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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    Stethoscopes powered by artificial intelligence (AI) could help detect three different heart conditions in seconds, researchers say.
    The original stethoscope, invented in 1816, allows doctors to listen to the internal sounds of a patient's body.
    A British team conducted a study using a modern version and say they found it can spot heart failure, heart valve disease and abnormal heart rhythms almost instantly.
    The tool could be a "real game-changer" resulting in patients being treated sooner, the researchers say - with plans to roll the device out across the UK following a study involving 205 GP surgeries in west and north-west London.
    The device replaces the traditional chest piece with a device around the size of a playing card. It uses a microphone to analyse subtle differences in heartbeat and blood flow that the human ear cannot detect.
    It takes an ECG (electrocardiogram), recording electrical signals from the heart, and sends the information to the cloud to be analysed by AI trained on data from tens of thousands of patients.
    The study by Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust saw more than 12,000 patients from 96 surgeries examined with AI stethoscopes manufactured by US firm Eko Health. They were then compared to patients from 109 GP surgeries where the technology was not used.
    Those with heart failure were 2.33 times more likely to have it detected within 12 months when examined with the AI stethoscope, researchers said.
    Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, clinical director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and consultant cardiologist, said such innovations are vital "because so often this condition is only diagnosed at an advanced stage when patients attend hospital as an emergency".
    "Given an earlier diagnosis, people can access the treatment they need to help them live well for longer."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 30 August 2025
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    A gonorrhoea vaccine rollout has begun in Scotland following a UK-wide rise in cases.
    The illness, which is the second most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in Scotland, is potentially painful and in rare cases can be life-threatening.
    The vaccine programme, which was introduced in England last month, will be offered to gay and bisexual men, trans women and anyone who's had a bacterial STI in the past two years.
    Speaking ahead of the rollout, Public Health Minister Jenny Minto said the campaign was "urgent and timely since the number of diagnoses has been high and the disease is becoming increasingly difficult to treat with antibiotics".
    Doctors and charities called for vaccinations earlier this year after the UK's joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JCVI) recommended a targeted rollout in November 2023.
    The Scottish government is funding the vaccination programme.
    Minto said: "The science tells us that this vaccine will potentially protect thousands of people and prevent the spread of infection.
    "Anything which stops people from contracting gonorrhoea in the first place can have huge benefits, including ensuring our health system remains resilient by reducing the amount of treatment needed."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 01 September 2025
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    A type of drug used to help treat heart attacks does not work on the majority of patients and may actually contribute to hospitalisation and death for women, new research has found.
    Beta-blockers are medicines that are used to lower blood pressure and cause the heart to beat more slowly and with less force. They have been used as first-line treatment after heart attacks for decades, according to CNN.
    However, a study published Saturday in the European Heart Journal found that women with little heart damage after suffering heart attacks who were treated with beta-blockers were significantly more likely to have another heart attack or be hospitalized for heart failure further down the line.
    These women were also nearly three times more likely to die compared with women not given the drug, the study found. This was especially true for women receiving high doses of beta-blockers, according to lead study author Dr. Borja Ibanez.
    Despite this, the same is not true for men, the research found.
    Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver, told CNN that women being more susceptible to harm caused by beta-blockers than men was “actually not surprising.”
    “Gender has a lot to do with how people respond to medication,” Freeman told the outlet.
    “In many cases, women have smaller hearts. They’re more sensitive to blood pressure medications. Some of that may have to do with size, and some may have to do with other factors we have yet to fully understand.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 31 August 2025
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    Teenage girls experiencing severe period pain could face a heightened risk of chronic pain later in life, a new study suggests.
    Researchers behind the study emphasised that menstrual pain should not be "dismissed or trivialised," asserting it "deserves serious attention" as a public health concern.
    It is hoped these findings will "pave the way" for improved understanding and management of menstrual pain and its long-term implications.
    For the study, published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, researchers at the University of Oxford looked at data from 1,157 people included in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), also known as Children of the 90s.
