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Sam

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  1. Sam
    Waiting lists for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in England are being clogged by patients returning to NHS care after difficulties with private assessments, a trust has warned.
    The major NHS trust said people referred by GPs to private clinics using health service funding were increasingly asking to be transferred back after care stalled.
    These include cases where private clinics are able to diagnose ADHD but their assessments do not always comply with guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, or where providers lack staff with the appropriate qualifications to support continued prescribing.
    The consequences for patients can be severe. Some are facing prescription costs of more than £200 a month after GPs said they could no longer work with private clinics under shared care agreements.
    The father of one man whose shared care agreement was withdrawn after three years said: “With no warning, the GP practice announced they would stop prescribing within six months because the provider was ‘out of area’. They’ve referred my son to the local NHS service, MPFT [Midlands partnership university NHS foundation trust], but waiting times exceed six months – guaranteeing a treatment gap.
    “My son holds down a responsible job and has bought his own home. None of this would have been possible without medication. Without it, he struggles to focus at work, can’t manage daily organisation and experiences overwhelming anxiety. His consultant has warned of ‘predictable harms’ if treatment stops.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 23 January 2026
  2. Sam
    Nearly half of all trusts recorded a drop in their 62-day cancer performance over the past year, official data shows, as system leaders gear up to publish new national strategy.
    HSJ analysed the data following NHS England elective lead Mark Cubbon telling trusts to work with their cancer alliances to improve performance in a letter to local leaders last month. HSJ also understands the new national cancer plan is due imminently. 
    Mr Cubbon praised the Royal Free London Foundation Trust for its “impressive improvements” and highlighted that the trust had recorded a 21 percentage point improvement between September 2024 and September 2025.
    However, the period between November 2024 and October 2025, the latest available data, shows that 57 of 118 (48%) relevant providers saw performance on the key cancer target decline, while 19 trusts recorded double-digit percentage point slumps.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 13 January 2026
  3. Sam
    A senior coroner has warned that more babies could die unless "action is taken", following the deaths of three infants who had received contaminated feed while being cared for in hospital.
    Three-month-old Aviva Otte died in January 2014 after being given contaminated feed at St Thomas' Hospital, south London.
    In June that year, one-month-old Oscar Barker and nine-day-old Yousef Al-Kharboush died after a similar, but separate contamination incident.
    Following an inquest, Dr Julian Morris said he was concerned that St Thomas' Hospital was not legally required to report the first incident and called for a change in the law.
    All three babies, who had been born prematurely, were fed through an intravenous drip, a method known as "total parenteral nutrition" (TPN).
    Aviva, the first child to die, was given TPN that was made by NHS pharmacists at St Thomas' Hospital.
    Oscar, who died at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge and Yousef, who also died at St Thomas' Hospital, received feed manufactured by private company ITH Pharma which supplied to several trusts.
    The bacteria Bacillus cereus was found to be the contaminant in the cause of all three deaths.
    In his conclusion, the senior coroner for Inner South London said he was worried that a lack of regulation around medicines such as Aviva's feed might lead to future deaths.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 19 November 2024
  4. Sam
    An NHS trust has admitted that a highly vulnerable baby died because of contaminated feed that it gave her, after denying that for more than a decade.
    At an inquest on Tuesday, Guy’s and St Thomas’ trust said it had given Aviva Otte a nutritional product containing deadly bacteria in January 2014. It had previously insisted to her mother, a coroner and the Guardian on multiple occasions that she had died of natural causes.
    The change in GSTT’s explanation of Aviva’s death came during the second day of an inquest into her death and the deaths of two other babies in a separate outbreak of Bacillus cereus five months later.
    Giving evidence at Southwark coroner’s court in London, Dr Grenville Fox – a senior consultant neonatologist who worked in the neonatal unit where Aviva was treated – said that it was now his opinion that the parenteral nutrition she received was the main cause of her death.
