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Content ArticleMartha Mills was 13 when she tragically died due to a series of medical errors. In this video by the Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF), Martha's mother Merope Mills tells her story and aims to raise awareness about the consequences of medical errors. Merope advocates for improved patient safety measures including the introduction of Martha's Rule, which will allow patients and their families to trigger an urgent clinical review from a different team if they are in hospital, are deteriorating rapidly and feel they are not getting the care they need.
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News Article
CQC sorry for failing to act on ‘note tampering’ concerns
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has apologised after admitting it failed to act on whistleblowing concerns “in a timely manner”. Allegations had been made to the CQC about staff at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust tampering with a patient’s record after they had died by suicide. As previously reported, the accusations by whistleblower Des McVey have sparked a review of the trust’s conduct in more than 60 suicide cases. Mr McVey says the trust only took action following media coverage and that the CQC had ignored his concerns. The regulator has now upheld a complaint from him, with operations manager James DeCothi writing to Mr McVey: “I have established that [the relevant CQC inspector] did not share your concerns with the provider in a timely manner and that our contact with you from July 2022 to June 2023 was inconsistent. I apologise on behalf of CQC for this. [The CQC inspector] has reflected on this and has asked me to offer her apologies to you also. “I can confirm that CQC have followed up the areas of concern that you have shared, and we will continue to use the information you have shared to inform future regulatory activity. I would like to thank you again for sharing this information with us.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 11 December 2023 -
Content ArticleIn this blog, Dr Nadeem Moghal looks at the recent case of a 30 year-old patient who died after a physician associate (PA) at her GP surgery failed to diagnose her with a pulmonary embolism. He outlines a recent debate about the role of PAs in general practice and why employing them has become an attractive option for GP partnerships, which run as businesses. He highlights the need for PAs to be adequately trained and supervised to ensure patient safety and argues that the role is here to stay as PAs play an important role in tackling gaps in the NHS workforce.
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Content ArticleMr Malone was diagnosed with treatment resistant schizophrenia in 1983 and had been sectioned multiple times. In May 2023 he was diagnosed with adult autism. At a review on 31 May he was considered to be stable. On 15 June a routine clozapine review identified sub-therapeutic levels but this was not notified to his clinicians. Sub-therapeutic levels of clozapine are likely to have contributed to a worsening in his symptoms. Around 24 June he was noted to have suffered a significant deterioration – with symptoms of thought disorder, anxiety, and responding to hallucinations – and following a mental health act assessment on 28 June clinicians wanted to detain him under section 2. No inpatient psychiatric bed was available. Whilst he awaited a bed, he remained in the community with daily visits from the mental health team. Last contact was on 1 July when he accepted his medication and appeared more settled. There was no answer when he was visited on 2 July. His room at supported accommodation was entered on 3 July and he was found deceased. Recently he had expressed no suicidal ideation. Post-mortem examination confirmed the medical cause of death was: 1a Cervical spinal cord injury. 1b Laceration. The conclusion of the inquest was that death was the consequence of suicide.
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Content ArticlePeter had a long history of depression, anxiety, and reported suicide attempts. He had acknowledged his reluctance to always engage fully with the treatment offered. On 3 August 2022 he was referred to the home treatment team for crisis intervention. After poor engagement he was transferred back to the community mental health team. On the 14 October he was detained by police under section 136 mental health act after expressing suicidal ideation. He told a psychiatric liaison service nurse he had no ongoing suicidal ideation and was referred to the community mental health team and his GP. He then contacted services further a number of times. On 10 November 2022 Peter was found deceased in his flat having taken a deliberate overdose of his prescribed medication. At the time of his death he was on the waiting list to be allocated a mental health care co-ordinator and there had been no multi-disciplinary meeting with all teams involved to agree how best to work with Peter. His cause of death was confirmed at post-mortem: 1a Carbamazepine toxicity. The conclusion reached was death was a consequence of suicide.
