Jump to content

Search the hub

Showing results for tags 'Legal issue'.

More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Start to type the tag you want to use, then select from the list.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • All
    • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Culture
    • Improving patient safety
    • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Leadership for patient safety
    • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Patient engagement
    • Patient safety in health and care
    • Patient Safety Learning
    • Professionalising patient safety
    • Research, data and insight
    • Miscellaneous

Categories

  • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Commissioning and funding patient safety
    • Digital health and care service provision
    • Health records and plans
    • Innovation programmes in health and care
    • Climate change/sustainability
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Blogs
    • Data, research and statistics
    • Frontline insights during the pandemic
    • Good practice and useful resources
    • Guidance
    • Mental health
    • Exit strategies
    • Patient recovery
    • Questions around Government governance
  • Culture
    • Bullying and fear
    • Good practice
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Safety culture programmes
    • Second victim
    • Speak Up Guardians
    • Staff safety
    • Whistle blowing
  • Improving patient safety
    • Clinical governance and audits
    • Design for safety
    • Disasters averted/near misses
    • Equipment and facilities
    • Error traps
    • Health inequalities
    • Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
    • Improving systems of care
    • Implementation of improvements
    • International development and humanitarian
    • Safety stories
    • Stories from the front line
    • Workforce and resources
  • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Investigations and complaints
    • Risk management and legal issues
  • Leadership for patient safety
    • Business case for patient safety
    • Boards
    • Clinical leadership
    • Exec teams
    • Inquiries
    • International reports
    • National/Governmental
    • Patient Safety Commissioner
    • Quality and safety reports
    • Techniques
    • Other
  • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Government and ALB direction and guidance
    • International patient safety
    • Regulators and their regulations
  • Patient engagement
    • Consent and privacy
    • Harmed care patient pathways/post-incident pathways
    • How to engage for patient safety
    • Keeping patients safe
    • Patient-centred care
    • Patient Safety Partners
    • Patient stories
  • Patient safety in health and care
    • Care settings
    • Conditions
    • Diagnosis
    • High risk areas
    • Learning disabilities
    • Medication
    • Mental health
    • Men's health
    • Patient management
    • Social care
    • Transitions of care
    • Women's health
  • Patient Safety Learning
    • Patient Safety Learning campaigns
    • Patient Safety Learning documents
    • Patient Safety Standards
    • 2-minute Tuesdays
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2018
    • Patient Safety Learning Awards 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Interviews
    • Patient Safety Learning webinars
  • Professionalising patient safety
    • Accreditation for patient safety
    • Competency framework
    • Medical students
    • Patient safety standards
    • Training & education
  • Research, data and insight
    • Data and insight
    • Research
  • Miscellaneous

News

  • News

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start
    End

Last updated

  • Start
    End

Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End

Group

First name

Last name

Country

Join a private group (if appropriate)

