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Sam

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  1. Sam
    Charlotte Creevy's son Seth was two weeks old when he stopped breathing and was rushed to intensive care at a London hospital.
    "What kept going through my mind was, 'Is he going to live or die?'"
    Charlotte said Seth had contracted three viruses and needed respiratory support.
    Thankfully Seth recovered and returned home after being treated at the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington for three weeks in October 2022.
    Now a "first of its kind" support service by the charity Cosmic is being rolled out at the hospital to help parents like Charlotte cope with the trauma of experiencing their child going into intensive care.
    "It was awful. I would cry because it was hard not knowing what would happen to Seth," Charlotte added.
    "I was only two weeks postpartum after an emergency C-section, so I was physically not in a good way anyway."
    Chief executive of Cosmic, Susannah Forland said "things like the beeping of a fridge can trigger trauma or flashbacks".
    She added: "The impact can be long-lasting and far-reaching after the families return home.
    "Our service will bridge the gap between hospital and home, providing a vital safety net during one of the most emotionally vulnerable times in a parent's life."
    Research at St Mary's Hospital found that early intervention helped reduce symptoms of PTSD and other long-term mental health issues among parents, following their child's discharge from intensive care.
    After a successful pilot, Cosmic is funding and delivering the post-PICU service on a permanent basis.
    It involves providing parents with a booklet containing information and coping mechanisms, a follow-up telephone call by trained staff, and ongoing referral for counselling where needed.
    Read full story 
    Source: BBC News, 5 August 2025
    Further reading on hub:
    How a charity in France is supporting intensive care units: An interview with Anne-Sophie Debue
     
  2. Sam
    NHS patients from Wales who need knee and hip operations in England face lengthy delays after a health board asked English hospitals to copy Wales' longer waiting times.
    Powys health board announced the change as it could not afford the cost of how quickly operations over the border were being carried out, but patients have said they were not informed.
    Mel Wallace, 59, from Howey, Powys, was initially told she would have a 12-month wait for her hip replacement, but now faces another 45-week wait after already waiting 59 weeks.
    Health board chief executive Hayley Thomas said people in the area "should be treated in the same timeframe as residents of anywhere else in Wales".
    Read full story 
    Source: BBC News, 4 August 2025
  3. Sam
    A mum who blames a controversial plastic implant for her crippling pain has blasted the Scottish Government for continuing to use the products.
    Roseanna Clarkin is one of a number of women who blame mesh products for life-changing complications.
    In her case, it was used to treat an umbilical hernia in 2015.
    Three years later, while the Scottish Government banned the use of trans vaginal mesh products, surgical mesh is still used for other procedures.
    Studies suggest 5 to 20% of hernia operations result in mesh failure. A study in the British Medical Journal, said the rate could be 12 to 30%.
    Campaigners have been calling for an independent review and patients including Roseanna want a ban on all surgical mesh and fixation devices.
    Roseanna, 41, of Clydebank, said: “Vaginal mesh is banned but mesh is still used for other procedures. Ultimately, it’s the same mesh that can cause the same problems.”
    In 2023, then First Minister Humza Yousaf said to suspend the use of hernia mesh would leave some people with limited or no treatment options.
    Last year, Roseanna was diagnosed with a rectocele – a prolapse of the wall between the rectum and vagina – but was shocked doctors wanted to use mesh.
    She said: “I was outraged. Mesh has caused ­devastating effects to my life and body. There was no way I was having any more.” 
    Read full story
    Source: The Sun, 23 July 2025
  4. Sam
    The parents of a woman who died after her blood clot was misdiagnosed by someone who she thought was a doctor have called a government-ordered review "a missed opportunity".
    Marion and Brendan Chesterton have welcomed many of the recommendations in Professor Gillian Leng's review of the role that physician associates (PAs) perform in the NHS, but say "they don't go far enough".
    Emily, 30, died in November 2022 after suffering a pulmonary embolism. She went to see her GP at a north London surgery twice in the weeks before her death - and on both occasions was seen by a physician associate who missed the blood clot and instead prescribed propranolol for anxiety.
    The actress from Salford had told her worried parents that she had been seen by a doctor, but she had not.
