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

Mum died days after birth after being given 'wrong drug' and sent home twice

A first-time mum died from a bleed on the brain just days after giving birth following "inadequate care" by medics who sent her home twice from hospital, a coroner has ruled. Ilona Kazik, 32, suffered a major obstetric bleed just hours after her first child Antony was born via a planned c-section at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital.
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Source: Mirror, 25 November 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

‘Systemic’ failings resulted in avoidable cancer harm

A decade-long pattern of “systemic” leadership and governance failures led to avoidable patient harm in a trust’s breast cancer service, a highly critical review has found.
The review of the service at County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust found “sustained weakness” in the north east provider’s senior leadership and management team between 2012 and 2025.
It was commissioned after concerns were raised about unnecessary mastectomies, excessive surgery, late diagnosis and missed opportunities for treatment, predominantly at the University Hospital of North Durham.
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Source: HSJ, 25 November 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

Finance and efficiency Treasury backs private borrowing to build health centres

The Treasury has agreed to approve private borrowing as part of a new “NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild programme”, it has announced ahead of the Budget.
The buildings will be delivered with “a combination of public-private partnerships and public investment”, HMT said in a press trail for the Budget.
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Source: HSJ, 24 November 2025

Patient_Safety_Learning

One in five young women unaware folic acid vital for baby's health

One in five young women and half of men are unaware that taking folic acid in pregnancy is vital for a baby's health.
The worrying findings from a YouGov poll suggest many are not being educated about the diet to follow while pregnant.
Experts say folic acid is vital for protecting babies in the womb against spinal defects that can cause paralysis in the legs, poor bladder and bowel control and a risky build-up of fluid in the brain.
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Source: Daily Mail, 23 November 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

Hospital chief to become only ICB CEO with minority ethnic background

A hospital chief executive is leaving to lead an integrated care board, where she will become the only ICB CEO from a minority ethnic background.
North East London Integrated Care Board has confirmed Nnenna Osuji as its new chief executive.
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Source: HSJ, 24 November 2024
Patient_Safety_Learning

Music during surgery can reduce need for drugs and help patients recover faster, scientists find

Playing calming instrumental music during surgery can improve patient recovery, a new study says.
The peer-reviewed study was carried out at the Lok Nayak Hospital and Maulana Azad Medical College in India on patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery, the standard keyhole operation to remove the gallbladder.
The research, published in the journal Music and Medicine, was conducted between March 2023 and January 2024, studying 56 patients, aged 18 to 65 years, to reduce anaesthetic requirement and aid in decreasing perioperative stress.
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Source: Independent, 25 November 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

More than 100 MPs urge Streeting to approve prostate cancer screening

More than 100 MPs, including Rishi Sunak, have urged Wes Streeting to introduce screening for prostate cancer.
The UK National Screening Committee, a government agency that advises ministers and the NHS about all aspects of screening, will recommend whether men at higher risk of the disease should be offered checks. It is due to write to the health secretary later this week, the Telegraph reported.
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Source: Guardian, 24 November 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

Negligence payouts ‘ridiculous’, says minister

The patient safety minister has criticised the “ridiculous” amount the NHS spends on compensation for harm, claiming it sometimes costs more than services themselves.
Baroness Gillian Merron told the Birth Trauma Association national conference today: “We pay out a ridiculous – sorry, I should be careful – of course, people should be compensated. But we’ve got to a system where we are paying out more in compensation than on services… that can’t be right, it’s not sustainable.”
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Source: HSJ, 18 November 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

ICB restructure ‘paralysing neighbourhood health’

The restructuring of integrated care boards is leading to faltering progress on neighbourhood health, primary care leaders are reporting.
They said the cuts to ICB roles and resources  – and the distraction for staff as they embark on restructures and mergers – were harming the development of joined-up community services, which form a key part of the government’s 10-Year Health Plan.
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Source: HSJ, 21 November 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

