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Patient Safety Learning

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News posted by Patient Safety Learning

  1. Patient Safety Learning
    A fifth NHS hospital trust has declared a critical incident in the last 24 hours as it is overwhelmed by demand for its services.
    Nottingham University Hospitals Trust said it was facing “severe and sustained pressure” caused by rising patient numbers, winter infections and staff sickness.
    The combination has led to “significant and unacceptable” delays in A&E and on hospital wards, according to trust chiefs.
    A “critical incident” is the highest alert level used by the NHS, and when one is declared, hospitals may redirect resources, postpone non-urgent treatments and seek external support.
    Bosses at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust pleaded with the public to go to A&E only in emergencies or serious accidents, and to use other services instead.
    Patients were facing what they said were “unacceptable and lengthy” waits in corridors.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 14 January 2026
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    As of 6 January, the CDC has confirmed 2,147 measles cases in 2025 and 2026, with North Carolina and South Carolina reporting the latest cases amid dozens of outbreaks across the U.S. 
    The U.S. achieved measles elimination status in 2020, but the nation could lose this designation in late January. 
    In 2025, the CDC logged 49 outbreaks across 45 states. The federal health agency has not reported on any measles-related hospitalizations or deaths in 2026. In 2025, there were 240 hospitalisations and three deaths. 
    “About 11% of patients are still being hospitalized for measles, so hospitals may need to be ready to employ isolation precautions to prevent in-hospital spread,” Kaufman Hall said in a news release. 
    The majority of infections are among unvaccinated individuals. A national survey conducted from 17 November to 1 December by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania found a decline in the public’s perception of the safety and effectiveness of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines. In 2025, 83% of U.S. adults considered the MMR vaccine as safe, which is significantly lower than the 88% who said the same in 2022. 
    Read full story
    Source: Becker's Clinical Leadership, 13 January 2026
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    Dementia patients in the U.S. are still being prescribed risky stimulant medications despite longstanding warnings about their safety, new research has found.
    For decades, clinical guidelines have discouraged giving central nervous system stimulants to older patients because they increase the risk of delirium, falls, and hospitalizations.
    But in a peer-reviewed study published Monday in the American Medical Association's official journal, researchers estimated that roughly 25% of dementia patients enrolled in Medicare parts A, B, and D received at least one such "potentially inappropriate" medication between 2013 and 2021.
    That description covers a wide range of drugs, including antipsychotics, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, and certain antidepressants such as doxepin and imipramine.
    Across all study participants, prescriptions fell over the course of the study from around 20% to around 16%, but continued to be higher for patients with cognitive impairment as of 2021.
    "While this decline was encouraging, over two-thirds of patients receiving these prescriptions lacked a documented clinical indication in 2021, the end of the study period, suggesting high levels of potentially inappropriate and harmful prescribing," said study author and UCLA medicine professor Dr. John M. Mafi.
    “Compared with patients with normal cognition, we also found higher levels of prescribing among older adults with cognitive impairment, who face a higher risk of adverse effects from these drugs.
    "These results underscore substantial opportunities to improve the quality and safety of care for millions of older Americans."
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 13 January 2026
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    A plastic surgeon has been suspended after performing liposuction at a private Harley Street clinic without proper registration and lying to inspectors from the health watchdog.
    Dr Sayed Mia carried out gynaecomastia procedures – male breast reduction – without the necessary registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a tribunal heard.
    During an inspection by the CQC, it was alleged that Dr Mia claimed he was a patient and gave a fake name and contact details.
    The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service has suspended him for 12 months.
    The tribunal heard that on 14 November 2023, Dr Mia, who qualified in South Africa in 1999, was in consultation with a patient at the central London clinic when four CQC inspectors arrived and introduced themselves.
    The tribunal heard an inspector “intercepted” Dr Mia, telling him the reason for the visit was “to establish if regulated activities were taking place at the clinic”, after receiving complaints from members of the public.
    When asked for his name, Dr Mia told the inspector it was “Ahmed Munda”.
    He told the inspector he was having a meeting about a procedure and claimed he was a patient.
    The tribunal was told a young man waiting outside the consultation room interrupted and said: “He’s not a patient, he’s a doctor I’ve come to see.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 14 January 2026
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    The NHS is spending up to almost £20,000 a time treating people who have suffered serious setbacks after having medical procedures abroad, research has found.
