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Almost 1 in 10 may have Long Covid, research finds

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: BBC News, 18 March 2025

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Mum's 20-year fight for epilepsy drug compensation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: BBC News, 17 February 2025

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'There could be no NHS dentists in two years'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: BBC News, 17 February 2025

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

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

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

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

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Source: The Guardian, 18 February 2025

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NHS England launches first advertising drive to boost breast cancer screenings

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: The Guardian, 17 February 2025

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NHSE launches £37bn framework for ‘new hospitals’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: HSJ, 17 February 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: The Guardian, 17 March 2025

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

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

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Source: Guardian, 11 February 2025

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Former chair takes trust to tribunal over whistleblowing claim

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

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

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

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

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Source: Health Service Journal, 11 February 2025

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Pledge of two million extra NHS appointments met, PM says

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

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

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

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

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Source: BBC News, 16 February 2025

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

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

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

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

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Source: Guardian, 16 February 2025

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NHS hires diversity staff on double the salary of junior doctors

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

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

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

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

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Source: The Times, 15 February 2025

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

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

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

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

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Source: The Times, 16 February 2025

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

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

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

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

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Source: Guardian, 17 February 2025

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Trump officials ask CDC, FDA to use gender notice on restored websites

The Trump administration has directed the nation’s premier health agencies to place a notice harshly condemning “gender ideology” on agency webpages that a federal judge ordered be restored online this week.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration were asked to place a notice on “any restored pages that were taken down due to their content promoting gender ideology,” according to an email sent from an official at the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday evening. The Washington Post obtained a copy of the email.

As of Friday morning, the notice is included on the two webpages the FDA was directed to restore, which provide guidance for researchers on how to increase enrollment of females in clinical trials and interpret sex-specific data, as well as improving participation of underrepresented populations in such trials.

“Any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from the immutable biological reality that there are two sexes, male and female,” the notice reads. “The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children, by promoting their chemical and surgical mutilation, and to women, by depriving them of their dignity, safety, well-being, and opportunities. This page does not reflect biological reality and therefore the Administration and this Department reject it.”

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Source: The Washington Post, 14 February 2025

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FDA warns of potential to miss notifications on smartphone-compatible diabetes devices

The Food and Drug Administration released an alert notifying patients of a safety concern using diabetes devices such as continuous glucose monitors, insulin pumps and automated insulin dosing systems that rely on a smartphone for delivering alerts.

The agency said it received medical device reports in which users reported alerts were not being delivered or heard in situations where the users thought they configured the alerts to be delivered. Some instances may have contributed to serious harm, including severe hypoglycaemia, severe hyperglycaemia, diabetic ketoacidosis and death.   

The FDA issued recommendations for users and said it is working with diabetes-related medical device manufacturers to ensure that smartphone alert configurations are evaluated prior to use. It is also working with manufacturers to ensure settings for smartphones and mobile medical applications are continuously tested and that updates are communicated quickly and clearly to users.

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Source: US Food and Drug Administration, 5 February 2025

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Letby trust chair resigns after damning tribunal verdict

The chair of a foundation trust has resigned after a tribunal found he unfairly forced out its former CEO, because she raised concerns about his bullying behaviour.

Susan Gilby was CEO of the Countess of Chester Hospital Trust from 2018 until she was suspended and excluded from the premises in December 2022.

The events unfolded at a hugely consequential time for the hospital. Dr Gilby, a former intensive care consultant, joined as medical director in August 2018. But she was made acting CEO shortly after, when her predecessor Tony Chambers was forced to leave, amid a rift with paediatricians and others over the Lucy Letby case.

As she approached four years as CEO, the tribunal found Dr Gilby was the subject of a coordinated campaign instigated by chair Ian Haythornthwaite and carried out by chief people officer Nicola Price and two non-executives. The campaign was dubbed “Project Countess” and was “designed to protect the [chair] and manoeuvre [Dr Gilby] out of the trust”.

It was launched after Dr Gilby began raising concerns with directors in spring 2022 about Mr Haythornthwaite’s “confrontational and aggressive behaviour”.

The tribunal commented on Mr Haythornthwaite becoming angry with junior staff about the refurbishment of the trust offices while the “struggling organisation” faced “an erosion of public faith” in the trust against the backdrop of “a multiple murder inquiry”. This, it said, was “indicative of a chair prioritising his own self-interest above that of the trust and failing to work collaboratively with the CEO and staff”.

Mr Haythornwaite joined the trust in 2021. COCH this evening said he had ”taken the decision to step down with immediate effect”.

He said in a statement: “I have made this decision in the best interests of the trust so that the focus of the organisation can continue to be on delivering the best possible care to patients.”