    His statement represents a significant U-turn by GSTT. It also raises questions about its conduct and honesty over the first outbreak of Bacillus cereus in late 2013 and early 2014, in which four babies including Aviva were infected, which the Guardian first revealed in June 2022.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 10 September 2024
  5. Sam
    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has seized more than 2,000 unlicensed weight-loss pens, plus raw chemical ingredients in what it says is “believed to be the largest single seizure of trafficked weight-loss medicines ever recorded by a law enforcement agency worldwide”.
    The MHRA has confirmed to The Pharmaceutical Journal that the warehouse in Northampton was raided by officers from the agency’s criminal enforcement unit (CEU), supported by Northamptonshire Police, as part of an operation over the course of two days beginning on 22 October 2025.
    Officers found “tens of thousands of empty weight-loss pens ready to be filled, raw chemical ingredients and more than 2,000 unlicensed retatrutide and tirzepatide pens awaiting dispatch to customers”, with the contents of the pens “still being analysed”, it said.
    The MHRA explained that the street value of the finished weight-loss products alone is estimated to be more than one-quarter of a million pounds.
    Officers also recovered “large amounts of sophisticated packaging and manufacturing equipment”, as well as £20,000 in cash that they suspect to be linked to medicines trafficking, according to the agency. 
    The site is the first illicit production facility for weight-loss medicine discovered in the UK.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal, 24 October 2025
  6. Sam
    Thousands of men with advanced prostate cancer in England are to be offered a drug that can halve the risk of death.
    In guidance published on Friday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) gave the green light to darolutamide, which attacks the disease by starving cancer cells and has fewer side-effects than existing treatments.
    At least 6,000 men a year with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer will get access to the novel treatment, also known as Nubeqa and made by Bayer, on the NHS.
    Darolutamide, taken as two tablets twice daily, works by blocking hormones fuelling cancer growth. The treatment is delivered alongside androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), a hormone therapy that lowers testosterone levels.
    Data show the treatment combination is better than using ADT alone and is as effective as other combination treatments, according to Nice.
    Helen Knight, the director of medicines evaluation at Nice, said: “I’m pleased we can recommend this new combination treatment, which provides another much-needed option for people with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.
    “We are determined to ensure that effective treatments such as darolutamide, which can help extend the length and quality of people’s lives, are made available fast to the people who need them.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 24 October 2025
  7. Sam
    The government's goal of moving care from hospitals into neighbourhood health hubs is at risk because community services are under too much strain, the health and care regulator says.
    In its annual report, the Care Quality Commission said waiting times were too long and staffing too stretched in areas such as mental health, GP care and social care.
    The regulator said there was a real risk patients would suffer because these services would not able to cope with the extra demands.
    But the government said investment was being made to address the pressures.
    It raised a number of concerns about the current state of community services, including:
    Long waits for mental health – with a third of adult patients reporting wiats of three months or more between first assessment and treatment, plus signs that waits for children are even worse.
    Continued problems accessing GP services – with only half of patients finding it easy to get through on the phone.
    A dramatic drop in district nurse numbers – with 50% fewer per person over 65 than there was 14 years ago.
    The struggle to get state-funded social care - with the proportion of older people getting help from councils dropping to 3.6%, compared to over 8% 20 years ago.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 24 October 2025
  8. Sam
    Resident doctors in England will strike again next month – the 13th time since 2023 – a decision NHS bosses say is “the last thing the NHS needs”
    Hospital chiefs predicted that the stoppage would make it harder for the NHS to manage the increase in winter viruses and hamper its efforts to tackle the 7.4m waiting list backlog.
    The British Medical Association (BMA) and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, blamed each other for the five-day strike, from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
    Dr Jack Fletcher, the chair of the BMA’s resident doctors’ committee (RDC), said on Thursday that the strike was a response to Streeting offering only “vague promises” after the union’s “reasonable” demands on pay and career progression.
    But the health secretary accused the BMA of making a “preposterous” decision and indulging in “reckless posturing” and “unnecessary strikes” that would harm patients.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 23 October 2025
  9. Sam
    The weight-loss drug semaglutide cuts the risk of heart attack or stroke regardless of how many kilograms people lose, the largest study of its kind has found.
