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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    Hospital bosses fear that further strikes by doctors will push the NHS “close to breaking point” as it struggles to cope with its winter crisis in the months ahead.
    NHS leaders are concerned that medics’ plans to continue their campaign of stoppages until February will make it even harder for the service to manage what is always its toughest period.
    Four days of strikes this week in England have included the first-ever 24-hour joint strike over pay on Wednesday by consultants and junior doctors. This latest series of stoppages – two days by consultants and three days by junior doctors – has forced hospitals to reschedule many thousands of outpatient appointments and non-urgent operations because of the lack of staff.
    “Winter pressures, respiratory illness and rising Covid again mean that the next six months will be exceptionally difficult. Winter always is,” said one hospital trust chief executive, who asked not to be named.
    “The NHS is effective at absorbing pressure but the industrial action may, at times, take us close to breaking point and often patient harm and the impact on NHS staff is not fully recognised,” he said.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 20 September 2023
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    Certain spina bifida-related surgeries remain suspended at Children's Health Ireland at Temple Street (CHI) for almost a year amid serious allegations that unlicensed devices made with non-medical parts have been implanted in child patients. In two cases where these devices were used, the implants had to be removed from patients after causing significant harm, while the efficacy of a third is yet to be determined.
    One senior member at the hospital has raised concerns about the number of repeat operations required on young spina bifida patients and associated rates of reinfection, with disquiet in the hospital eventually leading to first an internal review of operations in October 2022 and later an external probe by US clinicians.
    In June this year there were 287 children on waiting lists in Ireland for life-changing spinal surgery. Despite a commitment first given by then health minister Simon Harris in 2017 that no child would be on the waiting list for more than four months, there are still more than 120 children waiting more than a year for scoliosis surgery, according to the Ombudsman for Children.
    CHI has declined to comment on allegations that one of its surgeons has used the unlicensed, failed implants, as well as its decision to cease operations on spina bifida patients.
    Patient advocate Amanda Santry, who took part in the external review on behalf of Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy, has said she has been denied access to the review findings and has also called for a “full investigation” into the allegations of the use of non-medical parts.
    Read full story
    Source: The Ditch, 15 September 2023
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    The BMA’s GP Committee (GPC) has demanded an investigation into the Government and NHS England’s ‘mismanagement’ of this year’s vaccination programmes.
    A motion was passed at the GPC England meeting today which called for a review of the ‘circumstances which led to muddled and mismanaged communications’ and for reflection on how to ‘prevent a repeat occurrence’.
    Last month, there was confusion over the start date for the adult flu and Covid vaccination programmes, which usually start in September.
    NHS England said the programmes would start in October this year – a move which the BMA said would cause ‘serious disruption’.
    But the Government then announced that vaccination will begin on 11 September, in what the BMA has called a ‘u-turn’, following the identification of a new Covid variant.
    GPs were asked to vaccinate ‘as many people as possible’ by the end of October.
    The GPC has said today that these ‘conflicting instructions’ led to confusion among GPs while also impacting on patient safety.
    Read full story
    Source: Pulse, 21 September 2023
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    People living with long Covid after being admitted to hospital are more likely to show some damage to major organs, according to a new study.
    MRI scans revealed patients were three times more likely to have some abnormalities in multiple organs such as the lungs, brain and kidneys.
    Researchers believe there is a link with the severity of the illness.
    It is hoped the UK study will help in the development of more effective treatments for Long Covid.
    The study, published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine, looked at 259 patients who fell so ill with the virus that they were admitted to hospital.
    Five months after they were discharged, MRI scans of their major organs showed some significant differences when compared to a group of 52 people who had never had Covid.
    The biggest impact was seen on the lungs, where the scans were 14 times more likely to show abnormalities.
    MRI scans were also three times more likely to show some abnormalities in the brain - and twice as likely in the kidneys - among people who had had severe Covid.
    Dr Betty Raman, from the University of Oxford and one of the lead investigators on the study, says it is clear that those living with long Covid symptoms are more likely to have experienced some organ damage.
