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Scientists map use of epilepsy drug in England and Wales linked to birth defects

Scientists have created a unique map of England and Wales that reveals detailed variations in the use of a single medicine. The drug is sodium valproate, a treatment for severe cases of epilepsy that is also known to cause health problems for pregnant women.

The findings show drops in the use of the drug, in response to warnings about its effects, but the map reveals clear differences in dispensing patterns to women of child-bearing age, with the highest rates being found in local authorities in the north-west and across coastal regions in the east. These variations highlight potential inequalities that need further investigation, the researchers warn.

Valproate is an important drug for treating epilepsy and bipolar disorder, but it has also been linked to miscarriages, birth defects and cases of conditions such as ADHD and autism.

The medicines regulator, MHRA, said in 2016 that babies exposed to sodium valproate in the womb had a high risk of serious developmental disorders. About 20,000 children in the UK are estimated to have life-changing injuries caused by valproate. In addition, studies have suggested that children of men who take the drug have an increased risk of neurological disorders.

“This is the first time we have been able to combine different sets of health data and understand how a particular medicine is used in the population,” said the research’s team leader, Reecha Sofat, professor of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of Liverpool. “The fact that we succeeded suggests we could provide benefits to the health service by understanding, at a granular level, how medicines are being used by people in different areas.”

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Source: The Guardian, 21 December 2024

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Children born thanks to IVF pioneer find their biological father is scientist from his lab

Questions have been raised about one of the UK’s most well-known fertility doctors after two people whose parents attended his clinic reportedly made the shock discovery that their biological father is a lab scientist who worked in the same hospital as the physician.

Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988, was an obstetrician and gynaecologist who helped develop in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and ran a fertility clinic in Oldham Hospital, Greater Manchester.

The parents of Roz Snyder, 52, and David Gertler, 51, attended the clinic around the 1970s after struggling to conceive children.

Ms Snyder and Mr Gertler were shocked after DNA tests revealed they are half-siblings, the Telegraph reported.

The pair were recently alerted by the genealogy website Ancestry that their late fathers are not their biological ones, but that they shared a biological father in Roy Hollihead, who ran a pathology laboratory one floor above Dr Steptoe’s clinic.

The 84-year-old told Ms Snyder that Dr Steptoe “used sperm from lab staff, medical students and doctors… but no records of any were kept” and told the Telegraph that he was not sure the hospital was aware of the apparent scheme.

Northern Care Alliance, the NHS trust that now runs Oldham Hospital, said it had no records of Dr Steptoe’s clinic, according to the Telegraph.

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Source: The Independent, 23 December 2024

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UK doctors warn of risk from expanding water beads marketed as toys

Doctors have issued a warning over tiny beads that can expand up to 400 times their original size when exposed to liquid, amid reports linking them to serious harm and deaths among children.

The water beads are marketed for various purposes, including for use as toys, in crafting, as home decor or in floristry, and are especially popular at Christmas. They are sold under a variety of names including jelly balls, water balls, sensory beads and water crystals.

If swallowed, water beads expand and can block the gastrointestinal passage, which may then require surgery. The beads can also cause choking and have harmed children in the UK, with reports linking them to deaths globally. Water beads can be difficult to detect and do not show up in X-rays.

On Monday, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) issued a “safety flash” over water beads marketed as toys, amid fears they could be given to young children over the holiday period.

It follows a safety alert from the UK’s Office for Product Safety and Standards, which advised that water beads should be kept away from children under five years old, and only used with older children or vulnerable adults under close supervision.

The safety alert has been issued to emergency doctors to ensure they know what to look out for while working, but the RCEM also wants to warn parents and carers of the dangers.

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Source: The Guardian, 23 December 2024

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Patients with high need should get own GP, says government

Patients most "in need" should be able to see the same doctor at every appointment in their local GP surgery, the government says.

GPs will be rewarded financially if they do this and if they go "above and beyond" preventing common killers like heart disease or treating high blood pressure early, it says.

The measures are included in proposed changes to the GP contract in England - the government says it will add an extra £889m to the existing budget.