    Researchers found that those with severe period pain at 15 had a 76% higher risk of chronic pain by 26 relative to those with no period pain, while those with moderate period pain had a 65% higher risk.
    Among teenagers who reported no period pain, 17 per cent went on to develop chronic pain.
    Gynaecologist Professor Katy Vincent of the University of Oxford, said: “We’ve known for a long time that period pain can really disrupt young people’s lives, impacting their social development, education and mental health.
    “However, we know that most young people don’t seek help for period pain and those who do may be dismissed, belittled or told it is normal.
    “This study shows that teenage period pain may also shape future physical health.
    “Once established, chronic pain can be difficult to manage and has wide-reaching consequences for the individual, society and the healthcare system.
    “The link between adolescent period pain and chronic pain in adulthood is therefore a wake-up call.
    “We need to improve menstrual education, reduce stigma, and ensure young people have access to effective support and treatment early on.
    “It would be fantastic if 2025/2026 was the year that we really started to take period pain seriously rather than telling teenagers they ‘just need to learn to live with it’.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 31 August 2025
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    The former immunizations director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned of the future of American health under the leadership of Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
    In an interview on Sunday with ABC, Demetre Daskalakis – who resigned this week in protest over the White House’s firing of CDC director Susan Monarez – said: “From my vantage point as a doctor who’s taken the Hippocratic Oath, I only see harm coming.”
    He went on to add: “I may be wrong, but based on what I’m seeing, based on what I’ve heard with the new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP, they’re really moving in an ideological direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination.”
    Daskalakis’s interview comes amid growing chaos across US health agencies and rare bipartisan pushback towards the White House’s firing of Monarez, which came amid steep budget cuts to the CDC’s work as well as growing concerns of political interference.
    There have also been growing public calls for Kennedy to resign, particularly as he has continued to make questionable medical and health claims – and be lambasted in response by experts and lawmakers alike.
    Explaining his resignation, Daskalakis said: “I didn’t think that we were going to be able to present science in a way free of ideology, that the firewall between science and ideology has completely broken down. And not having a scientific leader at CDC meant that we wouldn’t be able to have the necessary diplomacy and connection with HHS to be able to really execute on good public health.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 31 August 2025
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    A baby whose mother was not vaccinated against whooping cough while pregnant has died after contracting the infection, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.
    The death, which occurred between January and June 2025, is the first fatal case of whooping cough in the UK this year.
    It follows government warnings about low vaccine uptake, including among children, as well as an increase in vaccine hesitancy.
    None of the main childhood vaccines in England reached the uptake target of 95% last year, recent data from the health agency showed.
    Whooping cough is a bacterial infection of the lungs and airways which can be fatal, particularly for babies. Eleven infants died of the illness in 2024.
    Pregnant women, as well as infants and young children, are advised to get vaccinated against it. The uptake among pregnant women currently stands at 72.6%.
    The UKHSA says vaccination during pregnancy, introduced in late 2012, is "key to passively protecting babies" in their first weeks of life. Infants are first offered a jab which protects against whooping cough at eight weeks old.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 31 August 2025
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    Karen Titchener is a determined woman with an eight-year plan to make Scotland the safest place in the world for patients.
    She starts as Scotland’s newly appointed Patient Safety Commissioner, facing years-long waiting lists for appointments, bed blocking and countless other problems.
    She says: “It is a big job. There’s a lot to do, but I aim to do it.”
    Titchener has decades of ­leadership experience around the UK and US where she was Vice-President of Hospital At Home, something she describes as “one of the biggest ­revolutions in medical care”.
    She wants Scotland to expand the 16,000 number of patients cared for at home last year, helped by a £85 million budget boost. She said: “This is vital for relieving pressure on the system.
    “For a busy mum with other children to look after and a home to run, having your ill child cared for by Hospital At Home has to be a positive. This service is a ­success only if we continue to ensure patients receive the quality of care they would in a hospital.”
