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Keep up to date with the latest news, research and activity in patient safety.

NHS repeatedly failing in care of stroke patients, watchdog says

The NHS has repeatedly failed in its diagnosis and care of stroke patients, England’s health ombudsman has said.
According to the World Stroke Association, more than 12 million people worldwide will have their first stroke this year and 6.5 million will die as a result. Strokes are one of the UK’s biggest killers, causing about 34,000 deaths a year, and the single biggest cause of severe disability.
The NHS Fast campaign aims to raise awareness of the most common symptoms of stroke – facial drooping, arm weakness and slurred speech – and the need for prompt treatment, including transfer to a specialist stroke unit within four hours. Without it, a stroke can result in death or long-term disabilities such as paralysis, memory loss and communication problems.
Figures from the Sentinel stroke national audit programme (SSNAP), which assesses the quality of stroke care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, show that just 46.6% of patients are directly admitted to a specialist stroke unit within four hours of symptoms starting.
The ombudsman said the number of investigations it had conducted over poor stroke care, including not spotting symptoms and delays to diagnosis, rose by two-thirds in the four financial years to March 2025, from 17 to 28. The number of complaints also rose over this period from 318 to 396.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, the chief executive of England’s health ombudsman service, said these included repeated failings in diagnosis, nursing care, communication, and treatment of patients with strokes.
“Over the past four years we have seen a significant rise in the number of complaints and investigations related to people who have suffered a stroke, including typical and atypical presentations. This is particularly concerning as early diagnosis is crucial in giving patients the best opportunity for successful treatment and recovery,” she said.
“These investigations all represent instances where organisations involved have not identified a failing. It is important that the NHS operates in a learning culture and that when things go wrong clinicians recognise what has happened and put it right for those involved, as well as improve care and treatment for future patients.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 1 July 2025
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Britain’s ‘medieval’ health inequality is devastating NHS, experts say

Britain’s “medieval” levels of health inequality are having a “devastating” effect on the NHS, experts have warned, with the health service estimated to be spending as much as £50bn a year on the effects of deprivation.
Rising rates of child poverty have led to a growing burden on hospitals, with the knock-on cost to the NHS comparable to the annual defence budget.
One senior NHS figure said they were seeing “medieval” levels of untreated illness in some of Britain’s poorest communities, including people attending A&E “with cancerous lumps bursting through their skin”.
Another said hospitals were witnessing a “chilling” trend of vulnerable people, young and old, deliberately self-harming to secure an overnight stay. Concern has also been raised about rising rates of “Dickensian” illnesses, including scabies, rickets and scarlet fever.
The disclosures are revealed as part of a months-long Guardian investigation into the effects of deepening poverty on a “broken” NHS.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 29 June 2025
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Covid inquiry to look at impact on care services

The Covid inquiry will start examining the impact of the pandemic on care services for elderly and disabled people on Monday.
Bereaved families say they have been waiting for this moment for years, describing the way Covid swept through care homes as one of the clearest and most devastating failures of the pandemic.
Nearly 46,000 care home residents died with Covid in England and Wales between March 2020 and January 2022, many of them in the early weeks of the pandemic.
The government says it supports the inquiry and is committed to learning lessons from it.
There are key questions families and care staff want answering, including why the decision was made in March 2020 to rapidly discharge some hospital patients into care homes.
They blame this, in part, for seeding the virus into care homes in the early stages of the pandemic.
There are also questions about blanket "do not resuscitate" notices being placed on some care home residents by medical services, and about visiting policies which prevented families seeing their loved ones for months.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 30 June 2025
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Woman who wrongly had part of spine removed among hundreds of NHS surgical blunders

