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News ArticleThe 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
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News ArticleNine ambulance trusts in England and Wales are expected to be affected by industrial action on Wednesday, coordinated by the GMB, Unison and Unite unions. The ambulance strikes will involve paramedics as well as control-room staff and support workers. The threat to patient safety on Wednesday will be exceptional. Under trade union laws, life-preserving care must be provided during the strikes. But there remains a lack of clarity about what will be offered. Even at this late stage, NHS leaders say negotiations are continuing between unions and ambulance services to agree which incidents will be exempt from strike action. All category 1 calls – the most life-threatening cases – will be responded to, while some ambulance trusts have agreed exemptions with unions for specific incidents within category 2 calls. However, in some cases, elderly people who fall during the strikes may not be sent help until they have spent several hours on the floor. Heart attack and stroke patients may get an ambulance only if treatment is deemed “time critical”. There is no doubt that many of those patients making 999 calls on Wednesday will not get the care they need. Some will probably die as a result. NHS leaders believe Wednesday’s strike will present a completely different magnitude of risk. Quite simply, patients not getting emergency treatment quickly enough can mean the difference between life and death. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 19 December 2022
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Nurse strike goes ahead in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will strike today in an ongoing dispute with the government about pay and concerns about patient safety. Up to 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will take part after it balloted its members in October. It has said that low pay is the cause of chronic understaffing that is putting patients at risk and leaves NHS staff overworked. It will be the second day of strikes in December, after an initial day of industrial action on 15 December, the RCN’s biggest in its history. It meant the cancellation of thousands of outpatient appointments and non-urgent operations. More strikes have been threatened for January unless talks between union negotiators and the government takes place before Thursday, 48 hours after the strike on Tuesday. The RCN’s general secretary and chief executive, Pat Cullen, said: “For many of us, this is our first time striking and our emotions are really mixed. The NHS is in crisis, the nursing profession can’t take any more, our loved ones are already suffering. “It is not unreasonable to demand better. This is not something that can wait. We are committed to our patients and always will be.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 December 2022- Posted
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Ambulance strike cover must be sufficient, says health secretary
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Unions must ensure there will be "sufficient" staffing during this week's ambulance strike to protect patients, the health secretary says. Workers in England and Wales will walk out on Wednesday in a dispute over pay, but life-threatening emergencies will be responded to. Unions say discussions were still taking place with ambulance trusts to draw up detailed plans for cover. Steve Barclay said there is a lack of clarity about what is being offered. He said it was for the unions to ensure they "meet their obligations" for emergency cover so that people in crisis get the care they need. But Unite leader Sharon Graham, whose union is co-ordinating the ambulance strikes with Unison and GMB, said Mr Barclay will "have to carry the can if patients suffer". The ambulance walkouts will involve paramedics as well as control room staff and support workers. The action by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls, meaning those who suffer trips, falls or other injuries may not receive treatment. Read full story Source: BBC News, 19 December 2022- Posted
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Largest nursing strike in NHS history starts
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have started a nationwide strike in the largest action of its kind in NHS history. Staff will continue to provide "life-preserving" and some urgent care but routine surgery and other planned treatment is likely to be disrupted. The Royal College of Nursing said staff had been given no choice after ministers refused to reopen pay talks. RCN general secretary Pat Cullen has called on the government to "do the decent thing" and resolve the dispute before the year ends. Ms Cullen told BBC Breakfast the strike marked "a tragic day in nursing". "We need to stand up for our health service, we need to find a way of addressing those over seven million people that are sitting on waiting lists, and how are we going to do that? By making sure we have got the nurses to look after our patients, not with 50,000 vacant posts, and with it increasing day by day," she said. Health Minister Maria Caulfield, a former nurse, accepted "it is difficult" living on a nurse's wage, but said that a 19% pay rise "is an unrealistic ask". Under trade union laws, the RCN has to ensure life-preserving care continues during the 12-hour strike. Chemotherapy and kidney dialysis should run as normal, along with intensive and critical care, children's accident and emergency and hospital neonatal units, which look after newborn babies. Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 December 2022- Posted