    Titchener promises to publish reports and recommendations. She said: “I’m a believer in openness and transparency. If we promise to do something and it doesn’t happen, there has to be accountability.
    “I want to see us moving to a culture of preventing harm rather than reacting after harm has already happened.”
    Read full story
    Source: Sunday Post, 1 September 2025
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    Corridor care in the NHS is now a year-round crisis, experts have warned, as analysis showed nearly 3 million patients attended A&E over the first two months of the summer.
    The latest NHS figures in England, analysed by the Liberal Democrats, show that since 2015 the number of people going to A&E in June and July has increased 15% to 2.9 million – the highest level recorded over the past decade.
    Whereas 12-hour trolley waits were almost nonexistent a decade ago, with just 47 recorded throughout June and July in 2015, in June 2025 38,683 patients, 7.2% of all those attending A&E, had to wait 12 hours or more to be admitted. In all, 74,150 patients – 1,216 a day – waited at least 12 hours during June and July this year.
    Some hospitals reported even higher proportions of patients facing long waits. More than a quarter of patients at five NHS trusts had to wait at least 12 hours to be admitted during June and July.
    Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem health and social care spokesperson, said the figures showed the NHS was entering a state of “permacrisis”.
    “What was once a winter crisis has become a year-round disaster, with the health service buckling under pressure all year round,” she said.
    “Every day people are put at risk by long, deadly waits with families watching helplessly as loved ones are left in agony on trolleys in A&E corridors.”
    Patricia Marquis, the executive director for England at the Royal College of Nursing, said: “An explosion in 12-hour waits is the clearest indicator that corridor care is now a year-round crisis. There has been no respite for understaffed nursing teams during a record summer and they will now be worried about what the coming winter has in store.
    “Ministers need to act with urgency before the cold weather arrives and stop patients being placed in corridors, cupboards, waiting rooms and any space hospitals can spare. It is utterly undignified and will never be a safe standard of care.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 1 September 2025
    Further reading on the hub:
    Corridor care and patient safety series A silent safety scandal: A nurse’s first-hand account of a corridor nursing shift My experience of the 'Wait 45' policy
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    One of England’s largest trusts previously criticised for its “toxic” environment has made significant improvements to its culture, inspectors have said.
    The Care Quality Commission updated its well-led rating for University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust from “inadequate” to “good” following an inspection in April and May.
    The trust’s leadership was rated “inadequate” last year and staff reported a “toxic” culture, including bullying, racism and inappropriate behaviour. It has been subject to a string of leadership, cultural and care quality concerns in recent years, and undergone a major overhaul of its senior leadership. 
    Charlotte Rudge, CQC deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said UHB should be “proud” of its leadership, culture and governance improvements.
    “At the previous inspection, we told the trust leadership they needed to do more work to significantly improve culture and staff wellbeing,” she said.
    “In response, they introduced a comprehensive plan and took action to make significant improvements in this area.
    “Leaders now provided a clear shared direction for the organisation which didn’t just align plans and objectives but translated them into real action to improve people’s care.” 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 29 August 2025
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    Trusts are to have new responsibilities for improving resident doctors’ working lives under a plan unveiled by NHS England today.
    They will have to appoint a senior leader responsible for “resident doctor issues”, reporting to their board, within six weeks. They should also, with immediate effect, make sure doctors get detailed rotas six weeks before rotations start.
    In a letter to provider leaders today, NHSE indicated it would be monitoring their delivery of these tasks. It will also be asking for updates on whether they have taken a range of steps to improve resident doctors’ wellbeing, such as designated on-call parking spaces, and access to 24/7 hot meals, rest areas and lockers.
    New data on these and other indicators will be published “from the autumn”, NHSE said, and become part of the NHS Oversight Framework, which NHSE uses to judge organisational performance.
