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Physician Associates: Minister hints at pause in expansion

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said there are “legitimate concerns” over the role of physician associates (PAs) amid worries they are being used to replace fully-qualified doctors.

He said he wanted to look into the issues around the roles before a planned expansion in the number of medical associates.

Mr Streeting acknowledged there were concerns around the tasks PAs were doing and transparency, with patients not necessarily realising they were not being treated by a doctor.

There has been an ongoing debate within the NHS about the use of such roles, with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges calling for a review into PAs and anaesthesia associates (AAs) to “clarify claims around their safety and usefulness in patient-facing roles”.

Mr Streeting told BBC Breakfast: “I am taking these concerns seriously and I’ve spent a lot of time listening to clinicians, listening to physician associates as well, by the way.

“I think they do have a role to play and can add value, not least in freeing up doctors’ time to do the things that only doctors can do.

“But I think there are legitimate concerns about the extent of doctor substitution and replacing doctors with PAs, there are issues around transparency.

“As patients, we should know who we’re seeing, who’s in front of us and why, and we’ve got to take those issues seriously.”

Mr Streeting said he would be saying more about the associate roles “in the coming weeks”, hinting an expansion in the number of the roles could be paused while work is carried out to address concerns.

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Source: Medscape, 13 November 2024

Read our interview this week with Asif Qasim, Consultant Cardiologist and Founder of MedShr, about the role of physician associates in the NHS and the patient safety issues.

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'Mums are dying and it's so preventable'

Lucy will never again dance with her three-year-old daughter or hold her 12-month-old baby boy. She died by suicide in September this year after suffering from postnatal depression and psychosis.

Her family say she was failed by mental health services. It was the second time Lucy suffered with the condition, but she had no extra support in her second pregnancy.

They are calling on the government to end what they say is a postcode lottery of perinatal mental health care.

Lucy's death is part of a bigger picture.

The postcode lottery of perinatal services is stark. Yet one in 10 women suffer from postnatal depression according to the NHS.

Research from the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) reveals North Yorkshire, where Lucy lived, did not meet the care quality standards for perinatal care set by the Royal College of Psychiatrists 2023.

Karen Middleton, head of policy at MMHA, says mums are being failed by the lack of consistent maternal mental health care.

“Maternal mental health isn’t fully understood and has been historically under-invested," she said.

"We need to raise awareness so commissioners and managers at the local level provide sustainable funding that is based on the levels of need in their area.”

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Source: BBC News, 14 November 2024

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He was trapped in hospitals for a decade – now he is finally free

Just one year ago, Nicholas Thornton lay in a windowless hospital room, in a bed he could not leave on his own, unable to speak.

He had spent 10 years like this, in hospital wards – as well as in unsuitable dementia care homes and psychiatric units – all because he had learning disabilities and autism.

Now, 12 months on, he is finally free at the age of 29 – and in a home of his own.

His incredible transformation since leaving Rochard Hospital, in Essex, means he is now able to leave his house unassisted and has even regained his speech.

“It’s like I have my life back, I have my freedom back... for so long I was just stuck in the hospital. I have my freedom,” he said.

But while Nicholas reaps the benefits of his new life, there are more than 2,000 people just like him, stuck in hospitals across the country because there is no suitable care for them outside.

Hundreds have been trapped in hospital for more than five years, unable to be discharged into the community as local authorities struggle to come up with funding to meet their needs – and some have become so deeply institutionalised that their needs are now extremely complex.

Ministers have introduced a new Mental Health Bill meaning patients with a learning disability and autism would only be sectioned under the Mental Health Act for a maximum of 28 days.

But the changes to the act are unlikely to have prevented what happened to Nicholas, who ended up in inappropriate settings primarily because of a breakdown in care packages.

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Source: The Independent, 13 November 2024

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Pharmacies vote to cut services unless UK government acts over ‘crisis’

Pharmacies have said they will halt a number of services within weeks, including the end of free medicine deliveries and extended opening hours, unless the government drastically boosts funding for the sector to stem an “escalating crisis”.

In a high-turnout ballot run by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), which represents independent community pharmacies, 99% of pharmacy owners said they were willing to limit their services in the interests of patient safety if improved funding was not forthcoming.

