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The government cannot commit to meeting national cancer, A&E, diagnostic, mental health and ambulance waiting time targets by the end of this Parliament, Wes Streeting has told HSJ. The health and social care secretary made the admission in an interview in which he also questioned the wisdom of creating NHS England and pledged to support controversial service cuts. Prime minister Keir Starmer has confirmed his intention to hit the 18 week elective waiting time target by 2029, but government has given mixed messages on whether it would do the same for the other constitutional standards — which have largely gone unmet for about a decade. He said: “I can’t say hand on heart I will definitely deliver those targets over the course of the Parliament. Or that it would be fair to set that expectation on NHS leaders.” However, Mr Streeting added: “The constitutional standards matter. They are there for a reason and I know the frustration the public feel about the NHS not being there for them when they need it is also felt acutely by staff, who are confronted with the grim reality of what that means for patients.” NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care yesterday revealed they would shrink their organisations, and consider more joint working. He said although he would not legally scrap NHSE, there would be more change to “eliminate waste and duplication” across the two and on “clarifying roles and responsibilities in the coming months”. “As far as I’m concerned, the [department] is responsible for policy and strategy… and we drive improvement through the delivery organisation which is NHS England.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 31 January 2025

Staff in a children's hospital were caught on CCTV footage abusing patients by dragging them, according to a health watchdog's report. Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors found three cases where children were physically abused by staff at Cygnet Joyce Parker Hospital in Coventry. The report said children told inspectors staff "sometimes bent their wrist" or hurt them by "twisting their knee". The hospital said it continued to "strongly refute" any allegations of abuse and police had ended an investigation into safeguarding cases. The hospital, run by Cygnet Health Care Limited, has changed its use since the inspection and now only provides services to adult male patients. The report, after a CQC visit to the 43-bed mental health unit in July, said inspectors reviewed CCTV footage for three cases of restraint where children were physically abused by staff. "Staff were observed dragging children and young people during these incidents," they said. "For all three incidents reviewed, there was no apparent risk requiring restraint presented by the young person." They added there was no evidence of staff trying to de-escalate the situation before restraining the children.The report said footage identified 12 members of staff as "passive bystanders" who did not raise concerns.Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 January 2025

A world-first genetic warning system to stop future pandemics has been launched in the UK. The surveillance programme, run by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), will see experts rapidly checking NHS samples for pathogens that could lead to serious outbreaks. It is thought it could also stop emerging diseases. Experts believe if such a system had been around pre-Covid-19, the virus would have been spotted much more quickly and there would have been early signs it was taking root in the UK. Traditionally, genomic methods rely on scientists or medics knowing what virus or bacteria they are looking for when they test a swab sample. But a more detailed method – known as metagenomics – means they do not need to know what the pathogen is, and they can test samples to find new ones. All this information is also now being fed to the UKHSA at a national level, bringing together samples from NHS hospitals across England to spot trends and emerging clusters of disease. Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 January 2025

Children in the UK are suffering “irreversible harm” and lifelong consequences as a result of “unacceptable” delays in accessing physiotherapy, experts have warned. Teenagers face lifelong trauma from untreated chronic pain while children as young as four are waiting 18 months for critical treatment, according to a survey of paediatric physiotherapists. Lengthy delays to treatment while children’s bodies are still growing can have seriously harmful repercussions for their health that can last decades. Some families are being forced to travel more than 200 miles for NHS physiotherapy services because of delays or a lack of access where they live. Others are having to go private to ensure their children get the urgent care that they need. The Association of Paediatric Chartered Physiotherapists (APCP), a professional network of members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, surveyed 155 staff across the UK who specialise in treating babies, children and teenagers. Sara Hazzard, assistant director at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said children waiting for rehabilitation for illnesses and injury were experiencing harm and distress that could last a lifetime. “The fact that this is happening up and down the UK is not just unacceptable, it is failing a generation.” Staff shortages and cuts to services were causing the delays, while at the same time the NHS was failing to create enough new posts to meet the “overwhelming” demand for care, Hazzard said. “Families should not fear for their child’s health and future because they can only get help and rehabilitation if they can afford to pay. Urgent action is needed.” Read more Source: The Guardian, 31 January 2025

A new method for detecting bowel cancer is more than 90% accurate at predicting which higher-risk people will develop the disease, according to research. About 500,000 people in the UK live with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. Currently, they are offered regular checks for pre-cancerous growths in their gut, which, if detected, indicate about a 30% chance of bowel cancer developing over 10 years. But the UK research found DNA changes in those pre-cancerous cells, when analysed by an algorithm, were more than 90% accurate in predicting who would develop bowel cancer over the next five years. Prof Trevor Graham, from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, said: "Most people with ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease won't develop bowel cancer. "But for those that have these conditions and are showing signs of pre-cancer in their colon, there are some tough decisions to make. "Either they have it monitored regularly, in the hope that it doesn't become cancer, or they have their bowel removed to guarantee they don't get cancer in the future. "Neither of these options are particularly pleasant. "Our test and algorithm give people with IBD, and the doctors who care for them, the best possible information so that they can make the right decision about how to manage their cancer risk." Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 January 2025

