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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    Eight in 10 NHS physiotherapists have reported they do not have enough staff to meet demand, up by 10 percentage points since 2024.
    The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy survey, carried out in October and the results shared with HSJ, also found 65% of respondents said their service was subject to a recruitment freeze, an increase from 58% in July 2024.
    The 1,100 members surveyed also said temporary roles were not being renewed, and that many services no longer cover maternity leave.
    The proportion of NHS members concerned about staffing levels being insufficient to meet patient needs grew from just under 70% in the first quarter of 2024 to 80% in the fourth quarter of 2025. 
    Ash James, the CSP’s director of practice and development, described the recruitment freezes as “absurd” when the NHS has a “ready and waiting physiotherapy workforce”. It was leading to longer waiting times, he said.
    He said: “For example, I know of a community [musculoskeletal] service where their waits are two and four weeks, based on an activity-based contract. But because the trust didn’t have the funding to be able to maintain that level of activity, to deliver that for patients, they have imposed 12-week waits on the service when it was already two to four weeks.
    “The funding is having a massive impact on the delivery of care for patients. They are waiting longer, their pain is getting worse, [and] we are getting poorer health outcomes because of those longer waits.
    “We don’t want patients paying the price for this when there’s a solution ready to go.” The cuts were also damaging the morale of the remaining staff, added Mr James. 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 26 January 2026
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    The biggest hospital in the UK was known as the Death Star before it even opened.
    The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), with its imposing star-shaped design, rose 14 storeys high into the Glasgow skyline more than ten years ago.
    But fears were raised about the building, with around 1,538 beds, long before patients arrived including over the design, functionality and capacity of the children’s wing. Documents show staff from the Royal Hospital for Children (RHC), the paediatrics wing in the QUEH complex, pleading months before the ribbon was cut: “Please listen to us … your management is lying if they are telling you that all of these decisions have been accepted and not challenged by clinicians.”
    In 2015 patients began to arrive after the project was delivered on time and on budget, but safety problems quickly emerged, particularly for those with weak immunity. Less than two weeks after it opened 18 leukaemia patients were moved because of fears about air purity.
    By 2019 two patients had died from an airborne disease linked to pigeon droppings and doctors had conducted a review that associated 26 patient infections to contaminated water. Among those affected was a ten-year-old leukaemia sufferer, Milly Main, who died in 2017 after contracting an infection found in water despite signs she was recovering from cancer.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 17 January 2025
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    The chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital said he is “deeply sorry”, after an internal report revealed a rogue surgeon harmed more than a quarter of the children he operated on.
    Matthew Shaw’s apology to families comes before the publication of a major review this week, which will set out the full scale of botched operations carried out by the orthopaedic surgeon Yaser Jabbar.
    The review of Jabbar’s care will confirm that of the 333 children he performed surgery on during a six-year period, 91 were harmed — representing 27% of his surgical patients.
    One child had a leg amputated, another may need to have an amputation in the future, while others have been left with chronic pain from nerve damage and debilitating deformities.
    “I wish we could have stopped him earlier,” said Shaw, who is leaving Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in April, after six years in charge.
    He also apologised to whistleblowers who helped to expose the scandal, and warned of weaknesses in the wider NHS that meant rogue surgeons like Jabbar, working in highly specialised areas, could be going under the radar.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 24 January 2026
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    A new NHS database of genes linked to cancer could enable patients and their families in England to find out whether they are at risk of developing the disease.
    People will be able to have their genetic information compared to the world-first register of 120 genes known to increase the likelihood of getting cancer, NHS England has said.
    Those identified as having an inherited risk will be offered routine check-ups and screening for certain cancers, including breast and prostate cancer. Patients could also be tested to see whether they would respond better to particular treatments, allowing for personalised care.
    Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the "life-changing and life-saving" tool would fast-track screening and allow more cancers to be caught sooner.
    Tens of thousands of cancer patients and those with a family history of the disease already undergo genetic testing on the NHS every year. Those known to have a higher risk profile will be added to the new register.
    They will be given tailored information about what they can do to lower their chance of developing cancer or detect it early.
    NHS England's national cancer director told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was "the first time any health care system has brought together all the information about all the genetic risk into a single place."
