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

Health officials worried as flu season comes five weeks early

The UK's winter flu season has begun five weeks earlier than usual, health officials are warning.
The UK Health Security Agency said cases were rising quickly among children and young people – and warned the virus would soon start to spread across older age groups. The organisation urged people eligible for the flu vaccine to come forward to get protected. But they said it was too early to say how difficult and serious this year's flu season would be.
One of the concerns is that the flu season could peak before the majority of the vulnerable groups have got immunised - the vaccination campaign has only been running a few weeks. Two of the worst winter flu seasons of the past decade have been seen in the last three years, something partly attributed to the bounce-back of the virus after Covid restrictions and when immunity has been low. Last year nearly 8,000 people died from flu and in the 2022-23 flu season there were nearly 16,000 deaths.
Read full article.
Source: BBC News, 30 October 2025
Mark Hughes

AHA urges White House to align and simplify AI regulations in healthcare

The American Hospital Association (AHA) is urging the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to streamline and align federal regulations for artificial intelligence in healthcare, warning that overlapping policies threaten innovation and increase costs.
In a letter to OSTP Director Michael Kratsios, submitted in response to a federal request for information on regulatory reform for AI, AHA Senior Vice President of Public Policy Analysis and Development Ashley Thompson said the association’s nearly 5,000 member hospitals and health systems face growing administrative expenses from redundant rules. More than one-quarter of all U.S. healthcare spending — more than $1 trillion annually — goes toward administrative tasks, the group said, with nearly 40% of hospitals operating at negative margins.
The AHA said tools like ambient documentation assistants, chatbots for scheduling and triage, and imaging algorithms are already reducing burdens for clinicians, but regulatory fragmentation continues to slow progress. The association outlined four recommendations to balance innovation with patient safety:
Synchronise and leverage existing policy frameworks: AI oversight should align with established regulations — such as HIPAA, FDA software requirements, and HHS cybersecurity goals — rather than creating new, duplicative frameworks. Remove regulatory barriers: The AHA urged Congress to strengthen HIPAA’s federal preemption to eliminate conflicting state privacy laws and to update or repeal portions of 42 CFR Part 2 that limit data sharing for patients with substance use disorders. Ensure safe and effective AI use: The group called for clinicians to remain in the decision loop for algorithms that could affect coverage or care decisions and for third-party AI vendors handling patient data to be held to the same privacy and security standards as covered entities. Address organisational and infrastructural challenges: The letter cited inadequate reimbursement, limited broadband access, and digital literacy gaps as barriers to AI adoption, particularly in rural and underserved areas. Read full story
Source: Becker's Health IT, 27 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

GPs raise alarm as patients flag life-threatening symptoms in non-urgent forms

A new poll found more than two-thirds of GPs are concerned about patient safety
Patients have submitted requests about life-threatening conditions on non-urgent forms following changes to online access in GP surgeries, family doctors have said.
Since October 1, GP surgeries in England have been required to keep their online consultation platform open during working hours for non-urgent appointment requests, medication queries and admin requests. However, family doctors told Pulse magazine they have received reports from patients about difficulty breathing, rectal bleeding and severe vomiting on the forms, which are designed for non-emergencies.
A new poll of 431 GPs and practice managers by Pulse found more than two-thirds (67 per cent) are concerned about patient safety since the change.
Read more here in the Independent.
 
Clive Flashman

This mum faces a nightly battle to keep her daughter alive - but the NHS won't help her

For Shelley Mclean, every night is a sleepless one, just to keep her 11-year-old daughter alive.
Missy was born with a rare genetic condition that affects her breathing, digestion and movement. She spent the first nine months of her life in hospital before coming home with a breathing tube in her throat, a feeding tube in her stomach, and a line into her bowel. At first, the family had some NHS-funded nighttime care to help keep Missy safe while she slept. But when her local NHS body decided she no longer met the threshold, that support was taken away. Now, Missy's mother is responsible for her care.
Children like Missy who leave hospital but still need intensive support are meant to receive what's called NHS continuing care - specialist help for those with the most complex, life-limiting or life-threatening needs. But new figures obtained by Sky News reveal just how uneven continuing care has become. NHS spending on children's continuing care ranges from just 80p to £6 per head depending on where families live.
Out of almost 100,000 children in England with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition, only around 4% - roughly 4,400 - receive NHS continuing care funding. And more than half of all disabled children referred for this kind of support are rejected.
Read full article.
Source: Sky News, 30 October 2025
Mark Hughes

