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NHS England director warns ‘we can’t surge beds and capacity’ this winter

An NHS England director has warned the health service will not be able to create the same extra capacity used to get through winter in previous years, adding to concerns about performance and safety pressures in coming months.

National director of urgent and emergency care Sarah-Jane Marsh said the NHS will not have the same ability to quickly increase the number of hospital beds or pay for extra social care support as it has had in previous years.

Ms Marsh told an NHS England board meeting on Thursday she was “very concerned” about the resilience of the service going into winter, despite it making headway with other seasonal preparations.

Ms Marsh told the meeting NHSE is also “doing additional work on our operational response” and “how we safely make choices to balance risk across systems” when waits get unacceptably long.

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Source: HSJ, 3 October 2024

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New vaccine 'could wipe out' ovarian cancer

The world's first vaccine for ovarian cancer, being developed in the UK, could wipe out the disease, researchers have said.

Scientists at the University of Oxford are creating OvarianVax, a vaccine which teaches the immune system to recognise and attack the earliest stages of ovarian cancer.

Cancer Research UK is funding the study with up to £600,000 over the next three years.

Director of the university's ovarian cancer cell laboratory Prof Ahmed Ahmed said they still had "a long way to go" but he was "very optimistic".

There are around 7,500 new ovarian cancer cases every year in the UK.

There is no screening test and it is often diagnosed late because the symptoms - such as bloating and no appetite - can be vague.

Genetic mutations put some women at a higher risk of developing the disease and, currently, women with certain genetic mutations are advised to have their ovaries removed before the age of 35.

Prof Ahmed said, if effective, the vaccine could remove the need for this.

Whilst the "full-blown timeline" for a vaccine being approved "might be many years away", Prof Ahmed said, if the vaccine was successful, it could have an impact within the next five years.

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Source: BBC News, 4 October 2024

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Delivering safe care a 'challenge' in A&Es, doctor warns

Delivering safe care continues to be a challenge in every emergency department in Scotland, according to a senior A&E doctor.

As the service gears up for winter, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) is warning that the government's winter planning is not doing enough to support A&E departments as they approach their busiest time of year.

The warning comes after the figure for August's emergency department waiting times was the worst ever recorded for that month, with just under a third of patients waiting longer than four hours to be seen.

The government target that 95% of patients should be admitted, transferred or discharged from an emergency department within four hours has not been met since summer 2021.

Dr John Paul Loughrey, vice president for Scotland of the RCEM, told BBC Scotland News that the Scottish government’s plans for the NHS this winter would not improve the experience of staff or patients.

He accused the Scottish government of "continuing to disregard" the urgent need to keep patients moving through the hospital system to stop them getting stuck in A&E.

We are seeing lots of discussion, but we haven’t seen any useful measures so far that will make it any better for people working in A&Es this winter," he said.

Dr Loughrey added that every day recently had been like "the winter crisis of winters before, but every day".

"Sometimes giving safe care can be a challenge in every A&E in Scotland," he said.

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Source: BBC News, 3 October 2024

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Work-to-rule punishes patients, Streeting tells GPs

The health secretary has urged GPs in England to end collective action and warn it will "only punish patients" in a speech on Friday.

Addressing the Royal College of GPs conference in Liverpool, Wes Streeting said he understands why doctors "wanted to give the previous government a kicking".

But he asked them not to "shut your doors to patients" and instead "work with us to rebuild the NHS together".

GPs voted to work-to-rule in a ballot conducted by the British Medical Association (BMA) in August, with 98.3% of the 8,500 GPS who took part in favour of taking collective action.

Following the ballot, the BMA recommended 10 protocols for surgeries to action, including limiting the number of patients seen by a doctor each day to 25 and being able to stop work when they are not contracted to do so.

NHS England warned the action could not only disrupt GP services, but also affect A&E waits and delay referrals for treatments such as knee and hip operations.

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Source: BBC News, 4 October 2024

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ICBs told to fix ‘substantial gaps’ in whistleblowing support

Integrated care boards have been told to rectify the “substantial gaps” in reporting through Freedom to Speak Up in primary care.

