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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    A woman has spoken of her "complete shock" at being misdiagnosed with cancer and undergoing surgery when she never had the condition at all.
    Megan Royle, 33, from East Yorkshire, was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2019.
    As part of her treatment, she underwent immunotherapy and her eggs were frozen due to the risk to her fertility.
    But after she was given the all-clear in 2021, a review showed she never had cancer and she has now won compensation from the two NHS trusts involved.
    Ms Royle, from Beverley, said: "You just can't really believe something like this can happen, and still to this day I've not had an explanation as to how and why it happened.
    "I spent two years believing I had cancer, went through all the treatment, and then was told there had been no cancer at all."
    "You'd think the immediate emotion would be relief and, in some sense, it was - but I'd say the greater emotions were frustration and anger."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 18 October 2023
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    Women affected by a review of cervical smears in the Southern Health Trust have said they are "angry, frustrated and scared" for their future.
    About 17,500 patients in the trust are to have their previous smears re-checked as part of a major review of cervical screening dating back to 2008.
    Some of these women will be recalled to have new smear tests carried out. But the process has not started yet and will take at least six months to complete.
    Letters were sent out by the trust earlier this month to those affected.
    The Southern Trust says it expects to recall around 4,000 women for a new smear test after it reviews 17,368 historic slides.
    The Trust's medical director, Dr Steve Austin, told its board meeting that the review of slides was expected to start next week.
    It also emerged that the number of calls from concerned women has increased with many asking for more "specialist" answers.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 27 October 2023
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    Women are being "failed at every stage" when it comes to maternity care, say campaigners, as they call for more support for those experiencing traumatic births.
    Mumsnet found 79% of the 1,000 women who answered their questionnaire had experienced some form of birth trauma, with 53% saying it had put them off from having more children.
    And according to the snapshot of UK mothers, 44% also said healthcare professionals had used language implying they were "a failure or to blame" for what happened.
    Conservative MP Theo Clarke is leading calls for more action after her own experience, where she thought she was "going to die" after suffering a third degree tear and needing emergency surgery.
    Now, she has set up an all party parliamentary group on birth trauma.
    She said: "[It is] clear that more compassion, education and better after-care for mothers who suffer birth trauma are desperately needed if we are to see an improvement in mums' physical wellbeing and mental health.
    "It is vitally important women receive the help and support they deserve."
    Chief executive of Mumsnet, Justine Roberts, said the trauma had "long-lasting effects", adding: "It's clear that women are being failed at every stage of the maternity care process - with too little information provided beforehand, a lack of compassion from staff during birth, and substandard postnatal care for mothers' physical and mental health."
    Read full story
    Source: Sky News, 15 September 2023
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    Some women are being left “traumatised” following a routine gynaecological procedure that is often carried out with minimal pain relief, with one pain expert warning there is an “apathy” within the NHS in changing how it is done.
    There are various pain relief options for the procedure, including general anaesthetic. However, campaigners say it is common for women to be told just to take paracetamol before they arrive at the hospital.
    Doctors claim this is sufficient pain relief for most patients, however a significant number of women have reported pain so severe that it has left them feeling “traumatised” and “violated”.
    Jenny Wade, 51, had a hysteroscopy carried out this year after her GP referred her to Leicester General Hospital to investigate her postmenopausal bleeding.
    Ms Wade said she asked if she could have the procedure under general anaesthetic and was told she could, but there would be a wait.
    She decided to go ahead with the procedure without the anaesthetic, as she was worried she could have cancer and did not want to delay a diagnosis.
    “I’ve never known pain like it. I had tears flooding down my face,” she said describing the procedure.
    “It was so traumatic. The only way I can describe the pain is similar to childbirth. I’d say it could have even been worse because I had an epidural during childbirth.”
    According to a best practice paper published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists this year, women should be given accurate written and verbal information about hysteroscopies ahead of their appointment, including the various pain control options.
    Read full story
    Source: iNews, 4 June 2023
    Further reading on the hub:
    My experience of an outpatient hysteroscopy procedure - Patient stories Hysteroscopy: 6 calls for action to prevent avoidable harm Painful hysteroscopy - hub Community thread)  
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    Women who are operated on by a male surgeon are much more likely to die, experience complications and be readmitted to hospital than when a woman performs the procedure, research reveals.
