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

Tech alone can’t solve workforce pressures, warn doctors

The Royal College of Physicians has warned that AI cannot compensate for staffing shortages and training pressures.
It has called for urgent reform of the NHS workforce and medical training, following the publication of a report by the General Medical Council today, which found 41% doctors surveyed were struggling to provide the standard of care they would like, largely because of workload, staffing shortages and administrative burden.
Despite this 26% of doctors said that they had experienced at least one workplace improvement in the previous year that helped them provide better care, with workforce planning the most commonly cited improvement at 10%, followed by technology and digital tools at 8%.
Read full article.
Source: Digital Health, 13 August 2026
Mark Hughes

NHS staff say plans to close hospital ward will 'compromise patient safety' in West Kent

Safety concerns have been raised by NHS staff and patients' relatives over plans to close hospital beds for frail and older people in Kent.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust is currently running a consultation on the closure of 30 beds on Whatman Ward at Maidstone Hospital.
The Trust says the move is part of service changes linked to the NHS 10 Year Health Plan which aims to shift care from hospital to community settings.
But staff, who wish to remain anonymous, say the ward closure will "compromise patient safety in West Kent."
Read full article.
Source: ITV News, 13 August 2026
Mark Hughes

Hospitals must report on 25 maternity ‘deliverables’

Trusts have been told to report on 25 maternity asks by next month as part of the service’s response to two damning reviews.
NHS England told providers delivery of NHS England’s 10-point plan for maternity, issued shortly after Baroness Valerie Amos’ national investigation and Donna Ockenden’s Nottingham review, should be an “immediate priority”.
A letter to trust leaders on Wednesday, from chief nursing officer Duncan Burton and chief medical officer Frankie Swords, sets out a list of “urgent actions” they must take ahead of a national action plan due in December.
Read full article (paywalled)
Source: Health Service Journal, 13 August 2026
Mark Hughes

Validations restrain the growing waiting list

Unreported removals from the referral-to-treatment (RTT) waiting list increased in June, reaching levels normally associated with “validation sprints”. The surge was big enough to stop the waiting list from growing, but not nearly enough to put the headline figures on track for “18 weeks” recovery.
Over the past five years (and since the covid shutdowns), unreported removals from the RTT waiting list have averaged 14%of total removals. Unreported removals comprise any change in the waiting list that cannot be explained by the other data.
When they increase suddenly, it is usually a sign that NHS trusts have stepped up efforts to remove patients who are on the waiting list in error (for instance, because they were treated some time ago, but were not correctly removed from the waiting list).
In June, unreported removals increased to 16.1%, which is well above the 14% average and close to levels seen in the recent “validation sprints” sponsored by NHSE (for instance, 17.1% in March, and 16.5 and 16.2%, respectively, in  April and May last year).
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 14 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Discharge system ‘a mess’, says Cooper

“System reforms” are needed to fix the “patchwork” of policies aimed at preventing hospital admissions and speeding up discharge, the health and social care secretary has said.
Yvette Cooper said improvements could be made “even within existing resources and even within existing systems” if organisations worked together.
She said: “Where I do think there are system reforms that are needed [are of the] patchwork process of, how do you solve the fact that there are people in acute hospitals who shouldn’t be in there?
“We’ve had layer upon layer of different patchwork attempts to think, ‘okay, this is how we’ll prevent people going into hospital. Okay, this is how we’ll get people out faster.’ Maybe into intermediate care, maybe into some NHS-funded, maybe some local council funded, and it’s all a mess.
“And actually you could do that in a much more effective way… even within existing resources, even within existing systems, there’s a lot of things that, actually, if everybody came together, we could make improvements.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 13 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Leading doctor rebukes NHS chiefs over transplant failings

