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Found 592 results
  1. News Article
    Doctors at an east London hospital say they are seeing so many risky cases of laughing gas misuse that they have drawn up treatment guidelines for colleagues in the UK. Nitrous oxide, sold in metal canisters, is one of the most commonly used drugs by 16 to 24-year-olds. Heavy use can lead to a vitamin deficiency that damages nerves in the spinal cord. The Royal London Hospital team say medics need to be on alert. They have been seeing a new case almost every week. The guidelines, endorsed by the Association of British Neurologists and written with experts from Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and the Queen Mary University of London, warn doctors what to look for and how to treat. Read full story Source: BBC News, 23 February 2023
  2. News Article
    Hundreds of thousands of children are waiting for surgery as new figures show the backlog has spiralled by almost 50 per cent in two years. The latest NHS data for December lays bare the parlous state of paediatric medicine, with NHS leaders and doctors warning that adult care is being prioritised over children’s. In December 2022, 364,000 children were waiting for treatment, from neurosurgery to ear, nose and throat operations, while a further 200,000 needed community services such as speech and language therapy. The surgery figure is up by 48%t since April 2021 – a far bigger increase than was seen in the overall NHS waiting list, which grew by 36% over the same period. Mike McKean, vice-president of policy at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said “Lengthy waits are unacceptable for any patient, but for children and young people, waits can be catastrophic, as many treatments need to be given by a specific age or developmental stage. It is not the same as for adults. If you miss the right window to treat a child, or wait too long, the consequences can be irrevocable.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 February 2023
  3. News Article
    Children's services could be forced to close at a hospital that is accused of leaving young patients traumatised and sick through poor care. The care regulator said it had taken action to "ensure people are safe" on Skylark ward at Kettering General Hospital (KGH) in Northamptonshire. Thirteen parents with serious concerns after their children died or became seriously ill have spoken to the BBC. A BBC Look East investigation has heard allegations spanning more than 20 years about the treatment of patients on Skylark ward, a 26-bed children's unit. The BBC discovered: An independent report found staff left a 12-year-old boy - who died at KGH in December 2019 - for four hours suffering seizures, and suggests little effort was made to obtain critical care support. In April 2019, nurses allegedly dragged a "traumatised" four-year-old girl down a corridor in agony, insisting that she could walk. Medics are accused of refusing to carry out an MRI scan, which would have detected a dangerous cyst on her spine. Mothers claim to have been threatened with safeguarding referrals, with one stating a referral was made against her after she complained her son was struggling to breathe, while another likened it to blackmail. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 February 2023
  4. News Article
    A high court judge has expressed her “deep frustration” at NHS delays and bureaucracy that mean a suicidal 12-year-old girl has been held on her own, in a locked, windowless room with no access to the outdoors for three weeks. In a hearing on Thursday, Mrs Justice Lieven told North Staffordshire combined healthcare NHS trust “you are testing my patience”, after she heard that a proposal to move Becky (not her real name), could not progress until a planning meeting that would not be held until next week, and that a move was not anticipated until 2 March. Three sets of doctors at the hospital trust have disagreed as to Becky’s diagnosis; at her most recent assessment doctors said she was not eligible to be sectioned, which would trigger the protections provided by the Mental Health Act, because her mental disorder was not of the “nature and degree” as to warrant her detention. In a robust exchange, the judge demanded: “Where’s the urgency in this … I cannot believe that the life and health of a 12-year-old girl is hanging on an issue of NHS procurement, when you cannot tell me what it is you’re trying to procure. “If the delay is procurement, I’m not having it,” Lieven continued. “I will use the inherent jurisdiction to make an order. We have a 12-year-old child in a completely inappropriate NHS unit for about three weeks, and it’s suddenly dawned on your client that ‘actually we’ll put her in a Tier 4 unit and we might have to do some [building] work.’” Sometimes, the judge said, “public bodies have to move faster”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 17 February 2023
  5. News Article
