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  1. News Article
    Quinn Evie Beadle died in 2018. Her parents later found out that the “kind, caring” 17-year-old had been failed by a paramedic at the scene of her death — and that the ambulance service altered documents to try to stop them finding out the truth. The teenager, who dreamt of becoming a medic but suffered poor mental health, was found after she hanged herself near her home in Shildon, Co Durham, on the evening of 9 December 2018. The paramedic who attended the scene made basic mistakes, and made no effort to clear her airway or continue with basic life support — despite the fact her heart was still active. But instead of attempting to learn lessons, bosses at the North East Ambulance Trust (NEAS) set out to prevent the family learning what happened. They changed a key witness statement given to the coroner at her first inquest, removing references to mistakes the paramedic had made and inserting the claim that any life support offered would “not have had a positive outcome”. They also withheld from the coroner a key piece of evidence — a reading from a heart monitor — which demonstrated Quinn’s heart activity. It is thought Quinn’s death could be one of more than 90 cases in the past three years in which the NEAS failed to provide families with the whole truth about how their relatives died. Senior managers repeatedly withheld key evidence from coroners about deaths linked to service failures, an internal report shows. In some cases, bosses doctored or suppressed evidence to cover up failures by staff. An independent report into a small number of the cases, including Quinn’s, raised by whistleblowers found that, as in her case, statements were changed or suppressed and pieces of key evidence not disclosed. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Sunday Times, 22 May 2022
  2. News Article
    The trusts that have made the most and least progress on urgent recommendations set out by the Ockenden review have been revealed Published in December 2020, the interim Ockenden review set out 12 immediate and essential actions for all trusts with maternity provision, grouped into seven themes, and in its latest board papers NHS England has set out the progress they have made. The actions which trusts are struggling with most include “risk assessment throughout pregnancy” and clearly describing pathways of care in written information and posted on the trust websites. According to the data, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust is the least compliant provider in England to date, as it is only fully compliant on one action. Last summer Sheffield’s maternity service plunged to “inadequate” from “outstanding” following a Care Quality Commission inspection, with concerns raised about staffing numbers, training and a lack of an open culture. Mid and South Essex Hospitals and York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals were compliant on five actions each. MSE is rated “requires improvement” by the CQC for maternity care, whereas YSTH is “good”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 20 May 2022
  3. News Article
    Families involved in a major review into maternity failings at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH) have criticised the decision of the review team to press ahead with the publication of an interim report, despite serious concerns about its terms of reference and methodology. A “thematic review” into NUH was first announced last year after reports that dozens of babies died or were brain damaged after errors were made at the trust over the last decade. More than 460 families have since contacted the review team. The review has been overseen by NHS England and local commissioners, but, in April, the families called for an independent inquiry and asked for it to be carried out by Donna Ockenden, the senior midwife who chaired the high-profile review of Shropshire maternity services, which reported in March. Last month, NHSE chief operating officer Sir David Sloman wrote to families and said former strategic health authority chair Julie Dent would be brought in to chair the review. However, Ms Dent stepped down from the role weeks later, citing “personal reasons”. A new chair is yet to be appointed. Despite these uncertainties, families have been told by the review team that an interim report will be issued shortly. Gary Andrews, whose daughter Wynter died after being delivered by caesarean section at NUH’s Queens Medical Centre in 2019, said to issue an interim report “seems at odds with the current situation” and risked causing “significant distress” to families. He added: “We need government to get to grips with this review. Put the brakes on, ensure its structure and design and objectives are fully supported by families, before any interim report can be issued.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 19 May 2022
  4. News Article
    A hospital trust has pleaded guilty to failures in care that contributed to the deaths of two patients. One of the charges related to the death of patient Mohammed Ismael Zaman in 2019 at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. The 31-year-old died of severe blood loss while undergoing dialysis, Telford Magistrates' Court heard. Max Dingle, in his 80s, died after his head became trapped between a mattress and bed rail while he was being treated at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) admitted three counts of failing to provide treatment and care in a safe way, resulting in harm or loss, between October 2019 and May 2020. Representing the CQC, Ryan Donoghue said the failures in Mr Zaman's care "were the legal cause of his death, for which the trust is responsible". He said Mr Dingle, who had been admitted with chronic lung disease, died from a cardiac arrest after he was freed. "The basis [of the guilty plea] is that the failures exposed him to a significant risk of avoidable harm," Mr Donoghue said. As well as the two deaths, the CQC accused the trust of exposing other patients to significant risk of avoidable harm. Read full story Source: BBC News, 18 May 2022