    Her father Brendan told Sky News: "If she come out and said I've seen someone called the physician's associate I'm sure we would have insisted that, you know, let's go back and insist that you see a doctor. She never knew."
    Read full story
    Source: Sky News, 14 July 2025
  5. Sam
    The hospital which treated a young woman who died unexpectedly four years ago has said her care fell below their usual “high standards” – but the admission is “a complete cop out”, her mother said.
    Gaia Young, 25, was admitted to University College London Hospital (UCLH) in July 2021 when she was taken ill following a bike ride, and died 17 hours later.
    Doctors know that Gaia died from a cerebral oedema – a brain swelling – but even after an inquest the underlying cause of her sudden illness remained unexplained.
    Her mother, Lady Dorit Young, has continued to fight and campaign for the hospital to take accountability for what she says are failings in its care.
    She described the hospital’s latest statement, a partial apology via a short comment in a news article, as “pathetic”, adding: “It came completely out of the blue. I didn’t even notice it at first, then I was extremely furious. Why, four years after Gaia died, why now? Why did they let us do all this work and fight and push? I think it’s cruel.
    “They could have done it at court, in the inquest. They could have said it to me in person, but the fact that they put it into a rather unknown publication, it’s very sneaky, it’s pretty shameful. It’s a complete cop out.”
    The UCLH comment was made in response to an article called “Failing the dead: How medical ignorance is killing Britain’s coroner service”, by journalist Angela Walker in online political magazine The Lead.
    Read full story
    Source: Islington Tribune, 14 July 2024
    Further reading on the hub:
    Treated with callous disrespect: A bereaved mother’s tale of institutional apathy from the Coroner Service  The hospital told me to GO HOME, but my daughter was critically sick. A bereaved mother’s 11 patient safety lessons
  6. Sam
    Nearly a third of U.S. teens are prediabetic, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    In 2023, a count found that an estimated 8.4 million adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 – or 32.7 percent – fell into that category.
    The alarming results are a “wake-up call,” Dr. Christopher Holliday, the agency’s top official in charge of diabetes prevention, said in a statement to ABC News. He said that the risk of type 2 diabetes poses a "significant threat" to young people's health.
    With prediabetes, a person’s blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis. Having prediabetes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, as well as heart disease and stroke. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 8 July 2025
  7. Sam
    A robot has performed realistic surgery on its own with 100% accuracy, researchers have said.
    In a “major leap” towards using more robots in operating theatres, a machine trained on the videos of surgeries was able to precisely work on removing a gallbladder.
    The robot operated with the expertise of a skilled human surgeon, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers in the US, even during unexpected scenarios typical in real-life medical emergencies.
    The robot was watched as it performed a lengthy phase of a gallbladder removal on a life-like patient.
    It was able to respond to and learn from voice commands from the team, just like a novice surgeon working with a mentor.
    Overall, there were 17 tasks in the surgery, the robot had to identify certain ducts and arteries and grab them precisely, strategically place clips, and sever parts with scissors.
    It was also able to adapt even when dye was introduced which changed the appearance of the organs and tissue.
    Associate professor in mechanical engineering, Axel Krieger, said: “This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to robots that truly understand surgical procedures.
    “This is a critical distinction that brings us significantly closer to clinically viable autonomous surgical systems that can work in the messy, unpredictable reality of actual patient care.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 9 July 2025
  8. Sam
    Thousands of victims of the infected blood scandal are being "harmed further" by long waits for compensation, the chair of the public inquiry into the disaster has said.
    In a hard-hitting report, Sir Brian Langstaff said there were "obvious injustices" in the way the scheme had been devised.
    It is thought 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis B or C in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s after being given contaminated blood products on the NHS.
    The government has set aside £11.8bn to pay compensation and has said it is cutting red tape to speed up payments to victims.
    The inquiry's main report into the scandal, published last year, found that the disaster could largely have been avoided if different decisions had been taken by the health authorities at the time.
    It said too little was done to stop the importing of contaminated blood products from abroad in the 1970s and 80s, and there was evidence that elements of the scandal had been covered up.
