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Hospitals running with 20% fewer children’s doctors than they need, new figures reveal

Hospitals across the UK are running with 20% fewer children’s doctors than they need on daily shifts, new research shows.

NHS staff are facing “unacceptable” pressures as paediatric units report a shortfall of 20 per cent in doctors and trainees on shift, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has warned.

Top doctors have said the government’s plans to bring down waiting lists would be “doomed to fail” if the workforce gaps for children’s services were not filled.

Professor Steve Turner, president of the RCPCH, said the gaps were having a detrimental impact on the wellbeing, morale and training of doctors and ultimately impacted patient care.

He said: “This report highlights how paediatricians are being stretched far too thin every day.  It is completely unacceptable that our current paediatric services are only operating at 80 per cent capacity when the level of demand on these services is now higher than ever…We cannot allow 80 per cent to become the new normal.

“Our children and the clinicians who serve them deserve more. Investing in and reforming paediatric services is not only valuable but is fundamental to the future health and economic wellbeing of our country.”

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Source: The Independent, 10 December 2024

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'My autistic son had no safety net when in crisis'

The family of a man who died after he repeatedly banged his head against a wall in a mental health suite said there was no "safety net" for people with their son's needs.

Declan Morrison, 26, from Cambridge, was autistic, had severe learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

In the hours before his death, he was left naked in a room with CCTV cameras, but his family said the alarm was only raised after he was found unresponsive by staff.

His parents, Graeme and Sam Morrison, are now calling for answers about what went wrong with their son's care.

Mrs Morrison said: "He was left to his own devices in a surrounding that he couldn't understand, with no stimuli, bright lights and bare walls."

In March 2022, Declan spent 10 days in the Section 136 mental health assessment suite, as there were no beds available across the UK.

But he could not cope with the austere, clinical environment which, under the Mental Health Act, should be used for a maximum of 24 hours.

The suite was described by coroner Simon Milburn as "wholly inappropriate", external for Declan's needs.

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Source: BBC News, 9 December 2024

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Fifth cyber incident in a week under investigation

Cyber security teams are investigating the fifth suspected attack on the NHS to have taken place last week.

HSJ can reveal Medway Community Health shut down some systems last week after suspicious activity.

The incident comes after declared cyber incidents at Alder Hey Children’s Foundation Trust, Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital last week.

Last week also saw the end of an incident from a fortnight ago at Wirral University Teaching Hospital FT.

The three NW trusts with an ongoing incident last week said in a statement: “Criminals gained unlawful access to data through a digital gateway service hosted by Alder Hey. This digital gateway is shared by Alder Hey and Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital.

“This has resulted in the attacker unlawfully getting access to systems containing data from Alder Hey Children’s, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, and a small amount of data from Royal Liverpool University Hospital. We have launched an investigation which is still ongoing to determine the full facts around what data has been obtained unlawfully.”

The trusts would not confirm how many patient records had been accessed online, but said “we do not believe the data published or accessed unlawfully relates to children and young people”.

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Source: HSJ, 9 December 2024

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Streeting ‘shocked’ by his lack of ‘oversight’ of social care

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting has said he is “shocked” by his lack of oversight of adult social care and said he is “determined to improve this” in a call with local leaders this morning.

Addressing a webinar on winter pressures with NHS and care leaders, Mr Streeting said he was “shocked by poor levers and line of sight [from DHSC] into the social care system” compared with the NHS, and said this contrast was “day and night, and I’m determined to improve this”, according to sources present.

Mr Streeting also stressed the importance of reform and a “plan” for social care on the call, alongside NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard this morning.

The health secretary also told trust leaders to “prioritise patient safety” by focussing on improving emergency ambulance response times, addressing handover delays and tackling the longest waits in accident and emergency.

He said he did not want trusts to prioritise patients who can be seen and discharged more quickly — and therefore would help meet the four-hour A&E target — above those with the greatest clinical need. Trusts were pressured to do this last winter amid efforts to meet the flagship target.

In a press statement, Mr Streeting said: “We inherited a broken NHS that saw annual winter crisis as the norm. This year, we’re seeing record pressures on services as we move into December.

“This winter I want to see patient safety prioritised as we brace ourselves for the coming months. I’m asking trusts to focus on ambulance delays, handovers and the longest A&E waits.”

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Source: HSJ, 9 December 2024

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Baby's inquest finds serious hospital failures after family's £250k battle

A coroner has found neglect and failure to provide adequate medical care contributed to the preventable death of a baby.

