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Showing results for tags 'Patient harmed'.
Found 1,338 results
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News Article
My surgeon experimented on me and ruined my life
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Leann Sutherland was 21 and suffering from chronic migraines when one of Scotland's top surgeons offered to operate. She was told she would be in hospital for a few days and had a 60% chance of improvement. Instead she was in for months while Sam Eljamel operated on her seven times. "He had free rein on my body. He was playing god with my body and the NHS handed him the scalpel, seven times," says Leann. When Leann tried to raise concerns with staff she was told that Mr Eljamel had saved her life. She was not told that he was under investigation, nor that he had been later forced to step down. It was only after seeing recent BBC coverage she realised she was not alone. The BBC can reveal her surgeon - the former head of neurosurgery at NHS Tayside - was harming patients and putting them at risk for years but the health board let him carry on regardless. BBC Scotland has spoken to three surgeons who worked under Mr Eljamel at Tayside. All three said he was a bully who was allowed to get away with harming patients. All three said there was a lack of accountability in the department and that Mr Eljamel was allowed to behave as if he were a "god" - partly because of the research funding he brought to the department. Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 June 2023 -
Content ArticleDavid Gilbert is a writer and health activist. He was the first patient director in the healthcare system. He is a mental health service user with 40 years of experience in healthcare, specialising in patient and public engagement and coproduction. He helped pioneer the concept of patient leadership and authored ‘The Patient Revolution - how we can heal the health care system’. He is the founder and director of InHealth Associates, a network of specialists that supports experiential practice and patient leadership. His monthly newsletter, Impatient, is now published on the HSJ website.
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News Article
Maternity failures behind most big NHS payouts
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than three quarters of all multimillion-pound NHS medical negligence payouts are the consequences of failures in maternity care, new figures show. In total, 364 patients or families received the highest-value compensation payments of at least £3.5 million after suing the NHS last year. Of those, 279 (77%) were maternity-related damages, according to figures from NHS Resolution. The large payouts have been offered to parents whose babies were stillborn or suffered avoidable life-changing disabilities or brain injuries. Maternity makes up the bulk of NHS compensation payments. There were more than 10,000 clinical negligence claims brought against the NHS in 2021-22, with a total value of more than £6 billion. Maternity accounted for 62% of payments, or £3.74 billion. When taking into account all cost of harm, including future periodic payments and legal costs, the cost of compensating mothers and their families rises to £8.2 billion a year. Analysis by The Times Health Commission found that this is more than twice the £3 billion spent by the NHS annually on maternity and neonatal services. Maternity claims have increased during the past decade amid a string of high-profile scandals and a shortage of midwives. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 12 June 2023 -
Content Article
This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Paul talks to us about how AvMA helps people who have suffered direct or indirect medical harm and to help them to seek justice, why upcoming changes to the legal system could restrict access to clinical negligence claims and the importance of compassionate engagement in improving harmed patients’ experiences of the healthcare system. -
News ArticleInquests will be held into the deaths of at least 36 patients – and potentially dozens more – treated by the jailed former breast surgeon Ian Paterson. As the fallout of one of the most horrific medical scandals in the history of the NHS continues, a pre-inquest review hearing at Birmingham and Solihull coroner’s court on Friday heard that 417 of Paterson’s cases where breast cancer was listed as the immediate cause of death had been examined. Paterson, who attended the hearing remotely from prison, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2017, later increased to 20 years, for carrying out needless surgery on patients who were left traumatised and scarred. Inquests have been confirmed in 36 cases, with a further 21 cases deemed likely to need an inquest after “preliminary” investigations. Another 36 cases are still to be reviewed. The judge Richard Foster said a further 130 cases had been reported to the coroner where breast cancer was listed as contributing to death. A review of a selection of those cases was being carried out and a decision on whether they should all be reviewed would be made on its completion, he said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 June 3023
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Content ArticleThis framework supports the health and disability sector to mitigate and respond to healthcare harm in Aotearoa New Zealand. Healthcare harm as defined in this framework can be a physical, psychological, social, spiritual injury or experience that occurs during the provision of care. In Aotearoa New Zealand, harm also occurs and endures due to the impacts of imperialism, colonisation and racism. In te ao Māori, harms are conceived as diminishing of the tapu and mana of people, their environments and their spiritual connection. The framework was developed by the National Collaborative for Restorative Initiatives in Health in partnership with a diverse range of stakeholders over an 18-month period. The recommendations in the framework aim to enhance the overall health and wellbeing of consumers and providers of healthcare, while accounting for the unique features of the health system context.