About me

Organisation

Role

Found 570 results
  1. News Article
    Saskatchewan's highest court has ruled in favour of a nurse who was disciplined after she complained on Facebook about the care her grandfather had received in a long-term care facility. In a decision delivered Tuesday, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal set aside a decision by the province's Registered Nurses Association that found Carolyn Strom guilty of unprofessional conduct. Strom was off-duty when she aired her concerns on Facebook in 2015, a few weeks after her grandfather's death. In her Facebook post, she said staff at St. Joseph's Integrated Health Centre in the town of Macklin, about 225 kilometres west of Saskatoon, needed to do a better job of looking after elderly patients. The lawyer for the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association argued that Strom personally attacked an identifiable group without attempting to get all the facts about her grandfather's care. In 2016, she was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and $25,000 to cover the cost of the tribunal. After the association's decision, she received support from the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, as well as nurses and civil liberties groups across the country. "Once I understood what this case meant ... once it was past being just about me, I didn't want someone else to have to go through the same thing. Because it's been rough," Strom said. Strom says she continued to fight the decision because she wanted nurses to be able to talk about, and advocate for, better care for family members publicly and in a respectful manner. "You should be able to properly advocate for family members, regardless of whether you're a health-care member." "And I felt that if this decision went wrong, it would actually hurt people who have healthcare members as family members. because they would have to be a little more careful and not express concerns for fear of punishment." Appeal court Justice Brian Barrington-Foote wrote in his decision that Strom's freedom of expression was unjustifiably infringed, and she had a right to criticise the care her grandfather received. The judge ruled that criticism of the healthcare system is in the public interest, and when it comes from front-line workers it can bring positive change. Read full story Source: CBC News, 6 October 2020 .
  2. News Article
    The announcement on Friday by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that it will bring criminal charges against an NHS trust for failing to provide safe care to a patient is a hugely significant milestone in efforts to bring about greater accountability and safer care in the health service. The CQC has had the power to bring such prosecutions against hospitals since April 2015 when it was given a suite of new legal powers to hold hospitals to account on the care they give to their patients. Bringing in the new laws, the so-called fundamental standards of care, was one of the most significant actions taken after the care disaster at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, where hundreds of patients suffered shocking neglect, with some dying as a result. Prosecuting East Kent Hospitals University Trust over the tragic 2017 death of baby Harry Richford is a big step for the CQC and a consequence of the long-forgotten battles of many patients and families in Stafford who were told they were wrong in their complaints against the hospital. It will almost certainly lead to more calls for criminal charges against hospitals from families who have been failed. There are countless examples of NHS trusts not acting on safety warnings and patients coming to harm as a result. Just this week an inquest into the case of baby Wynter Andrews at Nottingham University Trust revealed fears over safety had been highlighted to the trust board 10 months before her death. At Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust there are hundreds of families asking the same questions as more evidence emerges of long-standing failures to learn from its mistakes. CQC's chief executive, Ian Trenholm, has provoked anger among NHS leaders and clinicians when he advocated taking a tougher line when trusts break the law. But it is unlikely the CQC will launch a slew of prosecutions. It has said it will bring cases only where it sees patterns of behaviour and systemic failings. That is the correct approach as healthcare is complex and single errors will sadly happen despite everyone doing their best. Read full story Source: The Independent, 10 October 2020
  3. News Article
    An anaesthetist who had been drinking before an emergency caesarean that led to the death of a British woman should serve the maximum three years in jail if convicted and should be banned from working as a doctor, a French prosecutor has demanded. Helga Wauters is on trial in Pau, south-west France, for the manslaughter of Xynthia Hawke in 2014. She is accused of starving Hawke of oxygen for up to an hour after pushing a ventilation tube into the wrong passageway. Orlane Yaouang, prosecuting, described the scene in the operating theatre when Hawke turned blue as “carnage” and spoke of the “surreal situation” in which the panicked hospital staff called the emergency services. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 October 2020
  4. News Article
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has launched the first prosecution of an acute trust for failing to meet fundamental standards of care. East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust faces two charges relating to the death of Harry Richford and the risks posed to his mother during his birth. Both charges are under regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The trust is accused of failing to discharge its duty under regulation 12 in that it failed to provide safe care and treatment exposing Harry and his mother Sarah to a significant risk of avoidable harm. It is only the fourth prosecution of a trust over the “fundamental standards” which were brought in following the Mid Staffordshire care scandal and are meant to be enforced by the CQC. It is also thought to be the first related to the safety of clinical care. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 October 2020
