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NHS failings and lawyers have destroyed memories of our baby, say parents

Losing Ben at the age of eight weeks in the paediatric intensive care unit of the Bristol Royal hospital for children in the spring of 2015 was traumatic and heartbreaking for Jenny and Allyn Condon.

In the 10 years since, they say their pain has not eased but, if anything, has been made more acute by the way they have been treated by a health trust as they campaigned to find out why Ben died.

“It has destroyed me,” said Jenny, who tried to kill herself and has post-traumatic stress syndrome. “I’m a broken woman. I’m in constant fight or flight.”

Speaking at the end of a two-week inquest that concluded on Friday – which laid bare failings in Ben’s care and was often contradictory, complex and, as his parents see it, adversarial – Allyn said their precious memories of Ben had been taken away by the approach of the trust that runs the hospital.

Ben was born prematurely on 17 February 2015. In April, he developed breathing difficulties and was taken to the children’s hospital, where doctors diagnosed human metapneumovirus (hMPV), a respiratory infection. He declined rapidly, had two cardiac arrests on 17 April and died.

The Condons were immediately told that no postmortem examination was needed as the cause of death was straightforward. Doctors recorded acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), hMPV and prematurity on his death certificate and his body was cremated. But several weeks after Ben died his parents were told that he also had a bacterial infection.

A first inquest, in 2016, concluded that two respiratory illnesses and prematurity caused Ben’s death, but the next year, after the Condons continued to press, the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust admitted that a failure to give him antibiotics in a timely manner for the bacterial infection contributed to his death.

In 2021, the NHS ombudsman said Ben died after “a catalogue of failings” in his treatment and there was an attempt to “deceive” his parents. The high court quashed the conclusions of the first inquest and a new inquest has taken place at Avon coroner’s court near Bristol.

On Friday, the coroner who has heard the second inquest, Robert Sowersby, backed the Condons’ belief that the death certificate and conclusion of the first inquest were incomplete.

Sowersby, the assistant coroner for Avon, stated that between 14 and 16 April consultants decided not to give Ben antibiotics. Sowersby said: “I find Ben should have been given antibiotics by 16 April at the latest,” and added that if he had been given antibiotics it would have stopped the pseudomonas infection entering his bloodstream.

The coroner said some medics had a “patronising approach” to Ben’s parents and that Jenny and Allyn were not told what was going on or why and were not involved in important decisions. He said it was “hard” to understand a delay in telling them how sick Ben was.

Sowersby said: “A lot of mistakes were made. The actions of various employees who were involved in Ben’s care or in subsequent investigations understandably aroused suspicion and contributed to the family’s inability to believe anything they were being told.”

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Source: The Guardian, 21 February 2025

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CQC must pay £500,000 after provider wins High Court challenge

The Care Quality Commission has been criticised by the High Court for failing to follow its own conflict of interest policy, after a legal challenge by a mental health provider.

Cygnet, the private inpatient mental health provider, instigated the judicial review against the regulator, accusing it of failing to follow its conflict of interest policies in its choice of inspector.

The CQC will now have to review its report into one of the Cygnet-run sites, the Acer Hospital in Chesterfield. It was given an “inadequate” rating, an unusual outcome for a focused inspection, and put into special measures over risks to patients and poor staffing.

The inspector at the centre of the case – who cannot be named because of reporting restrictions – had previously been detained in two hospitals run by Cygnet in 2012-13 – and had complained about his care and treatment.

The former mental health nurse went on to become a CQC inspector and started to inspect facilities run by Cygnet in 2019.

At a court hearing, Cygnet argued seven inspection reports on five of its sites, and enforcement action taken against one of them, were affected by the inspector’s apparent bias. The CQC had previously refused to review these reports and enforcement action, the provider said.

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Source: HSJ, 24 February 2025

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USA: HHS issues guidance recognising only 2 sexes in one of Kennedy's first moves at health agency

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will define sex as an "immutable biological classification" and only recognise two sexes, male and female, according to guidance issued this week.

