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

Cervical cancer deaths in young women fall to zero for first time after vaccine introduced

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has already saved an estimated 200 lives from cervical cancer in England, with this figure projected to rise significantly as more people receive the jab, new data suggests.
Research spearheaded by Queen Mary University of London and funded by Cancer Research UK indicates the HPV vaccine is proving highly effective in eliminating cervical cancer nationwide.
The study estimates that children vaccinated at 12-13 years old face a near-zero risk of dying from the disease before turning 30.
Crucially, England recorded no cervical cancer deaths among women aged 20 to 24 between 2020 and 2024 – a historic first.
The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, also found that from 2015-19 there was an 80% reduction in cervical cancer deaths among women aged 20-24.
However, despite progress towards eliminating cervical cancer, experts are worried about falling vaccination rates.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “We know the HPV vaccine is extremely effective at stopping cervical cancer before it starts and for the first time, these findings show it is saving lives – a powerful example of what’s possible when science is backed by strong public health programmes.
“Thanks to HPV vaccination and cervical screening, a future where almost nobody gets cervical cancer is now firmly in sight.
“But uptake of the vaccine has dropped in recent years, and this progress is at risk.
“It’s essential that the UK government and health systems urgently address this with targeted action to reach communities where uptake is the lowest.
“Beating cervical cancer means beating it for everyone.“Every parent and guardian can support this by making sure children and young people get the HPV vaccine.
“It’s also important that people take up cervical screening when invited, even if they have had the HPV vaccine.”
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 18 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Public inquiry into maternity being considered by DHSC

Current inquiries into care failures lack teeth, and such a gap could be filled by a public inquiry, the government’s new national maternity adviser has revealed.
Michelle Welsh’s comments at a Medical Journalists’ Association event on Wednesday came with two major investigations by Donna Ockenden and Baroness Amos due to report over the next fortnight.
Ms Welsh also called for a review of regulatory authorities such as the General Medical Council, Care Quality Commission and the Nursing and Midwifery Council. She said this comment was in her capacity as Sherwood Forest MP, not as government adviser.
Appointed by former health and social care secretary Wes Streeting last month, Ms Welsh said she wants to respect Ms Ockenden’s upcoming review into Nottingham University Hospitals and seek thoughts from families and staff once it is published on 24 June.
However, she warned: “There is a gap, and that gap is that Donna Ockenden’s inquiry [in Nottingham cannot] legally make people talk.”
She added: “The [Nottingham] inquiry is fundamentally about things that happened while [people] were in charge in very, very senior positions and making the decision, yet they can personally decide that they are not going to engage in it.
“I think it should be an open book, and I am in conversations with the [Department of Health and Social Care] about a public inquiry.”
She said the current regulatory system was failing families, and called on the government to appoint a maternity “commissioner”.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 17 June 2026
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Jay’s toolkit to support adults at risk of suicide launched at collaborative event in Manchester

A new resource to support adults at risk of self‑harm or suicide was launched in May at The University of Manchester’s Whitworth Art Gallery, at an event hosted by the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration.
Jay’s Personalised Safety Planning Toolkit is a co‑designed set of materials created with researchers, people with lived experience of suicide and self‑harm, and healthcare professionals. It offers a more personalised approach to safety planning within health and care settings, supporting meaningful conversations around self‑harm and suicide.
Inspired by the family of Jaymie Mart, known as Jay, who died by suicide in 2012 at the age of 32, the toolkit – which was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) – offers clear, practical guidance to help adults create and review personalised safety plans.
Jay’s mother, Paula Mart, has played a key role in shaping the research, sharing her experiences to help improve support for people during times of acute mental health crisis and to prevent deaths by suicide. She said:
“The toolkit helps as a guide in understanding and setting up an individualised safety plan for people in difficult times. They can help to change a mindset during times of crisis, that will hopefully keep them safe until they can get help,  if needed, from family, friends or mental health professionals.”
When describing the new resource, Katherine McGleenan, nurse consultant in suicide prevention research and lead of Jay’s study, said:
“We know suicide can be prevented, however often people don’t know how to help or where to find support, for themselves or others. We can all make a difference, whatever role we are in. Jay’s toolkit is a powerful resource to help increase understanding, skills and confidence of how to support personalised safety planning. It might help someone who’s struggling and could potentially save lives.”
Read full story
Source: NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration, 15 June 2026
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MHRA launches AI sandbox to improve medicines safety

