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

Private hospitals carrying out more NHS appointments and procedures

The number of NHS appointments, tests and operations delivered by private hospitals and clinics has increased by almost 500,000 this year, now totalling 6.15 million.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said the policy tackles a “two-tier” system by cutting waiting times and ensuring prompt treatment for NHS patients in England. Private providers report delivering around 10 per cent of elective NHS activity.
Between August 2024 and September 2025 they conducted an average of 19,000 surgical procedures and 100,000 outpatient appointments every week, treating more than 1.1 million people.
Mr Streeting said: “I’ll do everything I can to get NHS patients treated faster, free at the point of use.
“This is a principled, progressive position, not just a pragmatic one.
“We’re not prepared to continue two-tier healthcare, when those who can afford it get treated on time, and those who can’t are left behind. Wealth shouldn’t determine health.”
Using spare capacity in the private sector is key to the government’s target of ensuring that 92 per cent of patients in England should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment.
Other measures to cut waiting lists include the use of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) and carrying out more surgical procedures on evenings and weekends.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 25 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

Medics need training after patient died - coroner

More training is needed for hospital staff after a patient died from "a catastrophic and unsurvivable brain injury" following surgery, a coroner said.
It comes after patient John Rust, who had undergone a heart operation at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, died after a catheter leaked, Birmingham and Solihull's coroner Adam Hodson heard.
In the wake of the case, Mr Hodson has written in a report that all staff using cerebrospinal fluid drains, which the catheter was used for, should be "adequately trained" in their use.
The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which has been asked to respond to the coroner by 15 December, said it had introduced extra safety measures.
The inquest heard Mr Rust had been admitted to the hospital on 25 March this year, for an elective thoracic aortic replacement.
It led to a cerebrospinal fluid catheter being inserted to minimise post-operative risks of paraplegia, Mr Hodson was told.
On 27 March, Mr Rust underwent surgery and was taken to an intensive care ward, where concerns were raised the drain was leaking, but the coroner said they were not acted upon.
The inquest concluded this caused him to suffer the major brain injury, and he died on 29 March.
In his Prevention of Future Deaths report, which was sent to the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, the coroner said: "In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken."
He recommended that all clinical staff who use the cerebrospinal fluid catheter "must have completed adequate training to ensure that they are familiar with the functionality of the device prior to use".
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 24 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

NHS App to become default patient communication channel

The NHS App should be the main channel for all types of patient communication by the start of 2029, new national guidance has stated. 
The medium-term planning framework published by NHS England today places the app at centre of its plans for patient triage, appointment booking and all other forms of communication.
The document said the rules “set the scene” for “a crucial new principle that services should be delivered digitally as the default wherever possible”.
The guidance insists the service must “move to a unified access model, using AI-assisted triage, that can effectively guide patients to self-care or to the appropriate care setting, through a single user interface delivered via the NHS App but with an integrated telephony and in-person offering”.
Providers are also told to “fully adopt all existing NHS App capabilities as a priority” over the next three years. This includes ensuring patients can manage their medicines, view waiting times and make appointments via the NHS App.
Patient-initiated follow-ups (PIFU) pathways in which patients trigger their own appointments should also be integrated with the app no later than 2028-29.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 24 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

Inside looming NHS winter crisis as hospitals face ‘armageddon’

As hospital beds fill up, seriously sick patients are sent to makeshift wards – cupboards, offices and corridors – to be treated by a doctor. Others are left languishing in waiting rooms, sometimes for days on end. In one particularly hard-hit hospital, a Costa Coffee cafe is turned into an emergency ward as medics struggle to cope with rising demand.
It’s only October, yet the picture across NHS wards up and down the country is one of concern, with medics telling The Independent they fear a winter crisis on a scale only seen at the height of the pandemic. One A&E consultant warns the health service is facing something akin to “armageddon”.
Every year, the NHS is under huge pressure at winter – a result of longstanding problems, including under-funding and an ageing population. But hospitals are already battling an “astonishing” number of flu and Covid patients this year, in part due to a “hugely concerning” early flu season, alongside a surge in A&E demand and staffing cuts.
On Tuesday, health secretary Wes Streeting admitted the NHS faces a “challenging” winter but insisted it was “already running hot” ahead of the season. But top medics have told The Independent that the government has failed to adequately plan for a potentially devastating few months.
Dr Vicky Price, president of the Society of Acute Medicine, told The Independent: “This winter, I’m more scared than I’ve ever been. We are in a state of dread going into these winter months.”
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 25 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

Warning of ‘future deaths’ as repeated governance failures are revealed at major trust