    In May of this year, Sir Brian took the unusual step of ordering two days of extra hearings after he received "letter after letter, email after email" expressing concerns about the way the government's compensation scheme for victims had been managed.
    His extra 200-page report, published on Wednesday, was based on that evidence, and found that victims had been "harmed further" by the way they had been treated over the last 12 months.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 9 July 2025
  9. Sam
    Hours after giving birth, with her son rushed away to a high dependency unit, as she lay broken and bleeding, Morgan Joines overheard a midwife blaming her. 
    Her son had been born with wet lung after an emergency and traumatic caesarean section.
    "I overheard [the midwife] tell a student nurse I was the reason my son was ill, because I was too lazy to push," she told Sky News.
    "I was broken. I genuinely believed for ages afterwards that I had failed my son."
    Her son was born at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, part of the Oxford University's Hospital Trust. Morgan is one of more than 500 families who say they have been harmed by maternity care at the Trust.
    On Monday, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, announced a "rapid" national investigation into NHS maternity services.
    A taskforce, chaired by Mr Streeting and made up of experts and bereaved families, will first investigate up to ten of the most concerning maternity and neonatal units.
    And campaigners - calling themselves the Families Failed by OUH Maternity Services - are calling for Oxford to be on that initial list.
    The CQC flagged issues around maintaining patient dignity, and said medicines were not always safely stored and managed. The unit did not manage the control of infection consistently it said, and wards were not always kept clean.
    One mum told the campaign group she thought she was going to die after being left alone while in labour and denied pain relief.
    Another said she is reluctant to consider having another child and feels a "profound loss of trust in the NHS".
    Read full story
    Source: Sky News, 26 June 2025
  10. Sam
    The draft of the government’s 10-Year Health Plan circulated this weekend, which HSJ has seen, is a highly ambitious document. Unfortunately, this is not meant as a compliment
    The 150-page document contains many good ideas. However, they are set in a framework that would challenge the logic of the most credulous of policy radicals.
    Put crudely – and that is the right word for the plan’s swathe of hi-tech references – the government’s argument is this: the recovery and transformation of the NHS can be achieved by shifting care into the community, applying AI to almost everything and stepping up prevention work.
    A new operating model proposed by the government’s 10-Year Health Plan will radically reform the role and governance of foundation trusts and integrated care boards.
    HSJ has seen a recent draft of the plan, which states that the strongest foundation trusts will be allowed to become “integrated health organisations”. These will be given the responsibility of managing the budget for the health and care of a designated population.
    Meanwhile, the plan says elected mayors will take over from local authority leaders on integrated care boards, and the new role of the boards will often involve shaping the provider market.
    ‘The draft plan says the Department of Health and Social Care will seek to approve the first “new FTs” in 2026.
    The authorisation will be undertaken by a unit within the DHSC, whose work will be overseen by an independent group of experts. There will be no return for Monitor, the standalone FT regulator.
    The plan reveals FTs will no longer be required to have governors. The public and staff representatives will be replaced by more “dynamic” ways of reflecting their views.
    The highest performing new FTs will be able to manage the entire healthcare budget for a local population. These FTs will become “integrated health organisations” or “IHOs”.
    This approach, the plan claims, will avoid the problem in which improving preventative care in one type of provider, such as GP practices, advantages another, for example, a hospital. It is a concept similar to “accountable care organisations” in the USA.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 23 June 2025
  11. Sam
    A union has criticised a hospital trust for “jeopardising patient safety” by issuing “highly inappropriate” instructions for resident doctors to approve prescription requests from physician associates.
    The British Medical Association has written to University Hospitals Plymouth Trust to raise “serious concerns about the apparent unsafe and unprofessional working arrangements” between resident doctors and physician associates at the trust.
    The letter comes after a leak on social media appeared to show resident doctors at one of UHP’s departments being instructed to set up a rota to sign off requests for prescriptions and imaging investigations made by a physician associate. The BMA has called for these instructions to be “urgently rescinded”.
    Guidance from the General Medical Council states that physician associates cannot prescribe medication, even if they held prescribing rights in a previous role.
    The letter to UHP’s interim chief executive Mark Hackett, from BMA council chair Phil Banfield, said the instructions “contain highly inappropriate directions to resident doctors which, if acted upon, would cause them to breach professional standards set by their regulator, risk their professional indemnity, and jeopardise patient safety.