    Thousands of severely disabled children's lives are at risk because of long waits for ambulances, doctors and other experts have warned. Emergency care is a vital part of their everyday lives, the British Academy of Childhood Disability says. Almost 100,000 children have life-limiting conditions or need regular ventilator support in the UK. They often rely on ambulances as part of their healthcare plan, because their condition can become life-threatening in an instant. Dr Toni Wolff, who chairs the British Academy of Childhood Disability, told BBC News some families with severely disabled children had "what are essentially high-dependency units" of medical equipment at home. "As part of their healthcare plan, we would normally say, 'If the child starts to deteriorate, call for an ambulance and it will be there within 10 or 20 minutes,'" she said. "Now, we can't give that reassurance." Despite their child being classed as a priority, parents have told BBC News they face the difficult decision to wait for an ambulance or take them, often in a life-threatening condition, to hospital themselves - a risk because of the huge amounts of equipment needed to keep them alive, Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 February 2023
  6. News Article
    A damning report last year from Dr Hilary Cass into the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) found that it was putting children at “considerable risk”. Her full report is due to be published later this year. Whistleblower Dr Anna Hutchinson, a senior clinical psychologist at GIDS, describes when she realised something was very wrong. “I just couldn’t comfortably keep being part of a process that was, I felt, putting children — but also my colleagues — at risk,” Hutchinson explains. Faced with no discernible action from the executive, staff began to look for other ways to raise their concerns, to other people who might listen — and act. Hutchinson approached the Tavistock’s Freedom to Speak Up guardian. At least four other colleagues did the same in 2017. That same year, another four clinicians took their concerns outside GIDS to the children’s safeguarding lead for the Tavistock trust." Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 13 February 2023
  7. News Article
    Children suffering mental health crises spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England last year seeking urgent and potentially life-saving help, NHS figures reveal. Experts said the huge amount of time under-18s with mental health issues were spending in A&E was “simply astounding” and showed that NHS services for that vulnerable age group were inadequate. Children as young as three and four years old are among those ending up in emergency departments because of mental health problems, according to data obtained by Labour. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, the shadow mental health minister, who is also an A&E doctor, said: “With nowhere to turn, children with a mental illness are left to deteriorate and reach crisis point – at which time A&E is the only place left for them to go. Emergency departments are incredibly unsuitable settings for children in crisis, yet we’re witnessing increasingly younger children having to present to A&E in desperation.” Young people who endured long A&E waits included those with depression, psychosis and eating disorders as well as some who had self-harmed or tried to kill themselves, doctors said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 February 2023
  8. News Article
    A mother who has seen her suicidal 12-year-old daughter shuttled between placements and then held in a locked and windowless hospital room says she is frightened for her child’s life. Since going into care in Staffordshire nine months ago, Becky (not her real name) has attempted to take her own life on several occasions. Her case throws fresh light on the chronic nationwide shortage of secure accommodation for vulnerable children. “I am constantly told there is nowhere for her,” said her mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons. “I fear I’ll soon be arranging her funeral due to the systemic failings in health and social care.” Becky has been alone in a locked hospital room since 27 January. The room has no window or access to the outdoors, no furniture except for a bed, and she is permitted no belongings. All human contact is conducted through a hatch. The child’s court-appointed guardian told the high court at a hearing to discuss Becky’s case that she considered “the risk to Becky’s life to be catastrophic”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 7 February 2023
  9. News Article
    A little boy whose headaches turned out to be a brain tumour died in his parent’s arms just four months after his diagnosis. Rayhan Majid, aged four, died after doctors discovered an aggressive grade three medulloblastoma tumour touching his brainstem. His mother Nadia, 45, took Rayhan to see four different GPs on six separate occasions after he started having bad headaches and being sick in October 2017. No one thought anything was seriously wrong, but when his headaches didn’t clear up Nadia rushed him to A&E at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow. An MRI scan revealed a 3cm x 4cm mass in Rayhan’s brain. Rayhan underwent surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible and was told he would need six weeks of radiotherapy and four months of chemotherapy. But before the treatment even started another MRI scan revealed the devastating news that the cancer has spread. Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 January 2023
  10. News Article