    Prof Peter Johnson said it pulled together the tests patients were already offered to check their cancer susceptibility into a single register, "so that we can contact people to offer them screening and in some cases preventative treatment".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 24 January 2026
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    The US has officially withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO), leaving the UN agency without one of its biggest donors.
    US President Donald Trump signed an executive order signalling the withdrawal a year ago, having criticised the organisation for being too "China-centric" during the Covid pandemic.
    The US Department of Health and Human Services said it took the decision due to the WHO's alleged "mishandling" of the pandemic, an inability to reform and political influence from member states.
    The WHO has rejected these claims and its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the withdrawal was as a loss for the US and the world.
    The organisation pointed to its global efforts to combat polio, HIV aids, maternal mortality, and its international treaty on tobacco control.
    "The WHO tarnished and trashed everything that America has done for it," a joint statement from US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy and Secretary of State Marco Rubio read.
    The pair said the organisation had "abandoned its core mission and acted repeatedly against the interests of the United States", including failing to return the American flag based at its Geneva headquarters.
    "Going forward, U.S. engagement with the WHO will be limited strictly to effectuate our withdrawal and to safeguard the health and safety of the American people," they added.
    The US department said it would have bilateral relations with other countries to ensure disease surveillance and pathogen sharing, but were unable to provide information about which specific countries they had such links with so far.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 23 January 2026
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    Tens of thousands of children in England have spent more than a year waiting for NHS community care such as hearing services, speech and language therapy and disability support, the BBC has found.
    The analysis shows a quarter of the 300,000 children on waiting lists have been waiting more than 12 months.
    Tiya Currie's six-year-old son, Arun, struggled to get the support he needs.
    He has had difficulties with his speech since he was just a toddler. But when Tiya, 46, from London, tried to get help she faced "waiting list after waiting list", she said.
    "I was completely in the dark and I was tearing my hair out. That was really stressful."
    After two years of waiting, Tiya and her husband felt they had no choice but to use £4,000 of their savings to pay privately for speech therapy and a formal diagnosis, which revealed Arun had developmental language disorder (DLD).
    NHS leaders and doctors say the delays are "catastrophic", harming not only their health but also development – and are calling for the same priority to be given to tackling these long waits as has been given to the hospital backlog.
    The government says the long waits are unacceptable, but under its 10-year plan greater investment in community services will improve access to care.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 26 January 2026
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    Victoria and Thomas Gillibrand's baby Pippa died after a carefully planned home birth resulted in her suffering a severe brain injury due to a lack of oxygen during her delivery.
    Concerned about reports of staff shortages and safety concerns in maternity services prior to Pippa’s delivery and after carrying out extensive research, Victoria and Thomas believed the labour and their baby would be more closely monitored by a dedicated one-to-one home birth team and that a home birth was the safer option.  
    Following Pippa’s death, an investigation was initiated by the Trust, with several concerns being highlighted, including:
    The risk assessment for a homebirth was not fully completed; there was no documented discussion regarding a small risk of serious medical problems for the baby, compared to planning the birth in other settings for mothers having their first baby.  There was also no discussion of a plan to continue labour on the midwife led unit when the homebirth team were already called out to a homebirth.  This meant Victoria was not fully informed of all the risks when she was planning her homebirth. The Trust’s homebirth service can safely provide resources for one homebirth. If any further homebirths occur at the same time the assumption is that the labouring mother will receive care on the midwife led unit. This was not documented in Trust guidance. This meant that Victoria was not invited to attend hospital when the homebirth team were initially not available to provide one to one care at home. There were no bleep holders or senior managers on call to escalate safety concerns to or get advice from. Awareness of the whole maternity service was not recognised due to the high acuity on the labour ward, with no escalation of safety concerns when the maternity service was under pressure outside of the hospital setting. The Trust does not provide enough equipment for two homebirths to be held simultaneously. There was no risk assessment done when Victoria’s husband, Tom, first called the labour ward.  It was not the role of the labour ward coordinator to triage telephone calls from mothers requesting the homebirth team to attend.  There was no follow up telephone call to Victoria from the homebirth team due to them being at another homebirth, which led to a missed early opportunity to assess Victoria and Pippa’s wellbeing. Pippa’s wellbeing was not assessed in line with national and Trust Guidelines.  When Victoria was assessed as being in the second stage of labour, intermittent auscultation was not performed every 5 minutes, only recorded twice in the first 30 minutes.  This was due to the midwifery team focusing on other activities, such as the staffing issues and setting up the homebirth equipment.  There was a delay in recognition of difficulties to auscultate Pippa’s heart rate due to the staff’s previous positive experiences at homebirths which led to a delay with subsequent actions. There was incomplete documentation of the advice and care given during telephone calls, at Victoria’s home and during the events of her labour. This was due to a very busy labour ward and poor connectivity of the laptops in the homebirth setting, which meant staff were initially unable to document in the electronic patient record system and document Pippa’s heart rate on the partogram; there was no alternative method for documentation available for staff to be able to effectively capture vital information regarding Pippa’s wellbeing. This did not support clinical oversight or risk assessment during labour. Rebecca Cahill, specialist clinical negligence senior associate with JMW, representing the family, said: “The death of this tiny baby is utterly tragic. Vicky and Tom’s loss is devastating and unimaginable, but to learn that Pippa’s monitoring was not in line with NHS Guidelines, and that staff shortages appear to have impacted the care that they received only compounds their loss.