  5. News Article
    Hundreds of overseas-born trainee GPs are at risk of deportation because of “nonsensical” immigration rules, the profession’s leader has warned Priti Patel. The NHS risks losing much-needed family doctors unless visa regulations are overhauled to allow young medics to stay in Britain at the end of their GP training, Prof Martin Marshall said. Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, has written to Patel, the home secretary, demanding that she scrap “bureaucratic” hurdles affecting would-be GPs from abroad. He told the Guardian: “At a time when general practice is experiencing the most severe workload pressures it has ever known, it is nonsensical that the NHS is going to the expense of training hundreds of GPs each year who then face potential deportation by the Home Office because of an entirely avoidable visa issue. “We cannot afford to lose this expertise and willingness to work in the NHS, delivering care to patients, due to red tape.” The threat to foreign-born GP trainees has arisen because current immigration rules state that “international medical graduates” (IMGs) can be given indefinite leave to remain only after they have been in the country for five years, but GP training lasts for only three years. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 17 May 2022
  6. News Article
    National NHS officials have proposed a major shift in the funding model for inpatient mental health beds for children and young people, information seen by HSJ reveals. A report on child and adolescent mental health services by Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT), an NHS England national programme, recommends a move away from the current ‘payment per bed day’ model to a system which funds particular outcomes or “therapeutic models”. It appears the proposal in the GIRFT recommendations seen by HSJ would apply to both NHS and independent provision, although some NHS providers are already less likely to receive funding on a ”per bed day” basis. Ananta Dave, consultant CAMHS psychiatrist at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust, told HSJ that having agreed therapy and outcome measures as recommended by the report would not only boost patient experience but also lead to better results. “One inpatient bed can actually be the equivalent of 100 young people being looked after in the community. So these are precious resources we are talking about, hence the quality of inpatient units is really important. “It should not just be a tick-box exercise that a bed exists. Instead, it is about the quality of that service. If you simply go by the number of bed days, you’re unlikely to meet your target or meet your ambition of reducing the spend on inpatient services.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 May 2022
  7. News Article
    Tens of thousands of emergency calls are taking more than two minutes to be answered in England amid a crisis in the ambulance service, The Independent has learned. More than 37,000 emergency calls took more than two minutes to answer in April 2022 – 24 times the 1,500 that took that long in April 2021, according to a leaked staff message. April’s figures were slightly down compared to March, The Independent understands, when 44,000 calls took more than two minutes to answer. The deterioration in 999 calls being answered within the 60-second goal comes as ambulance services across the UK have been placed under huge pressures. The latest NHS data showed long delays in response times for ambulance services with stroke or suspected heart attack patients waiting more than 50 minutes on average. Response times are being driven by ambulances being held up outside of A&Es because emergency departments are unable to take patients. In March, there were likely to have been more than 4,000 instances of severe harm caused to patients as a result of ambulances being delayed by more than 60 minutes. Martin Flaherty, managing director of AACE said: “It is no secret that UK ambulance services and their staff are under intense pressure, which is further evidence of the need to secure more funding for ambulance services as soon as possible, continue to find more ways to protect and care for our staff, prevent the depletion of our workforce and above all, eradicate hospital handover delays. “AACE believes that whilst reasons such as overall demand and increasing acuity of patients are certainly contributory factors, the most significant problem causing these pressures remains hospital handover delays. These have increased exponentially and the numbers of hours lost to ambulance services is now unprecedented. For example, in some regions in March, ambulance trusts were losing up to one third of all the ambulance hours they were capable of producing due to hospital handover delays.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 May 2022
  8. News Article
    New figures leaked to HSJ show the true volume of 12-hour waiters in emergency departments is more than four times higher than official statistics suggest. Internal NHS England figures for February and March show around one in five admissions through ED waited more than 12 hours from arriving until being admitted to a ward – equating to around 158,000 cases. The official stats published by NHSE record a slightly different, and shorter, time period, from ‘decision to admit’ to admission. There were around 39,000 of these cases in the same two months, which equates to 4 per cent of admissions through ED, and 5.4 per cent of total emergency admissions. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has long called for the official stats to reflect the total time spent from arrival in ED (as per the internal data), and for trusts to be measured and regulated on this. Senior medics have for some time been warning about the patient safety risks of long waiting in EDs and have appealed to NHS England and the government for plans to tackle the crisis. Adrian Boyle, vice president of RCEM, said: “This data show the scale of long waiting times in emergency departments and the scale of the patient safety crisis. Performance continues to deteriorate across multiple metrics meaning we are documenting a failing urgent and emergency care system without any system transformation or improvement." Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 May 2022