The doctors' union, the BMA, which will now consult its members on the proposals, says GP practices have been worried about finances but this could provide "an important lifeline".

The Royal College of GPs described the increase in budget as "positive news for patients and the wider NHS" and welcomed measures to tackle the "bureaucratic burden", but warned there was a long way to go.

RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said: "While we hope this package announced today will help stabilise general practice and provide some much-needed certainty for hardworking GPs and our teams, there is a long road ahead."

Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, of the BMA, said GP practices across the country had been "frantic with worry" around the impact of the "crippling rise" in national insurance contributions from April.

"Hopefully today's news provides an important lifeline for our 6,000 plus practices, and we are committed to reaching consensus around the management of the additional business pressures that practices will face in the new financial year," she said.

She said she hoped the funding announcement "would be looked back on as a positive starting point for an evolving conversation" and looked forward to seeing further details.

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Source: BBC News, 20 December 2024

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Just 10 of 4,000 tainted blood victims have had compensation, campaigners say

Furious victims of the infected blood scandal have said that just 10 out of 4,000 people have received compensation under a new scheme, despite pledges from the Conservatives and Labour to sort out payments this year.

Campaigners say they have been “disengaged” by the Labour government and that, by this month, just 17 people out of the thousands eligible had been invited to register for compensation.

Five groups representing victims met officials dealing with claims last week, only for the meetings to end with those in attendance feeling they were being treated as a nuisance, rather than victims of a scandal from which they had suffered greatly.

Andrew Evans, chair of the group Tainted Blood, who was told aged 12 that he had contracted HIV from a contaminated blood product, said: “When the infected blood inquiry published its final report, the entire community breathed a collective sigh of relief. … we dared hope, for just a moment, that our decades of battling was coming to an end, and that compensation would now be swiftly forthcoming.

“With the promise that all of the infected would be paid before the end of 2024, followed swiftly in 2025 by the estates of those who have died and affected relatives in their own right, campaigners and the community hoped that the finish line was in sight, and all that remained would be a series of formalities.

“Since then, we have been disengaged by the government, and the goalposts have been drastically moved to the point where now, just before Christmas, only a quarter of one per cent of the infected have been offered compensation.

“Our battle, rather than ceasing, has intensified. The community, already heavily traumatised, is at breaking point. We, the campaigners, bear the burden of attempting to explain what is going on, although we have little more idea of that ourselves, and supporting thousands of devastated victims.”

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Source: The Guardian, 22 December 2024

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Hospices in England to receive £100m funding boost

Hospices in England are to receive £100m of government funding over two years to improve end-of-life care, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has announced.

Another £26m is going to hospices for children and young people, which is a continuation of money previously given through a grant.

It comes after hospice leaders warned they were forced to close beds due to increasing financial pressures.

Only about a third of hospice funding comes from the NHS – the rest has to be raised from donations, fundraising and charity shops.

Around 170 hospices provide end-of-life care for adults and around 40 provide hospice care for children and young people in England, with some hospices providing care for both.

The government said funding announced today was "the biggest investment in a generation" and would go towards improving buildings, equipment and accommodation.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: "Hospices provide the care and support for patients and families at the most difficult time so it is only right they are given the financial support to provide these services.

"This package will ensure they will be able to continue to deliver the compassionate care everyone deserves as they come to the end of their life in the best possible environment."

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Source: BBC News, 19 December 2024

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Fourteen patients suffered severe harm and 20 moderate harm after they were “lost to follow-up” by a hospital trust, it has admitted

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust said two of the patients who were harmed are now pursuing clinical negligence cases against it.

The majority of the 34 cases involved “cancer pathway/referral issues” between January 2022 and April this year. 

The trust has informed patients in all appropriate cases, it said, but has not provided further details to HSJ of the cases where negligence action is being taken.

A “deep dive” review was launched earlier this year after staff noticed they were seeing more serious incidents than usual involving patients being “lost to follow-up”.