A senior doctor has blamed NHS chiefs for numerous problems within transplant services in England and called for an overhaul in a leaked letter seen by the BBC.
Professor Derek Manas, the medical director of NHS Blood and Transplant, admonished NHS England for creating a system with a burnt-out workforce, "few consequences for poor performance" and operations cancelled "last-minute".
The number of heart and lung transplants the NHS carries out each year has not increased in 30 years.
NHS England, the national management body for the health service in England, said it was "working hard to improve these life-saving services".
While NHS Blood and Transplant manages organ donations and supports transplant centres, services are commissioned and paid for by NHS England.
But in a letter to NHS England and a small group of patient advocates, Manas said the central body had created a "fragmented" system "with poor accountability".
There is a "mismatch", he said, between each hospital's waiting lists, organ availability, capacity to carry out surgeries and the availability of operating theatres.
This is "leading to last-minute cancellations [and] unpredictable utilisation of donated organs," he warned.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 13 August 2026
Sam

Nurses fainting in ‘inhumane’ conditions due to extreme heat, union warns

Nurses are collapsing during shifts amid “inhumane and impossible” conditions caused by extreme heat, their union has warned, as Andy Burnham promised to grapple with “the bigger questions” of climate adaptation.
With the number of days of 30C-plus heat in the UK already at a new record of 35, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) became the latest union to warn of unsafe working conditions for many members in hospital wards and care homes.
The RCN, which runs an advice hotline, said some staff had collapsed. Others were left dizzy, nauseous or at risk of fainting while dripping with sweat “from head to toe”. They also faced pressure to keep elderly and vulnerable patients safe alongside keeping medications cool.
Working within a critical care unit in an NHS hospital in the south-west of England, a 37-year-old nurse told the Guardian her ward had reached temperatures of more than 30C and staff were struggling in the conditions.
“Our ward doesn’t have air conditioning, and so we’re all really struggling. We’ve had hot summers before, but I can’t remember ever working in conditions like these back to back,” she said.
Another nurse, working in a community health centre in England, said: “It gets to the point you dread going to work, especially when wearing PPE and providing patient care. We drip with sweat from head to toe.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 13 August 2026
Sam

'Women feel guilt and anger' after taking epilepsy drug that harmed babies

Pregnant women who took an epilepsy drug and say they were not warned of possible birth defects, feel a mix of "guilt" and "anger," one mother has said.
Sodium valproate, which is also used to treat bipolar disorder, external, can cause physical harm in the womb and children can be born with a cleft palate and spina bifida, external as well as neurodevelopmental disorders.
The medicine now carries warnings about use during pregnancy, but Susan Jamison, now 60, said she was not told about the possible consequences when she was expecting babies in 1990s.
A 2020 review recommended compensation to those affected, and a subsequent report in 2024 said there was an "urgent" need for redress for those harmed.
It is thought thousands of children in the UK have been left with disabilities caused by valproate since the 1970s.
Of the estimated 20,000 people across the UK, external affected about 500 to 600 are in Northern Ireland.
"All the women feel guilty," said Susan.
"The government knew that it [sodium valproate] caused problems and it was still continued to be licensed for usage for pregnant women," she said.
In June, England's first patient safety commissioner, Dr Henrietta Hughes, wrote to then Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, external expressing disappointment that there had not been a "substantive response" from the government to the calls for redress. She has still not received a response to her 16 July deadline.
Back living in Northern Ireland, it was only after the 2020 publication of the Cumberlege Report, , externalthat Susan says she got "closure".
But six years on from the initial report, families are waiting for redress.
"I'm angry. Parents are not getting any younger and we need to set out a care path for our children. It needs to be sorted quickly," Susan said.
"If I am no longer here Anna will have proper housing and medical care which she will need all her life," she added.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 12 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Doctors at remote Devon hospital get ‘crash course’ after maternity unit shut

