Mark Hughes
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Everything posted by Mark Hughes
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Content ArticleNHS Resolution is an arm’s length body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It provides expertise to the NHS on resolving concerns and disputes fairly, sharing learning for improvement and preserving resources for patient care. It handles negligence claims on behalf of NHS organisations and independent sector providers of NHS care. Their annual report and accounts for 2024/25 provides an overview of the work of NHS Resolution over this period. It includes information about the number of clinical negligence claims, payments against schemes and the ‘annual cost of harm’ from the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts.
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Content ArticleIn this blog, Katie Heard from the Good Things Foundation considers the digital implications of the 10 Year Health Plan. She reflects on the benefits and risks for those who are digitally excluded, what more can be done and how existing resources can help support further progress.
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Content ArticleThis report sets out the findings of a review of patient safety across the health and care landscape in England, commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and chaired by Dr Penny Dash. The review looked at six specific organisations that were established to either assure—or contribute to improving—the safety of care, while also making reference to the wider landscape of organisations influencing quality of care. You can read Patient Safety Learning's response to this here.
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Content ArticleIn this article, Alzheimer’s Research UK reflects on what the 10 Year Health Plan for England means for people affected by dementia. It considers how it will potentially impact dementia diagnosis, new treatments, improving brain health and prevention.
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This week, the UK Government has published Fit for the Future — its 10 Year Plan for health in England. This sets how it intends to create a modern health service designed to meet the changing needs of the population. In this article, Patient Safety Learning sets out its initial reflections on the Plan. -
Content ArticleThis episode of HSJ’s Health Check podcast considers the safety of certain AI technology used in the NHS. The panellists also discuss the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care's announcement of a national maternity investigation and talk more about revelations that a patient died as a result of the cyber attack on a south east London pathology system last year.
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The Department of Health and Social Care has announced that it is developing a world-first artificial intelligence (AI) early warning system to automatically identify safety concerns across the NHS. In this blog, Patient Safety Learning reflects on this announcement and how this might work. -
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This article provides an overview and transcript of a recent interview given by Patient Safety Learning’s Chief Executive, Helen Hughes, to BBC London, reflecting on the news that a patient’s death was contributed to by a cyber attack on a NHS pathology provider in June 2025. -
Content ArticleSurgeons' News is a magazine for surgical, dental and allied healthcare professionals. Published quarterly by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, it features comment and opinion from leading professionals, plus reviews and reports on subjects relevant to all career levels. In an article in the June issue (page 22), Patient Safety Learning's Helen Hughes talks about how Patient Safety Learning and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh are working together on a new wave of education, resources and support to empower surgical teams to embed safety into every aspect of their practice.
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On the 7 October 2024 Pfizer, in agreement with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), produced a Direct Healthcare Professional Communication which provided a safety update concerning medroxyprogesterone acetate. This article provides a summary of this update. -
Content ArticleOn the 19 March 2025 the Department of Health launched a consultation on the introduction of a new Regional Framework for Learning and Improvement from Patient Safety Incidents and supporting documentation to replace the current Serious Adverse Incident (SAI) Procedure in Northern Ireland. As part of this process, the Patient & Client Council held a public engagement event on this issue. This included members of the public with lived experience of the current SAI process, those with a general interest, members of the voluntary and community sector, health and social care staff and leaders, healthcare regulation and Patient & Client Council members. This report summarises the views expressed in this event and follow-up written responses shared with Patient & Client Council. They heard from a range of views and experiences, and we have collated these under key themes arising from the engagement conversations. Some of these themes were reflected in the answers to more than one question.
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Content ArticleAt the start of 2025, the NHS Race and Health Observatory sponsored an infographic, explaining how healthcare professionals can spot the signs of jaundice in babies with dark skin tones. This infographic below, designed by Dr Helen Gbinigie and Dr Oghenetega Edokpolor, in collaboration with FiveXMore and Bliss, serves as a guide for parents' for recognising jaundice in Black and Brown babies, including where and how to seek help.
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Content Article‘The Month’ is a new publication from NHS England which provides a strategic update for health and care leaders. This edition includes details of the 100 day plan for Sir Jim Mackey’s first few months as NHS England Chief Executive, information about the new Urgent and emergency care plan 2025/26 and highlights of other recent healthcare publications and developments.
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Content ArticleThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) regulates medicines, medical devices and blood components for transfusion in the UK. This roundup provides a summary of their latest safety advice for medicines and medical device users. It includes details of medicine recalls, medical device field safety notices and details of how to report drug reactions and device incidents.
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Content ArticlePrioritising patient safety is a quarterly blog series from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). Each month, PHSO publishes between 70 to 100 of their casework decisions as a way to share learning that will help organisations improve their service and prevent mistakes happening again. This blog highlights how the PHSO is working with NHS England to improve NHS imaging services and looks at cases that show how organisations are making complaints count by listening, learning and putting things right.
