Covid vaccines have been linked to small increases in heart, blood, and neurological disorders, according to the largest global study of its kind.
An international coalition of vaccine experts looked for 13 medical conditions among 99 million vaccine recipients across eight countries in order to identify higher rates of those conditions after receiving the shots.
They confirmed that the shots made by Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca are linked to significantly higher risk of five medical conditions - including a nerve-wasting condition that leaves people struggling to walk or think.
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Source: Daily Mail, 19 February 2024
An inquest into the death of a baby has been adjourned after a whistleblower claimed hospital inspectors ignored safety concerns about a NHS trust.
Ian Kemp has raised concerns the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust was "covering up" the death.
The former health watchdog inspector said he had been asked to investigate maternity care at the trust in December 2019 after the death of Ida Lock.
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Source: BBC News, 19 February 2024
The Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) was abolished in every hospital and hospice in the country just under a decade ago. This end-of-life-care protocol was scrapped by the Government as a “national disgrace”, in the words of Norman Lamb, then Care Services Minister, after a review by Baroness Neuberger found widespread failings and abuses.
But troubling evidence since the scrapping suggests that the practises established under the LCP are in fact still continuing today in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
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Source: Catholic Herald, 18 February 2024
Another inquiry has been launched into the sudden death of a second teenage girl in the Accident and Emergency department of University Hospital Limerick three weeks ago.
The 16-year-old girl died suddenly on January 29, hours after she was rushed to UHL suffering from breathing difficulties.
The girl, a much-loved only child, died in front of her mother in what an informed source described as “deeply traumatic circumstances”.
It is the latest tragedy under review at UHL following the death of Aoife Johnston (16) from Shannon, Co Clare,
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Source: Irish Independent, 20 February 2024
A suicidal man died hours after being discharged from a scandal-hit hospital which is at the centre of a probe into the care of Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane.
Daniel Tucker was released from a mental health ward at Highbury Hospital in Nottingham last year and died shortly afterwards, having taken a toxic substance he had purchased online.
An inquest into his death last week found there were multiple failings by Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust in the lead-up to Tucker’s death, with no appropriate care plan or risk assessment in place for him before or after his discharge.
The 10-day hearing heard he had been discharged from the hospital on 22 April, despite having shared suicidal intentions with staff just days before. The jury concluded that failures by staff to ensure an appropriate plan for him contributed to his death.
It comes after health secretary Victoria Atkins ordered the Care Quality Commission to carry out an inquiry into Nottinghamshire Healthcare. The probe will look at the handling of Calocane, who had been discharged from Highbury Hospital and was a patient under the trust’s community crisis services when he stabbed three people to death in a brutal knife rampage.
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Source: The Independent, 18 February 2024
Michelle Nolan takes morphine daily for the pain she has lived with for 14 years after botched surgery at the hands of a once renowned surgeon.
She suffered irreversible nerve damage in July 2010 when John Bradley Williamson, a former president of the British Scoliosis Society, inserted a screw that was too long into her spine at Spire Manchester Hospital.
The 49-year-old from Chadderton, near Oldham, needs crutches and lost her job as a legal secretary and later her house and marriage. “I lost everything because of him,” she said. “I thought I was the only one he had harmed.”
She was not. Families and patients operated on by Williamson over two decades at the Salford Royal Hospital, Spire Manchester Hospital and the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, have formed a support group and want a full recall of all of his patients.
They fear some could be suffering without realising they are victims of poor care.
Williamson told the coroner investigating Catherine’s death that her surgery “progressed uneventfully” and “the blood loss was perhaps a little higher than one would usually anticipate but was certainly not extreme”.
Yet days after her death, Williamson sent an internal letter to the hospital’s haematology department head Simon Jowitt describing the surgery as “difficult” and involving “a catastrophic haemorrhage”.
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Source: The Times, 18 February 2024
The government is considering plans to allow dentists from abroad to work without taking an exam to check their education and skills.
The proposal, which is subject to a three-month consultation, aims to address the severe shortage of NHS dentists.
It is hoped a quicker process would attract more dentists.
The British Dental Association has accused the government of avoiding the issues "forcing" dentists to quit.
The proposal forms part of the government's £200 million NHS Dental Recovery Plan for England, announced earlier this month.
Under the plan, dentists could also be paid more for NHS work, while so-called "dental vans" would be rolled out to areas with low coverage, alongside an advice programme for new parents.
There is also a proposal of £20,000 bonuses for dentists working in under-served communities, as part of an effort to increase appointment capacity by 2.5 million next year.