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Content Article
The 2022 LeDeR report seeks to investigate and learn from the avoidable deaths of people with a learning disability in England. The report, which is produced for NHS England, was led by researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, the University of Central Lancashire, and Kingston University London. Researchers found: gentle but continuous improvement in the median age of death for people with a learning disability in 2022. In 2018, the median age of death for adults with a learning disability was 61.8 years but has since risen to 62.9 in 2022. If children are included, the age at death increased from 60.1 years in 2018 to 62.7 in 2022. a drop in the number of avoidable deaths since 2021 – 42% of deaths were deemed “avoidable” for people with a learning disability in 2022 compared to 50% in 2021. a sharp drop in the number of deaths due to Covid-19 – from 24% of all causes of death in 2020 to 19% in 2021 and 6% in 2022 for adults with a learning disability. "While there are positives, it’s also clear that more work still needs to be done. People from ethnic minority groups died younger, and there is a need to improve access to care pathways to improve prevention and better manage some conditions in people with a learning disability, such as cancer, lung, heart and circulatory conditions. We also identified a concerning effect on excess deaths of people with a learning disability during heatwaves. This means care homes and hospitals looking after people with a learning disability need to be better prepared for weather events in the light of climate change. Improvements during 2022 should certainly be celebrated, but we shouldn’t overlook how much we still don’t know." Professor Andre Strydom, Chief Investigator and Professor in Intellectual Disabilities at King’s IoPPN. Read the full report via the link below. -
Event
Investigation and Learning From Deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
This National Conference focuses on improving the investigation and learning from deaths in NHS Trusts. By collecting the data and taking action in response to failings in care, trusts will be able to give an open and honest account of the circumstances leading to a death. There will be an extended focus on engaging and involving patients, families and staff following a death, and on learning from deaths including an update from a coroner. By 2024, all deaths in the community or acute settings that do not required to be referred to the coroner (non-coronial deaths) will need to be scrutinised by a medical examiner. The conference will discuss the role of Medical Examiners in learning from deaths which is now being extended to all non-coronial deaths wherever they occur. The conference will also include a split stream where delegates can chose to focus on investigating and learning from either deaths in acute care, or deaths in primary and community care. For further information and to book your place visit: https://www.healthcareconferencesuk.co.uk/virtual-online-courses/investigation-learning-deaths-hospital-mortality or email frida@hc-uk.org.uk hub members receive a 20% discount. Email info@pslhub.org for discount code. Follow on Twitter @HCUK_Clare #LearningFromDeaths -
News Article
Health secretary told to intervene over ‘systemic’ ambulance deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ministers must intervene over systemic failures which are “too big for hospital or ambulance trusts to fix on their own” and have led to multiple preventable deaths, a senior coroner has warned. In a move usually considered rare for such an official, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly coroner Andrew Cox has written to the Department of Health and Social Care a second time over ongoing delays to ambulance responses and long ambulance handovers in the area. Last year he warned the NHS was “broken” after he ruled ambulance and emergency care delays contributed to the deaths of four people. Now, he has sent a similar report on the same types of failings in the deaths of John Seagrove, Pauline Humphris, and Patricia Steggles at Royal Cornwall Hospital to new health secretary Victoria Atkins. Mr Cox wrote: “I set out in my [prevention of future death report] last year my understanding of the reasons for the difficulties that are continuing in the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly coroner area. I do not believe those reasons will have changed significantly. ”The challenges are systemic in nature. They are too big for a single doctor, nurse or paramedic to fix. They are too big for either the hospital trust or the ambulance trust to fix on their own.” Read full story Source: HSJ, 1 December 2023 -
Content ArticleThe helicopter, G-MCGY, was engaged on a Search and Rescue mission to extract a casualty near Tintagel, Cornwall and fly them to hospital for emergency treatment. The helicopter flew to Derriford Hospital (DH), Plymouth which has a Helicopter Landing Site (HLS) located in a secured area within one of its public car parks. During the approach and landing, several members of the public in the car park were subjected to high levels of downwash from the landing helicopter. One person suffered fatal injuries, and another was seriously injured. The investigation carried out by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch identified the following causal factors: The persons that suffered fatal and serious injuries were blown over by high levels of downwash from a landing helicopter when in publicly accessible locations near the DH HLS. Whilst helicopters were landing or taking off, uninvolved persons were not prevented from being present in the area around the DH HLS that was subject to high levels of downwash. Helicopters used for Search and Rescue and Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) perform a vital role in the UK and, although the operators of these are regulated by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the many helicopter landing sites provided by hospitals are not. It is essential that the risks associated with helicopter operations into areas accessible by members of the public are fully understood by the HLS Site Keepers, and that effective communication between all the stakeholders involved is established and maintained. Therefore, nine Safety Recommendations have been made to address these issues.