  9. News Article
    A trade union has written to every politician representing the Scottish Borders to highlight "dangerous staffing levels" in local hospitals. Unison claims serious breaches of safety guidelines are occurring daily due to a lack of nurses, auxiliaries and porters. The letter says staff are unable to take proper rest breaks or log serious incidents in the reporting system. NHS Borders said patient and staff safety was its number one priority. Unison said working conditions in the area were regularly in breach of regulations. Greig Kelbie, the union's regional officer in the Borders, said: "We are getting regular messages from our members to tell us about the pressure they are under - and that they can't cope. "The care system was under pressure before Covid, but the pandemic has exasperated the situation, particularly at NHS Borders. "The NHS has been stretched to its limits and it is now at the stage where it is dangerous for patients and staff - we're often told about serious breaches of health and safety, particularly at Borders General Hospital where there are issues with flooring and staff falling. "We work collaboratively with NHS Borders to do what we can, but we also wanted to make politicians aware of how bad things have become. "We need our politicians to step up and implement change - we want them to make sure the Health and Care Act is brought to the fore and that it protects our members." Read full story Source: BBC News, 13 May 2022
  10. News Article
    It was hailed as a cutting-edge laboratory that would play a key role in response to Covid-19 and future epidemics, carrying out 300,000 tests a day. Announcing the project in November 2020, then-health secretary Matt Hancock said the project “confirms the UK as a world leader in diagnostics”. But less than 18 months later, the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory – named in honour of the renowned British scientist – has been plagued by failure while costing almost twice as much as its initial £588m budget, The Independent understands. Instead of being at the forefront of the fight against Covid, the project opened six months late, facing a string of issues with equipment, staff and construction, with barely 20% of its touted capacity being reached. Now, as the government winds down its “lighthouse” testing labs as part of the plan to “live with Covid”, leaving the Leamington Spa facility as the last lab standing, there are questions about the future of the site – and whether it would be able to cope with the nation’s testing needs alone if another deadly wave of Covid were to emerge. Read full story Source: The Independent, 28 April 2022
  11. News Article
    A new high of 6.4 million people in England were waiting for routine NHS treatment in March 2022, as 12 hours waits in A&E hit an all time high last month and ambulance services continued to struggle. This is up from 6.2 million in February and is the highest number since records began in August 2007. A new record of 24,138 people had to wait more than 12 hours in A&E after a decision to admit them had been made in April. The figure is up from 22,506 in March, and is the highest for any calendar month in records going back to August 2010. However the number of patients being seen within four hours in April improved compared to March, with 72.3% of patients seen in this time compared to 71.6%. Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said: “Today’s figures show our hardworking teams across the NHS are making good progress in tackling the backlogs that have built up with record numbers of diagnostic tests and cancer checks taking place in March, as part of the most ambitious catch up plan in NHS history. “We always knew the waiting list would initially continue to grow as more people come forward for care who may have held off during the pandemic, but today’s data show the number of people waiting more than two years has fallen for the second month in a row, and the number waiting more than 18 months has gone down for the first time." Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 May 2022
  12. News Article
    Local clinical leaders are continuing to question pressure from government and NHS England to relax Covid-19 visiting restrictions. Visitors, and people accompanying patients, have been restricted throughout covid, and in recent months there has been substantial local variation. Ministers and NHSE, as well as other politicians and some patient groups, have been pressing for more relaxed restrictions for some time and in recent weeks have stepped up their instructions. National visiting guidance was eased in March, and other infection control guidance, including requiring the isolation of covid contacts, was relaxed last month. Last week, the Daily Telegraph reported health and social care secretary Sajid Javid planned to “name and shame” trusts not implementing the changes, and to call hospital chief executives directly about it. Meanwhile, chief nursing officer Ruth May reiterated the visiting rules last month, saying on Twitter: “We must not underestimate the important contribution that visiting makes to the wellbeing and personalised care of patients and make it happen.” However, an NHSE online meeting for clinical leaders on Friday was told that while “a great number of trusts have returned to previous visiting policies… we know there are trusts which haven’t implemented this fully”. One said: “It is very difficult to safely return to pre-covid visiting as some hospital’s estate can’t safely support visitors in already over-crowded [emergency departments] and increasingly busy [outpatient departments]. “Surely local risk assessment is key and should be supported rather than increasing pressure to simply blanketly return to pre-pandemic arrangements everywhere?” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 May 2022 You may also be interested in: Visiting restrictions and the impact on patients and their families: a relative's perspective It’s time to rename the ‘visitor’: reflections from a relative
