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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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DHSC to review clinical risk standards for digital health tech

The Department of Health and Social Care will launch a consultation on the clinical risk standards for the use of digital health technologies in 2024/2025, the minister for patient safety has confirmed.

In a letter to Patient Safety Learning, Baroness Gillian Merron said there will be a review of standards DCB0129 and DCB0160, which provide guidelines to help healthcare providers manage and mitigate risks associated with healthcare IT systems.

She wrote to the charity in response its report, ‘Electronic patient record systems: Putting patient safety at the heart of implementation’, published on 31 July 2024, which sets out “significant patient safety risks” relating to EPR rollouts in the NHS.

In a letter dated 17 September 2024, seen by Digital Health News, Baroness Merron said that clinical risk standards play a “crucial role” in patient safety when using EPRs.

“The standards, published in 2012, require organisations to ensure that clinical risk management is embedded in the deployment of EPRs and throughout the life cycle of the technology, including version upgrades.

“NHS England is responsible for ensuring the continued effectiveness of the clinical risk standards.

“A comprehensive review of both standards is planned for 2024/2025, which will involve a public consultation and wide stakeholder engagement,” Baroness Merron said.

Helen Hughes, chief executive of Patient Safety Learning, welcomed the forthcoming consultation, adding that it is “vital” that patient safety is at the core of EPR implementation.

“We welcome proposed steps by NHSE to undertake further analysis aimed at identifying new and under-recognised patient safety issues relating to EPR systems.

“Patient Safety Learning believes there must be transparency in reporting of unintended harm and that such insights lead to learning from EPR implementations, with action taken to directly support front line clinicians in their work and the delivery of safe care.

“It is also important that there are robust safety standards in digital health to keep apace with new technologies as they evolve.

“These standards should be accompanied by strong quality assurance and accountability mechanisms with patient safety at their core,” Hughes said.

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Source: Digital Health, 30 September 2024

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‘NHS is letting sickle cell patients down’ say parents of 22-year-old who died after hospital failings

Life will never be the same for Leila and Errol after the death of their 22-year-old son Darnell, who lived with disabilities including sickle cell disease.

Darnell Smith died on 23 November 2022 after medics took his vital signs just once in 12 hours instead of the prescribed hourly checks.

Earlier this year, a coroner called on health bosses at Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield to take action to prevent future deaths.

Darnell, from Sheffield, received regular treatment for cerebral palsy and sickle cell disease, which is an inherited, long-term and potentially life-threatening condition, most common among Black people. It affects about 15,000 in England.

As the UK observes Sickle Cell Awareness month in September, Leila and Errol say they do not feel the inquest’s ruling went far enough.

“What we would like is more accountability from the NHS and the members of staff who were working that day,” Errol said.

They say his case reflects the failures of care experienced by patients with sickle cell.

“I feel like there’s still a lot of injustice still being done, not just because of what happened to Darnell but also to other sickle cell patients within hospital settings all over England. It’s not just in Sheffield,” Leila said.

“There’s a lot of systematic racism, a lot of discrimination, whether it’s blatant, it’s there. We felt it, we saw it and I said that in the inquest.”

A 2021 all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on sickle cell and thalassaemia inquiry into sickle cell care found “serious care failings” in acute services and evidence of attitudes underpinned by racism.

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Source: The Independent, 28 September 2024

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Surgeons urge Wes Streeting to act on medical schools’ failure to tackle sexual assault

A group of surgeons have urged Wes Streeting to intervene over claims medical schools are failing to tackle sexual assault and harassment of students.

Surviving in Scrubs, a campaign group representing doctors who’ve faced sexual violence in medicine, has called on the health secretary to force dozens of medical schools to commit to new NHS standards for tackling sexual assault and harassment.

In a letter to the health secretary, Surviving in Scrubs co-founders Dr Becky Cox & Dr Chelcie Jewitt warned medical students were particularly vulnerable to suffering sexual violence but that medical schools had not committed to the NHS’ sexual safety charter.

Last year NHS England published a new charter on how to handle sexual assault concerns and how to better protect staff. Hospitals nationwide were told by the NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard that they must sign up for this charter earlier this year.

In July The Independent revealed a warning from Surviving in Scrubs that just three out of 36 medical schools had signed up.