    Women are 15% more liable to suffer a bad outcome, and 32% more likely to die, when a man rather than a woman carries out the surgery, according to a study of 1.3 million patients.
    The findings have sparked a debate about the fact that surgery in the UK remains a hugely male-dominated area of medicine and claims that “implicit sex biases” among male surgeons may help explain why women are at such greater risk when they have an operation.
    “In our 1.3 million patient sample involving nearly 3,000 surgeons we found that female patients treated by male surgeons had 15% greater odds of worse outcomes than female patients treated by female surgeons,” said Dr Angela Jerath, an associate professor and clinical epidemiologist at the University of Toronto in Canada and a co-author of the findings.
    “This result has real-world medical consequences for female patients and manifests itself in more complications, readmissions to hospital and death for females compared with males.
    “We have demonstrated in our paper that we are failing some female patients and that some are unnecessarily falling through the cracks with adverse, and sometimes fatal, consequences.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 4 January 2022
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    Women aged 50-60 are at greatest risk of developing “long Covid”, analysis suggests. Older age and experiencing five or more symptoms within the first week of illness were also associated with a heightened risk of lasting health problems.
    The study, led by Dr Claire Steves and Prof Tim Spector at King’s College London, analysed data from 4,182 COVID Symptom Study app users who had been consistently logging their health and had tested positive for the virus.
    In general, women were twice as likely to suffer from Covid symptoms that lasted longer than a month, compared with men – but only until around the age of 60, when their risk level became more similar.
    Covid vaccine tracker: when will a cor
    Increasing age was also associated with a heightened risk of long Covid, with about 22% of people aged over 70 suffering for four weeks or more, compared with 10% of people aged between 18 and 49.
    For women in the 50-60 age bracket, these two risk factors appeared to combine: They were eight times more likely to experience lasting symptoms of Covid-19 compared with 18- to 30-year-olds. However, the greatest difference between men and women was seen among those aged between 40 and 50, where women’s risk of developing long Covid was double that of men’s.
    “This is a similar pattern to what you see in autoimmune diseases,” said Spector. “Things like rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease and lupus are two to three times more common in women until just before menopause, and then it becomes more similar.” His guess is that gender differences in the way the immune system responds to coronavirus may account for this difference."
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 21 September 2020
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    A shortage of more than 2,000 midwives means women and babies will remain at risk of unsafe care in the NHS despite an inquiry into the biggest maternity scandal in its history, health leaders have warned.
    A landmark review of Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, led by the maternity expert Donna Ockenden, will publish its final findings on Wednesday with significant implications for maternity care across the UK.
    The inquiry, which has examined more than 1,800 cases over two decades, is expected to conclude that hundreds of babies died or were seriously disabled because of mistakes at the NHS trust, and call for changes.
    But NHS and midwifery officials said they fear a growing shortage of NHS maternity staff means trusts may be unable to meet new standards set out in the report.
    “I am deeply worried when senior staff are saying they cannot meet the recommendations in the Ockenden review which are vital to ensuring women and babies get the safest possible maternity care,” said Gill Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).
    The number of midwives has fallen to 26,901, according to NHS England figures published last month, from 27,272 a year ago. The RCM says the fall in numbers adds to an existing shortage of more than 2,000 staff.
    Experts said the shortage was caused by the NHS struggling to attract new midwives while losing existing staff, who felt overworked and fed up at being spread too thinly across maternity wards.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 29 March 2022
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    The NHS have duped thousands of women into believing the most common incontinence mesh operation is safe, by not adding loss of sex life into its risk figures, campaigners say.
    The move keeps figures low so surgeons can reassure women that it is a safe day case operation.
    The discovery is buried in a report from five years ago, and when questioned on it, the MHRA, tasked with making sure implants are safe for patients, passed the buck and blamed the report authors.
    The revelation comes after a debate in Westminster, where health minister Jackie Doyle Price said there was not enough evidence to suspend the plastic implants and quoted a risk of 1-3%.
    However, those figures were blown out of the water just weeks before the debate in a landmark study using the NHS’s own hospital re-admission figures which show TVT mesh tape risk is at least 10%.
    Campaigners say even that is not a reflection of the true scale of the mesh disaster because it does not take into account women going to doctors for pain medication or those suffering in silence.