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has announced plans to launch a new AI regulatory sandbox aimed at improving medicines safety and accelerating the development of new treatments.
The initiative, unveiled by Science Minister Lord Vallance on 9 June 2026, will provide companies and researchers with a controlled environment to test AI tools designed to predict how medicines may perform in people and identify potential safety risks earlier in the development process.
Through the sandbox, the MHRA will work with industry and academic partners to assess whether AI can improve medicines safety assessment and identify risks that traditional methods may miss.
Unlike the AI Airlock programme, which focuses on AI medical devices, the new sandbox will support the testing of AI tools used in medicines development and safety assessment.
Up to five AI technologies will be tested during the first phase of the programme, with work due to begin in summer 2026.
Lawrence Tallon, chief executive at the MHRA, said: “We’re seeing extraordinary advances in AI and biomedical science. The opportunity now is to harness them to deliver real benefits for patients.
“These technologies could help us understand medicines better, generate stronger evidence on their safety, and accelerate the development of innovative treatments, especially in areas of unmet need.
“For patients, that means greater confidence that the medicines they rely on are supported by the best available science, with evidence that better reflects the diverse range of people they are intended to treat.”
Read full story
Source: Digital Health, 16 June 2026
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Charity commits £250m to ‘neighbourhood health’

A charity will invest £250m over the next three to five years in a government-backed scheme testing a new funding model for neighbourhood health.
Macmillan Cancer Support has partnered with West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust, non-profit enterprise Social Finance and the government’s Office for the Impact Economy to help other systems raise money from non-NHS sources. 
The intention is that investors who want to use their money for social purposes will add to the £250m, and will earn a return over an extended period, as the schemes reduce secondary healthcare demand.
The “trailblazer” programme will choose six areas to develop more integrated and preventative care in the community, the organisations are due to announce today.
The programme builds on a £10m initiative launched last year  in West Hertfordshire, with the same partners, to improve care for older people with multiple conditions.
In each area, the organisations will run a nine-month programme with financial and technical expertise, to design their model and build skills, confidence and culture to help attract “impact investment” finance.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 17 June 2026
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Tech firms asked to shoulder more risk in NHS contracts

The Department of Health and Social Care wants tech suppliers to take on more financial risk by agreeing to new contract models aimed at improving value, HSJ understands.
Tech industry figures have told HSJ that government officials have started asking suppliers on NHS contracts to take part of their payment once productivity gains have materialised.
This would see a company paid some or all of its fee once the trust had realised some of the efficiency savings that were promised in the business case. Some consultancies are paid in this way, but it is not common with tech procurements.
One senior industry figure said: “I understand the logic, if technology is being funded on the basis of productivity, suppliers are asked to share some of the delivery risk.”
However, they added this would be “difficult” for suppliers, as “technology is only one part of whether benefits are realised”.
They told HSJ: “The bigger issue is usually transformation: workflow redesign, adoption, training, leadership, benefits tracking, and whether the organisation actually changes how it works. Those factors largely sit with the customer, not the supplier.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 16 June 2026
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Leaking sewage, rats and bedbugs widespread in NHS workplaces, staff claim

Worrying health risks and dangerous conditions are widespread across NHS hospitals, clinics and ambulance stations, new research has revealed.
A Unison survey of over 19,000 NHS staff exposed workplaces plagued by leaking sewage, rodent infestations, and a lack of clean toilets for both staff and patients.
Around one in seven respondents reported vermin, such as rats, in their workplaces over the past year. A similar proportion cited other widespread infestations, including silverfish, ants, bedbugs and cockroaches.
The union described its findings as a concerning snapshot of a "dangerous and dilapidated" NHS estate.
One in seven polled believe their workplace is unsafe due to the buildings’ poor physical state.
The findings, being released at the union’s annual conference in Brighton on Tuesday, include examples of buckets on floors to catch leaking water, sewage leaks, public toilets in hospitals out of order for extended periods and staff toilets described as unusable.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 16 June 2026
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Lack of learning-disability nurses in UK is an ‘absolute crisis’, says union

The specialist learning-disability nurse workforce is in “absolute crisis” with the number of specialist nurses falling by a third across the UK since 2009, leaving many vulnerable adults with inadequate care, according to a report by the largest nursing union.
The Royal College of Nursing review revealed that the number of learning-disability nurses employed by the NHS has fallen from 7,083 in 2009 to 4,768 in 2026. As a result of these falling numbers, 1.5 million people with learning disabilities were not being provided with their legal right to equitable access to health and care services.
This failure in care has mainly been attributed to the chronic lack of specialist learning-disability nurses available across the UK, with this gap expected to widen in the coming years. Only 490 learning-disability nursing students had chosen to study the specialism in the UK, according to the analysis. This was a 40% reduction over the past decade in the number of students accepted on to these courses.
Prof Lynn Woolsey, the Royal College of Nursing’s chief officer, said the review’s findings were a “warning that we cannot continue this path where learning-disability nursing is consistently undermined”.
“The learning-disability nurse workforce is in absolute crisis, with workforce numbers falling while university student numbers also collapse. Their skills are too vital for this to be allowed to continue,” Woolsey said.
She added: “The expertise of learning-disability nurses has been poorly understood, inconsistently recognised, and insufficiently protected within health and care systems. Their contribution is repeatedly undermined and ignored in wide workforce planning and service delivery.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 16 June 2026
Further reading on the hub:
Top picks: Breaking down the barriers faced by people with learning disabilities
Patient Safety Learning