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Content ArticleThe first 14 minutes of this programme are focused on a Newsnight investigation into allegations of cover-up, avoidable harm and patient deaths relating to University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. At the time of broadcast, Sussex Police were investigating 105 claims of alleged medical negligence at the Trust.
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News Article
Parents 'destroyed' after baby's death at Royal Sussex County Hospital
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Parents of a two-day-old girl who died in hospital after an emergency C-section are calling for a national inquiry into maternity services. Abigail Fowler Miller died at Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital (RSCH), in January last year. On 21 January 2022, Mr Miller and Katie Fowler contacted the hospital's maternity assessment unit four times during the day. Their first phone call was to inform the maternity assessment unit Ms Fowler was in labour, then to report bleeding, and finally to tell them she had become faint and short of breath. According to the Health Safety Investigation Branch's (HSIB) report, staff recorded that Ms Fowler sounded "distressed" in the fourth phone call to the unit, and she thought she was having a panic attack. Staff said she could not answer questions in the fourth phone call because of her "distressed state" and she was asked to come into the hospital. Ms Fowler went into cardiac arrest on the journey in a taxi due to a uterine rupture. An inquest last week found her life would have been prolonged if her mother had been admitted to hospital sooner. In October, families whose babies have died or been harmed in the care of the NHS called for a statutory public inquiry into England's maternity services. Robert Miller, Abigail's father, told BBC Newsnight: "A national inquiry is the only way forward - we cannot continue to treat every incident as a separate tragedy." Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 November 2023 -
News Article
At least 20,000 annual UK cancer deaths avoidable, says charity
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
At least 20,000 cancer deaths a year could be avoided in the UK with a national commitment to invest in research and innovation, and fix the NHS, says Cancer Research UK. Progress is being made in finding new treatments for the condition that affects 50% of people at some point. But the charity says the UK lags behind comparable countries for survival. It has launched a manifesto of priorities for this government and the next, ahead of a general election. The document sets out what the charity says needs to change - and fast. Whoever is running the country must commit to developing a 10-year cancer plan, spearheaded by a National Cancer Council accountable to the prime minister to bring government, charities, industry and scientific experts together, it says. Key areas to focus on include: More investment in research to close an estimated £1bn funding gap. Greater disease prevention - banishing smoking to the history books, for example. Earlier diagnosis, through screening. Better tests and treatments, as well as cutting NHS waiting lists and investing in more staff. Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 November 2023 -
News ArticleA patients group representing several British victims has launched legal action against the Spanish government over claims it failed to safeguard people against the potentially fatal side effects of one of the country’s most popular painkillers, involved in a series of serious illnesses and deaths. The drug metamizole, commonly sold in Spain under the brand name Nolotil, is banned in several countries, including Britain, the US, India and Australia. It can cause a condition known as agranulocytosis, which reduces white blood cells, increasing the risk of potentially fatal infection. The Association of Drug Affected Patients (ADAF) says adverse reactions to the drugs have led to sepsis, organ failure and amputations. It has identified about 350 suspected cases of agranulocytosis between 1996 and 2023, including those of 170 Britons who live in Spain or were on holiday there. The ADAF is examining more than 40 fatalities in which it considers the drug may have led, or contributed, to death. The patients group says that case reports, including a 2009 study, suggest the British population may be more susceptible to the drug’s side effects, but this has not been confirmed by independent scientific study. The group is demanding an investigation into the drug and new controls. It filed its action on 14 November in the national court in Madrid. Cristina García del Campo, founder of the organisation, said: “This drug has destroyed people’s lives and it should now be withdrawn. One lady took three tablets and she had part of her feet amputated and several fingers. Even if it doesn’t kill you, once you’ve had sepsis your body is never the same.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 November 2023
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Content ArticleSepsis, characterised by significant morbidity and mortality, is intricately linked to socioeconomic disparities and pre-admission clinical histories. This study in eClinical Medicine looked at the association between non-COVID-19 related sepsis and health inequality risk factors amidst the pandemic in England, with a secondary focus on their association with 30-day sepsis mortality. It found that socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidity and learning disabilities were associated with an increased odds of developing non-COVID-19 related sepsis and 30-day mortality in England. This study highlights the need to improve the prevention of sepsis, including more precise targeting of antimicrobials to higher-risk patients. It also revealed that people with learning disabilities were almost four times as likely to develop the life-threatening illness. People with chronic liver disease were just over three times as likely, and chronic kidney disease stage 5 over 6 times more likely to develop non-COVID-19 sepsis. Cancer, neurological disease, immunosuppressive conditions, and having multiple prior courses of antibiotics were also associated with developing non-COVID-19 sepsis.