Leaders in the sector warned that a failure to boost funding for pharmacies would lead to further closures and said the “sense of anger” among pharmacy owners had intensified after the budget, citing the 6.7% increase in the national minimum wage and rise in employer national insurance (NI) contributions.

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, the chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said: “The community pharmacy sector is in an escalating crisis with a £1.7bn shortfall in its funding. This has got worse with the hike in the employer NI resulting in £12,000 extra costs annually for our members. As healthcare professionals, we believe that patients must not be caused suffering by any withdrawals of our members’ valuable and vital professional services.”

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Source: The Guardian, 14 November 2024

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The MHRA seeks views on pre-market regulations for medical devices to improve patient access and strengthen patient safety

A consultation has been launched by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on proposed changes to the regulatory requirements a medical device must meet before it is placed on the market in Great Britain. The consultation will close on 5 January 2025.

The consultation will focus on four policy areas that have evolved significantly since the MHRA’s initial consultation to strengthen medical devices legislation was launched in 2021. These four areas, described below, are part of broader regulatory reforms that respond to recommendations set out in the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (IMMDS) review and that support the development of a regulatory framework that enables transformative technologies to reach patients as quickly and safely as possible.

The findings from this latest consultation will inform new legislation, the Pre-market Statutory Instrument, which we expect to be laid in Parliament next year. This follows the laying of The Medical Devices (Post-market Surveillance Requirements) (Amendment) (Great Britain) Regulations in Parliament on 21 October 2024.

Together, these reforms will boost UK patients’ access to safe and innovative medical products, and will help the government’s efforts to eradicate health inequalities, get the NHS back on its feet and kickstart growth across the country.

The four policy areas that the MHRA is consulting on are:

  1. UKCA marking
  2. International reliance
  3. In vitro diagnostic (IVDs) devices
  4. Assimilated EU law.

This proposal – alongside more specific transitional provisions – would ensure a smooth transition to a future regulatory framework, which aims to protect patient safety, improve access to innovative medical devices, and support innovation.

You can take part in the consultation here. The MHRA welcomes views from all interested stakeholders.

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Source: MHRA, 14 November 2024

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Canadian teen in critical condition with what is believed to be human case of bird flu

A Canadian teen is hospitalised in critical condition with what is believed to be bird flu, a British Columbia health official said Tuesday.

It’s not clear how the teenager picked up the virus, which has been detected recently in wild birds and poultry in the province, said Dr Bonnie Henry, British Columbia's health officer. The teen is not known to have any contact with infected animals, she said.

Officials have released few details about the patient. Henry said the teen was healthy before developing symptoms more than a week ago – initially eye redness, cough and fever – and has been hospitalised with a respiratory illness since Friday in Vancouver.

Initial testing indicated the infection is from bird flu. Officials believe it is the Type A H5N1 bird flu but are awaiting confirmation. H5N1 has been spreading widely in the US among wild birds, poultry, cows and a number of other animals. This year, 46 people in the US – mostly farmworkers – have tested positive with mostly mild symptoms.

In Canada, testing has been done on about three dozen people who were in contact with the teen. None of them have evidence of infection, Henry said.

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Source: The Independent, 13 November 2024

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Less than half of eligible people received NHS ‘midlife MOT’ since 2019, says watchdog

Less than half of people over the age of 40 in England are getting the heart health checks they are entitled to, according to the government’s spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office called for a review of how NHS health checks are provided in England, after it found that only 44% of eligible adults attended one in the past five years.

The checks, known as a midlife MOT, were introduced in 2009, to help identify those at higher risk of developing heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and diabetes and offer tailored advice and treatment to help them manage their risk more effectively.

Heart disease is estimated to affect 6.4 million people in England, costing the healthcare system £7.4bn a year and the wider economy an estimated £15.8bn a year. It contributed to a quarter of all deaths in England in 2022. In 2019, NHS England’s long-term plan set a target to prevent 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases by 2028-29.

The report, “Progess in preventing cardiovascular disease”, calls on the government to assess whether local authorities are best placed to deliver health checks.

The Department of Health and Social Care should also “set clear targets for the numbers or percentages of the eligible population who should attend health checks, so they are attended and not just offered”, the NAO said. And there should be incentives to ensure those at highest risk of cardiovascular disease, receive their checks.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “Each year thousands of lives are lost to cardiovascular disease, with billions of pounds spent tackling it.