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News Article
Kettering General Hospital chief apologises over children's care
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A chief executive whose hospital has been accused of failing children has admitted it has not always "got it right" and apologised at a meeting. The care regulator has warned Kettering General Hospital (KGH) over its children's and young people's services and rated them inadequate. Dozens of parents with children who died or became seriously ill have contacted the BBC with concerns. Deborah Needham told a board meeting she was "here to listen" to worries. In April it was revealed inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) raised concerns over sepsis treatment, staff numbers, dirt levels and not having an "open culture" where concerns could be raised without fear, following an inspection in December. The CQC had inspected the Northamptonshire hospital's paediatric assessment unit, Skylark ward, and the neonatal unit after hearing concerns of safety. Read full story Source: BBC News, 9 June 2023 -
Content ArticleGood patient communication strategies are an essential prerequisite for developing an effective NHS patient safety culture and the NHS needs to improve on its efforts, writes John Tingle in an article for the British Journal of Nursing.
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Content ArticleMedicines can be purchased online from anywhere in the world. In 2021, nearly 53 million items were dispensed from online pharmacies in England, up 300% since 2016. In this blog, Dr Georgia Richards outlines the need for caution when buying medicines online, highlighting that online purchase of medications was cited in 16 Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) reports between 2013 and 2019. She highlights coroners concerns concerns about: the ease of obtaining drugs via the Internet without any contact with the patient’s medical practitioner or access to the patient’s records. the inability to limit the volume or the frequency of ordering. issues with the regulation of supply, importation and delivery of controlled class A drugs via the international and UK postal system. lack of regulation of the dark web.
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Content ArticleThis article highlights three questions tabled in the House of Commons relating to the Yellow Card Scheme, the system for recording adverse incidents with medicines and medical devices in the UK.
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News Article
Doctor told cancer patient she had anorexia despite three ‘red flag’ signs
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A woman was “fobbed off” by her doctors who failed to diagnose her colon cancer for a year, an investigation revealed. In May 2019, Charlie Puplett, 45, expressed concern at her GP surgery in Yeovil, Somerset, about unexplained weight loss, lack of appetite and a change in bowel habits. But the surgery did not test her for colon cancer – with one doctor suggesting she had anorexia and was “in denial”, she said. She was not diagnosed until almost a year later when she was rushed to hospital after vomiting blood. Ms Puplett’s experience was detailed in an investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), which found that her symptoms should have been “red flags” leading to urgent testing within two weeks, and said she had been “failed” by her doctors. Read full story Source: The Independent, 4 June 2023 -
Content ArticleThis letter is a resource for patients to help GPs identify the complications of pelvic mesh. It explains signs and symptoms of women presenting with pelvic mesh-related conditions and if required, where to signpost them for further help. It has been issued by the Patient Safety Commissioner for England, developed in partnership with the patient campaign groups Sling the Mesh and the Rectopexy mesh victims and support.
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News Article
Complaints about non-surgical butt lifts ‘rising at alarming rate’ in UK
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Complaints about non-surgical Brazilian butt lifts and breast enhancements have risen at an “alarming” rate, up from fewer than 5 to 50 in a year, an industry body has revealed. Save Face, a national, government-approved register of accredited non-surgical treatment practitioners, is calling for the procedures to be banned, while the Local Government Association has asked Westminster to take urgent action. Ashton Collins, the director of Save Face, said the organisation had noted an “alarming” increase in complaints about these enhancements, which she said should be banned. Collins said: “No reputable healthcare professional would offer these treatments as they are very high risk. “It’s a new and incredibly dangerous trend which has emerged from social media, a trend people think is a cheaper, risk-free alternative to the surgical counterparts. All the cases reported to us have been carried out by non-healthcare practitioners who have prioritised profits ahead of the safety and wellbeing of their clients. “These treatments are incredibly risky, and we have helped people who have contracted sepsis and have had to undergo surgery to remove the filler. In 2021, we had fewer than five complaints about these treatments. That figure has increased tenfold in the past year alone and we are getting more and more complaints each week.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 June 2023 -
Content ArticleThe Global Patient Safety Action Plan was formally adopted at the World Health Assembly on 28 May 2021. It provides a 10-year roadmap and actions to work towards its vision of a world in which no one is harmed in healthcare and every patient receives safe and respectful care. This report provides a snapshot of progress made in achieving the strategic objectives and strategies of the global action plan based on the WHO Member State survey coordinated by the secretariat. This interim report will be replaced by a final Global Patient Safety Report 2023 later in the year.