  5. News Article
    Experts say robust legal protections are needed to inspire public confidence. The UK government has set out plans to amend drug regulations in case it decides that COVID-19 vaccines should be used before they are licensed, in a bid to roll them out more quickly. In a consultation on the proposals that ran from 28 August to 18 September the Department of Health and Social Care for England explained that if a suitable vaccine emerged with strong evidence of safety, quality, and efficacy the government would seek to license it through the usual route but could supply it in the meantime. The document added, “A COVID-19 vaccine would only be authorised in this way if the UK’s licensing authority was satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate the safety, quality, and efficacy of the vaccine. ‘Unlicensed’ does not mean ‘untested.” The consultation, and the timeframe in which it was conducted, prompted some people to post their concerns on social media. However, the Human Medicine Regulations 2012 already allow the licensing authority to temporarily authorise the supply of an unlicensed product in response to certain public health threats, including the suspected spread of pathogens. The proposed change would allow conditions to be attached “to ensure product safety, quality, and efficacy” The 2012 regulations also give healthcare professionals and manufacturers immunity from being sued in the civil courts for the use of some unlicensed products recommended by the licensing authority in response to a public health threat. The new regulations would extend the immunity to drug companies that have not manufactured the product but placed it on the market with the approval of the licensing authority, and they clarify the consequences for a breach of conditions imposed by the authority. Social media posts play into existing concerns that many people might not accept the vaccine, as surveys indicate. Lawyers have told the Department for Health and Social Care that to inspire public confidence it must provide redress for the few people who might experience adverse effects. Bozena Michalowska, a partner specialising in product liability at the law firm Leigh Day, said, “I do not believe that people will want to play Russian roulette with their health by taking a vaccine which they know nothing about, especially when they know that the risks they take are just taken by them and not a shared risk and they will not have sufficient protection should things go wrong.” Read full story Source: The BMJ, 28 September 2020
  6. News Article
    Tens of thousands of people infected with coronavirus were incorrectly given the all clear by England’s Lighthouse Laboratories, a High Court trial will be told next week. Court documents seen by The Independent show the labs are accused of unfairly selecting software that was shown in a test to produce significant numbers of errors and false negatives, samples that should have been positive or classed as needing to be re-taken. The two companies behind the Lighthouse Labs in England – Medicines Discovery Catapult Ltd and UK Biocentre Ltd – are accused of treating British company, Diagnostics.ai unfairly and giving preferential treatment to Belgian company UgenTec, despite the British firm’s software performing better in the test. The case, first revealed by The Independent in June, also includes a judicial review of the procurement decision against health secretary Matt Hancock – one of the first court hearings over the procurement processes followed by the government since the start of the pandemic. The Independent understands lawyers for Diagnostics.ai will accuse the laboratories of choosing a software solution that went on to produce tens of thousands of incorrect results which will have led to infected people going about their normal lives while at risk of spreading the virus. In June, UgenTec chief executive Steven Verhoeven told The Independent the suggestion its software had made errors was “incorrect”. The Department of Health refused to comment on the legal action but said in June that the UgenTec software had been used for several months and was subject to quality assurance processes, though it did not give any further details. Mr Justice Fraser will hear opening arguments in the case on Monday at the High Court. Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 September 2020
  7. News Article
    A hospital trust has been fined for failing to be open and transparent with the bereaved family of a 91-year-old woman in the first prosecution of its kind. Elsie Woodfield died at Derriford hospital in Plymouth after suffering a perforated oesophagus during an endoscopy. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) took University Hospitals Plymouth NHS trust to court under duty of candour regulations, accusing it of not being open with Woodfield’s family about her death and not apologising in a timely way. Judge Joanna Matson was told Woodfield’s daughter Anna Davidson eventually received a letter apologising over her mother’s death, which happened in December 2017, but she felt it lacked remorse. Davidson said she still had many unanswered questions and found it “impossible to grieve”. The judge said: “This offence is a very good example of why these regulatory offences are very important. Not only have [the family] had to come to terms with their tragic death, but their loss has been compounded by the trust’s lack of candour.” Speaking afterwards, Nigel Acheson, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals, said: “All care providers have a duty to be open and transparent with patients and their loved ones, particularly when something goes wrong, and this case sends a clear message that we will not hesitate to take action when that does not happen." Lenny Byrne, the trust’s chief nurse, issued a “wholehearted apology” to Woodfield’s family. “We pleaded guilty to failure to comply with the duty of candour and fully accept the court’s decision. We have made significant changes in our processes.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 September 2020