    Hospitals are having to “pick up the pieces” when things go wrong for the growing number of Britons going overseas for weight loss surgery, breast enlargements or other operations.
    As many as 53% of those who do end up with complications such as infections, organ failure and wounds that do not heal, according to a study published in the journal BMJ Open.
    Some people need a stay in intensive care, further surgery and large amounts of antibiotics in order to recover from botched treatment they have paid for in another country, researchers found.
    Patients have ended up in a UK hospital for as long as 45 days as a result of complications that arose after an operation to lose weight and even longer – 49 days – after cosmetic surgery.
    It costs NHS hospitals between £1,058 and £19,549 to treat such cases, according to a review of evidence undertaken by Welsh researchers led by Dr Clare England of Health Technology Wales.
    Prof Vivien Lees, the vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “Too often people are drawn in by cut-price deals and glossy online marketing, only to return with serious, sometimes life-changing complications.
    “When things go wrong, the NHS is left to pick up the pieces, often in emergencies and without full information about what surgery was done or by whom. That puts patients at risk and adds avoidable pressure to already stretched services.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 13 January 2026
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    Circumcision kits have been found on sale on Amazon UK, highlighting lax regulation as concerns grow about deaths and serious harm to baby boys.
    In December, a UK coroner issued warnings about insufficient circumcision regulation after the death in 2023 of a six-month-old boy, Mohamed Abdisamad, from a streptococcus infection.
    In a prevention of future deaths report, Dr Anton van Dellen, assistant coroner for west London, highlighted how “any individual may conduct a non-therapeutic male circumcision (NTMC) without any prior training”, with “no requirement for any infection control measures [and] no requirements for any aftercare”, adding that “action should be taken to prevent future deaths”.
    The Guardian found “Plastibell” kits, in various sizes, on sale for £200 on Amazon in January. A listing on the site promised “a circumcision procedure which requires no special post-operative care or dressing [which] means a significant saving in both time and money”.
    It added: “The disposable PlastiBell circumcision device eliminates the need for the repetitive and costly sterilisation required for stainless steel clamps … No special dressings required.” Similar devices were on sale on eBay.
    On Saturday, the Guardian reported that draft guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) classes circumcision as a potential crime. The CPS said while circumcision was legal and “for many, a safe and celebrated tradition”, it had recently prosecuted cases of “significant harm” and that “rigorous scrutiny” and “extensive consultation with different communities” was being carried out before the guidance was finalised and brought into force.
    Lord Scriven, the Liberal Democrat peer who has repeatedly raised concerns in parliament about lax regulation, said: “Parliament needs to think about how it can defend a system where a tattooist requires a licence and a sterilised studio to carry out a tattoo, but a person carrying out genital surgery on a baby boy doesn’t."
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 14 January 2026
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    Thousands of nurses are set to walk off the job at several of New York City’s largest hospitals on Monday, staging a strike amid an intense flu season.
    The action comes three years after a previous strike that compelled some of the same hospitals to move patients elsewhere and reroute ambulances.
    Hospital operations are expected to be disrupted at a number of major private institutions, including Mount Sinai in Manhattan, Montefiore medical center in the Bronx, and NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving medical center.
    Close to 15,000 nurses are participating, making it the biggest nurses strike the city has ever seen. Most union members voted last month to authorize the walkout.
    Anticipating the possibility of a strike, New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, declared a state of emergency on Friday and urged hospital administrators and union leaders to reach a last-minute agreement. She warned that a strike “could jeopardize the lives of thousands of New Yorkers and patients”.
    “I’m strongly encouraging everyone to stay at the table, both sides, management and the nurses, until this is resolved,” Hochul said.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 13 January 2026
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    The Society of Radiographers is working alongside other organisations to launch a radiographer-led nasogastric (NG) tube position check pathway.
    Aimed at reducing misplacement incidents and improving patient safety, the pathway has been developed with Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), the British Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (BSGAR) and the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN).
    Radiographers will be trained to evaluate and record NG tube placement via X-ray, increasing efficiency and providing a safe consistent structured process. 
