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  2. Patient Safety Learning started following Three dead after hospital failed to stop rogue consultant , Wound Healing Forum 2026 , GP access improving as more go online and 3 others
  3. Event
    Public Policy Project (PPP)’s fourth annual Wound Healing Forum will convene clinical experts, system leaders and industry partners for the sector’s preeminent arena co-creating policy thinking, championing innovation and driving systemic change for patients. The growth and engagement of our audience has allowed expansion the offering at the Forum, with two dedicated tracks in addition to plenary keynote sessions. In 2026, it will offer for a greater diversity of nuanced discussions, with attendees able to curate their experience and contributors freed to get into the critical minutia. The Theatres This year’s forum will feature two full-day theatres; System Innovations and Policy Movements, offering an expanded programme of discussions spanning system transformation, emerging policy priorities, and practical strategies to enhance wound care delivery and outcomes. System Innovations Theatre: Sessions in the System Innovations theatre will explore the latest approaches to transforming wound care delivery across the UK. Focused on service redesign, person-centred care models, and the adoption of new technologies, practices and ways of working. Sessions will highlight practical examples of innovation in action, showcasing how teams are improving efficiency, reducing variation, and enhancing patient outcomes through system-wide change. Topics include: Judicious use of AI in wound care Patients as true co-creators of good care The potential in strategic tissue viability Moving from repetition and resistance, to regeneration and resolution. Policy Movements Theatre: Sessions in the Policy Movements theatre will examine the evolving policy landscape shaping wound care across the UK. Examining how NHS reforms create opportunities and challenges, understanding impacts of regulatory developments, and finding in-roads to effect policy directions. Topics include: Pain as policy priority Ceasing the window of political opportunity Speaking across disciplines and interests Workforce planning now and for the future Register
  4. News Article
    The share of patients reporting a good experience when contacting their GP practice has increased for the second year running, while the number going online has increased, new figures show. However, the annual GP patient survey – contrary to other research – suggested many more are still relying on the phone rather than websites or the NHS App. Results published on Thursday of the large national survey found 72.6% of respondents said their experience of contacting their practice was “very good” or “fairly good” – up from 69.6% in 2025. The survey question was revised in 2024 from asking about “making an appointment” to “contacting your GP practice”. The survey, carried out by Ipsos for NHS England, ran between January and April, with more than 650,000 respondents from a random sample of those who use GP services. 54% per cent said they had used the phone to contact their practice on their most recent attempt – down steeply from 62% in 2025 and 68 per cent in 2024. Meanwhile, 31% had used the GP practice’s website or the NHS App, up from 22% in 2025 and 17% in 2024. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 July 2026
  5. Content Article
    A new paper from NIHR RSET, in collaboration with Sands, describes the experiences of different families of advocacy support in maternity and neonatal services. Based on conversations with 34 families, the findings suggest that independent advocacy could help ensure that families are listened to, heard and supported following an adverse outcome.
  6. Today
  7. Tasnim
    Tasnim joined the community
  8. Community Post
    A request for compensation or even the prospect of litigation should not automatically bring the complaints process to a halt. In many cases, the complaint investigation serves a different purpose to legal proceedings by identifying what happened, addressing any failings and demonstrating openness. Keeping those processes separate, while ensuring the investigation does not prejudice any legal case, is often the most balanced approach. It can also help reassure boards that continuing a fair and well-documented complaints investigation is about good governance and organisational learning, not admitting liability. Ultimately, a thorough complaints process can benefit both the organisation and the person raising the concerns, regardless of whether legal proceedings follow.