“Health checks can play a crucial role in bringing these numbers down, but the system isn’t working effectively, resulting in not enough people having checks. This is an unsatisfactory basis for delivering an important public health intervention.

“The Department of Health and Social Care needs to address the weaknesses in the current system for targeting and delivering health checks if it is to achieve the preventive effect it wants.”

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Source: The Guardian, 13 November 2024

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Nine hours and 52 minutes: did Dave Strachan’s ambulance wait cost him his life?

On the evening of 15 March 2022, Dave Strachan woke up with chest pains and difficulty breathing.

His wife, Lucille, called 999 and asking for an ambulance. Was Dave breathing, the call operator asked. Yes, but he has chest pains and he’s cold, said Lucille. The call operator asked her to monitor Dave, to tell them every time he took a breath, information which was then fed into a computer.

Lucille was told the ambulance would take about four hours to arrive. 

Just before 7am, after a wait of more than seven hours, an ambulance finally pulled up to the gate. “I thought: ‘Thank God.’” says Lucille. “But before the two men got out of the ambulance, another call came in and they said: ‘We’ve got to go.’ I said: ‘What do you mean, you’ve got to go?’ They said: ‘Because we haven’t put our foot out of the cab, we have to obey orders and go to another case.’ I said: ‘Dave is really ill.’ They were embarrassed. One of them said: ‘I’m so sorry, this is a red call.’"

Eventually, at 9.10am, nine hours and 52 minutes after Lucille’s first call, the ambulance arrived. 

Dave died of acute myocardial infarction and coronary artery atheroma. At the inquest last year, the coroner concluded that, “The time it took for an ambulance to be dispatched and arrive and convey him to hospital meant that there was a missed opportunity to have probable life-saving medical treatment.” In other words, he probably should be alive today. 

After Dave’s inquest, the coroner wrote a Report to Prevent Future Deaths, copies of which were sent to both the Welsh Ambulance NHS Trust and the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which provides NHS services in north Wales. The report highlighted areas of concern and two reasons for the delay were given.

First was that, “All available resources were managing incidents of a higher acuity or the same category but registered prior.”

The other reason why it took so long for Dave’s ambulance to come, wrote the coroner, was that “there were significant handover delays across all Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board sites.” If an ambulance crew is unable to hand over a patient at the hospital, it can’t go and pick up the next one. “Deaths are occurring and will continue to occur as a result of delayed ambulance attendances caused by these multifactorial issues.”

Lucille makes it clear she doesn’t blame anybody personally. At the end of the inquest, one of the paramedics spoke to her. “A junior ambulance lady, who hadn’t been there for very long, came over and said: ‘I want to apologise, I’ve been having sleepless nights about this.’ I said: ‘Well, you can stop that right now, Dave would not want that.’”

Nor does she blame anyone at the hospital Dave was taken to. “There was a highly trained specialist waiting in an operating theatre, and the theatre staff, all waiting for him, but he couldn’t get there. It’s the system and the organisation that’s at fault.”

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Source: The Guardian, 13 November 2024

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'My wife died because the NHS used cheap labour'

A man whose wife died after a drain was mistakenly left in her abdomen for 21 hours has condemned the increased use of physician associates (PAs) within the NHS

Susan Pollitt's inquest concluded her death at Royal Oldham Hospital in July 2023 had been caused by an "unnecessary medical procedure contributed to by neglect".

Roy Pollitt did not know his 77-year-old wife was being treated by a PA - who are only required to have two years' medical training - and believes "she would have lived if the NHS had not used cheap labour".

The coroner who examined Mrs Pollitt's death highlighted the lack of a national framework covering PAs' training, supervision and competency assessment.

Associates were introduced in the NHS 21 years ago with the expectation they would support doctors by delivering basic care.

Over the past two years the number of associates has more than doubled to 3,000.

According to the NHS Long Term Plan, there will be 12,000 physician and anaesthetic associates by 2036.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said there were "legitimate concerns" about the role of PAs before the expansion.

Fears have been expressed that some have been acting beyond their original remit.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 13 November 2024

Read our interview this week with Asif Qasim, Consultant Cardiologist and Founder of MedShr, about the role of physician associates in the NHS and the patient safety issues.