People are generally “lost to follow-up” when an appointment should take place – such as after a scan, after a fixed duration, or after an attempt to transfer specialty – but does not. It can result in harm when it means concerns are not picked up and treated, particularly if diagnostics are not properly acted on in cancer pathways.

The trust indicated similar issues are likely to be widespread in the NHS, saying in a statement: “Patients ‘lost to follow-up’ is an issue across the NHS, and this has been acknowledged within national investigations by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body along with recognition of the impact of clinical booking systems as a key theme.

“At a local level the trust recognised [it] needed to be addressed. The deep dive was held to identify areas where improvements could be made, and this work is in progress.”

The review cites the practice of “excess patient related results/paper referrals being left in piles in office environment”, multiple waiting lists in place for some services, and information being lost when lists were transferred to spreadsheets.

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Source: HSJ, 20 December 2024

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Devastated parents describe how they watched one-year-old die after hospital made 24 'unbelievable' mistakes

The parents of a one-year-old girl who died after 'gross neglect' have called the mistakes made at a hospital where she was being cared for 'unbelievable'. Eleanor Aldred-Owen, from Mold, was diagnosed with bicoronal craniosynostosis at just 12 weeks old.

This condition meant that the sutures, the fibrous tissue joints connecting the bones of the skull, had fused prematurely, preventing normal growth and necessitating surgery to alleviate potential pressure on her brain. An inquest into Eleanor's death held at Gerard Majella Coroner's Courthouse in Liverpool on Wednesday (December 18) heard how Eleanor attended Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool for surgery on September 29 2023, but complications arose and the hospital missed crucial opportunities to address them.

Eleanor’s parents Rachel and Chaz have now issued a heartbreaking statement following the inquest saying their lives are "empty and quiet" without their daughter. 

"We have found the failings in care identified by the hospital and recognised by the Coroner as unbelievable. We thought Eleanor would be cared for by specialists, instead there were 24 identified lessons to be learned in relation to her post operative care.

"The process of the Trust investigation was not an experience we found helpful and in particular we found the stance taken in preparation for the inquest and in the Trusts submissions to the Coroner only made this worse.

"We are intensely grateful to the Coroner for her thorough investigation and her conclusion that Eleanor died as a result of numerous gross failures to provide her basic medical care, of course none of this changes the fact we have to continue our lives without Eleanor.”

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Source: Wales Online, 19 December 2024

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Cancer screening take ups not back to pre-pandemic levels, charity warns

A health charity has sounded the alarm over a dip in the proportion of people taking up the offer for cancer screening as figures show how effective the tests are at catching cancers early.

Breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening programmes have jointly spotted nearly 90,000 cancers between 2019 and 2023, according to analysis by Cancer Research UK (CRUK).

This includes 62,000 cases of breast cancer, 23,000 cases of bowel cancer and 4,400 cases of cervical cancer.

But the charity expressed concern over dwindling screening participation for breast and cervical cancer tests.

About 70% of eligible people take up the offer for bowel cancer screening, 69% of those invited take part in cervical cancer screening and 65% take part in breast cancer screening.

The charity said that the proportion of people taking up the offer to check their breasts has not reached the levels they were before the pandemic – 71.1% took up the offer in 2019.

Cervical cancer screening has steadily declined over the last decade – from 74.2% in 2014 to 68.7% in 2023.

CRUK has called for action to make screening easier to access for people in England, such as by letting people book out of hours.

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Source: The Guardian, 19 December 2024

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NHS spent more than two billion on private mental health hospitals last year

NHS spent more than two billion sending patients to psychiatric units last year, following decades of cuts to beds, new analysis reveals.

The huge sum on private mental health hospitals in 2023 was a £279 million increase on the year before. A report by Laignbuisson, shared exclusively with The Independent, said the lack of beds within the NHS is a major driver of spending on private hospitals, warning healthcare leaders are “stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

The two biggest private providers, Priory Group and Cygnet Health Care, took 509 million and 560 million in profits last year They account for more than 68% of the market, according to the report.

Almost £200 million was spent on private children’s hospitals by the NHS in the same year, figures show.