    Once trained, radiographers can perform these evaluations autonomously in real-time, reducing delays and providing a safe consistent structured clinical evaluation recorded on the Radiology Information System.
    NHS sites are being encouraged to pilot this pathway, with support from both SoR and RCR. Trusts and boards need to obtain local governance approval and work with key stakeholders to integrate the pathway into existing clinical workflows.
    Continuous learning will be supported through local audits, ensuring quality and safety are maintained. Radiologists play a key role in supporting radiographers and are essential for overseeing the implementation of the pathway.
    Read full story
    Source: The Society of Radiographers, 26 September 2024
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    An NHS trust that gave four newborn babies contaminated feed has admitted that it was operating “an entirely unsafe system” at the time they became infected.
    The admission came during evidence by a senior doctor at Guy’s and St Thomas’ trust (GSTT), who led its investigation into the outbreak, during an inquest into how one of the very premature babies died.
    Dr William Newsholme was answering questions last week at the inquest at Southwark coroner’s court in London into the death of Aviva Otte at St Thomas’ hospital on 2 January 2014.
    Newsholme was questioned about why the results of tests carried out on samples of the baby feed on 26 December 2013 did not come back until 6 January, by which time the baby had died and three others were ill.
    He was asked if he would agree that the long delay meant that “that this is an entirely unsafe system within which to be preparing parenteral nutrition for the most vulnerable cohort of patients in your hospital”.
    Newsholme, a consultant in infectious diseases and the trust’s clinical lead for infection prevention and control, answered: “Yes, I would.”
    The inquest is examining events surrounding the deaths of Aviva and of two other babies, nine day-old Yousef Al-Kharboush and one-month-old Oscar Barker, in an outbreak of Bacillus cereus five months later which also involved contaminated feed. Nineteen babies at nine hospitals were infected in that outbreak, three of whom died.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 24 September 2024
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    A patient with severe myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) has told a coroner that the death of a young woman could have been avoided if she received the same tube feeding which has kept him alive for the past decade.

    Whitney Dafoe, a 41-year-old American who suffers from the debilitating disease also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), has written a letter to Deborah Archer, the assistant coroner for South Devon, describing the death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill as a travesty.

    Archer has been holding an inquest into the death of Boothby O’Neill, who died aged 27 in October 2021 after suffering with severe ME which left her bedridden and starving because she was too exhausted to eat.
    Archer, who will deliver her verdict and findings on Friday, was told by NHS consultants that they could not attempt total parenteral nutrition (TPN), a type of tube feeding which bypasses the gastrointestinal tract and places nutritional fluids into a vein, because they couldn’t feed Boothby O’Neill while she was lying flat. Nor could they create “the required sterile conditions” in her bed, they said, because she couldn’t bear to be washed for periods of time.
    In a letter to the court, Dafoe said that Boothby O’Neill’s death could have been avoided had she undergone the procedure. 
    “Luckily, I had doctors who viewed ME/CFS as the serious physiological disease that it is, and understood that the risk of needing to take antibiotics occasionally or add a few extra steps to my daily routine was better than the certainty of death from starvation, dehydration or malnutrition, which is what killed Maeve.
    “Maeve just needed a way to get nutrition into her body. I got TPN and lived. Maeve was denied TPN and died.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 8 August 2024 
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    The NHS and the national medical regulator could face legal action over the shortage of intravenous feed supplies for hundreds of UK patients, HSJ has learned. 
    The law firm acting for more than a dozen patients affected by the shortage of feed supplies has confirmed to HSJ it has been instructed to take action against NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the company responsible for producing the feed, Calea. 
    Since June, hundreds of patients who rely on IV feed known as total parenteral nutrition have gone without deliveries of their bespoke feed. More than 40 people have been admitted to hospital as a result.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 29 August 2019
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    CVS Health confirmed last year it was closing half its Coram home infusion branches and firing about 2,000 nurses, dietitians and pharmacists.
    Their patients with life-threatening digestive disorders depend on parenteral nutrition, or PN — in which amino acids, sugars, fats, vitamins and electrolytes typically are pumped through a catheter into a large vein near the heart.
    A day later Optum Rx, another big supplier, announced its own consolidation. Suddenly, thousands were scrambling for their complex essential drugs and nutrients.