  9. damianjames
    damianjames joined the community
  10. News Article
    A royal college has added to concerns that a shift in NHS funding to expand “neighbourhood” care risks undermining “safe, sustainable hospital services”. The Royal College of Physicians issued its statement in response to a HSJ interview with Shane DeGaris, chief executive of Barts Health Trust, who warned against “top slicing” acute budgets for neighbourhood schemes when “the work still comes to hospitals”. The RCP said that while it supports the potential to move services closer to home, “it must be underpinned by adequate investment, workforce capacity and clear plans to maintain safe hospital services during the transition”. Shifting care out of hospitals without the right infrastructure, specialist input and capacity in community services “risks increasing pressure elsewhere in the NHS, rather than delivering the integrated, patient-centred care that patients need”, it argued. The Department of Health and Social Care has previously said it is up to integrated care boards to shape service transformation in their area. RCP’s clinical vice president Hilary Williams said: “The key challenge is not whether we shift care closer to home, but how we do it. Any transfer of funding or workforce must be accompanied by realistic transition arrangements, investment in community capacity, interoperable digital systems and a clear plan for maintaining safe acute care.”
  11. News Article
    A manager at the mental health trust at the centre of a public inquiry has said concerns she raised before the death of a patient were not acted on. Chloe Cawston was giving evidence to the Lampard Inquiry, which is examining the deaths of more than 2,000 patients who received care from mental health services in Essex between 2000 and the end of 2023. Cawston was a ward manager at Basildon Mental Health Unit when 28-year-old Bethany Lilley died in January 2019. The inquiry heard she had raised concerns about patient transfer procedures before and after Bethany's death. Asked whether any action had been taken before she died, Cawston replied: "Not that I can recall." Bethany was found unresponsive after being transferred to Basildon. The inquiry heard the ward did not receive all the relevant paperwork or case notes and there was not an appropriate handover between hospitals. Cawston told the inquiry she had been a registered mental health nurse since 2011 and became a ward manager at Basildon in 2018. During her evidence, she also accepted there had not always been enough beds for people in mental health crisis. "Nationally there's been a shortage of mental health beds," she said. She told the inquiry that if no bed was available, a plan would be put in place for a patient to attend A&E if they needed immediate help. Cawston said if someone left A&E before a bed became available, staff would try to contact them and alert police if necessary. Asked about ward culture, she said staff falling asleep at work had been "a feature throughout her whole career", although it was less common now. She also accepted that risk assessments before patients went on leave had not always been carried out properly. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 July 2026
  12. Aimee Percy
    Aimee Percy joined the community
  13. News Article
    An NHS consultant doctor has been struck off after it emerged he failed to disclose 14 convictions from Australia, including stalking and threatening to kill his victim. Dr Salah-ud-Din Taj had claimed that the offences were not "serious" enough to mention when he applied to work in the UK. Dr Taj, who qualified from the University of the Punjab in Pakistan in 1996, worked as a Medical Registrar in Australia between 2007 and 2017. During this period, he was convicted of 14 offences over four months, including stalking and threatening to kill, at the Magistrates Court of Victoria in Melbourne. He received a one-year community correction order, which included 150 hours of unpaid work and supervision. When applying for registration to work as a doctor in the UK, Dr Taj "dishonestly" ticked the 'no' box regarding previous convictions on his forms. In 2019, he lied again to North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust to secure himself a job. He later claimed that he thought the stalking conviction “was not serious” and was therefore “filterable” and did not need to be declared. Dr Taj said that he did not declare the conviction because it “had not involved any physical element, did not touch upon his clinical practice and did not result in a custodial sentence”. His prior convictions were discovered by the General Medical Council (GMC) and an investigation was launched into the doctor. In the course of the investigation, it was also discovered that Dr Taj had been dishonest about practicing in Australia exclusively between 2007 and 2017, as he took breaks and also went to Pakistan. A panel from the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found that Dr Taj could not remain on the register after lying about his convictions. Read full story Source: The Independent, 9 July 2026
  14. News Article