    However, shrinking waist size – a sign of less belly fat – was linked to better heart outcomes, according to the research.
    The findings, published in the Lancet, suggest drugs could have wider benefits for patients beyond weight loss so should not be restricted to the most obese patients.
    Researchers set out to examine the additional benefits of semaglutide, which is the main ingredient of the weight-loss drug Wegovy.
    The select trial, led by University College London (UCL), looked at whether or not people taking the drug went on to suffer a “major adverse cardiac event” – including heart disease deaths, heart attacks or strokes.
    Previous analysis of the data found that semaglutide reduced the risk of major adverse cardiac events by 20%. Researchers have now found the benefit was apparent regardless of how much weight people lost while taking the drug.
    Academics said the findings suggested there were multiple ways the drug could benefit the heart, rather than the protective effect achieved solely by weight loss alone.
    The lead author, Prof John Deanfield, of UCL’s Institute of Cardiovascular Science, said: “Abdominal fat is more dangerous for our cardiovascular health than overall weight and therefore it is not surprising to see a link between reduction in waist size and cardiovascular benefit.
    “However, this still leaves two-thirds of the heart benefits of semaglutide unexplained. These findings reframe what we think this medication is doing.
    “It is labelled as a weight-loss jab but its benefits for the heart are not directly related to the amount of weight lost – in fact, it is a drug that directly affects heart disease and other diseases of ageing.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 22 October 2025
  10. Sam
    A man with mental health issues and a history of making violent threats murdered a woman in a Devon park after falling off a waiting list for a care coordinator, possibly because a health trust’s computer records were compromised by a cyber-attack, an inquest has heard.
    If Cameron Davis had been allocated a care coordinator, a multi-agency meeting on him may have been called before he stabbed Lorna England, 74, the senior coroner for Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, Philip Spinney, concluded.
    Cameron Davis fatally stabbed Lorna England after warning he would kill a stranger if he was not sectioned. 
    Spinney highlighted that on the day of the murder, a mental health nurse tried to contact the police on their non-emergency 101 line to report that Davis was threatening to kill someone. The nurse waited on the line for about two hours before he was disconnected.
    The inquest heard that Davis had been known to mental health services in Devon from November 2021.
    In January 2023, the month before he murdered England, Davis presented himself at a police station in Exeter and told an officer he would “100%” kill someone. He was taken to hospital but discharged.
    On Saturday 18 February, the morning of the killing, he told a paramedic he would kill a “random person” if he was not detained. He was taken back to hospital but again discharged and went on to attack England that afternoon.
    The coroner said psychiatric teams had followed the correct procedures in deciding not to detain Davis. But he said: “There was a mistake in 2022 when Mr Davis appeared to be removed from a waiting list. Mr Davis did not have a care coordinator allocated.”
    He said: “It is my conclusion that Mr Davis would have greatly benefited from a care coordinator as a single point of contact as would the other agencies involved to share information.
    “A care coordinator may have convened a multi-agency meeting after a decline in Mr Davis mental health at the end of January [2023].”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 22 October 2025
  11. Sam
    The world faces “an emerging crisis” of higher death rates among teenagers and young adults, according to a major study on the causes of death and disability worldwide.
    The reasons vary from drug and alcohol use, and suicide in North America, to infectious diseases and injuries in sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers said, but warned that their data should serve as “a wake-up call”.
    The study also found that chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes now accounted for two-thirds of all ill health and that mental health problems were surging.
    Half of the world’s disease burden was preventable, researchers calculated, driven by risks that could be reduced, such as high blood pressure, air pollution, smoking and obesity.
    The Global Burden of Disease study was carried out by a network of 16,500 scientists using more than 300,000 data sources. It is published in the Lancet and was presented at the World Health Summit in Berlin on Sunday.
    In North America and parts of Latin America, the rises were driven by suicide and consumption of drugs and alcohol.
    “Very marked increases” among teenagers and young adults “certainly got our attention when we were looking at the data”, said Dr Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s school of medicine.
