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'Rules not followed' at home where 7 people died

Measures to protect residents from Covid at a care home where seven elderly people died were not “effectively or consistently” followed by staff, a coroner has ruled.

William Wilkinson, 102, Doris Lockett, 92, Roy Gilliam, 96, Jean Hartley, 81, Susan Skinner, 70, Ronald Bampfylde, 92, and Stanislawa Koch, 93, all died in March or April 2021 after contracting coronavirus at the Holmesley Care Home in Sidford, Devon.

The deaths all came at the height of the Covid pandemic when rules were in place intended to protect residents from infection.

After the inquest on Thursday, Mick Koch - son of Ms Koch - said he wanted to take the matter further and see it scrutinised at the national Covid inquiry.

Alison Longhorn, area coroner for Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, said that while there were proper processes at the home these “were not effectively or consistently followed” by all the staff working there.

Earlier in the inquest, it was heard two staff members - manager Joanne Burchell and nurse Christos Provistallis - had been arrested on suspicion of ill-treatment or wilful neglect in connection with the deaths. CPS officials decided there was not a realistic prospect of conviction.

Allegations were heard during the inquest that Mr Provistallis refused to wear a face mask after claiming "Covid was a conspiracy".

Others alleged Ms Burchell had not sent sick staff home due to shortages and had ignored positive lateral flow test results.

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Source: BBC News, 18 October 2024

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'World-first' study examines period pain in teens

A new study will seek to identify changes in the brain when teenagers experience period pain and whether it is linked to developing chronic pain in later life.

In what is described as a world first, researchers at the University of Oxford will conduct a trial of 11 to 20-year-olds using a range of tests including MRI scans.

Half of the 120 volunteers recruited into the RoADPain, external project will suffer from period pain and half will not.

Dr Katy Vincent, Professor of Gynaecological Pain, said not enough was known about severe period pain despite it being "incredibly common".

"I think it's really important that we take period pain seriously," she said.

"About 30% to 40% of teenagers and young women will have periods that are so painful that they can't go to work, can't go to school, can't do their normal activities.

"If we can reduce the risk of people developing chronic pain in the future, that would be so much easier than trying to treat it once it's developed."

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Source: BBC News, 17 October 2024

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Repair bill for crumbling NHS buildings in England soars to almost £14bn

The cost of repairing crumbling NHS buildings in England has soared to almost £14bn, prompting warnings that patients and staff are at risk from falling roofs and faulty equipment.

The repair bill faced by the health service to make its estate fit for purpose has more than trebled from £4.5bn in 2012-13 to £13.8bn last year, according to NHS England data.

The latest bill means that, for the first time since records began, it would cost the NHS more to eradicate its maintenance backlog than the £13.6bn it spends on running its entire estate.

“Vital bits of the NHS are literally falling apart after years of underinvestment nationally. The safety of patients and staff is at risk,” said Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 October 2024

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Trust eliminated year-long waits ‘by employing an administrator’

A community trust cut waiting times for one of its children’s services from a year to seven weeks, in large part by employing a dedicated administrator, it has said.

A Kent Community Health Foundation Trust board report said it had employed what it initially described as a “business manager” to take burden off clinicians in its East Sussex children’s therapies service.

CEO Mairead McCormick’s report said this had “resulted in a fall in waiting lists from an average of one year to seven weeks”.

She said: ”This freed up time in the initial assessment and ongoing sessions for the therapist to deliver best practice and concentrate on working with the child, rather than discussing wait times and when the next appointment may be.

“It also gave families peace of mind and managed their expectations as a schedule of sessions was provided immediately.”

The claim generated huge interest on X (formerly Twitter) yesterday when shared by HSJ, with many of the posts highlighting the importance of investing in non-clinical staff and management.

However, some clinicians suggested the reduction had probably involved the trust removing people from the wating list.

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Source: HSJ, 16 October 2024

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Covid XEC: What are the symptoms of new virus strain?

A new strain of Covid emerging in the UK is spreading as cases increase at a high rate, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.at a high rate, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.

Called XEC, the strain is a combination of the KS.1.1 and KP.3.3 variants. Figures from the UKHSA show that the admission rate for patients testing positive for the new strain rose to 4.5 per 100,000 people in the week to October 6. This was up from 3.7 a week earlier.

It is thought the XEC strain is more transmissible due to its numerous mutations, and presents symptoms similar to those of other Covid variants including tiredness, headaches, a sore throat and high temperatures.

