NHS faces legal action from ‘abandoned’ IV feed patients

The NHS and the national medical regulator could face legal action over the shortage of intravenous feed supplies for hundreds of UK patients, HSJ has learned. 

The law firm acting for more than a dozen patients affected by the shortage of feed supplies has confirmed to HSJ it has been instructed to take action against NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the company responsible for producing the feed, Calea. 

Since June, hundreds of patients who rely on IV feed known as total parenteral nutrition have gone without deliveries of their bespoke feed. More than 40 people have been admitted to hospital as a result.

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Source: HSJ, 29 August 2019