While numbers of “freedom to speak up” whistleblowing reports from staff in primary care are “improving”, they remain “relatively low”, NHS England said.

This is largely because “routes to escalate concerns are more limited than in secondary care, with risks to individual confidentiality due to the size of some providers,” Sir Andrew Morris, deputy chair of NHSE, said in a letter to ICBs this week.

He asked ICBs to ensure primary care workers are aware of and have access to “speaking up routes”, in order to support the primary care patient safety strategy published last week.

Primary care staff should be able to reach an FTSU guardian, the letter said. NHSE said there are “relatively very few trained and registered Freedom to Speak Up guardians that support primary care workers” and that even where guardians are in place, levels of speaking up “remain extremely low”.

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Source: HSJ, 3 October 2024

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Trust to limit ‘non-essential’ CT scans as deficit rises

A Yorkshire acute trust is reviewing its use of diagnostic scans with a view to “limiting non-essential procedures” as it tries to bring down its deficit, according to internal messages sent to staff.

The message, sent to staff and seen by HSJ, says: “The trust should identify ways to reduce spending on clinical supplies. Reviewing diagnostic usage and limiting non-essential procedures, such as CT scans, would significantly cut costs.”

A spokesman stressed the message also said “financial targets should never come at the expense of patient safety and quality care”.

Katharine Halliday, president of the Royal College of Radiologists, told HSJ that scans were “certainly not the area to target for cost savings.”

She added that demand for diagnostics was being pushed up by the introduction of new tests and treatments, patient and staff expectations, and anxieties over litigation.

Dr Halliday said: “For instance, in the case of strokes, options were once limited, but now effective management begins with accurate imaging.

“Early diagnostic tests are essential in identifying patients who can be safely discharged, benefiting both patients and alleviating pressure on hospital beds.

“… Although not every diagnostic test is necessary, using CT scans where appropriate leads to faster, improved treatments and more efficient hospital operations. This is certainly not the area to target for cost savings.”

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Source: HSJ, 3 October 2024

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Sickle cell drug is withdrawn over safety concerns just months after rollout

The sickle cell treatment voxelotor (Oxbryta) has been withdrawn from all markets by the manufacturer Pfizer after a “higher than anticipated” number of deaths were reported and clinical evidence showed that the drug’s benefits no longer outweighed the risks.

In a recall notice issued on 30 September the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) told clinicians and patients that “emerging data” suggested an “unfavourable imbalance in vaso-occlusive crises (acute painful crises) and fatal events (deaths)” in patients treated with the drug.

The agency shared a letter from Pfizer with UK healthcare professionals, which said that all patients currently having voxelotor prescribed must be contacted and advised to discontinue treatment and, where appropriate, discuss alternative treatment options. Patients should be instructed to return the product to the hospital pharmacy or homecare company that dispensed it.

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Source: BMJ, 1 October 2024

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Grieving mothers who have lost babies have to wait six weeks for mental health help to start, says report

Women experiencing trauma after birth and baby loss are waiting an average of six weeks – four weeks longer than they should – to be assessed by specialist mental health teams according to a new survey by the Maternal Mental Health Alliance.

More broadly, mothers are facing year-long waits for general mental health care as a lack of funding leaves “patchy” services throughout the country, the study said.

The charity has published a report highlighting the postcode lottery facing women who need maternal mental health support.

Data from 41 maternal mental health teams in England also found the average waiting time for one-to-one therapy following an assessment is 16 weeks. However, waits across the country varied from 0 to 12 months.

Providing maternal mental health services to all areas of the country was a core target within the NHS’s long-term plan, published in 2019. These services offer a range of help to women including those who have suffered trauma after birth.

Although most areas of the country have a team, access to services is varied according to the MMHA.

Dr Camilla Rosan, Chair of the Faculty of Perinatal Psychology at the British Psychological Society, said while there has been progress, “women and birthing people are still left waiting for months and months, still jumping through hoops and leaping over mountains to get to the evidence-based care they need and deserve. All the while their symptoms are worsening.

“This is time they don’t have – parents and babies simply can’t wait...”