Although self-isolation is no longer a legal requirement in the UK, the NHS has advised anyone who tests positive for Covid to avoid contact with others for at least five days. It is also recommended that contact with more vulnerable people be avoided for 10 days, to reduce the risk to them. As a general rule, it is advised anyone with symptoms at least wait for them to subside before returning to normal activities.

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Source: The Independent, 17 October 2024

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A mother blamed herself for her baby’s death for a decade. Now the hospital has admitted it made fatal errors

For a decade after her baby Kaiden was stillborn, Hayley Brunt blamed herself for the child’s death.

The “deep grief” in believing she had been to blame for her baby’s death sent Hayley’s mental health into a spiral so bad she made multiple attempts to take her life, and caused her extreme anxiety during later pregnancies.

Now Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) has admitted that its own mistakes led to the death of Kaiden in 2013.

Ms Brunt, 27, is one of almost 2,000 families whose maternity care will be scrutinised by an inquiry led by Donna Ockenden. The probe was launched by Sajid Javid, then the secretary of state for health and social care, after The Independent revealed in 2021 that dozens of babies and mothers had been harmed as a result of poor care by NUH services.

The trust is also facing a criminal investigation into alleged failings in its maternity care.

Speaking with The Independent, Hayley—who has since had three more children—said that shortly after Kaiden’s funeral she was told by a hospital doctor that his death had been due to her placenta “not working”.

“This led to me blaming myself and my body for what happened to him. The inconsolable grief for Kaiden’s loss and the blame I felt caused my mental health to spiral. I began suffering awful nightmares about Kaiden and his delivery, which continue today. I became so depressed and low that it led to me making a number of attempts to end my life. I have had more children since Kaiden’s death, and each of the pregnancies has been plagued with anxiety and fear that history will repeat itself,” Hayley said.

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Source: The Independent, 16 October 2024

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British BAME and foreign doctors ‘suffer discrimination throughout careers’

British doctors of BAME origin and overseas-trained medics working in the UK experience “persistent and pernicious” inequality throughout their careers, the medical regulator has warned.

The General Medical Council (GMC) said too many doctors are still being reported by their employers for alleged misconduct compared with white British-trained medics.

Doctors also experience “discrimination and disadvantage” in their efforts to progress medical careers because of a hostile “culture” in too many parts of the NHS, it said.

The report, by the GMC’s chief executive, Charlie Massey, is intended to stamp out discrimination.

Massey said, "For too many doctors, medicine is a story of discrimination and disadvantage. From the early days of education and training, to the leadership positions of latter years, issues of inequality are persistent and pernicious. This unfairness is deep-rooted and longstanding. It undermines doctors’ morale and ability to perform at their best. And it shames our health services. Fair treatment is not the preserve of a select few – it is the right of all doctors, regardless of who they are.”

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Source: The Guardian, 17 October 2024

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Letby gave baby overdose two years before murders

Lucy Letby gave a baby 10 times the prescribed dose of morphine "in error" two years before her killing spree began, a public inquiry has heard.

The nurse was then unhappy at being told she could no longer administer controlled drugs at the Countess of Chester Hospital after the incident in July 2013.

The Thirlwall Inquiry, which is examining how she was able to kill and attack babies between June 2015 and June 2016, heard Letby received extra training after the incident. Yvonne Farmer, who was practice development nurse at the time, told the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall it was a "very serious error".

The mistake was spotted quickly and the baby suffered no ill-effects, the inquiry heard. Ms Farmer said Letby was not far into her nursing career at the time, but was outside the period of supervision required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Letby, of Hereford, was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others, including one she tried to kill twice, and is serving 15 whole life prison sentences.

The inquiry continues.

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Source: BBC News, 16 October 2024

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Woman died after taking medicine from husband’s ‘identical’ dosette box

A Berkshire woman with cognitive impairment died after taking medicines from her husband’s dosette box rather than her own “for several days,” a coroner has found. 

A report by assistant coroner for Berkshire Katy Thorne found that Sewa Kaur Chaddha died on May 10 2023, five days after she was found collapsed at home in Slough. 

Both she and her husbands were taking “multiple prescribed conditions” as well as “cognitive impairment due to their age” according to the report. 

The coroner wrote: “It was discovered that she had been taking her husband’s medication instead of her own for several days, including diabetes medication. Her blood sugar levels were found to be extremely low.” 

