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Almost half of NHS Trusts in England have reported risks classified as “significant” or “extreme”, with issues facing funding, buildings and failing equipment, according to an analysis by Labour. Highlighting warnings of staff shortages and patient safety, the party demanded urgent action from the government to prepare the health service for the winter months as cases of COVID-19 accelerate across the country. Labour said its study of 114 NHS Trusts’ risks registers showed that over three quarters of trusts logged a workforce risk. The analysis also revealed that 66% reported a financial risk, 82% highlighted risks directly related to COVID-19 and 84% recorded a risk to patient safety. Almost half of Trusts (54), the party said, had outlined risks described as “significant” or “extreme”. One hospital trust reported it was “not financially stable” beyond the current financial year while another recorded a potential risk to patient safety due to “structural deficiencies” in roof structure. NHS hospitals are expected to consider risks to their operations and processes and when risks are identified, it is likely they will have been considered at board level and mitigations put in place. Describing the registers – compiled between March and August - as “worrying” in a normal winter, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said: “In the coming winter, with the incompetent handling of the test and trace system leaving the NHS wide open and poorly supported, they take on a whole new meaning." "We urgently need a commitment from ministers to fix the problems with test and trace and a timetable by which these issues will finally be sorted. On top of this it is vital that ministers confirm that the NHS will get the additional support it needs to address these risks." Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 October 2020

Oxygen supplies at a Hertfordshire hospital inundated with coronavirus patients became so precarious last week that officials considered how to decide who should receive the gas and who should miss out and likely die, the Guardian understands. The oxygen system at Watford general hospital came close to breaking point on Saturday, when a critical incident was declared and staff had to tell the public not to come to the hospital. Some patients were moved out to prevent the vital system failing. A senior clinician said: “They were [consulting] the hospital ethics committee every day and considering who they were not going to oxygenate and ventilate if they needed it, and making decisions about who would be triaged to not have oxygen and die.” Read full story Source: Guardian, 5 April 2020

Patient safety is at risk in “crumbling” NHS mental health hospitals starved of the money needed to improve dilapidated buildings, new data has revealed. Hundreds of vulnerable mentally ill patients are still being cared for in 350 old dormitory-style wards, 20 years after the NHS was told to provide all patients with en-suite rooms. A lack of funding to refurbish hospitals has also meant too many wards still have ligature points that patients can use to try to harm themselves. NHS leaders said the lack of cash from the government meant they could not deal with warnings issued by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the sector’s watchdog. A survey of mental health trust leaders by NHS Providers has now found bosses are worried the state of psychiatric wards is undermining their ability to keep patients safe. Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 February 2020

A doctor and mother of two with just months left to live has warned of a “hidden epidemic” of asbestos-related cancers among NHS staff and patients because hospitals have failed to properly handle the toxic material. Kate Richmond, 44, has spoken out to raise awareness after she won a legal case against the NHS for negligently exposing her to asbestos while she was working as a medical student and junior doctor. An investigation by The Independent has learnt there have been 13 prosecutions linked to NHS breaches of regulations for the handling of asbestos since 2010, while 381 compensation claims have been made by NHS staff for work-related diseases, including exposure to asbestos, since 2013, costing the health service more than £26m. According to data from the Health and Safety Executive, between 2011 and 2017, a total of 128 people working in health and social care roles died from mesothelioma, the same asbestos-related cancer which is killing Kate Richmond. She described how maintenance staff removed asbestos ceiling tiles with no protective measures, allowing dust and debris to fall on to wards where patients were in their beds and staff were working. Managers at the Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry failed to heed warnings by workers that they were putting people at risk. Read full story Source: The Independent, 9 February 2020

Children’s cancer services in south London are to be reconfigured after a new review confirmed they represented an “inherent geographical risk to patient safety” — following HSJ revelations last year of how serious concerns had been “buried” by senior leaders. Sir Mike Richards’ independent review was commissioned after HSJ revealed a 2015 report linking fragmented London services to poor quality care had not been addressed, and clinicians were facing pressure to soften recommendations which would have required them to change. The review, published in conjunction with Thursday’s NHS England board meeting, recommended services at two sites should be redesigned as soon as possible to improve patient experience. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 31 January 2020

A hospital accused of bullying its staff is facing new claims that it failed to act on a leading doctor’s warning about a potentially fatal failure to monitor vulnerable patients, the Guardian newspaper can reveal. Dr Jonathan Boyle, the UK’s top vascular surgeon, had warned West Suffolk NHS trust that patients at risk of dying from burst aneurysms were not being safely monitored. An IT glitch meant that patients were not followed up to see how soon they would need potentially life-saving surgery. A doctor at the trust, however, says it initially repeatedly refused to take any action, raising further questions about its management. The trust initially suggested the problem was the result of senior doctors not keeping up with emails, but later accepted its IT systems were at fault. The hospital was forced to recognise that patients were potentially put at risk and took action only after a whistleblower alerted the NHS regulator. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 January 2020

An unfortunate series of events involving a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine led to the death of a man at a hospital in India. Rajesh Maruti Maru, a 32-year-old, was thrust into the MRI machine while he was visiting an elderly relative at the BYL Nair Charitable Hospital in Mumbai, India. As the Hindustan Times reports, the man was apparently told by a junior member of staff to carry a metal cylinder of liquid oxygen into a room containing an MRI machine. Unbeknownst to everyone, the MRI machine was turned on. This caused Maru to be suddenly jolted pulled towards the machine, causing the oxygen tank to rupture and leak. The man later died after inhaling large amounts of oxygen. His body also bled heavily as a result of the accident. "When we [the hospital staff] told him that metallic things aren't allowed inside an MRI room, he said 'sab chalta hai, hamara roz ka kaam hai' [it's fine, we do it every day]. He also said that the machine was switched off. The doctor, as well as the technician, didn't say anything,” Harish Solanki, Maru's relative, told NDTV. "It's because of their carelessness that Rajesh died," Solanki added. Police are currently examining the CCTV footage of the incident and have arrested at least two members of hospital staff for the negligence. The local government has also awarded the man's family 500,000 rupees ($7,855) in compensation. Read full story Source: IFL Science, 29 January 2018