    Children came to “significant” harm due to chronically low staffing levels at scandal-hit mental health hospitals, whistleblowers have said. In a third exposé into allegations of poor care at private hospitals run by The Huntercombe Group, former employees have claimed that staffing levels were so low “every day” that patients were neglected, resulting in: Patients as young as 13 being force-fed while restrained. Left alone to self-harm instead of being supervised. Left to “wet themselves” because staff couldn’t supervise toilet visits. One staff member, Rebecca Smith, said she was left in tears after having to restrain and force-feed a patient. Following a series of investigations by The Independent and Sky News, 50 patients came forward with allegations of “systemic abuse” and poor care, spanning two decades at children’s mental health hospitals run by the organisation. The government has since launched a “rapid review” into inpatient mental health units across the country following the newspaper’s reporting. Read full story Source: The Independent, 28 January 2023
  11. News Article
    Manchester city council is setting up two special children’s homes to house the increasing number of vulnerable young people who end up stuck in hospital because no residential providers will take them. The homes, believed to be the first of their kind, aim to undercut private operators which sometimes demand tens of thousands of pounds each week to look after children with the most complex needs. Five Manchester children with complex emotional needs spent many weeks in hospital in 2022 because no children’s homes would take them because of their challenging behaviour, according to the city council’s director of children’s services. Manchester council has developed what it calls the Take a Breath model. Two houses are being renovated to house up to four children in total, with the first hopefully moving in by March. The idea is that when children first turn up at hospital – often at accident and emergency after a suicide attempt or self-harming incidents – once their injuries have been treated they can be discharged straight into the new homes rather than occupying a paediatric bed they do not need. Jointly commissioned by the council and the NHS, the two homes will cost £1.4m a year. Of that, MCC expects to spend £5,500 a week for each child. It represents a huge cost saving compared with some external placements. Last year the council was charged £16,550 a week by one private provider to look after a young profoundly autistic person with learning difficulties deemed a danger to themselves and to others. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 22 January 2023
  12. News Article
    The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for “immediate and concerted action” to protect children from contaminated medicines after a spate of child deaths linked to cough syrups last year. In 2022, more than 300 children - mainly aged under 5 - in the Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan died of acute kidney injury, in deaths that were associated with contaminated medicines, the WHO said in a statement on Monday. The medicines, over-the-counter cough syrups, had high levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. “These contaminants are toxic chemicals used as industrial solvents and antifreeze agents that can be fatal even taken in small amounts, and should never be found in medicines,” the WHO said. As well as the countries above, the WHO told Reuters on Monday that the Philippines, Timor Leste, Senegal and Cambodia may be affected because they may have the medicines on sale. It called for action across its 194 member states to prevent more deaths. “Since these are not isolated incidents, WHO calls on various key stakeholders engaged in the medical supply chain to take immediate and coordinated action,” WHO said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 24 January 2023
  13. News Article
    Young people in the midst of a mental health crisis need to have attempted suicide several times before they get a bed in an inpatient unit in England, a report has revealed. Admission criteria for beds in child and adolescent mental health units are now so tight that even very vulnerable under-18s who pose a clear risk to themselves cannot get one. The practice – caused by the NHS’s lack of mental health beds – leaves young people at risk of further harm, their parents confused, exhausted and worried, and the police and ambulance services potentially having to step in. The high thresholds for admission to a child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs) unit are detailed in a report on NHS mental health care for under-18s in England based on interviews with patients, their parents and specialist staff who look after them. The report says a young person has to “have attempted suicide multiple times to be offered inpatient support”. Olly Parker, the head of external affairs at the charity Young Minds, said: “It is shameful that children and young people are reaching crisis point before they get any support for their mental health. We know from our own research that thousands have waited so long for mental health support or treatment that they have attempted to take their own life. “Those who end up in A&E are often there because they don’t know where else to turn. But A&E can be a crowded and stressful environment, and is usually not the best place to get appropriate help.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 18 January 2023
  14. News Article