Boards must take their responsibility for cyber security more seriously

Cyberattacks keep crippling NHS services not due to missing technology, but predictable board-level governance failures that leave known vulnerabilities unaddressed
The Synnovis ransomware attack in June 2024 cancelled 10,000 appointments and forced hospitals to rely on manual blood-test processing for weeks – cost: £32.7m. Seven years earlier, WannaCry paralysed 80 NHS trusts – cost: £92m.
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Source: HSJ, 21 November 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

Five key findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society

A year-long investigation into multimillion-dollar business exposed serious concerns, from dangerous medical claims to FBS-linked stillbirths
The Free Birth Society (FBS) is a business run from North Carolina that promotes the idea of women giving birth without midwives or doctors present.
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Source: The Guardian, 23 November 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

Man dying of sepsis was told he had trapped wind, family says

The McLuckie family, from Denny, near Falkirk, are taking legal action against their NHS board, Forth Valley. They want to understand how medical staff missed what they believe were the clear-cut signs of sepsis and did not give McLuckie the antibiotics that would have saved his life.
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Source: The Times, 22 November 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

Bereaved families’ fears over plans for national maternity taskforce

The first details of the government’s new national maternity and neonatal taskforce have emerged in a letter sent to families, reports the New Statesman.
The document confirms the group will be chaired by Wes Streeting MP, with Women’s health minister Baroness Merron as his deputy. The taskforce will have around 15 members in total and be up and running early in the new year. It will be tasked with turning the recommendations from the national maternity and neonatal investigation into a national action plan.
Three of its 15 members will represent families, and each of those voices will be part of a wider “reference group” of 15-20 families. However, some have expressed concerns about the plans as not reflecting feedback sent by bereaved and harmed families back to the government in July.
Read full article.
Source: The New Statesman (21 November 2025)
Mark Hughes

New online GP access rules already risking patient harm, practices warn

New rules that force general practices in England to accept online queries from patients during core working hours are already risking harm to patients and increasing GPs’ workload and stress, a survey indicates.
More than half (55%) of general practices polled in a BMA survey said online consultations were having a negative effect on patient care.
Some 1341 practices responded to the survey, around 22% of England’s total number. Together, those practices represent almost 14 million registered patients.
The Department of Health and Social Care dismissed the data, saying the survey involved a “small minority of GP practices” and did not reflect the national picture.
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Source: BMJ (20 November 2025)
Mark Hughes

New jab which could help thousands with rare heart condition approved for NHS use

A new at-home injection has been approved for use on the NHS offering a significant breakthrough for approximately 1,500 individuals in England and Wales living with a rare heart condition.
Vutrisiran will be available for patients suffering from transthyretin amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), a debilitating illness where the liver-produced protein transthyretin misfolds, leading to deposits that stiffen the heart. Without intervention, this progressive condition can tragically culminate in heart failure.
Vutrisiran, sold under the brand name Amvuttra and made by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, works by binding to, and stifling messenger RNA (mRNA) to reduce the amount of transthyretin made by the liver.
The injection, taken every three months by patients in their own home, has been recommended by Nice as a treatment option for some adults with ATTR-CM.
Read full article.
Source: The Independent (21 November 2025)
Mark Hughes

Trust told to open up about ‘maternity scandal’ meeting

A trust under fire for quality and governance failures has been reprimanded by a watchdog for withholding information about a meeting of its senior leaders over maternity failures.
The row relates to a meeting of the CEO, chief medical officer and chief nurse of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust with the chair and director of corporate governance at Swansea Bay University Health Board in February this year.
Swansea has, like Leeds, been subject to major concerns about maternity and neonatal care failures in recent years, and in the summer was criticised in an independent review.
The online meeting was held weeks after LTHT admitted that the deaths of 56 babies and two mothers may have been preventable, as its maternity and neonatal services came under increased scrutiny.
Read full article (paywalled).
Source: Health Service Journal (21 November 2025)
Mark Hughes
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