Tim Read, author of the report, said private mental health hospitals face stable conditions despite the move to more community care due to the “limited capacity” in NHS beds.

“Despite being a policy priority, it is clear the system is struggling to get a grip on out-of-area placements. With NHS Mental Health Trusts’ seeing occupancy rates climb to nearly 90 per cent, commissioners are stuck between a rock and hard place – either admit locally to an overcrowded ward or place a vulnerable person a long way from the local support networks.

“The NHS has seen its own bed capacity dwindle over decades and with significant re-investment unlikely given other priorities, the way that local areas engage collaboratively with the independent sector on how to best meet local need becomes ever more important.”

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Source: The Independent, 20 December 2024

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‘Punishment beatings’ cause NHS leaders to hide problems, says Streeting

A political culture “geared around sparing reputations” rather than being honest about the NHS’s failings has led to “backside covering” by senior managers trying to avoid “punishment beatings”, the health and care secretary has said.

Wes Streeting also told the health and social care committee yesterday that these cultural failings had contributed to a situation in which “on pretty much every front, care in this country is not as good as our counterparts”.

To address this, Mr Streeting said he wanted to set a culture which was “honest about the NHS’s failings”, rather than one that is “geared around sparing political blushes”.

He said the culture of the NHS is “set at the top” by the health secretary, which is why he has labelled the health service as “broken” in a bid to set a tone of honesty about its failings.

Mr Streeting said: “A political culture geared around sparing political blushes and reputations of governments is one that very quickly bleeds into backside-covering by senior leaders, thinking that if they acknowledge problems within their organisation that they are going to find themselves in news headlines or [receiving] a punishment beating by the secretary of state via the telephone.

“It also persists into a culture right down into the frontline where patient safety isn’t taken seriously [and] where whistleblowers are silenced in the most extreme cases. And you end up in a situation where, on pretty much every front, care in this country is not as good as our counterparts.”

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Source: HSJ, 19 December 2024

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Ireland tackled tainted blood scandal decades ago - and it has cost €800m so far

Ireland’s blood scandals have caused human suffering and cost the State around €800m in compensation so far.

A damning inquiry report in the UK this week found that authorities there covered up the infected blood scandal after knowingly exposing victims to unacceptable risks. More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected from 1970 to 1991 by contaminated blood products and transfusions.

Ireland moved decades faster to address the contamination tragedy.

The tribunal set up to compensate people infected by contaminated blood transfusions or blood products in the Republic of Ireland has paid out around €800m since 1996.

In Ireland a compensation tribunal, which is still sitting and will continue to do so for years to come, was set up by the government in 1995 first to compensate women infected with hepatitis C as a result of the use of contaminated human immunoglobulin anti-D. This blood product was given to women with the rhesus-positive blood type to protect future pregnancies.

The Finlay inquiry in the mid 1990s looked at the rules that were broken by the then blood transfusion service in producing anti-D.

The Lindsay tribunal set up in 2000 examined the contamination of Factor 8 products used by men with haemophilia which were contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C.

The tribunal heard how home-produced blood clotting agent caused infection in seven haemophiliacs despite earlier claims that it was safe.

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Source: Irish Independent, 21 May 2024

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New York doctor sued for prescribing abortion pills to Texas woman

A lawsuit, filed by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton on Thursday, alleges Dr Margaret Carpenter unlawfully prescribed abortion-inducing drugs to the 20-year-old, in violation of the state's laws.

While no criminal charges are involved, Mr Paxton said the woman, who was nine weeks pregnant, was taken to hospital in July with "serious complications" after taking the medication.

"In Texas, we treasure the health and lives of mothers and babies, and this is why out-of-state doctors may not illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents," he said.

Court papers note the woman received two drugs commonly used in abortions for pregnancies up to 10 weeks: mifepristone, which blocks a vital hormone in pregnancy, and misoprostol, which causes contractions, cramping and bleeding in the uterus.

The documents add the state of Texas is seeking up to $250,000 from New York's Dr Carpenter - who is also a co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine.

