The lack of a single patient record across a system led to failures in information sharing, which contributed to a mother’s death, a coroner has concluded.
According to a Prevention of Future Deaths notice, providers across Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board involved in the care of Hannah Booth, who died by suicide in January 2025, did not have the “whole picture” of her mental health deterioration because electronic systems used by different services did not share data.
Read full article (paywalled).
Source: Health Service Journal, 19 December 2025
A culture of systemic bullying and harassment has been allowed to flourish among staff at one England’s most scandal-hit hospitals, a damning leaked report reveals.
The safety of patients at Blackpool Victoria hospital was affected as a result of the failings, the report by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) found.
The report was provided to leaders at the Blackpool teaching hospitals NHS trust in January but its findings were not shared widely with staff until 10 months later, prompting concerns that employees’ ability to take urgent action on its 19 recommendations was compromised.
Staff who spoke to the RCP inquiry team said that excessive workloads were handed to inexperienced doctors, leaving them fatigued and stressed while treating patients. They described a “keeping your head down culture” where their concerns were inadequately addressed. Consultants said that there was “systemic bullying, harassment and racial discrimination among staff”.
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Source: The Guardian, 3 December 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools sometimes produce hallucinations when asked to remove personal patient information from electronic patient records (EPRs), a study has found.
Researchers from the University of Oxford evaluated the ability of large language models (LLMs) and purpose-built software tools to detect and remove patient names, dates, medical record numbers, and other identifiers from real-world records, without altering clinical content.
The study, published by iScience on 9 December 2025, found that smaller LLMs frequently over-redacted or produced hallucinatory content, in which erroneous text not present in the original record was shown, or occasionally introducing fabricated medical details.
Read full article.
Source: Digital Health, 18 December 2025.
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Investigations into workplace conflict and alleged misconduct are frequently being used as punishment across the NHS, leaving staff feeling suicidal and alienated, according to findings shared with Health Service Journal.
Failings in probes carried out by NHS employers internally, and commissioned from external companies, are exposed in Investigating the Investigators, a report by workforce culture expert Roger Kline.
Read full article (paywalled).
Source: Health Service Journal, 17 December 2025
Related reading
Key themes emerging from our ‘Speaking up for patient safety’ interview series
NHS England is introducing new infection diagnosis standards, which experts told Health Service Journal reflected a “real concern” about variation between providers.
A draft document on proposed changes to the NHS Standard Contract 2026-27 says adherence to national guidance on diarrhoea sampling and testing for C difficile was currently “variable” across providers, while NHSE has also warned about variation in service delivery and outcomes for blood culture pathways.
It comes amid national concern over the rising numbers of infections caused by C difficile, a type of bacteria which can cause diarrhoea, with cases reaching a 13-year high in 2024 and experts warning they could rise again.
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Source: Health Service Journal, 18 December 2025
Patients with mobility issues have been left stranded with no way of getting to and from their hospital appointments, according to a review.
Every weekday, more than 20,000 people use NHS non-emergency patient transport services to get to appointments, operations and services such as dialysis.
But a review by Healthwatch, the patient watchdog, revealed transport services across the country are sometimes cancelled at the last minute or patients are told they do not meet the requirements for transport.
Wheelchair user John Nye told The Independent he had to pay almost £100 for a wheelchair accessible taxi to get to and from his operation in June. The appointment was at 7am but patient transport was unable to take him before 8.30am.
Read full article.
Source: The Independent, 17 December 2025
Managers in a major emergency department felt “pressured and bullied not to disclose difficulties” and were left to manage “extreme risk” including avoidable deaths, the Care Quality Commission has reported.
The CQC warned University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust it could face enforcement action over concerns about overcrowding and the use of “escalation areas” for emergency care at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
In a report issued today, the hospital’s emergency care was rated “requires improvement” overall, but “inadequate” for safety. It was based on an inspection in February, prompted by concerns raised with the CQC.
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Source: HSJ, 17 December 2025
Several reviews are under way of a hospital’s struggling ophthalmology service, after it reported backlogs of hundreds of patients at high risk of harm.