     “They obviously have a number of concerns and so welcome the coroner’s investigation to ensure that no stone is left unturned in trying to find out why Pippa died.”
    Read full story
    Source: Warrington Guardian, 24 January 2026
     
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    A chiropodist who removed part of a prisoner's toe without their consent has been struck off.
    Lady Deborah Knight Griffiths, who had been a qualified chiropodist since 2008, carried out the procedure on the prisoners foot at HMP Forest Bank in Salford, Greater Manchester, on 13 November 2020.
    A disciplinary hearing found she had "performed an invasive procedure outside the scope of her practice upon an individual who was acutely vulnerable and thereby placed him at real risk of harm” and “she had not maintained or developed the skills to do so.”
    She had been hired by First Steps Podiatry Ltd and was employed to provide foot care by Sodexo, the private operators of the prison. The prisoner she treated in this instance was “in poor health and suffered from diabetes” and had toes amputated previously.
    The hearing found she had omitted 11 pre-operative checks before performing the procedure - including failing to take a blood pressure reading, performing an X-ray and obtaining written or informed consent.
    She was also found to have kept no written records of the diabetic inmate’s treatment or any reference to the dose of the local anaesthetic used.
    Knight Griffiths also failed to maintain “accurate and complete records” for the patient, inappropriately stitched the patient's wound with a suture and “did not obtain a tissue sample or wound swab prior to the procedure” the hearing revealed.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 23 January 2026
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    Almost a quarter of GPs are seeing children aged four or under who are obese, according to a survey of UK family doctors.
    The “alarming” research also found that almost half (49%) of GPs have seen boys and girls up to the age of seven who have obesity, including a handful younger than a year old.
    However, four out of five family doctors find it difficult to talk to children or their parents about the condition, in case such conversations make them feel upset, angry or ashamed.
    Dr John Holden, the chief medical officer at the medical organisation MDDUS, which ran the survey, said: “These findings are an alarming confirmation of the growing crisis of childhood obesity across the country and the very real difficulties this creates in everyday GP consultations.”
    The survey asked 540 family doctors about their experience of managing obesity, the explosion in the use of weight loss drugs and what widespread levels of dangerous overweight means for the NHS.
    Almost one in four (23%) said they had seen children aged zero to four where obesity was a clinical concern. Among the doctors, 81% have seen obesity in those between their first 12 months and the age of 11. Four in five (80%) find it somewhat or very challenging to talk to the parents of an obese child under the age of 16 about their weight and health, with only 10% saying that is easy to do. Nearly two thirds (65%) find it hard to talk to obese young people themselves, with just 20% saying that is easy. Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 25 January 2026
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    The main test for the UK’s second deadliest cancer is being made more accurate in England, in a move NHS bosses believe will save hundreds of lives.
    The sensitivity of the faecal immunochemical test (Fit), which detects bowel cancer by spotting blood in the patient’s stool, will be increased as part of an overhaul of cancer diagnosis and treatment.
    NHS England is lowering the threshold for the amount of blood detected through a Fit test needed to trigger the patient being sent for further investigation.
