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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    When Katie finally sat down in her GP’s surgery in November she had been in pain for years. Since the birth of her daughter in July 2023, sex had been agony. Yet the mother of three, a teacher, had delayed booking an appointment — she simply didn’t have the time.
    After explaining her pain to a stranger, she was met with a shrug. “I was told that this is just what happens after kids. I felt so ignored and so awful. I cried; I felt invisible.”
    Feeling failed by a human doctor, she turned to ChatGPT. “I know that AI is programmed to acknowledge me; it said something like, ‘that must be really stressful and tough to deal with right now,’ and then gave me a list of things my pain could be attributed to. It instantly put me at ease,” Katie, 28, said.
    She is now in the majority. A study of 1,000 UK women aged 20 to 50 found that 53% would use a free AI tool for medical advice, even while acknowledging the 20 per cent error rate.
    The report by Intimina, a Swedish company that makes women’s health products, Sixty-six per cent of women admitted they had avoided booking a GP appointment or collecting a prescription to avoid associated costs and 47% said the cost of living had led them to delay buying treatments until symptoms felt “severe”.
    However, a London School of Economics study last year found that AI models systematically downplayed women’s symptoms compared to men’s.
    Dr Susanna Unsworth, a women’s health expert with Intimina, said: “AI lacks the clinical nuance essential in intimate health. Self-treating based on a chatbot’s guess can lead to inappropriate treatment and prolonged suffering.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 8 March 2026
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    A warning has been issued over “deeply concerning” adverts for dangerous Brazilian Butt Lifts (BBLs) after 9 in 10 were found to be breaking the rules.
    The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it banned ads after discovering some that suggested the potentially fatal procedures are safe, exploited people’s insecurities, or pressured individuals into making quick decisions.
    The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), the body that writes the UK advertising rules, is now taking action to tackle “irresponsible” ads for non-surgical liquid BBLs and cosmetic surgery abroad, which remain widespread.
    While currently legal, liquid BBLs are unregulated in the UK and can lead to serious complications, including infection, sepsis and embolism.
    Surgery abroad can also involve added risks, particularly when standards of care differ from those in Britain. For some people, these procedures have had devastating consequences, including serious infections, long-term health problems and in some tragic cases, death.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 12 March 2026
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    Women are receiving worse treatment for back and neck pain because their experiences are not factored into “male by default” clinical guidelines in the UK, research has found.
    The NHS fails to acknowledge sex-specific considerations such as pain being more common among women in its model of care for non-surgical management of chronic neck and back pain, according to research from the University of Lancashire.
    A major review of clinical guidance, published in the Physical Therapy Reviews journal, found that by consistently only referring to people, individuals or patients, clinical guidance in the UK ignores the role women’s different skeleton size, hormones, experience of pregnancy or menopause can play in musculoskeletal pain. Guidelines also ignore the different biological characteristics of intersex patients.
    Lauren Haworth, research associate at the University of Lancashire and lead author of the study, said that considering sex-specific biology was important to deliver personalised, equitable healthcare.
    “We know that large breasts can be heavy, and without adequate support this additional weight, combined with gravity, can cause strain on a woman’s body, which may contribute towards neck and back pain,” she said.
    But she added that because existing guidance doesn’t acknowledge sex-based differences, “women may still be disadvantaged simply because their biological needs differ from those of men”.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 11 March 2026
    Further reading on the hub:
    Top picks: Women's health inequity Gender bias: A threat to women’s health Women’s heart health - a patient safety priority Medicines, research and female hormones: a dangerous knowledge gap
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    The NHS has lost “muscle memory” about how to tackle corridor care, a health minister has said.
    Karin Smyth said the problem was an “issue of clinical leadership and managerial leadership”, telling MPs she was a “strong supporter of managers… recognising what should be pretty basic and is known but doesn’t happen now”.
    Ms Smyth made the comments during a Commons health and social care committee session  about corridor care on Wednesday. Last year,HSJ  revealed  that around one million accident and emergency patients had been placed on corridors or in other temporary spaces across a 12-month period.