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News Article
Mental health services that fail to improve could be shut, says watchdog
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Failing mental health services that do not improve, whether run by private firms or the NHS, could be shut, a Care Quality Commission (CQC) chief has said. It follows the watchdog judging as "inadequate" three child wards at the Priory Group's biggest hospital. The wards at Cheadle Royal, near Manchester, "did not always provide safe care", the CQC found. The unannounced inspection of Cheadle Royal took place earlier this year "in response to concerns about safety". BBC News first reported in January three women had died at the hospital last year, although not in the wards inspected for this report. The CQC's new director of mental health services, Chris Dzikiti, said he was determined to drive up standards in all units and warned he will close services who fail to improve. Read full story Source: BBC News, 31 May 2023 -
News ArticlePeople concerned about the safety of patients often compare health care to aviation. Why, they ask, can’t hospitals learn from medical errors the way airlines learn from plane crashes? That’s the rationale behind calls to create a 'National Patient Safety Board,' an independent federal agency that would be loosely modelled after the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is credited with increasing the safety of skies, railways, and highways by investigating why accidents occur and recommending steps to avoid future mishaps. But as worker shortages strain the US healthcare system, heightening concerns about unsafe care, one proposal to create such a board has some patient safety advocates fearing that it wouldn’t provide the transparency and accountability they believe is necessary to drive improvement. One major reason: the power of the hospital industry. The board would need permission from health care organisations to probe safety events and could not identify any healthcare provider or setting in its reports. That differs from the NTSB, which can subpoena both witnesses and evidence, and publish detailed accident reports that list locations and companies. A related measure under review by a presidential advisory council would create such a board by executive order. Its details have not been made public. Learning about safety concerns at specific facilities remains difficult. While transportation crashes are public spectacles that make news, creating demand for public accountability, medical errors often remain confidential, sometimes even ordered into silence by court settlements. Meaningful and timely information for consumers can be challenging to find. However, patient advocates said, unsafe providers should not be shielded from reputational consequences. Read full story Source: CNN, 30 May 2023 Related reading on the hub: Blog - It is time for a National Patient Safety Board: Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative
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News Article
Inadequate maternity unit handed safety warning
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An NHS maternity department has been handed a warning notice by the health regulator because of safety failings. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it was taking the action over the James Paget Hospital in Norfolk to prevent patients coming to harm. Inspectors found the unit did not have enough staff to care for women and babies and keep them safe. The maternity department has been deemed "inadequate" by the CQC, which meant the overall rating for the hospital has now dropped from "good" to "requires improvement". Between June and November 2022 there were 30 maternity "red flags" that the inspectors found, of which more than half related to delays or cancellations to time-critical activity. In one instance, there was a delay in recognising a serious health problem and taking the appropriate action. The report also highlighted the service did not have enough maternity staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience "to keep women safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment". Read full story Source: BBC News, 31 May 2023 -
News Article
NI patients suing GPs over hospital waiting time targets
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Northern Ireland GPs are being hit with bills of thousands of pounds as they are sued by patients coming to harm on hospital waiting lists. Family doctors are being taken to court by their patients as a result of spiralling hospital waiting lists — even though GPs are not responsible for the crisis. It comes as official figures show 14% of the population — around one in seven — had been waiting longer than a year for an outpatient or inpatient appointment at the end of March. The growing risk to patient safety, as the health service struggles to cope with demand, and the potential for primary care doctors to be held accountable have been blamed as reasons for the rising number of GPs who are handing back their contracts. Sixteen GP surgeries in Northern Ireland have handed back contracts in recent months, bringing the key NHS service closer to collapse. Read full story Source: Belfast Telegraph, 30 May 2023 -
News Article
CQC case reveals ‘degrading’ conditions in England care home as Covid hit
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The depth of suffering in care homes in England as Covid hit has been laid bare in a court case exposing “degrading” treatment with residents being “catastrophically let down”. Care levels at the Temple Court care home in Kettering collapsed so badly in April 2020, when ministers rushed to free up NHS capacity by discharging thousands of people, that residents were left lying in their own faeces, dehydrated, malnourished and suffering necrotic, infected wounds, the Care Quality Commission found. Fifteen of its residents died with Covid in the first weeks of the pandemic. The case foreshadows the UK Covid-19 public inquiry module on the care sector, which next year will test Matt Hancock’s claim to have thrown “a protective ring around social care”. The prosecution resulted in a £120,000 fine handed down at Northampton magistrates court last week. The operator, Amicura, apologised but said it had been “acting in the national interest and supporting the NHS by accepting patients discharged from hospitals into care homes under government policy”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 May 2023 -
News Article
Primodos: Pregnancy test damages claims thrown out by judge
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Claims for damages by more than 170 people who say they were affected by hormone-based pregnancy test drugs have been thrown out by a High Court judge. The drugs, including Primodos, were given to women to test if they were pregnant from the 1950s to 1970s and alleged to have caused birth defects. But the judge ruled there was no new evidence linking the tests with foetal harm and "no real prospect of success". Campaigners say they are "profoundly disappointed" with the judgement. Legal action had been brought against three drug companies - Bayer Pharma, Schering Health Care, Aventis Pharma - as well as the government in a bid for compensation. However, they argued there was no evidence of a "causal association" between the hormone pregnancy tests and the harm suffered by the claimants. Marie Lyon, chair of the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests, said she was "profoundly disappointed" with the judgement. "We do not accept the defendants' claim that our evidence did not provide sufficient scientific evidence and look forward to the additional scientific evidence, to support our original argument, which is due to be published shortly," she added. Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 May 2023 Further reading on the hub: Patient Safety Spotlight interview with Marie Lyon, chair of the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests -
Content ArticleWebinar with Dr Chris Sirrs, Research Fellow at the Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick, on the histories of patient safety in the NHS.