Concerns have repeatedly been raised at George Eliot Hospital Trust about clinical practice and safety for optometry and glaucoma patients, according to several board papers issued over recent months.
The ophthalmology service was taken back into the trust’s direct control five years ago, having previously been outsourced to private provider Newmedica from 2012.
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Source: HSJ, 17 December 2017
Patients are being told to expect disruption as doctors start their five-day strike in England, with NHS bosses saying they are struggling to keep as many services going as they have done in recent walkouts.
NHS England said with a wave of flu placing pressure on hospitals, non-urgent services would be affected by the strike, which began at 07:00 Wednesday.
This is the 14th walkout by resident doctors, the new name for junior doctors, in the long-running pay dispute.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the strike had been timed to inflict most damage on the NHS and put patients at risk, but the British Medical Association said it would work with NHS bosses to ensure safety.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 17 December 2025
Dentists in England will be paid more to ensure patients have easier access to emergency appointments under government plans, but experts have expressed doubt that it will improve care.
The changes, which will be introduced from April next year, will include dentists being incentivised to provide emergency and complex treatments through the introduction of a standardised payment package, ministers said.
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Source: Guardian, 16 December 2025
A federated data platform AI discharge tool hailed as “potentially transformational” by Wes Streeting is at the centre of a spiralling regulatory row, HSJ can reveal.
The main concerns centre around whether the tool had been classified as a medical device by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, given that it was generating patient discharge summaries that, if incorrect, could impact continuity of care.
There have also been concerns about the information governance implications of using patient data to develop and validate the tool and whether this was being considered as direct care.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 15 December 2025
People needing emergency dental care in England are being denied help from the NHS despite guidance saying that it should be available, in some cases resorting to risky self-treatment such as pulling out their own teeth, the patient watchdog has found.
Patients who experience a sudden dental crisis such as a broken tooth, abscess or severe tooth pain are meant to be able to get help from their dentist or by calling NHS 111.
Read full story
Source: Guardian, 15 December 2025
*Warning - this story contains distressing content and references to alleged child abuse
Police investigating historical child abuse at two former NHS mental health units in West Sussex say they have spoken to 12 alleged victims – and believe there are more.
One former patient, aged nine at the time, says he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a member of staff at Larchwood and Colwood in Haywards Heath.
Christopher – not his real name – said the first alleged attack happened in the late 1970s after the staff member lured him outside to pick flowers for his mum.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 15 December 2025
Three years after the tragic death of her nine-year-old son Dylan, Corinne Cope continues to campaign for changes she believes could prevent other families experiencing avoidable harm and loss.
Dylan Cope, from Newport, died on December 14, 2022 after developing sepsis caused by a perforated appendix - a condition considered extremely high risk and life-threatening. He had been taken to A&E eight days earlier with abdominal pain, after being referred by a GP who noted "query appendicitis", a note that was not read by hospital staff.
Read full story
Source: Wales online, 14 December 2025
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The risk of women in England suffering severe bleeding after giving birth has risen to its highest level for five years, prompting fresh concern about NHS maternity care.
The rate at which mothers in England experience postpartum haemorrhage has increased from 27 per 1,000 births in 2020 to 32 per 1,000 this year, a rise of 19%.
Last year had the largest number of incidents of postpartum haemorrhage in the five years since records began – 16,780 – despite the number of births falling in recent years, NHS England figures analysed by the Liberal Democrats also reveal.
Read full story
Source: Guardian, 13 December 2025
Scotland’s Patient Safety Commissioner has expressed deep concern over new figures which suggest around 1,000 sexual assaults and rapes have taken place in Scottish hospitals in the last five years.
A study by the Women’s Rights Network Scotland (WRNS) found almost 300 sexual assaults and rapes were logged by police between 2019-2024, with more than half on hospital wards.
But the group concluded that as only 29% of hospitals are reporting cases to Police Scotland, the true number is likely to be closer to 1,000 attacks.
Read full story
Source: The Sunday Post, 15 December 2025
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