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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    At least 40 children suffered harm – with over 20 cases classed as “moderate or severe” – due to delays while receiving care from a hospital’s audiology department, HSJ  can reveal.
    Bedfordshire Hospitals Foundation Trust has identified 109 children who may be at risk of harm due to problems with their hearing aid management, and harm has been identified in at least 40 of them, including developmental delay.
    The findings were included in an interim “patient safety incident review” being carried out by the trust and supported by NHS England.
    The preliminary findings were published in papers for Luton’s health overview and scrutiny committee last month.
    The review follows a major national investigation into harm caused by audiology failings, culminating in the Kingdon review, published in November 2025, which found the NHS ignored warnings on testing failures for a decade.
    Bedford’s review is understood to form part of the national improvement programme for paediatric audiology services.
    It comes as the sector awaits the Department of Health and Social Care’s response to the Kingdon review, which British Association of Audiology President Claire Benton said she hoped would bring “additional support desperately needed for the system”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 12 May 2026
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    MPs have warned that an NHS decision to grant Palantir access to identifiable patient information in its plan to use AI to improve the health service is “dangerous” and will fuel public fears that data privacy is not being prioritised.
    NHS England has allowed staff from the US tech firm and other contractors to access patient data before it has been pseudonymised, despite internal fears of a “risk of loss of public confidence”, the Financial Times reported.
    The health service made the move to allow Palantir to access the data in recent weeks according to the reports, which revealed an internal NHS briefing that said it would allow “unlimited access to non-NHSE staff” to part of the NHS’s federated data platform (FDP), which holds identifiable patient information.
    Palantir was awarded a £330m contract to help build the FDP, installing AI systems to integrate scattered health datasets and bring efficiencies to medical treatment. But the deal has been dogged by warnings from campaigners and MPs concerned about the security of patient records.
    The Patients Association said it was concerned patients were not consulted on a significant change to who has unlimited access to patient data. Rachel Power, its chief executive, said patients wanted “transparency, clear boundaries around access to their data, and to be consulted when changes to those agreements are proposed”.
    The leaked NHS England briefing acknowledged the “considerable public interest and concern about how much access to patient data Palantir/Palantir staff have”. In 2023, shortly after the deal was agreed, NHS England said it would ensure “personal data remains protected and within the NHS at all times”.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 11 May 2026
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    More than 6,000 children living with obesity, including hundreds as young as four, have required treatment at specialist NHS weight-loss clinics, new figures reveal.
    NHS England data, published for the first time, underlines the scale of the growing childhood obesity crisis.
    Since the first Complications from Excess Weight clinic (CEW) opened in 2021, the NHS has treated 6,497 children and teenagers. Of these, 423 were four years old, 1,088 were aged between five and eight, 1,791 were aged nine to 12 and 3,137 were aged between 13 and 17. The age of a further 58 is unknown.
    All were “extremely” overweight for their age, with the four-year-olds weighing an average of 33kg (5st 3lbs), the same weight as a typical 10-year-old. About 400 of the children treated by CEWs have had weight loss jabs as part of their treatment plans.
    In order to be treated at a CEW, children must be referred by a community or hospital paediatrician, a GP or childhood mental health services and have a BMI above the 99.6th percentile as well as an illness linked to their excess weight.
    The research, by Sheffield Hallam University, Leeds Beckett University, the University of Leeds, the University of Bristol and the University of Sheffield, found that just under 30% had metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and 17% had obstructive sleep apnoea. About 9% had deliberately self-harmed, and the same proportion had anxiety. A significant number were neurodivergent. Just under 30% had autism and about 12% had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A further 24% had a learning disability.
    Katharine Jenner, executive director at the Obesity Health Alliance, said: “These figures should be a wake-up call. All parents want their children to grow up healthy, yet seeing children as young as four needing specialist NHS treatment for their weight highlights just how early the drivers of poor health are taking hold.
    “Children today are growing up surrounded by unhealthy food at almost every turn, leaving families struggling against a system that stacks the odds against healthier options.
    “The fact that some children are already developing high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and early signs of heart disease at such a young age underlines why prevention has to begin in the earliest years of life."
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 12 May 2026
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    The drive to hit green targets was prioritised over patient safety when the beleaguered Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) was built in Glasgow, a key expert has warned.