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Source: HSJ, 14 February 2025

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USA: Striking nurses, Providence have yet to meet or schedule talks since vote to reject contract

Negotiators for Providence and its striking nurses have not met since the two sides reached an ill-fated agreement a week ago, and they have no meetings on the books.

Nearly 5,000 nurses at all eight Providence hospitals in Oregon last week rejected a tentative agreement reached between the health system and their labor union, the Oregon Nurses Association, extending a strike that began 10 January 2025 and is now in its fifth week.

The rejected deal included wage increases, a one-hour penalty pay for missed meals and breaks, and provisions intended to codify language from a state hospital staffing law. It also offered a ratification bonus based on hours worked since a nurse’s last contract expired instead of retroactive pay raises.

Nurses had criticized the deal, arguing that it failed to adequately address chronic understaffing, patient safety concerns and demands for fair wages and benefits. Nurses also raised frustrations over their health benefits, citing difficulties accessing regular providers after Providence switched to Aetna for employee health plans this year.

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Source: The Oregonian, 12 February 2025

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New York rejects Louisiana request to extradite doctor who prescribed abortion pills

New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, has rejected a request from Louisiana to extradite a doctor who was charged there with prescribing abortion pills to a pregnant minor.

'I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana,' Hochul said at a news conference in Manhattan. "Not now, not ever".

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Source: The Guardian, 14 February 2025

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Letby trust CEO was forced out by ‘self-interested’ chair, tribunal finds

A foundation trust CEO was unfairly forced out of her role, after whistle blowing about the bullying behaviour of its chair, a tribunal has ruled.

Susan Gilby was CEO of the Countess of Chester Hospital Trust from 2018 until she was suspended and excluded from the premises in December 2022.

The events unfolded at a hugely consequential time for the hospital. Dr Gilby, a former intensive care consultant, joined as medical director in August 2018. But she was made acting CEO shortly after, when her predecessor Tony Chambers was forced to leave, amid a rift with paediatricians and others over the Lucy Letby case.

As she approached four years as CEO, the tribunal found Dr Gilby was the subject of a coordinated campaign instigated by chair Ian Haythornthwaite and carried out by chief people officer Nicola Price and two non-executives. The campaign was dubbed “Project Countess” and was “designed to protect the [chair] and manoeuvre [Dr Gilby] out of the trust”.

It was launched after Dr Gilby began raising concerns with directors in spring 2022 about Mr Haythornthwaite’s “confrontational and aggressive behaviour”.

The tribunal commented on Mr Haythornthwaite becoming angry with junior staff about the refurbishment of the trust offices while the “struggling organisation” faced “an erosion of public faith” in the trust against the backdrop of “a multiple murder inquiry”. This, it said, was “indicative of a chair prioritising his own self-interest above that of the trust and failing to work collaboratively with the CEO and staff”.

In summer 2022, Dr Gilby raised her concerns directly with Mr Haythornthwaite, who refused suggestions of mediation, and reacted angrily, banging his desk.

In September of that year, Dr Gilby “was subjected to concerted, aggressive and unjustified verbal attacks at the private board meeting [which] were not ’shut down’ by the [chair] when he could have and should have done so” according to the tribunal.

The tribunal found “on the balance of probabilities” the chair and two NEDs “had agreed before the meeting that [Dr Gilby] would be personally criticised and held accountable for [the trust’s] financial position and steps taken to remedy it”.

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Source: HSJ, 14 February 2025

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RFK Jr sworn in as US Health and Human Services chief

Robert F Kennedy Jr, one of President Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet picks, has been sworn in as the next US Health and Human Services Secretary.

The former presidential candidate will now oversee key health agencies with about 80,000 employees and a trillion-dollar budget. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had questioned his baseless health claims and vaccine scepticism.

Kennedy is the founder of the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, which gained prominence in the US for casting doubt on the safety and efficacy of childhood vaccinations and making the discredited claim that the shots are linked to autism.

Kennedy, the nephew of former President John F Kennedy, has denied that he is anti-vaccination, pointing out his own children are immunised. He insisted during his confirmation hearings that he merely supports more stringent studies and safety tests for injections.

During the hearings, lawmakers also grilled Kennedy on his promotion of health misinformation and knowledge of the US healthcare system.

He was asked to explain his stance on abortion, as he previously indicated that he was in favour of abortion rights. He responded by telling lawmakers he agreed with Trump that access to abortion should be controlled by individual states and that "every abortion is a tragedy".

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Source: BBC News, 13 February 2025

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'My mum lost her dignity in 60 hour A&E wait'

The son of an 88-year-old woman who has been stuck in A&E for more than 60 hours said she had been stripped of her dignity.

Maureen Harman was taken to Wigan Infirmary in Greater Manchester on Monday evening, but as of Thursday afternoon had still not been admitted to a ward.