The cause of death was principally attributed to hyponatraemia “caused by the necessary treatment for hypoglycaemia which was in turn caused by the accidental ingestion of hypoglycaemic medication”.

In her report – which was written in July but made public yesterday (October 15) – the coroner said that both Mrs Chaddha and her husband received separate multi-compartment compliance aids (MCAs) from their local pharmacy, which was then a branch of LloydsPharmacy, adding: “The two patients’ dosette boxes were identical to each other except for a small pharmacist’s label with small type with the relevant patient’s name.”

The inquest found both that there was no “well disseminated” guidance for pharmacies around issuing medicines to patients with dementia and that “dosette boxes of different colours or labels with different colours were not routinely given to elderly or cognitively impaired patients living at the same address”.

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Source: Pharmacy Magazine, 16 October 2024

 

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UK women who suffer cardiac arrest in public less likely to get CPR, study finds

Women who go into cardiac arrest in public are less likely than men to receive chest compressions from bystanders as people “worry about touching their breasts”, according to a study.

The research by St John Ambulance said nearly a quarter of the 1,000 Britons surveyed admitted they were less likely to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a woman in public, with a third of men worrying they would be accused of “inappropriate” touching when giving CPR to a woman compared with 13% of females.

The survey suggests the “taboo” surrounding women’s chests creates an “alarming gender disparity” in access to emergency medical care as only 68% of women are likely to receive CPR from bystanders compared with 73% of men.

Previous research has shown that more than 8,200 women in England and Wales could have survived a heart attack if they had been given the same treatment as men, according to an analysis of data from between 2003 and 2013.

Jordan Davison, a community experience manager at St John Ambulance, which teaches first aid and emergency medical services, said: “Our message to people is that it is always better to do something than nothing in these circumstances.

“Regardless of gender, when it comes to CPR, every ‘body’ is the same, the technique is the same, and everyone deserves the best possible chance of survival.”

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Source: The Guardian, 16 October 2024

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Vulnerable people not at risk from proposed assisted dying law, says MP

The lives of disabled and vulnerable people will not be at risk from a proposed assisted dying law because it will only apply to terminally ill adults, and each case is likely to be ruled on by two doctors and a judge, the MP sponsoring it has said.

Kim Leadbeater said her historic “choice at the end of life” bill will include “stringent” criteria and a cooling-off period in what is likely to be one of the most controversial pieces of legislation to go before parliament in years.

But people who are facing intolerable suffering but are not dying will still be denied medical assistance to end their lives, under the likely terms of the bill to be introduced on Wednesday.

That decision will prompt debate over whether the threshold for medical assistance to die should relate to suffering rather than time left to live.

Some campaigners argue people whose conditions mean they can be trapped and suffering in their bodies long before they meet a narrow definition of terminal illness will be left out.

A major poll has suggested most of the public support an assisted dying law in every constituency of Great Britain apart from Bradford West.

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Source: The Guardian, 16 October 2024

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NHS needs better plan around weight loss jabs, warn experts

An urgent review is needed to make sure people in England can get weight loss jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro on the NHS, top experts warn.

It comes a day after the prime minister said such injections could boost Britain's economy by getting obese unemployed people "back into work".

More than 200 doctors and specialists have now written to the health secretary to say how stretched NHS obesity treatment services face unprecedented demand from patients wanting these drugs.

They warn the injections are only part of what should be a wider package of non-stigmatising care.

They say the government must fix some fundamentals issues in NHS obesity services - chronic underfunding, workforce challenges and unequal access to care.

The letter to Wes Streeting is being sent by the Obesity Health Alliance, external (OHA), which represents health charities and medical royal colleges, and has compiled a report.

It says some patients can wait up to five years for specialist support, and that some services are so overstretched they have closed their waiting lists entirely.

The OHA wants to see equitable access for obesity treatments, including weight loss injections.

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Source: BBC News, 16 October 2024

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Overhauling CQC ratings ‘could bring greater clarity’, ministers told

Changes to the Care Quality Commission’s one-word ratings “could be beneficial”, Penny Dash has concluded in the final version of her review.

Much of its contents, which is highly critical of the CQC, had already been published in an interim version in July, which prompted health secretary Wes Streeting to declare the regulator “not fit for purpose”.

But the final version of the review, which includes seven recommendations, addresses some areas not covered in the scathing interim report, including on the much-debated issue of the CQC’s single-word ratings.