At present, overseas dentists are required to pass an exam before they can start work in the UK - the new idea would see the General Dental Council (GDC) granted powers to provisionally register them without a test.
Stefan Czerniawski, executive director of strategy at the GDC said: "We need to move at pace, but we need to take the time to get this right - and we will work with stakeholders across the dental sector and four nations to do so."
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Source: BBC News, 17 February 2024
A woman said she has been unable to get her ADHD medication for months.
Hannah Huxford, 49, from Grimsby is one of thousands of patients unable to get hold of medicine to manage their symptoms due to a national shortage.
Mrs Huxford, who was diagnosed with the condition two years ago, described the situation as a "huge worry".
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it had taken action to improve the supply of medicines but added that "some challenges remain".
Mrs Huxford said the medicine made a "huge difference" and got her life back on track.
"It enables me to function and concentrate so I can be more proactive, I can be more productive," she explained.
She said she had been unable to get her usual supply since October 2023 and has to ration what she can get hold of.
"Christmas time it was just getting beyond a joke. I was going back to the pharmacy, probably two or three times in a month, just to collect the little IOUs and it was getting to the point where that, in itself, was becoming a stress," she said.
"All of a sudden, if this medication is taken away from me, I'm frightened that I will go back to not being able to cope."
James Davies, from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said the supply shortage has been caused by manufacturing problems and an increase in demand.
"There are more people who are being diagnosed with ADHD, more people seeking to access ADHD treatments. That's not just related to the UK, this is a global problem," he said.
Mr Davies said some ADHD medication has come back into stock but added "it's quite a fluid situation at the moment".
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Source: BBC News, 19 February 2024
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Patients are facing delays stuck on hidden waiting lists that do not show up in the official figures in England, a BBC News investigation reveals.
The published waiting list stands at 7.6 million - but the true scale of the backlog is thought to be much higher.
This is because patients needing ongoing care are not automatically included in those figures - even if they face major delays.
NHS England said hospitals should be monitoring and counting such cases.
But BBC News found evidence suggesting this is not always the case.
The problem affects patients receiving ongoing care, as well as those removed from waiting lists even before starting treatment.
BBC News has spoken to patients waiting months and even years for vital treatment, such as cancer care, spinal treatment and others at risk of going blind because of deteriorating eyesight.
Hospitals are meant to return patients facing unnecessary delays to the waiting list to ensure they are counted in the backlog figures.
But of 30 NHS trusts asked by BBC News how regularly this was happening, only three could provide figures.
Karen Hyde, from Insource, a company that helps hospitals manage waiting lists, said the guidance was "commonly ignored".
"This is a huge issue. The NHS does not incentivise hospitals to keep a close eye on these patients.
"We know there are long waits for those on the waiting list. For those not on the official waiting list, it is likely to be even worse - but the figures are not published."
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Source: BBC News, 19 February 2024
Italy will carry out an inquiry into its handling of the coronavirus pandemic in a move hailed as “a great victory” by the relatives of people killed by the virus but criticised by those who were in power at the time.
Italy was the first western country to report an outbreak and has the second highest Covid-related death toll to date in Europe, at more than 196,000. Only the UK’s death toll is higher.
The creation of a commission to examine “the government’s actions and the measures adopted by it to prevent and address the Covid-19 epidemiological emergency” was approved by the lower house of parliament after passing in the senate.
Consuelo Locati, a lawyer representing hundreds of families who brought legal proceedings against former leaders, said: “The families were the first to ask for a commission and so for us this is a great victory. The commission is important because it has the task, at least on paper, to analyse what went wrong and the errors committed so as not to repeat the massacre we all suffered.”
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Source: The Guardian, 15 February 2024
An orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in treating children has been suspended from a hospital in Cambridge after nine surgeries were found to fall "below expected standards".
A review was commissioned in October after colleagues raised concerns about the doctor.
The review, completed in January, looked at a number of complex paediatric hip surgery cases performed at the unit over two and a half years.
It found the outcomes of treatment provided to nine children were "below the standard we would expect", Cambridge University Hospitals chief executive Roland Sinker said. The impacted families were approached by the hospital.
A helpline has now been launched for any parents concerned their children may have been impacted.
The surgeries did not involve loss of life or limb but in some cases impacted the children's quality of life, the Trust said.
Now the Trust is undertaking a retrospective review into all of the planned surgical operations carried out by the individual during their employment. This will review the quality of care received by those patients and schedule any further clinic assessments.