NHS CEO might not report to health secretary

The new NHS chief executive may soon report to a senior civil servant rather than the health secretary, HSJ understands.
The downgrade of the NHS CEO role is among several proposals being considered by national officials as they seek to finalise their target structure for the abolition of NHS England, senior sources said.
Another proposal, HSJ understands, is that staff in regional teams, who are currently NHSE employees, could be “hosted” by local NHS organisations, rather than become civil servants as part of the Department of Health and Social Care.
A year ago, the DHSC issued a “proposed top-level structure for the transformed DHSC” to staff, saying there would be “three permanent secretaries – including the DHSC permanent secretary, the NHS CEO and the chief medical officer”.
HSJ understands that this model – which echoed the “three at the top” configuration in the department in the years to 2012 – was agreed between NHSE, the DHSC and 10 Downing Street. As permanent secretaries, all three would report to the health and social care secretary.
But several senior national officials are now growing concerned that this agreement is being undermined by separate proposals being developed by DHSC officials.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 16 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Trust fined £320k over hospital infection death

The Care Quality Commission has imposed a major fine on a trust where a chemotherapy patient contracted a serious infection from bacteria in a ward’s en-suite bathroom and later died.
Gloucestershire Hospitals Foundation Trust was ordered to pay the sum at Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court yesterday after admitting failing to provide safe care and treatment to Chris Elliot at Cheltenham General Hospital.
It is one of only two CQC prosecutions brought over infections, with Dudley Group fined £2.53m in 2021 after two women died from sepsis.
The Gloucestershire case related to the care of Dr Elliot, who became infected by a strain of pseudomonas bacteria while receiving chemotherapy as an inpatient and died two weeks later.
Dr Elliot’s infection was genetically matched to a sample taken from the showerhead in the ensuite bathroom of his ward at CGH.
An earlier sample had already tested positive for the bacteria on 1 August, but no action was taken, and the ensuite bathroom remained in use.
The court heard that the trust had outsourced delegated water sampling and testing to NHS Gloucestershire Managed Services in 2021, according to the BBC. The prosecution said oversight of GMS was “insufficient”, saying that a water safety group did not meet regularly, and that “initial concerns over competence” were not pursued.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 16 June 2026
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Bereaved families raise alarm about trust’s leadership churn

Bereaved parents have raised concerns about the departure of a major trust’s medical director, just as an independent inquiry into its maternity services is getting started.
Magnus Harrison left Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust on 12 June, with the trust’s deputy medical director, Elizabeth Garthwaite, appointed interim.
His departure comes amid several high-profile executives leaving the trust over the past year, including its chief executive and deputy CEO.
The trust is facing a major inquiry into care failures in its maternity and neonatal services between 2011 and 2025, led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden.
In a statement, the Leeds affected families group said: “Since [the inquiry]’s announcement, several of the people who were in leadership positions at the trust during the period under investigation will no longer be present to engage in the same way.
“It’s very disconcerting that senior figures are leaving their roles without ever being properly held to account…
“We are also concerned how all the necessary information for the review will be disclosed, and how changes in leadership could potentially cause some evidence to get lost or former senior leaders to state they ‘cannot remember’ or ‘no longer have access to documents or files’.”
They added: “These departures risk creating a precedent that senior leaders can leave a trust… before their involvement in cultures and practices have been fully scrutinised.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 15 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

NHS staff battling wave of food supplement disinformation

Social media misinformation about the use of dietary supplements such as turmeric, St John’s wort and magnesium is now so common that dispelling online claims has become a routine part of NHS clinicians work.
Two out of five frontline health workers say they encounter patients who raise inaccurate or misleading information about supplements at least once a week.
Polling by YouGov for the World Cancer Research Fund found that the figure is even higher (53%) among nurses and midwives, with false information about nutrition and supplements now taking up what doctors describe as “precious time” in NHS consultations.
The WCRF says it fears that patients’ belief in unproven dietary regimes, vitamins and minerals is putting their health in danger and increasing their risk of getting cancer.
Dr Philippa Kaye said she saw the consequences of health misinformation every week in her GP surgery.
“My patients arrive clutching newspaper stories, social media screenshots, printouts from wellness websites or saved videos from TikTok.
“What particularly worries me is the widely held belief that if something is sold over the counter, marked as ‘natural’ or endorsed online, then it must automatically be safe and harmless, while prescribed medicines are somehow toxic,” she added. “As doctors, we know this simply is not true.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 14 June
Patient Safety Learning