A “failure of governance” has been identified by two coroners investigating deaths at the same major London teaching trust.   
Both coroners discovered that Barts Health Trust did not carry out patient safety investigations into cases that raised serious concerns.
HSJ has uncovered at least five Prevention of Future Deaths reports issued in the past year which highlight patient safety reporting issues at Barts. Some of the patients involved suffered harm caused by medical treatment which contributed to their deaths.
The service is in the process of rolling out NHS England’s new “patient safety incident response framework” (PSIRF). This is leading to fewer incidents needing a full investigation and, as a result, some trusts are having to carry out additional work to meet the needs of coroners.
The most recent coroner’s report said “senior governance staff at the trust still do not understand NHS England guidance on what should trigger a patient safety investigation”. It warned “future deaths may follow”.
That report covered the death of 82-year-old Mohammad Asghar in September 2024. The inquest heard Mr Asghar died from cardiac arrest and excessive bleeding from the bladder after a catheter was wrongly inserted.
The coroner’s report said no patient safety investigation was carried out despite concerns being raised by a medical examiner and “express direction from this court for the case to be reviewed”.
It added: “A failure in governance at the trust meant that this case was not identified as an incident worthy of investigation through the Patient Safety Framework. This omission gives rise to a concern that future deaths may follow due to an inability on the part of the trust to identify, reflect upon, and remediate sub-optimal practice.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 27 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

NHS needs up to £3bn extra to avoid cuts, health leaders warn

Health leaders are warning that NHS services and jobs in England will have to be cut unless up to £3bn more in funding is allocated to cover unexpected costs.
The NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, representing trusts and other health organisations, said in a joint statement that the cost of covering redundancies and strikes, along with paying more for medicines, was not included in the budget this year and will need extra cash from the Chancellor.
Talks between the Department of Health and the Treasury are ongoing, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has confirmed.
Responding to the statement, the Department of Health said the government was committed to "properly funding" the NHS.
Cuts to NHS services and jobs could mean fewer tests, appointments and operations being carried out.
Senior managers say that demands from the government for significant job cuts in regional health boards and NHS trusts have been made without any promise of extra funding to cover at least £1bn of redundancy payments.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: "The threat from un-budgeted redundancy payments, higher drug prices and renewed industrial action risks derailing progress on key waiting time targets and the wider reforms that are essential to getting the NHS back on track."
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: "Redundancies cost money, making it harder to make long-term savings without government support.
"As the government prepares its Budget it's time for an honest assessment and discussion about what the NHS can really achieve this year in these challenging financial circumstances - and about what is 'doable'' to meet ministers' ambitions in their 10-year plan for health."
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 27 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

Racist incidents against UK nurses surge by 55%

The number of reports by nurses of racist incidents at work has risen by 55% over three years, according to analysis by the nursing union.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) expects to receive more than 1,000 calls this year from nurses seeking advice and support after racist incidents in the workplace, compared with almost 700 cases in 2022.
Examples of racist abuse reported to its helpline include a nurse whose annual leave was denied being told by their manager that they should not have come to the UK, and another RCN member being told by a colleague: “I want to remind you that you’re not one of us.”
Other racist incidents reported to the union include a patient and their family repeatedly refusing care from a nurse because they said they didn’t want “people like her” treating them and referring to the nurse as a “slave”. Another member was subjected to racist remarks including being told that you could only see black people’s teeth “when it’s dark”.
Prof Nicola Ranger, the RCN general secretary and chief executive, said it was a “mark of shame” that racist incidents were rising across health and care services.
She said: “Every single ethnic minority nursing professional deserves to go to work without fear of being abused, and employers have a legal duty to ensure workplaces are safe. These findings must refocus minds in the fight against racism.
“If health and care employers fail to make their workplaces a safe environment for nursing staff, it is unsurprising that those same staff leave and their services are [left] less safely staffed.”
The nursing union has urged the government to stop using anti-migrant rhetoric, which it said was putting staff at risk.
Ranger said: “The reality is that our health and social care system only functions because nursing staff of every ethnicity, nationality and faith make it so. We are urging government and politicians of all parties to recognise their role in tackling racism – and that must include an end to the use of anti-migrant rhetoric, which only risks emboldening racist behaviour.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 27 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

NHS trialling rapid blood test to help diagnose sepsis and meningitis in children