    Andrew Poplett, an engineer specialising in healthcare ventilation who has conducted audits of the building, said the air cooling system installed in most patient rooms, known as “chilled beams”, was good at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but did not meet healthcare standards for circulating air.
    Engineers who worked on the building have also told a public inquiry, which is considering fatal infections among patients, that the drive to hit a low carbon emission target was “paramount” from the start.
    Under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, there was a fixed emissions reduction target for 2015 — the year the hospital opened — a goal the SNP government under the first minister Nicola Sturgeon later announced they had met. In previous years, milestones had been missed. 
    The comments throw light on a key aspect of the £842 million hospital, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth amid much fanfare, but went on to encounter multiple problems, including infection outbreaks.
    Seven patient deaths are being investigated by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. In 2021, a review found 84 children had been infected with rare bacteria while undergoing treatment on site. Kimberly Darroch has argued for years that her daughter, Milly Main, died from an infection she caught at the hospital while recovering from leukaemia in 2017.
    Poplett said the “chilled beams” were installed to ventilate rooms at the QEUH. This ceiling-based system uses cold water to reduce air temperature, a little like radiators use hot water to warm rooms. They change the air, depending on room size, around two to four times per hour, compared with the level recommended for healthcare facilities of six.
    He told The Times: “The NHS is a government organisation committed to achieve an awful lot of different priorities, one being net-zero carbon. If you want to move towards net-zero carbon and energy efficient buildings, chilled beams are useful.
    “However, the protocol of the required ventilation rates from a clinical perspective is diametrically opposed to net-zero carbon. You cannot have both.
    “It appeared that the environmental consideration to make the hospital as energy efficient and as green as possible took priority over the clinical requirement for high change air rates.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 11 May 2026
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    The boss of a trust where a child recently spent over two months in A&E has urged other local system leaders to take “urgent action” to help resolve the “shameful situation” concerning vulnerable children.
    Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust CEO Matthew Trainer said “the scale of these challenges” concerning children experiencing long waits in A&E “probably need[ed] a regional solution across London”.
    He has announced he will write to North East London Integrated Care Board’s CEO, Nnenna Osuji, to call for urgent action.
    A&Es were “increasingly becoming the default place of safety” for children either suffering mental health crises or experiencing a breakdown in their care placements, he said.
    He added: “This is a shameful situation, and it is getting worse every year. These children do not need hospital care. They need a place to live, but no other part of the health and care system can provide them with a roof over their heads.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 11 May 2026
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    Passengers from the cruise ship struck by a hantavirus outbreak are being evacuated and sent to their home countries to isolate and receive medical treatment if necessary.
    Some other passengers from MV Hondius left on earlier flights or connections and their contacts are now being traced as a precaution.
    Officials say the risk of the infection spreading to the general public remains low.
    Crew and passengers now face having to self-isolate for more than a month to avoid any potential spread.
    Three died either on board or after travelling on the ship, which set sail from Argentina a month ago. Four others were medically evacuated from the ship for treatment.
    In an update on Thursday, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove from the World Health Organization (WHO) stressed it was not the start of a pandemic, saying: "This is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently."
    Unlike diseases such as measles, which are highly contagious and spread easily, the Andes strain of hantavirus behind the outbreak is not that infectious.
    Human-to-human spread is possible but the risk of infections globally remains low, says WHO.
    In its latest update, external, it says eight cases - six confirmed - have been identified in people who were on the ship.
    It is still not clear how the outbreak started.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 7 May 2026
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    GPs and hospitals will be required to share patient data under legislation to be announced in the king’s speech on Wednesday.
    Legislation to create a single patient record (SPR) for each person, which would be used across all healthcare providers, is part of a £10bn digitisation of the health service.
    The health secretary, Wes Streeting, said making the data accessible in one place would be a “gamechanger” that would save lives.
    The legislation aims to spare patients from constantly having to repeat their medical history when turning up at hospital or being discharged back to their GP.
    “As patients, there’s nothing more frustrating than having to repeat your medical history at every appointment,” Streeting said. “When paramedics arrive to heart attack and stroke patients, they can’t see the patients’ medical records, putting them in even greater danger.
    “For the first time ever, the single patient record will mean patients are given real control over their care through a single, secure and authoritative account of their data.
    “It will be a gamechanger that means NHS staff can see patients’ medical records, allowing them to deliver better care faster and more conveniently, and even saving lives.”
