients ‘out of area’ after homicides

NHS England has told trust, system and regional leaders to push ahead with plans to eliminate out-of-area placements within three years, in response to an independent review into the care of a man who killed three people while being treated by a Nottinghamshire mental health trust.

NHSE’s mental health leaders wrote to trusts and systems last night after publication of the findings on Valdo Calocane’s treatment.

The review said that he was sent to two inpatient units outside his home area, including a spot-purchased independent sector bed, “due to a lack of local capacity” and despite his family being against it. The review suggested that if he was cared for locally, the admissions “may have been the opportunity to fully see” that he was disengaging with community services, and for services to change their approach.

Claire Murdoch, NHSE’s national director for mental health, learning disabilities and autism, and Adrian James, the national medical director for mental health and neurodiversity, told trust and ICB leaders they must discuss their “action plans” to improve treatment of mental health patients who need “intensive and assertive community treatment” by 30 June.

In particular, they said they should review their plans for “eliminating out-of-area placements in line with ICB three-year plans”; for “personalised assessment of risk across community and inpatient teams”; “joint discharge planning arrangements involving family”; multi-agency working; and information sharing.

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Source: HSJ, 6 February 2025

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California warns hospitals not to withhold trans youth healthcare

As Donald Trump seeks to block transgender youth healthcare across the country, California’s attorney general has sent a clear message to providers, reminding them of their duty to provide gender-affirming treatment under the state’s nondiscrimination laws.

“The law requires [hospitals] to continue to provide gender-affirming care to our transgender community,” Rob Bonta, a Democrat who heads the California justice department, told the Guardian on Wednesday. “We will have the transgender community’s back. We will fight for their rights, for their protections, for their freedoms.”

His comments come a week after Trump issued an executive order decreeing that medical institutions that receive federal funding and grants do not provide gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers, to youth under age 19.

In response, some hospitals have paused treatments, which are considered part of the standards of care for gender dysphoria endorsed by all major US medical associations. Trans patients, their families and civil rights groups have said the interruption of care could have dire consequences for patients’ physical and mental health. They’ve also argued that Trump’s order is unlawful, violating patients’ constitutional rights and parental rights, and that hospitals have no legal obligation to preemptively deny care, particularly while the policy is being challenged in court.

On Tuesday, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), a major local provider, said it was pausing the initiation of hormone treatments for trans youth. The hospital told the LA Times it was not starting new patients’ gender-affirming care while it evaluated Trump’s order “to fully understand its implications”, but said treatment for existing patients would continue.

On Wednesday, Bonta wrote a letter to CHLA warning that “withholding services from transgender individuals based on their gender identity or their diagnosis of gender dysphoria” would violate the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, a longstanding law that prohibits discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 February 2025

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The life and death of Jen Bridges-Chalkley: why did a 17-year-old die waiting for NHS therapy?

When Sharren Bridges talks about her daughter’s last summer, in 2021, she chokes up and has to pause. In some ways, it was a good summer. Jen Bridges-Chalkley had a boyfriend and, like most parents of teenagers, Sharren would occasionally act as a taxi driver, taking them down to the local river to swim.

On 12 October 2021, Jen killed herself at her mother’s home. She was 17. At the inquest, which concluded in April 2024, the coroner said her suicide could have been avoided if she had received the support she needed “in a timely manner”. It was “a multi-agency failure”, he concluded in the report, which is a devastating document: 81 pages of missed opportunities, bad communication and poor decision-making.

“There was a failure of the agencies to work effectively together to ensure that Jen’s needs were met,” the coroner wrote. Safeguarding failure; failure by educational establishments; failure by child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs). “For much of the time between May 2018 and June 2020, she was on a waiting list for therapy from the psychology team and was awaiting assessment.” He concluded that Camhs had failed “properly to assess, diagnose and treat Jen … in order to manage her conditions and minimise her risk of suicide”.

Camhs is the NHS service for children with emotional, behavioural and mental health issues. Its staff includes psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, therapists and social workers. It aims to provide support and treatment, including therapy, medication and in-hospital care. Sharren’s assessment of Camhs, provided in Jen’s case by Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS foundation trust, is simple: “It’s not fit for purpose.”

Sharren is angry when she speaks about Camhs. “Jen is a person, she’s my daughter, she’s my everything, and she’s not here any more because people didn’t do their job. They didn’t do their job when she was five, they didn’t do their job when she was 11, they didn’t do their job when she was 14, 15, 16, 17, and now she’s not going to get older than 17.”