    Patients with lung disease suffered harm or died after treatment was repeatedly delayed or replaced with alternatives which had no evidence base, an independent review has found. The Royal College of Physicians was commissioned by Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust to review the care of 30 patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) treated by Veronica Varney, a former consultant respiratory physician. It found the majority of patients came to moderate harm or worse, with failures including delayed referrals, keeping patients on clinical trials after they were halted and prescribing treatments with no evidence base for the condition. The 30 affected patients are a sample of 216 patients with ILD, which the trust previously found received poor care. Many of these patients have since died. The review graded 12 cases as causing “severe clinical harm” and three as resulting in death. The review found that Dr Varney “initiated non-evidence-based and off-label treatments for ILD”, including advising patients to avoid covid and flu vaccines and rapeseed oil, and prescribing medications not intended for ILD. It said treatment decisions “were not consistently supported by clinical guidelines and were not always clearly documented as having been discussed with the patient or colleagues”. Dr Varney was “reportedly instructed to cease non-evidence-based ILD treatments”, but the practice continued. “The lack of monitoring at this point was a missed opportunity to ensure compliance and patient safety,” the report said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 July 2026
  15. Content Article
    Sonographers have been on the UK’s national Shortage Occupation List for more than 10 years. The government has repeatedly acknowledged that the NHS does not have enough of them, that recruitment is difficult, and that the workforce is essential to diagnostic pathways. Yet despite this longstanding national shortage, sonography remains one of the few clinical workforces in the NHS that is not recognised as a profession in its own right. This contradiction is more than a workforce anomaly. It is a governance gap with implications for patient safety, legal accountability, and the credibility of the UK’s diagnostic strategy, writes Kalpana Lakhani in this HSJ article.
  16. Content Article
    The NHS 10-Year Health Plan promised transformative change, but one year on, implementation remains slow, uneven, and lacking transparency. So, what should we make of all this? Siva Anandaciva suggests two things in this HSJ article. First, delivering a national plan is hard enough, but harder still while you are merging or abolishing NHS England, Integrated Care Boards, Integrated Care Partnerships, and Healthwatches. As the government’s own impact assessment for the plan wisely notes: “Making simultaneous changes to multiple layers of the NHS hierarchy creates a risk that there is insufficient capacity to accelerate change.” Second, nearly one year after the plan was published, we have only the haziest of notions of what should have been delivered, when it should have been delivered, and who was meant to deliver it. Developing the health plan cost £3m and took eight months. A comprehensive progress report is the least we could ask for. Because although taxpayers know exactly what we spent on the 10YHP, we are still working out exactly what we bought.
  17. Yesterday
  18. imran asghar
    imran asghar joined the community
  19. Phoebe
    Phoebe joined the community
  20. Cathy Dunlea
    Cathy Dunlea joined the community
  21. Fiona Drummond
    Fiona Drummond joined the community
  22. Talitha
    Talitha joined the community
  23. Claire Mitchell started following The Patient Safety Management Network 4 years on: "Not just a network but a movement"
  24. Charlotte May
    Charlotte May joined the community
  25. Claire Mitchell started following Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
  26. Claire Mitchell
    Claire Mitchell joined the community
  27. News Article
    A German palliative care doctor has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 15 of his patients. A court in Berlin found the 41-year-old man, named only as Johannes M. in line with German privacy rules, guilty of murdering 12 women and 3 men between September 2021 and July 2024. The authorities believe these killings could be just the tip of the iceberg. Prosecutors are currently investigating dozens of other incidents involving the doctor. His victims were between the ages of 25 and 94. The court heard how they were all critically ill, but that their deaths were not imminent. Prosecutors said that during home visits, the doctor administered a lethal combination of various medicines without his patients' consent. On several occasions, they said he set fires to cover his tracks. In July 2024, shortly before his arrest, prosecutors said the doctor killed two patients in a single day - a 75-year-old man at his home in central Berlin and, a few hours later, a 76-year-old woman in a neighbouring district. They said the doctor tried to set fire to the woman's house, but failed. For much of the trial, which has gone on for about a year, the doctor said nothing. But last month, he confessed to having "killed people," twelve of his severely ill patients. He told the court he had convinced himself that he was doing the right thing, sparing them "suffering and infirmity". Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 July 2026