    “With this kind of disruption, patients can’t get through on the phones. They panic,” said Cynthia Reddick, a senior nutritionist laid off last summer in the CVS restructuring.
    “It was very difficult. Many emails, many phone calls, acting as a liaison between my doctor and the company,” said Elizabeth Fisher Smith, a 32-year-old public health instructor in New York, whose Coram branch closed. A rare medical disorder has forced her to rely on PN for survival since 2017. “It added to my mental burden,” she said
    Home and outpatient infusions in the USA are a growing business, as new drugs for chronic illness expand treatment options and enable patients, providers and insurers to avoid hospitalisation. 
    But while reimbursement for expensive new drugs has attracted corporations and private equity, the industry is constrained by a lack of nurses and pharmacists. The less profitable parts of the business — and the vulnerable patients they serve — are at risk. This includes the 30,000-plus Americans who rely on parenteral nutrition — including premature infants, post-surgery patients and those with damaged bowels because of genetic defects.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Washington Post, 6 February 2023
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    A family has been left with "lingering questions" about the death of a baby at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, an inquest has been told.
    Darrach Smyth, an infant from the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, died in 2008 following cardiac complications.
    A decision was subsequently taken to transfer children's heart surgery from Belfast to an all-Ireland centre in Dublin.
    The death of Darrach, who was born with Down's syndrome and was subsequently treated for heart and lung problems, was part of a review conducted prior to the decision to move the services from Belfast.
    At the inquest, Cora and Joseph Smyth both outlined their ongoing concerns about a decision to temporarily stop the sedation - or pain relief medication - of their son about a week before he died.
    In a statement to the inquest, his mother, Cora Smyth, explained how her son, who died almost eight months after his birth, had been receiving routine hospital treatment during his short life.
    He died shortly after cardiac surgery.
    She said her son's death had "a huge impact" on their lives and they had "lingering" unanswered questions.
    These questions are about the pausing of sedation for a period during and after Darrach's transfer from the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit to the Children's Hospital, shortly before his death.
    Cora Smyth explained that the family was not aware of this at the time, and only discovered it when they requested hospital notes, following a BBC News NI report four years later in 2012, about a review of children's congenital cardiac services in Belfast.
    She said no one at the hospital has ever adequately answered their questions about this issue.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 12 January 2025
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    When Leigh White remembers her brother Ryan, she thinks of a boy of extraordinary ability who “won five scholarships at 11” including a coveted place at Bancroft’s, a private school in London. He was, she said, “super bright, witty, personable, generous and kind”.
    Ryan killed himself on 12 May 2024. A report written after his death acknowledged significant shortcomings in the support he received while seeking help for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
    Ryan had followed the “right to choose” pathway, whereby patients can pick a private provider anywhere in the country for assessment, diagnosis and initial treatment. They then ask their GP to enter a shared-care agreement for prescriptions and monitoring. However, Ryan struggled to get the two services to link up.
    The problem lies in the fact that shared care is voluntary and not all GPs agree to it. Some patients told the Guardian their doctor had rejected their private diagnosis on the grounds that it did not meet their standards. This was even after the NHS had paid for it – and despite there being no official rules for private providers to follow. Some, like Ryan, end up stuck in administrative limbo.
    Ryan is one of many people who have been failed by the right to choose system. Psychologists and psychiatrists who spoke to the Guardian shared their concerns that allowing NHS patients to obtain ADHD assessments at private providers was “premature” and had led to a “wild west”.
    Right to choose was introduced for mental healthcare and neurodevelopmental care in 2018, in part to ease pressure on waiting lists that were up to a decade long.
    But Marios Adamou, a consultant psychiatrist and founder of the UK Adult ADHD Network (UKAAN), said this had come too soon, because “there was no standard in what good assessment looks like and there’s still no standard for what a qualified assessor would look like”.
    Right to choose was “poorly regulated, poorly managed and some people are making lots of money out of it”, Adamou said, adding: “If you don’t have regulation for that you are inviting a wild west.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 13 January 2026
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    Four NHS hospital trusts in south east England have declared a “critical incident” as they struggle to cope with a surge in admissions due to flu and norovirus.
    Three trusts in Surrey and one in Kent said the escalations have come after a “surge in complex attendances to A&E departments” driven in part by soaring numbers of patients with winter illnesses.