    The minister said: “I think we can’t underestimate what [is] sometimes called muscle memory loss about how to do things right.”
    Last week, NHS England said trusts could “virtually eliminate” corridor care  with the right leadership, ordering executives to take personal charge of the problem.
    Labour MP Danny Beales told the committee this week that the recommendations, which include executives walking corridors and senior leadership being present at discharge meetings, were “quite basic”.
    Professor Tim Briggs, a surgeon and national director for clinical improvement, said: “The big thing that’s going to be required is cultural leadership change.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 12 March 2026
    Related reading on the hub:
    HSSIB Investigation Report: Patient care in temporary care environments Corridor care: Patient Safety Learning’s response to the latest HSSIB report Corridor care guidance needs to move beyond what “should” happen and grapple honestly with why it isn’t The crisis of corridor care in the NHS: patient safety concerns and incident reporting
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    A large study using NHS breast screening data suggests that artificial intelligence could detect a quarter of breast cancers that human specialists initially miss on mammograms, a breakthrough researchers say could mark a turning point in the battle against the disease.
    Scientists say the technology could also make breast screening doctors roughly twice as effective by dramatically reducing the number of scans they need to review, potentially helping address chronic staff shortages in the NHS.
    Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, affecting about one in eight during their lifetime. Early detection is crucial: tumours found through screening are typically easier to treat, and survival rates are far higher when the disease is caught before it spreads.
    The findings, published in Nature Cancer, come from a large study analysing mammograms from about 150,000 women in the NHS breast-screening programme. In the UK system, every scan is normally reviewed independently by two trained specialists, with disputed cases referred to senior clinicians for arbitration.
    Researchers examined what would happen if one of the two human readers were replaced by an AI system trained to analyse mammograms for subtle signs of cancer.
    One of the most striking findings was the system’s ability to identify “interval cancers” — tumours that are not detected during screening but are diagnosed later, before the next routine mammogram after three years. In retrospective analysis, the AI flagged about a quarter of these cancers on earlier scans, where they had initially been missed.
    “These cancers are very subtle,” said Susan Thomas, a researcher at Google Health, who worked on the study. “If we can increase the chances of detecting them earlier, that has the potential to make a real difference for patients.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 10 March 2026
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    Harley Street is being used by rogue practitioners to establish pop-up cosmetic treatment clinics to trick patients into thinking they are credible, a professional standards body has revealed.
    Complaints about unqualified individuals carrying out procedures at temporary offices on the Marylebone street, renowned as a centre for plastic surgery, have increased from 18 to 118 in the last five years.
    The figures have been released by Save Face, a government-approved register of accredited aesthetic practitioners that also offers support to people who have undergone botched procedures.
    Ashton Collins, director of Save Face, said her organisation has seen a sharp rise in people setting up pop-up clinics on Harley Street to acquire a veneer of respectability despite having no qualifications to carry out cosmetic treatments.
    She explained that these treatments ranged from Botox and fillers to more dangerous procedures such as non-surgical Brazilian butt lifts (BBLs).
    The rogue services are typically being advertised through social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok at bargain prices to attract clients, she added.
    But in the event that treatments are botched, victims then discover their practitioner is not permanently located on Harley Street and they have nowhere to go to seek corrective procedures or financial compensation.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 9 March 2026
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    The decision by Donald Trump's administration to extend the US policy that bars groups receiving foreign aid from promoting abortion risks weakening United Nations (UN) programmes designed to protect women and support LGBT+ people around the world, experts has warned.
    The policy – branded the “promoting human flourishing in foreign assistance policy” – dramatically expands the so-called Mexico City policy, which restricts organisations receiving US funding from providing or promoting abortion services overseas.
    The new rule goes much further and attaches broader ideological conditions to American foreign assistance. Organisations that receive US assistance must now ensure that none of their activities, even those funded by other governments, conflict with Washington’s positions on abortion, gender identity or diversity programmes.