Hayden Nguyen died aged six days at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London in 2016.

The conclusion came after his parents spent seven years and £250,000 fighting for justice.

In a statement, the hospital said it was "committed to learning from any findings to improve our practices".

Senior Coroner Richard Travers said in his findings that Hayden had "obvious needs that were simply not met" by clinicians when his parents took him to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in west London in August 2016.

They were concerned about a fever he had but his condition quickly deteriorated. He had a cardiac arrest and died within 12 hours of arriving at the hospital. The treatment Hayden received, Mr Travers found, fell "very seriously below expected standards" and had he received appropriate and timely care, he would have survived.

An internal investigation by the hospital following Hayden's death found there had been eight errors in the care he'd received, including failures to identify signs of septic shock and to act on abnormal test results.

However, the original inquest into Hayden's death, held at Westminster Coroner's Court in 2017, concluded he had died of natural causes.

The coroner, Dr Shirley Radcliffe, had contacted the hospital to raise concerns about their investigation.

The hospital produced a second report, which halved the number of errors found and said the root cause of Hayden's death was an infection "which is known to have a high mortality".

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Source: BBC News, 6 December 2024

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Wes Streeting holds winter crisis talks with NHS bosses in England

Wes Streeting has held urgent talks with NHS leaders in England about how the service will cope with an impending winter crisis, amid signs that it is already under intense pressure.

At the meeting today, the health secretary told the chief executive of NHS England, Amanda Pritchard, and the bosses of large hospital trusts to prioritise patient safety over trying to meet waiting time targets.

He convened the meeting days after NHS England said hospitals faced being overwhelmed by a potential “quad-demic” of flu, Covid, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and the diarrhoea and vomiting bug (norovirus).

There is mounting alarm that more than 2,000 of the service’s 100,000 beds are already filled with people with Covid (1,390) or norovirus (756), another 142 occupied by children with RSV and that ambulance services are struggling to cope with the number of 999 calls they are receiving.

Streeting said: “We inherited a broken NHS that saw annual winter crisis as the norm. This year, we’re seeing record pressures on services as we move into winter. This winter I want to see patient safety prioritised as we brace ourselves for the coming months.”

He has asked local NHS leaders to make it a priority to get patients out of ambulances and into their hospitals as soon as possible, so crews can get back on the road to attend other incidents, and also to ensure that patients do not wait too long for care in A&E units.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 December 2024

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National probe into deaths of NHS heart patients as scale of cardiology crisis revealed

A national probe has been launched into the deaths and harm of thousands of NHS patients waiting for cardiac surgery, as doctors and experts warn of a “crisis in heart care”, an investigation by The Independent has revealed.

The audit was ordered by NHS England after concerns were raised about the impact on patients left waiting too long for specialist surgery, according to a leaked memo. Waiting times for all types of cardiac surgery are also under review.

Senior doctors have described how the NHS is struggling to provide life-saving care to those suffering heart attacks and strokes, with worsening ambulance delays meaning patients are being deprioritised.

The latest figures show waiting lists for cardiology services have doubled since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 with 412,164 patients waiting for routine care in October 2024 – up from 397,956 the year before.

The Independent can also reveal:

  • Ambulances are transferring just 31% of patients between hospitals for life-saving heart attack surgery in the target time.
  • Nearly 1,000 patients in London face a 10- to 12-week wait for heart surgery who should have had it within four weeks.
  • Multiple coroners have issued warnings in the last year after patients died waiting for routine and emergency cardiology surgery.
  • British Heart Foundation figures suggest 39,000 people died prematurely from cardiovascular disease in 2022.

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, clinical director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), and consultant cardiologist, said: “Unacceptably long waits for time-critical heart care puts people at significant risk of life-long heart failure or even premature death."

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Source: The Independent, 9 December 2024

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Life expectancy in US could stall by 2050

Americans’ life expectancy is expected to stall by 2050 because of increasing obesity and drug use, researchers said this week.

Right now, the country is on an upward trajectory, but improvements are expected to slow. In 2022, life expectancy at birth was 77.5 years in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 76.4 years in 2021.

By 2035, life expectancy will increase to 79.9 years and by 80.4 years in 2050 for men and women. However, despite progress made over the past three decades, the country will drop from 80th place in life expectancy to 108th by that year, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation cautioned.