    Although some emergency information is already available – such as current medicines and known allergies – hospitals often cannot access the full medical history of a patient. GPs have to wait for letters, sent by email, from consultants to be informed of what happened to their patient in the hospital.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 10 May 2026
    Related reading on the hub:
    The challenges of navigating the healthcare system
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    A large acute trust has had its leadership rating upgraded from “inadequate”, despite serious concerns, including allegations that a board member made “divisive and discriminatory remarks” about a Ramadan initiative.
    University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust’s “well led” rating has moved to “requires improvement” in a Care Quality Commission report published.
    It said the trust had made progress since 2023 when its leadership was rated “inadequate”, and that there was “strong commitment from staff” and “effective partnership working in some areas”.
    Inspectors said the trust’s leaders were “passionate”, with “a clear intent… to improve”. They “understand what is required” and “the priority now is to deliver improvements with pace and purpose”, the CQC said.
    However, the inspection report listed some serious reservations and concerns.
    It said leaders still needed “to strengthen action to ensure fair and inclusive working conditions for all staff groups”.
    Staff told inspectors who visited in July last year that a non-executive director – who was not identified to the CQC – did not support an initiative to provide Muslim staff with fruit and drinks to break their fast during Ramadan, and had made “divisive and discriminatory remarks”.
    Other staff reported “fear and toxicity”, with “poor behaviours” from directors.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 8 May 2026
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    The NHS is introducing new clinical standards for maternity services in England, including the rollout of the Maternal Outcomes Signal System (MOSS), a digital tool designed to rapidly analyse routine maternity data and flag emerging safety concerns
    MOSS will enable maternity teams to spot potential safety issues requiring urgent attention, with findings published every six months to ensure trusts take action to reduce risks. The NHS has allocated up to £5 million to trusts this year to implement the maternal care bundle, which includes upgrading facilities with direct telephone lines for ambulance crews and new monitoring systems for pregnant women.
    The new standards, part of the NHS’s maternal care bundle, aim to reduce maternal deaths caused by conditions such as blood clots, strokes, cardiac disease, suicide, sepsis, obstetric haemorrhage, and pre-eclampsia, which account for 52% of maternal deaths. They include early risk assessments for venous thromboembolism, tailored care plans for women with epilepsy, and routine mental health assessments.
    Kate Brintworth, chief midwifery officer for England, said: “Every death during or after pregnancy is a tragedy, especially when differences in care may have changed the outcome. We still see symptoms of serious medical problems being missed, especially for Black and Asian women. By setting out these clinical standards and holding hospitals to account, we can significantly reduce avoidable deaths and prevent future tragedies.”
    Read full story
    Source: UK Authority, 1 May 2026
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    Tens of thousands of therapy sessions are still being carried out by unaccredited practitioners in the NHS, data suggests – nearly four years after a deadline to stamp this out.  
    The situation has been called “concerning” by a leading psychology body, who warned expansion of mental health care should “not come at the expense” of patient safety. 
    The data relates to talking therapies in mental health care, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, typically delivered over a number of sessions.  
    More than 40,600 out of 227,800 appointments – nearly a fifth - were carried out by a therapist who was not accredited or in training, according to the latest NHS England data for February this year. This information was unknown for nearly 300,000 more sessions.  
    NHSE previously set a deadline for all counsellors delivering NHS-funded care to be accredited or in training by mid-2022. 
    But Rebecca Light from the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies said: “It is concerning that a substantial number of interventions continue to be delivered by practitioners who are not yet registered or accredited.” 
    The chief accreditation officer and registrar said: “As demand for mental health services continues to grow, it is vital that workforce expansion is matched by consistent standards across services. 
    “Strengthening the use of accredited registers, alongside supporting practitioners to achieve and maintain accreditation, will help ensure that increased access to care does not come at the expense of quality or patient safety.” 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 7 March 2026
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    More babies are suffering life-threatening bleeding across the U.S. as parents skip a basic injection for their newborns with vaccine skepticism rampant in today’s world, and doctors are sounding the alarm about the rising trend.
    Medical experts say the decline in standard vitamin K injections for newborns is leading to preventable deaths and severe brain injuries. Data from a national study of more than 5 million births, published in the journal JAMA, found that the rate of infants not receiving the shot at birth reached 5% in 2024. This represents a 77% increase since 2017.
    In some hospital systems, such as St. Luke’s Health System in Idaho, refusal rates have more than doubled since the start of the pandemic, with one facility reporting that 20% of families opted out of the procedure.