Doctors at one of England’s remotest hospitals have been given a “crash course” in birth emergencies after its maternity unit was shut and as fears grow that the safety of women and babies may be put at risk.
From Tuesday, the maternity service at North Devon district hospital (NDDH) in Barnstaple has been suspended indefinitely owing to staff shortages, leaving many pregnant women facing a journey of at least an hour and a half when they go into labour.
A doctor at the hospital has now revealed that emergency staff at the NDDH have been given training in dealing with difficult births if mothers cannot get to Exeter.
The doctor, who asked not to be named, said: “I’m hoping that we won’t see such emergencies and women will birth their babies without a problem and both will be fine, but there is a potential that we will see women who can’t make it to a maternity unit who have to be diverted to the hospital.
“There’s been a crash course in learning how to deal with emergencies such as shoulder dystocia or postpartum haemorrhage. It’s been an intense time and we’re all pretty shocked. We’re capable but they’ve thrown us into a potentially very serious situation. There’s a physical risk to the public.
“The emergency department and its staff are familiar with dealing with emergencies without the direct help of specialities but it’s the unfamiliarity of an obstetric emergency or neonatal collapse and having no one nearby on site to assist that is confronting.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 11 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Government adviser pushes for patient safety probe

Wes Streeting and the government’s maternity adviser are urging a safety body to consider investigating the NHS’s handling of a “severe yet poorly recognised” condition which can cause “life-changing harm”.
The former health secretary and Michelle Welsh have written to the Health Services Safety Investigations Body about hospitals failing to listen to women experiencing Placenta Accreta Spectrum.
The move follows around 100 women launching the Action for Accreta campaign earlier this year. They warned about the failures in care for patients experiencing PAS, a serious pregnancy complication where the placenta attaches too deeply into the uterine wall.
One harmed mother shared how her baby had suffered a stroke at birth, and another explained her child now has cerebral palsy, with many hospitals failing to diagnose until it was too late.
Campaign founder Amisha Adhia was turned away from five specialist hospitals, while others shared permanent injuries to their bladders or bowels, and around a third of women surveyed underwent emergency hysterectomies.
Mr Streeting, who is Ms Adhia’s local MP in Ilford North, and Ms Welsh warned that women experiencing the condition were not listened to despite raising concerns and asking for help.
Read full story
Source: HSJ, 12 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Trump signs order attempting to override CDC vaccine schedule and break up MMR shots

Donald Trump has signed an executive order with plans for sweeping changes to the childhood vaccination schedule that attempts to override the authority of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It is an attempt to undergird the changes made earlier this year to CDC vaccination recommendations, which were halted by a federal judge. The CDC is the federal agency tasked with recommending vaccines, not the White House.
The order would also require that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine be broken into three separate shots, once it becomes available in the US. And it would recommend that all shots be given at separate medical visits, a frequent point Trump has made despite the safety, ease and lower costs of giving vaccines together.
On a press call, a White House official said the order draws on a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) scientific assessment published in January 2026, which examined “comparisons of the U.S. to other peer-developed nations” and looked at “where there is consensus amongst our peers on recommendations for immunizations for children”.
The official said the number of recommended childhood immunizations would drop “down to 11 diseases”, compared with 18 at the end of 2024.
Only six of the 17 vaccines currently routinely recommended for all children in the US would continue to have full recommendations: measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTaP), polio, Hib, pneumococcal disease, HPV and varicella.
“Together, there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal,” Trump said of the MMR vaccine at the signing of the order on Monday.
He opened the event by calling the executive order a new “gold standard” for childhood vaccination recommendations, referring to “autism in particular.”
Later, he added, “Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today.” He claimed, without providing evidence, that people then “were much healthier” and that “high rates of autism now observed did not exist.”
However, he did add: “We do not know exactly what the cause is with respect to autism.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 10 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning

New once-daily weight loss pill approved by the UK medicines regulator

The UK has become the first country in Europe to approve a new once-a-day pill to aid weight loss and treat type 2 diabetes.
Orforglipron, known as Foundayo and made by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, was authorised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on Monday.
Orforglipron is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, a type of medication which helps lower blood sugar levels, slows the digestion of food and can reduce appetite.
Alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity, orforglipron is licensed for people with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above, or those with a BMI of between 27 and 30 and at least one weight-related condition.
It can also be used to improve blood sugars in patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes.
The pill is taken once a day, at any time, with no food or water restrictions.
The most common side effects for those taking orforglipron are nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, vomiting, dyspepsia (indigestion), and abdominal pain.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 10 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning

England ‘on the cusp’ of eliminating hepatitis C, health officials say

England is “on the cusp” of becoming one of the first countries globally to eradicate hepatitis C, health officials have said.
Efforts such as A&E blood tests, GP registration testing, and free home test kits have helped identify individuals who were previously undiagnosed.
Global health leaders have set out plans aimed at eliminating viral hepatitis across the world by 2030.
NHS England stated that the nation is among a small number of countries worldwide to have already beaten the World Health Organisation benchmark of treating 80% of all known cases.
It added that deaths associated with the virus have fallen by 36% over the past 10 years.
Hepatitis C is transmitted via contact with infected blood.
Many people have no symptoms but if it is not treated it can cause serious, and potentially life-threatening, liver damage.
A treatment course of antiviral drugs for eight to 12 weeks cures more than 95% of cases.
NHS England said that since 2015, more than 100,000 people have been diagnosed and treated for hepatitis C.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 11 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Patient safety brief upgraded in new DHSC team

Patient safety and public health have been upgraded to a ministerial responsibility, the Department of Health and Social Care has announced.
They will now be covered by a minister of state, Dame Diana Johnson, after previously being the responsibility of a junior minister, according to a list of responsibilities published today.
The Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham MP will also cover neighbourhood health, general practice and health inequalities.
In contrast, three responsibilities – dentistry, eyecare and men’s health – have been moved to more junior ministers.
Alison McGovern, who represents Birkenhead, has been appointed the minister for social care, where she will also cover hospital discharge, SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) and mental health. The latter was previously covered by junior minister Baroness Merron.
Andy Burnham has pledged to fix England’s “broken” social care system, asking Baroness Casey to bring forward an ongoing review.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 10 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning

California wants to ban AI therapists as thousands turn to chatbots for mental healthcare

California lawmakers are pushing to stop AI from being used as a full-on therapist as interest in chatbot-based mental healthcare has skyrocketed in recent years.
Under Senate Bill 903, companies would be banned from advertising chatbots as therapy, and AI systems themselves would not be allowed to make therapeutic decisions without review from a licensed professional. The bill would also require patients’ permission for health providers to use AI to record therapy sessions or triage care.
“AI has many upsides, and the possibility to improve the lives of Californians across the state, but only if we ensure it is used responsibly,” state Senator Steve Padilla of San Diego, author of the legislation, said earlier this year when introducing the measure.
“AI algorithms are not fit to take over the job of human therapists, who have skills and training that AI is incapable of replicating,” he added. “We must act and place guardrails that prevent AI algorithms from being deployed in a way that is potentially harmful to patients.”
Critics of the bill say it will stifle legitimate uses of AI and could harm the ability of health providers to use AI tools to direct patients toward treatment.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 10 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning

New Patient Safety Minister confirmed

Dame Diana Johnson DBE MP has today been confirmed as the new UK Government minister who will have a portfolio responsibility for patient safety.
She was previously Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions between 6 September 2025 and 21 July 2026, and Minister of State in the Home Office between 8 July 2024 and 6 September 2025.
She was elected as the MP for Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham at the general election in July 2024 and has represented Hull North, as Hull’s first female MP, since May 2005.
Diana was Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee from 2021 until 2024.
Under the Labour government between 2005 and 2010 Diana was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Children, Schools and Families and a government whip. 
Between 2010 and 2015 Diana held a number of front bench roles including in the shadow Home Office team.
She was named backbencher of the year in 2018 for her work to secure a public inquiry into the NHS contaminated blood scandal.
Diana served as a Commissioner on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from 2019 to 2024.
In 2020 Diana received a Damehood for her political and charitable work. 
Read more here.
Source: Department of Health and Social Care, 10 August 2026
Patient Safety Learning
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