    “The rules on prescribing are clear, physician associates are not qualified or legally entitled to prescribe. This is not ‘due to a number of issues’ (as claimed in the instructions) that can somehow be circumvented by the trust – it is a necessary legal restriction put in place to protect patient safety.
    “Our guidance (and that of the GMC) is clear that no resident doctor should automatically prescribe medications or request ionising radiation on behalf of another practitioner…. That resident doctors have been asked to organise a rota implementing such unsafe practices speaks volumes about the way they are viewed by their employer”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 19 June 2025
  12. Sam
    A UK trial has found that a chemotherapy-free approach to treatment may lead to better outcomes for some leukaemia patients, in what scientists are calling a "milestone".
    The groundbreaking UK-wide trial could reshape the way the most common form of leukaemia in adults is treated.
    Researchers from Leeds assessed whether two targeted cancer drugs could perform better than standard chemotherapy among patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).
    The Flair trial, which took place at 96 cancer centres across the UK, saw 786 people with previously untreated CLL randomly assigned to receive standard chemotherapy; a single targeted drug, ibrutinib, or two targeted drugs taken together, ibrutinib and venetoclax, with treatment guided by personalised blood tests.
    Researchers found that after five years, 94% of patients who received ibrutinib plus venetoclax were alive with no disease progression.
    This compares with 79% for those on ibrutinib alone and 58 per cent for those on standard chemotherapy, according to the study, which has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented to the European Haematology Association congress in Milan, Italy.
    Dr Talha Munir, consultant haematologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, who led the study, said the Flair trial is a “milestone”.
    “We have shown that a chemotherapy-free approach can be not only more effective but also more tolerable for patients,” she said.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 16 June 2025
  13. Sam
    A senior figure in the health service has criticised it for deep-seated racism after his mother “got a black service, not an NHS service” before she died.
    Victor Adebowale, the chair of the NHS Confederation, claimed his mother Grace’s lung cancer went undiagnosed because black people get “disproportionately poor” health service care.
    The NHS’s failure to detect her cancer while she was alive shows that patients experience “two different services”, based on the colour of their skin, Adebowale said.
    His mother, Grace Amoke Owuren Adebowale, a former NHS nurse, died in January aged 92. He highlighted her care and death during his speech this week at the NHS Confederation’s annual conference as an example of “persistent racial inequalities in NHS services”.
    His remarks prompted fresh concern about the stark differences between the care received by those from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds and white people.
    “My mum, who worked for many years as a nurse, died earlier this year at the age of 92. It was difficult. It was not the dignified death that we would have wanted for her,” Adebowale told an audience of NHS bosses.
    “It wasn’t the death she deserved. So it makes me clear about the need to address the inequity. I think she got a black service, not an NHS service.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 14 June 2025
  14. Sam
    The government is aiming for a significant expansion of clinical trials in the UK, and plans to use the NHS app to encourage millions of people in England to take part in the search for new treatments.
    Patients will eventually be automatically matched with studies based on their health data and interests, via the app. The plans envisage alerting them to the trials using smartphone notifications.
    NHS trusts that fail to meet targets on trials will also be publicly named, and the best performers will be prioritised for funding, as part of improvements designed to restore Britain’s global reputation for medical research.
    The strategy is one of the first to emerge from the government’s forthcoming 10-year health plan for England. It aims to take advantage of changes simplifying NHS records by quickly identifying people suitable for a trial. It will also include measures to streamline the paperwork required for the studies.
    It is hoped the reforms will speed up the trials process and attract more pharmaceutical companies to host them in Britain, as ministers in all departments are ordered to find pro-growth measures.
    The 10-year health plan will promise to slash set-up times for trials. While it takes about 100 days to set up a trial in Spain, it now takes 250 days in the NHS. The plan will push for commercial clinical trial set-up times to fall to a maximum of 150 days by March 2026.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 16 June 2025
  15. Sam
    Women would no longer be prosecuted for terminating a pregnancy in England and Wales under a proposed shake-up of abortion laws.