  28. News Article
    An average of 80,000 people visited A&E every day last month for the first time ever in June, as record temperatures hit the UK. The NHS has said it is under just as much pressure as in winter and staff are facing an “onslaught of demand” amid heatwaves and the World Cup. Average daily A&E attendances reached 81,264 for the first time ever in June - setting a new daily attendance record. NHS national medical director Professor Frankie Swords said: “These figures show that summer is now putting the NHS under just as much pressure as winter, with staff facing an onslaught of demand – and we have to prepare for it in the same way. “What we’re seeing on the ground is really busy Mondays following weekends of football and sunshine, so please don’t delay coming forward for care when you need it, even if it’s in early hours on a weekend. “In the continuing warm weather, please take precautions like staying hydrated, and check in on loved ones or those who are vulnerable, and as always, please dial 999 in an emergency, and otherwise use 111.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 9 July 2026
  29. News Article
    Large acute trusts are shouldering unreasonable risk because their funding has been “top sliced” to pay for “well meaning” but unproven “neighbourhood health” schemes, a leading London CEO has told HSJ. Shane DeGaris, of Barts Health Trust, said the financial transition to realise the hospital-to-community “shift” was currently “not clear”, and much of the risk was with with hospital providers. Mr DeGaris said his £2.7bn organisation was “supportive” of neighbourhood health, and in “live discussions” on how responsibility for it can be divided up in North East London. But in an interview with HSJ, he warned his and other acutes were facing potential deficits, with the funding regime becoming “increasingly bad” for them. Mr DeGaris said his trust “fully supports” the shift of services from hospital to community, but added: “There’s going to be a huge chunk of work still going to be required to do in hospitals… “[We need to make sure] all the stranded costs aren’t there for the hospitals in a world where accountability now is all about individual trusts. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 July 2026
  30. Content Article Comment
    Five years of the PSMN does not seem possible! Many thanks to Claire and Helen for their dedication and inspiration. I agree with the assertion in this blog that it is not a straightforward path from learning new information and skills at the PSMN meetings to implementing them in our respective organisations. Nevertheless. the learning has been invaluable and has shown members have very similar experiences. Looking forward to the next five years!
  31. Content Article
    This article argues that while colour-coded scrubs can help identify healthcare staff, relying on scrub colour alone is an unreliable way to distinguish roles during emergencies. Drawing on a patient safety incident, the author describes how clinical students wearing the same colour scrubs as licensed professionals created confusion during a cardiac arrest response, making it difficult to identify who was qualified and who still needed to attend. The article highlights that colour cues are vulnerable to errors caused by stress, poor lighting, visual overload and differences in colour perception. Instead, it recommends stronger, layered approaches to role identification, including clearly labelled staff badges, predefined emergency response roles, designated team leaders and structured communication techniques such as callouts and check-backs. Related reading on the hub: Patient safety starts with knowing who is in the room
  32. Last week
  33. Event
    An update from CQC about their new guidance on the use of AI in social care settings with opportunities to ask questions. This webinar is an opportunity to hear updates from CQC on their approach to regulation and AI following the publication of their recent guidance: Artificial intelligence in health and social care: CQC’s role, expectations and plans – Care Quality Commission Hosted by the AI in Care Alliance – a collaborative focussed on the responsible use of AI in Adult Social Care. Register
  34. Event