A coroner has ordered an integrated care board to fill gaps in its services and address mental health bed shortages following the death of a 29-year-old with autism and ADHD who spent 26 days in A&E. Matthew “Matty” Sheldrick (they/them), who identified as non-binary, died from self-ligature outside Royal Sussex County Hospital after returning to A&E one month on from the 26-day stay. Matty had struggled to access community services for support with their mental health, autism, and ADHD. Confusion about and delays to appointments during their time in hospital and the community contributed to a sense of hopelessness, according to Matty’s mother, Shelagh Sheldrick. In two prevention of future death reports published last month, senior area coroner Penelope Schofield said Matty received “no meaningful therapeutic input” during their prolonged first stay in an A&E short-stay ward and that the environment “contributed to the deterioration of their mental health difficulties”. In a report addressed to Sussex Integrated Care Board, Ms Schofield raised concerns over a lack of funding for private mental health beds for autism patients, and the fact that oversubscribed public providers “very often” rejected referrals for autism patients because of “additional risks”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 28 January 2025

England’s top doctor has warned the equivalent of half the country’s population will be attending emergency departments every year within a decade unless more work is done to move healthcare out of hospitals. NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said if the health system wants to avoid a situation of overcrowded A&Es by 2034 then it “must go for broke” by moving more care into communities. A&Es in England faced the busiest year on record in 2024, with 27.42 million attendances across the year, 7.1 per cent higher than in 2023, according to NHS England. In a speech at Liverpool Medical Institution on Wednesday evening, Professor Powis said caring for more patients outside of hospitals was key to reducing pressure on accident and emergency departments long term. “Because we know that if A&E attendances increase at the same rate as they have over the past 10 years – NHS staff will need to manage six million more A&E attendances every year from 2034,” he is expected to say. “That would mean the equivalent of almost half the population attend A&E at least once every year – that is simply not feasible for a 21st-century health system. “If the NHS is to avoid a situation of overcrowded A&Es in 10 years’ time – we must go for broke in moving care from hospital to the community.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 22 January 2025

Women in Britain are paying up to £11,154 for a hysterectomy in a private hospital, amid huge delays for NHS gynaecological care, research reveals. The cost of undergoing the procedure privately has soared by 19% from £7,385 in 2021 to £8,795 last year, at a time when NHS waiting lists have risen sharply. The disclosure has prompted claims independent sector healthcare providers are taking advantage of long waits for health service treatment by increasing their prices. The number of women waiting for care in an NHS hospital for conditions such as fibroids and endometriosis more than doubled from 360,400 when Covid struck in 2020 to 749,329, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has shown. In November 584,607 women in England were on an NHS gynaecological waiting list, with 20,809 of them being on the list for more than a year, which led to a growing number of women going private to beat delays. Dr Ranee Thakar, the RCOG’s president, said untreated conditions “have a devastating impact on almost every aspect of [women’s] lives, including their physical and mental health, and their ability to work and socialise. “Long NHS waiting times are certainly a factor in why some women choose to have their surgery privately,” she added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 24 January 2025

A raft of reforms NHS England and the government are proposing to address the crisis in urgent and emergency care can be revealed after a draft of the recovery plan was obtained by HSJ. HSJ has seen an early “confidential working draft” of the national UEC improvement plan, which national officials are still working on, for publication in the coming weeks. It is likely to develop, and HSJ understands officials are considering taking on board recommendations from cross-sector proposals published earlier this week. The draft seen by HSJ confirms a target for 2025-26 to increase four-hour A&E performance to 78% – the same target as in 2024-25 – despite health secretary Wes Streeting having originally pledged to return the NHS to meeting the 95 per cent standard by 2029. The new proposals are instead centred on 10 ‘action’ points for trusts and systems. They include aims to reduce 111 calls put through to 999 or A&E, and “avoidable” ambulance conveyances and handover delays; implement rapid triage at the ‘front door’ of A&Es; improve patient flow and access to mental health services; and deliver more care closer to home. It also goes on also say that NHSE should separately “performance manage” A&Es on the length of waits for patients who attend with less serious conditions and therefore are not admitted. As part of a “refreshed improvement offer,” an NHSE UEC improvement team will identify around 25 per cent of A&E sites which are “most in need” and work with them on “a clinical commitment to change whilst deploying multi-disciplinary improvement support” for a time limited period. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 23 January 2025

@Tom Rose The video of the webinar with the slides can be found on the hub here: Centre for Perioperative Care and Patient Safety Learning: NatSSIPs 2 webinar (10 July 2023)