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News Article
Closing baby unit considered over safety concerns
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Health inspectors considered shutting down a maternity unit earlier this year over safety concerns. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) instead called for "immediate improvements" following a visit to the William Harvey hospital in Ashford, Kent. Helen Gittos, whose newborn daughter died in the care of the East Kent Hospitals Trust, said there were "fundamental" problems at the trust. The inspection of East Kent's William Harvey hospital laid bare multiple instances of inadequate practices at the unit, including staff failing to wash their hands after each patient, and life-saving equipment not being in the right place. Days after the visit, the watchdog raised safety concerns and threatened the trust with enforcement action to ensure patients are protected. Ms Gittos, whose baby Harriet was born at the East Kent trust's Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) in 2014 and died eight days later, said: "When my daughter Harriet was born, the then head of midwifery was so concerned about safety that she thought that the William Harvey in particular should be closed down." She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Here we are, almost nine years later, in a similar kind of situation. What has been happening has not worked. "I keep being surprised at how possible it is to keep being shocked about all of this, but I am shocked, that under so much scrutiny, and with so much external help, it's still the case that so much is not right. "The problems that are revealed are so fundamental that we have to do things differently." Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 May 2023 -
Content ArticleStandardised data and integration of systems are vital for full traceability, improving patient safety, and enabling swift action in healthcare incidents. The PIP breast implant scandal was not the first and transvaginal mesh will not be the last. In fact, the next national patient safety scandal is likely manifesting today. “There needs to be better processes to ‘track and trace’ patients who have received a device when a problem arises,” says Professor Sir Terence Stephenson, Nuffield professor of child health at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and chair of the Health Research Authority for England, in the Scan4Safety 2020 report. “Clear strategies and channels are needed to inform patients, the public and clinical professionals to help improve safety.” One common denominator among such incidents is the lack of traceability – limited visibility of the devices used, when and where they are used and, most importantly, in or on which patients. This is where standardised data comes into play. There is no shortage of data in the NHS. However, the ability to standardise and share that data between systems and organisations is something the health service as a whole still lacks. Today, achieving full traceability remains a key challenge for the NHS, with repercussions that continue to have a detrimental effect on patient care.
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News Article
Essex GP struck off over 'sexually motivated' examination
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A GP accused of trying to pull down a patient's gym shorts and of touching her genitalia has been struck off the medical register. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found Dr Kamran Ali's behaviour towards four women at a surgery in Essex amounted to misconduct. The tribunal heard he had not practised since the allegations in 2016. The 44-year-old, of Glendale Gardens, Leigh-on-Sea, was cleared of criminal charges following a trial in 2018. Panel chairman William Hoskins said at the tribunal on Thursday that erasing him from the register was necessary to "protect public confidence in the medical profession". A female patient - referred to as Patient C - reported his behaviour to police in the November. She had complained of spots on her face, white coating on her tongue and wanted a repeat prescription for anxiety medication. The panel heard Dr Ali began to pull down her gym shorts and examined her genitalia without wearing gloves and without obtaining consent. Read full story Source: BBC News, 23 May 2023 -
News Article
35,000 cases of sexual misconduct or violence in NHS in five years
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than 35,000 incidents of sexual misconduct or sexual violence - ranging from derogatory remarks to rape - were recorded on NHS premises in England between 2017 and 2022. Rape, sexual assault or being touched without consent accounted for more than one in five cases. Most incidents - 58% - involved patients abusing staff. The data was collected by the BMJ and the Guardian, and shared with BBC File on 4. Freedom of Information requests were received from 212 NHS trusts and 37 police forces in England. The data that came back from trusts showed at least 20% of incidents involved rape, sexual assault or inappropriate physical contact - including kissing. Other cases included sexual harassment, stalking and abusive or degrading remarks. One in five cases involved patients abusing other patients - although not all trusts provided a detailed breakdown. Meanwhile, police recorded nearly 12,000 alleged sexual crimes on NHS premises in the same time period - including 180 cases of rape of children under 16, with four children under 16 being gang-raped. Read full story Source: BBC News, 23 May 2023