Read more

‘Persistently failing managers will be sacked’, says Streeting

Wes Streeting wants NHS England to step up intervention in under-performing NHS organisations, and give greater flexibility to strong-performers – including over capital investment, he will say today.

The health and social care secretary will promise new “league tables” and say he wants ”top talent attracted to [the] most challenging areas” while “persistently failing managers [will] be sacked”.

A new NHS Oversight and Assessment Framework will be confirmed by April, to “ensure performance is properly scrutinised”, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

It is expected to put greater focus on the “capability” of trusts and integrated care boards, as well as their performance and outcomes — something NHSE consulted on in the spring.  The promised league tables are expected to cover waiting times, finance and leadership, sources said.

NHSE will also publish a new “Performance, Improvement and Regulation Framework”, to set out more clearly and when and how it will intervene, but it is at an early stage, HSJ understands.

Poor performers will be subject to deep dives by the government and NHSE, with turnaround teams sent in to fix any issues, a Department of Health and Social Care announcement said.

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Source: HSJ, 13 November 2024

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Scandal of “newborn gang” that put profits ahead of babies’ lives rocks Turkey’s health system

A health scandal in which newborn babies were allowed to die for profit has cast a harsh light on Turkey’s growing reliance on private hospitals.

Eleven private hospitals in and around Istanbul have been permanently closed as part of the “newborn gang” (yenidoğan çetesi) scandal, which has dominated Turkish headlines for three weeks. On 18 November, 47 people will stand trial on charges including negligent homicide, fraud, and forgery. Prosecutors are asking for sentences of 589 years for the alleged ringleaders—two doctors and an ambulance worker.

Seventeen of those charged are nurses and 14 are doctors, including the chief physicians of six hospitals. Five more are hospital directors or managers, and one is a hospital owner. The rest are hospital secretaries and accountants, as well as workers at the ambulance and referral services of Istanbul municipality and province.

The indictment against the 47 defendants names 12 babies who died through negligent homicide, but a report submitted to the government by Istanbul police, who led the investigation into the gang, claims that “they have caused the death of hundreds of babies.”

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Source: BMJ, 7 November 2024

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Synnovis attack led to at least five cases of ‘moderate’ patient harm

The cyber attack on NHS pathology provider Synnovis caused at least 119 incidents of patient harm, including at least five cases of “moderate” harm, according to figures provided by South East London Integrated Care Board (ICB).

Healthcare services in London were disrupted by the attack in June 2024, with an NHS London update on 4 October showing that 10,152 acute outpatient appointments and 1,710 elective procedures were postponed at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS FT.

South East London ICB told Digital Health News that of 498 patient safety incidents linked to the attack, 114 were deemed to have caused “low harm” and five at Guy’s and St Thomas’ caused “moderate” harm.

There are also 91 related patient safety incidents being reviewed – 67 at King’s College Hospital and 24 at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Helen Hughes, chief executive of Patient Safety Learning, told Digital Health News: “In addition to these recorded cases of harm, this incident may have resulted in further patient harm that is more difficult to capture.

“Disruption caused by cyber attacks often results in significant delays to care and treatment, with longer waits having a particularly serious impact on patients with chronic conditions and worsening health.

“The impact of these delays will only be seen over time.”

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Source: Digital Health, 12 November 2024 

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Performance management role stripped from ICBs

NHS England — not integrated care boards — will be solely responsible for the performance management of trusts, the chief executive of NHSE has announced.

In her speech at the NHS Providers’ annual conference today, Amanda Pritchard clarified the roles of NHSE, ICBs and providers — something many trust leaders had been asking for since the establishment of ICBs. A call for greater clarity in this area was also a recommendation of the Darzi review of NHS performance.

Ms Pritchard also told the conference the financial position next year would be even “tighter” than this year, despite local NHS organisations setting unprecedented and often unrealistic savings targets in 2024-25.

Explaining how the service would now be run, she said NHSE would carry out “planning, assurance and support”, as well as “intervening quickly, providing expertise, and using our regulatory levers where performance is not acceptable”.

ICBs would focus “on strategic commissioning” and “creating the environment for more action on prevention and for the neighbourhood health model”.

Providers would have responsibility for “delivery, quality and safety and on joining up pathways”.