    Medical records and autopsy reports reviewed by ProPublica show a recent string of infant deaths across several states, including Maryland, Alabama, Texas and Kentucky. Pathologists attributed these deaths to vitamin K deficiency bleeding, a condition where the blood cannot clot, causing internal haemorrhaging.
    Research shows that infants who do not receive the shot are 81 times more likely to develop late-onset bleeding than those who do. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five babies who develop the condition will die.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 6 May 2026
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    GP surgeries are forcing elderly patients to book appointments online, against NHS rules, a survey suggests.
    As many as one in three people aged 75 or over surveyed by a charity said they were made to submit online forms to see a doctor.
    This is despite the GP contract requiring all practices to allow patients to book over the phone or in person if they prefer.
    The NHS says all practices should offer a range of booking methods. There is no evidence that any surgeries have been punished for not following the NHS rules.
    Critics warned that practices were operating with impunity and “should lose funding” if they were found to be flouting contract requirements.
    The results are part of a report by Re-engage, a charity fighting loneliness in old age, which said older people were being “dehumanised” and “excluded” by the digital-first approach.
    The charity’s report, Care On Hold, revealed findings from a survey of 926 older people based on their real-world experiences of accessing GP services. The authors warned that forcing elderly people to book online left them without healthcare appointments.
    The report also warned that some patients were instead getting help from emergency services, self-treating, or going untreated.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Telegraph, 4 May 2026
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    A new target for improving patients’ experience of making GP appointments is among three top NHS priorities identified by the prime minister for this year, HSJ has learned. 
    Samantha Jones, permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care, identified the three main objectives for 10 Downing Street for 2026-27 at a recent staff briefing.
    Two of them match existing commitments: For 70% of patients to be seen within 18 weeks for elective treatment by March 2027; and to begin delivering the “NHS Online” digital health service in 2027.
    However, the third is new: For at least 80% per cent of patients to report being satisfied with their experience of contacting their GP practice by March 2027.
    No target was set for this measure in last year’s medium term planning framework, nor in priorities for this year set out by NHS England last month – although it did call for a focus on urgent GP appointments.
    The measure comes from a monthly Office for National Statistics survey funded by NHSE. Performance has increased over the past 18 months – as most practices have upgraded phone and web booking systems – but the gains have slowed.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 6 May 2026
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS England is restricting access to open source code after researchers found the Mythos AI model could expose “pretty severe” vulnerabilities in commonly used software.
    NHSE issued guidance on 29 April stating that all open source repositories be made private by default by 11 May due to security concerns.
    HSJ understands the guidance was issued after NHS England was informed by a group of researchers with access to Mythos that the AI model could detect and expose vulnerabilities in open source software used across the NHS.
    However, one of the researchers who discovered the vulnerabilities said restricting access to open-source code “will not improve security”.
    Vlad-Stefan Harbuz is the executive director of the Software Stewardship Lab, a non-profit organisation that aims to protect open source technology by identifying threats and producing software and research to mitigate them.
    Mr Harbuz alerted NHSE after the Software Stewardship Lab was given advance access to the Mythos software and found vulnerabilities in open source NHS software.
    He said the vulnerabilities were “not unique to the NHS” but that “NHS services used by the public could be seriously affected” if they were exploited.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 6 May 2026
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    Epilepsy patients are living with the risk of having “life-threatening” seizures as drug supply problems are forcing some to skip their medication.
    There are hundreds of drugs, including those for epilepsy, blood pressure, blood thinning and some cancer medicines, that patients are finding harder to get hold of in England.
    For the 630,000 people with epilepsy living in the UK, these medicines help them safely live their lives and skipping a dose can have potentially deadly consequences.
    “It’s really scary to think that through no fault of my own, this could be the reason I don’t wake up in the morning,” Beth Baker-Carey told the Independent.
    The 28-year-old from Doncaster, who has suffered from seizures since she was two, once had ten seizures a day, but medication keeps her stable.
    Although medicine shortages are common, she explained it has worsened since the start of the war in Iran. The department of health and social care is aware of supply issues with some epilepsy medications, but has said these are not directly linked to the war.
    Ms Baker-Carey has been notified several times by pharmacies that they have no stock in recent months.
    “I’ve had to jump through hoops and go to different pharmacies to get medication,” she said.
