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

Shocking survey reveals pharmacy staff facing ‘escalating abuse’ from patients

Pharmacy staff across the UK are enduring "escalating abuse" from patients, including racist attacks, verbal assaults and physical violence, a new survey has revealed.
The findings from Community Pharmacy England indicate that around one in five pharmacy owners report verbal abuse as a daily occurrence.
The organisation is now urging for enhanced protection for these frontline healthcare workers, alongside the implementation of a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of violence or threats.
A poll of 289 pharmacy owners, collectively representing over 3,000 pharmacies, found that more than half (55%) had experienced verbal abuse within the last six months. Of these, three-quarters faced such incidents weekly, with approximately one in five (21%) reporting daily occurrences.
Respondents detailed a range of discriminatory abuse directed at staff, including racist, religious, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, and xenophobic remarks. One particularly stark account described a patient refusing service from a pharmacist wearing a headscarf.
A poll of 289 pharmacy owners, collectively representing over 3,000 pharmacies, found that more than half (55%) had experienced verbal abuse within the last six months. Of these, three-quarters faced such incidents weekly, with approximately one in five (21%) reporting daily occurrences.
Respondents detailed a range of discriminatory abuse directed at staff, including racist, religious, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, and xenophobic remarks. One particularly stark account described a patient refusing service from a pharmacist wearing a headscarf.
While less frequent, physical assaults were reported by 6% of pharmacies over the same six-month period.
These incidents ranged from strangulation and pushing to punching, with some attacks even occurring after closing hours. Pharmacy owners recounted instances of knife attacks, chairs being thrown at staff, and pharmacists being strangled by patients who had come behind the counter.
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Source: The Independent, 26 March 2026
Patient Safety Learning

Don’t ask for ‘unhelpful’ national mandates, warns NHSE director

NHS England’s national medical director has warned health campaigners against demanding “unhelpful” new national rules and mandates, as power was moving to local integrated care boards.
Claire Fuller told the Pathways from Homelessness conference in London that she was against central mandates because “we have never really made anything better by making anything rigid”.
She said the shift of ICBs to becoming strategic commissioners will give them a “greater understanding of their population” need and empower them to “commission services more appropriately, and in theory, move the money around to match it”.
Dr Fuller, who was chief executive of Surrey Heartlands ICB before joining NHSE, said: “The way you increase your voice is by coming together with a single message… the more we connect you through the national [neighbourhood health] pilots, the national programmes that are going on, the stronger it gets.
“But you have to remember: as passionate as the people are in this room, there are probably twelve other rooms meeting around the country today [that are] equally passionate about what they care about and [concerned about] causing harm because we are getting it wrong…
“The more we can not lobby as individual groups, and the more we can lobby for the things that make care better because we know that is true, the more we will get to… reducing the inequalities that go around.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 25 March 2026
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Resident doctors in England to begin six-day strike after rejecting offer in pay dispute

Resident doctors in England to begin six-day strike after rejecting offer in pay dispute
British Medical Association blame government for longest proposed walkout so far, with NHS leaders warning it could cost £300m
Resident doctors in England will strike for six days after Easter after rejecting what they said was the final offer by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to end the long-running pay and jobs dispute.
The British Medical Association blamed the government for its decision to undertake its longest stoppage so far, from 7am on Tuesday 7 April to 6.59 on Monday 13 April.
This will be the 15th industrial action that resident doctors have staged in their campaign for “full pay restoration” and means they will strike for the fourth year running.
NHS leaders warned the strike would cost the health service an estimated £300m, lead to appointments being cancelled, and force patients to wait longer for tests, treatment and surgery.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 25 March 2026
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Four trusts rated ‘red’ on baby deaths