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News ArticleNHS leaders fear patients will come to harm as cancer services are “hit hard” by upcoming nurses’ strikes. The NHS’s four chief nurses wrote to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary Pat Cullen warning patients’ lives are at risk due to life-saving services not being protected when nurses walk out on Thursday. And a separate letter from Dame Cally Palmer, the national cancer director for NHS England, urged Ms Cullen to protect urgent cancer operations from strike action “to ensure a consistent and compassionate approach for patients across the country”. The RCN has since agreed that staff will cover emergency cancer and mental health crisis services on strike days but has maintained only night-level staffing for inpatient services. But trust executives told The Independent that they were concerned they won’t be able to fill any gaps with agency staff due to RCN rules, which will worsen existing shortages. One senior NHS source claimed cancer services weren’t being prioritised by unions despite national agreements to protect chemotherapy treatments. They said: “I fear that someone is going to get hurt as the system is so pressured and fragile right now, whether strike-related or not, public sympathy will shift considerably if this were to happen.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 December 2022
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Decade of neglect means NHS unable to tackle care backlog, report says
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A “decade of neglect” by successive Conservative administrations has weakened the NHS to the point that it will not be able to tackle the 7 million-strong backlog of care, a government-commissioned report has concluded. The paper by the King’s Fund says years of denying funding to the health service and failing to address its growing workforce crisis have left it with too few staff, too little equipment and too many outdated buildings to perform the amount of surgery needed. The UK’s poor public finances, health service staff suffering from exhaustion, and a wave of NHS strikes this winter will also lead to ministers being unable to deliver key pledges on eradicating routinely long waits, the thinktank says. “Though Covid certainly exacerbated the crisis in the NHS and social care, we are ultimately paying the price for a decade of neglect,” said the King’s Fund chief executive, Richard Murray. “The sporadic injections of cash during the austerity years after 2010 were at best meant to cover [the service’s] day-to-day running costs. This dearth of long-term investment has led to a health and care system hamstrung by a lack of staff and equipment and crumbling buildings. These critical challenges have been obvious for years. “The NHS in 2022 faces many of the same challenges it faced in 2000: unacceptably long waiting times and a service hobbled by staff shortages. To that is now added a cost of living crisis, industrial action by staff and a backdrop of a weak economy and weak public finances.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 December 2022- Posted
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News ArticleThe UK had one of the worst increases in death rates of major European economies during the Covid pandemic, BBC analysis has found. Death rates in the UK were more than 5% higher on average each year of the pandemic than in the years just before it, largely driven by a huge death toll in the first year. That was above the increase seen in France, Spain or Germany, but below Italy and significantly lower than the US. It would take many inquiries to tease apart the effect of all the possible reasons behind every nation's pandemic outcomes: preparedness, population health, lockdown timing and severity, social support, vaccine rollout and health care provision and others. But some argue that there are lessons for the UK that need to be learned even before we think about future pandemics. The UK's heavy pandemic death toll "built on a decade of lacklustre performance on life expectancy" says Veena Raleigh, of the King's Fund, a health think tank. She argues that government action to improve population health and turn that around has "never been more urgent. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 June 2023
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News ArticleA trust has been told to not “shut down” staff who raise concerns by a former employee whom a tribunal found was racially discriminated against. Moorfields Eye Hospital Foundation Trust racially discriminated, victimised and harassed Samiriah Shaikh, who worked at the trust as an ophthalmic technician, according to a recent judgment. Judges said Ms Shaikh was described as “aggressive” by her boss Peter Holm, and stereotyped by managers as a “loud ethnic female” after she and fellow colleagues raised allegations of racism in the promotion of in-house staff. Mr Holm, who is listed as a chief ophthalmic and vision science practitioner at the trust, is said to have responded to staff members’ concerns by making jokes during a team meeting. It is unclear whether he is still at the trust. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 20 June 2023
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News ArticleThe current GP funding model ‘does not sit comfortably’ with NHS England’s plans for primary and community care integration, according to a senior NHS England director. In a Lords Committee hearing today, NHS England’s national director of primary and community care services Dr Amanda Doyle said a ‘rethink’ was required with regards to the primary care estate, with Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) tasked to draw up local plans. Asked whether the GP partnership model was compatible with integration, Dr Doyle told the committee that this was ‘one of the challenges’ they are facing. She said: "One of the challenges that the current predominant ownership model in general practice gives us is that both investment and revenue flows support that model [of] an individual, practice-sized building. "And lots of the things we want to do as we move forward into co-located primary care services and scaled-up primary care delivery drive the need for bigger premises with a wider range of capacity, and those two models don’t sit comfortably together." Read full story Source: Pulse, 19 June 2023