The guidance builds on President Donald Trump's executive order that instructed the federal government to officially recognize only a person's sex at birth and to stop recognizing the concept of gender identity. The HHS released the guidance to the U.S. government, external partners and the public.

"The guidance recognizes there are only two sexes: male and female. HHS will use these definitions and promote policies acknowledging that women are biologically female and men are biologically male," officials said Wednesday in a press release issued by HHS.

RFK Jr. assumed his role as HHS secretary last week, and the guidance marks one of his first policy moves.

“This administration is bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” RFK Jr. said in a statement. "The prior administration’s policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics is one medical organization that recognizes not everyone fits into the narrow definitions of male or female.

In a fact sheet released this month, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine wrote that legislation and proposals "to define sex into two easily determined categories are unsupported by science and oversimplify the intricate nature of human biology."

"It is crucial to understand that biological sex is determined by biology, not politics," ASRM wrote.

Major medical groups also support gender-affirming care for transgender individuals, which is comprised of a range of social, behavioral and medical interventions, the latter of which include puberty-blocking medications, hormone treatments and, in rarer cases, surgical procedures.

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Source: Fierce Healthcare, 19 February 2025

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USA: Sepsis soared 50% after Texas banned abortions

After Texas banned abortion in 2021, sepsis rates increased more than 50% for women hospitalized after losing their pregnancies in the second trimester, according to a ProPublica analysis. 

The outlet previously reported on the deaths of three pregnant women who were denied timely care due to the state's restrictive abortion laws. In September, the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, which examines all pregnancy-related deaths, decided to not examine cases from 2022 to 2023 and instead review more recent deaths. 

In a first-of-its-kind data analysis, ProPublica found that, compared to prepandemic years, dozens more pregnant and postpartum women died in Texas hospitals. 

When abortion was legal in the state, the sepsis rate hovered at about 2.9%. After abortion was banned, the rate of sepsis increased to 4.9%. 

Texas outlaws abortion with the exception of medical emergency cases, but healthcare providers in the state have expressed confusion and hesitance about the exception's parameters. Some physicians have said their hospitals do not allow them to empty the uterus — the standard of care for patients miscarrying in the second trimester — until they can diagnose a life-threatening complication or the fetal heartbeat stops. 

This sepsis risk increase was most striking for patients whose fetus may have had a heartbeat when they entered the hospital, ProPublica reported.

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Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 20 February 2025

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Healthcare execs confront safety as a purpose

Surveying the US healthcare landscape, some leaders are wondering, what if safety was valued as a purpose, rather than a priority? 

Patricia Gaffigan, senior advisor on patient and workforce safety for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), voiced this question at an IHI conference in December. She said priorities are at risk of being reduced to a set of improvement projects — like fleeting goals, or something beholden to a start and end date. 

When asked to describe the difference between safety as a priority and safety as a purpose, leaders from UCSF Health, M Health Fairview, Inova Health System and Jefferson Health told Becker's that while priorities are important, they can deprioritise other plans, or even be deprioritised themselves. 

"We, like all health systems, have a mission," said Chapy Venkatesan, chief quality and safety officer of Fairfax, Va.-based Inova. "The center component of our mission is world-class healthcare. So that is really our purpose. Safety is part of that purpose."

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Source: Becker's Clinical Leadership, 18 February 2025

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New elective contract ‘unworkable’, say providers

New national payment rules for private providers of elective care are “unworkable” and will undermine patient choice, the sector is warning.

Independent sector sources say NHS England’s proposed 2025-26 contract, which will cap the amount commissioners will pay for elective activity, will effectively force private hospitals to treat some NHS patients for free.

The proposed 2025-26 payment scheme says integrated care boards will set a “payment limit” for elective services, “above which [value] the commissioner is not required to make further payments” to providers.

However, it also says the limits do “not cut across patient choice rules, as providers would continue to be obliged to accept referrals and to offer patients choice on where they get their treatment”.

Private sector leaders told HSJ it effectively meant they could have to treat patients who choose them for free if their cap is reached. Sector sources said it was financially unviable for providers, and one branded the proposals “unworkable”.