    MPs are set to get a free vote next week - meaning they will not be told how to vote by their party - on a change to the law.
    It comes amid concern more women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy.
    Abortion is illegal in England and Wales, most often prosecuted under a piece of Victorian legislation, the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861. But it is allowed up to 24 weeks and in certain other circumstances under the terms of the 1967 Abortion Act.
    This requires two doctors to sign it off and even before 24 weeks can require a woman to testify that her mental or physical health is at risk.
    An amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, tabled by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, aims to decriminalise abortion at any stage by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy, ending the threat of investigation or imprisonment.
    The framework by which abortion is accessed would remain the same.
    But abortions would only need to be signed off by two doctors - as the law currently demands - if the procedure takes place in a hospital or other healthcare setting.
    Time limits would also still apply in healthcare settings.
    "The police cannot be trusted with abortion law – nor can the CPS or the wider criminal justice system," Antoniazzi said.
    "My amendment to the crime and policing bill will give us the urgent change we need to protect women."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 20 June 2025
  16. Sam
    Boston Scientific Corp. will have to pay a total of $26.7 million in damages to four women in a court ruling related to its vaginal mesh product.

    Following a federal court trial in Miami,  jurors found that the company’s Pinnacle pelvic floor replacement kit had a faulty design and the company failed to effectively warn patients and doctors about the possible risks associated with the device. Pelvic organ implants are used to treat female patients experiencing major discomfort due to pelvic organ prolapse.

    This was the first federal trial related to Pinnacle. Others lawsuits are pending.

    Pelvic organ prolapse occurs when a pelvic organ—such as the bladder—drops (prolapses) from its normal place and pushes against the walls of the vagina. This can happen when the muscles that hold pelvic organs in place are weakened or stretched from childbirth or surgery. Many women will have some kind of pelvic organ prolapse. It can be uncomfortable or painful, but isn’t usually a big health problem. It doesn’t always get worse. And in some women, it can get better with time.

    Boston Scientific officials told Reuters that they disagree with the verdict and have a strong case for post-trial motions and appeal.
    Marlborough, Mass.-based Boston Scientific is one of seven companies, including Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon division and C.R. Bard, faced with lawsuits over similar mesh products. Officials with Endo International plc said in September it the company has set aside $1.6 billion to settle “substantially all” the cases against it and its American Medical Systems unit.
    Read full story
    Source: Medical Product Outsourcing
  17. Sam
    Should health systems tell patients when they’re using AI? UC San Diego Health says yes.
    The health system uses a generative AI tool from Epic that drafts MyChart patient portal messages for providers. But UC San Diego Health notifies patients when the responses are drafted by AI with the disclosure: “Part of this message was generated automatically and was reviewed and edited by [name of physician],” according to a May 9 NEJM AI article.
    Members of the organisation’s AI governance committee debated whether it was necessary, as providers use other documentation shortcuts and generative AI could elicit concern from patients, but ultimately came to the same conclusion.
    “Transparency is necessary, as AI-assisted replies may stand out to patients — especially if they differ from clinicians’ usual communication style,” wrote the authors, UC San Diego Health Chief Medical Information Officer Marlene Millen, MD, Professor Ming Tai-Seale, MD, and Chief Clinical and Innovation Officer Christopher Longhurst, MD.
    Lack of transparency “could lead to patients questioning the authenticity of the replies, potentially damaging the crucial doctor-patient trust,” the authors wrote. “With tens of thousands of physicians nationwide using AI to support patient communication, now is the time to begin transparent disclosure.”
    Read full story
    Source: Becker's Health IT, 12 May 2025
  18. Sam
    A surgeon found to have left patients in "agony" after using artificial mesh to treat prolapsed bowels faces allegations he falsified medical notes.
    Tony Dixon was suspended after the surgery was found to have caused harm to hundreds of patients at two hospitals in Bristol.
    Now, a new hearing will examine Dr Dixon's records. He is accused of dishonestly creating patient records long after he was involved in their care, something he "strongly denies".
    The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) will begin Monday. It will examine claims medical records for seven patients contained false information, and were not created at the correct time.
    A spokesperson for Dr Dixon said: "[He] always endeavoured to provide the highest standard of care to his patients.