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News Article
‘Get stuck into ICSs’, Hewitt tells local leaders
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS leaders ‘who might be hesitating about whether or not to really commit’ to their local integrated care system should ‘put aside all of those doubts [and] get stuck in’, Patricia Hewitt has claimed. Ms Hewitt, Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board chair and former health secretary, was speaking at the NHS ConfedExpo conference, the day after government responded to her recent review of ICSs. The Department of Health and Social Care rejected or ducked several of its most eye-catching recommendations, but did state its support for ICSs and system working; while Labour has also said it would maintain ICSs should it come to power. Ms Hewitt said the government response was more positive than she had feared at some points, and it “would have been a complete miracle” if ministers had backed all her recommendations. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 June 2023 -
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Trust leadership accused of lack of ‘oversight’ hits out at CQC ‘algorithm’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust has received a Care Quality Commission warning notice about the medical care provided by its three hospitals. It has been told to make urgent improvements after inspectors found a deterioration in quality across its Broomfield, Basildon and Southend hospitals. The overall ratings for Broomfield and Basildon hospitals have dropped to “inadequate” as a result. The CQC carried out a focused inspection in January and February that was prompted by concerns over the safety and quality of medical care and older people’s services, including over people’s nutrition and hydration. Hazel Roberts, CQC deputy director in the east of England, said inspectors “found a leadership team who didn’t have complete oversight of the issues they’re facing”. Among the concerns raised by the CQC’s report were the safety of the premises and equipment, a lack of nursing and support staff, staff not always respecting people’s dignity and privacy, and risk assessments not always being completed and updated. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 June 2023- Posted
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Government dilutes public health priorities to deliver shorter NHS mandate
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government has downgraded the importance of improving public health in its annual ‘mandate’ to the NHS. ‘The government’s 2023 mandate to NHS England’ is noticeably shorter at 18 pages than the previous document from March 2022. Speaking at the NHS ConfedExpo conference, health secretary Steve Barclay said: “For over a decade, governments have used the mandate to make asks of the system. Sometimes these asks have been excessive, with long documents with many pages full of tests and targets… But what we’ve done this year is make it short and clear… setting out our priorities: Cutting waiting lists; the three recovery plans; tech; and workforce". All the keystone targets for recovering the elective backlog, emergency care waits and cancer care remain in place. However, the latest mandate places significantly less emphasis on public health. For example, one of the five objectives in the 2022 mandate called for the service to “embed a population health management approach within local systems, stepping up action to prevent ill health and tackle health disparities”. It also makes no mention of any vaccination programme. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 June 2023- Posted
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We need to be ‘really thoughtful’ about intervening with ICSs
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS England needs to be ‘really thoughtful’ about how and when it intervenes as powers are devolved from the centre to integrated care systems, NHSE’s chief executive has said. Following her keynote speech at NHS ConfedExpo in Manchester today, Amanda Pritchard was asked about “her vision for the future” devolving powers to Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) as part of the NHS reforms and if “it changes the way leaders should behave”. Ms Pritchard admitted “earned autonomy” in relation to ICSs – a phrase she has previously used but has jarred with many local leaders – was “not quite the right phrase”. “It feels like we’re using yesterday’s language for today’s ways of working. I know it’s not quite the right word, but I can’t think of a better one at the moment,” she said. “What I am asking my own organisation to do, is make sure that we are really thoughtful about all of those different things that we do, and we are increasingly really intentional about which of those [tools] you can use in different circumstances [in regards to performance and accountability].” Read full story Source: HSJ, 14 June 2023 -
News Article