A woman who mistakenly had part of her spine removed is among hundreds of patients who have been the victims of NHS surgical blunders this year.
New figures show there were more than 400 serious surgical mistakes carried out on patients over the past year – including the incorrect organ being removed, the wrong body part being operated on or surgical instruments being left inside a patient’s body. In some cases, entire operations were carried out on the wrong patient.
The Royal College of Surgeons has now warned that the NHS needs to understand what has led to the rise in incidents to stop these mistakes being repeated.
Among the victims is Gill, who was advised to have surgery on her right cervical rib after struggling with excruciating pain. But the surgeon performed the wrong operation and ended up removing portions of her vertebrae, leaving her with permanent damage to her spinal cord.
“I woke up the following morning and couldn’t feel my arms and my legs and just thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what is wrong with me,’” she told The Independent.
The part-time cook was warned by doctors that she might not be able to walk again and was left struggling to work and was unable to continue her active lifestyle, which included dancing. Her movements are limited and she struggles with the function of her right hand.
“The emotions were just horrendous, because when you are told you will never walk again, it’s very daunting,” she added.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 29 June 2025
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NHS keeps patients away because they are an inconvenience, new boss admits ahead of shake-up

Patients are an “inconvenience” to the NHS, which has “built mechanisms to keep them away”, said the new boss of the health service.
Sir Jim Mackey, who was made chief executive of the NHS on 1 April, spoke of the 8am daily phone scramble for a GP appointment as one example of the difficulties patients face in seeking help.
“We’ve made it really hard, and we’ve probably all been on the end of it,” he told The Telegraph.
“You’ve got a relative in hospital, so you’re ringing a number on a ward that no one ever answers. The ward clerk only works nine to five, or they’re busy doing other stuff; the GP practice scramble every morning.
“It feels like we’ve built mechanisms to keep the public away because it’s an inconvenience,” he said.
And he warned that failing to listen to public frustrations could mean the end of a national health service.
Failings in maternity services, he said, were cultural and “thinking we know best when mothers know best, listening to them and families and building the service around them”.
He said: “The big worry is, if we don’t grab that, and we don’t deal with it with pace, we’ll lose the population. If we lose the population, we’ve lost the NHS. For me, it’s straightforward. The two things are completely dependent on each other.”
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 28 June 2025
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World-first AI system to warn of NHS patient safety concerns

Patients will receive better care thanks to a world-first AI early warning system being developed to automatically identify safety concerns across the NHS, helping stop failures before they escalate.  
It follows a pledge by the Health and Social Care Secretary to overhaul health and care regulation, root out poor performance and guarantee patients safe, quality care.
There have been growing concerns about safety in the NHS in recent years after a spate of scandals including in mental health and maternity services.
The new safety warning system, being developed as part of the government’s 10 Year Health Plan, will rapidly analyse healthcare data and ring the alarm bell on emerging safety issues.
Work on rolling out the system is already underway. A new Maternity Outcomes Signal System will launch across NHS trusts from November, using near real-time data to flag higher than expected rates of stillbirth, neonatal death and brain injury.  
When fully implemented, it could analyse hospital databases to identify patterns of abuse, serious injuries, deaths, or other incidents that can slip through the net, cause harm and stop hospitals from running safely. 
Where concerns are raised, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will deploy specialist inspection teams as soon as possible to investigate and take swift action.  
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: 
"While most treatments in the NHS are safe, even a single lapse that puts a patient at risk is one too many. Behind every safety breach is a person - a life altered, a family devastated, sometimes by heart-breaking loss.
"Patient safety and power are at the heart of our 10 Year Health Plan. By embracing AI and introducing world-first early warning systems, we’ll spot dangerous signs sooner and launch rapid inspections before harm occurs.
"This technology will save lives - catching unsafe care before it becomes a tragedy. It’s a vital part of our commitment to move the NHS from analogue to digital, delivering better, safer care for everyone."
Read press release
Source: Gov.UK, 30 June 2025
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Hundreds of NHS agencies to be scrapped

