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Discover how one Pennsylvania facility strengthened breast milk-handling safety in its NICU after identifying preventable errors. This article reviews recent breast milk–related events reported statewide; outlines risks across collection, storage, and administration; and shares practical strategies hospitals can use to reduce harm. You’ll also learn how this facility sought guidance from the Patient Safety Authority as it implemented targeted improvements to close process gaps and enhance reliability. Explore these insights, lessons learned, and supportive resources designed to help facilities promote safer, more consistent care for infants and their families.

GPs are now legally required to proactively share information about children with other safeguarding organisations where there are concerns about their welfare, even if they are not yet at risk of harm. New Government guidance, which came into effect 30 September, said the common law duty of confidentiality does not apply for sharing this information – and parental consent does not need to be sought or obtained. Government guidance on the changes said safeguarding organisations had been ‘unsure about when they can share information, particularly where concerns relate to a child’s welfare or emerging need, rather than harm’. The guidance said: ‘To address this the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 amended the Children Act 2004 to make clear that there is no requirement for a child to meet a particular statutory threshold before information can be shared. ‘Under the information sharing duty, information must be shared where it is relevant to safeguarding and promoting a child’s welfare, including where concerns relate to early help, prevention and unmet need.’ GP practices can request relevant information from other organisations and professionals covered by the scope of the duty, and vice versa. Some GP leaders welcomed earlier recognition of potential risks but warned the changes could impact patients’ disclosure of potential risk behaviours as well as create an increase to unfunded GP workload. Read full story Source: Pulse, 14 October 2026

Two NHS staff may have accessed or tried to access medical information about a man killed by a tiger at a wildlife park “without a legitimate reason”, a trust has said. Yorkshire Ambulance Service Trust said it had identified “two instances involving two members of staff” following the death of William Chapman at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near Doncaster, on 10 October. In response to a request from HSJ, a spokeswoman for YAS said: “First and foremost, our thoughts are with William Chapman’s family at this distressing time. “The trust has identified an information governance concern in relation to this tragic incident at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, and William’s family has been informed of our ongoing investigation into this. “We believe there may have been two instances involving two members of staff accessing or attempting to access incident/medical information following this incident without a legitimate reason to do so. “We take the confidentiality and security of patient information extremely seriously and have robust systems in place to protect information, and this concern has been identified as a result of our proactive audits.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 October 2026

Trans women will no longer be placed on female-only wards under new NHS England guidance on single-sex spaces. The new rules, published on Thursday, mean single-sex wards, toilets and changing rooms will be used by people based on their biological sex, not their gender identity. The guidance states that trans people should be “accommodated in line with their biological sex” while ensuring their clinical needs are met and their “privacy, dignity and safety are maintained”, along with other patients sharing their accommodation. It adds that in cases where clinical needs and same-sex accommodation requirements cannot both be met, clinical needs are the priority. Updated guidance for NHS England staff has also been published, stating that all organisations should carry out an audit of their provision to ensure it protects the “privacy, dignity and safety of all staff”. It states that in NHS trusts with mainly single-sex facilities, “suitable and accessible alternatives, such as single‑occupancy or mixed-sex facilities with individual lockable rooms, can be provided”. In a joint statement, TransActual and Trans+ Solidarity Alliance said the guidance would “not survive contact with reality in resource-strapped hospitals and will create unworkable operational challenges”. “This NHS guidance emphasises clinical judgment as the priority over blanket exclusion, but leaves individual healthcare professionals unclear on how to safely look after trans patients,” they said. “Forcing trans people into spaces for our sex assigned at birth will never be the most clinically appropriate decision, and would push trans people away from accessing care.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2026

Integrated care boards will have to carry out more than a dozen functions earmarked for transfer to other bodies for at least another year despite huge cuts in their workforce, HSJ has learned. NHS England’s Model ICB blueprint, published in May 2025, said that the rationalised ICBs would no longer be responsible for 18 functions. However, HSJ understands only four of these will be transferred in 2026-27, and that there is no firm date for the reallocation of the remainder. NHSE had already backtracked on the transfer of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), safeguarding and continuing healthcare functions, as well as emergency preparedness, resilience, and response planning, and the management of “system coordination centres”. It has now decided to keep a further nine functions within the ICB remit. These include digital and technology leadership and transformation, medicines optimisation, and pathway and service development programmes – all of which were due to transfer to providers. Read full story (pawalled) Source: HSJ, 16 October 2026

The NHS’s productivity problem is much bigger than top-down analysis suggests, with real patient journeys revealing how poorly designed processes can waste vast amounts of staff time and resources, writes Steve Black in this HSJ opinion piece. He says that analysing the patient journeys to identify the waste and chaos could drive far more improvement than the top-down analysis might suggest. And it could make the needed improvements far more concrete and convincing for the staff who need to implement them and far more convincing for the patients who need to support them.