    It is now 120 micrograms of blood a gram of stool. But that will be reduced to 80 micrograms by 2028 and will bring England into line with the threshold already used in Scotland and Wales.
    “This is a major step forward in bowel cancer detection and will help save hundreds more lives from this devastating disease,” said Prof Peter Johnson, NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer.
    “Testing at a lower level threshold will now provide a better early warning system for bowel cancer, helping us to spot and treat cancers earlier, often picking up problems before symptoms occur.”
    About 44,100 people in Britain are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year and it claims about 17,400 lives, making it the second commonest cause of cancer death. Risk factors include eating processed meat, being overweight and drinking alcohol, leading Cancer Research UK to conclude that more than half of cases – 54% – are preventable.
    “Once fully implemented testing at the lower level threshold is expected to reduce late stage diagnoses and deaths from bowel cancer by around 6%,” NHS England said. Preventing and detecting more cases earlier will save the health service £32m a year, it estimates.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 26 January 2026
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    All Molly Cuddihy wanted was recognition of what she had gone through. That was what she told the Scottish hospitals inquiry in 2021, where she described the “frightening” fits and rigors she had suffered after contracting a bacterial infection at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth university hospital while undergoing chemotherapy. “I was made sicker by the environment,” the 19-year-old said in her evidence.
    Molly had been 15 and revising for her National 5 exams when she was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer. She was treated at the Royal hospital for children and the adjacent QEUH, which are both part of a six-year public inquiry that reached its final stages and heard devastating new admissions this week.
    “You had a critically ill teenager who could see what was materially wrong with the hospital building in 2018,” said her father, John. He said the clinical care his daughter received was “world-class” – a sentiment echoed by all the families affected by this scandal – but “the basic principles of providing a safe and secure environment in which those clinicians could operate were simply absent”.
    After years of denial, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde finally admitted this week that serious infections in 84 child cancer patients, two of whom died, were probably caused by a contaminated water system at its flagship hospital.
    The arduous delay in accepting what patients, families and whistleblowers had been telling hospital and health board management since the £842m super-hospital first opened in 2015 piled “avoidable distress and harm” on already suffering families, John says. “The fact that Molly never got to hear those words is even more painful.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 23 January 2026
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    The high-profile chair of a major maternity review into care failures in Nottingham has pledged to ensure its results “will not be sidelined” by the government’s national investigation.
    Concerns Donna Ockenden’s findings could be sidelined, followed ministers announcing in September that the national maternity review’s recommendations would “supersede the multiple existing actions and recommendations already in place”.
    While Ms Ockenden’s Nottingham University Hospitals Trust inquiry began in 2022, it is not due to report until June. And a spokesman for the Nottingham families told HSJ this week that they had heard “credible rumours of an attempt to minimise and overshadow” the review.
    The government’s national review, led by Baroness Valerie Amos – which this week published a call for evidence  – is due in the spring.
    Ministers also said that “Baroness Amos and her team will draw on [previous reviews] to create one clear, national set of actions to improve care across the country”.
    In response to the concerns about the status of her independent inquiry, Ms Ockenden said: “I cannot see any reason why anyone who has any understanding of maternity services would even be thinking of sidelining Nottingham.
    “Nottingham is the largest ever inquiry into a single service in the history of the NHS. We, as a review team, have worked with diligence with families across Nottinghamshire.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 23 January 2026
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    Progress has been made in reducing the “collective shame” of disproportionate employer referrals of doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds or who qualified outside the UK, the doctors’ regulator says.
    The General Medical Council says the proportion of employers with excess referrals in relation to a doctor’s ethnicity or place of qualification has now reduced by 48%—from 5.6% between 2016 and 2020 to 2.9% from 2020 to 2024.
    The difference in employer referral rates between ethnic minority and white doctors has also fallen by 61%—from 0.28% (0.58% ethnic minority doctors v 0.3% white doctors) to 0.11% (0.26% v 0.15%).
    For non-UK versus UK graduates, the difference in referral rates has dropped by 69%—from 0.42% (0.28% UK v 0.7% non-UK) to 0.13% (0.15% v 0.28%).
    The regulator says it is now on track to hit its target of eliminating disproportionate employer fitness to practise referrals by the end of 2026, a goal it set in 2021.
