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Found 1,490 results
  1. News Article
    Thrombosis UK has warned that deaths involving blood clots are higher than expected as it called for more transparency over the work hospitals are doing to reduce the risk for patients. Before the pandemic hit, hospitals were regularly publishing data on the number of patients who had been risk assessed for blood clots. In March 2020, the NHS in England took the decision to suspend the data collection on venous thromboembolism (also known as VTE) risk assessments to “release capacity in providers and commissioners to manage the Covid-19 pandemic”. But the data collection and publication is yet to resume. The charity said the data shows how many VTE cases are missed in hospitals. One bereaved man described how his mother died last year after the condition was missed. Tim Edwards, 42, said healthcare workers missed signs of the condition while Jennifer Edwards, 74, was in hospital on the south coast. Despite having many symptoms of a pulmonary embolism she was discharged home and died three days later. Mr Edwards said: ““My mother’s symptoms were missed from her admission to hospital right up to her time in the cardiology department. “She was discharged and passed away three days after phoning the NHS with shortness of breath. She should not have died. I took it upon myself to enquire about the circumstances surrounding her death and was overwhelmed by the lack of care taken. “Sadly, I know this is not an isolated case.” Read full story Source: Wales Online, 12 May 2023 Further reading on the hub: Pulmonary embolism misdiagnosis – a systemic problem (a blog from Tim Edwards) Independent review of pulmonary embolism fatalities in England & Wales – recent trends, excess deaths, their causes and risk management concerns (Tim Edwards) Jenny, and why we must learn from her misdiagnosis of pulmonary embolism National Voices: Pulmonary embolism misdiagnosis - a blog by Helen Hughes.
  2. News Article
    A simple intervention to detect and treat postpartum haemorrhage could dramatically cut maternal mortality and morbidity worldwide, a large trial led by the University of Birmingham has shown. Use of a special drape to measure blood loss during childbirth and rapid deployment of a “bundle” of existing treatments reduced severe bleeding, the need for laparotomy, or maternal death by 60% in a study done in 80 hospitals across Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania. Reporting the results in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers said that postpartum haemorrhage was detected in 93.1% of patients in the intervention and in 51.1% of those receiving usual care. Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 10 May 2023
  3. News Article
    The death rates for black women in childbirth were revealed in a recent report from MPs and were described as “appalling”, yet action, not words, are needed for what could be considered breaches of the Human Rights Act. Ministers are not giving priority to reducing the gap in health inequalities, write Nicola Wainwright and Suleikha Ali in a commentary to the Times. "If the response to the review is foot-dragging from the government and senior health service officials, then legal action may be the only way to draw focus to this issue and to try to reduce the number of ethnic minority women and babies dying unnecessarily." The report, published by the women and equalities committee last month, highlights the “glaring and persistent” disparities faced by ethnic minority women compared to their white counterparts with regards to pregnancy and birth. However, these same disparities have been known and reported on for 20 years, while progress on improving the situation has been shockingly slow. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 11 May 2023
  4. News Article
    Figures showing the risk of maternal death being almost four times higher among women from black ethnic minority backgrounds compared with white women in the UK have been published. The figures, which relate to 2019 - 2021, have been released by MBRRACE-UK, a collaboration involving the University of Leicester. The MBRRACE-UK collaboration (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries), led from Oxford Population Health's National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, looked at data on women who died during, or up to six weeks after, pregnancy between 2019 and 2021 in the UK. The report showed the risk of maternal death in 2019 - 2021 was almost four times higher among women from black ethnic minority backgrounds compared with white women. Marian Knight, professor of Maternal and Child Population Health at Oxford Population Health and maternal reporting lead, said: "Persistent disparities in maternal health remain. "It is critical that we are working towards more inclusive care where women are listened to, their voices are heard, and we are acting upon what they are telling us." Read full story Source: BBC News, 11 May 2023
  5. News Article