    The rule took effect in February and could apply to tens of billions of dollars in US foreign aid. Under the policy, non-compliance could lead to funding being withdrawn and previously disbursed money being clawed back.
    Experts say the measure could have far-reaching consequences for the UN, which relies heavily on voluntary contributions from member states, including the US, historically its largest donor.
    "The new human flourishing policy projects the Trump administration’s political position against gender equality through its global financial assistance", Cristal Downing, a director at the International Crisis Group said.
    "This could have broad implications at the UN and elsewhere, compounding the global regression on gender equality that we have seen accelerate in the last year," she continued.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 11 March 2026
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    Bereaved families and victims of mental health-related violence will continue to be “left in the dark” under planned laws which allow hospitals to withhold information about patients, charities have warned.
    The victims’ commissioner has also expressed concern that the government is missing an important opportunity to redress the balance towards victims, who she said already faced barriers to getting “even the most basic information” about offenders.
    The Victims and Courts Bill, being debated in the Lords, places the onus on hospital managers to decide “as they consider appropriate” how much information about mentally ill perpetrators is passed to victims and families.
    In the past, victims have been distressed to discover that homicide perpetrators were released back into the community, and sometimes in close proximity, without their knowledge. The Nottingham public inquiry has shown how clinicians were reluctant to pass information to police and other authorities about a man diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia who killed three people in June 2023.
    Julian Hendy, of the charity Hundred Families, which campaigns for transparency and awareness of mental health-related violence, said victims and their families were not often given important information such as being notified when perpetrators applied for day release.
    He said that the rights and protections of victims in cases where perpetrators received hospital orders needed to be brought into line with cases where offenders were imprisoned and more information was readily available.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 10 March 2026
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    When Rachel Cooper arrived at hospital to give birth to her son in April 2018, she had no idea she would be leaving days later with a life-changing injury.
    But Ms Cooper, now 43, is one of the dozens of mothers and families who say they were harmed by poor maternity care at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the largest trusts in the country.
    The now 43-year-old was discharged from the hospital after her vaginal labour with an untreated third-degree tear that was missed by medics.
    It eventually became infected and, despite doctors claiming her symptoms were “normal”, Ms Cooper was forced to undergo surgery when her baby was just eight days old. Eight years on, she is still living with the repercussions.
    She told The Independent: “The dangerous medical practices and poor treatment by staff characterised every stage of my birth journey and has had a permanent effect on my mental health. I’m not the mother to my baby that I could have been.”
    Ms Cooper told her story as the government announced on Tuesday that Donna Ockenden, who chaired the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital maternity inquiry and is currently chairing the Nottingham University Hospitals maternity inquiry, will now also chair the probe into the Leeds trust.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 11 March 2026
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    National policymakers are “working it out as they go along”, and integrated care board staff are “on their knees” amid a confused restructure, local leaders have reported.
    A Health Foundation report based on interviews with integrated care board leaders throughout last year, shared exclusively with HSJ, found they were “scathing” about the “handling and subsequent management” of the announcement of 50% cuts to staffing budgets.
    ICB leaders who spoke to researchers labelled the cuts as “disgraceful”, “unprofessional”, and “an absolute shitshow”. They described surprise at “manager bashing” from government and concern that this would deter “the next generation of managers” from joining the NHS.
    Leaders also described ICB colleagues as being “on their knees” and having “terrible, terrible morale”, and raised questions about the future of partnership working and ICBs as organisations. 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 11 March 2026
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    A young mother died from sepsis contributed to by NHS neglect after she was given the wrong antibiotics, a coroner has ruled.
    Aleisha Rochester, 33, a bank cashier from Croydon, south London, died two weeks after undergoing a routine procedure to remove an abscess from her left armpit.
    She had sought medical help several times for her worsening condition and been prescribed antibiotics - but not ones that could tackle the bacteria causing her infection.
    Staff at St Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals also did not follow the NHS trust's own guidelines on administering antibiotics, assistant coroner Sian Reeves said. 