People living with brain cancer will get a faster route from research to treatment, under four steps set out by the Prime Minister. This follows the Prime Minister and Health Secretary’s meeting in Downing Street with Archie Goodburn today, the 25-year-old swimmer with inoperable brain cancer who made an emotional plea to the Prime Minister on BBC Breakfast. Archie has campaigned for faster progress on brain cancer, and today’s steps build on the issues raised: An immediate expert review, led by Professor Anthony Chalmers, Chair of the Brain Tumour Group within the UK Collaborative for Cancer Clinical Research, reporting within three months. Leading brain cancer experts will assess what has changed for patients since a 2018 government review, and what is still holding progress back. A national action plan to follow. The review’s findings will shape a plan to get new treatments out of the lab and to patients faster. A new national brain cancer clinical lead to drive this work forward, appointed by the Department of Health and Social Care. The Prime Minister has asked the MHRA to complete its review of the rules for medicines that treat rare conditions - known as orphan drugs - in two years rather than three. Bringing forward any changes to these rules could help patients get promising new treatments sooner. Alongside this, patients, families and charities will help design a drive to get more people onto clinical trials. Read full story Source: Gov.UK, 14 October 2026

In its new report, Training physicians for the future: a blueprint for reforming postgraduate medical training, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) warns that years of underinvestment in medical education, eroded learning opportunities and inadequate accountability for training quality risk undermining patient care, worsening workforce pressures and leaving the NHS without the senior clinicians it will need in future. RCP research illustrates the urgency of the need for reform. In a 2025 RCP next generation survey of more than 1,000 resident doctors working in UK clinical settings, just 26% felt prepared for the next step in their career and only 65% expected to remain working in the NHS in 5 years’ time. Developed by a writing group of resident doctors, the report calls for medical education to become a visible, protected and accountable part of delivering NHS services. The call for greater accountability reflects a longstanding pattern in medical training: concerns have been identified repeatedly but meaningful action has failed to follow. Professor Mumtaz Patel, RCP president, said: "High-quality medical training is fundamental to safe, effective patient care. Resident doctors today will become the consultants, clinical leaders, educators and researchers on whom patients will depend for decades. "Yet education is still too often treated as something that can be postponed or cancelled when services are under pressure. That is a false choice. If we properly support resident doctors, they will be more effective in developing their skills and expertise, provide better care and are more likely to remain in the NHS. "We know what good medical training looks like. What has been missing is clear ownership and accountability for delivering it. Training quality must become as visible and consequential as the financial, operational and patient-safety measures against which NHS organisations are already held to account." The new RCP report says that resident doctors and their educational supervisors should have protected time for learning, observation, feedback and reflection, supported by staffing levels that enable education to take place without compromising patient care. Skills developed through research, leadership, education and locally employed roles should be recognised consistently, while national standards, examinations and minimum clinical experience must continue to protect patient safety. Read full story Source: RCP, 14 October 2026

The abolition of NHS England will have to be formally delayed beyond April 2027 unless decisions about future national structures are made within days, HSJ understands. Officials believe the timetable will have to be pushed back if the government does not finalise its decision imminently. This is due to the time it will take to carry out staff consultations and transfer at least 10,000 people out of NHSE, as well as legal and financial processes associated with abolishing the huge arm’s length body. Most of its functions are due to be transferred into the Department of Health and Social Care, but ministers are considering proposals to transfer the employment of thousands of its staff to a new NHS agency, instead of the department. The proposals for new structures when NHSE is abolished – including creation of the proposed new national quango – have been awaiting ministerial sign-off for months. The Health Bill, which will set up a single patient record and formally abolish NHSE, is currently going through the House of Lords. The government does not have a majority and peers have said they plan to oppose some of its measures, potentially introducing further delays to the process. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 October 2026