    Delayed health checks among people with diabetes may have contributed to 7,000 more deaths than usual in England last year, a charity report suggests. The routine checks help cut the risk of serious complications like amputations and heart attacks. Diabetes UK says too many people are still being "left to go it alone" when managing their challenging condition. There are more than five million people in the UK living with diabetes, but around 1.9 million missed out on routine vital checks in 2021-22, Diabetes UK says. Disruption to care during the pandemic is likely to be a factor in the current backlog, which may be leading to higher numbers of deaths than usual in people with diabetes, it says. Between January and March 2023, for example, there were 1,461 excess deaths involving diabetes - three times higher than during the same period last year. "Urgent action is needed to reverse this trend and support everyone living with diabetes to live well with the condition," the report says. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 May 2023
  6. News Article
    Two years ago, administrators and caregivers at St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago were stunned when they flunked a basic standard for patient safety. "It was a real jolt," said Charles Holland, the hospital's president and CEO. "We thought we were doing patient safety and we thought we were doing it well." But the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit health care watchdog organisation, found the hospital fell short on documenting and having comprehensive approaches to hand-washing, medication safety systems and fall and infection prevention. The wake-up call led Holland to hire a Patient Safety and Quality Officer and to use Leapfrog's criteria as a roadmap for improving patient safety. It worked. In its latest annual review of hospital safety, released Wednesday, Leapfrog awarded the century-old charity hospital an A. The fact that St. Bernard could turn around so quickly and so effectively without spending a fortune in the process shows that patient safety is an attainable goal, said Leah Binder, Leapfrog's president and CEO. Read full story Source: USA Today, 3 May 2023
  7. News Article
    The mother of a nine-year-old girl who died from hyponatraemia has said a new inquest that started today is "an opportunity for truth". Raychel Ferguson, from Londonderry, died at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in June 2001. Her parents, Ray and Marie Ferguson, have long campaigned to find out the truth about their daughter's death. Hyponatraemia is an abnormally low level of sodium in blood and can occur when fluids are incorrectly administered. Mrs Ferguson said the fact there was a second inquest "speaks to the culture of cover up that has plagued her death, involving the medical and legal professions". An inquiry in 2018 into the deaths of five children in Northern Ireland hospitals, including Raychel, found her death was avoidable. The 14-year-long inquiry into hyponatraemia-related deaths was heavily critical of the "self-regulating and unmonitored" health service. In January 2022, a new inquest opened but was postponed in October after new evidence came to light. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 May 2023
  8. News Article
    Women are dying or suffering avoidable harm because of a failure to recognise ectopic pregnancy, one of the country’s leading experts on maternal health has said. Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Marian Knight of the University of Oxford, who leads a national research programme on maternal deaths, called for action to improve diagnosis of the acute, life-threatening condition, in which a fertilised egg implants itself outside the womb, normally in the fallopian tube. Ectopic pregnancies are never viable and if left untreated can result in the tube rupturing, causing potentially fatal internal bleeding. “We could prevent more women from dying from ectopic pregnancy because of lacking of basic recognition and management of the condition,” said Knight. The warning comes as new data obtained by freedom of information request suggests that dozens of women have experienced “severe harm” after being admitted to hospital with ectopic pregnancies in the past five years. The Mbrrace report, published last year, said eight women died from ectopic pregnancies between 2018 and 2020, all but one of whom had received suboptimal treatment. In three instances, better care might have saved their lives, the report concluded. “There’s no doubt that in the [maternal deaths] inquiry we are still seeing the same messages of ectopic pregnancy not being recognised,” said Knight. “That people either don’t pick up on the fact that they’re pregnant or get single-minded about one diagnosis.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 May 2023
  9. News Article
    Patient safety investigators have issued a warning to the NHS over writing to patients only in English after a Romanian child died following missed cancer scans. The three-year-old, of Romanian ethnicity, had an MRI scan delayed after they were found to have eaten food beforehand. When the appointment for the child’s MRI scan was made by the radiology booking team, a standard letter was produced by the NHS booking system in English asking the child not to eat before the scan, despite the family’s first language being Romanian. Staff at the trust had hand-written on the patient’s MRI request sheet that an interpreter was required. “The family recognised key details in the written information, including the time, date and location of the scan,” the report said. “However, they were not able to understand the instructions about the child not eating or drinking (fasting) for a certain amount of time before the scan.” The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has urged NHS England to develop and implement new rules on supplying written appointment information in languages other than English. Read full story Source: The Independent, 27 April 2023
  10. News Article