    Health secretary Wes Streeting has warned the NHS is “not out of the woods yet”, as flu cases spiked once again last week, following two weeks where admissions had fallen after high numbers of cases were seen before Christmas.
    In a statement on Monday, NHS Surrey Heartlands added the situation had been “exacerbated by increases in flu and norovirus cases and an increase in staff sickness” as well as the impact of the recent cold snap on more frail patients.
    The three Surrey trusts affected are Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust ,and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
    East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT) also declared a critical incident due to what it called “sustained pressures” at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.
    It said its hospitals are experiencing “exceptionally high demand, driven by a continued high admission rate and a large number of patients with winter illnesses and respiratory viruses”.
    NHS Surrey Heartlands urged patients to ensure they are using services “appropriately” and only attending A&E in an emergency.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 13 January 2025
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    More women are dying during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth compared to over a decade ago – despite a pledge by the last government to halve maternal mortality rates, new data shows.
    The research by MBBRACE-UK suggests the national rate of maternal deaths is now 20% higher than it was in 2009-11.
    It found there were 252 maternal deaths between 2022 and 2024, with most women dying due to blood clots and heart disease, while around a third died by suicide.
    The investigation, led by Oxford Population Health’s national perinatal epidemiology unit, examined the deaths of women between January 2022 and December 2024 during pregnancy or within six weeks after their pregnancy had ended.
    It found the rate of direct maternal deaths, due to conditions occurring as a result of pregnancy, such as blood clots, bleeding and pre-eclampsia, increased by 52%, while indirect deaths caused by pre-existing conditions were largely unchanged.
    Inequalities remained, with black women dying at a rate three times higher than those from a white ethnic background.
    Donna Ockenden, who is currently leading the Nottingham University Hospitals Foundation Trust maternity review, said: “It is so distressing to read of the issues outlined in the latest MBRRACE report… but unfortunately it is not unexpected.
    “We have known about the inequalities within maternity care provision in excess of a decade, yet the same issues still persist despite stated ambitions to reduce harm.
    “Nowhere near enough has been done to fix the chronic problems, and sadly, it appears that progress has stalled. Suicide has been known to be a leading cause of death for years. This highlights once again that maternity services are not ‘an island’ and that families deserve better support before, during, and after the birth of their baby.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 13 January 2026
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) will remove broad “black box” warning labels from hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopause. 
    The action, announced Monday, follows a comprehensive review of scientific literature by an expert panel at the agency in July, officials said, as well as a public comment period. Manufacturers are now expected to update and reprint their product labeling to remove references to risks of cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and probable dementia. 
    “The label was designed to frighten women and to silence doctors,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on stage during the announcement on Monday morning. “The consequences have been devastating.” 
    The FDA will not remove the boxed warning for endometrial cancer for systemic estrogen-only products. Its labeled recommendation will be to start HRT within 10 years of menopause onset or before 60 years of age for systemic HRT. 
    Use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) plummeted quickly after a flawed, now infamous 2002 study. While the study found a small increased risk of breast cancer among participants using HRT, described as less than a tenth of 1% per year for an individual woman, critics say its results were widely misinterpreted and blown out of proportion. A 2024 study found that only 5% of American women use HRT for menopause.
    About 80% of women experience menopause symptoms that can last years, yet research has found women who initiate HRT before the age of 60 have a reduction in all-cause mortality. HRT may also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 50%; Alzheimer’s disease by 35%; bone fractures by up to 60%, according to figures an HHS press release cited.
    Echoing Kennedy, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary blamed the study and “medical group-think” for creating “a fear machine that still lingers.” No clinical trial has ever shown that HRT increases the risk of breast cancer mortality, said Makary, who was previously a surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins.
    “How could the medical establishment get it so wrong for so long?” Makary questioned. “Women deserve the same rigorous science as do men.”
    Read full story
    Source: Fierce Healthcare, 10 November 2025
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    Almost every hospital trust in England is failing to meet the key NHS waiting time target for cancer care, BBC analysis shows.
    Just three trusts out of 121 in England are treating cancer patients quickly enough - within 62 days - with experts warning delays could be putting lives at risk.