    Progress on eliminating discrimination in medical schools and training by 2031 has been much slower, however.
    Speaking to The BMJ, GMC chief executive Charlie Massey said, “Inequality and discrimination are pernicious and we should be ashamed collectively about the level of disadvantage that doctors from particular backgrounds face in the NHS.”
    He said, however, that the progress made so far is “pretty significant” and shows change is possible. “I don’t think any of us should be complacent. There’s still further distance to travel and we mustn’t let up now,” he said.
    Read full story
    Source: BMJ, 15 January 2026
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    The NHS is failing osteoporosis patients, diagnosing them via text message only to then "forget" them, a damning parliamentary inquiry has found.
    Some individuals told MPs they received no scheduled follow-up after their diagnosis, while others faced years-long waits for crucial bone scans.
    Further highlighting the systemic issues, a new report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on osteoporosis and bone health revealed that only 34% of eligible patients are receiving medication to prevent fractures.
    Experts condemned the findings, stating they expose a "deep, structural failure in how the NHS treats a condition affecting millions", putting patients at risk of losing their independence and facing premature death.
    The patient survey found that more than half had not been contacted by a healthcare professional about their condition in the past year, while almost one in four (23%) had not been contacted in more than three years.
    Fewer than a third (30%) said they were satisfied with how their osteoporosis is monitored by the NHS.
    These satisfaction levels differed in deprived areas (28%) compared to wealthier areas (50%).
    Meanwhile, the research found that half of all integrated care boards (ICBs) and health boards have no defined osteoporosis care pathway connecting hospitals and primary care.
    The APPG said a “particularly troubling” theme to emerge from the inquiry is the “sense of abandonment felt by many people with osteoporosis as a result of the lack of clinical ownership of their condition”.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 22 January 2026
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    The number of patients in hospital in England with norovirus has jumped 45% to reach a new high for this winter.
    An average of 823 hospital beds were filled each day last week by people with diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms.T
    This is up sharply from the previous week’s average of 567 patients.It is also higher than the figure at this point last year, which was 784 patients.
    The data has been published in the latest weekly snapshot of the performance of hospitals in England this winter.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 22 January 2026
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    Children in England are facing "some of the worst child health outcomes in Europe," prompting MPs to demand an "urgent" rebuilding of the health visiting workforce.
    A new report from the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee has issued a stark warning, highlighting rising obesity levels and "uneven" vaccination coverage among infants.
    The cross-party group scrutinised the critical "first 1,000 days" of a child's life, from conception to age two, concluding that government action is imperative to improve national child health.
    Committee members urged ministers to expand pledges on Family Hubs, ensuring these vital support centres are accessible in every community.
    Crucially, they called for an immediate effort to "urgently rebuild the health visiting workforce," which has seen a significant 43% reduction since 2015.
    This has resulted in a shortfall of 5,000 posts, with remaining staff managing “dangerously high” caseloads, the report states.
    The report also calls for the target of giving 95% of children their routine childhood immunisations to be reinstated in the NHS.
    “The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health says the UK has some of the worst health outcomes for young children in Europe. This should be a source of shame.
    “Over the last two decades we have seen a hollowing out of health services for infants – the Family Hubs programme still barely touches the sides of what was once provided by Sure Start centres before they were forced to close."
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 22 January 2026
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    The proportion of people in the UK on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication has tripled in the past decade, with a 20-fold increase among women aged 25 and over, a study shows.
    Researchers led by the University of Oxford examined electronic health records from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK to estimate the use of ADHD medication among adults and children aged three and above.
    Prevalence increased across all five countries between 2010 and 2023, according to the research. The UK had the highest relative increase for all ages, rising more than threefold from 0.12% to 0.39%. In the Netherlands, prevalence more than doubled, from 0.67% to 1.56%.
    Adult use increased substantially in all countries, particularly among women. In the UK, prevalence among people aged 25 and over increased from 0.01% in 2010 to 0.20% in 2023, with a more than 20-fold increase in women and 15-fold in men.
    Although ADHD medication use remained higher among males, the sex gap in treatment narrowed over time and with increasing age, the researchers said.