    A senior GP has been struck off the UK medical register for an “utterly deplorable” litany of treatment failures and for “reprehensible” professional conduct that included leaving patients in the care of unprepared trainee doctors and operating without adequate professional insurance. At least two patients suffered “grave consequences” from inaction on the part of Surraiya Zia, including a man whose deteriorating condition was effectively ignored for six months, despite the fact that he “presented to Dr Zia frequently, sometimes up to three times within a week, with red flag symptoms,” said Samantha Gray, chairing the medical practitioners tribunal. The patient was eventually persuaded to seek private magnetic resonance imaging by his family. This showed widespread stage IV lung cancer that took his life within weeks. Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 21 April 2023
  11. News Article
    A week after Donna Ockenden published her damning report on the catastrophic failures in maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust in March last year, she was contacted by families in Nottingham asking her to investigate how dozens of babies had died or been injured in their city hospitals. Six months later, Ockenden — herself a senior midwife — was put in charge of another inquiry by the government and yet again she is finding a culture of cover-ups and lies in maternity care. “Of the families that I have met in Nottingham to date, some of them have expressed concerns to me that the trust were not truthful in discussions around their cases,” she tells the Times Health Commission. “We have all the systems and structures in place that should be able to spot maternity services in difficulty and here we are again. Families are having to fight to get answers.” The woman who has done more than anyone to highlight the problems with maternity care is reluctant to use the word “crisis” but she warns: “I think that without urgent and rapid action, from central government downwards — on funding and workforce and training — mothers and their babies are not going to be able to receive the safe, personalised maternity care that they deserve and should expect". Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 21 April 2023
  12. News Article
    The mother of a young woman who died with herpes said she was "disgusted" with an NHS trust which "lied" about the potential cause of the virus. Kim Sampson and Samantha Mulcahy died with herpes after the same obstetrician at the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust carried out their caesareans. Yvette Sampson's daughter had been "fit and healthy" until she gave birth on 3 May 2018, an inquest has heard. She said the trust had lied about links between the two mothers' deaths. They were treated by the same surgeon and midwife six weeks apart, neither of whom were tested for herpes, the inquest in Maidstone was told. Ms Sampson said her daughter had been "in agony" from 3 May when she gave birth to her second child, until she died on 22 May. She told the inquest she had received "poor treatment" by midwives at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) in Margate, which she felt also "contributed" to her daughter's death. Ms Sampson was initially denied a Caesarean and instead told to push for almost three hours, despite repeatedly telling midwives that "something wasn't right" and "clinging to the bed in agony", her mother said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 April 2023
  13. News Article
    A senior coroner has warned that more allergy sufferers will die due to a “lack of national leadership” following the death of a 17-year-old aspiring doctor. Heidi Connor said the “tragic” case of Alexandra Briess was “not new territory”, citing three recent cases where people had died from anaphylaxis. She has now written to the Government saying lives are at risk without better funding and research into the condition and calling for the appointment of an allergies tsar. The Berkshire coroner’s warning comes after an inquest into the death of “bright and well loved” Alexandra, who died from a reaction to a common anaesthetic. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 18 April 2023
  14. News Article
    An MPs' report is calling for faster progress to tackle "appalling" higher death rates for black women and those from poorer areas in childbirth. The Women and Equalities Committee report says racism has played a key role in creating health disparities. But the many complex causes are "still not fully understood" and more funding and maternity staff are also needed. The NHS in England said it was committed to making maternity care safer for all women. The government said it had invested £165m in the maternity workforce and was promoting careers in midwifery, with an extra 3,650 training places a year. Black women are nearly four times more likely than white women to die within six weeks of giving birth, with Asian women 1.8 times more likely, according to UK figures for 2018-20. And women from the poorest areas of the country, where a higher proportion of babies belonging to ethnic minorities are born, the report says, are two and a half times more likely to die than those from the richest. Caroline Nokes, who chairs the committee, said births on the NHS "are among the safest in the world" but black women's raised risk was "shocking" and improvements in disparities between different groups were too slow. "It is frankly shameful that we have known about these disparities for at least 20 years - it cannot take another 20 to resolve," she added.