Four hospital trusts have been assessed as having higher than expected rates of both stillbirth and neonatal deaths, according to HSJ analysis of a national safety audit.
Only one of those trusts scoring highly on both measures is part of the ongoing national government maternity inquiry. That is University Hospitals of Leicester Trust.
Three other trusts that are not part of Baroness Valerie Amos’ review were also rated “red” for these measures: South Tyneside and Sunderland, East Suffolk and North Essex, and Royal Devon University Healthcare Foundation Trusts.
A red rating means their adjusted death rate was at least 5% cent higher than peers. 
The four trusts are also red rated for “extended perinatal mortality” - which combines the two other metrics - including stillbirths after 24 weeks of pregnancy and “neonatal” deaths up to 28 days after birth.
MBRRACE study author Brad Manktelow, from Leicester University, told HSJ the mortality rates reported are not definitive measures of care quality.
But he added: “However, given the information that is available, the rates reported by MBRRACE-UK are robust and make an important contribution in highlighting those organisations where extra investigations should be targeted [to] improve the quality of perinatal and neonatal care in the UK.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 26 March 2026
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Streeting: Failing NHS bosses being ‘quietly moved on’

Under-performing NHS bosses are being “quietly moved on” rather than being “named and shamed”, Wes Streeting has said.
The health and social care secretary was speaking as he unveiled a new “intensive recovery programme” for struggling trusts.
Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, Mr Streeting said: “The reason why you haven’t seen headlines about individuals and their heads being on spikes, [with us] naming and shaming, is because I’m not in the business of humiliating people to try and look tough politically.
“What I am in the business of doing is quietly, effectively and efficiently moving on poor performing senior leaders where they are not delivering the improvement that’s needed.
“And that’s why today I’m also announcing the five trusts where we’ve had stubborn under-performance, where I’m sending in NHS veterans with experience of turnaround to drive improvement.”
The five trusts are Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust, Hull University Teaching Hospitals Trust and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole FT (which together form the Humber Health Partnership Group), North Cumbria Integrated Care FT, and East Kent Hospitals Trust.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 25 March 2026
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Hospital trust ‘missed earlier opportunity’ to raise alarm on Kent meningitis case

A hospital trust did not immediately alert health officials about a case of meningitis in Kent.
A patient first presented to East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust on the evening of Wednesday 11 March, a spokesperson said.
But the trust waited until Friday 13 March, once a diagnosis had been confirmed, to notify the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which manages an outbreak of such an illness.
Dr Des Holden, acting chief executive of East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our first patient presented on the evening of Wednesday 11 March.
“We recognise there was an opportunity prior to diagnosis being confirmed on Friday 13 March to notify UKHSA".
Health secretary Wes Streeting said that there was a 24-hour window in which hospitals were meant to raise a suspected case with the agency, and that staff had instead done so in 26 hours.
He told LBC: “The patient came in on the Wednesday unwell. By mid-morning on Thursday, the staff suspected meningitis. Now at that stage, they had 24 hours within which they should have notified the UKHSA. They did so in 26 hours.
“While I can reassure people that it appears in this case that that delay did not have a material impact – we have not found evidence of onward transmission to other people through that delay that we would otherwise have traced faster – nonetheless, we have that 24-hour standard for a reason, and I am taking this seriously.”
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 25 March 2026
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Public satisfaction with the NHS rises for first time since 2019

Public satisfaction with the NHS has risen for the first time since 2019, but people remain deeply frustrated with stubbornly long waits to receive GP, A&E or hospital care according to the latest annual British Society Attitudes survey. 
The proportion of voters in Britain satisfied with the way the NHS runs has increased from the record low of 21% seen last year to 26%. At the same time dissatisfaction with the health service fell 8% – the biggest drop since 1998 – although it remains high at 51%.
However, delays in accessing care continue to cause public unhappiness. Most people are dissatisfied with the time it takes to get seen in A&E (66%), receive hospital care (63%) and get a GP appointment (58%). Only 14% are satisfied with A&E waiting times.
Mark Dayan, head of public affairs at the Nuffield Trust, said: “These are still numbers that you would have thought were catastrophic in the 2010s. They’re still worse than they were even during the 90s, a period when the public was widely perceived to be very unhappy about the NHS.”
Wes Streeting hailed the findings as proof that the NHS, which he said was “broken” when Labour won power in July 2024, was now “on the road to recovery”.
The health secretary will cite them as evidence of progress in a speech on Wednesday in which he will set out plans to improve care at five badly performing health trusts.
Mark Dayan, head of public affairs at the Nuffield Trust, said: “These are still numbers that you would have thought were catastrophic in the 2010s. They’re still worse than they were even during the 90s, a period when the public was widely perceived to be very unhappy about the NHS.”
The rise in satisfaction “is a glimmer on the horizon, but the public mood remains dark”, he added.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 25 March 2026
Patient Safety Learning