    During an inquest in December, Reeves ruled that Rochester's death had been contributed to by neglect and she would most likely have lived if given the right antibiotics in time.
    Rochester had undergone a routine day procedure at St Thomas' Hospital on 5 August 2023 to remove abscesses from her left armpit and groin but she became unwell and the wound to her left armpit became infected after 10 August, the coroner said.
    After multiple GP and hospital visits, on 15 August antibiotics were prescribed "but not in line with St Helier Hospital's antimicrobial guidelines," the coroner wrote.
    She added that the drugs did not provide effective coverage against a Gram-positive organism, which was the most likely pathogen causing the infection.
    "Prior to selecting this combination of antibiotics, the surgical team did not consult with the hospital's microbiology team for advice."
    The coroner ruled that, on 15 August, Rochester "should have been, but was not prescribed" the right antibiotics and if she had, she most likely would have survived. "Her death was contributed to by neglect," she said.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 11 March 2026
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    A review commissioned by Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust to investigate its perinatal mortality rate has been cancelled following an intervention by the health secretary, HSJ understands.
    Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust decided last spring to commission the “independent” external review to look into its “higher than expected” baby death and stillbirth rates in recent years.
    HSJ understands that, despite health and social care secretary Wes Streeting ordering a wider inquiry in October, the trust had, until recently, planned to press on with the initial external review.
    However, several sources said that Mr Streeting has now made clear it must be scrapped, after some families raised concerns about the process last month.

    Leeds families argued the trust was using the review to try to undermine the wider inquiry. They claimed LTHT was attempting to “exhaust” and “emotionally drain” bereaved families in the hope they would not participate in the wider probe.
    Bereaved mothers Fiona Winser-Ramm, Amarjit Kaur Matharoo, and Lauren Caulfield, who have been campaigning for years for an independent inquiry, welcomed the decision to scrap the LTHT-commissioned review.
    They said: “The government-led, full independent inquiry must run its course without interference or manipulation.
    “LTHT needs to apologise to bereaved families… there should never have been engagement with patients about past cases once the independent inquiry was announced.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 10 March 2026
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    The health secretary has made a U-turn over who will lead an independent inquiry into "repeated maternity failures" at an NHS trust.
    Wes Streeting has appointed Donna Ockenden, following a campaign by bereaved and harmed families, to lead the review into maternity and neonatal services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals (LTH) NHS Trust.
    Ockenden, a senior midwife, is currently leading the maternity review at Nottingham, which is the largest of its kind, examining about 2,500 cases of harm to mothers and babies.
    In January 2025 a BBC investigation revealed the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers at the Leeds trust over the past five years may have been prevented.
    Streeting first announced the inquiry into the West Yorkshire trust in October 2025, saying it was required to understand what had "gone so catastrophically wrong" at the maternity units at Leeds General Infirmary and St James's University Hospital.
    Days later in a BBC radio interview, Streeting announced that Ockenden would not be the chair of the Leeds review.
    In February, families and MPs urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to "intervene and appoint" the senior midwife immediately to head the Leeds inquiry.
    Amarjit Matharoo, whose daughter Asees was stillborn in January 2024, said it "has been a long, drawn-out, and emotionally draining process to get the assurances that this investigation will be handled with the appropriate methodology and care that it needs".
    Matharoo said they were "grateful that Wes Streeting has listened carefully" and felt "very lucky" to have Ockenden appointed.
    Streeting thanked families for "their openness in recent discussions" and said he was "delighted to appoint someone so trusted" by bereaved and harmed families.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 March 2026
     
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    Bringing two trusts together in a group led to problems with governance, accountability and the visibility of leaders, the organisations’ interim chief executive has admitted.
    Hull University Teaching Hospitals and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust, which work together as the Humber Health Partnership, have been placed in the highest tier of national intervention due to concerns over leadership, performance and patient safety.
    The two trusts formed a group in 2023 but subsequently lost their chief executive and chair after their relationship broke down.