    Read full story
    Source: Cambs Times, 31 October 201t
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    A pill to help treat an overactive bladder - which affects millions of women - could soon be available to buy in the UK without prescription.
    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) wants women and doctors to submit their views.
    Aquiette tablets treat the "urge to pee" condition which can cause frequent toilet trips and distressing accidents. Symptoms include having to urinate at least eight times a day and more than once during the night.
    It would be the first time a medicine for the treatment of overactive bladder would be available without prescription.
    Dr Laura Squire, from the MHRA, said: "For many women, an overactive bladder can make day-to-day living extremely challenging.
    "It can impact on relationships, on work, on social life, and it can lead to anxiety and depression.
    "Fortunately there are treatments around, and from today you will have a chance to have your say on whether one of those treatments, Aquiette, can be available for the first time without a prescription."
    Minister for Women's Health Maria Caulfield said: "When it comes to sensitive issues such as bladder control, speaking to a GP may act as a barrier for some women to seek help.
    "Reclassification of Aquiette would enable women to access vital medication without needing a prescription."
    The Commission on Human Medicines has been consulted and has advised that it is safe for Aquiette to be made available over-the-counter at UK pharmacies.
    The consultation will run for three weeks, closing on 6 May, 2022.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 23 April 2022
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    Women are a third less likely to receive lifesaving treatment for heart attacks due to sexism in medicine, research shows.
    Research led by the University of Leeds and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) pooled NHS data from previous studies looking at common heart conditions over the past two decades.
    It investigated how care varied according to age and sex, finding that women were significantly less likely to receive treatment for heart attacks and heart failure.
    Following the most severe type of heart attack — a Stemi — women were one third less likely to receive a potentially lifesaving diagnostic procedure called a coronary angiogram.

    Women were significantly more likely to die after being admitted to hospital with a severe heart attack. They were also less likely to be prescribed preventative drugs that can help to protect against future heart attacks, such as statins or beta-blockers.
    Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the BHF and a consultant cardiologist said: “This review adds to existing evidence showing that the odds are stacked against women when it comes to their heart care. Deep-rooted inequalities mean women are underdiagnosed, undertreated, and underserved by today’s healthcare system."
    “The underrepresentation of women in research could jeopardise the effectiveness of new tests and treatment, posing a threat to women’s health in the long-term,” she added.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 5 October 2023
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    Women are bearing the overwhelming brunt of the “gargantuan challenges” health and care services are grappling with during the Covid pandemic, health leaders have said.
    A new study by the NHS Confederation’s Health and Care Women Leaders Network found female health and care workers’s physical and mental health substantially deteriorated due to working during the coronavirus crisis.
    The survey, which polled more than 1,200 NHS staff in February and March this year after the virus peaked, found issues with mental and physical health had notably worsened since last summer.
    Researchers found more than 80% of women said the pandemic meant their job had greater detrimental repercussions on their emotional wellbeing. This is a significant rise from 72% of female workers who said the same during equivalent research carried out in June.
    The report, which polled nurses, doctors, administrative staff, allied health professionals and managers, warned there are “still many mountains to climb” as services strive to cope with the chaos unleashed by the Covid crisis, as well as dealing with the long-term consequences of the pandemic.
    The study said: ”This includes tackling the growing issue of long Covid, meeting increased demand for mental health services, continuing to deliver the largest vaccination programme the UK has ever seen, and addressing a backlog of treatment that could extend to nearly seven million people by the end of 2021."
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 5 May 2021
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    A young woman died following “gross failings” and “neglect” by a mental health hospital in Essex which is also facing a major independent inquiry into patient deaths.
    Bethany Lilley, 28, died on 16 January whilst she was an inpatient at Basildon Mental Health unit, run by Essex Partnership University Hospitals.
    The inquest examined the circumstances of her death this week and concluded that her death was contributed by neglect due to a “plethora of failings by Essex University Partnership Trust”.
    Following the three week inquest, heard before coroner Sean Horstead, a jury found “neglect” contributed to Ms Lilley’s death and identified “gross failures” on behalf of the trust.
    The jury identified a number of failings in her care including evidence that cocaine had made its way onto a ward where she was an inpatient.