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Source: The Independent, 2 October 2024

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NHS England to screen 100,000 babies for more than 200 genetic conditions

The NHS in England is to screen 100,000 newborn babies for more than 200 genetic conditions in a world-first scheme aimed at bolstering early diagnosis and treatment.

All new parents are currently offered a blood spot test for their babies, normally when the child is five days old, to check whether they have any of nine rare but serious conditions. The newborn’s heel is pricked to collect a few drops of blood on a card that is sent away to be tested.

Now, as part of a large-scale research study, 100,000 newborns will be offered much more advanced tests of the whole genome sequencing using blood samples typically taken from the umbilical cord shortly after birth.

“Diagnosing rare conditions in newborn babies at the earliest opportunity through genomic testing could be truly life-changing for families,” said Amanda Pritchard, the chief executive of NHS England.

“It has the potential to give thousands of children the chance to access the right treatment at the right time, giving them the best possible start to life, and for families to better plan for their care.”

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Source: The Guardian, 3 October 2024

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The places with the worst GP shortages revealed

Shortages of doctors mean the average GP in England has to care for 17% more patients than nine years ago, a BBC analysis shows.

It means for every permanent GP there are more than 2,300 patients - a jump of nearly 350 since 2015, helping explain why access to general practice has been worsening and patient satisfaction declining.

The analysis of NHS data also shows the areas struggling the most have list sizes exceeding 3,000 patients, nearly double those with the most doctors. Experts said the variation was "unwarranted" and put patients' health at risk.

The government said it was developing plans to train more doctors and relieve some of the pressure by giving pharmacists more responsibilities.

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Source: BBC News, 2 October 2024

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NHS boss calls out ‘predator’ surgeon who harassed junior female medics

A top NHS boss has called out a “predatory” surgeon who was sanctioned by regulators for sexually harassing colleagues and trainees.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS England chief executive, has condemned the “appalling behaviour” of Oxford University Hospital-based surgeon Mr James Gilbert, who was found to have sexually harassed four female colleagues.

She also announced the NHS is working on a national sexual misconduct policy which will provide workers with a route to report anonymous incidents and gain access to independent investigators.

Mr Gilbert was sanctioned by a medical practitioners tribunal service (MPTS) panel this year with an eight-month suspension. Since then the General Medical Council (GMC), which regulates doctors in the UK, has launched an appeal against the MPTS decision, calling for a harsher sanction.

In a tweet on Sunday night, Ms Pritchard quoted a story detailing Mr Gilbert’s wrongdoing and said: “Appalling predatory behaviour should never happen in our NHS – in settings that are supposed to be compassionate, caring and safe.

“To put it simply, sexual predators should never be allowed to work in the NHS. People who treat our colleagues that way should not be allowed to treat patients.”

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Source: The Independent, 1 October 2024

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Hospital staff broke man’s arm while restraining him and then left him ‘untreated for 24 hours’

A private healthcare provider has agreed to pay damages to a patient with learning disabilities after staff broke his arm, The Independent can reveal.

Cygnet Health Care, one of the largest providers of mental health inpatient care in the UK, has settled a claim with the former patient of a hospital it now owns.

Jamie Newcombe, a 29-year-old young autistic man with learning disabilities, took action against the healthcare giant after he allegedly suffered “significant physical and psychological harm” at Bostall House assessment and treatment unit in London.

He claimed he had been “violently restrained by staff and pushed out into the hospital garden” in 2014, at the age of 19. At the time, the hospital was owned by another private company The Danshell Group.

As a result of this restraint, he says he sustained a fracture in his right arm and staff allegedly left his injuries untreated for 24 hours.

He said he suffered further physical assaults in December 2014 and January 2015, that he was subjected to “degrading treatment” such as personal care being ignored, and was denied access to hot running water for three weeks.

Following his experience, his mother Julie Newcombe launched an autism and learning disability rights campaign group, called Rightful Lives, which now has hundreds of members.

She told The Independent: “What happened to Jamie was horrific and is still happening to so many others 10 years later. I co-founded Rightful Lives 6 years ago to shine a light on the human rights of autistic people and people with learning disabilities. Yet the fact remains that if Jamie were to go into one of these units again, the same things could happen. That is our fear.”