NHS App caused ‘confusion and anxiety’ over waiting times

Waiting time information in the NHS App has been overhauled after causing “confusion, anxiety and mistrust” among patients, HSJ has learned.
NHS England changed the app’s waiting information page – which initially showed a mean average time – after it led to many patients calling hospitals to ask why they were waiting longer.
Alongside the mean average referral-to-treatment time for their trust, a new metric has now been added to the page, which shows “eight in 10 patients are seen within X weeks”.
A design history document, published by NHSE this month, admitted the previous version – introduced more than two years ago – was causing patients to believe they were seeing a personalised wait time, updated in real time.
This caused “confusion, anxiety and mistrust” when the average date passed, but they had not been contacted or had an appointment.
Many users also believed the waiting time referred to their initial appointment, rather than treatment.
NHSE said the initial information caused “increased call volumes and burden on frontline staff” as patients called hospitals for clarification.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 24 March 2026
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Apology for poor care over boy's bleed death

A hospital trust has apologised to the parents of a three-year-old boy who died from severe bleeding after his artery was pierced by a trainee doctor during a routine procedure.
Aarav Chopra, from Wolverhampton, died during a biopsy at Birmingham Children's Hospital in 2023, after his body had rejected an earlier liver transplant.
A spokesperson for the NHS trust running the hospital said they had not met standards expected of them and changes were made to improve care in the future.
"The strain it's put on us as a family has killed us," his mother Amrita Chopra said.
"Because we took Aarav to a really good place, like he was in the best place for his care, and then they've basically killed him and that's how we see it.
Aarav suffered a cardiac arrest triggered by a build-up of blood in his chest and neglect contributed to his death, a coroner concluded.
An inquest last year concluded that Aarav's death was "contributed to by neglect" and found his death was preventable.
A coroner's report called on the hospital to take action.
They included confusion around the experience of a trainee doctor carrying out the biopsy, who was thought to be a year six trainee but was actually a year four, something the family didn't discover until much later.
Kishore Chopra said they were never informed of a trainee being involved.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 23 March 2026
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US under-45s struggle for insurance approval as colon cancer rates rise

As colon cancer rates are rising among people in their 20s and 30s, some adults in the US who are under 45 and experiencing worrying symptoms are struggling to get insurance coverage for colonoscopies, which can detect colon cancer.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires insurance companies to cover colonoscopies for people over 45 “because it’s been recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force”, says Caitlin Murphy, a cancer epidemiologist and professor at the University of Chicago. The ACA requires preventive screenings, including pap smears, for example, to be completely covered.
But, Murphy noted, for people “under 45, if you have symptoms like rectal bleeding, a colonoscopy would be considered a diagnostic test, and so it’s not going to be covered in the same way as a screening test would be”. She added that the cost of a diagnostic colonoscopy a given insurance plan will cover varies widely.
Dominick, a 35-year-old software engineer living in Florida, learned about the distinction between preventative and diagnostic colonoscopy the hard way. His doctor recommended a colonoscopy after he experienced bowel movement changes, stomach pain and weight loss. At first, his insurance company said it would be covered. Then, three hours before the procedure was scheduled, he got a call saying the colonoscopy wouldn’t be covered because it was considered diagnostic.
The out-of-pocket cost for Dominick’s colonoscopy was roughly $2,000, which he paid for with a credit card because he didn’t have the cash readily available. The procedure later revealed a precancerous polyp, which he had removed – he said it’s scary to think about what could have happened if he hadn’t been able to find a way to pay.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 23 March 2026
Patient Safety Learning