    There was evidence of “very considerable problems in the record-keeping at EPUT psychiatric units.”
    It was also concluded staff failed to carry out a risk assessment of Ms Lilley in the days leading up to her death, and failed to carry out observations.
    Ms Lilley’s death is one of a series of patients who have died under the care of mental health services in Essex, which have been brought into the light following the campaigning of bereaved families.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 19 March 2022
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    Women are forced to wait more than five times longer than men for a heart failure diagnosis, a new study has found.
    Researchers discovered women are 96 per cent more likely to get an incorrect diagnosis of heart failure than men – attributing sharp disparities to such problems being wrongly viewed as “a man’s disease”.
    The study, conducted by leading heart failure charity the Pumping Marvellous Foundation, found men said they waited an average of just over three and a half weeks to get a formal diagnosis after their first GP visit, but women waited just over 20 weeks instead.
    Researchers warned such delays were linked to “poorer quality of life, financial losses, mental health issues and avoidable deaths” – adding that health professionals do not give heart failure the same attention and gravity as cancer and other diseases.
    "One of them [GP] actually said, your symptoms are probably not to do with your heart because you’re young and you’re female. Even though my father had a heart condition," says Sarah, who was diagnosed at the age of 42.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 27 August 2020
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    Women in labour at a London maternity unit deemed “inadequate” were left alone with unsupervised support workers who were not given any guidance, an NHS safety watchdog has found.
    In a scathing report of North Middlesex Hospital’s maternity services, the Care Quality Commission also found examples of delays to induction of birth for women, and one case of a woman with a still-born baby who was left waiting for the unit to call her in for an induction.
    Inspectors have downgraded the maternity unit from “good” to the lowest possible rating “inadequate” following an inspection earlier this year.
    Staff reportedly told inspectors they felt they were “criticised” or “bullied” when reporting safety incidents within the unit.
    “We heard that the criticism or bullying was worse if the incident reported was relative to other staff and their perceived behaviours,” the report said.
    There was also evidence the hospital was not recording the severity of safety incidents correctly for example two “never events”, which are among the highest category incidents, were categorised as “low harm”.
    Other findings included women and babies came to harm as the hospitals did not follow standards to language interpretation despite covering a higher than average minority ethnic population.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 11 December 2023
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    HRT used to be a dirty word. Now it’s a battle cry. Women will begathering in Parliament Square in London later this month to support the menopause bill to demand free prescriptions for hormone replacement therapy in England. The bill could help thousands more women to access this life-changing treatment and will put the menopause under the microscope.
    For years, a combination of medical sexism, hysterical reporting and outdated science has held women back from asking for the health care they need. HRT replenishes the oestrogen, progesterone (and sometimes testosterone) that women lose when having the menopause. As a result of previous misleading reports linking the treatment to a risk of breast cancer and dementia, HRT has long been considered controversial.
    Last week, however, a BMJ paper studying more than 100,000 HRT users over two decades in the UK found that there was no overall association between hormone replacement and an increased risk of developing dementia. Meanwhile, the science lumping the many different types of HRT together in one “causes-breast-cancer” basket is being questioned by menopause experts.
    A sexist, ageist culture has kept the menopause – and the stigma associated with it – hidden for decades. In a TUC survey of 4,000 women, 85% said the menopause affected their working life. Many women have lost their health, jobs, relationships and even their lives at the time of their menopause, when rates of suicide peak.
    But now, Labour MP Carolyn Harris is pushing the second reading of her menopause bill through parliament later this month. Aside from making HRT free in England (it’s already free in Scotland and Wales), the bill will also cover broader issues around menopause rights and education, particularly in the workplace.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 6 October 2021
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    Women working in healthcare earn on average 24% less than their male peers and face a larger gender pay gap than in other economic sectors, a joint report by the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization has found.
    The analysis, which looked at data from 54 countries across all geographic and income regions, found a raw gender pay gap of around 20%, which jumped to 24% when factors such as age, education, and working time were considered. Gender pay gaps also tended to be wider in higher pay categories, where men were over-represented, while women were over-represented in the lower pay categories.
    The authors said the findings highlighted that women, who accounted for 67% of the global health and care workforce in 2020, were underpaid and undervalued.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: BMJ, 13 July 2022
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    Women in labour are being refused epidurals in breach of official guidelines, a government inquiry has found.