Covid inquiry prepares for first hearing after 220,000 deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than three years after Boris Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown, the Covid investigation will cover every aspect of the UK’s pandemic response. More than three years after the first lockdown began, two years after the last one ended, the public hearings are at last starting. Over the months that come the inquiry will have many questions to answer. Should we have locked down earlier? Should we have not locked down at all? Did we eat out to help restaurants out, or eat out to help the virus out? Could more have been done to protect care homes from infection? Should more have been done to protect residents from loneliness? Baroness Hallett, the judge presiding, said her chief role is “to determine whether [the] level of loss,” in the broadest sense of the word, “was inevitable or whether things could have been done better”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 13 June 2023 -
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Hitting elective target ‘not in NHS’s control’, Sunak warned
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS Confederation chief says he will this week demand clarity about Rishi Sunak’s flagship waiting list reduction target, warning it may not be ‘the most sensible target [or] within the service’s control’. Matthew Taylor also reflected in an exclusive interview with HSJ about a “pretty bruising” recent planning round for 2023-24. Speaking ahead of the conference, which starts this week, he said he would ask Steve Barclay for “clarity” about “what exactly the government means when it talks about reducing waiting lists”. The prime minister’s waiting list pledge is one of his frequently-referenced five priorities, which when he set them out in January stated: “NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly.” But Mr Taylor said yesterday: “It’s a bit unclear to me… Does it mean the overall waiting list? Does it mean long waiters? And what about the other waiting lists that we don’t talk about [like psychiatric care for children]?” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 June 2023- Posted
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WHO treaty on future pandemics is being watered down, warn health leaders
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The World Health Organization’s new pandemic preparedness treaty is being watered down and stripped of the key stipulations needed to prevent another global health disaster, say leading international health experts and civil society groups. WHO’s 194 member states agreed in December 2021 to draw up a new convention to ensure that the world would be prepared for future global health threats and to prevent the “catastrophic failure” seen during the covid pandemic. The “zero draft” of the accord, published in February, had excited observers because its scope went beyond the closest existing legally binding framework, the International Health Regulations. That draft stipulated strong obligations for information sharing and the importance of having a strong health workforce and universal healthcare, among other requirements. The latest 42 page document, leaked during the World Health Assembly, has revealed that many passages that experts regard as key to improving global health have been weakened or made optional, meaning that they could be removed in the final draft. Read full story Source: BMJ, 31 May 2023- Posted
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News ArticleMinisters have been accused of failing to grasp the “tidal wave” of mental ill health blighting children’s lives, after research found that only a quarter of English primaries will be able to offer vital school-based support by the end of next year. With almost one in five pupils aged 7 to 16 now thought to have a mental health disorder, specialist support teams were set up to work with children in schools, addressing early symptoms and reducing pressure on overstretched NHS services. According to new figures shared exclusively with the Guardian, however, pupils in almost three-quarters (73.4%) of primary schools in England will have had no access to the new mental health support teams (MHSTs) by the end of 2024. The research follows reports that a quarter of a million children in the UK with mental health problems have been denied help by the NHS, with some trusts failing to offer treatment to 60% of those referred by GPs. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 June 2023
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All NHS board members to get equality objectives
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Trusts and systems must draw up plans to improve the diversity of their executive and senior leadership teams over the next 12 months, and evidence progress against them by summer 2025, NHS England has announced. A new equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) improvement plan also says every board and executive team member will have EDI objectives they will be assessed against during annual appraisals by spring 2024. The targets form part of six “high impact actions,” each with set targets that aim to address the “widely known intersectional impacts of discrimination and bias” within the NHS. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 June 2023- Posted
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Kettering General Hospital chief apologises over children's care
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A chief executive whose hospital has been accused of failing children has admitted it has not always "got it right" and apologised at a meeting. The care regulator has warned Kettering General Hospital (KGH) over its children's and young people's services and rated them inadequate. Dozens of parents with children who died or became seriously ill have contacted the BBC with concerns. Deborah Needham told a board meeting she was "here to listen" to worries. In April it was revealed inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) raised concerns over sepsis treatment, staff numbers, dirt levels and not having an "open culture" where concerns could be raised without fear, following an inspection in December. The CQC had inspected the Northamptonshire hospital's paediatric assessment unit, Skylark ward, and the neonatal unit after hearing concerns of safety. Read full story Source: BBC News, 9 June 2023- Posted