“In spite of modest increases in life expectancy overall, our models forecast health improvements slowing down due to rising rates of obesity, which is a serious risk factor to many chronic diseases and forecasted to leap to levels never before seen,” Christopher Murray, the institute’s director, said in a statement. “The rise in obesity and overweight rates in the U.S., with [the institute] forecasting over 260 million people affected by 2050, signals a public health crisis of unimaginable scale.”

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Source: The Independent, 6 December 2024

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More than 100 alerts over deaths linked to antidepressants taken by Thomas Kingston

More than 100 alerts were made in a decade to the UK’s medicines regulator over deaths linked to the antidepressants which Thomas Kingston was taking before he killed himself.

A coroner ruled that Mr Kingston, the husband of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s daughter Lady Gabriella Kingston, fatally shot himself after an adverse effect to the medications he had been prescribed, which included the common antidepressant citalopram.

The UK’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it is undertaking a review of safety warnings for 30 antidepressants including citalopram and prozac.

Data analysis by The Independent has now found the MHRA has received more than 71 alerts over fatalities linked to the antidepressant citalopram since 2014.

The data, called yellow card alerts, also shows 114 alerts over fatal adverse reactions linked to sertraline, another antidepressant taken by Mr Kingston, over the same period.

However, the data does not determine whether the drug was the direct cause of death.

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Source: The Independent, 8 December 2024

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Scans reviewed amid concerns about radiologist

More than 1,000 CT scans carried out in Scotland have been reviewed after concerns were raised about the work of one consultant radiologist, BBC Scotland News has learned.

The medic was responsible for interpreting the detailed images of internal body parts and identifying health issues like cancer.

The scans were carried out at hospitals around the country and assessed by one of a central pool of experts working for the Scottish National Radiology Reporting Service (SNRRS) between April 2022 and July 2024.

It is understood that the review found that about 10 patients had potentially been affected.

The SNRRS said the patients would be contacted by their local NHS board to discuss further action.

They added that the consultant radiologist at the centre of review no longer works for the SNRRS.

It is understood that information about the review has been provided to the health board where the radiologist normally works.

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Source: BBC News, 9 December 2024

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Heart attack patients told to take themselves to hospitals due to ‘significant pressures’ on ambulance service

Patients in the West Midlands, including some of those suffering heart attacks, are being asked to get themselves to hospital amid worsening pressures on ambulance services this winter.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service has advised its 999 call handlers to ask patients if they can make their own way to the hospital when services are under high demand.

According to reports in The Sunday Times a memo was sent to staff explaining the change was needed due to delays in patients getting an ambulance.

The memo said category three and four patients – those who have fallen or are vomiting – will be told: “The ambulance service is under significant pressure, and we don’t have an ambulance available to respond to you. It may be a number of hours before one is available.”

“Is there any way you can arrange to safely make your own way to a hospital emergency department?”

All ambulance services have adjusted their guidance for call handlers, according to the reports.

West Midlands Ambulance Service confirmed that in some cases it is asking people if they can make their own way to hospital, and if they can’t, help will be arranged.

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Source: The Independent, 8 December 2024

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Gynaecology patients going private to avoid NHS waiting lists

Women waiting in agony for vital gynaecological treatment are turning to the private sector in the hope of being referred urgently to the top of the NHS waiting list.

The heads of 11 leading women's health organisations have signed an open letter, external urging the public and health professionals to participate in their "Change NHS" conversation.

They said: "Women and girls have repeatedly been left to 'fall through the gaps' of fragmented government policy."

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says the discussion around the government's 10-year health plan, external is a chance to lobby for "much needed" funding and system-wide support essential to transforming women's health.

An NHS spokesperson said: "While latest data shows NHS staff are making progress to cut waiting lists and tackle the backlog, we know there is much more to do to bring down long waits for care, particularly for women who are waiting for crucial appointments and treatment.

"We welcome feedback from the public and those working in women's health services via Change NHS to build on our work on improving services for women - which includes developing a network of women's health champions in every local care system and expanding neighbourhood women's health hubs across the country - giving thousands more women access to specialist women's health teams in the community."

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Source: BBC News, 9 December 2024

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Brain op failings made patients' lives 'hell'

Patients who had probes located in the wrong part of their brain due to failings at an NHS trust suffered unnecessarily for years, a damning report has found.

The leaked report into deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, seen by the BBC, also shows a whistleblower was ignored, intimidated and disciplined.

Wendy Swain, who had electrodes in the wrong place for 11 years, leading to difficulty walking and a facial twitch, said: “They’ve made my life hell.”