How dying patients in palliative care face ‘postcode lottery’ in their final days

Dying individuals across the UK are facing a "postcode lottery" in their final moments, according to a new report from MPs.
The Health and Social Care Committee has declared palliative and end-of-life care services "inadequate", highlighting the "significant pressure" under which providers are currently operating.
“It feels unthinkable that specialist care services for those who are close to passing away are somehow undervalued in the NHS.
“And yet that is the heartbreaking reality that too many frightened patients and their families, including of young children, have to encounter during some of their most trying moments, when help is most needed,” said committee chairwoman Layla Moran.
“These services are under significant pressure, with providers struggling to fund and commission the right care, and individuals entering a ‘postcode lottery’ of care in their most vulnerable moments at the end of life, the authors wrote.
“These issues are further compounded by a workforce declining in numbers, a lack of access to and use of effective data, a poorly equipped social care system, and an unsustainable funding model.”
The group has called for specific standards for how children’s palliative care should be provided; the need for 24/7 services throughout the country and a plan to strengthen the specialist workforce in the sector.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 24 March 2026
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Government announces crackdown on racist and antisemitic doctors in NHS

The Government is poised to introduce sweeping reforms aimed at making it significantly easier to dismiss doctors found to have engaged in racist or antisemitic conduct.
The move, described as the biggest overhaul of the General Medical Council (GMC) in four decades, comes amid growing concerns over a perceived lack of swift action against medical professionals using discriminatory language.
The Department of Health and Social Care has launched a consultation on legislative changes, citing "too many" recent instances of doctors, particularly on social media, using racist and antisemitic language without adequate regulatory response.
The proposed reforms stem from a rapid review conducted by Lord Mann, commissioned last November to investigate antisemitism and other forms of racism within the health service.
Among the initial recommendations from Lord Mann's review, which the government plans to consult on, are new powers for the GMC to challenge decisions made by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS).
Additionally, the Professional Standards Authority, which oversees all health regulators, will be granted enhanced powers to scrutinise and contest such decisions.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 24 March 2026
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Death of football manager Steve Bruce's infant grandson leads to calls for urgent action

A coroner has called for action after the death of baby Madison Bruce Smith, who died after he was placed in an "unsafe sleeping position" in his cot by an unregulated maternity nurse.
The four-month-old grandson of football manager Steve Bruce was found unresponsive by his father, ex-Leeds United and Fulham striker Matt Smith, on the morning of 18 October 2024.
Madison could not be resuscitated at the family home in Trafford, Greater Manchester, and was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital where he was pronounced dead by paramedics.
Mr Smith and his wife, Bruce's daughter Amy, had employed Eva Clements through a company named Ruthie Maternity Services after their son had difficulties sleeping in the afternoons.
They believed Ms Clements was skilled, fully trained and vetted, and that the company was a well-established maternity and sleep support service, but Stockport Coroner's Court heard that neither was regulated.
In a short, narrative conclusion, senior coroner for south Manchester, Alison Mutch, said: "Madison died in circumstances where his cause of death could not be ascertained while asleep in his cot having been placed in a prone and unsafe sleeping position."
She said the "purported expertise" of untrained people posed a risk to all children where those unregulated services were used.
Issuing a prevention of future deaths report to the Secretary of State for Health, she said: "I hope the services can be regulated and, going forward, parents are not left in a situation where they believe they are employing someone who is qualified to advise them when they are clearly unqualified."
Read full story
Source: Sky News, 24 March 2026
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‘It’s weird how white you are’, Alliance boss tells ambulance leaders