In their letter to the Mr Streeting the campaign group said: “Medical students are particularly vulnerable to sexual misconduct. Their lower professional status places them at the lower end of a power imbalance that facilitates sexual misconduct and discourages victims from reporting. The testimonies we receive detail students being sexually harassed and sexually assaulted whilst on clinical placement by senior doctors...

“We urgently ask for your support to engage medical schools to address sexism and sexual violence affecting their students. We request to meet with you to discuss this issue and hope we can work collaboratively to find meaningful solutions.”

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Source: The Independent, 30 September 2024

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NHS warns of 18,000 flu deaths since 2022 as it urges vaccination uptake

At least 18,000 deaths in England were associated with flu over the past two winters, figures have revealed, as health experts urge those eligible to take up a free vaccination on the NHS.

The figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) cover the period from October to May in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. Over the same timeframe UKHSA estimates a little more than 19,500 deaths were associated with Covid.

Steve Russell, the NHS national director for vaccinations and screening, said:

“Today’s data showing there were almost 20,000 deaths associated to flu over the past two winters is a shocking reminder that this is a seriously dangerous virus, and I urge those who are eligible to book their vaccine appointment as soon as they can as it is our best way of protecting those who are vulnerable as winter approaches.”

UKHSA said uptake of the flu vaccine fell last winter compared with the year before across all eligible groups, including the very young, elderly people and pregnant women. Among people aged six months to 65 years with one or more long-term health condition uptake declined from 49.1% in the winter of 2022-2023 to 41.4% in the winter of 2023-2024.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 September 2024

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Staff ‘rebuked’ for raising safety concerns despite patient deaths

Staff were ‘rebuked’ for raising safety concerns at a trust where the incorrect use of chemotherapy has been linked to patient deaths, HSJ has discovered.

In 2020, East and North Hertfordshire Trust identified higher-than-expected mortality rates among its ovarian cancer patients. An external review, obtained by HSJ, found chemotherapy may have contributed to the deaths of four patients in 2019 and 2020 whose comorbidities had not been adequately considered.

The serious incident investigation was undertaken by a team from specialist cancer trust The Christie. This identified issues including a “reluctance of staff to escalate safety concerns” and “poor consideration” of patient fitness levels in pre-treatment assessments.

The review said: “Many clinical decisions were driven from a senior individual member of the team, rather than a team-based decision-making model.”

“Some members of the MDT [multidisciplinary team] did not feel empowered to escalate issues around SACT [systemic anticancer therapy] assessments, with some staff stating that they felt that they were rebuked for escalating out-of-range blood test results.”

The review said decisions over treatment were not driven by protocol or multidisciplinary team input as part of general practice.

It added: “In the absence of a psychologically safe working environment, over time the above described behaviours became embedded in practice and were therefore less likely to be challenged.”

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Source: HSJ, 27 September 2024

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Radiographer-led pathway to improve NG tube safety launched

The Society of Radiographers is working alongside other organisations to launch a radiographer-led nasogastric (NG) tube position check pathway.

Aimed at reducing misplacement incidents and improving patient safety, the pathway has been developed with Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), the British Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (BSGAR) and the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN).

Radiographers will be trained to evaluate and record NG tube placement via X-ray, increasing efficiency and providing a safe consistent structured process. 

Once trained, radiographers can perform these evaluations autonomously in real-time, reducing delays and providing a safe consistent structured clinical evaluation recorded on the Radiology Information System.

NHS sites are being encouraged to pilot this pathway, with support from both SoR and RCR. Trusts and boards need to obtain local governance approval and work with key stakeholders to integrate the pathway into existing clinical workflows.

Continuous learning will be supported through local audits, ensuring quality and safety are maintained. Radiologists play a key role in supporting radiographers and are essential for overseeing the implementation of the pathway.

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Source: The Society of Radiographers, 26 September 2024

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I won't back down on broken NHS claims - Streeting

Wes Streeting says he will not back down in his criticism of the NHS, after the BBC revealed there was growing unease in the service about the "broken" NHS messaging from government.

England's health secretary told the Labour Party conference that not acknowledging the problems in the NHS would result in "killing it with kindness".

His comments came after senior sources in the health service said they believe some of the claims have gone too far - and may result in patients being put off seeking help and causing lasting damage to staff morale.