The trust, already under fire following an inquiry that exposed a culture of bullying and a lack of openness, said it was "truly sorry" for the mistakes and felt "deep regret".

Dr Chris Clough, former chair of the National Clinical Advisory Team who oversaw the final report into the brain surgery failings, said he did not believe the trust was learning lessons.

“I am begging them to get this report out and be open and fair with patients,” he said.

“There’s suffering that has gone on here and they need to let people know what went on.”

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Source: BBC News, 6 December 2024

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‘Don’t buy Epic’ unless it integrates with NHS App, says government adviser

The NHS should no longer do business with leading tech supplier Epic unless future iterations of its technology work with the NHS App, a senior government adviser has warned.

Professor Paul Corrigan was appointed by the Department of Health and Social Care in the summer to help shape its 10-year health plan. Speaking at an event organised by HSJ and IBM on Tuesday, he praised Epic’s ’My Chart’ App which is supplied alongside its electronic patient record system and provides patients with a wide range of useful information.

However, he expressed concern that it did not integrate with the NHS App, and said: ”The NHS, in my view, should not buy the next generation of Epic if it doesn’t talk to the NHS App”.

Professor Corrigan gave a detailed analysis of how the NHS needed to work better with technology businesses.

As part of this he said: “The ability to have interoperability [between IT] is greater and greater almost every year, but we are still constructing bits of pathways which are not interoperable. The main thing I would say is that we need to ensure that whatever kit is being bought talks to other kit and that you’re not allowed… to construct bits of pathways that don’t talk to others.”

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Source: HSJ, 6 December 2024

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Discrimination against gay and trans staff is undermining productivity, claims CEO

Tackling increased discrimination faced by gay and trans staff must be a priority for the NHS if it wants to maximise workforce productivity, according to the CEO of one of the service’s largest providers. 

Mark Cubbon, CEO of Manchester University Foundation Trust and chair of the NHS Confederation’s LGBTQ+ leaders network, told HSJ there is an “awful lot more” to do to ensure the health service is more inclusive.

A new survey by the network found that members had experienced higher rates of direct or indirect discrimination compared to the workforce as whole, while only 14% felt their organisation acted swiftly and appropriately to these incidents. A quarter of respondents said they had experienced homophobia while 20% reported encountering transphobia.

Mr Cubbon said: “[Some people] ask the question about, ‘why are all these things important’, with the breadth of the agenda that we’re facing across the NHS.

“As I’ve said, not only is it morally the right thing to do, there’s an imperative here for us all."

“It’s really important for the individuals, morally the right thing to do, and it’s really important for the taxpayer so that we can get people to come to work. We employ more than a million people across the NHS, and we want people to be at their best when they come to work.”

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Source: HSJ, 5 December 2024

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Report on disgraced child surgeon a ‘whitewash’, families say

Families of children operated on by a disgraced surgeon have labelled independent reports into their care as a "whitewash" and a "final insult".

Yaser Jabbar, a former surgeon at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), carried out procedures including leg lengthening and straightening. He also operated on children with complicated disorders.

But some cases linked to him resulted in harm, including life-long injuries and amputation.

Mr Jabbar left the hospital in 2023 after a report by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) found some of the surgery had been "inappropriate" and "incorrect".

Following the RCS report, GOSH said each of Mr Jabbar's 723 patients would receive an independent report to conclude what level of harm they had suffered.

The reviews, which are being carried out by specialist surgeons who did not work at GOSH, are based on patient notes provided by the hospital.

Families have started receiving reports about the care their children received. BBC News has now spoken to four families - and had indirect contact with 12 more - who say the reports do not reflect their children's experiences and often raise more questions than they answer.

Many of the reports were concluded without any interviews or interaction with the family or patient, they say.

Parents describe the reports as part of a "culture of cover-up", telling the BBC that GOSH has "failed their children", leaving them physically and mentally damaged.

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Source: BBC News, 6 December 2024

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‘Barely a spare bed in the NHS’, nurses warn as flu cases soar and alarm raised over winter crisis

NHS leaders have warned hospitals are “busier than ever” for this time of year, as new figures show the number of people in hospital with flu is four times higher than in the same period last year.

Nurses have said there is “barely a spare bed in the NHS” and that staff and patients are “desperately worried” about the coming weeks and months.