Nurses awarded for infant safer sleep initiative

Nurses at a hospital's emergency department have won a national award for their work to reduce the risk of sudden infant death.
The team at Leighton Hospital won the Critical and Emergency Care Nursing award at the 2025 Nursing Times Awards following the success of a project that delivers safer sleep education to families while their children are in A&E.
Bosses at the hospital in Crewe, Cheshire, said staff were praised for their compassionate, non-judgemental and collaborative approach.
The initiative was launched in 2024 and has delivered advice to more than 800 parents and carers.
"With strong potential for replication in other organisations across the UK, this project empowers families and healthcare teams alike, reducing harm and the risk of sudden infant death," the award citation said.
The project was led by emergency department paediatric nurses Ashleigh Hall and Kirstie Orr.
"Safer sleep advice is hugely important and being able to offer that guidance face-to-face, while families are already with us in the emergency department means we can make a real difference," Ms Hall said.
Ms Orr added: "As a team, we want to deliver those messages in the most beneficial ways possible because ultimately this can help to prevent avoidable tragedies."
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 29 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

National audit reveals ‘dire state’ of treatment for stroke survivors

The Stroke Association says stroke care is in a “dire state” in England with too few patients receiving timely treatment and only a third getting the recommended after care.
The charity says, as a result, thousands of stroke survivors are not getting the help they need to physically and mentally recover.
It warned that patients are also facing a “postcode lottery” when it comes to getting a clot-busting treatment, which can significantly reduce the likelihood of long-term disability.
Juliet Bouverie, chief executive of the Stroke Association, said: “Stroke changes a person’s life in an instant with far-reaching repercussions for many. It requires treatments including physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, and mental health support.
“The fact that 65% of stroke survivors don’t get this is truly shocking and demonstrates the dire state stroke treatment and ongoing care is in.
“Stroke must be prioritised by governments and the NHS from prevention to diagnosis, treatment and long-term recovery, only then will stroke patients get the treatment they need, whenever they need it, so the increasing number of UK stroke survivors can live mentally and physically well.”
While stroke patients should be given a review six months after their stroke to discuss their physical and mental health and their ongoing needs, data from the 24/25 Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme revealed that only 35% of patients had this review – the lowest level since 2019/20.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 29 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

Damning report finds 'culture of mistrust' at maternity unit

Staffing shortages and a "culture of mistrust" led to delays and patients being harmed at one of the busiest maternity units in the UK, a review has found.
An inspection of maternity care at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh said some women waiting for labour to be induced had experienced delays of more than 24 hours.
It also said staff were reluctant to submit safety reports and had raised concerns about being overwhelmed and unsupported.
The damning findings echo those of NHS Lothian's own review into the troubled maternity unit last year - but the health board insisted it was making progress in improving and investing in its women's services.
The review of Edinburgh's maternity unit follows a BBC Disclosure investigation which heard calls for urgent action to improve maternity safety across Scotland.
The investigation heard from a number of families who had experienced poor and sometimes deadly care.
It concluded that mothers and newborn babies had come to harm because of staffing shortages and a "toxic" workplace culture.
Health Secretary Neil Gray said the Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) report was "deeply, deeply concerning".
Gray, who said he had experienced loss in his own family, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland he had directed NHS Lothian to deliver its recommendations "immediately".
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 29 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

'Chances missed,' says damning report into surgeon

"A series of missed opportunities" have been revealed by an investigation into hundreds of children's surgeries carried out by a specialist working at a world-renowned NHS hospital.
Kuldeep Stohr was suspended by Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge earlier this year, amid concerns over surgeries that were "below the expected standard".
A "pivotal missed opportunity" came when the hospital trust failed to act upon recommendations made by an external reviewer into her work in 2016, the report said.
If appropriate actions had been taken, they "would have likely reduced harm to paediatric orthopaedic patients", the independent investigators concluded.
Radd Seiger, a retired lawyer who represents 25 of the affected families said: "This was not a rogue surgeon — this was a rogue system."
The investigation was commissioned by CUH and carried out by Verita, which describes itself as an "objective investigations company providing expert advice to regulated organisations in the UK".
Ms Stohr was suspended by the hospital and has not been at work since March 2024, initially for personal reasons.
In her absence, her patients were seen by other doctors who discovered, a letter to the parents from the hospital said, a "higher than expected level of complications".
That led to an initial review, which found operations involving nine children fell "below expected standards".
One of those was Darcey, whose parents previously told the BBC they feared problems with her hip operation, which left her leg rotated inwards "to almost 90 degrees" and in need of further surgery, were "brushed under the rug".
It emerged that concerns about Ms Stohr dated back as early as 2015 and wider reviews were started into about 800 patient procedures.
The latest report concluded there was "a series of missed opportunities, both major and minor, in how CUH and its leadership addressed concerns" about Ms Stohr's medical practice and "appropriate actions could have been taken".
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 29 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