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Source: HSJ, 12 November 2024

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USA: 1 in 4 child deaths after ER visits are preventable, study finds

The morning after Phyllis Rabinowitz brought her newborn daughter home from the hospital, she knew something was terribly wrong. The baby, Rebecca, had thick mucus, trouble breathing and lethargy unlike anything Ms Rabinowitz had seen in her first child.

But during multiple visits to the emergency room, doctors told Ms. Rabinowitz that Rebecca had a common cold and sent them home. At nine days old, Rebecca died; her parents learned from an autopsy that the cause was a viral infection that could have been managed had she been admitted.

More than 80% of emergency departments in United States hospitals are not fully prepared for paediatric cases, a new study finds, despite the fact that children make up about 20% of visits each year.

The new analysis, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, estimated that if every emergency department in the United States had the core features of “paediatric readiness,” more than a quarter of the child deaths that follow ER visits could be prevented, a figure that equates to thousands of young lives each year.

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Source: New York Times, 1 November 2024

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Tackling racism ‘must be core’ to 10-year health plan

The government’s 10-year plan will fail if it does not tackle racism in the health service, the chair of the NHS Confederation has said.

Lord Victor Adebowale has insisted that addressing it cannot be seen as a “nice-to-do or at the edges of what people consider serious”.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Race and Health Observatory last week he said: “The 10-year plan, I’m just being honest, it’s going to fail unless you deal with [racism]. You cannot engage with the workforce of the NHS unless you do something about the racism because, frankly, they comprise 26 per cent of your workforce.”

He said private sector leaders “if they’ve got 26 per cent of their workforce, looking like various shades of me and feeling like the workforce does at the moment, they would consider that as a serious risk to growth and profit”.

“The 10-year plan will fail if equity isn’t driven in,” he said. “One of the key tests of the plan is that race equity is built in from the beginning. It cannot be seen as a nice-to-do, or at the edges of what serious people consider serious. It has to be at the core.”

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Source: HSJ, 11 November 2024

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Woman from Wales died after gastric sleeve surgery in Turkey, inquest hears

A woman died during an operation after travelling to Turkey for slimming surgery, an inquest heard.

Janet Savage, 54, was undergoing a gastric “stomach sleeve” operation but never came around from the procedure.

Savage, from Penrhosgarnedd near Bangor, had travelled to the private Ozel Rich hospital in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya and hoped to lose three stone, after earlier taking Ozempic.

A senior coroner at an inquest in Caernarfon found that Savage, a driving examiner, died from acute bleeding loss due to injury to her abdominal aorta, which had an attempted repair, after gastric sleeve surgery.

Savage had contacted a firm called Regenesis Health Travel, based in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, the inquest heard. It organises flights, hotels, surgical and non-surgical procedures at Ozel Rich hospital.

In a statement, Alison Ergun, Regenesis’s client service administrator, said Savage had told her in an exchange of Facebook messages in July last year that she was taking Ozempic, a medicine designed to treat people with type 2 diabetes, and wanted to lose three stone.

The women switched to WhatsApp to take the booking and the operation was booked at the hospital in Antalya for 5 August last year.

The inquest heard Ergun was later informed by her operations manager that there had been “complications”; Savage had stopped breathing and had been taken to intensive care. She died the following day, at 7.45am on 6 August.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 November 2024

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Licences granted to nearly 200 UK care providers despite labour law violations

Nearly 200 care providers have been given government licences to bring foreign nurses to the UK despite having previously violated labour laws, according to a study that highlights widespread employment problems in the social care sector.

The report by the Work Rights Centre shows 177 companies in England have been given licences to sponsor carers, even while publicly available information shows them to have violated workers’ protections in the past.

The study gives further evidence of major gaps in the government’s oversight of its foreign carer regime, under which hundreds of thousands of nurses and carers have travelled to Britain for work, only for many to experience exploitation and poor working conditions.

Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, said: “Our research finds that breaches of employment rights are endemic in the care sector. This cannot come as a surprise to the Home Office, which granted licences to companies with a history labour violations.

“For those who have been exploited, the fear of retaliation from their sponsor employer is enough to force them into silence. On top of this, working conditions are barely tolerable, with work schedules either all-consuming and exhausting, or so sparse that they do not provide enough income to make ends meet.”