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Source: The Independent, 2 October 2024

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Targeted support could reduce infant mortality gap across England, study finds

A study published in The Lancet Regional Health Europe has identified four key factors that together account for more than one-third of the inequalities in infant deaths between the most and least deprived areas of England.

Researchers say targeted interventions to address these factors – teenage pregnancy, maternal depression, preterm birth and smoking during pregnancy – could go a significant way to reduce inequalities, although higher-level structural changes to address socioeconomic inequality will also be necessary.

The UK currently ranks 10th out of 38 OECD countries for infant mortality (deaths in children under the age of one), with four deaths recorded per 1,000 live births.

Children born to mothers who are poor, black or young are known to be at increased risk, but where children are born also matters: according to ONS data for 2022, the mortality rate for infants in the most deprived 10% of England was almost three times higher than for infants living in the least deprived 10%.

“The inequality in infant mortality is at an alarming level,” said Dr Frederick Ho at the University of Glasgow’s School of Health, who led the study. “We also know that infant mortality is an indicator of more general effectiveness in the healthcare system. We wanted to understand the reasons for this inequality, as this could have policy implications for whether we could use the healthcare system to reduce or to eliminate it.”

The study, published in The Lancet Regional Health Europe, found that infants in the most deprived areas had double the mortality rate of those in the least deprived areas during the study period, and identified four factors – preterm birth, smoking during pregnancy, teenage pregnancy, and maternal depression – which collectively accounted for 38% of this inequality.

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Covid inquiry told how putting on PPE delayed treatment of dying patients

Dying patients experienced vital delays in being treated by paramedics because of the time it took ambulance crews to put on protective personal equipment, the Covid inquiry has been told.

An ambulance technician, Mark Tilley, came close to tears on Tuesday as he described how the experience still “played on his mind”.

Ambulance crews had been told they could not put on PPE before arriving at the scene and had to wait to put on plastic Tyvek suits and protective hoods or masks.

Tilley told the inquiry that the delays could cost crews vital minutes before they were able to start treatment. “We could have actually been at the patient’s side a minute, minute and a half quicker in those really most serious cases,” he said.

“Turning up at people’s houses where someone was unfortunately dead inside the front window or just on the pathway up to their property … I would have normally gone over and started bouncing up and down on their chest [to perform CPR], but we went and got our masks and suits on, and all of that – that plays on my mind all the time.”

Tilley, an ambulance technician at South East Coast ambulance service who was giving evidence as a representative of the GMB union, also described how the inadequate PPE made him consider making his own protective equipment.

Aprons were so poorly made and in such short supply, he said, that “we seriously considered using bin bags and literally cutting a hole in them, because that way they wouldn’t blow up in front of your face” when outside.

In addition to flimsy aprons, protective gloves were out of date, “really cheap and nasty”, and ripped and tore easily.

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Source: The Guardian, 1 October 2024

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The trusts struggling most with delayed discharge ‘interface’ problems

The trusts struggling most on the number of delayed discharges caused by so-called “interface issues” between acute and other care services – mostly negotiations over care packages – are revealed by a new dataset.

HSJ has analysed the first three months’ worth of data from a new NHS England dataset which for the first time breaks down the causes of delayed discharges for patients in acute hospitals for 14 days or more.

At more than 20 trusts the majority of delayed discharges were caused by “interface issues”, referring to NHS trusts and system partners spending too long “brokering or discussing” patients’ onward care.

King’s Fund assistant policy director Alex Baylis said interactions between acute hospitals, other trusts and councils on discharges can vary by area and warned the relationships between some providers “lacks depth”.

Mr Baylis, who co-authored research on delayed discharges last year, added: “In some places they create this narrative that they are working together but when you scratch the surface there’s not the depth that’s needed.

“In research, our perception was some people had learned an acceptable vocabulary about working together but don’t necessarily have the same shared commitment behind that.”

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Source: HSJ, 2 October 2024

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USA: How Mass General Brigham built the largest 'hospital at home'

Mass General Brigham in the USA has built the biggest hospital-at-home programme in the country by getting buy-in from leadership and clinicians and through tech partnerships, executives said at a recent conference.