    The letter, from NHSE CEO Sir Jim Mackey and national medical director Professor Meghana Pandit, says: “Despite previous commitments to act on the concerns [doctors] have repeatedly raised about how they are treated as a rotating part of the workforce, many of these problems – payroll errors, poor rota management, lack of access to rest facilities and hot food, and unnecessarily repeating training – persist.”
    NHSE has issued a “10 point plan” aimed at improving the working lives of 75,000 resident doctors. It says: “While some progress has been made, it has been too slow, and many still face unfair and inconsistent working conditions.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 29 August 2025
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    New ambulance technology, developed in Rwanda with support from NIHR’s Research on Interventions for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT) programme, is speeding up emergency care for patients.
    Rwanda Build Program (RWBuild) worked with local and international partners to develop the 912Rwanda software. The technology helps ambulance crews and hospitals to treat emergency patients faster, by automatically recommending the nearest available facility that can provide the care the patient needs.
    While high-income countries have developed sophisticated ambulance systems to reduce the delay in getting patients to appropriate healthcare facilities, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often lack the financial and training resources to implement similar solutions.
    Up to 250 million people suffer injuries each year in LMICs. In Rwanda, injury causes 9% of deaths, with 47% of these occurring before the patient reaches hospital. The software could help to improve outcomes for these patients, as well as helping to reduce deaths and disability from other emergency medical conditions, like post-partum hemorrhage, sepsis, malaria, heart attacks, and strokes.
    The project has received more than £3 million from NIHR’s RIGHT programme, as well as nearly $1 million from the United States National Institutes of Health.
    The initial phase of the 912Rwanda software is already operational in Kigali. This helps to prioritise ambulance deployment based on data collected by dispatchers. It has been used since December 2023 for over 20,000 journeys, allowing ambulance teams to locate patients quickly in areas where smartphone penetration and triangulation via cell phone masts is not possible.
    The second phase, launched in August 2025, introduces triage software which incorporates a Destination Decision Support Algorithm. This enables ambulance crews to capture simple patient information that is used to recommend the nearest suitable healthcare facility to treat each patient. This is especially critical for patients with life-threatening conditions, who must reach treatment within one hour of symptom onset.
    Read full story
    Source: NIHR, 7 August 2025
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS patients will lose access to new cutting-edge treatments because of skyrocketing costs, the pharmaceutical giant Novartis has claimed amid a row over drug pricing deals.
    The warning comes after talks over the cost of medicines for the UK between Health Secretary Wes Streeting and pharma firms broke down last week.
    A body assesses whether a new drug is value for money before approving it for use on the NHS, but Novartis said its methods were outdated and made it harder for innovative drugs to be approved and launched.
    Norvartis's UK boss Johan Kahlstrom said costs meant the UK was "largely uninvestable", but Streeting has vowed he will not allow firms to "rip off" taxpayers.
    Swiss firm Novartis said it was not considering the UK for major new investments in manufacturing, research, or advanced technology because of "systemic barriers".
    The firm, which employs 78,000 people globally, said patients were losing access to or missing out entirely on new treatments as a result of the current situation.
    It said due to the "declining competitiveness" of the UK market, the company had "already been unable to launch several medicines" in the country "for public reimbursement - medicines that are, or soon will be, available to patients in other European countries".
    "The concern is that future launches and research investment could be further deprioritised for the UK if the environment remains uncompetitive," the company added.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 27 August 2025
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    Trust leaders have been told to rate their own boards’ “capability” under new rules that could influence which providers are put in a new special measures regime.
    Trusts must complete the provider capability self-assessment – which is part of the new NHS Oversight Framework – by 22 October, according to guidance published by NHS England this week.
    HSJ understands the requirement is intended to help boards prepare for the governance standards required to achieve the “new” foundation trust status promised in the 10-Year Health Plan, as well as feeding into NHSE’s day-to-day regulation.
    The principles behind the new self-assessment were broadly welcomed by trust leaders, but NHS Providers said it was “concerned returns may not capture the actual quality of leadership seen across the trust sector”.