The Trump administration has instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts, according to nearly a dozen current and former officials and other people familiar with the matter. The instructions were delivered Tuesday to staff at agencies inside the Department of Health and Human Services, including officials at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health, one day after the new administration took office. The health agencies are charged with making decisions that touch the lives of every American and are the source of crucial information to health-care providers and organizations across the country. The pause on communications includes scientific reports issued by the CDC, known as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR); advisories sent out to clinicians on CDC’s health alert network about public health incidents; data updates to the CDC website; and public health data releases from the National Center for Health Statistics, which tracks myriad health trends, including drug overdose deaths. The CDC was scheduled to publish several MMWR reports this week, including three about the H5N1 avian influenza virus outbreak, according to one federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions. It was not clear from the guidance given by the new administration whether the directive will affect more urgent communications, such as foodborne disease outbreaks, drug approvals and new bird flu cases. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Washington Post, 21 January 2025

Wes Streeting has vowed to scrap more than a million “pointless” NHS hospital appointments as he seeks to cut waiting lists. The Health Secretary said that “waste of time” hospital check-ups could be scrapped, which would free up consultants to carry out more operations. Officials say that around half of these routine check-ups could be phased out by making greater use of smart watches and wearable tech to monitor patients’ blood pressure levels remotely. The NHS plans will increasingly scrap the use of routine follow-up appointments after elective surgery – putting the onus on patients to decide if they need further checks. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 5 January 2025

The proportion of patients diagnosed with cancer at an early stage has risen to its highest level on record, NHS figures in England show. Data for the 13 most common cancers show 58.7% of those diagnosed between September 2023 and August 2024 were identified at stages one and two, which increases the chances of survival. That is 2.7 percentage points up since before the pandemic – and the highest since records began more than 10 years ago. NHS England said a combination of public awareness campaigns and new screening approaches has made a big difference. But despite the progress England is still struggling to achieve its ambition of diagnosing 75% of cancer at stages one and two by 2028. And the NHS is also failing to hit its target for starting treatment quickly – nearly one in three people diagnosed with cancer wait longer than 62 days from an urgent referral. According to a Nuffield Trust report, external last year these are all factors in why cancer survival rates in the UK lag behind many other comparable countries. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 January 2025

The father of a seven-week-old boy who died after being breastfed in a baby carrier is calling for increased safety standards around baby slings. James Alderman, who was known as Jimmy, was being breastfed "hands-free" within a baby carrier worn by his mother while she moved around their home. Jimmy's father, George Alderman, told Sky News: "Baby slings are sold as being a lifesaver, allowing you to get on with your business while your baby's safe and close to you, but in this instance, we had our baby close, but not safe." The inquest into his death heard Jimmy was in an unsafe position too far down the sling. Mr Alderman said that while much of the available advice around slings focused on them not being too tight, few people were aware of the danger of the sling not being tight enough, and so allowing the baby to slump. Explaining what medical experts think happened to Jimmy, he said: "After he'd been feeding, he fell asleep and then he slumped forwards. Then, because his head was covered and he had his chin against his chest, he was facing downwards. "Nothing was covering his face, but because of the position he was in, that meant that not enough oxygen was going into his lungs because he was small and not fully developed, and that's why he stopped breathing." Mr Alderman said that while many brands of baby carriers said they were safe for breastfeeding, the lack of advice around how to safely do it meant that parents were "left to work it out by themselves". Read full story Source: Sky News, 30 December 2024

Failings at a hospital contributed to the death of a 55-year-old woman who suffered abdominal sepsis after weight loss surgery at the time of a junior doctors’ strike, a coroner has said. Susan Evans returned to Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth, Hampshire, with stomach pains two days after undergoing elective gastric bypass surgery. She was sent home without being seen by a member of the specialist bariatric team or a senior doctor, though hospital policy says this should happen, and became seriously unwell. Evans returned to hospital and underwent two further operations but died a month after the original procedure. In a prevention of future deaths report, the coroner Sally Olsen said neither written nor informal policies had been followed and failures “contributed more than minimally” to Evans’s death. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 January 2025

The NHS is at risk of paralysis while it waits for Wes Streeting’s 10-year plan for reform and needs to be empowered to get on with change in the face of huge waiting times for care, a thinktank has said. Victor Adebowale, a cross-bench peer and chair of the Institute for Public Policy Research, said a clear message is needed from Streeting that leaders in the health service should be able to start bringing in reforms where they are aligned with the government’s priorities. He described long waits for care as “the tragic new normal” for many patients in the NHS and highlighted IPPR analysis showing that 25 times more people waited over four hours in A&E this summer than during the same period in 2009. Lord Adebowale is also chair of the NHS Confederation, the membership body for health authorities and trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Writing in his role as IPPR chair, he said several senior NHS leaders have described to the thinktank “a feeling of ‘sitting and waiting’ for the 10-year plan, unable to initiate major change in the meantime”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 December 2024