    Rising deaths in younger adults, particularly in North America, he said, were “very tied up with the rise of anxiety and depression in young people, particularly women”. While the rise of mental health disorders had received much attention, he said, there was still a lot of debate around the causes.
    “Is this social media? Is this [electronic] devices? Is this broader social trends on parenting? We know it was made worse by Covid. So there’s a lot of controversy, I’d say, in the psychiatric epidemiology and general social commentary about the causes around mental health. And so that’s a problem for coming up with solutions.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2025
  12. Sam
    A total of 73% of GPs say patient safety is compromised by the workload pressure they face, the survey of more than 2,300 GPs found.
    Around three in five GPs (58%) reported a lack of time to adequately assess and treat patients during consultations and 57% said they did not have enough time to build relationships with patients that are key to high-quality care, according to findings published ahead of the 2025 RCGP annual conference, in Newport, Wales.
    The polling also exposes deep concern over the impact of NHS neighbourhoods, with 68% of respondents voicing fears that there are not enough GPs to deliver the model proposed in the government's 10-year health plan and that it will deepen the workload crisis in general practice.
    In her final speech as college chair, Professor Kamila Hawthorne told the conference that she has met GPs across the country who are 'pushing themselves, day after day, to look after their patients in the face of ever-growing demand and an unsustainable lack of capacity'.
    She said: 'In our recent survey, 73% of members told us that patient safety is being compromised by workload pressures. Fewer than 30% said they had enough time during consultations to provide high quality patient care. And more than half reported that their own mental health had declined in the last year. It’s hard to find a GP who doesn’t feel they have to cut corners.'
    Read full story
    Source: GP Online, 9 October 2025
  13. Sam
    Recent productivity improvements will be hard to sustain in future years, experts have warned, as they said newly published NHS England data fails to show which trusts are the most productive.
    The Department for Health and Social Care announced last month that productivity at acute and specialist trusts had grown by 2.7% in 2024-25 compared to the previous year – exceeding the 2% target set by government.
    The productivity measure, which compares cost-weighted activity growth against real-terms resource growth to give a “productivity growth estimate”, is also one of three finance measures used to determine which segment of the NHS Oversight Framework providers are assigned.
    The data, which compares 2023-24 with 2024-25, has last month published what effectively amounts to a productivity “league table”.
    HSJ has learned some trusts, including two specialist providers which appeared to be the worst performers when the data was first published last month, have raised concerns to NHSE that their figures were inaccurate.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 7 October 2025
    Further reading on the hub:
    Waste not, harm not: The moral case for efficiency and productivity in healthcare
  14. Sam
    At-home abortions should be allowed for up to 12 weeks of pregnancy across the UK, according to academics, after a study found they were just as safe and effective as hospital care.
    A medical abortion involves taking two medications, mifepristone and misoprostol, to end a pregnancy. In 2022, at-home medical abortions were made permanent in England and Wales, after temporary legislation allowed them to take place at home during the pandemic. In Northern Ireland, at-home abortion care is not permitted at any gestation.
    Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) recommending that early medical abortions can occur safely at home in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, legislation across England and Wales limits this to 10 weeks.
    The study, published in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, looked at the outcomes of abortions carried out between 10 and 12 weeks of pregnancy in hospital and at home across NHS Lothian in Scotland, between 2020 and 2025. At-home medical abortions are legal in Scotland up to 12 weeks.
    During this period, 14,458 referrals were made to the abortion service, and of these 485 women (3.5%) were assessed as being between 10 and 12 weeks of pregnancy either by the date of their last period or by an ultrasound scan.
    The researchers found that 97% of abortions were successful for both groups of women.
    They also found cases of serious complications, such as heavy bleeding or infection, one month after the procedure among those who had opted for a medical abortion at home. But despite this, the researchers concluded it was a rare complication among women who are less than 20 weeks pregnant.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 
  15. Sam
    Plans for a new NHS “online hospital” service to deliver millions of appointments each year by “digitally connecting patients to specialist clinicians” are set to be unveiled by the prime minister today.
    The new service will be branded “NHS Online” and be accessible through the NHS App.