  8. News Article
    An NHS trust is to appear in court today charged with breaking the law on being open and transparent after a woman’s death in the first ever court case of its kind. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has brought a criminal prosecution against University Hospitals Plymouth Trust which will appear at Plymouth Magistrates Court tomorrow morning. The trust is charged with breaching the duty of candour regulations under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 which require hospitals to be honest with families and patients after a safety incident or error in their care. Hospitals are legally required to notify patients or families and investigate what has happened and communicate the findings to families and offer an apology. The case relates to how the Plymouth trust communicated with a woman’s family after her death which happened after she underwent an endoscopy procedure at Derriford Hospital in December 2017. The trust was required by law to communicate in an open and transparent way. The CQC has accused the trust of failing to do this. Read full story Source: The Independent, 22 September 2020
  9. News Article
    Accidents on maternity wards cost the NHS nearly £1 billion last year, Jeremy Hunt, the chairman of the Commons health committee, has revealed. The former health secretary said the bill for maternity legal action was nearly twice the amount spent on maternity doctors in England. It was part of the NHS’s £2.4 billion total legal fees and compensation bill, up £137 million on the previous year. Mr Hunt has also told the Daily Mail there is evidence that hospitals are failing to provide details of avoidable deaths despite being ordered to do so three years ago as he highlighted “appalling high” figures which showed that up to 150 lives are being lost needlessly every week in public hospitals. Responding to the figures, Mr Hunt said: "Something has gone badly wrong." In 2017, he told trusts to publish data on the number of avoidable deaths among patients in their care. But freedom of information responses from 59 hospital trusts, about half the total, found less than a quarter gave meaningful data on avoidable deaths. Mr Hunt cited “major cultural challenges” which he blamed for preventing doctors and nurses from accepting any blame. He blamed lawyers who get involved “almost immediately” once something goes wrong with a patient’s care. “Doctors, nurses and midwives worry they could lose their licence if they are found to have made a mistake. Hospital managers worry about the reputation of their organisation,” he added. Mr Hunt said: “We have appallingly high levels of avoidable harm and death in our healthcare system. We seem to just accept it as inevitable.” An NHS spokesman said: “Delivering the safest possible health service for patients is a priority, and the national policy on learning from deaths is clear that hospitals must publish this information every three months, as well as an annual summary, so that they are clear about any problems that have been identified and how they are being addressed. Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 18 September 2020
  10. News Article
    The parents of a baby who died after medical errors are to push for a new inquest into his death, after they say a "cruel" inquest denied them justice. Hayden Nguyen died in 2016 after medics failed to treat an infection properly. However, despite the NHS trust admitting mistakes, coroner Shirley Radcliffe concluded the infant died of natural causes, after raising concerns about the hospital's initial investigation. Hayden was six days old when his parents took him to the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in west London in August 2016. He initially had a fever but rapidly deteriorated; he had a cardiac arrest and died within 12 hours of arriving there. An internal NHS investigation concluded eight errors were made in Hayden's care, and the root causes of his death were failure to identify the signs of shock and failure to act on abnormal test results. "When they had completed the investigation, they sat us down and took us through it line by line," says Alex Nguyen, Hayden's mother. "Although the content was incredibly disturbing, it was in a way healing and it helped a little bit with the grieving process." An inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court, conducted by Dr Radcliffe, followed. However, the coroner was not happy with the hospital's investigation. The hospital to issue a second report into Hayden's care, which halved the number of errors, and said the root cause of his death was the infection "which is known to have a high mortality". Armed with this second report, the coroner concluded that Hayden had died of natural causes. "What the coroner did was kill Hayden a second time," Hayden's father, Tum, told the BBC. Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 May 2021
  11. News Article