The organisation also spoke to 92 different carers and found nearly two-thirds reported health and safety breaches, bullying or discrimination at work. Over half also said they were given unsustainable working hours, for example being asked to be on duty for as long as 100 hours a week despite only seeing clients for a fraction of that time.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 November 2024

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Hospitals issue warning about key NHS waiting list target as winter crisis looms

The government will not meet its ambition of getting NHS waiting times down to 18 weeks without investing in primary care, children’s services and mental health, NHS leaders have warned.

Healthcare chiefs also warned there is a “fundamental mismatch” between demand for services and what the NHS is able to do.

The boss of a trust that provides community and mental health services warned children are being “let down” amid “enormous” waiting lists.

“It’s really disappointing to see how absent children are, first of all in terms of policy, and I couldn’t account more strongly the extent to which I think they are being let down collectively,

“Waiting lists are enormous and are simply growing as things stand...there is a fundamental mismatch between demand and capacity as things stand,” they said.

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Source: The Independent, 12 November 2024

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Bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill ‘is safest choice’, argues MP

A bill to legalise assisted dying for some terminally ill adults is the “safest choice” and the “strictest” in the world, the MP behind the new law has claimed as it is set to be published.

Mentally competent adults with a life expectancy of six months or less who have a settled wish to die that has been approved by two doctors and the High Court would be able to do so under the proposed legislation for England and Wales.

Ahead of its publication on Tuesday, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater insisted her private member’s bill would make it illegal for someone to persuade a person through dishonesty, coercion or pressure to declare they wanted to end their life or to induce someone to self-administer drugs to die. Anyone found guilty of doing so would face a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

Critics argue the controversial Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which is likely to run to more than 40 pages, is being “rushed with indecent haste” and that MPs will not have adequate time to scrutinise it before the 29 November debate.

The legislation says two independent doctors must be satisfied that the person is eligible, but no doctors will be obliged to take part in the process.

Terminally ill people who have been resident in England and Wales for at least 12 months would have to take the prescribed medication themselves.

Health secretary Wes Streeting has already said he intends to vote against the bill, voicing his fears about coercion and people feeling a "duty to die".

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Source: The Independent, 12 November 2024

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Baby deaths trust still has care problems

An investigation into the high number of baby deaths at a Shropshire NHS trust in 2022 has identified poor care and issues with the neonatal service.

The Royal College of Physicians' review states further investigation is needed into high mortality across the entire West Midlands region, as well as at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital (SaTH) NHS trust.

On seven baby deaths, the report about the "obstetric journey" describes as poor the way problems were dealt with.

SaTH has insisted the quality of treatment had not contributed to deaths, but apologised for examples of poor care.

A total of 18 deaths were recorded by SaTH in the year 2021-22, which was 5% higher than similar sized trusts.

For the three years before this, neonatal mortality had also been high. So the trust invited the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) to look at its neonatal service.

The period 2021-22 was the time when senior midwife Donna Ockenden was reporting on SaTH failures that led to 200 deaths – at that stage the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history.

The RCP said the overall impression was of a maternity service that had taken huge strides over the past two years.

However, The RCP report identified only five cases where there was good practice in 2022. Two were unsatisfactory and 10 had room for improvement.

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Source: BBC News, 12 November 2024

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Covid inquiry told Treasury blocked NHS bed request

Boris Johnson’s government blocked a request to fund another 10,000 hospital beds at the height of the Covid pandemic, the chief executive of NHS England has said.

Amanda Pritchard told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry the decision, made by the Treasury in July 2020, had been “very disappointing”.

Extra beds and staff would have been used to cut waiting lists for planned care and “build resilience” going into a second winter wave of the pandemic, she said.

The government has said it cannot comment while the inquiry is in progress.

Ms Pritchard served as NHS England’s chief operating officer from 2019 until she was promoted to chief executive, in August 2021.

In her evidence, she said a request had been made to the government, for 10,000 extra permanent, staffed hospital beds, in July 2020.

The demand had been based on modelling the spread of the virus, along with the need to deal with other pressures that coming winter and resume more planned, or elective, surgery and other treatments for non-Covid patients.

But the inquiry heard the Treasury and the prime minister’s private office had refused the request, saying they wanted more use made of temporary Nightingale hospitals along with the private sector.