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Ministers failing to reform ‘restrictive’ primary care rules
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government has failed to change ‘restrictive’ legislation which would enable primary care reform – despite repeated announcements – a pharmacy leader has said. Currently, pharmacy technicians cannot take on dispensing tasks without supervision from a pharmacist but the government promised in 2019 to look at how legislation can be updated to allow pharmacy technicians to take more of a role in dispensing, as part of the current five-year Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework, which ends next year. The government has repeatedly announced and reannounced over the past five years that it wants to remove restrictions to give community pharmacy an expanded role. But in a new report shared exclusively with HSJ, the Company Chemists’ Association – the trade body with members including Asda, Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy and Superdrug – highlights that government has failed to make progress. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 7 June 2023- Posted
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ICSs most ‘off target’ on recovery named by NHS England
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Seven integrated care systems and one ambulance trust have been placed in ‘intensive support’ because of their performance against urgent and emergency care metrics. NHS England launched the new intervention regime for emergency care earlier this year to measure progress against the urgent and emergency care recovery plan. The most troubled systems and organisations are now placed in a first “tier” and will receive central support from NHSE. Other systems requiring support from NHSE regional teams are placed in a secondary tier. This tiered approach is already in place for cancer and elective performance. Support will include help with analytical and delivery capacity, “buddying” with leading systems and “targeted executive leadership”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 7 June 2023- Posted
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News ArticleThe mayor of London is independently reviewing NHS England plans to reconfigure children’s cancer services in the capital, which were triggered when the commissioner finally accepted the current arrangements are unsafe. In a letter to NHSE London director Caroline Clarke, Sadiq Khan’s health adviser said the mayor would apply his six tests for major reconfigurations to both the options proposed for the “principal treatment centre” for paediatric cancer in south London. NHSE London is currently running a process to decide the principal treatment centre's location. An earlier assessment put the bid from the Evelina Hospital, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust, ahead of the other bidder, St George’s University Hospitals FT. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 June 2023
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‘Devastated’ director quits after ‘bullying’ row with consultants
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A trust director has stepped down after a row with consultants about the leadership culture within her department, HSJ has learned. Pratima Gupta quit as director of women’s services at University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust last week after a group of consultants expressed “no confidence” in her leadership. They claimed there was “intimidating and bullying behaviour” by individual managers. However, Ms Gupta said the allegations are untrue, and said she has faced “obstruction at almost every step” from some consultants when trying to improve training and culture within the department. Trainee doctors in obstetrics and gynaecology have previously expressed concerns around a lack of support from consultants, with the trust recently receiving a further warning around this from the General Medical Council and Health Education England. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 June 2023- Posted
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NHS England workforce plan delayed amid rumours of cost issues
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS leaders have raised concerns about the delay to the long-awaited workforce plan, after the health secretary, Steve Barclay, refused to give a deadline for its publication and with rumours suggesting it is considered too costly. The plan, which was expected to be published on Tuesday, appears to have been delayed, according to the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery. Barclay blamed the pandemic and “various things that have been happening in recent years” for the delay during broadcast interviews over the weekend. He had previously promised that the plan to increase the number of doctors and nurses would be published before the next general election. Cordery said the plan, which aims to fix the UK’s crumbling healthcare system by plugging chronic staff shortages but which has already been postponed from last year, was needed “as quickly as possible”. Until this weekend NHS Providers – which represents all England’s hospital, ambulance, community and mental health trusts – had believed publication of the plan was “imminent”. Cordery suggested that the failure to release it could be linked to the need for funding. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 May 2023- Posted
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