The NHS is trialling a rapid blood test to help diagnose life-threatening conditions in children.
The 15-minute blood test can speed up the diagnosis of illnesses such as sepsis or meningitis by telling medical practitioners whether a patient is suffering from a bacterial or viral infection.
Instead of relying on regular blood test results, which can take several hours and require lab analysis, the test can rapidly indicate whether a patient has a bacterial infection that could benefit from immediate antibiotics.
Doctors who participated in the trial say they have witnessed the benefits. In one case, a child with meningococcal meningitis received treatment much more quickly, and another with sepsis started antibiotics straight away.
NHS England has funded a trial of the technology in three emergency departments: at Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, St Mary’s hospital in London and Great North children’s hospital in Newcastle.
Dr Ron Daniels, founder and chief medical officer of the UK Sepsis Trust, told the PA news agency the test could save lives.
He said: “A recent national publication suggested that, among the deaths of approximately 500 children each year where infection was present, care was suboptimal in 40% of cases.
“Making the right decision around early antimicrobial prescribing in children who need antibiotics the most has potential to save dozens of young lives every year.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: The Guardian, 27 October 2025
Related reading on the hub:
Seeking better sepsis awareness in Wales (a film by Corinne and Laurence Cope) Top picks: 11 resources about sepsis Dr Ron Daniels: Recognising sepsis
Patient Safety Learning

Demanding A&E, elective and cancer targets for 2026-27 revealed

Trusts have been told to treat 82% of A&E attendees within four hours next year, and must also hit a slew of other new targets revealed in the latest planning guidance.
The new A&E target set in NHS England’s ‘Medium Term Planning Framework’, which is published today, is a significant step up from the 78% target set for this year. 
The NHS has not achieved 85% against the four hour A&E targets since April 2021 when demand was suppressed during the pandemic. The constitutional standard of 95% has not been hit since 2015. The NHS recorded a performance of 75% against the target last month. 
Children’s A&Es have also been told to return to 95% four hours A&E performance “over the coming months”.
Ambulance trusts have been told to deliver an average category two response time of 25m in 2026-27 – an increase on this year’s target of 30m. 
Trusts have been told to deliver a minimum 7% improvement in the proportion of elective patients seen within 18-weeks, or to achieve a  65% performance if that would be greater. The trusts are required to deliver a minimum of 60% in 2025-26.  The national elective target has been set at 70 %, up from 65% this year.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 24 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

MHRA raids illegal weight-loss jab production line worth more than £250,000

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has seized more than 2,000 unlicensed weight-loss pens, plus raw chemical ingredients in what it says is “believed to be the largest single seizure of trafficked weight-loss medicines ever recorded by a law enforcement agency worldwide”.
The MHRA has confirmed to The Pharmaceutical Journal that the warehouse in Northampton was raided by officers from the agency’s criminal enforcement unit (CEU), supported by Northamptonshire Police, as part of an operation over the course of two days beginning on 22 October 2025.
Officers found “tens of thousands of empty weight-loss pens ready to be filled, raw chemical ingredients and more than 2,000 unlicensed retatrutide and tirzepatide pens awaiting dispatch to customers”, with the contents of the pens “still being analysed”, it said.
The MHRA explained that the street value of the finished weight-loss products alone is estimated to be more than one-quarter of a million pounds.
Officers also recovered “large amounts of sophisticated packaging and manufacturing equipment”, as well as £20,000 in cash that they suspect to be linked to medicines trafficking, according to the agency. 
The site is the first illicit production facility for weight-loss medicine discovered in the UK.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal, 24 October 2025
Sam

Simple blood tests identify pregnant women at risk of serious complications from high blood pressure in Sierra Leone

Two simple blood tests could help to predict which pregnant women with high blood pressure are at risk of serious complications, including seizures, stillbirth and newborn death, a new study conducted in Sierra Leone has found.
The study is the first to show how such tests, which are simple to perform and give results within 30 minutes, could help to improve safety for mothers and babies in pregnancies affected by high blood pressure in settings where maternity and neonatal care resources are limited.
Led by King’s College London in collaboration with the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Sierra Leone and published in Hypertension, the study included 488 pregnant women admitted to hospital with suspected pre-eclampsia – a pregnancy condition that causes high blood pressure and protein in the urine, and can lead to life-threatening complications for mother and baby.
“The tests were very good at ruling out serious problems when results were normal, meaning these women were unlikely to have life-threatening complications. Abnormal test results identified women at higher risk who may need closer monitoring or earlier delivery of the baby,” says Dr Katy Kuhrt, Clinical Research Fellow and Registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Department of Women & Children’s Health at King’s and lead author of the study.
"Our study shows that simple, bedside blood tests could help doctors decide which women need urgent care, improving safety for mothers and babies in pregnancies affected by high blood pressure."
Read full story
Source: King's College London, 18 September 2025
Patient Safety Learning

Prostate cancer drug that can halve death risk to be offered to thousands in England