Hundreds of bodies responsible for overseeing and running parts of the NHS in England will be scrapped, the government has said.
The organisations to be abolished include Healthwatch England, which advocates on behalf of patients, and the National Guardian's Office, which supports whistleblowers.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the current system was too complex and the NHS needed "more doers and fewer checkers".
The changes are being made as part of Labour's 10-year health strategy set to be published next week.
In total 201 organisations will be scrapped, including bodies set up by the last Conservative government to develop health plans for their local areas.
The organisations to be abolished include:
Healthwatch England, set up in 2012 to speak out on behalf of NHS and social care patients, and to advise ministers when services were not up to scratch. The National Guardian's Office, created in 2015 to encourage the NHS to support whistleblowers and train a network of 1,200 peer support 'guardians'. The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB), which has recently carried out investigations into a range of subjects including the design of portable oxygen systems and the impact of ambulance delays. The decision comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in March that NHS England, the administrative body responsible for the day-to-day management of the health service, would be axed and the system brought under closer government control.
Under the new strategy, the NHS will also trial a scheme linking the money a hospital receives directly to the quality of care it provides.
Patients will be asked to review their treatment and, if a low rating is given, a proportion of that funding could be diverted to a regionally-held NHS improvement fund rather than paid to the hospital itself.
The government said the scheme would only be introduced where there had been a track record of very poor service and evidence that patients were not being listened to.
The NHS Confederation warned it would have to be carefully designed to stop hospitals being penalised for issues beyond their immediate control such as difficulties recruiting staff and the poor state of some hospital buildings.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 28 June 2025
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CQC quietly scraps ‘overall’ ratings for trusts

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is no longer giving “overall” ratings to trusts, it has emerged – instead only issuing a leadership rating at organisational level.
The new system was introduced last year, alongside other changes to the Care Quality Commission’s assessment framework, and so far has only been applied to a handful of trusts. Eventually, it is due to be applied to all trusts, and none will have an “overall” rating.
The CQC webpages for these trusts now state: “Our assessments of NHS trusts now focus on leadership. We no longer rate trusts overall for their safety, effectiveness and responsiveness or how caring they are. We do still publish those ratings for the services they provide.”
The providers are also expected to display the “well-led” overall rating on their website.
Previously, trusts were rated for all five domains (well-led, safety, effectiveness, caring, and responsive) at the trust level, and given an “overall” rating based on these.
Over the past decade, the trust-level “overall” rating has been used in the health system as a significant barometer of organisational success.
However, there has been an ongoing debate about the use of the single word/phrase ratings, ranging from “inadequate” to “outstanding”.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 27 June 2025
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‘Resentment’ uncovered in ‘inadequate’ children’s unit

Inspectors have branded a hospital’s paediatric services “inadequate” and warned of “resentment” among medical staff following a trust merger.
Yeovil District Hospital – which recently closed its birthing unit after admitting it “cannot safely run” the service – has seen its paediatric services downgraded from “good” to “inadequate” following a Care Quality Commission inspection that took place in January.
The inspection report into YDH’s children’s and young people’s services, released today, described a lack of experienced staff and inadequate learning from serious incidents.
It also described a “level of resentment” among some medical staff following YDH’s merger with Somerset Foundation Trust in April 2023, which had prevented a “culture of continuous improvement”.
Last month, Somerset FT temporarily closed the special care baby unit and inpatient maternity services at YDH for at least six months after receiving a warning notice from the CQC in January about significant gaps in medical staffing.
The report said: “There was a level of resentment felt by some medical staff. Some staff told us the key leadership roles had been appointed and therefore felt new ways of working had been imposed upon them. There was not a culture of continuous improvement.”
Patient Safety Learning