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News Article
NHS care delays in England harmed 8,000 people and caused 112 deaths last year
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Almost 8,000 people were harmed and 112 died last year as a direct result of enduring long waits for an ambulance or surgery, prompting warnings that NHS care delays are “a disaster”. The fatalities included a man who died of a cardiac arrest after waiting 18 minutes for his 999 call to be answered by the ambulance service and was dead by the time the crew arrived. The figures are the first time NHS England has disclosed how often doctors and nurses file a patient safety report after someone suffers harm while waiting for help. They show that patient deaths arising directly from care delays have risen more than fivefold over the last three years, from 21 in 2019 to 112 last year, as the NHS has come under huge strain. The number of people who came to “severe harm” has also jumped from 96 to 152 during that period. “These data are alarming and show quite clearly the human impact the crisis in the NHS is having on individual patients,” said Rachel Power, the chief executive of the Patients Association. “We have been watching a disaster unfolding across the NHS and have repeatedly warned about the threat to patient safety because of it.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 November 2023 -
News Article
Coeliac UK calls for change following death of coeliac patient in hospital
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A North Wales coroner has concluded there was a ‘gross failure’ in the case of a coeliac patient, who tragically died in Wrexham Maelor hospital. Mrs Hazel Pearson, 79, had coeliac disease and a number of other medical conditions and died from aspiration pneumonia four days after being given Weetabix for breakfast while at the hospital. Whilst her coeliac disease was noted on her admission records, there was no sign above her bed and staff were unaware of her dietary needs and as a result Mrs Pearson had been fed gluten containing food on multiple occasions. Tristan Humphreys, Head of Advocacy for Coeliac UK said: “We are deeply saddened and concerned by this verdict and our thoughts go out to Mrs Pearson’s loved ones at this very difficult time. Her death reflects a clear failure of care and it is patently unacceptable that this was allowed to happen. Coeliac disease is a serious autoimmune condition for which the only treatment is a medically prescribed gluten free diet. It is critical that people with coeliac disease can access the gluten free food they need to be healthy. This is all the more important when someone is unwell and, as in Mrs Pearson’s tragic case, unable to advocate for themselves. Wales has mandatory food standards which make very clear the level of care that should be provided yet these have not been met. As a charity, we are empowering patients, family members, carers and working with hospital caterers by providing advice and guidance to support safe provision of gluten free food. However, it’s high time the health service consistently delivered the care people with coeliac disease deserve.” Read full story Source: Coeliac UK, 24 November 2023 -
News Article
Poor people much more likely to die from sepsis, study finds
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Poor people and those with existing health problems are much more likely to die from sepsis, one of the UK’s biggest killers, a study has found. Sepsis, or blood poisoning, is a potentially fatal condition triggered when the body reacts to an infection by attacking its own tissues and vital organs. It leads to an estimated 48,000 deaths a year in Britain. Research from the University of Manchester has disclosed for the first time how some groups are at much higher risk of dying from the condition than the general population. An analysis of 248,767 cases of non-Covid sepsis in England between January 2019 and June 2022 has found that the most deprived people are twice as likely to die from it within 30 days. The findings, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, also show that: People with learning disabilities are almost four times more likely to get sepsis. People with liver disease have about three times greater risk. Patients with chronic kidney disease that is at stage 5 are more than six times as likely to develop it. “This study shows socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidity and learning disabilities are associated with an increased risk of developing non-Covid related sepsis and 30-day mortality in England.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 November 2023 -
News Article
Boy, 10, with asthma died due to ‘neglect by healthcare professionals’
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