    It is scheduled to go live in 2027 and will deliver “up to 8.5 million extra GP and consultant-led elective services in its first three years”, Sir Keir Starmer is expected to pledge in his speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
    NHS England said the increased capacity will help cut demand and reduce waiting times, saying the announcement was “a huge step forward for the NHS”. 
    But experts said that while NHS Online would be “an interesting initiative and helpful for some”, detail was “largely lacking at this stage” and there were “difficult questions” to address about how it would be staffed and funded, and how patients would be passed between digital and physical services.
    A Number 10 statement said: “Patients will always have the choice between NHS Online and their local hospital. Those who opt in to the service will also access and track prescriptions, be referred for scans and tests, and receive clinical advice on managing their condition – all from the comfort of their own home.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 30 September 2025
  16. Sam
    A student described as "traumatised" has been awarded a £26,000 settlement from her former dental practice after alleged negligence led to a severe abscess and a near-sepsis incident.
    Katelyn De Blick, then 16 and from Keighley, West Yorkshire, sought treatment at her local Skipton Road Mydentist practice in summer 2021 for a cracked tooth. Instead of addressing underlying decay, the tooth was reportedly cleaned and covered with a sealant.
    Weeks later, Ms De Blick returned to the practice experiencing "severe pain and a swollen jaw."
    She was diagnosed with a potential infected abscess, given antibiotics, and advised to attend A&E if her condition worsened.
    As the "throbbing, stabbing" pain and swelling persisted, Katelyn’s mother took her to Airedale General Hospital’s A&E department.
    There, she was informed that the tooth required immediate removal and that the abscess posed a significant risk of causing sepsis.
    She subsequently underwent surgery under general anaesthetic at Bradford Royal Infirmary. Medics removed the tooth and drained the abscess externally, leaving her with a "painful" open wound for several weeks and a lasting 50p-sized scar.
    “The whole experience was traumatic.”
    After being put in touch with the Dental Law Partnership, which completed further investigations and analysis, it was revealed Katelyn’s dentists failed to diagnose and treat decay for years.
    The progression of the decay resulted in the infected abscess, the emergency hospital admission and the need for an operation and tooth removal, all of which “could have been easily avoided”.
    “It was frustrating and devastating to hear that, if they had just taken a few more minutes to clean (the tooth), then I wouldn’t have had to go through all of this,” she said.
    The Dental Law Partnership took on Katelyn’s case in 2021 and it was successfully settled in January 2025, when she was paid £26,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 22 September 2025
  17. Sam
    The NHS needs to do more to prevent suicides among pregnant women and new mothers, a national audit has recommended.
    Specialist perinatal mental health teams need to have a leadership role in the care of pregnant women with mental health conditions, the Maternal State of the Nation Report for 2021-23 said. This should include risk assessment, advice and guidance, and rapid onward referral if needed.
    The report, published this month, also called for all those caring for pregnant women and new mothers to be aware of any known domestic abuse via flags in their records. In the years covered by the report, 13 women were killed by their partner or former partner, six of whom had previously reported domestic abuse.
    Suicide was the leading cause of death for women between six weeks and a year after the end of their pregnancy. According to the 2021-23 audit, 88 women in Britain and Ireland died by suicide while pregnant or within a year, which was more than 50 per cent higher than in 2017-19.
    “Women with social and medical complexity require urgent, specialist care and interagency communication to fully appreciate and coordinate all aspects of care,” the report said, highlighting the trauma suffered by the loss of a child, whether through stillbirth, perinatal death or custody proceedings.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 16 September 2025
  18. Sam
    A campaign group representing families involved in maternity failures says its members feel “completely betrayed” by the health and social care secretary, and are calling for greater scrutiny of national NHS decisions.
    The Maternity Safety Alliance includes families from several of the 14 trusts that will feature in the investigation confirmed today, as well as some from Nottingham, which is subject to a separate investigation.
    The 14 were named today, following Mr Streeting’s announcement of the investigation in June. Some campaigners have welcomed the process, but others remain sceptical and continue to call for a full public inquiry.