    The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is facing being taken to court over an inquiry it launched into the deaths of dozens of mental health patients in Essex. Last year, the government said it would commission an independent inquiry into at least 36 inpatient deaths in Essex, which had taken place over the last two decades. However, more than 70 families are calling for a full statutory public inquiry, which can compel witnesses to give evidence. They have lodged judicial review proceedings at the High Court against the government to that effect. The DHSC said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings. The current inquiry was launched in response to a highly critical report from the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman, published in June 2019, into the deaths of two patients at North Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust, which has since merged to form Essex Partnership University FT. There has also been an investigation by Essex Police into 25 of the deaths. This concluded in 2018, when the force said there had been “clear and basic” care failings, but there was not enough evidence to prosecute the trust for corporate manslaughter. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 11 May 2021
  12. News Article
    A nurse accused of murdering eight babies in an alleged year-long killing spree at an NHS hospital has appeared in court. Lucy Letby, aged 31, appeared at Manchester Crown Court via videolink from HMP Peterborough on Monday morning. She has been charged the murder of five boys and three girls at the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital. The babies all died between June 2015 and June 2016. Read full story Source: The Independent, 10 May 2021
  13. News Article
    Nearly half the hospitals targeted in covid-related spot checks were found to be breaching health and safety laws. An unpublished Health and Safety Executive report found just five out of 17 acute hospitals inspected had high levels of compliance with measures to manage the risks around covid. Meanwhile, letters were sent to eight hospitals “formally requiring them to take remedial action to remedy contraventions of health and safety law”. The remaining four hospitals were given advice. The inspections — which involved 13 hospitals in England and two each in Scotland and Wales — focused on seven areas: risk assessment; management arrangements specific to covid; social distancing; cleaning and hygiene; ventilation; dealing with suspected covid cases; and personal protective equipment. The health and safety watchdog highlighted social distancing in non-clinical areas — which covered areas outside of clinical wards such as offices, rest areas, changing rooms and workshops — as needing improvement in some hospitals. The inspectors — who visited between November last year and January this year — also found some hospitals needed more robust covid security measures if they were to comply with government guidance. HSE also noted that, although all the hospitals had adequate supplies of PPE, not all had adequate arrangements in place for ensuring it was used effectively. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 May 2021
  14. News Article
    A consultant at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny who carried out unauthorised research on five female patients during routine gynaecological procedures has failed in a High Court challenge to prevent his dismissal by the HSE. Consultant gynaecologist Ray O’Sullivan claimed a decision by the HSE’s chief executive, Paul Reid, on December 23rd, 2019 to recommend his dismissal was “fatally flawed” for reasons including a failure to allow him the opportunity to comment on an expert’s report into his professional performance. The hospital began an investigation after nursing staff expressed concern about the risk of infection from a procedure carried out on five patients on September 4th and 5th, 2018 under the direction of Prof O’Sullivan. A catheter and small pressure pad was placed, without their consent and without seeking approval from the hospital’s ethics committee, inside the vagina of five patients who were having a hysteroscopy. This was done as part of a feasibility study designed to see if certain procedures could be carried out without the use of a speculum (a device commonly used in vaginal exams) . The court heard the five patients, who were tested for infection including HIV, were greatly shocked and upset when St Luke’s informed them about what happened at open disclosure meetings. Read full story Source: The Irish Times, 27 April 2021
  15. News Article
    A private healthcare provider has been ordered to pay £20,000 after failing to disclose errors in the treatment of patients under the care of a surgeon. Spire Healthcare was prosecuted today in what the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said was “the first prosecution of its kind against an independent provider of healthcare”. The CQC said concerns around the treatment of four patients were initially raised by Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group, several physiotherapists at the hospital and another surgeon. The patients had surgical procedures carried out by Michael Walsh, a shoulder surgeon who held practising privileges at Spire Leeds until his suspension in April 2018. The procedures resulted in the patients suffering prolonged pain and requiring further remedial surgery. The CQC said it brought the prosecution after Spire failed to share details of what happened to the patients who were being treated by Mr Walsh, in line with their duty of candour responsibilities to be transparent and provide timely apologies when serious incidents occur. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 29 April 2021
  16. News Article