    In a report for the meeting, Lyn Simpson, who was brought in as interim chief last year, said the group model’s aim was “the right one”.
    But she added: “From its inception, the group operating model evolved in practice closer to a de-facto merger than a traditional NHS group arrangement, without the accompanying clarity, simplification or maturity of governance typically required to make such models effective.
    “While the original intent of the group model was to enable shared solutions, the operating model was not always systematically refined as pressures increased. Over time this has contributed to increased organisational complexity, diluted lines of accountability and reduced visible senior leadership capacity at site level.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 10 March 2026
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    "I walked into the hospital able-bodied and came out on crutches."
    Susan McLarnon is one of thousands of women across the UK who have experienced serious complications after being given a vaginal mesh implant to treat a prolapse and urinary incontinence
    She says she now lives in "constant pain" and is calling for the government to commit to a deadline for a redress scheme.
    McLarnon is one of several women travelling to Downing Street later to hand a letter to the prime minister asking for "urgent action" to be taken on compensation for those harmed by pelvic mesh implants.
    Some women were left in permanent pain, unable to walk, work or have sex, after the surgery to treat incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.
    Two years ago, a major report, external called for urgent action but campaigners are still waiting.
    Kath Sansom, founder of Sling The Mesh, who will be handing in the letter at Downing Street with the other women, said pelvic mesh had "stolen women's health, irreversibly ruined their quality of life, their independence, and their future".
    They are calling for a timescale for a funded, government-backed compensation scheme for all women who have been harmed.
    The UK Department of Health and Social Care said it is "carefully considering" the recommendations in the report and aims to provide an update in due course.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 March 2026
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    The NHS is pausing new referrals for masculinising or feminising hormone treatment for 16 and 17-year-olds after an in-depth review found there was insufficient evidence to support its continued use.
    Prescriptions for hormones had been available in England for under-18s with a diagnosis of gender incongruence or dysphoria who met certain criteria.
    But after the Cass review, NHS England commissioned its own review of all the available clinical evidence. That review has now concluded and found the evidence did not back the continued use of the treatment for 16 and 17-year-olds.
    In her review of children’s gender care, Hilary Cass had recommended “extreme caution” in providing such treatment and a “clear clinical rationale for providing hormones at this stage rather than waiting until an individual reaches 18”.
    NHS England said patients under 18 currently receiving cross-sex hormones may continue to receive treatment. However, that treatment must now be reviewed individually with clinicians.
    On Monday, NHS England launched a 90-day consultation on plans to remove the treatment as a routine procedure. New referrals for the treatment will be paused during the consultation period.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 9 March 2026
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS England bosses are predicting they will get close enough to hitting 65% against the 18-week standard by March to declare victory against their main performance objective for this year, HSJ  has learned.
    This would mark a significant improvement, around 2.5 percentage points, from the 61.5% for December, the most recent official data. Performance has flatlined at around this mark for the past six months.
    Senior figures cautioned they still had a difficult task balancing activity and finances in the final weeks of 2025-26, but they are increasingly optimistic about success against the government’s priority NHS target.
    Official figures for January, to be published on Thursday, will give a first indication of the impact of a £120m “elective sprint” funded by NHS England at late notice, for the final months of the year.
    One senior national figure told HSJ it was “a tricky time with final sprints to the line on elective, urgent and emergency care, and the money. But the fact that we are still in the running for all three feels very positive and motivational”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 10 March 2026
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS trusts are being forced to wait an average of six months for a regulatory decision on capital projects, despite the relevant legislation stating they should be completed in 8-12 weeks, HSJ  can reveal.
    This is resulting in lengthy delays to urgent building repairs and the purchase of new medical equipment, as well as the potential loss of funding if work is not started by the end of the financial year for which capital budgets apply.
    The NHS faces a maintenance backlog estimated at £15bn, meaning a huge number of remedial projects are now being put forward by trusts.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 9 March 2026
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    Hundreds of NHS patients are set to be removed from a privately-run mental health hospital following a string of allegations of patient abuse and neglect.