    She said: "The patient's age, how severely ill they were with Covid, as well as if they had other illnesses at the same time, were all significant factors in whether or not we found damage to these important organs in the body."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 23 September 2023
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    A trust chief executive has warned of a ‘really significant increase’ in patient anxiety and frustration created by the ongoing doctors’ strikes. 
    Lance McCarthy, the chief executive officer of Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust, made the comments during the most recent four-day junior doctors’ strike, which also coincided with two days of consultant strike action.
    The trust leader told Hertfordshire and West Essex integrated care board on Friday: “We shouldn’t underestimate the impact industrial action is having.”
    Mr McCarthy said this impact was not just confined to strike days but also affected the run-up and aftermath of each bout of industrial action. He said every series of strike days caused service disruption for at least another 72 hours. 
    He said: “We are seeing increasing frustration [from] our colleagues around it, because we are constantly duplicating work, cancelling patients, rebooking the same patients, etc.
    “We are [also] quite understandably starting to see in the last two months a really significant increase in anxiety and concern and frustration from our patients, who took it quite well the first couple of rounds but are understandably really frustrated. It is having a really significant impact.”
    In a further statement to HSJ, Mr McCarthy reiterated comments that trust staff had noticed an increase in anxiety, concern and frustration among both patients and colleagues in recent months. 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 25 September 2023
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    A coroner has warned that a private hospital is relying on NHS ambulances to transport patients despite “being fully aware” of the pressures on the ambulance service and resulting delays.
    The warning came at the end of an inquest into a patient who died after a 14-hour wait for an ambulance to transfer him from the private Spire hospital in Norwich to the NHS-run Norfolk and Norwich university hospital a few minutes’ drive away. The last two years have seen a succession of inquests relating to ambulance delays. But in the latest case Jacqueline Lake, senior coroner for Norfolk, expressed concerns over Spire hospital’s use of NHS ambulances when complications and emergencies mean its patients need NHS care.
    “Spire Norwich hospital does not deal with multi-disciplinary and emergency treatment at its hospital and transfers patients requiring such treatment to local acute trusts, usually the Norfolk and Norwich university hospital,” Lake wrote in a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report. “Spire Norwich hospital continues to rely on EEAST [East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust] to transport such patients to the acute hospital, being fully aware of the demands placed on the EEAST generally and the delays which occur as a result.”
    Research suggests that nearly 600 patients were urgently transferred from private healthcare to NHS emergency care in the year to June 2021 across the UK – around one in a thousand private healthcare patients. But previous analysis by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI) thinktank found that some private hospitals were transferring more than one in every 250 of their inpatients to NHS hospitals.
    ‘“Transferring unwell patients from a private hospital to an NHS hospital is a known patient safety risk which all patients treated in the private sector face – including the increased numbers of NHS patients who are now being treated in private hospitals because of government policy,” said David Rowland, director of the CHPI. “And despite numerous tragedies and despite the fact that politicians and regulators are fully aware of this risk, nothing has been done to address it.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 23 September 2023
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    A hospital trust failed to send out 24,000 letters from senior doctors to patients and their GPs after they became lost in a new computer system, the BBC has learned.
    Newcastle Hospitals warned the problem, dating back to 2018, is significant.
    The BBC has been told the problems occurred when letters requiring sign-off from a senior doctor were placed into a folder few staff knew existed.
    The healthcare regulator has sought urgent assurances over patient safety.
    Most of the letters explain what should happen when patients are discharged from hospital. But a significant number of the unsent letters are written by specialist clinics spelling out care that is needed for patients. It means that some crucial tests and results may have been missed by patients.
    Staff have been told to record any resulting incidents of patient harm and ensure these are addressed.
    Following a routine inspection by the regulator - the Care Quality Commission (CQC) - in the summer, staff at the trust raised concerns about delays in sending out correspondence.
    A subsequent review of the trust's consultants revealed that most had unsent letters in their electronic records.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 26 September 2023
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    Thousands of people with asthma and other lung problems are going undiagnosed because most GPs in England do not offer tests for them, according to a new report.
    The failure to diagnose and start treating people with breathing problems threatens to create “a deluge of hospital admissions this winter” when the NHS is under intense pressure.