    In a strongly worded statement, the MSA said the terms of the Amos review had not been co-produced with families as promised. They said they were still in the dark about many details. Wes Streeting has not met with them since the investigation was announced, they said, and letters to him have gone unanswered.
    They said that Promises from Mr Streeting about “co-production” have not been carried through, with no consultation over the make-up of the investigation team, final terms of reference not being shared with families and feedback ignored. Families said they have been “gaslit” by government claims that they have been involved, when their views have in fact not been listened to.
    Families called for the most serious harms to be focused on, but they feel this has been ignored and there is no mention of deaths caused by negligence in the draft terms seen by the group.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 15 September 2025
  19. Sam
    A long-awaited "Hillsborough Law" bill will force public officials to tell the truth during investigations into major disasters.
    The news has been welcomed by campaigners, who had feared the legislation was going to be watered down.
    The landmark Public Office (Accountability) Bill will force public bodies to cooperate with investigations into major disasters or potentially face criminal sanctions, as well as provide legal funding to those affected by state-related disasters.
    Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had previously pledged to bring in the law by the 36th anniversary of the tragedy, but Downing Street then said more time was needed to redraft it.
    The bill will be introduced to Parliament on Tuesday to begin its journey towards becoming law.
    The government has confirmed a new professional and legal "duty of candour" will be part of the bill, meaning public officials would have to act with honesty and integrity at all times and would face criminal sanctions if they breached it.
    Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died at Hillsborough, said she was hopeful the new law "will mean no-one will ever have to suffer like we did".
    The government said the new legislation would "end the culture of cover-ups" and learn lessons from wider disasters including the Grenfell Tower fire and the Post Office Horizon and infected blood scandals.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 15 September 2025
    Related reading on the hub:
    Why patient safety demands a Hillsborough Law with a legal duty of candour for all health and care professionals “Accountability is important, but that can only come when you get to the truth.” An interview with Will Powell, father of Robbie  
  20. Sam
    A rising number of stroke victims are putting themselves at risk by taking themselves to A&E instead of waiting for an ambulance, a charity has warned.
    It comes amid concerns about long waits for an ambulance.
    But stroke patients who seek help via 999 have a better chance of getting specialist help, the Stroke Association said.
    The charity acknowledged people’s concerns about ambulance wait times, but this is still the “fastest and most efficient way to get the best treatment and care for stroke”.
    Certain treatments can reduce the risk of death and long-term disability if they are delivered in a timely way.
    But new analysis from the Stroke Association shows that a stroke patient makes their own way to A&E, instead of arriving by ambulance, every 22 minutes across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
    Overall 26.8% of stroke patients – some 23,491 people – reported making their own arrangements to get to the hospital in 2024/25, according to the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme.
    The Stroke Association is encouraging people to call 999 rather than making their own way to A&E, saying this is the fastest way to get specialist stroke treatments.
    Paramedics know which units are the best for emergency stroke care – which are not available at all hospitals, it added.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 11 September 2025
  21. Sam
    The death of a 27-year-old man who killed himself in a hospital toilet after waiting 22 hours to be seen by the mental health team was “contributed to by neglect”, a coroner has ruled.
    Jamie Pearson was admitted to Blackpool Victoria hospital’s A&E department after taking an overdose of high-strength painkillers on 17 August 2024.
    An inquest heard that Pearson should have been seen within four hours by mental health specialists but was deemed low risk and was still waiting 22 hours later when he killed himself in a toilet.
    His mother, Julie Knowles, previously told the Guardian her son was “badly failed and let down” by health professionals.
    Alan Wilson, the senior coroner for Blackpool and Fylde, concluded on Tuesday that Pearson’s death had been “contributed to by neglect”. He said the cumulative effect of the missed opportunities to provide mental health care “very comfortably” crossed the high threshold required for a finding of neglect.
    The inquest heard that the hospital was struggling to manage patient levels at the time, with no medical bed available. This meant Pearson was left in a waiting area overnight and into the following day.
    A communication breakdown meant that plans were not made for mental health specialists to see him as a priority, the coroner was told.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 10 September 2025
  22. Sam
    More than half of women having a baby in Britain now do so with the help of medical intervention, an audit of NHS maternity care has revealed.