New ‘simpler’ NHSE performance regime for acutes has 50% more metrics

The number of metrics used to measure the performance of acute trusts by NHS England has been increased from 23 to 35.
The changes come despite NHSE claiming the updated National Oversight Framework is “simpler” and more “disciplined”.
The 2025-26 NOF was used to determine the provider league tables introduced by former health secretary Wes Streeting. The updated framework will fulfil the same purpose.
Four of the NOF’s five domains have seen increases in the metrics included within them.
The most significant increase is in the effectiveness and efficiency domain, which has increased from four to 10 metrics. Among the new metrics is one entitled “NHS staff survey advocacy rate” – which combines the results of two survey indicators: whether staff would recommend a trust as an employer and as a care care giver. 
A new indicator tracking the “rate of pregnant women with a delayed planned induction per 1,000 deliveries” is a reflection of the high profile of maternity service quality. The new NOF also includes two metrics measuring readmissions after 14 and 30 days.
The metric tracking the “average number of days from discharge ready date to actual discharge date” has been replaced by two metrics covering “mean length of stay for older adults” and the percentage of “intermediate care beds occupied by patients without criteria to reside”. 
The other domain to see a big rise in metrics is “people and workforce”, which increases from just two to five metrics. New measures include “healthcare worker flu vaccination rate” and “temporary staffing costs”.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 15 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

UK hypermobility sufferers wait up to 21 years for diagnosis, study suggests

People in the UK with hypermobility conditions are waiting up to 21 years to be diagnosed while suffering from symptoms ranging from chronic pain to partially dislocated joints, research suggests.
The study of more than 2,000 people, which was led by the University of Edinburgh and described as the largest of its kind in the UK, indicates awareness of hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD) and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is low among British healthcare professionals.
The conditions affect connective tissue throughout the body and are associated with joint hypermobility, chronic pain and fatigue, alongside neurological, gastrointestinal and psychological symptoms.
The writer, actor and director Lena Dunham has revealed she spent years thinking her “bendy party tricks”, migraines, fainting spells and swollen knees were just quirks, until she was diagnosed with hEDs – a hereditary disorder – in her late 20s.
Researchers found patients with hEDs and HSD faced “fragmented healthcare” and this could have a significant impact on their mental health, education and employment.
Almost half the respondents to the online survey, which was carried out between September 2023 and January 2024, were unemployed (46%) and in receipt of disability-related benefits (48%) and most (56%) reported disrupted education.
The vast majority (84%) reported chronic pain; while almost three-quarters (74%) had experienced partially dislocated joints and two-thirds (66%) had gastrointestinal symptoms. Seven out of 10 (71%) reported anxiety, 63% reported depression and 53% suffered from migraines.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 15 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Thousands sent wrong outcome letters

Almost 5,000 patients at one of England’s highest-performing trusts had their outcome letters sent to the wrong person.
In some cases, the letters were incorrectly posted by Moorfields Eye Hospital Foundation Trust to the wrong GP.
The incident affected letters sent between 25 and 29 April this year, with up to 4,926 patients impacted.
The trust said the cause was a planned configuration change to its integration engine – which handles communication between clinical systems – during a migration from on-premises servers to the cloud.
At the trust’s board meeting on 4 June, chief executive Peter Ridley said some outcome letters were still being processed manually while the trust’s systems were restored.
He said: “Because there has been a data breach, we take that really seriously and we are working through that in a really systematic way.”
The trust said no patient harm had been identified in either incident, and investigations are ongoing.
A spokesperson for the trust said: “We have been open and have written to the patients affected by the data breach to inform them and provide reassurance.
“We have notified the Information Commissioner’s Office and have been responding to their queries.
“We take patient confidentiality very seriously, and we will ensure we take forward any relevant learnings that come out from these investigations.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 15 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

'Blame culture' and unsafe staff levels at NHS trust

An NHS trust at the centre of a breast cancer care scandal had unsafe staffing levels and a "blame culture", inspectors have found.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDNFT) was told it "must make immediate improvements" by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), following a series of inspections late last year.
The watchdog found "standards of care had deteriorated" and staff said they were "actively discouraged from speaking up about concerns".
The trust accepted the findings and said "significant work" had already been done to strengthen patient safety, improve services and support staff.
Durham Police was already investigating whether any criminal offences had been committed before the report, after multiple failings in breast cancer services at the trust, including missed cancers and unnecessary mastectomies.
CQC inspectors identified "significant and serious safety concerns" at surgery services at University Hospital North Durham, Darlington Memorial Hospital and Bishop Auckland Hospital in October.
These related to safe staffing, escalation when patient health was deteriorating, record-keeping, and learning from incidents.
CQC deputy director of hospitals in the North East, Chris Storton, said it was concerning staff "didn't feel listened to and had to repeatedly raise the same issues".
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 12 June 2026
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