    The lobby group said this was because of the format of the assessment. It also called for more clarity to ensure the process was “transparent and that providers feel the rating given is fair”.
    The guidance says provider boards must assess their capability against expectations in six areas: strategy, leadership and planning; care quality; culture; access and delivery of services; productivity and value for money; and financial performance and oversight.
    Read full story
    Source: HSJ, 29 August 2025
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    Almost 90% of autistic people over the age of 40 in the UK are living without a diagnosis, a study suggests.
    This could make them “more susceptible to age-related problems” and socially isolated in older age, researchers warned.
    Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition and causes people to interact differently to others.
    Those with the condition may get anxious in social situations, seem blunt, and struggle to understand what others are thinking or feeling, among other things.
    The study estimated that among middle-aged adults who are autistic – between 40 to 59 years old – some 91.45% men and 79.48% of women are undiagnosed, with an overall underdiagnosis rate of 89.29%
    Dr Gavin Stewart, British Academy postdoctoral research fellow at the IoPPN, said: “These very high underdiagnosis estimates suggest that many autistic adults will have never been recognised as being autistic, and will have not been offered the right support.
    “This could make them more susceptible to age-related problems, for example being socially isolated and having poorer health.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 29 August 2025
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    England needs to “wake up” to its faltering infant vaccination programme, experts have warned, as it was revealed that one in five children start primary school unprotected from serious infectious diseases.
    It comes as the government announces a new vaccination programme for chickenpox from January, meaning that GPs will offer eligible children a combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella – the clinical term for chickenpox – as part of the routine infant vaccination schedule.
    According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the target for vaccine uptake among children in order to achieve herd immunity is 95%. But figures for 2024-25 released by the UK Health Security Agency on Thursday show that no childhood vaccine has met this requirement.
    Only 83.7% of five-year-olds have received both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, while uptake of the four-in-one preschool booster vaccine – which protects against polio, whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria – stood at 81.4% among five-year-olds in England.
    The low uptake rates have prompted fears that children will be more vulnerable to infectious diseases as they begin primary school in September. The government has urged parents to make sure their children are up to date with their vaccines.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 29 August 2025
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    Multiple glaucoma patients were harmed at a trust that was “overly cautious” about surgical intervention and did not follow national care guidelines, a royal college review has found.
    The Royal College of Ophthalmologists reviewed 14 patients at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals Foundation Trust who experienced delays in being seen by the glaucoma team. Seven of these patients had suffered some level of harm while in three other cases the review team was unable to decide if harm was caused through “aspects of service delivery”.
    The trust would not confirm what level of harm these patients suffered but said they had all now received treatment.
    HSJ obtained a redacted copy of the review, which also raised concerns that patients were left on maximum medical therapies while their glaucoma progressed and that assessments done by the trust were not in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. It urged the department to ensure best practice was put in place.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 29 August 2025
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    Malawi is facing a critical shortage of tuberculosis drugs, with health officials warning that stocks will run out by the end of September.
    It comes just months after the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the country had successfully reduced tuberculosis (TB) cases by 40% over the past decade.
    In March, the WHO’s country representative, Dr Neema Rusibamayila Kimambo, announced that Malawi had also seen a high rate of success in treating TB and a significant reduction in the number of deaths.
    But the health ministry, which was already badly hit by the cuts in aid from the US, UK and other donors, has been forced to warn the public of low stocks of first-line TB medicines across Malawi, which means patients may find their treatment disrupted or ended.
    Dr Samson Mndolo, Malawi’s secretary for health, said the low stock was down to disruption in the global supply of pharmaceutical ingredients, worsened by declining international support and aid, and said newly diagnosed patients may be denied access to the standard drug regimens.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 28 August 2025
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    The US’s top public health agency was plunged into chaos on Wednesday after the Trump administration moved to oust its leader Susan Monarez, sworn in less than a month ago, as her lawyers said she would not resign and that she was being “targeted” for her pro-science stance.
    Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was ousted on Wednesday evening, according to a statement from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that offered no explanation its decision.
    “Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people,” HHS said in an unsigned statement posted to social media. Her lawyers pushed back in a statement, saying she had “neither resigned nor received notification” from the White House of her termination.
    Monarez, who was confirmed by the Senate just last month, appeared to have run afoul of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, after she declined to support sweeping changes to US vaccine policies, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times.
    “First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk,” her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, said in a statement. “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 28 August 2025
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    Young people are being overdiagnosed with mental health conditions, a former cabinet minster has suggested.
    Ex-health secretary Jeremy Hunt backed calls to radically reform the Send system and argued society has “lost sight of the fundamental reality that child development is a messy and uneven process”, in the foreword of a Policy Exchange report.
    The report titled “Out of Control” argues that definitions of mental ill health and neurodivergence have been socially expanded, leading to overwhelm in the system.
    One in five children in England have special educational needs and disabilities (Send), the report states, placing huge pressure on support services.
    The report, which focuses on addressing the rise in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders among children and young people, calls for a reinvention of education, health and care plans (EHCPs), and for children with the most severe needs to get the support they deserve faster.
    In its foreword, Sir Jeremy wrote: “Mental ill-health and neurodiversity now accounts for more than half of the post-pandemic increase we have seen in claimants of disability benefit. Spending on Send provision has sky-rocketed and risks the financial sustainability of local government.
    “Rather than assuming that more money or more of the same is the answer, we need to ask more fundamental questions. Is a cash transfer – or a label that means young people are treated and come to see themselves as different – the right way to help them? What about the importance of good work, physical activity, social connection? These factors are too often deprioritised in our policy prescription.
    “Across the political spectrum, and amongst a growing range of practitioners, it is now recognised that there is a level of ‘overdiagnosis’ our system. We need to cut through the complexity to better understand the drivers of demand we are seeing.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 27 August 2025
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    Some patients taking the weight-loss drug Mounjaro have told BBC News they are struggling to obtain the medicine, and are worried about the impact on their health.
    There is rising demand for the drug, after the US manufacturer Eli Lilly announced a major price increase from 1 September.
    The drug giant has warned against "inappropriate stockpiling of medicines" and has now asked UK distributors to stop taking orders from pharmacies from the end of today.
    Pharmacies say they are prioritising patients already taking the drug, rather than those just starting it, and predict supplies will return to normal in early September.
    Lynne Massey-Davis, 65, from East Yorkshire, says trying to find Mounjaro stock has been "stressful" after her last prescription order with an online provider wasn't delivered.
    "I'm in a holding queue," she said. "It's a very uncertain time. I've spent a lot of time on the phone."
    She's been told there will be a two-week delay on delivery. In the meantime, she paid £349 to another provider who then said they too had run out, which she describes as "unethical".
    Fifteen months ago when Lynne started taking the weight-loss drug, she had a BMI of 32. Now it's down to 26 and she "feels 10 years younger", regularly doing park runs, going swimming and walking her dogs.
    "I'm worried about my health but I will stay safe. There may be many others who will not."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 27 August 2025
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    A coroner has raised concerns over the care of a man who died hours after mental health clinicians decided not to section him.
    James Cochrane died at about 21:00 GMT on 17 November 2023 on the M1, near Shepshed in Leicestershire.
    James had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and was in the care of the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust.
    His parents, Phil and Deborah, had recorded a video of him "shaking and rocking" during a psychotic episode on the day of his death, and told the BBC they had been desperate for him to be sectioned.
    An inquest into James's death, which concluded on Wednesday, heard trust nurses came to assess the 36-year-old at his parents' home at about 16:00, and decided not to refer him for an assessment to be detained under the Mental Health Act.
    Assistant coroner for North Leicestershire and Rutland, Rebecca Connell, said she was concerned about a decision to leave James with his parents over the weekend while increasing his dose of anti-psychotic medication and drugs to help him sleep.