    Of the 592,594 births that took place in 2023, 50.6% involved either a caesarean section or the use of instruments such as forceps or a ventouse suction cup.
    The increasing regularity of medical intervention is largely down to the sharp rise in caesarean births, in which the baby is delivered during an operation.
    The proportion of babies born that way across England, Scotland and Wales has risen from 25% in 2015-16 to 38.9% in 2023, according to the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA).
    Dr Shuby Puthussery, an associate professor in maternal and child health at the University of Bedfordshire, said: “It’s worrying that over 50% of births involved medical intervention. But it’s linked to a broader demographic trend.
    “We see a rather worrying trend of births to [older] women increasing year by year, along with significant increases in factors such as obesity, maternal diabetes and pre-existing medical conditions, leading to more complex medically assisted births, especially among women from ethnic minority groups and those living in poverty.”
    Better access to antenatal care, especially scans, would help detect problems earlier and reduce the risk of mothers needing medical assistance while in labour, she said.
    However, Prof Asma Khalil, the vice-president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), disagreed that a caesarean increases the risk faced by women.
    “Caesarean births are common and the steady increase isn’t necessarily a cause for concern as long as future services are well-prepared to adapt and ensure they have the right staffing, training and facilities to manage increasingly complex births.
    “The caesarean birthrate in England has steadily increased over the past decade. One factor in this is the increasing proportion of pregnancies that are complex.
    “We are seeing national rising rates of obesity and people choosing to have children at a later stage in their life, both of which can increase the chance of complications.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 11 September 2025
  23. Sam
    Trusts are battling a “blizzard” of new tasks from the centre as officials are “making it up as they go along” in the wake of the 10-Year Health Plan, a chair has complained.
    Andrew George, chair of Oxleas Foundation Trust, last week told his board he believed some trusts, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care were “making it up as they go along to some extent” following major reforms pledged for the health service.
    He further said that the “earned autonomy” promised to high-performing trusts in the plan was not yet a reality, with organisations being sent a “deluge” of documents to look through in wake of the 10YHP.
    Professor George said the promise that top trusts would “be left to get on with it to carry on performing highly” did not feel like the current reality.
    He said: “There’s a deluge of stuff that we are being sent to confirm, to check and to everything else. So at the moment it doesn’t feel like that.”
    Professor George added: “Stuff that’s happening at pace is therefore coming as a blizzard and is perhaps not as well thought through as it would be more conventionally done."
    Oxleas chief executive Ify Okocha also echoed these sentiments, criticising the pace at which trusts had been asked to come up with five-year plans, as set out in guidance issued by NHS England.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 10 September 2025
  24. Sam
    The expiration of a 2015 federal cybersecurity law could put hospitals and health systems at risk for more cyberattacks, a former FBI leader wrote in Fortune.
    The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, which lapses 30 September has enabled quick threat-intelligence sharing between government and businesses, including thousands this year alone, preventing “countless” hacks over the past decade, according to the 17 August article by Cynthia Kaiser, former deputy director of the FBI’s cyber department.
    “If information sharing degrades after CISA 2015’s sunset, hospitals — and all other critical infrastructure — very likely will lose crucial early warnings about ransomware variants and other attack methods,” she wrote. “When a hospital’s systems are threatened, rapid information sharing matters. Minutes count in medical emergencies, and delays can be fatal.”
    Ms. Kaiser pointed to research from Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.-based University of Minnesota that estimated ransomware attacks killed between 42 and 67 Medicare patients from 2016 to 2021.
    Read full story
    Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 18 August 2025
  25. Sam
    Surgeons at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for children were forced to use mobile phone torches during an operation due to a power outage, the NHS’s safety watchdog has found.
    The leading children’s hospital has faced ongoing concerns over the maintenance of its estate and operating theatres, which have led to water leaks and power outages, according to a report by the Care Quality Commission.
    The CQC warned of “recurrent” problems, including a power outage during spinal surgery and ventilation failures.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 4 August 2025

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