In recent weeks, the government has claimed cancer is a "death sentence" because of NHS failings, while maternity services "shame" the nation.

Streeting told delegates in Liverpool: "I know the doctor's diagnosis can sometimes be hard to hear.

"But if you don't have an accurate diagnosis, you won't provide the correct prescription.

"And when you put protecting the reputation of the NHS above protecting patients, you're not helping the NHS, you're killing it with kindness.

"I won't back down. The NHS is broken, but it's not beaten, and together we will turn it around," Mr Streeting said.

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Source: BBC News, 25 September 2024

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NHS bosses reject calls for specialist ME care

NHS bosses have rejected pleas for specialist care for people with severe myalgic encephalomyelitis despite promises from a health minister to tackle the lack of provision.

The recent inquest into the death of Maeve Boothby-O’Neill, 27, whose case exposed failings in the treatment of patients with severe ME, led to a minister’s declaration she had fallen through the cracks.

Andrew Gwynne, the minister for public health and prevention, pledged in August to boost research, improve attitudes and “better the lives of people with this debilitating disease”.

However, The Times has been told that a national service for ME patients is not on the agenda despite acknowledgement that patients are not receiving the expert care they need.

Karen Hargrave, the co-founder of #ThereForME, said that the government had made encouraging commitments to improving the care for ME and long Covid patients. However she warned that there did not seem to be a sense of urgency, even though lives were at risk.

The government has committed to publishing its ME delivery plan, the long-delayed strategy to improve treatment and understanding of ME, but not until the late winter and then it will have to be implemented. “We need action now,” Hargrave said. “Patients are being failed, but healthcare workers are being failed just as badly. They need proper structures and clear guidance to provide people with ME-safe care and save lives when needed.”

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Source: The Times, 27 September 2024

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Politicians are failing to prepare for next pandemic, warns head of European health agency

Politicians throughout Europe are gambling on the next pandemic not happening for the next five years and as result are failing to invest in preparedness, warns a doctor in charge of protecting 500 million people in Europe from infectious diseases.

Pamela Rendi-Wagner, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), told the European Health Forum Gastein on 25 September, “Every politician now in parliament hopes [the next pandemic] will not be within the next five years of his or her period—that’s why they aren’t investing too much in preparedness."

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Source: BMJ, 26 September 2024

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Basic security measure would have prevented disastrous cyber attack

A major cyber attack which caused months of disruption across NHS services in south London would have been thwarted if the affected system had been protected by a basic IT security process, HSJ has learned.

Synnovis, which provides pathology services for more than 2 million people in the capital, was hit by a ransonware attack in June.

The attack locked staff working for the pathology provider to Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital foundation trusts out of their systems for months. This resulted in widespread delays to care, including cancer treatment. Clinical teams in hospital had to revert to pen and paper, while GPs in the area were left “flying blind” without the ability to order tests.

Senior sources who worked on the response to the attack have now confirmed to HSJ that the system was not protected by multi-factor authentication (commonly known as “two-factor authentication”). MFA involves a user who has entered their password verifying their identity via another method, typically a call or text to their mobile.

After the attack, NHS England’s chief information security officer Phil Huggins wrote to all NHS providers saying two-factor authentication was now mandatory for all NHS systems and those used by their suppliers.

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Source: HSJ, 26 September 2024

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‘Aggressive’ ministers legitimising bullying in trusts, Letby inquiry told

Bullying, aggressive behaviour, and other forms of inappropriate pressure from ministers and the leaders of central bodies can significantly contribute to the development of an unhealthy workplace culture at local level, an expert witness has warned the inquiry into Lucy Letby’s crimes.

THIS Institute director Mary Dixon-Woods has been instructed by the Thirlwall inquiry to report on NHS cultural issues.

She said in evidence on Thursday: “The outer context more broadly, from ministerial level down, is highly impactful for culture and behaviour in NHS organisations.

“Pressures and behaviours (including bullying or aggressive behaviour) from those at the centre may be implicated in poor cultures at the level of NHS provider organisations.

“As well as being an unpleasant experience for those on the receiving end, they will tend to indicate that these are legitimate ways to behave that can be reproduced within organisations themselves.”

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Source: HSJ, 27 September 2024

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ADHD: ‘We’re sharing and rationing meds to get by’

A year ago, life for many people in the UK with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) became unpredictable and disorientating as their medications suddenly became scarce. They were told the shortages would be over within months - but people with the condition tell the BBC it is still a problem.