Ambulance chiefs have been urged to take greater efforts to ensure their workforce is more diverse by NHS Alliance chair Lord Victor Adebowale.
Lord Adebowale told the Ambulance Leadership Forum that it was “weird” to be in an environment which was so predominantly white.
The NHS Alliance is the body formed by the union between NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation. 
Its chair told the annual forum of ambulance chiefs: “I can’t believe how white you are”, noting most of the other meetings he went to had at least 5 per cent non-white participants.
He praised the work ambulance trusts had been doing to improve the treatment of LGBT+ and neurodiverse staff but added the sector had a “problem” with racial diversity.
Lord Adebowale said: “It is not sustainable, it’s not credible. So whatever you are doing it is not working fast enough.”
Rates of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff in ambulance trusts are lower than in other parts of the NHS. In part, this reflects a paramedic population that is predominately white, with overseas recruitment tending to focus on countries like Australia which have similar training.
There is only one BAME CEO in the sector – North West Ambulance Service’s Salman Desai – and a sprinkling of executive directors. None of the 10 English ambulance trusts are led by a woman. 
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 23 March 2026
Patient Safety Learning

More than half of staff say EPRs make their job harder

More than half of NHS staff using an electronic patient record system say it made their job harder and they lacked necessary training, a survey has found.
The Health Foundation has published a report on staff experience of electronic patient records (EPR). A survey for the work found 53% said the introduction of an EPR had made their work more difficult.
A third of respondents said they thought EPR systems were not currently working well, but that they could see there would be benefits in future.
Common reported problems included differences between systems, making work more complicated, a lack of real-time support when issues occurred, and a lack of training to help staff use systems. The findings mirror the conclusions drawn in the 10-Year Health Plan that “Clinical systems often provide a poor and inefficient user experience requiring multiple clicks to set the next step in the care process.”
Only 46% of the 1,725 respondents to the Health Foundation’s survey said they had received basic training on how to use their EPR system, while just 28% said they had received additional training on how to gain insights from EPR data.
Alex Lawrence, an improvement fellow at the Health Foundation and one of the report’s authors, said that NHS staff “are experiencing barriers and… frustrations” with using EPRs, but that overall, they “do feel positively about these systems”.
She said: “[Staff] either think that [EPRs] are delivering value now or they’re going to deliver value in the future. They think they have improved safety; they think they have improved care.
“That positivity and that momentum is not going to last forever and needs to be capitalised on as soon as possible. The longer these frustrations continue, the more that positivity is going to be eroded, and at the moment, there’s a lot that could be done to improve these systems.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 24 March 2026
Related reading on the hub:
HSSIB Investigation Report: Patient safety issues associated with electronic patient record (EPR) systems – a thematic review Patient safety and electronic patient record systems: Patient Safety Learning’s response to HSSIB report Electronic patient record systems: Putting patient safety at the heart of implementation
Patient Safety Learning

Study of coroners' reports highlights safety concerns linked to fentanyl patch deaths

Researchers at King’s College London have analysed coroners’ reports from across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to identify safety concerns linked to deaths involving fentanyl patches.
Fentanyl is a highly potent and fast-acting synthetic opioid used to treat severe pain and is available in several forms, including injections, nasal sprays and skin patches. The study, which is published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, examined deaths associated with transdermal fentanyl patches between 1997 and 2024.
While fentanyl can be an effective treatment for pain, it has also been linked to increasing numbers of drug-related deaths worldwide. In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued several safety warnings about the risk of accidental exposure to fentanyl patches and the importance of safe disposal.
To better understand the risks, the researchers conducted a systematic case series linking two national sources of coronial data, the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality (NPSUM,) and the Preventable Deaths Tracker, which collects coroners’ Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) reports. By linking these datasets, the team created the first comprehensive overview of fentanyl patch-related deaths reported by coroners.
The analysis identified 99 deaths involving fentanyl patches between 1997 and 2024. Coroners reported 77 safety events linked to these deaths, with the most common issues relating to adherence and usage (34%), administration errors (32%) and prescribing practices (6%).
The study also highlights differences in how deaths are reported across the two datasets, suggesting that important safety information from coroners may not always be systematically captured or monitored.
As part of the project, the team also developed a live online dashboard that tracks Prevention of Future Deaths reports involving fentanyl patches in real time. The researchers hope this tool will support regulators, policymakers and healthcare professionals in monitoring safety concerns and improving prescribing practices.
Read full story
Source: Kings College London, 18 March 2026
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