    Sarah Woolnough, the chief executive of charity Asthma and Lung UK, said: “The abysmal lack of testing and patchy basic care is causing avoidable harm to people with lung conditions and the NHS.”
    The report, which the Charity Commissioned from consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, found that most GP surgeries in England do not provide basic lung function tests.
    Patients’ inability to access a test to check if they have asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) represents a “crisis in care” that could lead to many being hospitalised this winter “as respiratory viruses take hold and people struggle to heat their homes”, Asthma and Lung UK added.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 26 September 2023
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    Police forces in parts of the UK have stopped answering urgent calls related to mental health even before alternative support is available to people, under a policy designed to free up officers’ time, MPs were told last week.
    The move means many vulnerable people are being left without help in areas where the necessary services and arrangements with other agencies are not yet in place, warned Sarah Hughes, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind.
    Giving evidence to the House of Commons health select committee on Tuesday 19 September, Hughes said, “We know of local Mind and local trust partners who are already experiencing people having no response because the police are saying they no longer respond to mental health calls.”
    The policy, Right Care, Right Person, which was developed by Humberside Police over nearly three years, is being rolled out in England and Wales from the end of October at varying speeds. Backed by the government and police representative bodies, it aims to ensure that patients in a mental health crisis are treated by the most appropriate agency, rather than have police act as default responder, when they may not be best suited to help.
    But the Royal College of Psychiatrists is among the organisations to have raised concerns over the levels of preparation and resourcing for the policy and the absence of evaluation of clinical outcomes or benefits and harms to the population.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: BMJ, 25 September 2023
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    The message that vaping is 95% safer than smoking has backfired, encouraging some children to vape, says a top health expert.
    Dr Mike McKean treats children with lung conditions and is vice-president for policy at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. He says the 2015 public messaging should have been clearer - vapes are only for adults addicted to cigarettes.
    Evidence on the possible health risks of vaping is still being gathered.
    In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Dr McKean said: "Vaping is not for children and young people. In fact it could be very bad for you," although he stresses that it is not making lots of children very sick, and serious complications are rare.
    "Vaping is only a tool for adults who are addicted to cigarettes."
    He says the 95% safe messaging was "a very unwise thing to have done and it's opened the door to significant chaos".
    "There are many children, young people who have taken up vaping who never intended to smoke and are now likely addicted to vaping. And I think it's absolutely shocking that we've allowed that to happen."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 26 September 2023
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    MSPs are set to vote on a new law to establish a patient safety commissioner.
    The bill to create an "independent public advocate" for patients will go through its final stage on Wednesday.
    Public Health Minister Jenny Minto has said the commissioner would be able to challenge the healthcare system and ensure patient voices were heard.
    The Scottish government has been told the new watchdog must have the power to prevent future scandals.
    In 2020, former UK Health Minister Baroness Julia Cumberlege published a review into the safety of medicines and medical devices like Primodos, transvaginal mesh and the epilepsy drug sodium valproate.
    She told the House of Lords: "Warnings ignored. Patients' concerns ignored. A system that seemed unwilling or unable to listen let alone respond, unwilling or unable to stop the harm."
    Her findings led to the recommendation for a patient safety commissioner.
    Speaking ahead of the vote on the Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Bill, Ms Minto said the watchdog would listen to patients' views.
    "I think it's a really important role for us to have in Scotland," she said.
    "There's been a number of inquiries or situations where the patient's voice really needs to be listened to and that's what a patient safety commissioner will do."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 27 September 2023
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    Health experts are calling for a “feminist approach” to cancer to eliminate inequalities, as research reveals 800,000 women worldwide are dying needlessly every year because they are denied optimal care.
    Cancer is one of the biggest killers of women and ranks in their top three causes of premature deaths in almost every country on every continent.
    But gender inequality and discrimination are reducing women’s opportunities to avoid cancer risks and impeding their ability to get a timely diagnosis and quality care, according to a new Lancet Commission on women, power and cancer.
    The largest report of its kind, which studied women and cancer in 185 countries, found unequal power dynamics across society globally were having “resounding negative impacts” on how women experience cancer prevention and treatment.
