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

Consultants sought to help ICBs control £7.5bn care spend

NHS England is developing plans to procure external expertise to help it cut the cost of the £7.5bn all-age continuing care services on a “no saving, no payment” basis.  
All Age Continuing Care (AACC) involves the assessment and then funding of ongoing support for eligible individuals who have long-term, complex health and social care needs. 
The government initially signalled that integrated care boards would lose responsibility for AACC as part of their rationalisation and shift to strategic commissioning. That decision was reversed  when it became clear there was no viable alternative host at present. However, ICBs have been told to consider delegating non-statutory responsibilities.
Market engagement documents on the proposed programme warn of unwanted variation of up to 2.6 times per capita across integrated care systems and a persistent national overspend on AACC of around 5%.
NHSE is considering contracting suppliers to first “diagnose” the reasons behind the variation and overspend and then to undertake “targeted system-level deep dives” to resolve the problems.
The engagement documents state the proposed “commercial model” would link “payment exclusively to validated, cash-releasing savings”. It adds it would result in “no new central consultancy spend” and that there would be “no payment where savings are not delivered”.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 4 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Thousands of patient records taken in cyber attack

One of the largest hospital trusts in England has confirmed thousands of patient test results were stolen in a cyber attack in 2024.
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSE), which runs Broomfield hospital in Chelmsford as well as Basildon and Southend hospitals, said the breach involved 2,380 records.
The data was taken from the computer drives of a third‑party testing provider, Synnovis, that analysed blood, urine and tissue samples.
The trust, which was notified about the breach in December, said it would be contacting those affected.
The trust is one of an undisclosed number of NHS organisations whose confidential patient data was involved in the data breach.
Last week, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust revealed almost 33,000 of its patients had their data stolen in the same hack.
According to Synnovis, the data was published on the dark web.
It said there was no evidence the data had been used maliciously and it was stolen "in haste and in a random manner".
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 6 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Nottingham attack victims failed by ‘every single agency,’ bereaved families say

The victims of the 2023 Nottingham attack were failed by “every single agency”, their families have said as they call on the government to act on failings exposed in a public inquiry.
Emma Webber, the mother of student Barnaby Webber, who was stabbed to death by Valdo Calocane, told a press conference on Monday: “A monster was left at large in the shadows to stalk his prey. For months, we’ve sat through the statutory public inquiry and watched the evidence unfold.
“It has been brutal, bruising, and harrowing beyond measure, but it was so very necessary. Just look at what it has uncovered. Every single agency failed. Every single one. Without exception.
“Mental health services fail to treat and manage. Police repeatedly failed to act. Agencies didn’t talk. Individuals chose to look the other way. Warnings were ignored. People chose not to care or be curious. And the fear of stigma and bias was placed above safety and duty. And when it went wrong, too many closed ranks. Instead of owning their mistakes.”
Failings by both the NHS and police have been exposed throughout the hearings, including the fact that months before the killings, Calocane was discharged by Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust’s Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) service because he failed to turn up for appointments, and the team had “lost” him.
Calocane had been sectioned four times while under the care of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), before he was discharged to his GP in 2022.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 8 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Gloves left inside patients and accidental organ removal among 403 'never' mistakes in NHS last year

Hundreds of NHS patients have been harmed due to errors that should never have occurred, including operations on the wrong body part and medical objects being left inside them, new data shows.
Annual figures from NHS England show that there were 403 "never events" for the year from April 2025 to March this year, according to an analysis by the Press Association.
There were 166 incidents related to wrong site surgery, including 17 people who had a procedure intended for another patient, and 40 where treatments were to the wrong side or part of the body.
In one case, a patient had an organ or body part removed when the plan had been to conserve it.
Overall, 121 of the never events related to foreign objects being left in patients after procedures or surgery, including 26 cases of guide wires, two cases of cotton wool balls, one nasal pack, and one of a central catheter line.
Two cases involved surgical gloves, 22 were surgical instruments, five were surgical needles, 21 were surgical swabs, and 32 were vaginal swabs.
The data also showed there were eight cases where patients received a procedure that was not part of the surgical plan.
There were four other cases where the patient had the wrong procedure altogether.
Six people suffered incisions to the wrong part of the body, and 30 received injections in the wrong place.
Read full story
Source: Sky News, 8 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Record number of people waiting for NHS diagnostic tests in England