The health system now has a capacity for acute hospital care at home of 70 patients, and is currently treating about 50 to 60 a day. The goal is to move to 10% of Mass General Brigham's overall capacity, or about 200 to 300 patients.

"I'm really thrilled we are the largest home hospital in the country," Mass General Brigham President and CEO Anne Klibanski, MD, said at the health system's World Medical Innovation Forum in Everett, Mass.

She cited the programme as a way the health system could stay afloat and thrive amid financial challenges affecting the industry, with lower costs and better outcomes for patients at home. She also said it's a benefit of partnering with tech companies; Best Buy Health provides the in-home technology. "That's what they do. They bring technology into the home," she said. "That's what they're known for."

The programme, which Mass General Brigham calls Home Hospital, typically treats patients with conditions like COPD flare-ups, heart failure exacerbations, acute infections and complex cellulitis.

"It's not typically comfortable to be cared for in the emergency room," Dr. Britton said at the conference.

Heather O'Sullivan, APRN, president of Mass General Brigham Healthcare at Home, said it's been estimated that 30% of inpatient care will move to the home in the next five years, representing $82 billion in revenue. "This is a tremendous opportunity," she said at the panel.

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Source: Becker's Health IT, 27 September 2024

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Campaign success as new NHS England programme launches to get medication delivered on time in hospital

Following years of relentless campaigning by Parkinson's UK, charities and their community, NHS England has committed to ensuring that time critical medication is delivered on time in hospitals as part of an exciting three-year Medicines Safety Improvement Programme.

People living with Parkinson’s need their medication on time. A delay of as little as 30 minutes can mean the difference between functioning well and being unable to move, walk, talk or swallow.

And it’s not just Parkinson’s. People living with conditions such as epilepsy and diabetes also need their medication on time. Otherwise, there could be severe implications for their health and wellbeing.

Last year, as part of the Get It On Time campaign, Parkinson's UK published Every Minute Counts report, which found that only 42% of people with Parkinson’s admitted to hospitals in England received their medication on time every time. 

At the same time as releasing the ‘Every Minute Counts’ report, Parkinson's UK released a joint statement with other charities whose communities rely on time critical medication and health professional bodies calling on the government to take action on this issue.

Following meetings with the National Medical Director of NHS England, an emergency summit on time critical medication, and tireless campaigning by the Parkinson’s community, Parkinson's UK are pleased to announce that NHS England has committed to a national improvement programme to tackle this problem.

The programme will run from 2024-2027 and is part of the National Patient Safety Strategy. It will address the most important causes of severe harm to patients. A key ambition of the programme will be to improve care for people by ensuring they receive the critical medication they need on time.

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Source: Parkinson's UK, 27 November 2024

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Structural racism leading to stark health inequalities in London, report shows

Structural racism is leading to stark health inequalities among people from some ethnic backgrounds in London, according to a review by one of the UK’s top public health experts.

More than half (52%) of black children and almost three-quarters (70%) of Bangladeshi and Pakistani children are growing up in relative poverty after housing costs in London, compared with a quarter (26%) of white children.

And unemployment among young black people aged between 16 and 24 is more than double that of white people the same age, the paper states. Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller young people have the highest rate, at 40%.

The review, conducted by the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE) led by Prof Sir Michael Marmot, found that people who are repeatedly exposed to structural racism during their daily lives experience worse physical and mental health as a direct consequence. It also says the ethnic inequalities in poverty, housing and employment result in poorer health outcomes for these ethnic groups.

It concluded that these economic inequalities, which can be attributed to structural racism, lead to poorer health outcomes for minority groups in London, as they are less likely to have access to decent housing, nutritious meals and other factors that affect a person’s health outcomes.

Marmot, the director of the IHE and author of a seminal review into health inequalities in the UK in 2010, said structural racism “is a scar on society” and public health institutions are failing by not directly addressing the effects racism has on a person’s health.