  15. News Article
    A father whose baby died at six weeks after his vitamin K jab was missed has urged parents not to be taken in by misinformation spreading across social media. Alex Patto, 33, and his wife wanted their newborn son, William, to have the vitamin K jab to protect him against a rare but serious bleeding disorder known as vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB). But the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge missed the jab and their firstborn child tragically passed away at six weeks old after suffering a bleed on his brain. Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has completed a serious incident report and an inquest is due to take place in the coming months. Having gone through baby loss, Alex said he finds it “hard to understand” why parents would trust unverified information on social media over advice from their healthcare professional to opt into the jab. iNews previously revealed an increase in anti-vaccination misinformation on social media discouraging parents from getting the vitamin K jab for their newborn babies. The jab is a vitamin injection, not a vaccine – which are given to protect against infectious diseases – but doctors have reported videos on social media are incorrectly mislabelling it as such. Read full story Source: iNews, 23 March 2023
  16. News Article
    Junior doctors have been accused of putting “politics above patient safety” as figures showed excess deaths almost tripled after their strikes. Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures showed the number of deaths above average increased significantly in the two weeks during and after the first round of industrial action by the British Medical Association (BMA). Junior doctors walked out for 72 hours between March 13 and 15, with more than 175,000 appointments and operations cancelled. Health experts said the walkout around that time could be linked to the rise. A government source said: “The militant leaders of the BMA junior doctors committee seem willing to put politics above patient safety. They have adopted increasingly hardline tactics whilst demanding a completely unrealistic 35 per cent pay rise. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 13 April 2023
  17. News Article
    Covid-19 has dropped out of the top five leading causes of death in England and Wales for the first time since the start of the pandemic, figures show. Coronavirus was recorded as the main cause of death for 22,454 people in 2022, or 3.9% of all deaths registered, making it the sixth leading cause overall. In both 2020 and 2021 Covid-19 was the leading cause of death, with 73,766 deaths (12.1% of the total) and 67,350 (11.5%) respectively. By contrast, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was the leading cause in England and Wales in 2022, with 65,967 deaths registered (11.4% of the total), up from 61,250 (10.4%) in 2021. The other causes in the top five were ischaemic heart diseases (59,356 deaths and 10.3% of the total); chronic lower respiratory diseases (29,815 deaths, 5.2%); cerebrovascular diseases such as strokes and aneurysms (29,274 deaths, 5.1%); and trachea, bronchus and lung cancer (28,571 deaths, 5.0%). Read full story Source: The Independent, 11 April 2023
  18. News Article
    NHS leaders and ministers face allegations of a “cover up”, as Byline Times reveals that almost two-thirds of NHS employers did not make a single, legally-required report of Covid being caught by staff working during the first 18 months of the pandemic. And four-fifths (82%) of NHS employers have not reported a single death of a worker from Covid caught while working in those first two waves. The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases & Dangerous Occurrences (RIDDOR) rules mean that employers have a legal duty to report certain serious workplace accidents and occupational diseases – including Covid. The lack of acceptance of responsibility from NHS employers has left some families in limbo – and angry at what they consider to be deliberate “denial” of the experiences of those who died serving the public. David Osborn, a health and safety consultant and member of the Covid-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance (CATA), co-wrote the research. He said: “One wonders how many bereaved families who have been denied this payment did not have the benefit of [these reports] to support their case.” Osborn wrote to Sarah Albon, Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Executive, to raise his concerns after speaking with family members of NHS workers who had died of Covid, saying the reports of zero NHS worker deaths from Covid caught in the workplace are “difficult, nigh impossible, to believe.” Read full story Source: Byline Times, 6 April 2023