    Gender inequalities are also hindering women’s professional advancement as leaders in cancer research, practice and policymaking, which in turn perpetuates the lack of women-centred cancer prevention and care, the report adds.
    It is calling for a new feminist agenda for cancer care to eliminate gender inequality.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 26 September 2023
     
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    More than half of staff at a hospital trust that has been under fire for its "toxic culture" have said they felt bullied or harassed.
    The findings come from an independent review commissioned by University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust.
    It has been at the centre of NHS scrutiny after a culture of fear was uncovered in a BBC Newsnight investigation.
    UHB has apologised for "unacceptable behaviours". It added it was committed to changing the working environment.
    Of 2,884 respondents to a staff survey, 53% said they had felt bullied or harassed at work, while only 16% believed their concerns would be taken up by their employer.
    Many said they were fearful to complain "as they believed it could worsen the situation," the review team found.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 27 September 2023
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    Millions of people wrongly believe they are allergic to penicillin, which could mean they take longer to recover after an infection, pharmacists say.
    About four million people in the UK have the drug allergy on their medical record - but when tested, 90% of them are not allergic, research suggests.
    The Royal Pharmaceutical Society says many people confuse antibiotic side-effects with an allergic reaction.
    Common allergic symptoms include itchy skin, a raised rash and swelling. Nausea, breathlessness, coughing, diarrhoea and a runny nose are some of the others.
    But antibiotics, which treat bacterial infections, can themselves cause nausea or diarrhoea and the underlying infection can also lead to a rash.
    And this means people often mistakenly believe they are allergic to penicillin, which is in many good, common antibiotics.
    These are used to treat chest, skin and urinary tract infections - but if people are labelled allergic, they are given second-choice antibiotics, which can be less effective.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 28 September 2023
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    Women have faced delays in giving birth due to the ongoing strikes, a major trust’s chief executive has said.
    Matthew Hopkins, who joined Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust last month, told a board meeting on Thursday that industrial action was having a “significant and growing” impact on patients.
    He added that this extended beyond delays to outpatient appointments and elective operations, saying: “It is also delaying mums giving birth, because we are seeing delays now in being able to conduct our elective Caesarian sections.”
    Mr Hopkins said the impact was also “really significant” on staff, with those covering for colleagues “very, very tired”.
    “It is important we give a very clear message to the two sides of the argument – government and the [British Medical Association] – that we need a light at the end of the tunnel, and staff need a light at the end of the tunnel.
    “Going into winter, with this continuing disruption for our patients and our staff, is in my view unacceptable.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 28 September 2023
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    Parents are being urged to get their children vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) after a “worrying” drop in uptake of key vaccines.
    Figures from NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show 92.5% of children had had the first dose of the MMR jab at five years old by 2022-23, the lowest since 2010-11.
    The proportion of five-year-olds who had had the second jab by 2022-23 was 84.5%, also the lowest level since 2010-11.
    Vaccination programmes across England failed to meet the uptake recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the year 2022-23. WHO recommends that, nationally, at least 95% of children should be inoculated for diseases that can be stopped by vaccines, in order to prevent outbreaks.
    NHS data showed no routine vaccine programme met the threshold during the 12-month period. Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, a consultant medical epidemiologist at UKHSA, said the downward trend was a “serious concern”.
    “The diseases that these vaccines protect against, such as measles, polio and meningitis, can be life-changing and even deadly,” she said. “No parent wants this for their child especially when these diseases are easily preventable. Please don’t put this off, check now that your children are fully up to date with all their vaccines due. Check your child’s red book and get in touch with your GP surgery if you are not sure.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 29 September 2023
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    The NHS has to train two GPs to produce one full-time family doctor because so many have started to work part-time, new research reveals.
    The finding helps explain why GP surgeries are still struggling to give patients appointments as quickly as they would like, despite growing numbers of doctors training to become a GP.
    The disclosure is contained in a report by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank that lays bare the large number of nurses, midwives and doctors who quit during their training or early in their careers.