ChatGPT shares data on how many users exhibit psychosis or suicidal thoughts

OpenAI has released new estimates of the number of ChatGPT users who exhibit possible signs of mental health emergencies, including mania, psychosis or suicidal thoughts.
The company said that around 0.07% of ChatGPT users active in a given week exhibited such signs, adding that its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot recognizes and responds to these sensitive conversations.
While OpenAI maintains these cases are "extremely rare," critics said even a small percentage may amount to hundreds of thousands of people, as ChatGPT recently reached 800 million weekly active users, per boss Sam Altman.
As scrutiny mounts, the company said it built a network of experts around the world to advise it. Those experts include more than 170 psychiatrists, psychologists, and primary care physicians who have practiced in 60 countries, the company said.
They have devised a series of responses in ChatGPT to encourage users to seek help in the real world, according to OpenAI.
But the glimpse at the company's data raised eyebrows among some mental health professionals.
"Even though 0.07% sounds like a small percentage, at a population level with hundreds of millions of users, that actually can be quite a few people," said Dr. Jason Nagata, a professor who studies technology use among young adults at the University of California, San Francisco.
"AI can broaden access to mental health support, and in some ways support mental health, but we have to be aware of the limitations," Dr. Nagata added.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 27 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

NHS makes morning-after pill available for free across pharmacies in England

The NHS has made the morning-after pill available for free across pharmacies in England in an effort to reduce a “postcode lottery” of access to emergency contraception.
Almost 10,000 pharmacies are now able to offer the pill without charge, saving those in need of free emergency contraception from having to visit their GP or to get an appointment at a sexual health clinic.
Some pharmacies were previously charging as much as £30 for emergency oral contraception.
The NHS’s national clinical director for women’s health, Dr Sue Mann, said the expansion was “one of the biggest changes to sexual health services since the 1960s” and “a gamechanger in making reproductive healthcare more easily accessible for women”.
“Instead of trying to search for women’s services or explain their needs, from today women can just pop into their local pharmacy and get the oral emergency contraceptive pill free of charge without needing to make an appointment,” she said.
“With four in five people living within a 20-minute walk from a pharmacy, this service is another example of how the NHS is already delivering on our 10-year health plan commitment to shift care into the heart of communities”.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 29 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

Poor ventilation leaves hospitals ‘not ready’ for another covid

Just four years after the peak of the pandemic, four in five NHS acute trusts are concerned their ventilation systems may be inadequate, according to an investigation by HSJ. 
Maintaining a flow of fresh air into a room is considered an important measure to reduce the spread of airborne infections, such as coronavirus and flu. However, an analysis of trust risk registers reveals that many are operating with ageing ventilation systems which pose a risk to patient safety. 
HSJ asked all 118 acute trusts whether a lack of adequate ventilation was on their risk register. Just under 80% of the 91 who replied said yes. 
This does not mean the risk has necessarily materialised, but is significant enough – either in likelihood, potential impact, or both – to require regular review by managers.
HSJ also asked for trusts to estimate the cost of reaching full compliance with the latest ventilation standards. Twenty-six trusts responded with data which suggested the average cost per trust was around £13m.
One trust estates director contacted by HSJ said: “Based on this research, it is clear the NHS is not ready for another respiratory outbreak.” They added that ventilation was “one of the biggest risks” in managing healthcare estates and a “huge chunk” of their trust’s repair backlog. “One of the reasons these risks exist is because it is so expensive to replace.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 29 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