    The government accepted waits were too long, but said it was investing in the NHS to improve performance.
    Research shows getting treatment quickly is crucial, with every four-week delay reducing patient survival by an average of 10%.
    Dr Timothy Hanna, a leading global expert on cancer who led that research, said the BBC findings were "worrying".
    "It's not a few outliers. It's the norm for trusts in England to not hit these waiting time targets and they are set for a reason - timely treatment can improve survival rates."
    Paul, who has stage three colon cancer, is one of many patients who has faced delays. His first biopsy was taken in January 2024 when cancer was suspected.
    He did not receive any further contact from his cancer services, despite his best efforts, until January this year. He eventually had surgery on his colon in February.
    “The waiting was horrendous and now I think that if I had been treated properly and not had to wait so long it wouldn't have progressed to stage three,” Paul said.
    He is due to have further surgery next year.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 11 November 2025
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    Canada is no longer measles-free because of ongoing outbreaks, international health experts said on Monday, as childhood vaccination rates fall and the highly contagious virus spreads across North and South America.
    The loss of the country’s measles elimination status comes more than a year after the highly contagious virus started spreading.
    Canada has logged 5,138 measles cases this year and two deaths. Both were babies who were exposed to the measles virus in the womb and born prematurely.
    Measles elimination is a symbolic designation, but it represents a hard-won battle against the infectious disease. It is earned when a country shows it stopped continuous spread of the virus within local communities, though occasional cases might still pop up from travel.
    It is prevented by a vaccine administered routinely and safely to children around the world.
    “It’s a deeply disheartening development. It’s a deeply worrisome development. And, frankly, it’s an embarrassing development,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a Brown University infectious disease expert. “No country with the amount of resources of Canada – or other countries in North America even – should lose their measles elimination status.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 11 November 2025
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    A woman from East Sussex who was plunged into sudden menopause after surgery to remove both ovaries is spearheading efforts to change NHS policy in this area.
    Kate Dyson, 44, from Hastings, underwent the surgery six months ago after having a subtotal hysterectomy just over four years ago to remove her uterus - a procedure which leaves the cervix in place.
    The mum-of-three says she was completely unprepared for the impact of surgical menopause, which is triggered by both ovaries being removed.
    "Honestly it was like falling off a hormonal cliff edge," she told BBC Radio Sussex.
    "Within hours of the surgery I was home the same day. I was experiencing hot flushes, confusion, and the first night I woke up in the morning and I was absolutely dripping with sweat," she said.
    Ms Dyson says she found the aftercare galling, and says this is commonplace for many women.
    She said: "We are discharged without hormones, without warning, and without support. In my discharge notes it simply read, 'can try combined HRT [hormone replacement therapy] if she wishes', as if it were suggesting a glass of wine at the weekend."
    This experience prompted her to start campaign group Surge Menopause, whose aim is to push the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to revolutionise its offering.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 November 2025
    Related reading on the hub:
    “It’s not menopause, you’re too young and don’t have the right symptoms"—the difficulties accessing menopause support and treatment Raising awareness of surgical menopause
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    Several technologies in use in the NHS are operating under a low-risk form of regulation, despite being advertised for remote monitoring of patients’ vital signs, HSJ  can reveal.
    An HSJ  analysis of registrations with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)  has found wide variation in the classification of remote monitoring systems – with some complex software operating on the same level of risk assessment as a bandage or needleless syringe.
    The systems use wearable devices to track vital signs, blood sugar levels, medicine adherence and other health observations outside hospital, with the aim of triggering an intervention when patients are at risk.
    Between November 2020 and January 2023, over 487,000 people were supported at home using the technologies,  and the government is pledging a big expansion.
    Some of the most widely used platforms are listed with the MHRA as “Class I” devices – the category for devices with the ”lowest risk”, which can be self-certified by manufacturers, and is subject to minimal external oversight.
    Suppliers said cost and a shortage of “notified bodies”, which can review applications, held them back from obtaining higher accreditation.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 11 November 2025
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    Trusts should deliver at least 95 per cent of planned elective activity during the forthcoming five-day resident doctor’s strike, according to NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey.
    In a letter to trust and integrated care board CEOs, he also says a “predicted spike” of flu expected immediately after the strike action makes it essential the service recovers as quickly as possible.
