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In this blog, Kristy Widdicombe-Dutch shares her decades-long experience of harmful healthcare that has left her with a complete loss of trust in the system. She describes how, starting in her 20s, she has experienced disbelief, gaslighting and poor care in relation to her vascular issues, which has left her with long-term physical harm and psychological trauma.

Despite growing awareness of diagnostic error, most healthcare systems do not track or record diagnostic quality, and many diagnostic safety events are not recognised. Without methods to identify, measure, investigate and analyse events, healthcare organisations cannot understand causes of diagnostic errors, identify contributing factors or create solutions. One of the best ways to collect information about diagnostic errors is through self-reporting by patients and healthcare professionals. This issue brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality looks at how to foster psychological safety and organisational safety culture in order to reduce harm from diagnostic error. 

Suicide and non-fatal self-harm represent key patient safety events in mental healthcare services. However, examples of optimal practice that help to keep patients safe also often important learning for organisations and healthcare professionals. This study in BMC Psychiatry aimed to explore clinicians’ views of what constitutes good practice in mental healthcare services in the context of suicide prevention. The study highlighted clinicians’ views on good practice specific to mental health services that focus on enhancing patient safety via prevention of self-harm and suicide. The authors concluded that clinicians possess important understanding of optimal practice, but there are few opportunities to share such insight on a broader scale. A further challenge is to implement optimal practice into routine, daily care to improve patient safety and reduce suicide risk.

This report, commissioned by Alzheimer’s Society from Carnall Farrar, sets out estimates of current and future economic and healthcare costs of dementia in the UK. It breaks down this data by cost type, dementia severity and the regions of England and the devolved nations.

This BMJ long-read article argues that health is going in the wrong direction in the UK, and reversing the trend requires political and societal commitment to deal with the underlying causes. It proposes evidence-based solutions to the worsening health and widening inequalities in the UK through action on the social determinants of health.

The Safe Learning Environment Charter supports the development of positive safety cultures and continuous learning across all learning environments in the NHS. It is underpinned by principles of equality, diversity and inclusion. It has been developed by over 2482 learners, educators and key stakeholders in health education. The Charter was created by NHS England in response to healthcare learners’ feedback on their clinical experiences in maternity services, set out in the Kirkup (2015 and 2022) and Ockenden (2020 and 2022) reports. The Charter is designed for learners and those responsible for supporting placement learning across all learning environments and all professions within them. It is aligned to the NHS People Promise in recognition that learners are vital to the workforce and are included in the promises NHS staff and leaders must all make to each other, to improve everyone’s experience of working in the NHS. The Charter sets out the supportive learning environment required to allow learners to become well-rounded professionals with the right skills and knowledge to provide safe and compassionate care of the highest quality.

In this blog, Miqdad Asaria, Assistant Professor at the Department of Health Policy at LSE, argues that AI could lead to a paradigm-shift in healthcare systems likes the NHS. He outlines how AI could help personalise medical treatments, enhance research and development of new drugs and help with the administrative burden currently undermining the productivity and efficiency of healthcare providers.

This is the second ‘saving babies’ lives’ progress report from the Joint Policy Unit. When the first report was published in May 2023, the Unit committed to reassessing progress each year. Through this process it aims to hold government and decisionmakers to account, helping to ensure that saving babies’ lives and tackling inequalities in pregnancy and baby loss are the political priorities they deserve to be. This years report highlights that maternity services need a much more transformative approach from government, that matches the scale and impact of the issue. Maternity services are not on course to meet government ambitions to reduce rates of stillbirth, neonatal death or preterm birth, and there continue to be stark and persistent inequalities in rates of pregnancy and baby loss by ethnicity and deprivation. View a summary version of the report

Kerri Mothersole was a 44 year old woman who had a past medical history of asthma, labyrinthitis, depression and back pain. In May 2020 she was seen with symptoms of possible early menopause and blood tests requested. In October 2020 she was noted to be suffering from tiredness and had irregular periods and again blood tests were requested. Blood tests taken in January 2021 noted a low haemoglobin and ferritin so iron was prescribed as well as follow up in two months. In March 2021 she complained of having per vaginal bleeding for six weeks and she was referred for an ultrasound. Due to her underlying ill health, she had difficulty in attending appointments and missed a number of different appointments. She was seen in the surgery on 21 June 2021 by her General Practitioner who noted abdominal tenderness and weight loss and he again referred her for an ultrasound. An ultrasound was undertaken by a private firm HEM Clinical Ultrasound on 28 June 2021 but the report was never sent to her General Practitioner. A second ultrasound on the 1 July 2021suggested a diagnosis of adenomyosis but noting that serious pathology could not be ruled out. Only the second report was sent to the General Practitioner which led to a routine gynaecology referral, she had however already been referred to the colorectal team on the urgent two week wait pathway. Had the earlier scan report been seen this would have led to an urgent referral to gynaecology. There were a number of missed appointments and a colonoscopy took place on 20 October 2021. The procedure was negative but the endoscopist thought he could feel something in the pelvis and a CT scan was arranged. The CT scan on 28 October 2021 demonstrated a large pelvic mass and she was referred to the gynaecology team in early December and a multidisciplinary team meeting discussion on 17 December 2021 led to a request for an MRI scan. Appointments were made for 31 December 2021, 25 January 2022 and again in February but not attended and she eventually underwent an MRI on 1 May 2022 which revealed a large mass. She was again discussed at the multidisciplinary team meeting on 6 May 2022 and referred to the gynae-oncology surgeons at Maidstone hospital. She was seen on 1 June 2022 and booked for surgery on 27 June 2022. She was, however, far too unwell for surgery on 27 June 2022 and further investigations revealed brain metastases. She was admitted to hospital and treated with steroids and referred to the Oncologists as surgery was deemed no longer appropriate. She was prescribed hormone treatment but she was, by now, too unwell to receive even palliative radiotherapy. She was taken to Medway Maritime hospital on 19 August 2022 and was struggling as she had been so unwell at home. Whilst plans were being made to provide some care at home she remained overnight but sadly died on 20 August 2022 as she was so unwell she could not return home.

This report from Public Policy Projects (PPP) calls for changes in the use of approved medicines to improve diabetes care in the UK. It is the first in a series looking at specific areas of diabetes care in the UK.

In April 2024 the World Health Organization published the Patient Safety Rights charter, outlining patients’ rights in the context of safety in healthcare. In this blog, Assistant Professor John Tingle and Teaching Fellow Angela Eggleton from Birmingham Law School at the University of Birmingham, consider the rights included in the Charter and applying this to the NHS.

The National Diabetes Foot Care Audit (NDFA) has published a State of the Nation report for 2018 to 2023. Based on data from England and Wales from 1 Apr 2018 to 31 Mar 2023, it details the findings and recommendations relating to the assessment, outcomes and participation in the NDFA for this period. Ulceration of the foot in people living with diabetes presents significant challenges, including emotional, physical and financial costs, and is associated with increased risk of both amputation and death. It affects between 1 and 2% of all people with diabetes each year and its management accounts for approximately 1% of the total NHS budget. The overall aim of the NDFA is to measure factors associated with increased risk of ulcer onset and adverse ulcer outcomes, and to share information relating to best clinical practice. This report contains three key findings: The time to first expert assessment (FEA) is key to achieving the positive outcomes of being alive and ulcer free (AAUF) at 12 weeks There is a marked variation between foot care services both in terms of assessment and outcomes There are wide ranging differences between regions, integrated care boards and services in ulcer registration rates, and also the percentage of those registered that are classified as severe.