    An RAF veteran has been left with life-changing injuries after being “mutilated” by an NHS surgeon during what should have been a routine procedure. Paul Tooth, 64, has been permanently left with tubes going in and out of his body which he needs to continually recycle bile produced by his liver. The previously fit and active father-of-two has lost five stone in weight and can barely leave his house after the surgery last year. It was supposed to be a routine gall bladder removal, but the surgeon inexplicably took out Paul’s bile duct and hepatic duct, which link the liver to the intestines, as well as damaging the liver itself, making a repair impossible. Although he has won his legal battle against the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Foundation Trust, Paul believes what happened to him raises bigger safety questions for the trust after he learned he was one of three patients harmed by the same surgeon just days apart. The alarm was first raised by Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge where the three patients were transferred for specialist care after their initial operations. The Norfolk and Norwich trust has now admitted liability for the errors and standard of care Paul received. Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 April 2021
  17. News Article
    An NHS trust has admitted failing to provide safe care and treatment for a mother and her baby boy, who died seven days after an emergency delivery. Mother Sarah Richford said it brought "some level of justice" for baby Harry's death in 2017. Lawyers for the East Kent Hospitals Trust pleaded guilty to the charge at Folkestone Magistrates Court. The trust said it had made "significant changes" and would "do everything we can to learn from this tragedy". Mrs Richford said: "Although Harry's life was short, hopefully it's made a difference and that other babies won't die". She added: "If somebody had done this before Harry was born he may be alive today." The prosecution by the Care Quality Commission followed an inquest in 2020, which found Harry's death was wholly avoidable and contributed to by neglect at Margate's Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital. The inquest found more than a dozen areas of concern in the care of Harry and his mother, including failings in the way an "inexperienced" doctor carried out the delivery, followed by delays in resuscitation. Coroner Christopher Sutton-Mattocks criticised the trust for initially saying the death was "expected", adding that an inquest was only ordered due to the family's persistence. Read full story Source: BBC News, 19 April 2021
  18. News Article
    Nearly 200 families have now reported experiences of poor maternity and neonatal care in East Kent, according to the family whose baby’s death sparked both an independent investigation and a court case against the trust. Baby Harry Richford died seven days after his birth at the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Hospital in Thanet in 2017. Next week, the Care Quality Commission is taking East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust to court, alleging it failed to meet fundamental standards of care in the treatment of both Harry and his mother Sarah. An independent investigation, led by Bill Kirkup, is also looking into maternity and neonatal services at the trust. In a statement, the Richford family told HSJ they had had numerous contacts from other families who had had bad experiences of maternity and neonatal care at the trust. “We have encouraged such families to come forward to the Kirkup Inquiry and now believe that the number of families is approaching 200,” they said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 April 2021
  19. News Article
    New victims of rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson are being blocked from using lawyers with experience of the scandal to bring fresh compensation claims against the private hospital where he worked, The Independent has learned. Under the terms of a legal settlement for £37m in 2017, 40 law firms are barred from bringing any new claims against Spire Healthcare for 20 years – meaning that former patients who have learned since then that they were victims of the surgeon, who was jailed for carrying out needless surgeries on women, face having to find lawyers with no prior knowledge of the case. When the deal was signed, it was thought that most of Paterson’s victims had been contacted by the hospital company, but an inquiry published in 2020 heavily criticised its failure to reach affected patients and accused the company of seeking to protect its reputation rather than the interests of patients. In response, Spire Healthcare launched a mass recall of 5,500 former patients, with independent clinicians reviewing their medical records. Some are learning for the first time that they had needless surgery at the hands of the surgeon. Read full story Source: The Independent, 11 April 2021
  20. News Article
    An NHS trust has been charged over the deaths of two patients. The Care Quality Commission alleges Natalie Billingham, 33, and Kaysie-Jane Bland were exposed to "significant risk of avoidable harm" at Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital. The regulator has brought the charges against Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust over two alleged breaches of the Health and Social Care Act. This relates to the trust's duty to ensure safe care and treatment. Read full story Source: BBC News, 6 April 2021
  21. News Article
    Campaigners have started legal action against the government over guidance that bans care home residents in England aged 65 and over from taking trips outside the home. John's Campaign, of residents and their loved ones, says the ban is unlawful. They are also challenging the requirement for residents to self-isolate for 14 days after such visits. The government said its guidance provides a "range of opportunities" for visitors to spend time with loved ones. Nearly all residents have now had at least one dose of the vaccine, and care homes have been cautiously reopening, allowing indoor visits with designated family or friends. But the government guidance, updated on 8 March, says trips to see family or friends "should only be considered" for under-65s while national Covid restrictions apply because they increase the risk of bringing Covid into a home. Visits out for residents, whatever their age, "should be supported in exceptional circumstances such as a visit to a friend or relative at the end of their life", it adds - but on returning to the home, the resident must self-isolate for two weeks. The legal letter sent to the Department of Health and Social Care by John's Campaign says the decision whether someone can go on a visit outside a care home should be based on individual risk assessments. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 April 2021