A record number of people are waiting for a diagnostic test on the NHS, triggering fears that delays in accessing CT and MRI scans could endanger patients’ health.
A total of 1.92 million patients in England are waiting to have a test to diagnose their illness such as by an ultrasound scan, assessment of their hearing, bone scan or various tests for cancer.
Demand for tests is outstripping the NHS’s ability to meet it and one in five of those on the waiting list – more than 400,000 people – are having to wait longer than the supposed six-week maximum, an analysis of diagnostic services in England has found.
The rise in the waiting list for diagnostic tests contrasts sharply with the NHS’s recent success in cutting the backlog for planned hospital care to 7.1 million, which was 500,000 fewer than in July 2025.
The Patients Association voiced deep unease at the situation and warned that patients’ health can deteriorate while they are waiting to have the diagnostic test needed to kickstart their treatment.
“A diagnostic test is not the end of a patient’s journey – it is the beginning. Without it, treatment cannot start, conditions deteriorate, and what might have been caught early becomes something far harder to treat,” said Rachel Power, its chief executive.
“When more than one in five patients is waiting beyond the NHS’s own six-week maximum, and median waiting times have risen by more than half since before the pandemic, that is deeply concerning for patients’ health.
“Every week of delay is a week a condition can worsen, a patient’s ability to live day-to-day can diminish, and their anxiety about what is wrong can grow,” she added.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 7 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Vulnerable children denied surgery as cancer patients prioritised

Cancer waiting time pressures have led an acute trust to withdraw an offer to treat children with complex needs in its theatres.
Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust is struggling with the target – which requires 75% of cancer patients to be treated within 62 days of referral. Its performance averaged 65% during the third quarter of 2025-26, placing it 91st out of 118 acute providers. 
The acute trust has previously allowed dental services provider Oxford Health FT to use theatres at its Horton General Hospitals to treat paediatric patients whose procedure required a general anaesthetic.
This access has now been stood down until at least October 2026. OHFT said the suspension would “significantly impact our waiting lists”. 
As of April, 145 children were waiting for extraction at the Horton. Of those, 49 were already waiting over 18 weeks, and the longest wait was already five months. 
Children on the Horton list cannot safely receive care in a standard dental practice due to complex needs – such as learning disabilities, neurodiversity, behavioural issues, medical conditions and phobias – and need to be treated under general anaesthetic.
Oxford Health told HSJ it is “using its adult theatre lists for children where appropriate” to mitigate the impact of the suspension on children’s waits. This list contains adults with special needs who also cannot be treated in a standard setting, who also face long waits for treatment. 
Most community dental services, which deliver care to vulnerable patients, are not part of an acute trust. Providers are therefore reliant on arrangements with acute providers to access theatres for general anaesthetic sessions. 
British Dental Association chair Eddie Crouch told HSJ: “Many dentists doing these extractions are fighting a losing battle for priority. Year-long waiting lists have too often been the norm for vulnerable young patients, many struggling to eat, to sleep, and to learn. We shouldn’t be forced to play a zero-sum game for theatre space.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 5 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Deaths inquiry left trust unprepared for CQC inspection

A trust has claimed it was left unprepared for an unannounced Care Quality Commission inspection because of the demands of an inquiry into historic care failures.
Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust received a surprise visit from Care Quality Comission inspectors in November last year. This resulted in a warning notice being issued to the trust in April 2026.  The regulator identified “significant shortfalls” in safety, with inspectors “concerned to find leaders… weren’t always acting quickly on safety concerns raised by their staff”.
EPUT is the subject of the statutory Lampard inquiry into the deaths of at least 2,000 mental health patients between 2000 and 2023. The inquiry is not due to report until at least 2028.
EPUT’s latest board papers  reveal the trust’s compliance team were “refocused” between autumn 2025 and January this year to tackle a large request from the inquiry to provide witness statements. EPUT was legally required to fulfil the request.
As a result, the compliance team was unable to carry out scheduled quality checks of its long-stay and rehabilitation wards. These could have alerted the trust to problems identified by the CQC before the inspection. 
The trust said this showed ”the unintended consequence of needing to prioritise focus in this challenging time”.
The trust’s outgoing chief executive, Paul Scott, added that dealing with the demands of the inquiry had been “more difficult than any of us could have predicted”.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 2 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