    “These high dropout rates are in nobody’s interest,” said Dr Billy Palmer, a senior fellow at the thinktank and co-author of the report. “They’re wasteful for the taxpayer, often distressing for the students and staff who leave, stressful for the staff left behind, and ultimately erode the NHS’s ability to deliver safe and high-quality care.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 28 September 2023
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    Prescribers should not start any new patients on some ADHD medicines because of a national shortage, the Department for Health and Social Care has warned.
    GPs are also being asked to identify and contact all patients currently prescribed the medicines to ensure they have supplies to last.
    A national patient safety alert said there were ‘supply disruptions’ of various strengths of methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine and guanfacine.
    It follows a previous alert about shortages of atomoxetine capsules in August which is set to resolve next month, DHSC said.
    The shortages are due to a combination of manufacturing issues and an increased global demand, the alert explained.
    With the latest issues expected to continue to December for some medicines, new patients should not be started on the products affected by shortages until the supply issue resolves, the guidance sent to healthcare professionals said.
    Where patients do not have enough to last until the re-supply date – which differs depending on the medicine in question – GPs are being asked to contact pharmacies to find out about stocks and reach out to the patient’s specialist team for advice if a product cannot be sourced.
    Read full story
    Source: Pulse, 28 September 2023
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    An NHS hospital trust in Nottingham failed to send more than 400,000 digital letters and documents to GPs and patients, BBC News can reveal.
    A former employee has told of "a lack of responsibility" over a new computer system.
    Patient body Healthwatch said it was "deeply concerned" by the scale of the incident and the impact on care.
    The trust says a full investigation took place in 2017 and found no significant harm to patients.
    But it has now said it will carry out a review of that investigation and take any further action needed.
    The healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it was not aware of the incident and would be following up with the trust.
    This is the second major incident in England involving unsent NHS letters uncovered by the BBC recently.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 30 September 2023
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    Thousands of women may be missing out on a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes because the thresholds are geared towards men, research suggests.
    Scientists assessed test results from more than one million patients across the country and concluded that the bar for diagnosis might be set too high for women. They calculated that, if thresholds were lowered slightly, an extra 35,000 women under the age of 50 in England would be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes — increasing the number in this age group with the condition by 17%.
    Under the present guidelines, those 35,000 women would be given the all-clear and would miss out on the chance of earlier treatment and lifestyle advice, increasing their risk of complications in later life.
    The team, led by doctors at the University of Manchester and including researchers from hospitals nationwide, stressed that their findings were preliminary, and needed further assessment before their hypothesis was confirmed. But, if proved correct, they believe that about 65 young women may be dying of diabetes each year without a diagnosis.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 1 October 2023
     
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    Former police officers, including a murder detective, have been hired by NHS hospitals in a move that campaigners have warned risks discouraging whistleblowers.
    The Sunday Telegraph has revealted that retired officers have been employed by a trust currently under scrutiny for its treatment of doctors who raise patient safety concerns.
    One of them has taken up a patient safety incident investigator role worth up to £57,349 a year. Meanwhile a senior detective has been called into multiple trusts on an ad hoc basis to conduct investigations.
    Last night a leading patient group called on the NHS to be transparent about exactly how such personnel are being used, “given the ongoing concerns about how such roles interact with whistleblowers”.
    Paul Whiteing, chief executive of the charity Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA), said: “We at AvMA welcome any steps taken by Trusts to professionalise the investigation of patient safety incidents. This is long overdue. 
    “But given the on-going concerns about how such roles interact with whistleblowers, to maintain trust and confidence of all of the staff, trusts need to be clear, open and transparent about why they are making such appointments and the role and duties of those they employ to fulfil them, whatever their backgrounds.”
    Campaigners have warned that some NHS trusts deliberately seek to conflate patient safety issues with staff workplace investigations.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Telegraph, 30 September 2023
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    The mother of a four-year-old boy with complex needs said she fears he could die waiting for life-changing surgery.
    Collette Mullan made the claim to BBC Spotlight as it examined the scale of hospital waiting lists.
    Northern Ireland has the worst waiting times in the UK, with more than half a million cases queued for an outpatient or inpatient appointment.
    The Department of Health has described current waiting lists as "entirely unacceptable".