    This webinar will explore how organisations across adult social care are using co-production to shape digital services, data use and innovation alongside the people most affected by them. The discussion will focus on a critical question: Who gets to influence how digital data is collected, used and acted on in adult social care? Too often, digital transformation happens to people rather than with them. This session will examine what happens when people with lived experience are genuinely involved in decision-making, service design and digital innovation from the beginning, not simply asked for feedback once decisions have already been made. The webinar will highlight examples where co-production has worked well because: people had real influence and shared ownership services listened and adapted digital approaches reflected people’s actual lives and needs organisations built trust through transparency and collaboration The session will also explore where organisations have struggled, including: consultation being mistaken for co-production digital systems being designed without end-user input communities feeling unheard or excluded power remaining with organisations rather than people The conversation will centre the voices of: people drawing on care and support unpaid carers and families frontline staff communities affected by digital change every day. Register
  35. Content Article Comment
    Petition for a Robbie's Law: https://www.change.org/p/implement-legislation-for-individual-legal-duty-of-candour-for-all-public-officials
  36. News Article
    Staff could face the sack or even time in prison if they access patient records without a legitimate reason, Sir Jim Mackey has warned. In a letter to hospital and regional leaders today, the NHS England chief executive called on boards to put a “renewed focus” on educating staff and implementing a “tough approach” in response to staff who “breach patient trust in this way”. HSJ revealed in June that multiple hospital staff had viewed medical records of Southport attack survivors without clinical reason in 2024 – resulting in allegations of a “cover up” and with no clear firm disciplinary action having been taken. Also in June, Nottingham University Hospitals announced it was sacking 11 staff for snooping on records after three people were killed in a stabbing in 2023. HSJ has revealed thousands of other similar concerns have been reported nationally, and that Cambridge University Hospitals has recently sacked staff. Sir Jim’s letter said: “There can be no place in the NHS for those who misuse patient information. Patient trust in our handling of their most sensitive data cannot be taken for granted and it is therefore critical that we both educate staff and take a hard line when their access to records falls below the standards we expect. “Anyone considering accessing records for personal reasons or out of curiosity should be in no doubt they could be putting their career at risk, and may face disciplinary action, dismissal, referral to the regulator or even time in prison.” NHSE has also published staff guidance and launched a campaign to remind them “of the law and the potential impact” of snooping. The headline messaging warns: “Don’t let curiosity kill your career.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 July 2026
  37. Content Article
    Accessing patient records out of curiosity or for personal reasons is illegal. It causes real harm to patients and could end your career. Everyone working in health and care has a professional and legal responsibility to protect people’s confidential information. This includes accessing patient records only where there is a clear and legitimate reason and doing so in a way that respects patients’ dignity and trust.  Accessing records for any reason other than work purposes is both unethical and illegal. If you intentionally access people’s health and care records without an appropriate and approved work reason, you may be committing a criminal offence under the Data Protection Act 2018 and Computer Misuse Act 1990. It is also a serious breach of your employment contract and could result in disciplinary action, including dismissal. It could also result in a referral to your professional regulator and could end your career.  NHS England has published Stopping unlawful access to records guidance for patients and service users.
  38. Content Article
    The NHS staff standards set national minimum employment requirements to improve staff experience, outlining employer actions and what staff can expect. The 10 Year Health Plan committed to developing a new set of staff standards which will outline minimum standards for employment across a range of areas, aimed at improving staff experience. The standards set out the actions employers must take to deliver them and what staff can expect at work as a result. The documents published here bring together: an overview explaining why the staff standards have been introduced, how they will be used and what each standard means in practice the full staff standards, setting out the detailed requirements for employers. The staff standards focus on key areas that staff have told us matter most, including: line management health and wellbeing violence prevention and reduction sexual safety tackling racism flexible working. The standards have been developed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England, working closely with employers and trade unions through the Social Partnership Forum, and are intended to be implemented locally through partnership working. The standards are for NHS staff, employers and leaders, and should be used alongside existing workforce policies and initiatives to support implementation. The standards will apply to secondary care, which includes acute, mental health, ambulance services and community healthcare.