Health leaders have warned that the service is facing a “quad-demic” of disease going into winter amid rising cases of flu, Covid-19, norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, urged eligible people to get vaccinated as soon as possible amid growing fears over the health service’s capacity to cope with a “quad-demic”.

He said: “For a while there have been warnings of a ‘tripledemic’ of Covid, flu and RSV this winter, but with rising cases of norovirus this could fast become a ‘quad-demic’ so it’s important that if you haven’t had your Covid or flu jab to follow the lead of millions of others and come forward and get protected as soon as possible.”

Commenting on the figures, Patricia Marquis, executive director for England for the Royal College of Nursing, said: “There is barely a spare bed in our NHS, with sky-high flu admissions and thousands stuck in hospital unable to be discharged due to a lack of capacity in social care.

“Before the cold weather hits, nursing staff and patients are desperately worried about what the coming weeks and months may bring.”

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Source: The Independent, 5 December 2024

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NHS to review ME services after death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill

The NHS is carrying out an assessment of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) services across England after the death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill, whose case highlighted a lack of understanding and inability to care for sufferers of the illness. 

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), which provides advice to improve healthcare, is also re-examining its guidance on feeding support for people with severe ME. Education of medical professionals about patients, who have often been stigmatised, is also being ramped up.

Andrew Gwynne, the health minister, has committed to better research “with the aim of better understanding the causes, identifying new treatments and improving patient outcomes”.

It comes after the landmark inquest of Boothby O’Neill, who died at the age of 27 in 2021 after suffering from ME since her teenage years. Her case highlighted misunderstandings of ME, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, and the lack of treatment available for severe sufferers.

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Source: The Times, 5 December 2024

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NHS enters winter with ambulance delays almost double those in 2023

The time spent by ambulances stuck outside A&Es waiting to hand over patients has nearly doubled since last year, the first NHS “winter situation report” has revealed.

The first set of data from NHS England for the 2024-25 winter also reveals a huge increase in cases of flu and norovirus, and the highest-ever level of bed occupancy at this time.

The “sit rep” data shows 15.7 per cent of all patient handovers took more than an hour last week. This equates to more than 2,000 people a day being stuck in an ambulance for more than an hour while waiting for transfer to A&E.

NHSE described the pressure on ambulance services as “incredibly high”, with hours lost to ambulance delays up 87 per cent compared with last year. It said more than 35,000 hours overall had been lost to handover delays, with around 8 per cent more patients arriving by ambulance.

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Source: HSJ, 5 December 2024

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USA: Most rural hospitals have closed their maternity wards, study finds

Over 500 hospitals in US have closed their labour and delivery departments since 2010, according to a large new study, leaving most rural hospitals and more than a third of urban hospitals without obstetric care.

Those closures, the study found, were slightly offset by the opening of new units in about 130 hospitals. Even so, the share of hospitals without maternity wards increased every year, according to the study, published in JAMA.. Maternal deaths remained persistently high over that period, spiking during the pandemic.

Because its data runs only through 2022, the study does not account for the additional challenges that hospitals have faced since the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade that year and led many states to restrict abortion. States with abortion bans have experienced a sharp decline in their obstetrician work force.

“We’re more than a decade into a severe maternal mortality crisis in the United States, and access to hospital-based maternity care has continued to decline over that entire time period,” said Katy Kozhimannil, the study’s lead author and a professor of health policy at the University of Minnesota.

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Source: The New York Times, 4 December 2024

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Elderly patient left unable to swallow after 52-hour A&E wait

An elderly man was left unable to swallow after waiting over two days in A&E without being given regular medication, and died four weeks later.

In a “shocking” case that has raised fresh concerns over the state of urgent NHS care, the 85-year-old was sent to a hospital emergency department after a routine appointment. Amid massive delays, his A&E wait went into a third day, with most of it spent on a bed in the corridor.

He had Parkinson’s disease and required medicine at various intervals to control his symptoms. During his time in A&E, the man should have received 18 doses but seven were not given and three were given late, according to a report from the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB).

The report, which does not name the patient or hospital, highlights how the man was advised to go to A&E after complaining of back pain following a fall at home the day before.

After 52 hours in A&E, he was finally admitted to a ward where his Parkinson’s symptoms deteriorated and he lost the ability to swallow, the HSSIB said.

He died four weeks later, with the causes of death listed on the death certificate as a severe chest infection, Parkinson’s and frailty of old age.