CEOs given six months to take antisemitism training

Trust chairs and chief executives must take mandatory antisemitism and anti-racism training within six months, as part of efforts to tackle “routine ostracism” of Jewish people in the NHS.
A government-commissioned report on antisemitism and other forms of racism in the NHS and health regulation, published today, said training must take place for “approximately 400 chairs and chief executives of NHS provider trusts on antisemitism, anti-racism and building on the Macpherson principles, within the next six months”.
The Macpherson principles were established by the 1999 Macpherson report, originating from the public inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.
The report, by Labour peer and campaigner Lord Mann, said: “This training should support leaders to understand how they can take evidence-based actions to address discrimination and effect change in their organisations. Consideration should also be given to how this might be extended to integrated care boards and primary care networks’ leadership.”
Leaders of health and care systems and professional regulators should also take the training, Lord Mann’s report said.  
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 4 June 2026
Sam

Family of girl left brain-damaged at birth accept £28m NHS payout

The family of a girl left brain-damaged at birth have agreed to accept £28m in damages after the NHS trust involved admitted that its mistakes led to the tragedy.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge university hospitals NHS trust failed to monitor the baby’s heart rate while her mother was in labour or ask an obstetrician to review the case, either of which might have led to the girl being born in a healthy condition.
The girl, who is six, suffered severe hypoxia-ischaemia – loss of oxygen to her brain – while she was being born at Queen’s hospital in Romford, east London, in July 2019. That left her badly disabled.
She has epilepsy, experiences unpredictable seizures and is expected to lose mobility throughout her life. She will need lifelong care to help with her cognitive and language impairments. She will also need constant supervision because she has no awareness of danger and is overly friendly with strangers.
The girl’s mother demanded urgent action by ministers and NHS bosses to overhaul maternity care, which is in the spotlight after a series of scandals at trusts across England.
“My daughter is thriving and doing well. But it’s impossible for me to forget that I was robbed of the precious experience of most mothers giving birth by the horror of what happened to us,” said the mother. Neither she nor her daughter can be identified for legal reasons.
“Seven years on, I’m still deeply affected by seeing the hospital’s name crop up in the press regarding tragedies for other families and their babies. This is despite the repeated promises of the government and endless reviews into maternity safety. Surely someone must take the bull by the horns and take action to change things.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 4 June 2026
Sam

One in four births in England is now emergency caesarean, BBC analysis shows

A quarter of all babies in England are now delivered by emergency caesarean operations, BBC analysis shows - marking a significant rise over the last five years.
The unplanned surgeries have increased by eight percentage points, while the rate of elective caesareans has also increased.
At the same time, the rate of vaginal births without instruments has fallen - from more than half of all deliveries to 43%.
Prof Marian Knight, director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, which researches the care of women and babies in pregnancy and birth, says the rise represents a "total change in how women give birth" in England, and that it has not been replicated in other European countries.
The NHS does not publish data on why an emergency C-section is performed, and experts say there is no single, clear explanation for the increase.
However, some have told the BBC they are concerned a culture of fear in maternity units and among pregnant women is driving up the number of procedures.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which represents maternity doctors, says pressure on staff and operating theatres means the system is "really struggling" to meet the increased demand.
NHS England says "decisions are made by considering individual circumstances and clinical advice to ensure the safest and most appropriate approach for each birth".
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 5 June 2026
Sam

Girl, 5, traumatised after physician associate wrongly prescribed vaginal pessary, report finds