RFK Jr’s new vaccine panel votes against preservative in flu shots in shock move

A critical federal vaccine panel has recommended against seasonal influenza vaccines containing a specific preservative – a change likely to send shock through the global medical and scientific community and possibly impact future vaccine availability.
The panel was unilaterally remade by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic who has urged against the use of thimerosal despite a lack of evidence of real-world harm.
Across three votes, members voted in favor of restricting thimerosal in seasonal influenza vaccines across all age groups – with five in favor of the restriction, one abstention and one vote against.
“The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent – as far as we know – risk from thimerosal,” said Dr Cody Meissner, a panel member and professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine who was the lone “no” vote.
“I would hate for a person not to receive the influenza vaccine because the only availability preparation contains thimerosal – I find that very hard to justify.”
The panel, formally called the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is a critical link in the vaccine distribution pipeline – informing health insurers and clinicians alike about which vaccines to give patients.
Kennedy fired all 17 former members of the panel in June, citing conflicts of interest, and appointed eight new members, all of whom are ideological allies of the secretary.
None of the new members have published written conflict of interest disclosures or been added to a Trump administration-developed conflict of interest tracker for ACIP members, as of Thursday morning.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 26 June 2025
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People dying early of cancer costs UK economy £10.3bn a year, study finds

People dying early of cancer costs the UK economy £10.3bn a year, more than any other health condition, a study has revealed.
That is the total cost of the 350,000 years of lost productivity recorded across Britain every year because adults have died prematurely of the disease, according to Cancer Research UK (CRUK).
Each early death costs the economy an average of £61,000, according to the charity’s first research into how much the country loses as a result of the growing toll of cancer diagnoses and deaths.
In 2021, cancer caused the loss of more productive years of life than any other condition – 350,000 years. Heart problems led to 257,000 years of lost productivity that year, while diseases of the digestive system caused 123,000 lost years and breathing conditions 85,000 years.
Michelle Mitchell, CRUK’s chief executive, said: “Cancer has an immeasurable impact on patients and their loved ones. But this report reveals there is also a significant economic cost. Behind the figures in this report are real people – friends, family and co-workers – whose lives are being cut short by cancer. Through improving cancer survival, we can also have a positive impact on our economy.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 27 June 2025
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One in four young people in England have mental health condition, NHS survey finds

Sharp rises in rates of anxiety, depression and other disorders have led to one in four young people in England having a common mental health condition, an NHS survey shows, with young women more likely to report them than young men.
The study found that rates of such conditions in 16- to 24-year-olds have risen by more than a third in a decade, from 18.9% in 2014 to 25.8% in 2024.
Results from the adult psychiatric morbidity survey showed that reports of common mental health conditions – a term that also includes panic disorder, phobias and obsessive compulsive disorder – occurred in 36.1% of women compared with 16.3% of men.
Sally McManus, one of the lead researchers on the survey, said the figures reflect many global trends disproportionately affecting young people.
“Young people are growing up worried about many aspects of their lives, from insecure employment and housing through to Covid and climate change. Young people may have been one of the one groups whose mental health was most affected by Covid,” she said.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 26 June 2025
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Baby died of hospital infection despite ‘overcrowding’ warning

A baby died with an infection caught on a neonatal unit, despite earlier warnings about outbreaks due to its “approach to overcrowding” of cots, HSJ has learned.
The death happened at Leeds General Infirmary between December 2022 and March 2023, during an outbreak of the Serrratia healthcare-associated infection on the L43 unit.
An internal paper from March 2023 seen by HSJ refers to “the death of one neonate being directly attributed to an organism associated with cross-transmission within L43”. 
The paper also reveals that – following earlier outbreaks on the unit, including both Serrratia and Klebsiella in 2021 – experts from the UK Health Security Agency had predicted there would be more outbreaks, due to the unit’s “approach to overcrowding”.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust had apparently tried to reduce the number of cots on the L43 unit in September 2022 from 34 to 22, with two additional “surge” cots.
But regional demand pressure meant it failed to keep numbers down, with an average of 26 cots occupied in December 2022 and numbers hitting 32 on some days, according to information seen by HSJ. The unit takes some of the sickest babies from across the region.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 26 June 2025
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Patient waited more than two weeks in emergency department