  19. News Article
    A former nursing home manager has been fined £40,000 after pleading guilty to two offences of failing to provide safe care and treatment to two residents at Rossendale Nursing Home in Lancashire. Caroline Taylforth, who established her first residential care home in 1997, was prosecuted by the CQC. She was the registered manager at Rossendale Nursing Home at the time of the incidents, and admitted mistakes she had made that meant two residents did not receive safe care and treatment, and resulted in "avoidable harm" while in her care, said a CQC spokesperson. The first offence was for failures in the care of resident Patricia Sutton, aged 77, who was admitted to the home on 11 October 2018 and had a significant medical history. On 6 November 2019, Patricia Sutton was eating dinner in the dining room and started choking. She was taken to hospital and died later that day. Ms Sutton had previously been involved in three other choking incidents and should have been referred to a speech and language therapist after the second one occurred to properly assess the risks, said the CQC. However, Ms Taylforth "did not safely assess, monitor or manage the risk or make this referral", the CQC concluded. The CQC also prosecuted Ms Taylforth for another incident concerning Dereck John Chapman, aged 82, who was admitted to the home on 22 October 2019 with multiple health issues and was also prone to having falls. Following admission to the home, Mr Chapman suffered at least 14 falls. Ms Taylforth "failed to mitigate" the risk of falls and "failed to ensure" Mr Chapman was promptly referred to appropriate services, such as the falls team, GP, and local authority following known incidents, particularly those resulting in injuries, criticised the CQC. Read full story Source: Medscape, 6 April 2023
  20. News Article
    According to the South West Ambulance Service Foundation Trust, 104 patient deaths reviewed under National Quality Board guidelines in quarter three of 2022-23 related to delays “which are thought to be a result of pressures within the wider health system”. The trust has stressed the deaths were not necessarily directly caused by delays, but that delays were a “common factor” in the 104 cases. Since July 2019, all ambulance trusts have been required to implement Learning from Deaths reviews following a report by the Care Quality Commission three years earlier, which found that opportunities were being missed to learn from patient deaths. A total of 876 incidents were identified as being within the scope of a review at the end of last year by SWASFT, of which 210 were reviewed. Deaths included in the review occurred while the patient is under the care of the ambulance service, from the initial 999 call being made to their care being transferred to another part of the system or to the point where a decision is made not to convey them to hospital. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 4 April 2023
  21. News Article
    The government is actively considering whether to give full legal powers to an independent inquiry investigating the deaths of mental health patients. Roughly 2,000 deaths at the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) are being examined. The BBC understands Conservative Health Secretary Stephen Barclay is minded to make the inquiry statutory, which would compel witnesses to come forward. Only 11 current and former trust staff have agreed to give live evidence. Melanie Leahy, whose son Matthew died aged 20 while an inpatient at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford, said families were "definitely" a step closer to what they had campaigned for. "We just need it converted [to a statutory inquiry] - it's just delay after delay after delay and we need those powers," she told BBC Essex. Read full story Source: BBC News, 3 April 2023
  22. News Article
    Exhausted after three sleepless days in labour, Jane O’Hara, then 34, screamed and burst into tears when the midwives and doctors at Harrogate District Hospital told her the natural birth she wanted was not going to happen. She ended up needing life-saving surgery and 11 pints of blood after a severe haemorrhage. Mercifully, Ivy was fine and is now a healthy 12-year-old. In recent weeks, the NHS has been rocked by the conclusions of an inquiry into the worst maternity disaster in its history: 201 babies and nine mothers died and another 94 babies suffered brain damage as a result of avoidable poor care at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. This has been linked to a culture of promoting natural — that is, vaginal — birth and avoiding caesarean sections. Blame thus far has been aimed largely at the NHS — but parents have started speaking out online about what they believe has been the role of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), a leading provider of antenatal classes in Britain, in promoting vaginal births. “I can absolutely point to key decisions that I made that were influenced by the NCT’s mantra. I was led into a position where I believed I had more control over my birth than I actually did,” says O’Hara, who is now a professor of healthcare quality and safety at the University of Leeds. She believes she was a victim of a “normal birth” ideology that was heavily promoted at the NCT classes she attended. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 10 April 2022