A five-year-old was left traumatised, bleeding and in severe pain after a physician associate wrongly prescribed her a vaginal pessary, according to a damning report by the health ombudsman.
The parliamentary and health service ombudsman (PHSO) said there were “multiple failures” in the care of the girl, who saw a physician associate (PA) at a GP practice in the East Midlands after complaining of itching and vaginal discharge.
The PA suspected thrush and recommended a vaginal pessary and cream. The five-year-old’s mother, who believed her daughter was being seen by a GP, questioned the treatment and the size of the pessary, but was reassured that it was appropriate.
PAs do not have prescribing rights and their work must be supervised by a doctor who approves the prescription. But the ombudsman found there was no discussion between the PA and GP before the GP authorised the prescription, even though vaginal pessaries are not suitable for prepubescent children and the girl’s symptoms were consistent with vulvovaginitis, not thrush. There was also no questioning of the prescription by the pharmacy that dispensed it.
The mother said that after inserting the pessary, her daughter began to bleed and scream in pain, while the cream burned the girl’s skin. She took her to see an out-of-hours doctor. However, the girl was so distressed and in pain that she asked the doctor not to examine her internally, causing the GP to raise concerns about possible sexual abuse and to contact safeguarding services.
Although it was established the girl’s symptoms were caused by the pessary and cream, not sexual abuse, the mother said the experience was distressing, embarrassing and further added to her trauma.
She said: “I had huge guilt for doing what the PA, who I thought was a GP, told me and feeling as if I had inflicted this trauma on my daughter.
“But I trusted what [they] told me. How are we meant to trust healthcare professionals now?”
Rebecca Hilsenrath, the chief executive of the parliamentary and health service ombudsman, said the “deeply troubling case” was all the more concerning because it could easily have been avoided.
“The breakdown in communication meant the checks and balances designed to make sure patients are treated appropriately and kept safe were not followed.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 5 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Lord Mann's recommendations to tackle antisemitism accepted

NHS patients and staff will be better protected against hate, as the government has responded to Lord John Mann’s review of antisemitism and other forms of racism across the NHS and healthcare regulatory system, accepting all recommendations for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England.
In the wake of a series of horrific attacks on the Jewish community across the country, including shocking examples of intimidation and abuse within the health service, Lord Mann was commissioned by the former Secretary of State and the Prime Minister in October 2025 to lead an urgent review into how the NHS and its regulatory system recognises, reports and tackles antisemitism and other forms of racism.
Lord Mann has heard that Jewish people in the NHS experience “routine ostracism”, with Jewish staff being the only religious group in the latest NHS staff survey for whom discrimination from colleagues is rising rather than falling, resulting in some considering leaving the NHS.
The antisemitism identified extends to patients too. Some Jewish patients reported not wishing to present for treatment or putting off receiving important care.
The government is clear that all racism in the NHS is abhorrent, and NHS employers are the first line of defence and must be taking urgent action. With 16% of Muslim staff and 20% of Black and minority ethnic staff also reporting discrimination in the last year, the reforms will benefit everyone who experiences hatred or abuse in the health service.
The reforms include delivering mandatory antisemitism training for NHS leaders and introducing clear national guidance on uniform and responding to racist behaviour.
Lord Mann said: "Jewish people have to be confident that they will receive the same treatment as everyone else, at all times in all situations. If people feel, as they do, that some have to hide their identity as patients or suffer in silence as staff, then the universality of the NHS is fundamentally breached.
"The solutions are simple but require a consistency of approach across the whole of the NHS and clear leadership at the top and across all NHS trusts. The NHS as an employer must act as a responsible and inclusive employer and take the responsibility of making its employment and service to patients one that the entirety of the country, including our Jewish community, can feel and see is one that is for them as well as everybody else."
Read full press release
Source: Department of Health and Social Care, 4 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

CQC’s ‘ridiculous’ inspections without clinical input

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been accused of undertaking “ridiculous” inspections without clinical input which have put patients at risk, HSJ can reveal.
Several senior internal figures have raised fundamental safety concerns about the regulator’s inspection of what it deems “low risk practices” without clinical input.
They have accused the CQC of prioritising “quantity over quality” and “providing false assurances” in a move they argued was driven by the need to meet a target of completing 9,000 inspections by September, with primary care expected to deliver 1,200.
Their intervention follows the CQC deciding that surgeries previously rated “outstanding” or “good”, including those which have not been visited in several years, were to be re-inspected without a GP providing clinical input.
The regulator stressed to HSJ that clinical input remained “central to [its] approach” and that “should the need arise, [it] will draw on GP specialist advisers to provide valuable insight for a broader inspection”.
But one senior source warned: “The CQC… are prioritising numbers over patient safety… People will be looking at a rating, and if a practice has a rating of ‘good’, they’re going to think that means good clinical care, but clinical care won’t have been reviewed or assessed.
“A practice that hasn’t been inspected for up to 10 years could have had a whole change of leadership and quality of care delivered… just because they were ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ back then, doesn’t mean to say they are now…. To do inspections without any clinical input is just ridiculous.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 4 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Mackey: Cyber attack risk ‘dramatically accelerating’