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Source: HSJ, 21 February 2025

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App spots patients at risk and moves them up the NHS waiting list

Software developed in Cambridge is helping nine hospitals to prioritise care, saving lives and freeing beds sooner

Hospitals are using artificial intelligence to select high-risk patients to go to the front of the 7.5 million-long NHS waiting list. Software trained on more than 200 million records in 46 countries considers blood pressure, age, respiratory rate and where a patient lives to give them a risk score. Its introduction is part of increasingly urgent efforts by the health service to manage record numbers of patients stuck on waiting lists for routine treatment. Many will be deteriorating while they wait.

 This month The Sunday Times revealed that thousands have died, gone blind or suffered serious injuries, including having limbs amputated, because of delays and failures in their care. The problem is costing almost £900 million a year in negligence payouts. 

 The NHS last hit its target to treat most patients within 18 weeks of being referred from their GP in February 2016. Now trusts are experimenting with new ways to balance the risks of such large waiting lists after the pandemic.

 AI software developed by the Cambridge-based company C2-Ai is being used in nine hospitals in Cheshire and Merseyside; similar tools are being piloted elsewhere.

 The technology helps identify patients who have a high risk of deteriorating while they wait, or who might struggle to recover after major surgery. These people are given help to improve their health while waiting and can be prioritised for surgery sooner.

 Almost 1,000 patients have benefited from interventions such as health coaching before and after surgery. The approach has almost eradicated post-op chest infections and halved the rate of other complications. It has also reduced the amount of time patients are staying in hospital by more than four days — meaning beds are free for those waiting in A&E or others needing routine surgery.

 One of those who is benefiting is Tim Ashcroft, a 74-year-old businessman who was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in 2023. After six weeks of chemotherapy, Ashcroft, from Winsford, Cheshire, had surgery to remove his oesophagus and possible cancer of the colon. After the surgery he had a stoma — an opening in the abdomen — which led to a double hernia; he was put on a waiting list to have the procedure reversed.

 Ashcroft had lost five stone since the initial surgery. In October, the C2-Ai technology flagged him as a potential risk and he was given a referral to use a phone app, Surgery Hero, which provides tools for exercise, tracking food intake and mental health support. The app linked Ashcroft with a dietitian who helped manage his nutrition and maintain his weight. They also spoke to consultants to bring forward his surgery, which he is hoping to have in the coming weeks.

 “It gave me a sense that I can look after my health while I wait, and that’s important especially as waits are so long at the moment,” Ashcroft said. “If this is a process which can generally save time and save lives … I don’t think anyone would object to that.”

 Rowan Pritchard Jones, medical director of the Cheshire and Merseyside NHS region, said it was right for the NHS to prioritise higher-risk patients. “We really need to think more smartly about the risk that is sitting on our waiting lists,” he said. “Nobody gets better while waiting but there are certain groups of patients who disproportionately deteriorate while they wait — patients whose [mortality risk] might move from 15 per cent to 45 per cent.”

 According to Cheshire and Merseyside, 40 per cent of its highest risk patients — those living with a number of conditions or diseases at the same time — come from the 20 per cent most deprived members of the population. Pritchard Jones said: “We have patients to worry about here, patients who will do badly. Let’s think about stratifying patients by risk.”

 C2-Ai’s technology is not the only innovation being tried to spot patients at higher risk from waiting times.

 In Coventry, the cardiologist Kiran Patel developed an algorithm to identify patients who had higher clinical risks and underlying social and demographic factors that meant they should be prioritised for treatment. It took into account whether a person had made repeat visits to A&E and whether they lived in a deprived area or had other health conditions. Patel, now chief medical officer at University Hospitals Birmingham, believes similar approaches could be considered there. “We know from the evidence that people are dying more from non-pandemic related issues and deprivation of care,” he said. “So that evidence is out there, and the fact that we have long waiting lists, and the fact that there are millions of people on there, would suggest that it’s inevitable some may be dying.”