  23. News Article
    A scandal-hit children’s mental health hospital will close months after an investigation by The Independent uncovered claims of poor care and systemic abuse. Taplow Manor hospital, in Maidenhead, was threatened with closure by the NHS safety watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, only last week if it failed to make improvements following a damning report. Active Care Group, which runs the hospital, confirmed it would close by the end of May, saying a decision by the NHS to stop admitting patients had rendered its “service untenable”. The move comes after an investigation by The Independent and Sky News heard from more than 50 patients who alleged “systemic abuse” by the provider, while Taplow Manor is facing two police probes – one into a patient death and a second into the alleged rape of a child involving staff. Read full story Source: The Independent, 29 March 2023
  24. News Article
    An inquest report into the death of a young boy who died at home in his sleep has called for health bodies to take action to prevent further deaths. Louis Rogers' death was initially categorised as Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) but the report recorded febrile seizures contributed. The recommendations include: A greater emphasis on medical education, research and public information for sudden unexpected deaths associated with febrile seizures Referrals for assessment of febrile seizures should be undertaken earlier to exclude more severe underlying illnesses The NHS website and pamphlet given to parents and guardians following a child's febrile seizure should be updated to help assist them in picking up potential early indicators of a more severe illness "Robust national guidance" and education should be given to GPs so that timely referrals could be made A checklist should be provided for health practitioners so that a child was not given a misdiagnosis of a febrile seizure Records of all contact with health practitioners - including GPs and paramedics - should be available for all The recommendations were made to six health authorities: Royal College of Paediatricians, Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Royal College of General Practice, Royal College of Emergency Medicine and NHS England. Read full story Source: BBC News, 29 March 2023
  25. News Article
    People dying in the UK face “uncontrollable” pain and “unbearable suffering”, which palliative care alone cannot fix, according to the first evidence to a major new parliamentary inquiry asking if assisted dying should finally be legalised. In a shocking submission in favour of a law change, Molly Meacher told the Commons health and social care committee that the reality of end of life could include vomiting faeces, endless nausea and decaying tumours that smelled so bad they drove people out of hospital wards. People “are existing, they’re not living”, the crossbench peer and chair of the charity Dignity in Dying told the committee inquiry, which comes eight years after the House of Commons last considered changing legislation in 2015. Arguing strongly against any law change, Ilora Finlay, a crossbench peer and palliative care physician warned of the risk of “elder abuse” being worsened by a law change and said wider availability of palliative care, which remains patchy in the UK, must instead be a priority. Charles Falconer, a Labour peer and former Lord Chancellor, described the current situation, where dying people sometimes withdraw their own treatment rather than taking drugs to end their life, as “a mess”. He proposed that assisted dying should be available only to terminally ill people and not those facing “unbearable suffering”, as others have suggested. A diagnosis would be needed from two doctors plus approval from high court judge. “The bills that have been proposed [previously but defeated] say the person who decides to have an assisted death must have the capacity to make that decision,” he said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 28 March 2023
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