    “A couple of times it has been quite late at night and I’ve not been able to get it. I’ve been told to just skip it for the night, which is not really wise for a person with epilepsy, skipping can be really dangerous and sometimes fatal."
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 6 May 2026
    Further reading on the hub:
    Creon shortages: “It’s just another thing patients with cystic fibrosis could do without” Medication supply issues: Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS)
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    Women have had to undergo major emergency surgery, including a hysterectomy, when medical staff failed to detect they had a rare but potentially fatal complication of pregnancy.
    Scores of women have come forward to tell their stories of how they were affected by placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) since the launch in February of a campaign to raise awareness among NHS staff and mothers-to-be of the dangers it poses.
    One of them lost so much blood while giving birth that she has had to give up working as an NHS operating theatre nurse and suffers from PTSD.
    Another lost six litres of blood and blames her daughter’s cerebral palsy on the stroke the child had while hospital personnel were battling to save her life after an emergency caesarean section. Others have suffered permanent damage to their bladder or bowels.
    PAS is associated with a history of C-section birth while assisted fertility using in vitro fertilisation also increases the risk.
    It occurs when the placenta, which gives the foetus nutrients and oxygen, grows too deeply into the wall of the woman’s uterus and blocks some or all of the cervix. This makes the usual separation of the placenta from the uterus during birth difficult.
    One hundred women who are concerned about how medical teams dealt with their PAS have contacted Amisha and Nik Adhia, who set up the Action for Accreta campaign. The couple have collated the women’s experiences into a dossier of stories that vividly illustrate how often the condition goes undetected and the appalling physical consequences for those involved.
    The 100 cases reveal “a dangerous gap in maternity care” and “systemic failures” that should prompt UK hospitals to do much more to train staff how to spot and treat PAS once it is diagnosed, say campaigners. Politicians from all the main parties at Westminster are supporting their call for a major overhaul in how the NHS manages the condition.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 6 May 2026
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    People from black backgrounds in England are twice as likely to experience strokes as their white counterparts, while also being less likely to receive timely care, according to the largest study of its kind.
    The study, conducted by researchers at King’s College London and presented at the European Stroke Organisation conference, analysed 30 years of stroke incidents from the South London Stroke Register, one of the longest-running population-based stroke registers in the world.
    Within a population of 333,000 people, according to the analysis, 7,726 strokes occurred. And while stroke incidence fell by 34% between 1995-99 and 2010-14, the rate rose again by 13% between 2020 and 2024.
    The analysis also found that during this period where stroke incidents were on the rise, people from black African and Caribbean backgrounds were more than twice as likely to experience a stroke compared with their white counterparts.
    More specifically, stroke incidence was 131% higher in black African and 100% higher in black Caribbean populations in comparison with their white counterparts.
    People from black backgrounds are up to 47% more likely to have high blood pressure, and are also up to twice as likely to have diabetes than their white counterparts, even after adjusting for other risk factors including socioeconomic background.
    Dr Camila Pantoja-Ruiz, of King’s College London, the lead author of the study, said: “This trend may partly reflect the lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which reduced access to primary care, blood pressure monitoring and prescribing, particularly affecting black and deprived communities.”
    She added: “These patterns of increased stroke risk in these communities may also be influenced by broader factors, including racism, unconscious bias and socioeconomic circumstances, which can impact access to and quality of care."
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 6 May 2026
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    Trusts’ complaints teams are facing a wave of AI-generated complaints letters which can run to dozens of pages, deploying inaccurate legal arguments and containing hallucinated information, HSJ has learned.
    Multiple senior NHS figures have told HSJ they are seeing a marked increase in formal complaints drafted with the help of large language models such as ChatGPT.
    The correspondence is becoming more legally complex, more detailed and harder to engage with than traditional patient complaint letters.
    One chief executive said the rise in AI-generated complaints was increasing the overall volume of complaints and putting a strain on complaints and patient advice and liaison service (PALS) teams.
    For example, AI tools are referencing and interpreting trust policies and the law with a precision that requires significantly more resource to address.
    James Biggin-Lamming, director of strategy and transformation at London North West Healthcare Trust, said doctors had received complaint letters “clearly using AI that has hallucinated treatment options patients then feel they have been denied”.
    He wrote on LinkedIn that this was impacting trust with patients and families, but was also draining for teams and “risks diverting time and energy from helping care for people”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 5 May 2026
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    Community diagnostic centres could become a financial “burden” on providers without extra funding and changes to how tests are paid for, the programme’s architect has warned in an internal review obtained by HSJ.