Illegal teeth-whitening industry exposed by BBC

Illegal teeth-whitening treatments that can burn gums and destroy teeth are being handed over in car parks and on doorsteps, a BBC investigation has found.
Some gels, containing more than 500 times the legal limit of bleaching agent for over-the-counter products, are sold blatantly on social media.
As part of the investigation, a BBC North West reporter was able to obtain a fraudulent teeth-whitening qualification, as well as being given "extreme" bleach and advised to "practise on friends and family".
The British Dental Association (BDA) said it was "appalled" by the BBC's findings.
In one case, a seller boasted that there are "insane" profits to be made from providing the treatments.
In the UK, treatments using teeth-whitening products containing more than 0.1% hydrogen peroxide can only be carried out by dentists and other professionals registered with the General Dental Council (GDC).
And products used in treatments offered by dentists cannot contain more than 6% hydrogen peroxide.
However, products sold to undercover BBC reporters were sent to a laboratory for tests where results showed they contained hydrogen peroxide levels of up to 53%.
Kellie Howson, 54, who lost four teeth after she paid £65 for a whitening treatment at a beauty salon in Lancaster, urged the public to be aware of the dangers.
She said: "I just remember not long into the treatment my gums starting to really hurt, and afterwards it just got worse and worse.
"I was in agony."
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 29 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

Hundreds of hospice beds and staff cut in England amid funding crisis

Hospices in England are cutting hundreds of beds and staff because of a funding crisis, despite a sharp rise in demand for palliative care, a damning report warns.
People needing end of life care faced a postcode lottery because access to services was so patchy, the National Audit Office (NAO) reported.
A lack of government oversight meant ministers were unaware of how reliant they were on independent hospices, its 52-page report found.
The NAO said nearly two-thirds of independent hospices in England reported a deficit in 2023-24. Overall expenditure was £78m more than income generated.
As a result, services have been slashed and hospices forced to cut the number of beds available for dying people and those with life-limiting conditions. At the end of 2024, about 300 inpatient beds were “deregistered or withdrawn from operation”, the report found, though some could have been because of a preference for being cared for at home.
Hospices have been forced to cut back on staff, the NAO added, despite the fact that demand for palliative care was increasing.
The NAO highlighted “variation” in where hospices were situated across England, owing to the “unplanned way” they have developed over the past few decades.
Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “Independent hospices play a key role in providing palliative and end of life care and provide choice for people at the end of their lives.
“With many more people expected to want hospice care in the future, it is crucial that the sector is financially resilient. DHSC and NHSE should assess how they would meet increased demand for palliative and end of life care should services delivered by independent adult hospices be insufficient.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 20 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

US shutdown enters fourth week

As the federal government shutdown enters its fourth week, pressure is mounting on the nation’s healthcare infrastructure. Paychecks have been halted for more than 1 million federal employees, critical agencies such as CMS are scrambling to maintain operations, and national disease surveillance efforts are beginning to fracture — just as the U.S. heads into the respiratory virus season.
Funding delays are now directly affecting large swaths of the healthcare workforce and related support systems. More than 1 million civilian federal employees and military personnel — including those at HHS and the Department of Veterans Affairs — have begun missing their paychecks.
The White House has suggested it may not provide back pay for furloughed federal workers, but the Internal Revenue Service has said it will be guaranteed, according to Axios. 
To fund the move, the agency is drawing on user fees collected from researchers accessing CMS data, with plans to reimburse the account once appropriations resume. The decision comes amid mounting pressure to stabilise key healthcare functions as disruptions and delays in telehealth reimbursement and hospital-at-home programs continue to ripple across the system.
Read full story
Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 27 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

'My wife died in childbirth but wasn't told she'd been given labour drug overdose'

Just a week before she was due to give birth, Jacqui Hunter was given the devastating news that her daughter had died in the womb.
Less than 24 hours later, Jacqui was also dead.
The 39-year-old had been told she would have to give birth to her stillborn daughter, who was called Olivia, and was given medication to bring on the labour.
Within hours Jacqui was having intense contractions and at one point slumped into the arms of her husband, Lori Quate, who thought she had fainted.
As staff at Ninewells Hospital rushed to help her, she suffered a cardiac arrest.
Jacqui died two hours later from an amniotic fluid embolism – a rare and life-threatening emergency.
It was not until the next day that Lori found out his wife had been given eight times the recommended dose of the drug to bring on labour – a mistake which some experts say may have contributed to her death.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 27 October 2025
Patient_Safety_Learning

Medical training in England needs major overhaul, says landmark review

Training bottlenecks are leaving many resident doctors without a job and must be “urgently” tackled as part of an overhaul of postgraduate medical training, a landmark NHS review recommends.
Competition ratios “are now too high” in many specialties, causing major bottlenecks in training that “do not benefit anyone,” the report from England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty and former national medical director Stephen Powis concludes.
The “diagnostic” report is the first phase of a review representing the biggest overhaul of postgraduate medical training in England for more than 15 years. It was ordered in February in response to grievances from resident doctors about the current training process.
Read full story
Source: BMJ News, 24 October 2025
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