The HSSIB report highlights how the man spent most of his time in A&E on a bed in a corridor because of demand on services. Corridor care can cause problems for emergency staff because there are “limited opportunities to store medication brought from home”, the authors said.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 November 2024

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Regulation ‘chilling effect’ could ‘increase fear’ for NHS managers

Regulating managers could have a “chilling effect” dissuading people from taking up challenging roles, and cause risk aversion to difficult decisions, the government has acknowledged.

The Department of Health and Social Care published a consultation last week on introducing professional regulation for NHS managers.

Government and NHS England have moved towards supporting professional regulation in the wake of last year’s conviction of neonatal nurse Lucy Letby for murdering babies.

The consultation document set out potential risks and benefits. Risks include “deter[ing] external talent from joining” as well as “implications for ongoing employment of existing NHS managers”. The document cites a possible “chilling effect” whereby regulation “may increase the fear of sanctions and individuals… may be deterred from taking up already challenging board roles”.

Another risk states: “NHS managers monitor risks and face challenging decisions to balance patient safety, operational performance, and financial sustainability. Additional regulation may change the framing for the difficult judgements that frontline, system and national NHS managers make on a daily basis, by increasing their aversion to risk.”

A further risk is “a high quantity of vexatious concerns being raised”.

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Source: HSJ, 5 December 2024

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Why is norovirus reporting in England so high at the moment?

Data for the current 2024/2025 season in England shows that norovirus laboratory reports are notably higher than the 5-season average. Norovirus cases typically increase through autumn and into winter, but this year cases have risen earlier than usual and are expected to continue to increase. This rise comes alongside a shift in circulating common norovirus genotypes.

UK Health Security Agency surveillance systems reveal several key patterns, including increased laboratory confirmed norovirus cases in all age groups, significant impact of norovirus outbreaks in healthcare settings and genetic diversity.

Several factors are likely contributing to the unusual norovirus activity we’re seeing this season. These include:

  • Post-pandemic changes in population immunity.
  • Changes in diagnostic testing capabilities.
  • Changes in reporting to national surveillance.
  • A true rise in norovirus transmission due to the emergence of GII.17.

There's currently no indication that GII.17 causes more severe illness, but work is underway to conduct further assessment of severity. 

To reduce the spread of norovirus, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water, as alcohol-based hand sanitisers are not effective against the virus. Stay at home for at least 48 hours after symptoms stop and disinfect surfaces using a bleach-based cleaner where possible.

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Source: UK Health Security Agency, 29 November 2024

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Doctors call for major incident as hospital 'unsafe'

Senior doctors working at a Glasgow hospital have asked for a 'major incident' to be called this week but had their request declined, BBC Scotland News understands.

Emergency medicine consultants described conditions in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) as "grossly" unsafe with no room to take in new patients on Monday evening.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it has a "robust system" in place to deal with additional pressures which were implemented.

Documents seen by BBC Scotland News describe the whole hospital site at the QEUH in Glasgow as being "completely overwhelmed" on Monday evening.

The emergency medicine consultants said a lack of capacity in accident and emergency left one patient waiting almost six hours in the back of an ambulance with a fractured hip.

At the same time five ambulances were on route and a further 19 expected to attend the hospital.

The document states that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde chief executive Jane Grant was involved in discussions about whether a major incident should be called, but it is believed she declined the request.

The health board say the situation was resolved without involving the chief executive.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said all of its services are under "considerable pressure" with the arrival of winter bringing additional challenges.

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Source: BBC News, 3 December 2024

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'We're attacked and abused as we try to save lives'

Violence and abuse against paramedics and emergency call handlers is on the rise, with reported cases up by more than a third since 2019, the BBC has found.

Almost 45,000 assaults were recorded by ambulance services across England over the last five years, with staff saying they had been punched, kicked, threatened with weapons and subjected to racist, homophobic and religious abuse.

Paramedic Nutan Patel-West, 41, said she had been racially abused "multiple times" while on shift and, during one call-out in 2021, narrowly avoided serious injury after a glass ashtray was hurled at her.

The government said there was a "zero-tolerance approach to this type of behaviour" and warned that those who assault emergency workers can face up to two years in prison.

Mrs Patel-West, who has worked for North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) for more than a decade, said: "I've been verbally abused, racially abused, punched and had a knife drawn on me.

"On one job a patient said 'you need to go back to your own country, you're not welcome here' before he threw an ashtray at my head. He missed by inches.

"I signed up to this job to help people, not this."

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Source: BBC News, 4 December 2024

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