  22. News Article
    A public inquiry into the infected blood scandal has been told some patients were used as "guinea pigs" at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital. The inquiry is looking at how haemophilia patients across the UK were treated with Hepatitis C infected blood or HIV in the 1970s and 1980s. Among the correspondence presented to the inquiry this week was a letter, dated 1988, sent by Dr Elizabeth E Mayne, consultant/director at the Department of Haematology in the Royal Victoria Hospital, to Professor Ludlam at the Royal Infirmary in Scotland. The letter was part of discussions about a potential switch between an NHS product and a commercial product, Profilate Factor 8. Dr Mayne explained that "complications may arise with this product or indeed a safer product may become available". She added: "I am happy for us to try this arrangement as long as the treatment of the children here and the small number of other patients is safeguarded." She concluded "It would be interesting to see the reactions of the patients to this change over and to see if the number of units consumed is reduced." After the letter was read into the record of the inquiry, the chairman, Sir Brian Langstaff, said: "There is also the implicit suggestion there that the patients will not have been asked in advance. "It is going to be given to them and they wait to see what the reaction is." Counsel to the inquiry, Jenni Richards QC, replied "Yes, there doesn't appear to have been an element of choice." Read full story Source: The Independent, 1 April 2021
  23. News Article
    A bill has been proposed to enable women who paid for mesh removal surgery to be refunded. Subject to the outcome of the Scottish Parliament election, new legislation will be introduced to allow the Scottish Government to meet the travel, medical and other reasonable expenses of those who had mesh removal surgery outwith NHS Scotland. Currently the law does not allow for such payments to be made from public funds. NHS Scotland is also inviting tenders to allow suitably qualified surgeons to perform free mesh removal, where this surgery is clinically appropriate and where patients wish it to take place outside of NHS Scotland. Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “The Scottish Government halted the implantation of transvaginal mesh in 2018, and is committed to keeping this halt in place." “We absolutely recognise the serious distress which may have led to women using their own funds to pay for private surgery. As the Scottish Government does not currently have the legal power to refund these past costs we propose introducing legislation in the next parliament, subject to the outcome of the election." Read full story Source: Scottish Government, 24 March 2021
  24. News Article
    A French court has fined one of the country’s biggest pharmaceutical firms €2.7m (£2.3m) after finding it guilty of deception and manslaughter over a pill linked to the deaths of up to 2,000 people. In one of the biggest medical scandals in France, the privately owned laboratory Servier was accused of covering up the potentially fatal side-effects of the widely prescribed drug Mediator. The former executive Jean-Philippe Seta was sentenced to a suspended jail sentence of four years. The French medicines agency, accused of failing to act quickly enough on warnings about the drug, was fined €303,000. The amphetamine derivative was licensed as a diabetes treatment, but was widely prescribed as an appetite suppressant to help people lose weight. Its active chemical substance is known as Benfluorex. As many as 5 million people took the drug between 1976 and November 2009 when it was withdrawn in France, long after it was banned in Spain and Italy. It was never authorised in the UK or US. The French health minister estimated it had caused heart-valve damage killing at least 500 people, but other studies suggest the death toll may be nearer to 2,000. Thousands more have been left with debilitating cardiovascular problems. Servier has paid out millions in compensation. “Despite knowing of the risks incurred for many years, … they [Servier] never took the necessary measures and thus were guilty of deceit,” said the president of the criminal court, Sylvie Daunis. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 March 2021
  25. News Article
    Deborah Stanford is one of many women who have received a Boston Scientific implant and suffered complications. She has joined Shine Lawyers’ class action, which was filed today in the Australian Federal Court, to hold the manufacturers to account for the continuous pain she has endured since the Obtryx sling was implanted on 12 September 2012. Ms Stanford’s bladder was sitting in the birth canal and the sling was placed, on medical advice, to reposition her bladder. “It has been 9 years of suffering." “If I knew how hard this was going to be, I never would have gone through it,” said Ms. Stanford. Boston Scientific is the third pelvic mesh manufacturer to face a class action over their range of prolapse mesh and incontinence sling implants. Shine Lawyers has filed all three actions against Johnson & Johnson, Ethicon and American Medical Systems (AMS). Read full story Source: Shine Lawyers, 22 March 2021
×
×
  • Create New...