    Health chiefs have ordered 287 inpatients to be removed from one of the sites run by St Andrew’s Healthcare after The Independent revealed it has faced several police investigations into allegations of abuse, rape and patient deaths.
    The mental health hospital provider, which is a registered charity, can house more than 400 NHS patients at its Northampton site, some of whom are sent to the facility for specialist mental health care.
    On Monday, NHS England issued a letter to local health chiefs ordering them to plan to move patients from the site. Patients will be transferred to other hospitals or discharged.
    The letter comes after NHS England officials issued a warning to St Andrew’s Health in December 2025 over allegations of poor care.
    In January, The Independent revealed St Andrew’s Healthcare had more than a dozen staff members arrested in relation to multiple police probes.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 9 March 2026
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    Responding to analysis from the Scottish Liberal Democrats, which suggested that there were 871 deaths in Emergency Departments (EDs) associated with a 12 or more hour wait for admission, Dr Fiona Hunter, Royal College of Emergency Medicine Vice President for Scotland, said: “These harrowing figures show that something must change in the approach to fixing the crisis in our EDs.  
    “Heartbreaking doesn’t cover it. Each of these 871 people may have had families and friends who would have had to face the devastating reality that their loved one died not because they were too sick to treat, but because our hospitals don’t have the capacity to look after them properly.  
    “Patients enduring these long waits are often the sickest or most injured, in need of further care on a ward. But a lack of beds, driven in large part by delayed discharges, meant they had to wait in A&E – and this can go on for hours and hours.  
    “Almost 900 people may have paid the ultimate price for this complete breakdown in hospital flow.  
    “Last year, RCEM published figures for 2024, which suggested there were 818 excess deaths associated with 12 hour waits in EDs. Today’s figures suggest that the problem is getting worse, not better.  
    “Whoever forms the next government cannot ignore this problem. The numbers speak for themselves: more people will die, who otherwise would go home to their families, if overcrowding and long waits in ED aren’t fixed. 
    “Addressing the ‘back door’ blockage of hospitals must be a priority for all political parties. Only then will the needless and agonising waits, and the avoidable deaths they cause, stop.  
    “These are fixable issues and we encourage all political parties to make this a priority. Lives are at stake.”  
    Read full story
    Source: Royal College of Emergency Medicine, 7 March 2026
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    Almost a third of people in England now use private dentistry, with a sharp rise in the number of poorer households forced to pay for fillings and extractions.
    The scarcity of NHS care means the proportion of people turning to private dental services jumped from 22% in 2023 to 32% late last year, the health service’s patient watchdog found.
    The reliance on paid-for treatment is so significant that dental care is becoming a costly “one tier” – private-only – service for more and more people, Healthwatch England is warning.
    It is concerned that the percentage of people who describe themselves as struggling financially that have used private dentistry has almost doubled in recent years from 14% to 27%.
    “Our findings are a warning that for some people there’s only one-tier dental care – private,” said Rebecca Curtayne, Healthwatch England’s acting head of policy, public affairs and research. “It’s the most vulnerable people in our society who bear the brunt of the ongoing shortage of NHS dental appointments.
    “Too many people on low income are being forced into private care they struggle to afford, or are going without treatment altogether. The system is failing those who need it most.”
    The big shift to private dental care showed NHS dentistry “exists in name only for many people”, the Patients Association said.
    “This report is yet further damning evidence on the state of NHS dentistry and this double penalty for people on low incomes demonstrates a systemic failure with real human consequences,” said Rachel Power, the association’s chief executive.
    “This isn’t just about the cost of dentistry. The lack of affordable dental care harms physical health, leaves people in ongoing, sometimes agonising, pain, and can take a heavy toll on mental and emotional wellbeing.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 9 March 2026
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    Women experiencing miscarriage are facing additional trauma and distress due to a significant lack of adequate follow-up care, a new report has revealed.
    One patient described her experience as "dehumanising", while others reported feeling dismissed and traumatised by the current system.