  39. News Article
    Almost half of patients who travelled abroad for cut-price cosmetic surgery returned home with serious complications such as splitting wounds, tissue death and sepsis, a new study has revealed. The medical tourism industry is estimated to be worth more than £20 billion, with surgery packages abroad often marketed at prices up to 80% lower than procedures in the UK. But if there are complications following the surgery patients can face difficulty accessing follow up support and plastic surgeons in the UK have warned “a cheaper operation can end up becoming a very expensive complication.” A study from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) analysed almost 200 cases of patients treated in the UK after undergoing cosmetic procedures overseas. Nearly three in four patients required medical procedures or surgery after returning home, while almost half needed an operation under general anaesthetic to correct complications. The most common problems included severe infections, wounds splitting open, tissue death, nipple loss and fluid collections requiring repeated treatment. Tragically, one patient died from a pulmonary embolism. However, the NHS is footing the bill, which between September 2022 and 2024 is estimated to have cost about £1.8 million - approximately £5883 to £9328 per patient. Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 July 2026
  40. News Article
    Thousands of women could be spared having a painful intrusive exam for suspected cancer thanks to a new AI-powered blood test being trialled by the NHS. Around 90,000 postmenopausal women a year in England are referred by their GP to be investigated for possible womb cancer because they are bleeding a lot. Around 10,000 women a year in England are diagnosed with the disease – which is also known as uterine or endometrial cancer – and 2,700 die from it. However, the PinPoint blood test could save one in five of those women – 18,000 a year – from needing to undergo a diagnostic procedure called a transvaginal ultrasound scan, which measures the thickness of the lining of their womb, and many find uncomfortable or painful. Avoiding having that test unnecessarily has become a realistic prospect because, although 20% of women referred turn out not to have the disease, under the current NHS system of diagnosing cancers of the reproductive system, all have a pelvic examination involving an ultrasound scan. If doctors still suspect cancer, women potentially then have a tissue sample taken during a biopsy and a further examination called a hysteroscopy, which can often be painful. Prof Sean Duffy, the firm’s chief medical officer – an ex-NHS England national clinical director for cancer – said the test’s 99% accuracy for womb cancer “is remarkable by any clinical standards”. “But equally, its value lies in safely ruling out very low-risk women. This has the potential to spare thousands of patients from painful invasive procedures they do not need.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 8 July 2026
  41. News Article
    Board members will be held accountable for tackling workplace racism via personal objectives that must be made public under new national standards. The government’s NHS staff standards guidance, published this week, says organisations must “ensure every board member (including non-executive directors) has a published… objective on tackling racism”. They must appoint either their chief executive or chief operating officer as the senior responsible officer for tackling racism, and they will be “held to account against relevant workforce data [with] strong and clear consequences for poor performance”. “Tackling racism” is one of six staff standards set by the Department of Health and Social Care, as proposed in last year’s 10-Year Health Plan. The guidance said: “The 2025 NHS Staff Survey showed that instances of staff experiencing discrimination at work from patients, their families and the general public, managers or other colleagues, had increased again and are higher among ethnic minority staff compared to white staff. “Given these inequalities, this standard sets out the minimum national expectations for how all NHS organisations must prioritise, prevent, respond to and learn from incidents of racism in the workplace.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 July 2026
  42. News Article
    Mental health is at risk of being “left behind” by the first online NHS hospital, a top mental health chief executive has said. Ify Okocha, CEO of Oxleas Foundation Trust told his board last week that he had personally challenged NHS Online’s new chair over the exclusion of mental health from the service’s initial plans. He said: “I feel strongly about it. This is often what happens – mental health is left behind, and then we’re told ‘we don’t quite know how to help you’. I’m keen for us to be a part of that.” The NHS “online hospital” will offer remote specialist treatment to patients referred by their GP. It is scheduled to see its first patients in 2027. Last month, one of NHS Online’s non-executive directors pledged that safeguards would be put in place to prevent the organisation from “draining the resources” of the wider NHS workforce. The trust is currently recruiting for its chief digital and information officer. In January, NHS England announced nine areas which would be the focus of the new hospital, including women’s health issues, prostate problems, and ophthalmology conditions. Dr Okocha said he was “struck by” the emphasis being placed on services like ophthalmology “but no mention of mental health”. He said he had raised this issue with those overseeing the hospital launch and was told, in essence, that “the service needed to start somewhere”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 7 July 2026
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