The lawsuit says the medic's "conduct violates the Texas Health and Safety Code's prohibition on prescribing abortion-inducing drugs via telemedicine". Such prescriptions are made online and over the phone.

Texas bars abortion at all stages of pregnancy, and in 2021 - before the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade, which gave a constitutional right to abortion - passed a law allowing state citizens to sue anyone who provides abortions or assists someone in undergoing the procedure.

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Source: Sky News, 15 December 2024

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Delays waste 130k hours of ambulance time in a fortnight

Fifteen years’ worth of ambulance time was wasted on delays in transferring patients to hospital in the first two weeks of this winter.

Wait times are up by a third in the past fortnight compared with last year amid concerns that the “worrying trend” will compound already mounting pressures facing the NHS.

Medics say they are facing a “quad-demic” — with flu cases in hospital four times higher than last year and high levels of Covid, norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

However, ambulance crews are experiencing longer wait times, meaning they cannot be redeployed to help others in need.

There have been 130,990 hours of delays in the first two weeks of winter as ambulances wait to transfer a patient to hospital — equivalent to 15 years, figures show.

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Source: The Times, 16 December 2024

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'Hospital's failures led to woman's death'

An inquest has found a woman, who died while trying to abscond from a psychiatric ward, did not intend to take her own life.

Jessica Powell, from Yeovil, Somerset, became trapped in a therapy room window in an apparent attempt to escape from Summerlands Hospital in August 2020.

A jury investigating the death of the 20-year-old ruled that staff failed to adequately supervise and secure the room.

Jane Yeandle, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust's service group director for mental health, said: "We are very sorry that she died as a result of an incident in our care."

Her father John Powell told the BBC: "It was just an error of judgement and unfortunately for Jess she just took her chance and that was the way it happened."

The hospital's failures included not updating a faulty alarm system which sent staff to the wrong room. Workers were also unable to release Miss Powell because of a lack of access from exterior and interior doors, the inquest ruled.

The jury ruled that staff "failed to adequately supervise and secure the therapy room which was fitted with windows that Miss Powell, a frequent absconder, might reasonably believe she could escape through".

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Source: BBC News, 17 December 2024

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Urgent ‘festive flu’ warning as NHS urges people to book pre-Christmas jab

Eligible people are being urged to take their last change to book flu jabs online in coming days to avoid the ‘festive flu’ ahead of Christmas.

NHS bosses say people will likely need to travel further to get vaccinated if they miss the “last chance saloon” of online bookings, which closes on December 20.

While more than half a million flu and COVID vaccinations have been booked in the last five weeks, an earlier-than-expected surge of seasonal viruses has increased flu-related hospital admissions by 70 per cent over seven days this month.

Steve Russell, national director for vaccinations and screening at NHS England, said: “With just three days to go, we are now in the last chance saloon to book extra protection against ‘festive flu’ via the online service.

“It’s important to remember that after Thursday, you may have to travel quite a bit further to get jabbed, with appointments no longer in as convenient places like supermarkets or car parks.”

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Source: The Independent, 17 December 2024

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Ban physician associates from seeing NHS patients one-to-one, says RCP

The NHS in England should slow or scrap altogether the recruitment of physician associates (PAs) and ban them from seeing patients one-to-one, medical groups are urging ministers.

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP), which represents hospital doctors, has called for a rethink of government plans to increase the number of PAs from 3,000 to 10,000 by the mid-2030s.

They should also not be allowed to run clinics on their own, without a senior doctor present, because left unsupervised they could pose a risk to patients’ safety, the RCP added.

“We’re calling on NHS England to slow down the expansion of the PA role [and] review its projections for growth in the PA workforce,” said an RCP spokesperson.

While the college is not proposing exactly how many more PAs the NHS should train and hire in coming years, it “believes their growth should be carefully managed” and NHS England needs to take “a more measured approach” to recruiting and using them.

Its move comes weeks after Wes Streeting ordered an independent investigation into the role and competence of PAs, after a series of cases in which patients they treated came to harm. They include Emily Chesterton who died after her blood clot was misdiagnosed by a PA as a calf strain.