    Research by the Miscarriage Association, which underpins the report, found that nearly two-thirds of women felt their follow-up care was insufficient. Furthermore, more than four in 10 of those who sought mental health support after losing their baby did not receive it.
    The new report urges immediate action to make comprehensive follow-up care a routine part of miscarriage management.
    Some 65% of women in the study said they did not have adequate follow-up care, while 42% said they did not receive treatment for mental health symptoms following their miscarriage.
    Many women felt they were sent home with little or no guidance, or with conflicting advice, according to the Miscarriage Association.
    Some reported insensitive wording from healthcare professionals, with one woman claiming she was told her baby “had been put in the incinerator with the rest of the medical waste” whilst recovering from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 9 March 2026
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    Cancer death rates in the UK have hit a historic new low, according to data.
    The charity Cancer Research UK, which analysed the figures and shared them with the Press Association, said death rates have fallen by 11% in the last decade.
    Around 247 in every 100,000 people in the UK are thought to die from cancer in any given year, which is a 29 per cent drop on the peak in 1989 (around 355 per 100,000).
    The data shows that ovarian cancer death rates have fallen by 19% in the last decade (2012-2014 to 2022-2024), while stomach cancer has dropped by 34% and lung cancer by 22%.
    Bowel cancer is down 6%, breast cancer by 14%, cervical cancer by 11% and leukaemia by 9%. Oesophageal cancer is also down 12%.
    When it comes to cervical cancer, there has been a 75% drop in death rates since the 1970s, with the NHS cervical screening programme having a huge impact.
    The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which is given to schoolchildren, is also driving down cervical cancers.
    At least 6.5 million people have received the vaccine in the UK since it was introduced in 2008.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 9 March 2026
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    A federal judge on Monday blocked the US government from making sweeping changes to childhood immunisations, in a blow to Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's agenda.
    Since taking office a year ago, Kennedy has sought to change and loosen vaccine regulations, including slashing the number of recommended shots for children from 17 to 11.
    The American Academy of Pediatrics and other large medical groups had sued, saying Kennedy's changes violated federal law.
    Judge Brian Murphy also suspended Kennedy's appointments to an advisory vaccine panel, many of whom were vaccine-sceptics. Kennedy was a longtime antivaccine activist before joining President Donald Trump's administration.
    The ruling means a scheduled Wednesday meeting for the vaccine panel, called the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (Acip) will be postponed, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
    The Trump administration is expected to appeal the ruling.
    In a statement, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the agency "looks forward to this judge's decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing".
    Medical groups who brought the suit, meanwhile, lauded the decision, including the American Medical Association, the largest US professional organization for doctors, which called it "an important step toward protecting the health of Americans, particularly children".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 17 March 2026
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    Rivka Gottlieb said she still felt "haunted" by the fact that her father, Michael, died alone.
    He was a fit and active 73-year-old, she said, working part-time in a golf shop and teaching children at his local synagogue.
    Her story was one of the last to be told at the Covid inquiry, which heard its final evidence this week.
    In March 2020, Michael and Rivka's mother, Mili, were admitted to different wards of the Royal Free hospital, in north London, with Covid symptoms - just as the first lockdown was announced.
    "We were just expecting him to be given a bit of oxygen and then he'd be sent home," Rivka said.
    Michael deteriorated in hospital. His cough became so severe he had to send a WhatsApp message to tell her he was being put on a ventilator.
    Two weeks later, the family was told he would never recover and that doctors were going to reduce his life support.
    "It was a dark and terrifying time and difficult to get updates from the hospital. I feared the worst every time the phone rang," recalled Rivka.
    In the last week, the inquiry has heard more than eight hours of emotional testimony from bereaved relatives.
    The inquiry heard how families were "torn apart" by social distancing rules, which prevented them from being with their loved ones at the end of their lives.
    Others spoke about huge difficulties accessing information from care homes and hospitals. Families said they were often unable to ask questions about their relatives or felt the true situation was not properly explained to them.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 6 March 2026

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