    The NHS England review, led by Sir Mike Richards, follows ministers making community diagnostic centres a central plank of their elective recovery plan and mission to shift care into the community.
    The review concluded prices for some imaging tests are making significant amounts of CDC work loss-making – and says additional central funding over “multiple years” is required.
    It also called for CDCs to be rebranded and a major publicity campaign to address “low level[s] of awareness and understanding” among clinicians and the public about what they do. It also highlighted substantial digital challenges.
    The report declared the programme has “successfully” established 170 operational CDCs “delivering more than 20 million tests, primarily in new community settings”. But it also warned more funding and national directives are needed to “fully utilise” the centres.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 5 May 2026
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    Access to mifepristone, the FDA-approved medication used to end pregnancy, could become severely limited following a ruling from a US appeals court on Friday, which temporarily blocked the drug from being dispensed through the mail.
    The decision is for now the most sweeping threat to abortion access since the supreme court rolled back abortion rights in 2022, said Kelly Baden, vice-president at the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group.
    “If allowed to stand, it would severely restrict access to mifepristone in every state, including those where abortion is broadly legal and where voters have acted to protect abortion rights,” she said.
    The so-called “abortion pill” is part of a two-drug regimen backed by decades of evidence for its efficacy and safety, and is used in the majority of abortions in the US.
    Usage has risen in recent years, especially in the aftermath of the 2022 ruling from the supreme court that overturned federal protections for the right to an abortion. In the year after that decision, the FDA formally modified its regulations to allow the drug to be prescribed online, expanding its use even in states where abortion care was being constricted.
    The drug has become a key target for the anti-abortion movement, and a series of lawsuits have challenged the drug’s initial approval in 2000 and the subsequent rules making it easier to obtain.
    Meanwhile, with the FDA now under Trump, the agency has opened a review of the medication. Once this analysis is completed, officials at the agency said, they will determine if changes to its regulations are warranted.
    Reproductive rights advocates have voiced concerns that the review could further limit mifepristone’s use, despite the evidence supporting its safety.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 4 May 2026
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    Thousands of patients across England each year will benefit from a new immunotherapy treatment that can be used for several types of cancer, the NHS has announced.
    The injectable form of pembrolizumab, which can be administered in under two minutes, kills cancer cells by blocking a protein called PD-1, which acts as a brake on immune responses, allowing the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells.
    This new form of immunotherapy will replace pembrolizumab, which is administered via an intravenous drip in a specialist clean room. Preparing and administering it can be time-consuming and expensive for NHS staff to maintain, taking about two hours per session for patient.
    Most of the 14,000 patients already taking pembrolizumab are expected to benefit from the new injectable version.
    It is estimated the treatment, which will be given every three weeks as a one-minute injection or every six weeks as a two-minute injection, will save the NHS more than 100,000 hours of preparation and treatment time each year.
    Up to 15,000 cancer patients became eligible last year for nivolumab, an immunotherapy injection that takes three to five minutes to administer. With the addition of this treatment, there are now two immunotherapies available for almost 30 types of cancer on the NHS.
    Prof Peter Johnson, the NHS national clinical director for cancer, said: “This immunotherapy offers a lifeline for thousands of patients and it’s fantastic that this new rapid jab can now take just a minute to deliver – meaning patients can get back to living their lives rather than spending hours in a hospital chair.
    “Managing cancer treatment and regular hospital trips can be really exhausting, and not only will this innovation make therapy much quicker and more convenient for patients, it will help free up vital appointments for NHS teams to treat more people and continue to bring down waiting times.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 4 May 2026
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    The care of a five-year-old boy who died at a specialist hospital “did not meet the standards expected”, an external review has said.
    A report by consultancy Niche raises concerns about the treatment of Ayaan Haroon, who died at Sheffield Children’s Hospital in March 2023 after being admitted with a lower respiratory tract infection eight days earlier.
    He had a history of breathing difficulties and had been hospitalised five times throughout his life for respiratory illnesses. He died in paediatric intensive care (PICU) from overwhelming disseminated adenovirus bronchopneumonia.
    Concerns include a 12-hour delay in starting specialist oxygen therapy; delays in escalation to PICU, which may have “marginally” increased chances of survival; failure to respond to blood results showing significant deterioration; “weak” governance structures; and “substantially inadequate” bereavement support. However, the report suggests these were unlikely to change the outcome.