It notes “the government recently announced that Ofsted would end the use of one-word ratings and so it would be reasonable to similarly consider their use in health and social care

The review adds: ”Changes to one-word ratings could be beneficial in allowing greater clarity to be brought to the different key questions of quality, allowing a ‘balanced scorecard’ approach across [the key CQC inspection domains] ‘safe’, ‘effective’, ‘responsive’/’caring’ and ‘well led’.

However, “all this needs to be set against the need for a straightforward narrative that is accessible for users and patients”.

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Source: HSJ, 15 October 2024

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Families 'left in lurch' on child autism diagnoses

Hundreds of thousands of children with suspected neurodevelopmental conditions in England, including autism and ADHD, face unacceptably long waits to be diagnosed, the Children's Commissioner, external has warned.

Dame Rachel de Souza's report into the issue said the system has failed to keep up with rising demand, leaving families "in the lurch" and expected to cope by themselves while they wait.

Parents are having to "jump through multiple hoops" to get support, while their children can end up in crisis and robbed of their potential, she said.

The report calls for urgent change to a needs-led, not a diagnosis-led, system of support - something the government insists it is tackling head-on.

Dame Rachel said she was shocked by how many providers had published apology messages and videos about the long waits.

"At such a crucial time developmentally, every day a child waits for support could permanently alter their life course," she warned.

She said, tragically, some children's unmet needs escalate to crisis point, citing the example of a 14-year-old autistic girl who ended up being admitted to hospital multiple times and required police involvement after health, social care and education had "failed to put in place the interventions she needed".

"Children and their families should never have to 'beg' or 'fight' for help," she said. "Yet, sadly, these are the words I hear most often when asking about seeking support for a child's neurodivergence."

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Source: BBC News, 15 October 2024

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Unemployed could be given weight-loss jabs to get back to work, says Wes Streeting

New weight-loss jabs could be given to unemployed people to help them get back into work, Wes Streeting has suggested.

The health secretary said “widening waistbands” were placing a burden on the NHS.

The latest generation of weight-loss medicine, such as Ozempic or Zepbound, could be administered to people in order to get them back into employment, and to ease costs to the health service, he added.

The plans announced at the summit will include real-world trials of weight-loss jabs’ impact on worklessness, according to the Telegraph.

The health secretary wrote: “Our widening waistbands are also placing significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11bn a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy.

“Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.”

Dr Dolly van Tulleken, who specialises in obesity policy and is a visiting researcher at the MRC epidemiology unit at the University of Cambridge, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there were “some serious ethical, financial and efficacy considerations with such an approach … Such as looking at people, or measuring people based on their potential economic value, rather than primarily based on their needs and their health needs.”

She went on: “It’s incredibly important that people in the UK access healthcare based on their health need rather than their potential economic value.”

But despite scepticism, Van Tulleken said Streeting was on “the side of the population”, adding: “We know from across so much research … how popular these interventions are. People want the government to act. They want to live in a healthy environment; he is absolutely on the side of public.”

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Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2024

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NHS patient-safety system to be overhauled

The way patient safety is regulated and monitored is to be completely overhauled in England, the health secretary has announced.

Wes Streeting said the current system was "overly complex", as he set out a review of six key organisations.

It comes as further changes to the way the Care Quality Commission, the regulator of NHS services, operates have been unveiled.

The regulator, which inspects 90,000 different services across health and care, has been told to focus much more on key services such as hospitals, GPs and social care, after an interim report, in July, warned it was failing.

Streeting said: "Patient safety is the bedrock of a healthy NHS and social-care system.

"That's why we are taking steps to reform the CQC, to root out poor performance and ensure patients can have confidence in its ratings once again.

"The government will never turn a blind eye to failure.

"An overly complex system of healthcare regulation and oversight is no good for patients.

"We will overhaul the system to make it effective and efficient to protect patient safety."

The latest announcement coincides with the publication of the final report into the CQC review, led by Dr Penny Dash.

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Source: BBC News, 15 October 2024

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CQC ordered to pause ICS inspections

The Care Quality Commission has been ordered to “formally” halt its plans for integrated care system inspections, following the latest criticisms of the organisation.

A major review of the regulator, led by integrated care board chair Penny Dash, is due to be published today. It will identify “serious internal failings,” which are “hampering [the CQC’s] ability to identify poor performance”, according to a pre-released government statement.

It said the health and social care secretary Wes Streeting had accepted a recommendation that the CQC “formally pauses the implementation of its assessments of [ICSs]… as it works to restore public confidence in health and care regulation” to allow it “to focus on getting the basics right”.