    The issue of children dying unexpectedly and without any known cause has been debated in Parliament for the first time. Sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) is a rare category of death in which the cause remains unknown even after thorough investigation. Former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who led the debate, said SUDC had not had the attention it deserved. In his first speech as a backbencher for six years, he said it was important to not shy away from discussing "something that is incredibly difficult to deal with, emotionally very taxing, and one of the most serious medical phenomena". He said: "Imagine a death of a child, who has all his or her life in front of them, suddenly ended. If you can imagine that and if you can imagine that for one of your own children you can get a sense of how tragic and how difficult that occurrence is." He added: "It's such an uncomfortable issue but it is important to grasp uncomfortable issues to honour those who had died and prevent future deaths." He added: "It's such an uncomfortable issue but it is important to grasp uncomfortable issues to honour those who had died and prevent future deaths." The MPs were united in their call for more research to be carried out. They also called for the NHS website to be updated to include information about SUDC and for there to be more training for medical practitioners. Read full story Source: BBC News, 17 January 2023
  15. News Article
    A group of transgender people have lost their legal case against NHS England over waiting times to get seen by a gender specialist. The two trans adults and two trans children had tried to get the wait times - more than four years in one of their cases - deemed illegal. But a High Court judge ruled on Monday the waiting times are lawful. The Good Law Project - which helped to bring the legal action - said it would seek permission to appeal. The four people brought the legal action against NHS England (NHSE) over the waiting time to get a first appointment with a gender dysphoria specialist. The claimants argued that NHS England was failing to meet a duty to ensure 92% of patients referred for non-urgent care start treatment within 18 weeks. They said the waiting times were discriminatory, arguing the delays faced by trans people were longer than for other types of NHS treatment. But the judge dismissed the claim on several grounds. Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 January 2023
  16. News Article
    Five million children worldwide died before their fifth birthday in 2021, with almost half (47%) dying during their first month, according to new UN figures. Most of the deaths could have been prevented with better healthcare, say campaigners, adding that deaths among newborn babies haven’t reduced significantly since 2017. Children born in sub-Saharan Africa are 15 times more likely to die in childhood than children in Europe and North America. UN figures also show that 1.9 million babies were stillborn during 2021, more than three-quarters (77%) in sub-Saharan Africa and in south Asia. The risk of a woman having a stillborn baby in sub-Saharan Africa is seven times greater than for women in Europe and North America. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 10 January 2022
  17. News Article
    Pupils should learn what health problems they must not bother the NHS with, doctors and pharmacists have said. In a new strategy paper they call for a “wholesale cultural shift” towards more self-care, insisting this could both empower patients and reduce demand. Conditions like lower back pain, the common cold and acute sinusitis can generally be treated without the need for GPs or hospital visits, experts said. They called for the national curriculum to include requirements for both primary and secondary pupils to be taught to treat and manage common health problems at home. Medical students or pharmacists could go into school to offer lessons on “self-care techniques and signposting to appropriate use of NHS services”, they said. The paper is from the Self-Care Strategy Group, a coalition of pharmacy bodies and GP and patient groups. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 9 January 2023
  18. News Article
    The poor state of children’s teeth is a damning indictment of widening inequalities in child health in England, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said. In an interview with The BMJ Camilla Kingdon said that paediatricians were seeing the effects of longstanding health inequalities widening as the cost of living crisis affects the types of ill health that children are presenting with. She further told The BMJ, “There are lots of examples. One that we often forget about is oral health and the state of children’s teeth, which is actually a national disgrace. The commonest reason for a child having a general anaesthetic in this country is dental clearance. That’s a terrible admission of failure.” In her interview with The BMJ, Kingdon identified asthma and nutrition as other major areas of child health where the UK was failing. She said that these trends were partly being driven by social factors and expressed concern at the lack of focus in policy on fixing them. She warned, “Our worry, with the health disparities white paper being kicked into the long grass, is that without that intention, without a clear signal from the government that this is a priority, all these ideas [for tackling child health inequalities] just won’t be prioritised and we will miss an opportunity to really intervene.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 4 January 2023