He added: “Focusing on disease and healthcare services fails to address three impacts of racism on health. First, how racism directly damages health and wellbeing. Second, the reasons why some ethnic groups are more likely to be in poverty, experience poor housing, suffer in the educational and criminal justice system, be low paid and experience racism and poor employment prospects – all of which harm health. Third, it does not deal with racism that leads to worse experiences of healthcare and other services and worse outcomes as a result.”

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Source: The Guardian, 1 October 2024

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Streeting considers reviving dedicated cancer strategy

Wes Streeting may revive the use of a dedicated cancer strategy to tackle the UK’s second biggest killer after experts warned the Conservatives’ scrapping of it was “a disaster” for patients.

The health secretary is considering publishing a new comprehensive plan for England, amid record numbers of people being diagnosed with the disease and NHS cancer services struggling to meet demand.

Previous Labour and Tory government published four cancer-specific action plans between 2000 and 2015 and they helped to bring about improvements in treatment, waiting times and survival.

However, in January last year Steve Barclay, then the health secretary, caused consternation among specialists in the disease and charities such as Cancer Research UK when he announced that plans to boost cancer care were being subsumed into a much wider-ranging major conditions strategy.

They warned that a disease that kills 167,000 people a year in the UK would not get the focus it merits when it was part of a document that also covered heart disease, mental illness, dementia, lung health and joint problems.

But Streeting – himself a kidney cancer survivor – is examining the case for once again publishing a specific plan that would address issues such as long waiting times for care, frontline cancer services’ lack of staff and how best to ensure patients can access emerging treatments.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 September 2024

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Call for independent review into physician associates

There needs to be an independent review of physician and anaesthesia associates (PAs and AAs) in England, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges says.

The group, which brings together leading doctors and surgeons, has been broadly supportive of the rollout of these roles which assist health care teams.

But it said given the “increasingly acrimonious and destructive debate”, fuelled by some unsubstantiated comments on social media, it was important to look into claims around safety as the campaign against them was damaging teamwork.

The British Medical Association has voiced concerns PAs and AAs are being asked to do tasks they are not meant to and the lines with doctors are getting blurred.

The number of PAs and AAs have been gradually increasing since 2016. There are now more than 3,000 in England, but the NHS workforce plan has called for them to be increased to 12,000 by 2036.

The academy, which represents 24 medical royal colleges, said there has been a growing campaign against their use “potentially fuelled by unsubstantiated claims of social media”.

Chair Dr Jeanette Dickson said: “We want an independent, evidence-based, rapid review to help us make a decision about how best to delineate their roles and where they might best fit into the system.

“What’s important is that we can objectively assess the data around safety, efficiency and cost effectiveness and make a judgement about what precise roles in healthcare may be suitable for them and what levels of responsibility they might be safely given based on the actual evidence.”

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Source: BBC News, 30 September 2024

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Lucy Letby: Experts tell BBC about medical evidence concerns

Senior doctors and scientists have told the BBC they have concerns about how crucial evidence was presented to the jury at Lucy Letby's trials.

The BBC’s File on 4 has examined how expert witnesses helped to build the case against the former nurse.

The programme raises concerns about how courts grapple with cases of significant medical complexity - with the juries in Letby’s two trials presented with huge amounts of complicated medical evidence relating to each child.

The experts who spoke to the BBC raise questions about the amount of insulin she needed to harm babies in her care, the health condition of one of the babies she was convicted of murdering, and pathology findings presented to the jury.

A public inquiry is under way to establish how Letby was able to murder and injure babies. At its opening Lady Justice Thirlwall was scathing about those who have questioned the verdicts, saying this was causing “enormous additional distress to the parents”.

Last month some of the families of the babies gave evidence at the inquiry.

Each of the experts interviewed by File on 4 acknowledge how difficult it must be for the families to hear doubts raised about the trials. However, they say they feel so strongly about the evidence they felt compelled to speak out.

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Source: BBC News, 1 October 2024

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NHS hearing units misdiagnosed thousands of children and ‘did nothing’

Watching from the side of the school playing field, Amy and Noel Denman were worried about Scarlet, their three-year-old daughter.

While other children ran around laughing, enjoying their first sports day at the Lincolnshire nursery school, Scarlet seemed vacant. When the teachers told her to run she stood still … then burst into tears.