  13. News Article
    New calculations from Cancer Research UK estimate that, on average, over 65,000 people in England are left waiting longer than 28 days to find out whether they have cancer each month. These estimates are based on the latest data from the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS). The FDS is a performance standard introduced by Government in 2021. It’s used to better capture how long people on certain cancer-related referrals wait for a diagnosis. This applies to people referred by their GP urgently with suspected cancer, following breast symptoms, or have been picked up through cancer screening. The current FDS target is set at 75%, meaning three quarters of people being urgently referred should be told they have cancer or given the all-clear within that timeframe. However, this target has yet to be met. In addition, the data has revealed major variation across the country – with only 78 of 143 trusts meeting the 75% target. This means that despite the tireless efforts of NHS staff, chronic capacity issues mean that people continue to be failed by the system. Michelle Mitchell, our chief executive, said: “As a country we should not be willing to accept that over 1 in 4 people on an urgent referral are left waiting over a month to find out whether they have cancer. Nor should we stand for the variation that exists across the country.” The charity is calling on Government to include a more ambitious target within its upcoming 10-year cancer plan, to help ensure around 54,300 more people each month receive a diagnosis or have cancer ruled out within a month. With a robust plan and sustained investment to build a cancer workforce fit for the future, patients will be diagnosed quicker and earlier, which will save more lives. Read full story Source: Cancer Research UK, 9 May 2022
  14. News Article
    One of England’s most challenged integrated care systems (ICS) is set to miss by more than 800 patients the government’s target of eliminating two-year elective waits by July. Devon ICS currently estimates 860 patients will have waited longer than two years for planned care by July 2022, when all patients waiting longer than two years should have been treated – according to the NHS’s elective recovery plan. It is the first reported example of an ICS forecasting to miss the high-profile target which government has agreed with NHS England. The ICS, which is among the health systems with the lowest rating from NHSE, is a national outlier against the target, with around 1,500 patients currently waiting two years or more for care. The backlog has occurred despite the ICS previously being one of 12 systems given extra money for planned care through the elective accelerator programme and retaining the use of its Nightingale Hospital. Read full story (paywalled) Source: 6 May 2022
  15. News Article
    Traumatised Ukrainian refugees who have sought sanctuary in the UK may have to wait two years before they can get specialised therapy to help them heal from the horrors of war, according to experts. Therapists who specialise in treating war trauma say they have seen NHS waiting lists of two years before refugees can access the specialist treatment they need. Services across the UK are patchy with some areas “treatment deserts when it comes to trauma”, according to Emily Palmer-White, a psychotherapist and community manager at the charity Room to Heal, which provides support for people who have fled persecution. “There are often extremely long waiting lists. I have been told two years. You can’t separate the psychological from the practical – it’s more difficult to help people if they’re preoccupied with survival,” said Palmer-White. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said officials recognised the trauma Ukrainians were facing and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them. However, beyond having access to NHS care officials did not cite any specific provision to provide newly arrived refugees with trauma support. Prof Cornelius Catona, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the visa delays of several weeks would likely exacerbate mental illness for those already struggling and that the refugee schemes should have included a mechanism for spotting signs of trauma early. Viktoriia Liamets, a Ukrainian child and family therapist who recently arrived in the UK after fleeing the war, said Ukrainians arriving in Britain had multiple and complex traumas to contend with. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 May 2022
  16. News Article
    A coroner has expressed ‘serious concern’ after a trust-wide safety review – prompted by the death of a young mother – was delayed by up to nine months due to ‘staff holidays’. An inquest heard that 25-year-old Natasha Adams, who died by suicide in August 2021, had had her level of care downgraded by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust a month earlier, in July, something her family suggested had a “dramatic impact”. She was moved from a “care programme approach” (known as CPA, which involves enhanced care for people with complex needs and/or safety concerns) to “care support” (a non-clinical programme for people with lower-level concerns and complexities). An earlier investigation into her death by the trust, finalised in December, said the trust should audit other cases to check whether the trust’s 2019 “care management and CPA/care support policy” was being complied with. Now Birmingham and Solihull coroner James Bennett has criticised a delay in carrying out the trust-wide audit – writing in a prevention of future deaths report that, as of last month, four months after the report investigating Ms Adams’ care was completed, “no action has been taken”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 May 2022