  19. News Article
    The number of children in England needing treatment for serious mental health problems has risen by 39% in a year, official data shows. Experts say the pandemic, social inequality, austerity and online harm are all fuelling a crisis in which NHS mental health treatment referrals for under-18s have increased to more than 1.1m in 2021-22. In 2020-21 – the first year of the pandemic – the figure was 839,570, while in 2019-20 there were 850,741 referrals, according to analysis of official figures by the PA Media. The figures include children who are suicidal, self-harming, suffering serious depression or anxiety, and those with eating disorders. Dr Elaine Lockhart, chair of the child and adolescent psychiatry faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the rise in referrals reflected a “whole range” of illnesses. She said “specialist services are needing to respond to the most urgent and the most unwell”, including young people suffering from psychosis, suicidal thoughts and severe anxiety disorder. Lockhart said targets for seeing children urgently with eating disorders were sliding “completely” and that more staff were needed. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 January 2023
  20. News Article
    Hundreds of thousands of children have been left waiting by the NHS for the developmental therapies they need, with some waiting more than two years, The Independent can reveal. The long waiting lists for services such as speech and language therapy will see a generation of children held back in their development and will “impact Britain for the long haul”, according to the head of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH). More than 1,500 children have been left waiting for two years for NHS therapies, according to internal data obtained by The Independent, while a further 9,000 have been waiting for more than a year. The total waiting list for children’s care in the community is 209,000. Dr Camilla Kingdon, president of the RCPCH, told The Independent: “The extent of the community waiting lists is extremely alarming. Community health services such as autism services, mental health support and speech and language therapy play a vital role in a child’s development into healthy adulthood, and in helping children from all backgrounds reach their full potential. “A lack of access to community health services also has direct implications for children and families in socio-economic terms. Delays accessing these essential services can impact social development, school readiness and educational outcomes, and further drive health inequalities across the country.” She said health and care staff are working immensely hard, but that without support they will struggle to address the long delays, which will “impact Britain for the long haul”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 26 December 2022
  21. News Article
    The number of suspected scarlet fever cases since September has risen to nearly 30,000 after the UK Health Security Agency added almost 10,000 potential new infections in the last week. More than 27,000 people could have had infections since 12 September, according to the UKHSA, who revealed on Tuesday that there were more cases than first thought because of the “significant rise” in infections. The figures come from medical practitioners referring suspected cases to the local authority or health protection team. A total of 16 children aged under 18 have died from invasive group A streptococcus (iGAS), otherwise known as strep A. Parents are advised to contact 111 or a GP surgery if a child has symptoms. They can also include nausea and vomiting. New serious shortage protocols were issued to pharmacists last week in an attempt to help those experiencing supply issues with penicillin. Chemists had widely reported problems getting hold of liquid penicillin and amoxycillin due to the increase in demand. The antibiotics are often prescribed for children who have scarlet fever or strep A. People in the industry have also reported rising prices. Pharmacists are now able to prescribe an alternative antibiotic or formulation of penicillin, such as tablets. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 December 2022
  22. News Article
    The mother of a sick girl has confronted the health secretary during a hospital visit in London, telling him that NHS staff are “worked to the bone” and the government is doing “terrible damage” to families on waiting lists. Sarah Pinnington-Auld, whose three-year-old daughter, Lucy, has cystic fibrosis, rebuked Steve Barclay over NHS staff working conditions and long waits for treatment as he visited King’s College hospital. She told the Conservative cabinet minister how her daughter was pushed off an “absolutely horrific” waiting list because of “the obscene number of people who came through and the lack of resources”. “The damage that you’re doing to families like myself is terrible, because it was agony for us as a family waiting for that call,” she said. “Preparing our children, for their sister and her hospital visit, for then it to be cancelled. And I know you look and we’re all numbers, but actually they’re people waiting for care.” “The doctors, the nurses, everyone on the ward is just brilliant, considering what they’re under, considering the shortage of staff, considering the lack of resources,” she said. “That’s what’s really upsetting, actually, because we have a daughter with a life-limiting, life-shortening condition and we have some brilliant experts and they’re being worked to the bone, and actually the level of care they provide is amazing, but they are not being able to provide it in the way they want to provide it because the resourcing is not there.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 19 December 2022