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Source: BBC News, 11 November 2024

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Nurses quitting profession early puts health reforms in England at risk, says union

ncreasing numbers of UK-trained nurses are set to leave the profession in England within a decade of registering, in a trend that could jeopardise the government’s overhaul of healthcare, according to a union.

More than 11,000 will have quit the register within their first 10 years on it, according to analysis by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) of the latest official figures.

Low staffing levels, increasing patient need and poor morale were among the factors cited by the largest nursing union, which examined data kept by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the regulator for nurses and midwives in the UK, and nursing associates in England.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the RCN’s general secretary and chief executive, said: “Nursing is an incredible career, and it should be one for life, but thousands are quitting early because they are burnt out, underpaid and demoralised.

“It is a perfect storm for ministers as thousands leave the profession early and student recruitment collapses. It’s also a heartbreaking state of affairs for those who want to spend their lives caring for others.”

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Source: The Guardian, 11 November 2024

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Thousands of lung cancer cases detected in lorry clinics

A lung-cancer screening programme that sees mobile clinics visit local communities in England has detected the disease earlier in more than 5,000 people.

Specially adapted lorries have been visiting supermarkets, football grounds and town centres in areas with the highest rates of the disease, as part of the biggest initiative of its kind in NHS history.

Since the programme's launch, in 2019, 5,037 lung cancers have been detected, with 76% of those at the earliest stages of the disease.

People are nearly 20 times more likely to survive for five years if their cancer is detected early, experts say.

Phil Bennett, from Droylsden, Manchester, counts himself lucky.

At first, he ignored a letter inviting him to be screened at one of the mobile clinics.

He had no symptoms and was too busy with work as a self-employed decorator. But when he did take up the offer, it was discovered he had stage-one lung cancer.

And its early detection made a huge difference to his chances of beating the disease.

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Source: The Independent, 8 November 2024

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NHS doctors could ‘spend more time with patients’ thanks to AI helper

An AI assistant which frees up doctors so they can spend more time with their patients is being trialled in the NHS.

The technology enables medics to listen to patients instead of typing up documents and letters – which the AI does for them.

The generative AI tech is being trialled across London, led by Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH), with possible expansion to other regions.

Funded by NHS Frontline Digitisation, the trial will include about 5,000 patient assessments in hospitals, GP surgeries, A&E departments and mental health services.

The AI, called Tortus, uses ambient voice technology (a combination of speech recognition and artificial intelligence) to pick up relevant medical information from a conversation, while filtering out background noise and irrelevant chat.

It aims to cut down the amount of time medics spend on administrative tasks by drafting notes, follow-up letters and suggests clinical codes, which are then checked by the doctor.

GOSH paediatric immunology consultant, Dr Maaike Kusters, told the PA news agency the technology was a “massive gamechanger in how I do my consultations”.

She added: “The patients I see in my clinics have very complex medical conditions and it’s so important to make sure I capture what we discuss in our appointments accurately.

“However, often this means I am typing rather than looking directly at my patient and their family.

“Using the AI tool means I can sit closer to them face-to-face and really focus on what they were sharing with me, without compromising on the quality of documentation.”

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Source: The Independent, 11 November 2024

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Breathing issues cause more emergency NHS admissions than any other condition

Serious breathing problems lead to more emergency admissions to hospital in England than any other medical condition, NHS data reveals.

More people with asthma, bronchitis or emphysema have to go into hospital for treatment because they are struggling to breathe than those with heart disease, joint problems or cancer.

During 2023-24 hospitals in England recorded 868,212 emergency admissions for diseases of the respiratory system, NHS figures obtained by Asthma + Lung UK show. That represented one in eight of all the 5.2m unplanned admissions during the year.

Such admissions are contributing significantly to hospitals being overwhelmed so often, and especially during winter, when cold weather breeds infections, the charity said.

Asthma + Lung UK claims the number of unplanned stays in hospital for breathing problems is so high because of a “collapse in care for people with lung conditions” in recent years.

“Lung conditions are silently suffocating the NHS, pushing it to breaking point and causing 66,524 deaths every year,” said Sarah Sleet, its chief executive. “Every day, people with respiratory conditions are needlessly suffering, hospitals are overwhelmed by emergency admissions for breathing issues, particularly during the winter.”

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Source: The Guardian, 11 November 2024

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