Spending two hours on hold to her pharmacy or GP each day has become the norm for Lorelei Mathias, 44, who has struggled to get a consistent supply of her prescription ADHD drugs since the shortages began last September.

The Brighton-based author and comedian, who created the web series Life in ADHD, says she has gone "against advice" and started rationing, hoarding and sharing pills with friends on similar prescriptions to make sure they all have enough.

"I have many friends who are also really struggling and splitting pills or shutting down from work as they can't function without it," she says.

When the UK government issued a patient safety alert, external warning last September about a shortage of many ADHD medications, it said it expected the disruption to end by December 2023.

Dr Ulrich Müller-Sedgwick, a consultant psychiatrist for adult neurodevelopmental pathways at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, says production and manufacturing issues are a factor.

He says: "There’s only a limited number of factories where these medicines are actually produced. They're stimulants, so there’s also quite a high security standard in these factories and they’re not easy operations to run."

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) says most supply issues have been resolved and it is working with manufacturers on the remaining problems.

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Source BBC News, 27 September 2024

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Have you (or a loved one) ever been prescribed medication that you were then unable to get hold of at the pharmacy? 

  • Was there an impact on your health (physical and mental)? 
  • Were you told the reason for it not being available? 
  • Was the issue resolved? If so, how long did it take?
  • If you are still impacted by medication supply issues, have you been told when you will be able to access them again?

To help us understand how these issues impact the lives of patients and families, please share your experience and insights on the hub here. You'll need to register with the hub first, its free and easy to do. 

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‘Scenes from hell’: Hospitals ran out of body bags and were close to collapse in pandemic, Covid inquiry told

Politicians chose not to equip the UK with enough intensive care units before the pandemic, the government’s chief medical officer has said, as a senior NHS doctor described scenes “from hell” on hospital wards.

NHS hospitals were dealing with the equivalent of daily “terrorist attacks” during the pandemic with wards so overwhelmed they ran out of body bags, former national clinical NHS advisor Professor Kevin Fong told the Covid-19 inquiry.

In a tearful account of the pandemic during Thursday’s hearing, he recalled seeing hospital wards with sick patients “raining from the sky”, with staff so overworked they were forced to wear nappies rather than go to the toilet.

The harrowing depiction of the pandemic came before Professor Sir Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for the government, admitted the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds in the UK was too low compared to provision in other countries.

He said: “Taking ICU, in particular, the UK has a very low ICU capacity compared to most of our peer nations in high-income countries. Now that’s a choice, that’s a political choice. It’s a system configuration choice, but it is a choice. Therefore you have less reserve when a major emergency happens, even if it’s short of something of the scale of Covid.”

He talked about how systems could not be “scaled up” without trained workers, adding that beds and space can be purchased but that the limit to any system is having trained people.

Prof Whitty admitted the government made no plans for the mental health impact of the pandemic and said officials “didn’t get it across well enough” that people should continue to go to hospitals for serious illnesses other than Covid.

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Source: The Independent, 27 September 2024

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Pharmacy closures in England threaten plan to use them instead of GPs for some care

High street pharmacies are closing at such an alarming rate that it threatens the drive to use them instead of GPs to care for millions of people, the NHS’s patient champion warns today.

A total of 436 community pharmacies in England shut permanently last year and there were also 13,863 temporary closures, which stopped patients from obtaining health advice and medication.

What appears to be a growing trend of permanent closures is hitting rural areas, those with larger numbers of older people and deprived communities hardest, according to Healthwatch England.

Its findings, which were based on figures supplied by NHS bodies, prompted fears that closures are leaving some parts of England as “pharmacy deserts” where patients struggle to access care.

“Staff shortages, the key driver of permanent and temporary closures, call into doubt the potential of Pharmacy First, meaning people can’t get the advice, care and medications they need and when they need them”, said Louise Ansari, Healthwatch’s chief executive.

Pharmacy First is the government’s drive to reduce the strain on overworked GPs through pharmacists treating what it hopes will be millions of patients a year for seven minor ailments such as a sore throat, earache, infected insect bite or sinusitis.

“It’s clear that rising levels of closures are risking leaving some areas of the country as pharmacy deserts, with people having to travel much further to get access to vital services”, said Paul Rees, the chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association.