    "He strongly disputes falsifying any medical records and will provide his detailed evidence about those serious allegations to the tribunal, initially by way of a detailed witness statement which he has provided to the General Medical Council."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 12 May 2025
  19. Sam
    People from minority ethnic backgrounds in the most deprived areas of England are up to three times more likely to need emergency treatment for asthma than their white counterparts, analysis has found.
    Analysis of NHS statistics conducted by the charity Asthma and Lung UK found that Asian people with asthma from the most deprived quintile in England are almost three times more likely to have an emergency admission to hospital than their white counterparts. Black people with asthma in the most deprived quintile are more than twice as likely than their white counterparts to be admitted to hospital.
    People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) aged between 45 and 54 in the most deprived quintile are nine times more likely to be admitted as an emergency than those in the least deprived quintile, according to the analysis.
    Sarah Sleet, the charity’s chief executive, said the figures highlighted “shocking health inequalities in our society”.
    Sleet said: “The UK has the worst death rate in Europe for lung conditions and they are more closely linked to inequality than any other major health condition. The fact that people from the most deprived communities and from ethnic minority backgrounds are much more likely to reach crisis point is yet another wake-up call.
    “Social disadvantages – including poor housing, mould, damp and air pollution – can both cause chronic lung conditions and make them worse. And it’s the poorest in society and those in ethnic minority communities who are more likely to be living in low-quality housing and in areas with high levels of air pollution.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 12 May 2025
  20. Sam
    Thousands of people in a mental health crisis are enduring waits of up to three days in A&E before they get a bed, with conditions “close to torture” for those in such a distressed state.
    At one hospital, some patients have become so upset at the delays in being admitted that they have left and tried to kill themselves nearby, leading nurses and the fire brigade to follow in an attempt to stop them.
    A&E staff are so busy dealing with patients seeking help with physical health emergencies that security guards rather than nurses sometimes end up looking after mental health patients.
    The findings are included in research by the Royal College of Nursing. Its leader, Prof Nicola Ranger, called the long waits facing those in serious mental ill health, and the difficulties faced by A&E staff seeking to care for them, “a scandal in plain sight”.
    The RCN’s research into “prolonged and degrading” long stays in A&E also disclosed that:
    Some trusts that previously had no long waits for mental health patients now have hundreds. The number of people seeking help at A&E for mental health emergencies is rising steadily and reached 216,182 last year. The recruitment of mental health nurses has lagged far behind the rise in demand. The number of beds in mental health units has fallen by 3,699 since 2014. Rachelle McCarthy, a senior charge nurse at Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust, said: “It is not uncommon for patients with severe mental ill health to wait three days. Many become distressed and I totally understand why. I think if I was sat in an A&E department for three days waiting for a bed I would be distressed too.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 13 May 2025
  21. Sam
    Vulnerable patients at a struggling A&E died or needed intensive care after their needs “were not met” while being cared for in corridors and waiting areas, inspectors have warned after an unannounced inspection.
    The Care Quality Commission has raised concerns about how some of the “most vulnerable patients” were being treated in temporary escalation spaces at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, according to a document published in board papers this month.
    NHSE has said systems should “consider reporting the number of patients” in temporary escalation spaces, which include corridors or makeshift wards. Its guidance followed the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary that included scenes of patients being neglected in corridors in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
    Published CQC reports have since raised concerns about corridor care, but senior figures told HSJ the findings at the Royal Cornwall were among the most severe of this kind.
    The inspectors said one 96-year-old woman in a temporary escalation space died following a fall and staff “were unaware of the risk of falls due to lack of verbal handover”.
    Another patient “with a history of delirium” suffered a fractured collarbone from a fall in the same area of the hospital.
    In another case, an incontinent patient was transferred to a “fit to sit” area but by the end of the day “had deteriorated and was in intensive care”.
    The CQC’s letter said: “We were concerned the most vulnerable patients were not having their needs met when cared for in a temporary escalation space.