Conditions in emergency departments (EDs) are "soul destroying", a doctor has said after it was revealed that one patient waited more than 330 hours inside a unit.
New figures, obtained by BBC News NI, show that in a seven-month period to January this year, one patient waited two weeks at the Ulster Hospital, while another waited 11 days at the Mater in Belfast.
Dr Clodagh Corrigan, deputy chairwoman of the British Medical Association in Northern Ireland, said conditions in EDs for staff and patients were "horrific".
In a statement, the Department of Health (DoH) acknowledged that waiting times in EDs "fall well below the standard of care that we strive to provide".
Dr Corrigan, who is a specialist doctor, has called on the department to spend its money more effectively.
A Freedom of Information request from BBC News NI revealed that every health trust in Northern Ireland experienced patient waits of about week or more.
The Northern Health Trust said a wait of more than 10 days for a patient in Antrim Area Hospital was because they needed to be isolated in a side room for other people's safety.
"If there's space, it's taken up by somebody," said Dr Corrigan.
She added that patients who might be vomiting or suffering from diarrhoea were queuing for the one toilet available in a unit.
"It's a soul-destroying work environment. You can't give the care you want to give," she said.
"You certainly aren't giving the care you're trained to give. It's not the care you'd want your family to receive."
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 26 June 2025
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Weight-loss jabs linked to hundreds of cases of life-threatening illness and 10 deaths

Weight-loss jabs have been linked to hundreds of people falling ill with a life-threatening illness and 10 deaths, the UK’s drugs regulator has warned.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is investigating after 294 people suffered acute and chronic pancreatitis after taking tirzepatide, the active ingredient of Mounjaro, and semaglutide, used in Ozempic and Wegovy.
While none have been proven to be caused directly by the GLP-1 drugs, which are also used to treat diabetes, there are fears that not enough is known about the links, prompting health officials to launch a new study into the harmful side effects.
It comes just days after Mounjaro was made available at GP surgeries across England, while Ozempic and Wegovy can be obtained on the NHS through a weight management referral; however, Mounjaro and Wegovy can be purchased online privately.
It’s believed around 1.5 million people currently take weight-loss jabs – 4 per cent of households in the UK – with their popularity soaring and the NHS’s top doctor, Sir Stephen Powis, saying they could soon become the most commonly used drug.
Dr Simon Cork, senior lecturer in physiology at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “The percentages for pancreatitis seen in clinical trials was small, but we know that many people are now purchasing these medications privately. Small percentages in large numbers means an increasing number of people developing these conditions, although they still remain rare.”
However, Dr Cork said it was important to recognise that the risks associated with obesity outweighed those attached to taking the medications.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 26 June 2025
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First meeting of new CDC vaccine panel reveals policy chaos sown by RFK Jr

The first meeting of a critical federal vaccine panel was a high-profile display of how the US health secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr has injected chaos into vaccine policy infrastructure.
Wednesday’s meeting was held amid controversy, not only regarding the new members unilaterally appointed by Kennedy, but also the questions they would consider, their conflicts of interest and views on vaccines, and the scheduled speakers.
The panel, the advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), develops recommendations for how to administer vaccines to the American public.
The ACIP meeting is high-stakes and will be widely watched within the scientific community, as former members argue that the nation’s vaccine approval, research and distribution systems are being dismantled.
The panel’s decisions are highly influential in deciding which vaccines the CDC ultimately recommends for children and adults. In turn, those recommendations form the basis of how health insurers decide which vaccines to cover, and thus have a direct impact on the price and availability of vaccines to the American public.
Experts consider the current situation so dire that outside groups are attempting to develop a system to provide vaccines to Americans in spite of Kennedy’s attempts to disrupt the system.
“What we’re seeing today, and if this were to continue, the medical public health professionals and the entire country are no longer going to trust ACIP,” said Dr Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on School Health. “That’s very clear.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 25 June 2025
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