 The approach is likely to prove controversial, particularly if it is used to prioritise patients according to factors such as getting them back to work.

 Jo Andrews, a consultant anaesthetist and chief medical officer at the consultancy Carnall Farrar, said: “If we look at the national challenge around people who are off work sick, we need to go after the things where it’s going to make the greatest difference. “That requires a difficult conversation with people, because you would be saying to the 75-year-old waiting for their hip replacement who can’t play golf, ‘Sorry, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer’, because the 65-year-old who can’t work and is the sole breadwinner for their family needs to take priority.”

From The Sunday Times

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Top trusts failed mortuary security checks

Some of England’s most prestigious trusts have been caught with inadequate security for their mortuaries — despite recent high-profile breaches, HSJ can reveal.

In a national exercise last August and September, the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) found 37 out of 128 mortuaries checked were non-compliant with its licensing standards, while a further 64 had to be issued with advice in order to meet them. Only 27 were declared compliant.

Mortuary security shot up the agenda when maintenance supervisor David Fuller was jailed for violating the bodies of more than 100 women and girls in hospital mortuaries for more than a decade.

An inquiry set up to look into how he was able to carry out the assaults was highly critical of access controls at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust, where he worked, and is due to report later this year on the security of mortuaries and funeral directors nationally.

Meanwhile, the HTA, which licenses premises for post-mortems and similar uses, stepped up its focus on mortuary standards last year with a series of unannounced inspections, due to the severity of shortfalls it was finding.

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Source: HSJ, 20 February 2025

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Norovirus hospital cases reach highest level ever

There are a record number of patients in hospital with Norovirus in England.

Data from NHS England showed 1,160 patients a day on average were in hospital with the vomiting bug last week – double the level at the same period last year.

It comes after a 22% rise on the week before, pushing it to the highest level since records began in 2012. It means more than 1% of beds are occupied by patients ill with the bug.

But Norovirus puts added pressure on hospitals because of the need to isolate and clean infected wards – nearly 300 empty beds a day were taken out of action because of this.

NHS England medical director Prof Sir Stephen Powis said: "It is concerning to see the number of patients with Norovirus hit an all-time high and there is no let up for hospital staff who are working tirelessly to treat more than a thousand patients each day with the horrible bug, on top of other winter viruses.

"To help stop the spread of Norovirus, it is important to remember to wash your hands frequently with soap and water and avoid mixing with other people until you have not had symptoms for two days."

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Source: BBC News, 20 February 2025

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Poorest more likely to get cancer – and to die from it

Cancer death rates are 60% higher in the UK’s most deprived areas, new research shows, with the poorest more than 50% more likely to be diagnosed after a trip to A&E than their wealthiest counterparts.

A new report from Cancer Research UK has found that there are more than 28,000 extra cancer deaths a year linked to deprivation, and that people living in the poorest areas are up to a third more likely to wait more than 104 days to begin treatment despite an urgent referral.

Those in the most deprived group are also less likely to take part in national screening programmes, and half as likely to receive cutting-edge treatment than people in the least deprived group.

While cancer care for many has broadly improved over recent decades – last year more cancers were caught at earlier, more treatable stages than ever before – there are huge disparities in care, as the new research shows.

Dr Ian Walker, executive director of policy and information at Cancer Research UK, said cancer treatment and outcomes should be the same for everybody, regardless of their postcode or their income.

“No one should be at a greater risk of dying from this devastating disease simply because of where they live. These figures are shocking and unacceptable – but crucially, they’re avoidable,” he said.

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Source: The Independent, 21 February 2025

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Private NHS provider hit by cyber attack

A major private provider of NHS services has been hit by a cyber attack, taking down its network and potentially breaching patient data.

HCRG Care Group, which was formerly Virgin Care, confirmed it was looking into claims made by a ransomware group that more than two terabytes of sensitive information had been breached.

HCRG provides community services for the NHS in Kent, Surrey and Bath, North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire.