    “We weren’t assured that every ward is accounting for additional patients in the temporary escalation areas in terms of staffing numbers and skill mix.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 13 May 2025
    Further reading on the hub:
    Corridor care: are the health and safety risks being addressed? The crisis of corridor care in the NHS: patient safety concerns and incident reporting A nurse's response to the NHSE guidance on their principles for providing safe and good quality care in temporary escalation spaces
  22. Sam
    A Northern Ireland nurse failed to properly manage a dying patient's pain on the last night of her life, a tribunal has heard.
    Veteran staff nurse Bernard McGrail has been issued with a four-month suspension order over his failings in dealing with an end-of-life care resident while on a night shift at a Spa Nursing Homes Group facility in July, 2021.
    A Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness to practice panel said Mr McGrail's misconduct had caused "emotional distress" to the family of the woman, identified as Resident A.
    It added: "There was a real risk of harm to Resident A through the inadequate management of their pain on their last evening."
    A remorseful and apologetic Mr McGrail admitted a series of allegations including: a failure to appropriately manage Resident A’s pain; failure to investigate whether Resident A’s syringe driver was working correctly and a failure to escalate that the alarm on Resident A’s syringe driver sounded repeatedly.
    Mr McGrail also admitted that without clinical justification, he administered a 5mg doses of Apixiban to Resident B on three dates on October 2020.
    And on occasions between April 2020 and May 2022 failed to administer and/or record the administration of named medications to six other residents.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: Belfast Telegraph, 12 May 2025
  23. Sam
    A former health ombudsman has condemned mental health services for their handling of two vulnerable young men who died in their care.
    Sir Rob Behrens, who was parliamentary and health service ombudsman (PHSO) from 2017 to 2024, spoke at the Lampard Inquiry, which is examining the deaths of more than 2,000 people under mental health services in Essex over a 24-year period.
    Sir Rob said it was "a disgrace" how Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) had failed in its care of 20-year-old Matthew Leahy, who died in 2012, and a 20-year-old man referred to as Mr R, who died in 2008.
    "This was the National Health Service at its worst and needed calling out," Sir Rob said.
    Sir Rob referred in his inquiry appearance to several reports made during his tenure, including "Missed Opportunities", which looked into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Mr Leahy and Mr R.
    Mr Leahy was found unresponsive at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford. He reported being raped there just days before he died.
    Sir Rob told the inquiry the PHSO identified "19 instances of maladministration" in Mr Leahy's case by North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust - a predecessor to EPUT - including that his care plan was falsified.
    The former ombudsman said there had been "a near-complete failure of the leadership of this trust, certainly before it was merged" with South Essex Partnership Trust to become EPUT.
    "This was an indictment of the health service," he added.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 6 May 2025
  24. Sam
    A groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) model is being trained using NHS data from 57 million people in England in the hope it could predict disease and complications before they occur.
    The world-first study, spearheaded by researchers at University College London (UCL) and King’s College London (KCL), has the potential to “unlock a healthcare revolution”, officials said.
    The AI, known as Foresight, uses technology similar to that of ChatGPT, however, instead of predicting text, Foresight analyses a patient's medical history to forecast potential future health issues.
    As part of the pilot, it will be trained using eight routinely collected datasets, including hospital admissions, A&E attendances and Covid-19 vaccination rates, which have been stripped of personal information.
    “Foresight is a really exciting step towards being able to predict disease and complications before they happen, giving us a window to intervene and enabling a shift towards more preventative healthcare at scale,” Dr Chris Tomlinson of UCL said.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 7 May 2025
  25. Sam
    A government crackdown on visas for overseas workers could put overstretched care homes under threat of closure, with tens of thousands fewer staff coming to the UK, The Independent can reveal.
    Applications for Britain’s health and care worker visa are at a record low after care workers were prevented from bringing children and other dependants with them in a bid to curb climbing migration numbers.
    Between April 2023 to March 2024, when the new rules came in, there were 129,000 applicants, but that plummeted to just 26,000 in the year to March 2025, according to government figures.
    The revelation comes as care homes struggle to retain staff, with more than 100,000 vacancies across England last year - a rate of 8 per cent and three times the national average.
    Age UK warned that overseas recruits were “keeping many services afloat” and some care homes could be forced to shut if they could not find alternatives, piling more pressure on NHS hospitals.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 6 May 2025

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