Commissioners have demanded an action plan after an “increase of inpatient deaths” at a mental health trust already subject to a statutory inquiry into at least 2,000 deaths. The rise at Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust is recorded in Essex Integrated Care Board’s quality summary for the second quarter (July to September), published in papers for its meeting on 15 October. The ICB said an action plan had been “requested to assure patient safety governance is in place”. The papers do not say how many deaths there have been, over what period, or which units are affected. EPUT chief nurse Ann Sheridan said: “Sadly at times we do see deaths on our wards – these can be for a number of reasons and our priority is always to support families and to ensure that we fully understand the cause and circumstances. “We care for 100,000 people across the wider trust and many of our patients have complex health needs. It’s important that we look into individual circumstances, working closely with families and partners.” The Lampard Inquiry is examining the deaths of mental health inpatients in Essex between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2023, including people who died within three months of discharge. It is due to report in 2028. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 14 October 2026

Victoria Wilkins, Associate Safety and Learning Lead (North) at NHS Resolution, shares insights from a recent Northern Safety and Learning network meeting where four pilot trusts discussed their progress in implementing Martha’s Rule and shared their learning with other members.

Following this year's Picker Experience Network (PEN) Awards, their 'Learning from the best' report maps the 2026 winners against the priorities of the 10-Year Plan for Health. This report highlights where best practice is already happening and provides further details on the projects that won this year. For the full details of all shortlisted entries in 2026, PEN's Book of Best Practice is also available.  Congratulations to the overall winner, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) and The Lighthouse Centre, who were recognised for their outstanding work to improve care for children who have experienced sexual abuse or exploitation. Its child-centred, trauma-informed model provides an alternative to fragmented care pathways. You can find out more about their winning entry here. 

The prevailing strategy for combating surgically related adverse events (AEs) is to anticipate and prevent them by learning from adverse events (Safety-I). However, not all AEs can be anticipated or prevented in complex systems. This requires more focus on how daily work succeeds, that is, resilient and adaptive behaviour (Safety-II). Learning from success and promoting a positive patient safety culture (PSC) are key global strategies for eliminating preventable AEs. As a patient safety initiative, Learning from Excellence (LfE) captures episodes of successful everyday work and is thus, a system for applying a Safety-II perspective. However, its effect on PSC has not been evaluated. This study aimed to explore whether the implementation of LfE in a postanaesthesia care unit over a 16-month period changed the nurses’ perceptions of the measurable PSC dimensions ‘work engagement’, ‘teamwork climate’, ‘working conditions’ and ‘safety climate’. The authors concluded that LfE did not have a significant effect on PSC after 16 months implementation. Further longitudinal experimental studies are needed to measure the effect of LfE on PSC. Future research should focus on the role of psychological safety in LfE and assess whether reflexive spaces add value to LfE.

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has published a new report setting out a blueprint for reforming postgraduate medical training across the UK. Training physicians for the future: a blueprint for reforming postgraduate medical training calls for medical education to become a visible, protected and accountable part of NHS delivery.

Doctors must be more transparent with patients and families about the role of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in deaths, especially among cancer patients, the UK’s special envoy on AMR says. Speaking at the World Health Summit in Berlin, Sally Davies—England’s previous chief medical officer—said it was common for families to understand a death as being caused by cancer without being told that an untreatable infection had contributed. Instead, greater openness and patient advocacy were needed to urge political action on AMR, she argued. “When patients die … the relatives think of cancer and they had an infection. No one says actually it was untreatable; it was AMR,” she said. “AMR is much more common in cancer patients, and one in four have serious infections. We’ve got to be much more open. Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 12 October 2026