    The letter, seen by HSJ, begins by stating: “Frustratingly, the British Medical Association has confirmed their planned strikes for next week will go ahead from 7am on Friday 14 November to 7am on Wednesday 19 November.”
    The NHSE chief executive writes: “Reducing volumes of bookings, rescheduling appointments and other activity should only happen in exceptional circumstances to safeguard patient safety. This should be undertaken in consultation with your NHS England regional chief operating officer.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 10 November 2025
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    Organised crime gangs have begun manufacturing their own branded weight-loss drugs, designed to look like legitimate medicines, in what authorities warn is a significant threat.
    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the trend had only just emerged, leading them to conduct the largest single seizure of trafficked weight-loss drugs ever recorded by any global law enforcement agency.
    Andy Morling, the head of the MHRA’s criminal enforcement unit, said that in the last few months it had seen a new model of production, “where criminals are putting investment into designing their own packaging and branding … and selling it purporting to be a genuine product”.
    He added: “That is an unusual model. [What they seized] looked like genuine medicines, but are entirely unlicensed and illegal to sell in the UK. The most recent model, and the level of investment to do packaging and production facilities to sell on an industrial scale – that is undoubtedly organised crime. That is why we are working to eliminate that model before it takes a grip.”
    Morling said a product “that sophisticated … is a significant concern” for his unit.
    Morling said that there was a “blurring of line in what is considered medicine and another cosmetic treatment available these days”. He said that most customers thought what they were buying in the syringes was a cosmetic treatment.
    Morling added: “Some of the beauty parlours are selling them in this setting not realising that they are selling medicine that could end up giving them a custodial sentence … In both customer and seller there is a lack of awareness.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 11 November 2025
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS staff who care for patients in their own homes fear some areas have become “no-go zones” for them because of the presence of St George’s flags, health leaders have said.
    Black and Asian staff have been left feeling “deliberately intimidated” as a result of the flags that were put up in many parts of England during the summer, according to the chief executive of one NHS trust in England, who asked to remain anonymous.
    “We saw during the time the flags went up, our staff, who are a large minority of black and Asian staff, feeling deliberately intimidated,” he said.
    “It felt like the flags were creating no-go zones. That’s what it felt like to them. You add on top of that real autonomous working, that real bravery of working in people’s homes, with an environment … [where] it feels like it’s an area that’s designed to exclude them.”
    He said his staff had felt intimidated, “and, if I’m honest, in many cases I think that’s what it was designed to feel like”, he added.
    The Royal College of Nursing said the fear created by the flags was part of an alarming wider picture. Prof Nicola Ranger, the union’s general secretary, said: “A sustained campaign of anti-migrant rhetoric is fuelling a growing cesspool of racism, including against international and ethnic minority nursing staff, without whom our health and care system would simply cease to function.
    “Those working in the community feel especially vulnerable and employers have a duty to ensure they are protected.
    “Following a summer of further racist disorder, it is little wonder a growing number of nursing staff report feeling unsafe, particularly when having to work on their own and often at night.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 11 November 2025
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    An injection to prevent HIV which is being offered in Great Britain will also be rolled out in Northern Ireland, it has been confirmed.
    The long-acting cabotegravir (CAB-LA) jab, which is administered every two months, is an alternative to HIV prevention pills, known as PrEP, which is used daily.
    It was announced last month that the injection had been approved for England and Wales, bringing it into line with Scotland.
    Campaigners had called for Northern Ireland health authorities to follow suit - with the Department of Health (DoH) now saying the treatment will be rolled-out, a prominent LGBT charity has described the move as "a game-changer".
    The Rainbow Project's chief executive Scott Cuthbertson said it "could make HIV prevention much more widely accessible".
    Known as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), the treatment is taken by HIV-negative people to reduce the risk of getting HIV. It was introduced in Northern Ireland in 2018.
    It is taken as a pill and is effective, but they are not always easy for some to take.
    It can be hard to access, unpractical or feel embarrassing if people are worried about the possibility of parents or housemates finding the medication.
    Other factors such as homelessness can make it difficult to take oral PrEP every day.
    However, cabotegravir is given as jab, usually six times a year or every other month, making it potentially more convenient and discreet.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 9 November 2025

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