    “We observed a consistent increase in ADHD medication use across Europe, but the most striking changes were among adults, especially women,” said Xintong Li, the lead study author at Oxford. “These findings likely reflect growing awareness and diagnosis of adult ADHD, but they also raise important questions about long-term treatment patterns and care needs.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 21 January 2026
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    Families and former patients who say they were "failed" by a health trust are meeting to discuss what they would like to see covered in a public inquiry.
    In 2022, an investigation found major failings in the care the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Trust provided to three teenagers before their death. Last month, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced a public inquiry into it.
    He said it would "uncover failures in care and look at the concerning number of patient deaths by suicide at the trust over the past 10 years".
    Streeting said he wanted the families to play a key role, and later about 50 families and former patients will meet in Middlesbrough to talk about issues they would like answers on.
    Christie Harnett and Nadia Sharif, who were both 17, and Emily Moore, who was 18, were all treated at West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough and all took their own lives within months of each other.
    Their families led the campaign for a public inquiry.
    Their solicitor Alistair Smith said the pain of their loss "does not go away, but they want this inquiry to make permanent and radical change".
    Among those meeting later is Kate, who was a teenager when she was a patient at West Lane Hospital and said she was "haunted" by the things she witnessed and heard.
    A critical report described the unit as "chaotic and unsafe" and Kate said her own health rapidly deteriorated while she was there and she self-harmed more regularly.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 21 January 2026
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    The death of a baby girl has prompted a warning over the use of doulas during births after one had "negatively impacted" midwives.
    Henry Charles, assistant coroner for Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton, issued a prevention of future deaths report after an inquest last month into the death of Matilda Pomfret-Thomas.
    Her parents had chosen to hire a doula as part of plans for a home birth, having previously experienced a traumatic hospital delivery with their first child.
    Doulas are non-medical support workers who are not regulated, and are employed by some families to provide emotional and practical help during pregnancy and labour.
    Their role remains controversial, with supporters saying doulas offer valuable support to women, while critics - including some medical professionals - warn they may increase risks for mothers and babies.
    In this case, Matilda died on 13 November 2023 at 15 days old after suffering neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE), a form of brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen before or during birth.
    Mr Charles said Matilda developed HIE over a period of hours during labour at home and the presence of the doula did "negatively impact" midwives being able to provide advice to the mother and usual care.
    He said meconium - a baby's first bowel movement that can indicate distress - had been detected.
    Midwives attending the home birth also noted decelerations, which are drops in the baby's heart rate.
    Read full story
    Source: Sky News, 21 January 2026
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS England has told trusts to begin a “sprint” exercise in a bid to hit its politically critical waiting list target by March.
    HSJ understands “tens of millions of pounds” is likely to be made available to trusts to fund extra elective work.
    The pot was still being finalised as of last week, with the money due to be released from contingency funds within NHSE’s existing budget.
    Some trust leaders were given assurances about indicative allocations last week and told to use it as soon as possible. A formal briefing from NHSE leaders is scheduled for next week.
    Progress on increasing the proportion of patients waiting under 18 weeks from referral to first treatment stalled in the most recent reporting period. It remained at 61.8% in November – the same level as in October and September.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 21 January 2026
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    International health authorities are set to convene in April to determine if the U.S. has forfeited its measles-free designation, a year after an outbreak first emerged in West Texas.
    Experts are concerned that the vaccine-preventable virus has re-established a foothold, potentially leading the U.S. to follow Canada in losing this significant public health achievement.
    The re-evaluation is largely symbolic, contingent on whether a single measles chain has spread uninterrupted within the country for at least 12 months. Public health scientists are currently investigating potential links between the now-concluded Texas outbreak and active cases in Utah, Arizona and South Carolina.
    However, medical professionals and researchers assert that the U.S. – and North America more broadly – confronts a significant measles challenge, irrespective of the upcoming decision.
    “It is really a question of semantics,” said Dr. Jonathan Temte, a Wisconsin family physician who helped certify the U.S. was measles-free in 2000. “The bottom line is the conditions are sufficient to allow this many cases to occur. And that gets back to de-emphasizing a safe and effective vaccine.”
    “The most important thing that we can do is to make sure the people who aren’t vaccinated get vaccinated,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. “We have not issued a clear enough message about that.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 20 January 2026
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    The General Medical Council (GMC) has placed conditions on the Anaesthetics training programme at Basildon University Hospital, part of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, following serious issues relating to patient safety and the quality of postgraduate medical education.