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Content ArticleEach year since May 2023 the Sands & Tommy’s Joint Policy Unit have published an annual report setting out the extent of pregnancy and baby deaths across the UK. This year’s report argues that progress made to date falls short of what is needed to stop babies dying every day in the UK, and that unacceptable inequalities in pregnancy and baby loss persist despite continued calls for change. It estimates that at least 2,500 fewer babies – the equivalent of around 100 primary school classrooms - would have died since 2018 if the government had achieved its ambition of halving the 2010 rates of stillbirth, neonatal and maternal deaths in England.
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Are you passionate about creating better practice learning environments in healthcare? This is a free, one-day event to explore the NHS England Safe Learning Environment Charter (SLEC) — a framework developed to support healthcare learners, initially in maternity and neonatal settings and now being adopted across a wide range of professions. This event offers a valuable opportunity to: Hear from the NHSE South West team who created the charter Hear success stories and examples of charter implementation across different professions and organisations including medical education and the University of Surrey Network with learners and peers from Higher Education Institutions, placement providers, Integrated Care Systems and NHS England Consider how you could implement SLEC in your services Attendance is especially encouraged for learners, practice supervisors, assessors, and educators. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Date: Wednesday, 2nd July 2025 Time: 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM Location: University of Surrey, Stag Hill Campus, Guildford, GU2 7HX (Just a 10-minute walk from Guildford Railway Station. Free campus parking available.) Register here by Thursday 29th May: https://forms.office.com/e/VnRkaeGa1H Note: Places are limited, and you may be added to a waiting list if demand exceeds capacity. If you need to cancel, please email: [email protected] For information about the Safe Learning Environment Charter, visit: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/safe-learning-environment-charter/ Invitation to SLEC Event 2nd July 2025.pdf -
Content ArticleThis framework sets out 5 principles to reduce patient safety healthcare inequalities across the NHS. It outlines opportunities for implementation that local teams and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) can take up, as well as the work NHS England is taking nationally to support and enable this. These principles align with the aims of NHS England’s Patient safety strategy and Core20PLUS5 approach for adults and for children and young people to address healthcare inequalities.
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The work of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and its organisations touches the lives of an average of 1.7 million patients per day and costs the UK taxpayer around £187.3 billion per year. This report presents the Public Accounts Committee’s analysis of the DHSC Accounts for 2023/24. The Public Accounts Committee is a Select Committee in the House of Commons that examines value for money of Government projects, programmes and service delivery. -
Content ArticleIn June 2023 the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced that HSSIB would undertake a series of investigations focused on mental health inpatient settings. This overarching report brings together and explores cross-cutting patient safety risks across five individual investigations.
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Content ArticleJacqueline Anne Potter, known as Anne, was a 54 year old teacher who died by suicide following a decline in her mental health. Anne died during overnight leave from an acute psychiatric unit in Somerset, where she was being looked after because of mental health issues exacerbated by menopause. In this report, the coroner raises concerns about her care and the lack of importance given to menopausal care in the NHS.
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Content ArticleAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) a critical global health threat that undermines the safety of routine medical procedures and reverses many advancements in modern medicine by making antimicrobials ineffective to treat infections. Inappropriate use of antimicrobials is a major driver of AMR. This Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) report describes global progress in antimicrobial use surveillance and antibiotic use in 2022, reported by 60 countries.
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Content ArticleThis guidance offers high-level information to assist those adopting ambient scribing products that feature Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), for use across health and care settings in England. These products are sometimes referred to as ambient scribes or AI scribes and include advanced ambient voice technologies (AVTs) used for clinical or patient documentation and workflow support. The guidance is intended for settings aiming to implement a specific product or function of an existing product.
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Content ArticleSamuel Brookes was discharged home from Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, on the 8 April 2024 where he had been admitted following a fall and long lie at home. The hospital arranged his transportation without rearranging his required care of two carers, four times a day. Mr Brookes, who was immobile and lived alone, was transported to his bed where he could not reach his pendant alarm nor his mobile phone, which was in another room. Mr Brookes was left unattended for two weeks, until on the 22 April 2024 his grandson attended and found him unresponsive, wedged between his bed and the bedroom wall. An ambulance was called, sadly on arrival paramedics confirmed that Mr Brookes was deceased and his death was declared at 11:37 hours.
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Content ArticleEffectively tackling the challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) requires a co-ordinated and strategic approach across healthcare settings. Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is an important element of this work. This publication outlines the functionalities that clinical digital systems need to support optimal antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in primary and secondary care. It should be read alongside the Digital framework for antimicrobial stewardship – what good looks like, which sets out an organisational and system approach to ensuring good digital functionality for antimicrobial stewardship.