The regulator said: ”In agreement with the DHSC, CQC has paused its assessments of integrated care systems for six months.”

ICS inspections were introduced under the Health and Care Act 2022, but the previous government never signed off on the CQC’s approach to running them or decided whether ICSs should be given clear single-word ratings, meaning only a small number of pilots have taken place.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which has been opposing CQC ICS inspections for some time, said: “Given the stark findings, we believe the decision to pause ICS inspections is the right one.”

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Source: HSJ, 15 October 2024

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AI medical advice on drugs could lead to death in one in five cases

Dr AI could be providing 'potentially harmful' medication advice, a concerning study has suggested. 

German researchers found more than a fifth of AI powered chatbot answers to common prescription drug questions could 'lead to death or severe harm'. 

Experts urged patients not to rely on such search engines to give them accurate and safe information. 

Medics were also warned against recommending the tools until more 'precise and reliable' alternatives are made available. 

In the study, the scientists from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, pinpointed the 10 most frequently asked patient questions for the 50 most prescribed drugs in the US.

These included adverse drug reactions, instructions for use and contraindications — reasons why the medication should not be taken. 

Using Bing copilot — a search engine with AI-powered chatbot features developed by Microsoft — researchers assessed all 500 responses, against answers given by clinical pharmacists and doctors with expertise in pharmacology. 

Responses were also compared against a peer-reviewed up-to-date drugs information website. 

They found chatbot statements didn’t match the reference data in over a quarter (26%) of all cases and were fully inconsistent in just over 3%. 

But further analysis of 20 answers also revealed four in ten (42%) were considered to lead to moderate or mild harm and 22%, death or severe harm. 

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Source: Mail Online, 11 October 2024

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Man says he has been 'left to rot' after Covid vaccine

On 15 December 2021 Larry Lowe’s life changed. He was 54, rarely ill, fit, healthy and running 10km most days – until he got the Pfizer Covid booster.

Within days he developed numbness in the right side of his face and started experiencing pain.

"I had lost all the feeling in my face, teeth, nose, tongue, eye, that whole side of my head," he said.

These symptoms have spread through his body and intensified over the years, with doctors across the UK saying the vaccine is to blame.

Pfizer said patient safety was paramount and it took reports of adverse reactions very seriously.

It said hundreds of millions of doses had been administered globally "and the benefit-risk profile of the vaccine remains positive for all authorised indications and age groups".

Mr Lowe said that while he was not opposed to vaccines, his life had been destroyed.

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Source: BBC News, 14 October 2024

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Europe’s medical schools to give more training on diseases linked to climate crisis

Mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria will become a bigger part of the curriculum at medical schools across Europe in the face of the climate crisis.

Future doctors will also have more training on how to recognise and treat heatstroke, and be expected to take the climate impact of treatments such as inhalers for asthma into account, medical school leaders said, announcing the formation of the European Network on Climate & Health Education (Enche).

Led by the University of Glasgow, 25 medical schools from countries including the UK, Belgium and France will integrate lessons on climate into their education of more than 10,000 students.

Glasgow University’s Dr Camille Huser, co-chair of the network, said: “The doctors of the future will see a different array of presentations and diseases that they are not seeing now. They need to be aware of that so they can recognise them.”

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Source: The Guardian, 14 October 2024

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NHSE’s defunding of older people’s programme ‘a source of national shame’

NHS England cut £390m (70 per cent) from its planned budget for improving community care for older people in the past two years, according to information obtained by HSJ.

NHSE originally announced back in 2019 that it would spend £647m between 2020 and 2024 on a big expansion of community-based services for older and frail people. This included faster access to rehab care on discharge, personalised care and support at home, and urgent crisis response.

Funding for the Ageing Well programme, under the NHS long-term plan, was set to be targeted by NHSE for local providers to hire staff and create infrastructure. Its LTP allocations were back-loaded, with £204m in 2022-23 and £343m in 2023-24.

But now, figures released to HSJ under the Freedom of Information Act show the final amounts allocated in those two years were just £77m and £79m respectively — a cut across the two years of £391m (72%).

Geriatrician Professor Martin Vernon, who developed the long-term plan proposals as NHSE national clinical director from 2016 to 2019, told HSJ they should “have assumed even greater priority” after covid; and would have put the NHS “in a much better place”.