The health secretary said the review, by Prof Gillian Leng, was needed because “there are legitimate concerns over transparency for patients, scope [of PAs’ role] and the substituting of [them for] doctors. These concerns have been ignored for too long.”

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Source: The Guardian, 17 December 2024

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Lengthy stay in A&E contributed to death

A lack of psychiatric beds and a 26-day stay in an accident and emergency department were among issues which contributed to the death of a 29-year-old patient who took their own life, a coroner said.

Matty Sheldrick took their life in the grounds of Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital in November 2022.

Horsham's senior coroner, Penelope Schofield, found eight issues which contributed to their death at the inquest conclusion on Friday.

James Ramsay, NHS Sussex's chief medical officer, said trusts in the region had been working together to improve the support and environment in which people were cared for when they were in crisis.

Ms Schofield said private housing was not suitable for Matty's ongoing sensory issues and that an A&E department was "not a suitable environment for a neurodivergent individual".

She said that Matty, a trans person, had been unable to access specialist advice and resources from the Transforming Care in Austism Team.

The inquest previously heard Matty took their life after reaching out for "help that did not appear to exist".

Matty's mother, Shelagh Sheldrick, previously said her child, who was autistic and had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), felt "dismissed, ignored and lied to" by mental health workers.

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Source: BBC News, 16 December 2024

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Martha’s rule having ‘transformative effect’, NHS England data shows

Patients have been moved to intensive care or received potentially life-saving treatment such as oxygen as a direct result of hospitals adopting Martha’s rule, NHS data shows.

Doctors and nurses have changed how they care for dozens of very sick patients since its introduction in many parts of the NHS in England during the course of 2024.

Martha’s rule, named after Martha Mills, who died in 2021 aged 13, gives patients and their loved ones the right to request an urgent review of the person in hospital’s treatment. That triggers their care being looked at urgently by a team of specialists, who offer a second opinion.

Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said: “The introduction of Martha’s rule represents one of the most important changes to patient care in recent years, and we are really encouraged to see the impact it is already having for patients in this first phase.”

The new patient safety procedure has led to 573 calls, across the 143 hospitals using it, in which someone has sought an urgent review. About half (286) have prompted an urgent review by critical care staff. And about one in five of those reviews – 57 cases – has led to the person’s care being escalated, for example by being given potentially life-saving antibiotics or other drugs.

Martha's mother, Merope Mills, told the Today programme: “It’s clear to me that if we implement Martha’s rule nationally, we can confidently say that it would greatly improve care, change the culture, and save lives.”

She continued: “Any doctors who still have doubts about the value of Martha’s rule, I’d love them to realise a bit of humility and being open to the opinions of the family and patients makes for the best and safest medicine.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 December 2024

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Hundreds of mothers diverted while in labour

Nearly 1,000 women were diverted to other NHS trusts or units while in labour within a six-month period this year, HSJ can reveal.

The information was obtained via a Freedom of Information request, but only 68 of approximately 120 trusts with maternity units provided responses – so the true figure is likely to be significantly higher.

In 528 of the 925 incidents recorded between January to June this year, patients were diverted to a different NHS trust from their chosen place of birth to either have their baby or to receive further care while they were in suspected or confirmed labour.

Of those, 402 were due to staffing, capacity issues in neonatal units, and high acuity of illness in women with a lack of diverse skill mix to support them. The remaining diverts were for clinical reasons such as premature labour.

A further 397 incidents involved diversions being made to other hospitals within the same NHS trust, bringing the overall total to 925.

HSJ’s research shines a light on a problem which is widely known but has not been properly quantified for several years.

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Source: HSJ, 17 December 2024

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Patient Safety Minister meets campaigners to discuss financial redress for mesh-injured women

Patient advocates Sling The Mesh will tomorrow (17 December) meet with Baroness Gillian Merron, the Minister for Patient Safety, to discuss financial redress options for women injured by pelvic mesh implants.

The meeting marks a significant step forward in recognising the profound harm suffered by thousands of women across the UK and the urgent need for redress to address the physical, mental, and financial toll of their injuries.