A 10-year-old boy with severe asthma died as a result of multiple failings by healthcare professionals amounting to neglect, a coroner has concluded. William Gray, from Southend, died on 29 May 2021 from a cardiac arrest caused by respiratory arrest, resulting from acute and severe asthma that was “chronically very under controlled”. His death has led to calls to improve asthma treatment for children nationwide. The court heard that William’s death was a “tragedy foretold” having previously suffered a nearly fatal asthma attack on 27 October, 2020, which he survived. The coroner said that William’s death was avoidable, his symptoms were treatable, and he should not have needed to use 16 reliever inhalers over 17 months, but instead his condition should have been treated with preventer medications and should have been controlled. Julie Struthers, a solicitor at Leigh Day who represented the family, said, “In an inquest involving concerns with medical treatment it is rare for a coroner to find neglect, and even rarer for a coroner to find Article 2, a person’s right to life, to be engaged. This reflects the real tragedy of what happened to William, the substantial number of failures by multiple healthcare professionals in his care, and the importance of improving asthma treatment for children nationwide.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: inews, 22 November 2023 -
Content Article
Thirlwall Inquiry
Mark Hughes posted an article in Other reports and inquiries
The Thirlwall Inquiry has been set up to examine events at the Countess of Chester Hospital and their implications following the trial, and subsequent convictions, of former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby of murder and attempted murder of babies at the hospital. This website provides information about inquiry team, terms of reference and publications relating to this. -
News ArticleThe public inquiry into the Lucy Letby murders will seek changes to NHS services and culture next year despite the fact that formal hearings are likely to be delayed until the autumn. Inquiry chair Lady Justice Thirlwall will issue an update message later today. In it she will stress the inquiry will “look for necessary changes to be made to the system of neonatal care in this country in real time and at the earliest opportunity, avoiding delays in making meaningful change”. HSJ understands Lady Thirlwall will look to agree on some changes, based on the inquiry’s evidence gathering and discussions with the sector before it begins oral hearings – which are unlikely to start for at least a year due to ongoing legal action. Lady Thirlwall will say the legal constraints mean its early work will focus on the experience of families who were named in the cases already heard; and “on the effectiveness of NHS management, culture, governance structures and processes, as well as on the external scrutiny and professional regulation supposed to keep babies in hospital safe and well looked after”. She said, “I want this to be a searching and active inquiry in the sense that it will look for necessary changes to be made to the system of neonatal care in this country in real time and at the earliest opportunity, avoiding delays in making meaningful change”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 22 November 2023
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News Article
Brazilian butt lift death prompts meeting between UK and Turkey officials
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
UK officials are to meet with counterparts in Turkey following the death of a British woman during so-called Brazilian butt lift surgery at a private hospital in the country’s capital Istanbul. Melissa Kerr, 31, from Gorleston in Norfolk, travelled to the private Medicana Haznedar hospital for the buttock enlargement surgery in 2019. She died at the hospital on the day of the surgery, which involves fat taken from elsewhere on the body being injected into the buttocks. An inquest into her death, which took place place in Norwich earlier this year, heard that Kerr, who was self-conscious about her appearance, was given only “limited information regarding the risks and mortality rate” associated with the operation. Jacqueline Lake, the senior coroner for Norfolk, wrote to the health secretary expressing concern about people travelling overseas for cosmetic surgery. In a written response to Lake, health minister Maria Caulfield confirmed UK officials would be travelling to Turkey to meet with their counterparts. “The intention is to discuss the regulatory framework, and the protections that are in place for UK nationals, and to identify concrete areas where the UK and Turkish authorities should work together to reduce the risks to patients in the future,” Caulfield says in the letter first reported by the BBC. “Specifically, I have noted in your report the lack of standard pre-assessment questions provided to Ms Kerr in Türkiye. “We remain aware countries providing healthcare tourism often conduct pre-assessment checks that may not match UK regulatory standards and we want to encourage all providers treating UK nationals to meet international best practices on pre-operative procedures whenever possible. “Such transparency and standardisation are important to reduce potential risks to patients and improve patient care in the UK and overseas." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 November 2023 -
News Article
'Poor' NHS interpreting services leading to misdiagnosis and deaths, says group