    As the regulator responsible for setting the standards of postgraduate medical training, and checking they are being met, the GMC has taken this action to address a range of issues including failures to protect doctors in training from sexual misconduct, misogyny and undermining behaviours, as well as inappropriate staffing levels within the department.
    Doctors in training in anaesthetics are currently not working in the department due to the concerns, and the GMC will require evidence of change before conditions can be removed and before they can return.
    Professor Pushpinder Mangat, Medical Director and Director for Education and Standards at the GMC, said:
    ‘We work to make sure that education and training prepares doctors to deliver good, safe patient care by setting high standards and expected outcomes.
    ‘We need assurance that the required standards and the conditions imposed are being met, including the creation of a working culture where doctors can raise issues openly, without fear of repercussions.’
    Read full story
    Source: GMC, 19 January 2026
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    All UK children could be offered screening for type 1 diabetes using a simple finger-prick blood test, say researchers who have been running a large study.
    Currently, many young people go undiagnosed and risk developing a life-threatening complication called diabetic ketoacidosis that needs urgent hospital treatment.
    Identifying diabetes earlier could help avoid this and mean treatments to control problematic blood sugar levels can be given sooner.
    Some 17,000 children aged three to 13 have already been checked as part of the ELSA, external (Early Surveillance for Autoimmune diabetes) study, funded by diabetes charities.
    Imogen, who is 12 and from the West Midlands, is one of those found to have diabetes thanks to the screening.
    Her mum Amy says knowing what's coming, rather than being taken by surprise, has made a massive difference to their confidence and peace of mind.
    "Imogen took part in the study to further research and help others, but it has helped her too – being forewarned is being forearmed.
    "She was always going to develop type 1 diabetes, but through ELSA we've been able to slow down the process and prepare. We know what's coming, but we're not scared."
    Imogen is being given ongoing support to prepare her for what is to come.
    Amy, who is 44 and has type 1 diabetes herself, is aware of the risks with the disease. She was diagnosed aged 13 after developing diabetic ketoacidosis.
    "When I was diagnosed, I had no warning and ended up quite poorly in hospital," she recalls.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 21 January 2026
    Related reading on the hub:
    Top picks: Key resources about diabetes  
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    A woman who needs reconstructive surgery after dental work in Turkey failed says she is being kept going by a need to warn others of the dangers.
    Leanne Abeyance, 41, from Telford - who underwent a so-called "Turkey teeth" operation - was left unable to breathe through her nose, which then collapsed days before she underwent an implant removal operation.
    She remains in constant pain, which she controls with sleeping tablets and morphine every day, and feels too self-conscious to go outside.
    "It doesn't get any easier, but I'm glad that it's touched so many people," Abeyance said. "I just want to chop my head off and start again."
    She had started using a prosthetic nose but had to stop after suffering an allergic reaction.
    In the week before the implant-removal operation at Guy's Hospital in London, she said her septum "came apart" and would not stop bleeding.
    "I got my mum round, I got everyone round. I actually said goodbye to my little girls, because I thought I was going to die, I thought I was going to get sepsis and die," Abeyance said.
    The failed dental work has also led her to develop auto-immune conditions that are causing damage to her face and have made it painful to eat.
    Advice from the NHS for people who are considering going abroad for dental work, external is that while it might be cheaper than the UK, the risks of the surgery need to be weighed against the savings.
    Patients should consult their NHS dentist first, it says, as standards vary in different countries.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 21 January 2026
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    New estimates predict at least 1.6 million people in the UK will be living with glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, by 2060.
    The figure is much higher than the current 1.1 million people estimated to have the condition, research published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology suggests.
    The sharp rise will be driven by an increasingly ageing population and growth in the proportion of higher-risk ethnically diverse groups, prompting a need for an expansion in eye health services to meet demand.
    The glaucoma “demographic timebomb” will require “serious planning and action now” to ensure future patients have timely diagnosis and treatment, experts say. They also stressed the importance of annual eye checks for people in middle age, and called for awareness campaigns to be rolled out to address late diagnosis.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 20 January 2026

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