Sir Jim Mackey has warned NHS leaders that cyber security is a “dramatically” bigger threat than it was just a few weeks ago, due to rapidly changing tech.
At today’s public board meeting, the NHS England chief executive said the service needed to do “basic things” to safeguard against a “risk environment [that] has now changed really dramatically”. 
At the same meeting, NHSE’s tech committee chair Mark Bailie said the NHS’s sprawling and patchily-updated information systems were “a direct patient safety issue”.
The non-executive director previously told the March public board meeting that the cyber threat was a major area of weakness. Since then, it was revealed that patient data from UK Biobank – a government-supported research database – was available to buy on Chinese auction sites.
The NHS’s suppliers are particularly vulnerable, with a lack of multifactor authentication at the Synnovis pathology provider, allowing the fatal attack in 2024.
An NHSE risk assessment published last night increased its recorded risk level for cyber security to the highest possible - 25 out of 25 – with a likelihood level of “frequent” and impact of “catastrophic”.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source:: HSJ, 4 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Health officials face urgent calls to investigate deaths linked to black market weight loss jabs

A health minister has acknowledged that restricted access to weight loss drugs on the NHS may be driving individuals to seek unregulated alternatives, as officials face urgent calls to investigate deaths linked to black market obesity jabs.
Health officials were directly challenged by MPs on the Health and Social Committee regarding measures to curb illicit sales of anti-obesity treatments.
A stark warning was issued to NHS and Department of Health officials: "People have already died as a result of this, and there is a chance that this could get worse."
Conservative MP Gregory Stafford questioned whether current NHS access constraints were creating a patient safety risk, citing evidence that barriers were pushing patients to "unregulated and potentially unsafe sources."
Professor Aidan Fowler, national director of patient safety for NHS England, informed MPs that discussions with the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) frequently address risks around medicine safety, including black market issues, drawing parallels with cosmetic surgery.
However, committee chairwoman Layla Moran delivered a harrowing account, stating: "I’ve met with families whose loved ones have tragically passed away because they did access on the black market, they then got sepsis and died, and the coroner report is still ongoing.
“But the concern is it was the injection itself and its administration that caused the death, they don’t feel that the MHRA are on top of it, and I’m not sure that they will have heard today’s evidence and felt that you guys are either, and I really hope, minister, that when you go away and look at this that you bear in mind the fact people have already died as a result of this, and there is a chance that this could get worse."
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 3 June 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Data watchdog demands answers on Palantir patient data access

The national patient data watchdog has said it will investigate how Palantir staff came to have access to identifiable patient data in the federated data platform, despite previous assurances that this would not be the case.
In a statement published yesterday afternoon by the National Data Guardian (NDG), Nicola Byrne said the watchdog would “seek clarification” over why it was not previously informed that external contractors would be able to view identifiable patient data.
Reports emerged last month that staff from companies working on the FDP, including Palantir, would be granted “unlimited access” to identifiable patient data through the National Data Integration Tenant environment. This is where NHS organisations will submit raw data before identifying features are removed or pseudonymised.
In this week’s statement, Dr Byrne said there has been “subsequent confirmation from the [FDP] programme team that some external contractor staff also have access to identifiable patient information”.
The NDG is an independent adviser to the government and the health service and has no statutory investigatory or enforcement powers. The watchdog said: “We need to be confident that the positions presented to us are accurate, consistent, and clearly reflected in public-facing transparency materials. We have also emphasised the need for timely engagement with the NDG whenever significant programme decisions change in ways that may affect public trust, as in this case.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 4 June 2026
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