    Mrs Connell said she would be preparing a prevention of future deaths report, external detailing concerns after the two-day inquest at County Hall in Glenfield.
    The NHS trust said lessons had been learned following a review carried out after James's death.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 28 August 2025
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    A major acute trust has been served warning notices to urgently improve its maternity and emergency care services after making “insufficient” progress.
    The Care Quality Commission has issued two warning notices requiring significant improvements at St George’s Hospital, following inspections carried out between October 2024 and February 2025.
    St George’s University Hospitals Foundation Trust, which has a £1.2bn turnover, has submitted an action plan and made some changes to keep patients safe, according to the CQC.
    Maternity at St George’s Hospital improved from “inadequate” to “requires improvement”. But the CQC said “although some improvements had been made, they were insufficient” and the service remained in breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
    The CQC said “areas of concern… had not been resolved” since the last inspection in 2023, including staffing levels, staff not completing risk assessments or triaging patients safely, and there being “no stable leadership team” within the service.
    A “significant number” of patients also told inspectors their ethnicity meant “they did not feel heard or understood”, inspectors added.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 28 August 2025
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    As many as 60 ambulance staff members were dismissed and 75 disciplined for sexual misconduct last year, as providers cracked down on sexual safety in the workplace.
    Figures obtained by HSJ  suggest the number of dismissals in 2024-25 may be three times that in 2021-22.
    The data provided by trusts is patchy, but suggests there were around 60 dismissals nationally due to sexual misconduct in 2024-25, while there were as few as 19 in 2021-22.
    Anna Parry, managing director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, said trusts had agreed a “consensus statement” to reduce misogyny and enhance sexual safety in 2023.
    “This has included a learning-led approach to cultural change, removing barriers to speaking up, improving access to support, and embedding a culture of respect, psychological safety, and inclusion,” she said.
    “While significant work remains - and being mindful that this will always be an area we need to be sighted on and responsive to - we are encouraged by early signs of progress.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 28 August 2025
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    Officials in Texas scrambled to control the number of measles cases spreading throughout the western part of the state, largely without help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, earlier this year, according to a new report.
    Just days after the first measles case was reported in Texas, the Trump administration took office and ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to halt all public communications, according to an email obtained by KFF Health News.
    Soon after, the administration began conducting mass layoffs, sending various agencies, including the CDC, into chaos and confusion, several CDC officials told KFF Health News.
    When officials in West Texas began reaching out to the CDC for guidance on how to handle the measles outbreak earlier this year, they were apparently met with simple responses or complete silence from a “stressed” agency.
    Katherine Wells, the director of public health in Lubbock, Texas, emailed her public health colleagues saying, “My staff feels like we are out here all alone.”
    Even after the administration’s halt on communications ended, CDC scientists said there was “a lot of confusion and non-answers over what communications were allowed.”
    Last week, health officials said that the measles outbreak in West Texas had ended. But thousands of people, including children, were likely infected with the potentially deadly disease and it’s likely the country will see more outbreaks, experts say.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 25 August 2025
     
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    A doctor has been struck off for assaulting a woman, making racist or derogatory comments and uploading an image of a patient's brain on his dating profile.
    Dr Sayed Talibi, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, was sanctioned by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) after it found his fitness to practise was impaired.
    Other examples of his misconduct included threatening a woman with waterboarding.
    The tribunal decided to erase Dr Talibi's name from the General Medical Council's register, effective immediately.
    The chairman of the panel, Andrew Lewis, said Dr Talibi's conduct was "fundamentally incompatible with his continued registration".
    "It [the tribunal] concluded that erasure was the only sanction that it could impose given the seriousness of the misconduct, the lack of insight and remediation shown, and the risk of repetition that remained," he wrote in the report.
    He said allowing him to return to "unrestricted practice" would be inconsistent with the findings due to the "seriousness" of Dr Talibi's misconduct.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 26 August 2025

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