    In findings reported by the Guardian, an investigation by the Department of Health and Social Care also found that women may not be being kept fully informed that if they choose to give birth at home or in a midwife-led unit they may have to be transferred if they want an epidural. Failing to make women aware of that possibility would also be in breach of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
    As a result of the inquiry, the Health Minister Nadine Dorries will write to all heads and directors of midwifery and medical directors at NHS trusts this week to remind them of the NICE guidance regarding pain relief during childbirth and to ensure it is being followed.
    Clare Murphy, Director of external affairs at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said the “results of the government’s inquiry are sadly not surprising”. She added: “We have spoken with many women who have been so traumatised by their experience of childbirth that they are considering ending what would otherwise be wanted pregnancies. Pain relief is sometimes treated as a ‘nice extra’ rather than an integral part of maternity care, and women and their families can suffer profoundly as a result."
    Read full story
    Source: Guardian, 3 March 2020
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    A study of 10,650 females in the UK found those with a combined household income of up to £25,000 per annum are less health literate and are less likely to attend health screenings or vaccination invitations.
    In fact, 1 in 10 have never had health issues such as blood pressure or cervical cancer checked, compared to just 5% of those in a household earning more than £40,000 per annum.
    15% of lower earners said they didn’t take up offers of preventative healthcare because they felt it was not needed.
    They are also the least able to talk to and understand healthcare professionals (72% compared to 81% of high-income households) and least likely to know where to access health information (79% compared to 89% of high-income households).
    Although 75% feel informed about what is needed to be healthy, this rises to 88% of those in high-income households.
    It also emerged 30% of low earners who experience daily pain, such as joint pain, backaches or headaches, have stopped work completely as a result, compared to just 10% of high-income households.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 24 January 2023
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    Women in a newly opened psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) had concerns for their sexual safety, a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report has revealed.
    Inspectors found women in the PICU at Cygnet Health Care’s Godden Green Hospital, in Kent, were afraid to shower because male staff did not always knock before entering bedrooms and staff entered bathrooms without permission. Patients were often looked after by male staff despite having asked for a female staff member and, in some cases, had an all-male care team.
    Most patients the inspectors spoke to had concerns about their sexual safety.
    The CQC carried out an unannounced inspection of the PICU in October, following concerns raised by members of the public and to check concerns identified in an earlier inspection of the hospital’s child and adolescent mental health services were not organisational. 
    The PICU opened in November 2019. Since the summer, Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust has commissioned some of the beds, but HSJ understands it stopped admissions for a time to review the care being provided. 
    Inspectors found records referred to PICU patients as “difficult” and “troublemakers” and warned a ”culture of negativity towards patients had developed among some staff”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 4 December 2020
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    Women are waiting nearly nine years for an endometriosis diagnosis in the UK, according to research that found health professionals often minimise or dismiss symptoms.
    The study by the charity Endometriosis UK suggests waiting times for a diagnosis have significantly deteriorated in the past three years, increasing to an average of eight years and 10 months, up 10 months since 2020. In Scotland, the average diagnosis time has increased by four months.
    The report, based on a survey of 4,371 people who have received a diagnosis, shows that 47% of respondents had visited their GP 10 or more times with symptoms before being diagnosed, and 70% had visited five times or more.
    The chief executive of Endometriosis UK, Emma Cox, said: “Taking almost nine years to get a diagnosis of endometriosis is unacceptable. Our finding that it now takes even longer to get a diagnosis of endometriosis must be a wake-up call to decision-makers to stop minimising or ignoring the significant impact endometriosis can have on both physical and mental health.”
    The report includes examples of patients’ experiences, with many being told that their pain was “normal”.
    One said: “I was constantly dismissed, ignored and belittled by medical professionals telling me that my symptoms were simply due to stress and tiredness. I persevered for over 10 years desperate for help.” Another said she had been told she was “being dramatic” after going to her GP as a teenager with painful periods. Another said: “A&E nurses told me that everyone has period pain so take paracetamol and go home.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 4 March 2024
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    Women have been left in extreme pain from an invasive procedure that’s been described as the “next big medical scandal”.
    The Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopy (CAPH) has collated more than 3000 accounts of “pain, fainting and trauma during outpatient hysteroscopy” throughout the UK – including more than 40 so far from Scotland.