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Source: Sky News, 14 February 2025
A trust’s main maternity unit has been rated “inadequate” and given a warning notice amid concerns delayed Caesarean sections are causing harm to babies.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) told Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust to make significant improvements in how quickly it carries out emergency C-sections, the regulator said in a report today.
The trust was also told to improve risk management, governance and oversight of services at its Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
Inspectors found between April and July last year, 42% of “category 1” emergency Caesareans – defined as those posing an immediate threat to the life of the woman or foetus — at the Tunbridge Wells Hospital were delayed. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence says these should be carried out “as soon as possible and in most situations within 30 minutes of making the decision”.
The report identified “ongoing recurrent delays” to emergency Caesareans overnight, as the trusts did not have a second theatre available.
This “meant an increased risk of harm, including cases reported by the service such as babies with ‘acute foetal hypoxia’ had emerged due to delayed births”, the inspection report said.
It also criticised the trust for not responding to a high level of post-partum haemorrhages, some of which had caused “moderate” harm.
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Source: HSJ, 16 February 2024
Areas across England where the highest proportion of ethnic minorities live have the poorest access to GPs, with experts attributing this disparity to an outdated model being used to determine funding.
As of October 2023, there were 34 fully qualified full-time-equivalent GPs per 100,000 patients in the areas with the highest proportion of people from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to a Guardian analysis of NHS Digital and census data.
This is 29% lower than the 48 general practitioners per 100,000 people serving neighbourhoods with the highest proportion of white British people.
Although ethnic minorities tend to be younger than the white British population, minority ethnic areas still have the lowest number of GPs per person even when factors such as age, sex and health necessities are considered.
Prof Miqdad Asaria at the London School of Economics department of health policy said it was “very concerning” that ethnic minorities “have systematically poorer access to primary care which is likely to be a key driver of current and future health inequalities”.
“Primary care plays a crucial role in preventing disease, diagnosing and treating illness, and facilitating access to specialist or hospital treatment for people who need it,” he added.
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Source: The Guardian,15 February 2024
Ambulance trusts have often prioritised capacity and response times over dealing with cases of misconduct, a review of culture in the sector for NHS England has found.
The review says ambulance trusts need to “establish clear standards and procedures to address misconduct”.
The work was carried out by Siobhan Melia, who is Sussex Community Healthcare Trust CEO, and was seconded to be South East Coast Ambulance Service Foundation Trust interim chief from summer 2022 to spring last year.
Her report says bullying and harassment – including sexual harassment – are “deeply rooted” in ambulance trusts, and made worse by organisational and psychological barriers, with inconsistencies in holding offenders to account and a failure to tackle repeat offenders.
She says “cultural assessments” of three trusts by NHSE had found “competing pressures often lead to poor behaviours, with capacity prioritisation overshadowing misconduct management”, adding: “Staff shortages and limited opportunities for development mean that any work beyond direct clinical care is seen as a luxury or is rushed.
“Despite this, there is a clear link between positive organisational culture and improved patient outcomes. However, trusts often focus on meeting response time standards for urgent calls, whilst sidelining training, professional development, and research.”
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Source: HSJ, 15 February 2024
An integrated care board (ICB) has found its handling of whistleblowing “not fit for purpose”, after a complaint about safety incidents not being properly investigated.
A report by North West London ICB, obtained by HSJ, states: “The whistleblowing policy is not fit for purpose and requires immediate updating. The [Freedom to Speak Up] Guardian has been left blank and the policy does not include key components of best practice.”
It also found the “whistleblower should have been provided with a substantive response to their concerns within 28 days” but in fact waited 98 working days, “due to delays with starting the whistleblowing component of the grievance”.
The ICB reviewed its processes after a complaint from a staff member who raised concerns early last year about “a lack of, or poor, response” to reported patient safety incidents in the system, which are meant to be routinely reviewed by ICBs “prior to closure”.
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Source: HSJ, 15 February 2024
The number of patients waiting more than 12 hours for a bed on a ward after being seen in A&E in England was 19 times higher this winter than it was before the pandemic, figures show.
There were nearly 100,000 12-hour waits in December and January - compared with slightly more than 5,000 in 2019-20.
A decade ago these waits were virtually unheard of - in the four winters up to 2013-14 there were fewer than 100.
The King's Fund said long delays were at risk of becoming normalised.
It said the pressures this winter had received little attention compared with last winter, despite no significant improvement in performance.
During December 2023 and January 2024, 98,300 patients waited more than 12 hours for a bed on a ward after A&E doctors took the decision to admit them.
The Northern Ireland branch of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) said the pressures were "unsurmountable" and it was having a detrimental impact on patients.
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Source: BBC News, 15 February 2024
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