    Óisín, from County Londonderry, has a number of health conditions including cerebral palsy, and is currently waiting for two procedures.
    He is fed with a tube that carries his food through his nose into his stomach, but since it was inserted six months ago, his mum Collette said he has struggled to breathe.
    Óisín is now waiting to have the nasogastric tube removed and replaced by a different feeding system which goes directly to his stomach.
    Collette said she was told it could be a three-year wait for the procedure.
    She is concerned that Óisín's cerebral palsy puts him at a greater risk of complications, saying she had been warned there was a danger he could aspirate.
    "He could die. Anything going into his lung really, it could be very dangerous," she said.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 3 October 2023
     
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    A trust has been reprimanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for exposing a domestic abuse victim to risk by disclosing their address to an ex-partner.
    University Hospitals Dorset Foundation Trust is one of only seven organisations in the UK – and the only NHS organisation – to have received a reprimand since July 2022 for a data breach involving a victim of domestic abuse.
    According to new details released by the ICO, University Hospitals Dorset received a reprimand in April this year over a procedure it had in place that, when sending correspondence by letter, would include the full addresses of all recipients of that letter without their consent to do so.
    In the case that was referred to the ICO, the subject of the data breach had their full address revealed to their ex-partner despite previous allegations of abuse, which has created a “risk of unwanted contact which will remain”.
    The ICO concluded that, while the subject did not request their address be withheld, it would not be a reasonable expectation that personal information would be shared without prior consent.
    The report raised concerns that UHD did not have a clear policy in place for managing situations where there are parental disputes and that no formal training was provided to administrative staff for dealing with such circumstances.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 2 October 2023
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    A group of 67 women from Greenland are seeking compensation from the Danish government over a campaign of involuntary birth control in the 1960s.
    At least 4,500 women, some of them teenagers, were fitted with coils under a programme intended to limit birth rates among the indigenous population.
    An inquiry is due to conclude in 2025, but the women, some of whom are in their 70s, want compensation now.
    They are seeking 300,000 kroner (£34,880; $42,150) each.
    Records from the national archives showed that, between 1966 and 1970 alone, intrauterine devices (IUDs) were fitted into the women, some as young as 13, without their knowledge or consent.
    A commission set up by the Danish and Greenlandic governments to investigate the programme is not due to deliver its findings until May 2025.
    "We don't want to wait for the results of the inquiry," said psychologist Naja Lyberth, who initiated the compensation claim.
    "We are getting older. The oldest of us, who had IUDs inserted in the 1960s, were born in the 1940s and are approaching 80. We want to act now."
    Ms Lyberth said that, in some cases, the devices fitted had been too big for the girls' bodies, causing serious health complications or even infertility, while in others the women had been unaware of the devices until they were discovered recently by gynaecologists.
    She accused the Danish government of the time of wanting to control the size of Greenland's population in order to save money on welfare.
    "It's already 100% clear that the government has broken the law by violating our human rights and causing us serious harm," she said.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 3 October 2023
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    The impact of successive doctors’ strikes is now ‘causing significant disruption and risk to patients’, including to those needing urgent heart and cancer treatment, NHS England leaders have told the BMA in their strongest warnings yet.
    A letter to the union’s council chair on Tuesday evening, leaked to HSJ, said: “We are increasingly concerned that the cumulative impact of this action is causing significant disruption and risk to patients…
    “We are extremely concerned that Christmas Day cover is insufficient to ensure appropriate levels of patient safety are being maintained across local health systems. This is particularly the case in the current period of industrial action, with three consecutive Christmas Day levels of service.”
    Although Christmas Day includes cover for emergency care, the officials said that in practice – with demand above Christmas Day levels, and with successive days and repeated strikes – it was not protecting patients needing urgent care.
    The letter, signed by NHSE leaders including chief medical officer Sir Steve Powis, and chief nurse Dame Ruth May, goes on: “Secondly, we are becoming increasingly concerned that combined periods of industrial action are impacting on our ability to manage individuals who require time-sensitive urgent treatment, for example cardiac, cancer or cardiovascular patients, or women needing urgent caesarean sections.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 3 October 2023
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