  23. News Article
    Police are investigating allegations of rape of a child involving two staff members at a scandal-hit mental health hospital, The Independent can reveal. Thames Valley Police confirmed it has launched an investigation after a report last month of rape made by a former patient of Taplow Manor, a private hospital in Maidenhead, Berkshire, run by The Huntercombe Group. The incident was reported to have taken place in 2019. Mark McGhee, a solicitor for Hutcheon Law, who is representing the family of the patient in a clinical negligence claim, said the allegation had been raised to the police about the patient who was a child and that the allegation involves two staff members at the time. In October, The Independent and Sky News revealed allegations of “systemic abuse” from 20 patients across The Huntercombe Group’s children’s mental health hospitals – Taplow Manor, Ivetsey Bank near Stafford, Watcombe Hall in Torquay, and The Huntercombe Hospital Norwich. Since the report, 30 more patients have come forward with allegations of poor treatment and the provider now also faces nine legal claims from former patients. Thames Valley Police are also investigating an incident involving the death of a child at the Maidenhead hospital in February. The CQC is conducting a separate criminal investigation into the serious incident which resulted in the death of the young person. Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 December 2022
  24. News Article
    In Kisii town, south-west Kenya, a rundown roadside building houses a pharmacy. Like many others in the area, the pharmacy doubles as a clinic. Lilian Kemunto (not her real name), a former surgical nurse, set it up after she retired in 2018. She mainly does health check-ups but has also offered female genital mutilation (FGM) services on request. Kemunto has performed cuts since the 90s, after receiving training in basic surgical techniques from male colleagues in the local hospital where she worked. She would do the cuts in the hospital at night, but it was risky, she says, because management didn’t approve. “They would tell us: ‘Just do it, but if you’re caught, you’re on your own.’” She preferred cutting girls in a private home, in the middle of the night, saying it was much easier: “By 6am, the girls are back in their own homes, like nothing happened.” In Kisii county, medicalisation is standard. Two out of three cases of cutting are performed by health practitioners, in contrast to much of the country, where 70% of FGM cases are performed by traditional practitioners. Kemunto says she tries to avoid mishaps, and at a minimum requires some anaesthesia, a surgical blade, sterile towels, and cleaning solution to proceed. She also claims to use a non-invasive procedure: a small incision of the clitoris that practitioners call a “signature”. Kisii’s FGM practice is considered less severe than other areas, and anti-FGM campaigners are concerned that there’s a growing acceptance of the practice as more safe, hygienic and cosmetic. FGM rates in Kenya have gone down significantly over the past decade. The country passed strong laws in 2011, imposed hefty fines on practitioners, and stepped up surveillance and enforcement. But medicalisation is posing a new challenge for the east African nation, which has a 15% medicalisation rate: one of the highest in Africa. Earlier this month, Kenyan president William Ruto backed the country’s chief justice who said that FGM “should not be a conversation we are having in Kenya in the 21st century”, and reiterated his administration’s commitment to eradicating the practice. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 December 2022
  25. News Article
    Vulnerable patients, including some children, have faced long delays for a suitable bed as organisations argue over whose responsibility it is to fund and deliver their care, HSJ understands. In a letter outlining winter arrangements, NHS England has warned trust leaders and commissioners against delaying emergency mental health admissions – typically needed when a patient is away from home, and understood to be more common over the Christmas period – while determining which area has which responsibility. National mental health director Claire Murdoch wrote: “It is not acceptable to delay an emergency mental health admission while determining which area has clinical and financial responsibility for the care of an individual.” She added such admissions should be arranged “as quickly as possible, and without delay caused by any financial sign-off process”. It comes as HSJ has been told patients can often end up waiting for several days in emergency departments or in “inappropriate” out of area or acute beds when disputes occur over who is responsible for their care. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 December 2022
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