“Community pharmacies act as the front door to the NHS. If people lose access to them it will force more patients into the eight o’clock scramble at their GP surgery, putting pressure on the rest of our NHS system.”

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Source: The Guardian, 26 September 2024

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Streeting backs role for physician associates in NHS despite RCGP vote

Physician associates (PAs) have a role to play in the NHS, but doctors' concerns about how they are working must be taken seriously, the health and social care secretary Wes Streeting has said.

Mr Streeting's comments come after the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) voted last week to oppose any role for PAs in general practice in a move that marked a change in position for the college.

Responding to a question from GPonline about his views on the college's decision at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool on 23 September, Mr Streeting said: 'I think physician associates do have a role to play in a modern NHS and there are physician associates every day in our country providing great care and making a great contribution, not just to patients but to their colleagues.'

He added: "Where I think we have a challenge is that legitimate concerns that have been expressed by doctors, both about [doctors being substituted for PAs] and patient safety, have been ignored by the previous government and in the process [doctors] have felt gaslit. 

"That has fuelled quite a toxic debate particularly online that has led to a lot of physician associates feeling quite demoralised and doctors feeling unheard."

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Source: GP Online, 24 September 2024

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HIT teams to be sent into trusts to improve efficiency

The government will send in teams of clinical experts to 20 trusts to improve theatre productivity, the health and social care secretary has announced.

High-intensity theatre (HIT) lists have been used by Guys and St Thomas’  Foundation Trust to significantly increase the number of operations carried out each day.

An article in the journal Nature last year explained: ”This increase is achieved by meticulous planning and parallel processing of patient care on the day of surgery, aiming to minimise or eliminate turnaround time, minimise non-operative time and maximise operating time.” 

Mr Streeting said the trusts would receive visits from the HIT teams but said they would be “in areas with the highest numbers of people off work sick.”

The support will be led by the national Getting It Right First Time team and extend beyond HIT to include other measures such as reducing missed appointments, which are higher in deprived areas, and identifying local capacity in the private sector, NHSE said.

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Source: HSJ, 25 September 2024

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Six NHS schemes that could help fix the health service

The government in England is planning the biggest reimagining of the NHS in its history.

It follows a damning report by surgeon and independent peer Lord Darzi, which warned the health service was in a “critical condition”.

The prime minister has said the new 10-year plan will be based on three concepts: greater use of digital technology, more emphasis on community care, and preventing ill health in the first place.

Across the NHS there are already pockets of innovation - and these localised schemes could help the wider NHS in years to come, including:

  1. Tests and scans in shopping centres.
  2. Virtual wards.
  3. Surgery hubs - with patient video diaries.
  4. Rapid discharge teams.
  5. Lung cancer screening trucks.
  6. Prescribing dance and arts.

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Source: BBC News, 22 September 2024

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NHSE chief: Federated data platform will ‘not be spectacular’

An NHS England chief has admitted the controversial ‘federated data platform’ will ‘not be that spectacular’ despite national leaders previously talking it up as ‘critical for the future of the NHS.’

NHSE chief data and analytics officer Ming Tang said the new data platform, which is being rolled out to trusts across the country, will help staff manage logistical tasks but said the system is “not pretty”.

NHSE wants trusts to adopt the FDP to bring together operational data currently stored in separate systems into “one safe and secure environment.” However, politicians and campaigners have raised concerns about privacy and data protection, particularly over the involvement of US firm Palantir, which is leading the consortium to deliver the FDP.

Speaking at the Health Excellence Through Technology conference on Tuesday (24 September), Ms Tang said “the most important thing… is that we deliver products that work for people, not the products that we want to push.

“I’ve always said [FDP is] not pretty, it’s not that spectacular. But what we’re really doing is helping people do their workflow, helping nurses on the ward so they don’t have to have bits of paper in their pockets, [helping] multidisciplinary teams so they’re not running around chasing emails.

“So, [it’s] taking away some of those logistical activities so they can focus on the frontline and on the patients.”

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Source: HSJ, 26 September 2024

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GPs refused to give prostate cancer tests to one in four black men in UK, survey finds

One in four black men in the UK have been refused a prostate cancer test by their GP despite having twice the risk of developing the disease than the overall adult male population, a report has found.