Her son, Nick Harman, told the BBC that for most of that time his mother had been lying on a trolley in a corridor along with many other patients.

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) apologised for the long waits and said it had been "extremely busy".

Mr Harman, 56, said: "She's sat on her bed, she's getting uncomfortable, there's people in corridors, there's people coming in escorted by police, drug addicts and things.

"Your dignity is just gone. You're doing things in the corridor, with people who are strangers."

Mr Harman stressed the staff "have been brilliant" but that the scene in A&E had resembled a "warzone".

On Wednesday BBC North West reported nearly 39,000 patients spent more than a day in the region's emergency departments because there were no hospital beds for them.

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Source: BBC News, 14 February 2025

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Sharp rise in cancer patients in England waiting months for treatment

The proportion of cancer patients in England experiencing long waits for treatment has almost trebled, figures show.

Analysis by Cancer Research UK exclusively for the Guardian shows there has been a nearly fourfold increase in the number of patients in England waiting more than 104 days for urgent cancer treatment, from just over 6,000 patients in 2016 to 22,000 last year.

In 2024, more than 11% of cancer patients waited longer than 104 days to start treatment, which was nearly triple the rate of 4.4% in 2016.

The latest figures from NHS England show a slight improvement in the number of patients treated on time. In December, 66.4% of patients were treated within 62 days of urgent referral, up marginally from 64.5% in November.

The target is to treat 85% of cancer patients within 62 days but this has not been met in any month since December 2015. Even if patients referred via screening or from their consultant are included, just under one-third of patients are still not treated on time.

According to Cancer Research UK, the last time the NHS consistently met the target to treat 85% of cancer patients within two months of urgent referral was in 2013.

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Source: The Guardian, 13 February 2025

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Student died from sepsis after antibiotics error in London hospital, inquest hears

A consultant paediatrician warned medical colleagues treating her son that they had failed to give him life-saving antibiotics hours before he died from sepsis, an inquest has heard.

William Hewes, 22, a history and politics student, died on 21 January 2023 of meningococcal septicaemia at east London’s Homerton hospital, where his mother, Dr Deborah Burns, worked.

Burns brought her “very ill” son into the A&E at the hospital just after midnight and told her colleagues he was seriously ill and needed treating for meningitis, the inquest into his death heard on Thursday.

A doctor prescribed 2 grams of the antibiotic ceftriaxone within minutes of Hewes’s arrival and the medical team knew the drug had to be given as soon as possible. But due to a communication mix-up between the duty emergency registrar, Dr Rebecca McMillan, and nurses, the “life-saving” drug was not administered within the vital first hour of treatment, the inquest heard.

Burns said her son only got the antibiotics after she warned Dr Luke Lake, the acting medical registrar on duty at the time, about the failure to administer the drug. In written evidence read to the court, she said: “I told him I didn’t think William had the antibiotics. Luke reassured me, that they had been written up earlier. I replied: ‘Yes, but they have not been given.’”

Earlier, Dr McMillan recounted her distress when she realised at about 1.17am that the drug had not been administered by nurses as she requested.

She said: “I do recall standing outside the resus room with [nurse Marianela Balatico] where she asked if I was OK and said that I looked really upset when I realised that antibiotics had not been given.

“We had a conversation along the lines of we didn’t understand how this had happened. We were both upset when we realised that this hadn’t happened.”

Fighting back tears, McMillan said one of the “learning points” from Hewes’s death was the need “to be clearer who I’m giving instruction to”. She added: “I obviously thought that my instructions had been clear enough. I have thought about that moment over and over.”

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Source: The Guardian, 13 February 2025

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Ambulance services underprepared for ‘mass casualty incidents’

Ambulance services would still struggle to respond effectively to a mass-casualty event like the Manchester Arena bombing, HSJ has learned, as nearly all have been denied the funding needed to bolster preparedness.

The public inquiry report on the May 2017 attack, which killed 22, was sharply critical of the emergency services’ response, including North West Ambulance Service Trust. The inquiry’s November 2022 report made nearly 150 recommendations to prepare for future attacks.

Crucially, ambulance trusts were told to review their capacity to respond to a mass-casualty incident – including whether they had enough trained specialist staff – then tell commissioners what extra funding they need to ”respond effectively”.

Gaps identified included the availability of 24/7 “critical care cars”, specialist practitioners in hazardous area response teams, and tactical commanders in operations centres.

But eight out of England’s 10 ambulance trusts have confirmed to HSJ – through Freedom of Information requests and follow-up enquiries – that they have not received funding from commissioners to cover what they found was needed.

HSJ understands that, while some trusts have strengthened specialist teams using other income, they have not received funding for the majority of what the reviews said was needed, and there are therefore still significant gaps in readiness.

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Source: 14 February 2025

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