Amy Denman now knows why her daughter was acting so strangely. Recalling that day six years ago, she is furious over how the NHS has failed her family.

Scarlet, she has learnt, is partially deaf. She could not understand what was happening or what was expected of her. She is one of thousands of children misdiagnosed by NHS audiology units across England.

Leaked internal documents from NHS England reveal a nationwide failure in child hearing services. They suggest that 1,540 children have been misdiagnosed since 2019. Some, like Scarlet, were given the all-clear when they had significant problems. Others were told they were deaf — but hearing aids could have helped them.

Some 480 children suffered moderate or severe harm, the papers say. For some infants this will mean permanent delays in speech and language development as well as their educational abilities.

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Source: The Times, 28 September 2024

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Man who killed himself in Blackpool hospital was badly failed, says mother

A 27-year-old man who killed himself in a hospital toilet after waiting nearly 24 hours to see a mental health professional was badly failed by the NHS, his mother has said.

Jamie Pearson was admitted to Blackpool Victoria hospital’s A&E department after taking an overdose of high-strength painkillers on 17 August.

His mother, Julie Knowles, said her son was left for hours in a “depressing” side room along with other patients, including one who was also suffering a mental health crisis.

Pearson, a self-employed joiner, had been experiencing paranoid delusions and was receiving treatment for acute psychosis when he was admitted to the hospital at about 7pm, Knowles said.

Knowles said “no one seemed to be doing anything” for her son, so she pleaded for him to be seen urgently by a mental health professional.

A nurse then “marched” over to Pearson and told him that he needed to finish his drip before he would be assessed, she said.

After nearly 24 hours in A&E, Pearson became more agitated and went to the toilet a number of times, his mother and the fellow patient said.

Then at about 6pm he went to the disabled toilet for a final time. He was found unresponsive by staff after Knowles called for help.

“If someone would’ve come to see him and say everything’s going to be alright that would’ve meant a lot to my son. But at no time did anyone come from the mental health team,” she said.

“He was in the right place. He wanted help. I know if he had been given some help he would’ve got better.”

Knowles said she was speaking out so that people suffering a mental health crisis would be treated with more urgency in A&E.

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Source: The Guardian, 29 September 2024

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Social workers in England begin using AI system to assist their work

Hundreds of social workers in England have begun using an artificial intelligence system that records conversations, drafts letters to doctors and proposes actions that human workers might not have considered.

Councils in Swindon, Barnet and Kingston are among seven now using the AI tool that sits on social workers’ phones to record and analyse face-to-face meetings. The Magic Notes AI tool writes almost instant summaries and suggests follow-up actions, including drafting letters to GPs. Two dozen more councils have or are piloting it.

By cutting the time social workers spend taking notes and filling out reports, the tool has the potential to save up to £2bn a year, claims Beam, the company behind the system that has recruited staff from Meta and Microsoft.

But the technology is also likely to raise concerns about how busy social workers weigh up actions proposed by the AI system, and how they decide whether to ignore a proposed action.

The British Association of Social Workers welcomed AI systems that free up time for face-to-face work, but said they “must never replace relationship-based social work practice and decision-making”.

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Source: The Guardian, 28 September 2024

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NHSE commissions rapid review of acute trusts’ EPR plans

Beverley Bryant, former director of digital transformation at NHS England, and joint chief digital information officer at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital NHS FT, is undertaking a rapid review of electronic patient record (EPR) plans at nine acute NHS trusts.

The eight-week review, commissioned by John Quinn, chief information officer at NHSE, is intended to share lessons to help the trusts, which are at various stages of EPR journeys, ranging from business case development to planning for implementation.

The review started in September 2024, with a letter sent to the chief executives of the respective trusts by Quinn and Vin Diwakar, director of the NHSE Transformation Directorate.

Quinn told Digital Health News: “Beverley Bryant is supporting NHS England’s frontline digitisation programme to help a number of acute trusts, who are at varying stages of their EPR journey, to overcome any barriers to the successful delivery of their EPR strategies".

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Source: Digital Health, 26 September 2024

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