But he said: “The fact that these plans were largely defunded and badly implemented must now be a source of national shame. The opportunities have been largely squandered and rather than world-leading on ageing health we are now in many ways trailing…

“This regrettable situation must be rescued urgently with renewed commitment, the right national leadership and laser-sharp focus, to avoid yet more people facing a truly dismal future as they get older.”

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Source: HSJ, 14 October 2024

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New regulatory office will support healthcare AI innovations

Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle has announced the launch of a regulatory office, which will support the healthcare sector to deploy AI innovations safely.

The Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) aims to reduce the burden of red tape for businesses hoping to bring new products and services to the market, so they can reach the public faster and help boost the economy.

A press release, published by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on 8 October 2024, says that the RIO will “support regulators to update regulation, speeding up approvals, and ensuring different regulatory bodies work together smoothly”.

It adds that the RIO will initially support four areas of technology: AI and digital in healthcare, connected and autonomous technology, engineering biology and space.

The RIO will work with the Department of Health and Social Care to help safely deploy AI innovations, such as AI training software for surgeons.

In a statement, Kyle, said: “From breakthroughs that could help doctors diagnose illnesses earlier to satellite navigation for more accurate weather forecasting and getting emergency supplies to where they are needed, quickly and effectively, RIO will make sure UK companies are at the forefront of the next generation of technologies.”

Applications are being welcomed for the RIO’s first chair, who DSIT says will be appointed to “lead the charge in backing business and safe innovation, and work with regulators and partners to shape a regulatory environment that is fit for the future”.

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Source: Digital Health, 8 October 2024

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Practices urged to record patient safety incidents in national systems

GP practices are being asked to sign up to national systems that allow them to record patient incidents in a bid to improve patient safety within primary care.

NHS England has proposed a number of measures to promote a safety culture as well as provide more data and insight into incidents as part of its first primary care patient safety strategy launched at the end of September.

It has warned that incident recording systems in primary care are not as well developed as in secondary care, therefore the 20,000 to 30,000 ‘incidents of avoidable significant harm identified in general practice in England per year’ may be an underrepresentation.

And it has highlighted that a single ‘significant harm episode in primary care’ is estimated to cost the NHS £5,000, a total of more than a £100m a year.

The commissioner is urging practices and other GP organisations to connect to national systems of patient safety information, including the Learn from Patient Safety Events service (LFPSE) or Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) for recording and analysing incidents.

This will "enable learning that supports local and national patient safety improvement", it said. And it helps nurture a culture that focuses on "the role of systems, not individuals, when things go wrong".

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Source: Management in Practice, 11 October 2024

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USA: Florida hospitals reopening after hurricanes as plans proved largely effective

Hospitals across Florida are coming back online after evacuating patients, closing facilities and canceling surgeries ahead of Hurricane Milton.

The category 3 hurricane made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, on Wednesday evening and was expected to be one of the most powerful in Florida’s history. At least 10 storm-related deaths have been reported and the death toll is still expected to rise.

However, even amid widespread destruction from storm surge, tornadoes, hurricane force winds and torrential rain, officials said the worst-case scenario was averted because the storm weakened as it arrived.

Deaths expected to rise as Florida begins to assess Hurricane Milton destruction

“Preparing for Hurricane Milton was an incredible effort by the entire team and a true test of our resources,” said John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa general hospital, in a statement. Tampa general is the region’s only high-level trauma center. It stayed open through the storm.

“But it ensured we could continue to provide exceptional care for our patients in a high-quality, safe and uninterrupted environment before, during and after the storm,” said Couris.

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Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2024

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Lucy Letby: police and CPS handling of case raises new concerns about convictions

When the public inquiry into the crimes of the former nurse Lucy Letby opened in Liverpool last month its chair, Lady Justice Thirlwall, dismissed concerns about the safety of the convictions as “noise”. The judge cautioned that questions being raised were increasing the distress of parents whose children had died or been harmed.

Letby was found guilty across two trials of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester hospital (COCH) in 2015 and 2016. Thirlwall pointed out that in May this year, the court of appeal refused Letby permission to appeal, and she said it was not the role of her inquiry to review the convictions.

Yet questions about the case, and the number of experts raising them, have continued to mount. Letby is being represented by a new barrister, Mark McDonald, and a number of specialists including leading neonatologists – doctors who specialise in treating premature babies – are voluntarily working with him on an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Having examined the detail, these experts consider there are more plausible alternative causes of the babies’ deaths and collapses than those for which Letby was convicted.

The Guardian looks at the key concerns about the case.

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Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2024

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