A PSA test measures the level of the protein prostate-specific antigen in the blood, and may be able to detect prostate cancer in its early stages.

But according to a survey conducted by Prostate Cancer Research of 2,000 black men in the UK, almost a quarter (24%) attempting to get tested in the past year reported being obstructed by a GP.

The survey also found a quarter (25%) believed discrimination prevented them from being tested for prostate cancer, while just under a half (47%) thought they would receive the same level of care from the NHS as their white counterparts.

Oliver Kemp, the chief executive of Prostate Cancer Research, said: “These black and white figures are shocking, and an important call to action. It shouldn’t be the community alone who has to fix this – just as we have seen members of the community come together around our Real Talk campaign, we are calling on government, the NHS, and other partners to come together and work with us to close this health gap.

“It is vital we raise awareness not only among the community, but also among healthcare professionals and policymakers. We are calling on GPs to be mindful of black men’s greater risk when considering PSA testing, and on government to introduce screening for men in high risk groups – our data shows that 82% of black men would be willing to take part in such a programme, if it were rolled out. It is staggering to think of how many lives could be saved.”

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Source: The Guardian, 26 September 2024

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Arrests after woman dies following Brazilian butt lift procedure

Two people have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following the death of a woman believed to have undergone a non-surgical Brazilian butt lift (BBL).

Alice Webb, 33, died after being taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in the early hours of Tuesday after falling unwell.

Gloucestershire Police said it had been called by the ambulance service at 11:35 BST on Monday and an investigation, led by the major crime team, was ongoing.

The two arrested people have been released on police bail.

Save Face, a national register of accredited practitioners who offer non-surgical cosmetic treatments, said this was the "first case of a death caused by a non-surgical BBL in the UK".

While non-surgical BBLs are not illegal in the UK, last year Wolverhampton City Council barred a company from carrying out the procedure after identifying risks associated with their processes, including blood clots, sepsis, and the potential for the death of body tissues.

Save Face’s director Ashton Collins said the organisation had supported 500 women who had suffered complications from the procedure.

Ms Collins said: “Liquid BBL procedures are a crisis waiting to happen. They are advertised on social media as ‘risk-free’, ‘cheaper’ alternatives to the surgical counterpart and that could not be further from the truth.”

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Source: BBC News, 25 September 2024

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Covid inquiry rejects clinicians’ anonymity plea

The chair of the Covid inquiry has refused an application from the UK Health Security Agency to keep the identities of two junior clinicians secret.

Lawyers for UKHSA applied for an order preventing publication of their names, on the grounds they could be subject to abuse and harassment on social media and in person.

Both individuals attended Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Cell meetings to discuss the guidance on masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic.

Baroness Hallett ruled their names could be published in minutes of those meetings, as any risk was outweighed by the public interest in reporting on the group's work.

From February 2020 until it was disbanded in 2022, guidance on the use of PPE in healthcare settings was drawn up by the IPC Cell, a group of clinicians and officials from the NHS, government and public-health bodies such as Public Health England, which then Health Secretary Matt Hancock replaced with UKHSA in 2021.

Critics have said the IPC Cell was too slow to strengthen its recommendations on PPE after it became clear Covid could be spread by tiny airborne particles.

The Covid-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance (CATA), a group made up of healthcare organisations and individuals which campaigned for stronger guidance, has called it a “shadowy” organisation with “unclear” accountability structures.

UKHSA said the “heated and aggressive” public discourse around the subject meant there was a “high likelihood” junior members of staff could face online abuse if they were named in minutes published by the inquiry.

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Source: BBC News, 26 September 2024

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Inquiry chair praises courage of victims' families

The chair of an inquiry into more than 2,000 mental health-related deaths in Essex has praised the "courage and candour" of victims’ families.

The Lampard Inquiry is investigating the deaths of people in the care of mental health services in Essex between 2000 and 2023.

The inquiry, which has been sitting for the last three weeks, has now adjourned until November.

Baroness Lampard said that statements from bereaved families “had made a lasting impression” on her.

More than 40 people have given commemorative statements so far, telling the inquiry about their loved ones and what kind of people they were before they died.

Addressing the inquiry on its final day before an adjournment, Baroness Lampard said the opening statements had been “thought-provoking”.

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Source: BBC News, 25 September 2024

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