An HCRG spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we are currently investigating an IT security incident and have recently identified a post on the dark web by a group claiming responsibility. Our team has not observed any suspicious activity since the implementation of immediate containment measures, and we are working with external forensic specialists to investigate the incident.

”We have informed the [Information Commissioner] and regulators and are keeping them updated on our investigation. Our services are continuing to operate and safely see patients, and those with appointments or who need to access our services should continue to do so.”

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Source: HSJ, 20 February 2025

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Trump’s aid cuts deny one million women a week access to contraception

On 20 January, USAID issued a blanket “stop-work” order to all of its partners, demanding that organisations cease operations. In early February, the Trump administration fired the majority of all 10,000-plus USAID workers, leaving around just 290 employees.

Though a US federal judge issued a temporary order to lift the aid freeze on 14 February, there is no clear evidence yet that programmes are back in action, with many hesitant to act under rapidly changing guidance.

USAID’s reach across the world cannot be overstated. Some 141 countries relied on some form of USAID in 2024, worth $42.5bn (£33.3bn) in 2023 (the last available year).

Around $600m each year of USAID funding has been spent on family planning; and now, the impact of its withdrawal is being felt worldwide.

For every week without USAID, nearly one million women and girls worldwide are denied contraceptive care, according to analysis from the Guttmacher Institute, a leading reproductive health policy organisation.

An average of 130,390 women received contraceptive care each day from US-funded programmes before the freeze.

As a result of the immediate stop-work order, some 912,730 women will not receive contraception each week; amounting to approximately 3.8 million women who are estimated to have already been denied contraceptive care since the freeze (between 20 January and 18 February).

Most of these programmes are in sub-Saharan Africa, with funding going to family planning in Mali, Niger, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and more.

But the withdrawal of USAID will impact all sectors of global health; not least maternal health, where USAID has been vital to healthcare infrastructure in many of these countries.

“Looking at the wider landscape in addition to family planning, when you take away maternal health services as well, which is what’s happening, there’s a cascading effect,” a USAID official explained.

With gaps in midwives, equipment, and pre- and post-natal care, the risk of maternal death is likely to increase, in addition to pregnancy complications.

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Source: The Independent, 18 February 2025

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A critical hospital bed shortage could soon hit the US

Hospitals in the United States, already overflowing this winter amid what experts have deemed a “quademic” could face even more occupancy issues and — deadly consequences — within the next decade.

The nation is on track for a critical hospital bed shortage by 2032, researchers have said. The shortage is largely driven by a reduction of staffed hospital beds, potentially preventing life-saving care for patients.

“We’ve all heard about increased hospital occupancy during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, but these findings show that hospitals are as full, if not more so, than they were during the pandemic, even well into 2024 during what would be considered a post-pandemic steady state,” Dr. Richard Leuchter, assistant professor of medicine at UCLA Health, said in a statement.

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Source: The Independent, 19 February 2025

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USA: Louisiana halts mass vaccination efforts

The Louisiana Department of Health has terminated mass vaccination campaigns and barred public health workers from recommending seasonal vaccines, The Times-Picayune has reported.

1. Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham issued a memo to state health workers  that said medical decision-making should occur between patients and physicians, not public health workers. 

"Rather than instructing individuals to receive any and all vaccines, LDH staff should communicate data regarding the reduced risk of disease, hospitalization, and death associated with a vaccine and encourage individuals to discuss considerations for vaccination with their healthcare provider," he wrote in the directive, obtained by The Times-Picayune.

While the state's public health divisions will still stock vaccines, the department "will no longer promote mass vaccinations," the document said. 

Alongside his staff memo, Dr Abraham posted a public statement criticising state and federal officials' response to the pandemic, including vaccine mandates.

"For the past couple of decades, public health agencies at the state and federal level have viewed it as a primary role to push pharmaceutical products, particularly vaccines," he wrote. "Perhaps there are some treatments that every human being should take, but they are few and far between, and things that are good generally don't have to be pushed by the government. Medical decision-making is a zero-sum game: when outside forces get involved, patient autonomy is sacrificed."

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Source: Becker's Clinical Leadership, 14 February 2025

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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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