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Calls are being made to improve NHS interpreting services, with staff resorting to online translation tools to deliver serious news to non-English speaking patients. The National Register of Public Service Interpreters said "poorly managed" language services are "leading to abuse, misdiagnosis and in the worst cases, deaths of patients". The BBC's File on 4 programme has found interpreting problems were a contributing factor in at least 80 babies dying or suffering serious brain injuries in England between 2018 and 2022. NHS England says it is conducting a review to identify if and how it can support improvements in the commissioning and delivery of services. Rana Abdelkarim and her husband Modar Mohammednour arrived in England after fleeing conflict in Sudan, both speaking little English. It was supposed to be a fresh start but they soon suffered a devastating experience after Ms Abdelkarim was called to attend a maternity unit for what she thought was a check-up. In fact, she was going to be induced, something Mr Mohammednour said he was completely unaware of. "I heard this 'induce', but I don't know what it means. I don't understand exactly," he said. His wife suffered a catastrophic bleed which doctors were unable to stem and she died after giving birth to her daughter at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in March 2021. He said better interpreting services would have helped him and his wife understand what was happening. "It would have helped me and her to take the right decision for how she's going to deliver the baby and she can know what is going to happen to her," he added. The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) found there were delays in calling for specialist help, there was no effective communication with Ms Abdelkarim, and the incident had traumatised staff. Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has apologised and said it had acted on the coroner's recommendations to ensure lessons have been learned to prevent similar tragedies. Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 November 2023 -
Content ArticleAmbulatory infusion pumps are small, battery powered devices that allow patients to carry out day-to-day activities while receiving medication. They are used for many healthcare needs, including symptom relief during palliative care, and in different settings including hospitals, hospices and patients’ homes. Despite having audio and visual warning alarms to notify when medication is not being delivered as it should be, there is a risk that alarms can go unnoticed, particularly by healthcare staff in inpatient settings. The patient case in the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) investigation report is Stephen, a 45-year-old cancer patient on palliative care in hospital, who did not receive his pain relief medication for six hours. Over the course of six hours, there were eight warnings.
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News ArticleUK cancer care is in crisis and patients will die because of ministers’ decision to axe a dedicated plan to tackle the disease, leading cancer experts have warned. Waiting times for NHS cancer treatment are at a record high and it is expected there will be 2,000 extra cancer patients a week by 2040. In January, the government scrapped its longstanding cancer plan and instead merged it into a wider “major conditions strategy” that also covers a range of other major diseases. In a report published in the Lancet Oncology, 12 cancer experts said the decision could cause more people to die. Prof Pat Price, an oncologist and visiting professor at Imperial College London and joint senior author of the report, said: “The dangerous reality is that cancer care in this country is fast becoming a monumental crisis and there appears to be no realistic plan. A cancer plan is not just a strategy, it is a lifeline for the one in two of us that will get cancer.” Mark Lawler, a professor of digital health at Queen’s University Belfast, the chair of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership and a co-author of the paper, said: “Getting rid of a dedicated cancer strategy will cost lives. Abandoning a dedicated national cancer control plan in favour of a major conditions strategy is an incomprehensible decision not in the best interests of people with cancer.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 November 2023
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Content ArticleCancer affects one in two people in the UK and the incidence is set to increase. The NHS is facing major workforce deficits and cancer services have struggled to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic, with waiting times for cancer care becoming the worst on record. There are severe and widening disparities across the country and survival rates remain unacceptably poor for many cancers. This is at a time when cancer care has become increasingly complex, specialised, and expensive. The current crisis has deep historic roots, and to be reversed, the scale of the challenge must be acknowledged and a fundamental reset is required. The loss of a dedicated National Cancer Control Plan in England and Wales, poor operationalisation of plans elsewhere in the UK, and the closure of the National Cancer Research Institute have all added to a sense of strategic misdirection. The UK finds itself at a crossroads, where the political decisions of governments, the cancer community, and research funders will determine whether we can, together, achieve equitable, affordable, and high-quality cancer care for patients that is commensurate with our wealth, and position our outcomes among the best in the world. In this Policy Review, published in the Lancet, Aggarwal et al. describe the challenges and opportunities that are needed to develop radical, yet sustainable plans, which are comprehensive, evidence-based, integrated, patient-outcome focused, and deliver value for money.