Weight-loss injections are being aggressively marketed to British consumers through often illegal promotions, in a practice experts have described as a “wild west” industry of drug selling. The booming market for jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro has triggered a price battle among online pharmacies, with even high-street chains cashing in on the soaring demand. Last month, the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk revealed global sales of Wegovy hit £1.94bn in the third quarter of the year, up 48% from the previous quarter and outstripping expectations. However, a Guardian review of reports by the watchdog that regulates medical advertising in the UK shows that many online pharmacies are flouting strict rules that govern how prescription-only drugs can be marketed in Britain. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 December 2024

A woman died soon after the birth of her fifth child due to "basic failures" in her care, a report said. Laura-Jane Seaman, 36, died at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, Essex, on 23 December 2022 following a significant peritoneal haemorrhage. A prevention of future deaths report by a coroner said the bleeding was not identified, despite Ms Seaman's repeated concerns that she was "gushing" - and her appeals to staff to "not let me die". Ms Seaman had been admitted to the hospital on 21 December and while the birth of her baby was uneventful, she subsequently suffered a haemorrhage that was not noticed by staff for hours - despite her having a known history of haemorrhages. Earlier this year, a coroner had found multiple "gross failures" by healthcare professionals and said if these had not occurred, Ms Seaman, from Witham, would not have died. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 24 December 2024

Patient advocates Sling The Mesh will tomorrow (17 December) meet with Baroness Gillian Merron, the Minister for Patient Safety, to discuss financial redress options for women injured by pelvic mesh implants. The meeting marks a significant step forward in recognising the profound harm suffered by thousands of women across the UK and the urgent need for redress to address the physical, mental, and financial toll of their injuries. Pelvic mesh implants, including rectopexy mesh, were widely used to treat conditions such as pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence, but have left many women with debilitating pain, organ damage, autoimmune disease and other life-altering complications. Despite years of campaigning for justice, affected women have faced mounting medical costs, lost income, lost pensions, and faced a diminished quality of life - with little financial support. Kath Sansom, founder of Sling The Mesh, said: “The government must act with speed to provide financial redress. Many women have their PIP applications turned down even though they are severely injured, hundreds have lost relationships, their jobs, their pensions. Some have had to sell their homes to live with family as they can’t afford mortgage payments anymore.” She added: “We were all innocent players in this appalling story which has taken a heavy toll on women, including financially. We trusted in a medical system that should have protected us. Instead, women have lost so much. Women harmed by mesh implants deserve financial redress to help rebuild their lives and gain some measure of justice for the suffering they’ve endured.” The meeting will focus on potential pathways for redress and hear of the urgency in addressing the issue, with many struggling to afford ongoing medical treatment and getting trapped in cycles of financial worry due to their injuries. One of the leading voices in Parliament supporting the cause, MP Sharon Hodgson, whose mam had had her life changed forever due to mesh, underscored the importance of the financial redress initiative. Sharon said: “It is crucial that women who have been harmed by pelvic mesh implants receive the compensation they so desperately need and deserve. These women’s lives have been shattered, through no fault of their own. It is our duty to ensure that they are not left to shoulder the burden alone. I fully support the bringing this issue to light and pushing for meaningful redress.” Rt Hon. Sir Julian Lewis, MP for New Forest East, who supports women in his local area who have been harmed by mesh, said: “The female mesh implant scandal is an ongoing NHS disaster. Constituents have been seriously injured, left permanently in pain, and forced to spend thousands of pounds on remedial surgery, with at best only partial success. They deserve substantial compensation and a serious research effort by the NHS to find new ways of safely removing these dreadfully damaging implants." Rt Hon. Sir Alec Shelbrooke MP, who has also supported women in Parliament for many years, added: “Medical misogyny plays a key part in this horrific scandal. Women were butchered, through no fault of their own. Most were not given fully informed consent. It is vital they are compensated financially and as soon as possible. They must not wait as the victims of the Thalidomide, infected blood and Post Office scandals have been forced to.” MP Sarah Green, who has supported her local constituents for years, said: "It is past time that mesh victims receive the redress they need and deserve. In February the Hughes Report by the Patient Safety Commissioner outlined how such a scheme could work. The Government now just need to deliver it" It is hoped the meeting will conclude with a commitment to further discussions and collaboration between the government and campaign groups to explore viable financial redress models and ensure no woman is left behind. In a recent Westminster debate about pelvic mesh held on 5 December, 2024, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, MP Andrew Gwynne, closed by making a commitment to move financial redress forward at pace. He said: "The previous Government were too slow on that (redress). It is a priority for this Government. We are working at pace, and we remain focused on making meaningful progress."