Suicide rates among men in their early 50s across England and Wales have hit a record high, extending a persistent trend of elevated numbers within Generation X, official figures reveal. A total of 532 suicides were recorded among men aged 50 to 54 in 2025, equating to 28.0 deaths per 100,000 people. This rises from 27.3 per 100,000 in 2024, marking the highest level for this age demographic since contemporary data collection began in 1981, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figure also represents the highest rate recorded across any age category for both men and women. The ONS highlighted that higher rates of suicide have "followed" Generation X men over recent decades. David Mais, head of mortality statistics at the ONS, said: “Sadly, today’s figures show that suicide rates in England and Wales remain elevated, with the overall rate among the highest recorded this century. “Men in their early 50s are at most risk, reflecting a pattern of increased rates that has followed Generation X men over the past few decades.” Sonya Trivedy, an executive director at the suicide support charity Samaritans, said middle-age “can be a particularly challenging stage of life”, often characterised by long-term relationship breakdown, money worries, worsening physical health and caring responsibilities for both children and older parents. Read full story Source: The Independent, 13 October 2026

Leading campaigners have accused ministers of “suppressing” a report that is understood to set out significant concerns raised by families harmed by their experiences of maternity care investigations. The Maternity Investigations and Review Tools Process evaluation was commissioned by ministers in 2025 following concerns raised by parents about national review processes undertaken following late miscarriages, stillbirth, and neonatal deaths. The MATREP project carried out an independent evaluation of Perinatal Mortality Review Tool investigations carried out by trusts and those conducted by the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme. HSJ understands the project, run by University of Manchester researchers, was completed and received by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) by mid-2025. But the report’s findings, said to include complaints from parents about MNSI and PMRT processes, have still not been made public. A DHSC spokesman said it was “considering the findings and recommendations” and that researchers were “able to share” these if they wished. However, bereaved families disputed this and said the report was being suppressed, while researchers said they could not put the report into the public domain yet because it was still going through a publication process. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 October 2026

The amount of time children in England spend on screens at school could be harming their "physical and developmental health", a group of more than 150 clinicians has warned. GPs, paediatricians and other specialists said in an open letter to Education Secretary Lucy Powell and Health Secretary Yvette Cooper that tablets and laptops are being used without a full understanding of their long-term health impacts, including on eye health. The clinicians said they are prescribing glasses, hearing aids and speech therapy to children "for a problem that is unintentionally being made worse in our schools". The group of clinicians said nearly one million children are using screens in most lessons, despite studies suggesting a rise in short-sightedness. They pointed to an analysis of 276 studies covering 5.4 million participants around the world. That analysis, they claimed, found a rise in short-sightedness among children and adolescents from around 24% in 1990 to almost 36% by 2023, warning the condition is associated with an increased risk of a range of eye health problems. One of its signatories was Dr Becky Foljambe, an NHS GP and founder of Health Professionals for Safer Screens. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme parents had not been given the chance to "opt out" of the "excessive" use of screens in schools, which risks children "just not thriving" in education. She said an "explosion" in short-sightedness "cannot be put down to genetics alone". Read full story Source: BBC News, 13 October 2026

Patient experiences reported online can reveal safety incidents in healthcare organisations, but they can only translate into quality improvement if organisations engage with them. Accordingly, healthcare organisations’ responses to online feedback offer a new data source on corrective culture, namely, the norms and practices for identifying, interpreting, and acting on safety incidents. This study explored the feasibility of using a large language model to reliably code these responses for two candidate indicators of corrective culture: engagement and organisational learning. The results indicate that large language models can reliably code engagement in these responses, while their ability to code organisational learning remains inconclusive. Organisational culture in healthcare is usually assessed with staff surveys, which rely on self-report. Large language models could complement surveys by measuring observed behaviour in naturally occurring data, although whether engagement reflects corrective culture requires external validation.

On 20 October 2025, the then-Secretary of State announced the decision to commission an independent review into maternity and neonatal services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT). This was due to: LTHT having one of the highest extended perinatal mortality rates. hearing families’ experiences. the ‘inadequate’ rating in the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report. The purpose is to review the care women, babies and families received in a maternity and neonatal context, identify any failings and recommend actions for improvement. For clarity and consistency, references to ‘women’ throughout this document are intended to include women and all birthing people, including those who do not identify as women. During the defined time period, the governance and leadership of the trust and the extent to which the regulators were aware of issues will be reviewed to determine if the regulatory response was sufficient.

This NHS Resolution thematic review explores learning from suicide-related compensation claims made against mental health trusts in England. The report highlights opportunities to strengthen communication, support effective family involvement, improve risk assessment processes and address organisational factors that can influence patient safety and care.