    The review team also said: ”[The child’s] end of life care and the family’s experience did not meet the standards expected, or aspired to, by the trust.”
    And they criticised record-keeping, warning the “practice of not recording names, dates and times… would not stand up to legal and professional scrutiny”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 1 May 2026
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    A large-scale criminal network supplying illegal steroids and prescription-only medication worth £1.8 million has been uncovered by the medicines watchdog, leading to seven men being sentenced.
    The investigation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) Criminal Enforcement Unit discovered more than 130,000 doses of steroids and unauthorised medicines, including products such as tamoxifen, finasteride and modafinil.
    The illegal supply was traced after a website linked to the Bolton area was suspected of selling performance-enhancing steroids and other illegal medicines by the UK Anti-Doping (UKAD).
    MHRA investigators traced the activity to a flat above commercial premises on St Helens Road in Bolton, which was being used to store, package, and distribute the drugs.
    Seven men were charged with offences including conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, supplying unauthorised medicines, and money laundering to the value of over £1.8 million and received combined sentences totalling more than 21 years’ imprisonment.
    “This was a well-organised operation that put people at real risk. Medicines bought outside regulated channels can be unsafe, ineffective or fake,” Tim Duffield, MHRA Head of Intelligence said.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 30 April 2026
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    Fewer and fewer Americans can afford healthcare and the situation has reached a “crisis point,” according to an urgent warning from the American Heart Association.
    And with total healthcare spending expected to account for 20 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product over the coming decade, people could feel even more financial pain, medical experts cautioned Thursday.
    Total healthcare spending by U.S. adults currently sits at $5 trillion annually, driven largely by chronic disease, the association’s advisory said.
    Rising costs often mean that people will forgo initial care, increasing the likelihood for more serious problems and therefore greater costs down the road.
    The American Heart Association identified some causes behind people’s rising healthcare costs as complex administration at facilities, and a lack of investment in prevention and public health across the U.S. The doctors called on lawmakers and the healthcare industry to address the crisis.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 30 April 2026
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    For six awful days last summer, as her father, David, got progressively sicker in the cardiac ward of the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, Karen Osenton would read the poster above his bed telling patients about their right under Martha’s rule to ask for a second opinion.
    Her father, a retired engineer in his early 70s who was normally extremely fit, was by then thin, jaundiced and could barely lift his head from the pillow. 
    David had first gone to his GP more than a month earlier complaining of extreme breathlessness, and over the following weeks he had become increasingly thin and weak with suspected heart failure. But it had taken repeated visits to the accident and emergency ward, being sent home each time, before he was finally given a bed in a specialist cardiac unit last July.
    “Every day we saw him he got worse,” says Karen, a teacher from Aynho, in West Northamptonshire. “My mum kept saying: ‘Please, my husband is not right, this is not David. He is so unbelievably poorly.’ He couldn’t walk, he didn’t sleep, he couldn’t eat. Even the other gentlemen in the bay were saying to the nurses: ‘Can you not see this man is extremely unwell?’”
    “He was on the edge of the bed, rocking, and he could barely speak. He was so yellow, so gaunt. I just walked to the desk and I said: ‘You will get a consultant here now. I am invoking Martha’s rule. I want somebody to see my dad right now.’”
    Within minutes, says his daughter, the room was full of doctors. “He was very close to death. His lungs were filled with fluid. He had multi-organ failure. Within the hour he was in intensive care, fighting for his life.” A senior consultant told Karen her father was “the sickest person in the hospital”.
    Oxford University Hospitals NHS foundation trust (OUH), which oversees the hospital, has apologised to the family and admitted it made mistakes in treating David’s cardiac failure. While some of the delays in assessing him were “unfortunately due to service pressures and staffing limitations”, the hospital said after a review of his case, clinicians also failed to spot that he was getting worse, and by the time they did, he was too unwell to have the recommended surgical valve repair. In addition, a “lapse in communication” meant there was confusion between two different teams over which was responsible for his care.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 1 May 2026
    Further reading on the hub:
    The formative evaluation of the implementation of Martha’s Rule: Interim Report (NIHR Policy Research Unit, March 2026) Embedding Martha's Rule into practice—Lessons from the national pilot Martha's Rule - Merope Mills (Martha’s mother) explains Martha’s story (31 March 2026

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