Pelvic mesh implants, including rectopexy mesh, were widely used to treat conditions such as pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence, but have left many women with debilitating pain, organ damage, autoimmune disease and other life-altering complications.

Despite years of campaigning for justice, affected women have faced mounting medical costs, lost income, lost pensions, and faced a diminished quality of life - with little financial support.

Kath Sansom, founder of Sling The Mesh, said: “The government must act with speed to provide financial redress. Many women have their PIP applications turned down even though they are severely injured, hundreds have lost relationships, their jobs, their pensions. Some have had to sell their homes to live with family as they can’t afford mortgage payments anymore.”

She added: “We were all innocent players in this appalling story which has taken a heavy toll on women, including financially. We trusted in a medical system that should have protected us. Instead, women have lost so much. Women harmed by mesh implants deserve financial redress to help rebuild their lives and gain some measure of justice for the suffering they’ve endured.”

The meeting will focus on potential pathways for redress and hear of the urgency in addressing the issue, with many struggling to afford ongoing medical treatment and getting trapped in cycles of financial worry due to their injuries.

One of the leading voices in Parliament supporting the cause, MP Sharon Hodgson, whose mam had had her life changed forever due to mesh, underscored the importance of the financial redress initiative.

Sharon said: “It is crucial that women who have been harmed by pelvic mesh implants receive the compensation they so desperately need and deserve. These women’s lives have been shattered, through no fault of their own. It is our duty to ensure that they are not left to shoulder the burden alone. I fully support the bringing this issue to light and pushing for meaningful redress.”

Rt Hon. Sir Julian Lewis, MP for New Forest East, who supports women in his local area who have been harmed by mesh, said: “The female mesh implant scandal is an ongoing NHS disaster. Constituents have been seriously injured, left permanently in pain, and forced to spend thousands of pounds on remedial surgery, with at best only partial success. They deserve substantial compensation and a serious research effort by the NHS to find new ways of safely removing these dreadfully damaging implants."

Rt Hon. Sir Alec Shelbrooke MP, who has also supported women in Parliament for many years, added: “Medical misogyny plays a key part in this horrific scandal. Women were butchered, through no fault of their own. Most were not given fully informed consent. It is vital they are compensated financially and as soon as possible. They must not wait as the victims of the Thalidomide, infected blood and Post Office scandals have been forced to.”

MP Sarah Green, who has supported her local constituents for years,  said: "It is past time that mesh victims receive the redress they need and deserve. In February the Hughes Report by the Patient Safety Commissioner outlined how such a scheme could work. The Government now just need to deliver it"

It is hoped the meeting will conclude with a commitment to further discussions and collaboration between the government and campaign groups to explore viable financial redress models and ensure no woman is left behind.

In a recent Westminster debate about pelvic mesh held on 5 December, 2024, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, MP Andrew Gwynne, closed by making a commitment to move financial redress forward at pace.

He said: "The previous Government were too slow on that (redress). It is a priority for this Government. We are working at pace, and we remain focused on making meaningful progress." 

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Budget changes will leave disabled and elderly without care as providers go under, experts warn

Rachel Reeves’ Budget measures will devastate care providers, leaving vulnerable disabled and elderly people without care next year, healthcare experts are warning.

The disastrous scenario could also bankrupt local authorities, care providers say.

The rise in employers’ national insurance in April, together with increases in the minimum wage and national living wage, will threaten the future of care companies, according to the Homecare Association, a membership body for care providers.

The association says that if care providers fold, the UK risks widespread failure of care provision, which could “leave people without care, overwhelm family carers and cripple NHS services”.

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Source: The Independent, 15 December 2024

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Top A&E doctors criticise ‘dangerous’ suggestion that corridor care can be delivered safely

Top emergency doctors have criticised a new guide on how to treat patients in corridors, warning it is “normalising the dangerous”.

New guidance produced by NHS England in September on how to provide “safe and good quality care” in “temporary” spaces.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has denounced the guide as “nonsensical” and “out of touch”, saying that it is “not possible to provide safe and good quality care” in corridors and cupboards in a new position statement.