  17. News Article
    Health leaders in Lincolnshire have admitted they do not have a ‘robust’ response to managing the risks posed by ambulance handover delays and poor response times. The system’s acute provider, United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT), was consistently among the trusts accounting for the highest proportion of ambulance delays over winter. In a document submitted to NHS England, the county’s integrated care system said: “While the system has good visibility of the level of risk across the system, and there are discussions about this on daily system calls, it is recognised that the system doesn’t currently have a robust response approach to ambulance handover delays. “A request has been made to regional NHSE/I team for support in developing a Lincolnshire system risk and response approach to ambulance handover delays.” ULHT’s board has recently noted “increasing concerns” from regulators. Its board papers have described capacity outside the acute sector as key, but there was “currently… not a sense of collective impact to scale and scope that would make a difference to reach the trajectory described”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 May 2022
  18. News Article
    Sir Robert Francis has announced he is to step down as chair of Healthwatch England 20 months early, claiming funding cuts mean the patient watchdog could soon struggle “to fulfil its vital role”. The prominent QC has also announced he will quit his position as a non-executive director of the Care Quality Commission on November 15 2022. In a letter to Mr Javid, Sir Robert said it had been an “honour and a privilege” to serve on the CQC’s board and a “great pleasure” to support Healthwatch England. He added: “I believe [Healthwatch England] has proved its worth to your department and the system more generally and is now in an ideal position to help you take forward your agenda for improving the patient’s voice. “However, if I have one regret about my time as chair[man], it is that we have been unable as yet to find a way of reversing the alarming decline in the resources available to Healthwatch – I am afraid there is a growing risk the network will be unable to fulfil its vital role unless urgent attention is paid to this issue.” Sir Robert has chaired a number of independent inquiries involving the NHS, most notably the inquiry into poor care and high mortality rates at Stafford Hospital – which was published in February 2013. Last June, Sir Robert was appointed by the government to undertake an independent study into a framework for compensation for victims of the infected blood scandal. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 May 2022
  19. News Article
    Patients’ lives are at risk because NHS hospitals have been allowed to crumble into disrepair, with ceilings collapsing and power cuts disrupting surgery. The number of clinical incidents linked to the failure to repair old buildings and faulty equipment has tripled in the past five years, an investigation by The Times found. Hundreds of vital NHS operations and appointments are being cancelled as a result of outdated infrastructure, undermining attempts by doctors to tackle record waiting lists. Recent incidents include an unconscious patient on a ventilator being trapped in a broken lift for 35 minutes and power running out as a patient lay in an operating theatre. On Saturday, April 23, a five-hour power cut at the Royal London Hospital in east London led to the cancellation of operations including two lifesaving kidney transplants, and meant women giving birth had to be transferred to different maternity units in the backs of taxis. Hospitals have also recorded hundreds of rat and pest infestations, and some rooms containing patients have been left “overflowing with raw sewage”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 2 May 2022
  20. News Article
    NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and other arm’s length bodies will be subject to an efficiency and performance review led by the Cabinet Office. The terms of a review into all government arm’s length bodies were set out this week, with minister Jacob Rees-Mogg insisting there is an “urgent need for public service reform”. The ‘public bodies review’ programme will consider whether ALBs “should be abolished or retained”, should continue to deliver all their functions, and whether they have an “effective relationship” with their relevant departments. Other ALBs include the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Health Education England, and the UK Health Security Agency. A guidance document says: “The outcome of this work should see powers returned to accountable ministers, greater efficiency and where appropriate, the state stepping back both financially and from people’s lives… Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 29 April 2022
  21. News Article
    Families impacted by the Nottingham maternity scandal say they have been left in “limbo” following silence from NHS England in response to their concerns over a major review, as 50 more come forward. The review into failures in maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals Foundation Trust has now had 512 families come forward with concerns, up from 460 last month, and has spoken to 71 members of staff. The update comes as families told The Independent they were yet to receive a direct acknowledgement or response to their warning on Monday that they had no confidence in newly appointed review chairwoman Julie Dent. In response to a letter outlining her appointment, the families asked for Ms Dent to decline the offer and instead pushed for NHS England to ask Donna Ockenden, who is chairing a similar inquiry into Shrewsbury maternity care. Former health secretary and health committee chairman, Jeremy Hunt, has now also challenged the NHS on Ms Dent’s appointment, and echoed the families’ call to ask Ms Ockenden. Read full story Source: The Independent, 29 April 2022