In a statement, Graham Wareham, the chief executive of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS foundation trust, said: “We remain deeply saddened by Jennifer’s tragic death and we have expressed our deepest condolences to her family. Our investigation into the support we provided Jennifer found that while we gave care and consideration into delivering a person-centred therapeutic approach to meet Jennifer’s mental health needs, we acknowledge that there were shortcomings.

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Source: The Guardian, 6 February 2025

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One in five UK adults living with diabetes or pre-diabetes as diagnoses reach all-time high

One in five UK adults are living with diabetes or pre-diabetes as diagnoses have reached an all-time high, new data shows.

Charity Diabetes UK called this a “hidden health crisis” and urged the government to act immediately. Some 4.6 million people are now diagnosed with the condition, compared to 4.4 million a year ago.

This includes about 8% with type 1 diabetes, which happens when a person cannot produce insulin, a hormone that helps the body turn glucose into energy.

Some 90% have type 2 diabetes, which happens when the body does not use insulin properly, while 2% have different and rarer forms of the condition. A further 1.3 million are estimated to be living with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes.

The chief executive of the charity, Colette Marshall, said: “These latest figures highlight the hidden health crisis we’re facing in the UK and underline why the government must act now.

“There must be better care for the millions of people living with all types of diabetes, to support them to live well and fend off the risk of developing devastating complications.

“With more people developing pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes at a younger age, it’s also critical that much more is done to find the missing millions who either have type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes but are completely unaware of it. The sooner we can find and get them the care they need, the more harm we can prevent.”

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Source: The Independent, 6 February 2025

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‘Basic’ gaps left trusts exposed to cyber attacks

Two recent cyber attacks that cost the NHS millions of pounds and led to patients’ data being published online could have been mitigated with basic security measures, an integrated care board has found.

Wirral University Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust was hit by a “targeted” cyber attack in November, which lasted about nine days, then three other trusts in Merseyside were hit in early December in an unconnected incident.

WUTH was forced to take its Cerner electronic patient record system offline, while some activity was either cancelled or rescheduled, which the trust has confirmed amounted to a loss of around £3m. A report to its board said its cancer performance “will take months to recover”.

In an update to ICB executives, chief digital information officer John Llewellyn said: “The incidents above may have been mitigated if core cyber security standards had been adhered to… There are still significant gaps in compliance with basic security standards in multiple organisations which, in turn, lead to vulnerabilities for all organisations because of the interconnected/cross organisational patient flows, clinical services (such as pathology and imaging) and supporting digital infrastructure and clinical systems.

“These are just examples, however, and there are many other technical aspects to cyber risk that need to be shared, understood and proactively managed in order to manage and mitigate these as effectively as possible.”

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Source: HSJ, 6 February 2025

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ICBs missing checks on vulnerable children

Integrated care boards are warning they are failing to carry out health checks for vulnerable children in care because of a lack of paediatricians and rising demand, HSJ  has found.

ICBs are required to commission initial health assessments within 20 working days of a child entering care, arranged by a local authority, then a review six to 12 months later.

HSJ  has identified several ICBs warning they are not or may not meet the requirement – citing workforce pressures, complex cases and rising demand.

Missing the checks for children in care risks harming their physical and mental health, school attainment and future wellbeing, according to paediatricians. 

A community paediatrician working in the South East told HSJ  delayed assessments could have significant long-term impact — delaying intervention in developmental concerns, alcohol and drug use, oral health, immunisation and medications.

“These children are incredibly vulnerable,” they said. “The quicker we get issues addressed, often putting them on SEN [special educational needs] or other support, the better they often do in school and in life.”

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Source: HSJ, 5 February 2025

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Researchers rush to preserve federal health databases before they disappear from US government websites

A group of researchers and students at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health are scraping and downloading data related to health equity from U.S. government agency websites before they disappear. Their goal is to make the downloaded data publicly available through repositories such as the Harvard Dataverse.

The new Trump administration has at least temporality halted most communications from the Department of Health and Human Services and has begun taking down government websites, including many pages that include DEI initiatives. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey site, which monitors health behaviors of high-school students, including sexual behavior, mental health and tobacco use, is no longer available.

Health researchers worry that more of their trusted federal health databases could disappear in the coming hours and days. It’s not clear whether the changes are permanent or the websites will once again become available.

“In my lifetime, in the United States I don’t know of another situation where researchers have been this concerned about losing access to data that they’ve had access to their whole career,” says Jonathan Gilmour, a data scientist at the Chan School who is researching human health impacts of climate change. “It’s dire.”

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Source: The Journalist's Resource, 31 January 2025

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