While acknowledging that corridor care is “not acceptable”, the guidance says hospitals are having to use temporary spaces more regularly - and use is no longer “in extremis”. It advises staff on how they can deliver the “safest, most effective and highest quality care possible” in such circumstances.

The RCEM’s new statement on the guidance said: “Advice from arm’s length bodies that appear out of touch with what is happening in our departments was always going to be poorly received.”

Using corridors will result in long emergency department waits which are “associated with measurable harm to patients”, it said.

Use of corridors will lead to long waits in emergency departments which is “associated with measurable harm to patients”, it added.

Patient dignity and privacy is “not maintained” when they are cared for in corridors, with sleep “difficult, if not impossible” and unfeasible circumstances for maintaining patient confidentiality.

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Source: The Independent, 16 December 2024

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One in four babies in England delivered by caesarean section, NHS data shows

One in four babies born in NHS hospitals in England last year were delivered by caesarean section, official figures show.

The gradual increase in the number of caesarean births over the past decade is due to a growing number of complex pregnancies and births, caused by factors including rising obesity rates and women waiting until they are older to have children. The proportion of spontaneous deliveries that do not involve drugs or other medical interventions has steadily declined in the last 10 years.

“Over the past decade, there has been a gradual national increase in the number of caesareans,” said Dr Ranee Thakar, the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG).

“A major factor of this is the growing number of complex births. We are seeing national rising rates of obesity and people choosing to have children at a later stage in their life, both of which can increase the chance of complications.”

Most women seek a C-section for medical reasons, but also have the right to opt for one based on personal preference according to guidelines published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. These state that if a mother does not want a vaginal birth after discussing the benefits and risks, the medic should “offer a planned caesarean birth for women requesting a caesarean birth”.

In 2022, hospitals in England were told to abandon targets aimed at limiting the number caesarean sections carried out to below 20%, over fears for the safety of mothers and babies. At the time, the chief midwife described the targets as potentially unsafe. This followed the Royal College of Midwives formally abandoned its normal birth campaign in 2017, after years of promoting vaginal births as preferable.

Dr Thakar said: “The RCOG does not promote one form of birth over another. Women should be supported to make an informed decision about how they want to give birth, including a discussion on the risks and benefits of both vaginal and caesarean births. The safety and care of the woman and baby during pregnancy, labour and birth should always be the main focus.”

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Source: The Guardian, 16 December 2024

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‘Aggressive marketing’ fuels surge in patients seeking private referrals from GPs

Growing numbers of patients are requesting NHS-funded referrals to private providers “operating outside of agreed guidelines”, fuelled by long waiting lists and “aggressive direct marketing tactics”, GPs have warned.

The GPs report the biggest problems are, increasingly, for weight management and for services to diagnose neurological disorders such as ADHD and autism — both of which have long and growing waiting lists with many NHS services. 

National NHS choice rules, known as the “right to choose”, mean all ICBs must allow and fund patients to use any provider of these services, regardless of location and as long as it has a contract with another ICB. Choice of NHS community service providers, however, is limited, partly because they are funded by block payments.

The letter from Wessex LMC to ICB medical directors calls for “ICB action to address potential patient safety and quality issues relating to the ever-expanding market of ‘right to choose’ providers”.

“It does seem that some providers are using ‘right to choose’ as a way to access the NHS market where there are long waits for local NHS services, and they sometimes use aggressive direct marketing tactics to encourage patients to choose their service.

“The public would expect that if these providers are ‘available on the NHS’ then they would be practising in line with agreed guidelines and best practice but this doesn’t always seem to be the case.”

Examples of such problems include providers diagnosing conditions based only on remote consultations and surveys and GPs being asked themselves to carry out physical assessments that should be part of the specialist work.

The LMC says NHS specialist services were refusing to recognise some diagnoses made by the independent providers for accessing follow-up services and refusing to prescribe to the patients.

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Source: HSJ, 16 December 2024

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