Thousands of men with advanced prostate cancer in England are to be offered a drug that can halve the risk of death.
In guidance published on Friday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) gave the green light to darolutamide, which attacks the disease by starving cancer cells and has fewer side-effects than existing treatments.
At least 6,000 men a year with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer will get access to the novel treatment, also known as Nubeqa and made by Bayer, on the NHS.
Darolutamide, taken as two tablets twice daily, works by blocking hormones fuelling cancer growth. The treatment is delivered alongside androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), a hormone therapy that lowers testosterone levels.
Data show the treatment combination is better than using ADT alone and is as effective as other combination treatments, according to Nice.
Helen Knight, the director of medicines evaluation at Nice, said: “I’m pleased we can recommend this new combination treatment, which provides another much-needed option for people with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.
“We are determined to ensure that effective treatments such as darolutamide, which can help extend the length and quality of people’s lives, are made available fast to the people who need them.”
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 24 October 2025
Sam

Local health hubs at risk as community services under strain

The government's goal of moving care from hospitals into neighbourhood health hubs is at risk because community services are under too much strain, the health and care regulator says.
In its annual report, the Care Quality Commission said waiting times were too long and staffing too stretched in areas such as mental health, GP care and social care.
The regulator said there was a real risk patients would suffer because these services would not able to cope with the extra demands.
But the government said investment was being made to address the pressures.
It raised a number of concerns about the current state of community services, including:
Long waits for mental health – with a third of adult patients reporting wiats of three months or more between first assessment and treatment, plus signs that waits for children are even worse.
Continued problems accessing GP services – with only half of patients finding it easy to get through on the phone.
A dramatic drop in district nurse numbers – with 50% fewer per person over 65 than there was 14 years ago.
The struggle to get state-funded social care - with the proportion of older people getting help from councils dropping to 3.6%, compared to over 8% 20 years ago.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 24 October 2025
Sam

Resident doctors in England to go on strike for five days next month

Resident doctors in England will strike again next month – the 13th time since 2023 – a decision NHS bosses say is “the last thing the NHS needs”
Hospital chiefs predicted that the stoppage would make it harder for the NHS to manage the increase in winter viruses and hamper its efforts to tackle the 7.4m waiting list backlog.
The British Medical Association (BMA) and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, blamed each other for the five-day strike, from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Dr Jack Fletcher, the chair of the BMA’s resident doctors’ committee (RDC), said on Thursday that the strike was a response to Streeting offering only “vague promises” after the union’s “reasonable” demands on pay and career progression.
But the health secretary accused the BMA of making a “preposterous” decision and indulging in “reckless posturing” and “unnecessary strikes” that would harm patients.
Read full story
Source: The Guardian, 23 October 2025
Sam

Local systems must ‘comply’ with new medicines access policy

NHS England wants to standardise local drug formulary teams and operations while it develops a single national formulary over the next two years, HSJ  has learned.
The centre wants to bring more consistency to local formulary operations while it works on the SNF, one of the biggest changes to national policy in July’s 10-Year Health Plan, which was exclusively revealed by HSJ.
A formulary is a list of medicines that have been approved for use by the regulator and are considered cost and clinically effective in treating specific conditions. Currently, there are multiple local formularies overseen by prescribing committees.
The SNF will introduce a nationally managed list with the overall aim of driving “rapid and equitable adoption of clinically and cost-effective innovations”, according to a letter seen by HSJ.  NHSE sent the letter to regional and integrated care board chief pharmacists and medical directors last week.
“The SNF will be designed to help address inequity and variation in the use of approved medicines across the country. Whilst local clinicians, including pharmacists, will retain clinical autonomy, they will be encouraged to use products ranked highly in the SNF,” it explained.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 24 October 2025
Patient Safety Learning

Government announces Women's Health Strategy to be renewed

Women across the country will soon benefit from better and more compassionate care as the Women’s Health Strategy is set to be renewed to address longstanding barriers, the government has announced.  
This follows the announcement that menopause questions will be included in the NHS Health Check to better support millions of women.  
The renewed strategy will set out how the government will take the next steps to improve women’s healthcare as part of the 10 Year Health Plan and create a system that listens to women’s experiences and tackles the inequalities they face.  
As part of the renewal, which will be published next year, the government will look to identify specific barriers in access to healthcare and set out concrete action to remove them. 
Opinions from women who contributed to our 10 Year Health Plan consultation - the biggest ever conversation about the future of the NHS - will play a central role in developing this strategy. 
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said:   
We inherited a broken NHS, and as a result too many women are still subject to a system that doesn’t listen to their experiences or understand their needs.   Whether it’s being passed from one specialist to another for conditions like endometriosis or PCOS, the lack of proper pain relief during procedures, or unacceptable gynaecology waiting lists - it’s clear the system is failing women, and it shouldn’t be happening.  Our renewed strategy will set out our longer-term vision so every woman gets the healthcare she deserves, when she needs it. We’re determined to build an NHS in which women can feel safe and can trust. Read press release
Source: Department of Health and Social Care, 23 October 2025
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