  22. News Article
    An NHS mental health trust that has been the worst performing in England has been warned it must improve after failing another inspection. Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has been rated "inadequate" in the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report. The CQC said it had served the trust with a warning notice that it had to act on to improve patient care. The trust has been rated "inadequate" on three previous occasions by the health watchdog, as well as being the only one currently within the NHS's improvement regime for not meeting standards. Following the latest inspection, its overall rating was downgraded from "requires improvement" - and three out of five measures assessed by the CQC, for safety, leadership and effectiveness, met its lowest grading. The report said two wards were immediately closed to new patients following a CQC visit in November, after the trust was threatened with enforcement action if urgent measures were not taken. Significant staffing problems, including an annual nurse vacancy rate of more than 17%, were also highlighted. Staff at an adult long stay ward did not complete regular checks on patients supposed to happen every 30 to 60 minutes, which meant they were unaware if somebody needed help for periods of up to seven hours. Inspectors also said there had been a severe deterioration on the trust's inpatient ward for children and young people - the Dragonfly Unit in Carlton Colville, Suffolk. They found it was reliant on agency workers and lacked a permanent doctor. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 April 2022
  23. News Article
    A major reform of the way NHS clinical negligence claims are handled in England is needed, MPs say. The House of Commons' Health and Social Care Committee said the current system was too adversarial, leading to bitter and long legal fights for patients. More than £2bn a year is paid out on claims, but 25% goes to legal fees. An independent body should be set up to adjudicate on cases and the need to prove individual fault should be scrapped, the cross-party group said. Instead, the focus should be whether the system failed, which the MPs believe would create a better culture for learning from mistakes. The committee heard from families who had lost children or whose babies had been left with brain injuries from mistakes made during birth. Parents described how they had to fight for years to get recognition for the harm that had been caused. One woman criticised the "complacent attitude" of the hospital involved, saying they just wanted to put it down to one mistake and carry on as normal. Another woman whose daughter died aged 20 months after errors in her care said she felt lessons had not been learnt despite a settlement in her favour. She said the whole process had left her feeling devastated. The average length of time for these settlements was over 11 years, the committee was told. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 April 2022
  24. News Article
    NHS management and leadership are overly ‘task focused’, according to briefings by the senior military leader who has carried out a major review of health and care for the government. General Sir Gordon Messenger has nearly completed the work, which had been due to be published shortly before Easter but was delayed by the government, and has briefed several senior leaders on several of his main observations. According to several senior figures, he has said NHS management and leadership are heavily “task focused” — a management term referring to an approach devoted to completing certain tasks or meeting certain short-term objectives; in contrast to an approach which focuses on people, relationships or skills. HSJ has spoken to several senior sources who have been briefed on Sir Gordon’s findings so far. One said the former military figure had observed that “NHS leadership is… very focused on getting things done, and not focused enough on how things get done – which I think is very fair if you think particularly what the last 10, 15 years have been like”. Another finding, according to those briefed, is the need for better support for NHS leaders running the most difficult local organisations, including providing what has been described as “support packages”. Read full story Source: HSJ, 26 April 2022
  25. News Article
    Health Secretary Sajid Javid is to review what immediate changes can be made to gender treatment services for children in England. This could include changing the law to let the independent Cass review have access to an NHS database of young people who already received treatment. It comes ahead of the review's report, due later this year. This week Mr Javid told MPs services in this area were too affirmative and narrow, and "bordering on ideological". He is now thought to be planning an overhaul of the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), which is run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, with clinics in London and Leeds. The trust has defended itself, saying while there is a need for change, doctors already take into account the wider physical and mental health of children who are referred there. The health secretary has been considering changing the law to allow a review of GIDS being led Dr Hilary Cass, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, to access a database of children who were treated by GIDS to see if any later regretted having treatments, such as puberty blockers. It is unclear how the process of giving access to the information would work. Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 April 2022
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