    CAPH said female patients are being subjected to barbaric levels of pain and claim hospitals prioritise efficiency and cost-cutting over their needs and welfare.
    The group believes the issue could become as bad as the vaginal mesh scandal, which saw women left in severe pain and with life-changing side effects after being treated with polypropylene mesh implants for stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.
    Katharine Tylko, of CAPH, said: “Severely painful outpatient hysteroscopy is the next medical scandal after vaginal mesh. Cheap, quick and easy-ish NHS outpatient hysteroscopy without anaesthesia/sedation causes severe pain/distress/trauma to approximately 25 per cent of patients.”
    Margaret Cannon, from Rutherglen in Lanarkshire, told how she had an “excruciatingly painful” hysteroscopy at Stobhill Hospital in April 2020 without anaesthetic or analgesia.
    She said: “I am a qualified nurse and midwife, so have good insight into how all the medical and nursing professionals failed me. I had been told to expect mild cramp and I kept thinking, ‘What’s wrong with me that I can’t tolerate the pain?’ I felt violated and assaulted.”
    She felt so strongly about her experience that she complained. When she finally received a response, she said it “was dismissive and none of my points were addressed”.
    Read full story
    Source: Daily Record, 19 March 2023
    See also our 'Painful hysteroscopy' thread in the hub Community.
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    Women are having their appendixes removed wrongly in nearly a third of cases, British research suggests.
    Researchers said too many female patients were being put under the knife when they should have undergone investigations for period pain, ovarian cysts or urinary tract infections. They said the study, which compared practices in 154 UK hospitals with those of 120 in Europe, suggests that Britain may have the highest rate of needless appendectomies in the world. 
    Surgeons said they were particularly concerned by the high rates among women, with 28% of operations found to be unnecessary. 
    They said the NHS was too quick to book patients in for surgery, when further scans and investigations should have been ordered. 
    Researchers warned that such operations put patients at risk of complications, as well as fuelling NHS costs.
    Read full story
    Source: The Telegraph, 4 December 2019
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    Women are being forced to wait longer for operations and healthcare appointments in the wake of the pandemic, according to a new report.
    Research carried out by the Care Quality Commission, England’s regulator of health and social care, found 53% of women experienced longer waiting times for appointments or healthcare procedures during the Covid crisis.
    The report also found 3 in 10 women experienced appointment cancellations.
    More women report grappling with these issues than men – with some 44% of men saying they have experienced longer waiting times for appointments or procedures.
    Helena Mckeown, a GP who previously specialised in women’s health at the British Medical Association (BMA), told The Independent she is not surprised by the findings.
    "Our world is full of sexism and we know of other examples of sexism and biases in healthcare. Some of them are racial biases. To stop unconscious biases, they need to be recognised and addressed.
    Ms Mckeown, one of the directors of the Menopause Expert Group, a non-profit which provides education about menopause, said female patients are treated differently to men.
    She added: “We need to make sure we are not taking women saying they are in pain differently to men saying they are in pain. It is really important that we address this problem of women waiting longer for operations and appointments.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 22 January 2022
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    Women are being left unable to sleep or work competently because of the shortages of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products used to treat symptoms of the menopause, the former cabinet minister, Caroline Nokes, has said.
    Millions of women go through the menopause every year, with many experiencing symptoms that can be severe, such as low mood, anxiety, hot flushes and difficulty sleeping, and have a negative impact on everyday life. The number of prescriptions for HRT in England has doubled in the last five years to more than 500,000 a month.
    But the rise in prescriptions has come amid several years of HRT shortages, with pharmacists often unable to fulfil prescriptions. Shortages have been blamed on manufacturing and supply issues, and have been exacerbated by the growing numbers of women seeking the products.
    Speaking in the Commons on Thursday, Nokes, chair of the women and equalities committee, called for an urgent debate on the issue to ensure women “can get the supplies that we need”.
    In October, the government announced that the cost of repeat prescriptions for HRT would be significantly reduced in England.
    In the Commons on Thursday, Labour MP Nick Smith asked Spencer why there was “no date yet for the HRT prescription changes in England”. Spencer said it was “something the health secretary is looking at, at this moment in time”.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 21 April 2022
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