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Found 1,334 results
  1. News Article
    A new study shows a quarter of mothers say their choices were not respected during childbirth, with some left with life-changing injuries as a result, despite Britain’s highest judges establishing women should be the primary decision makers during labour five years ago. A poll of 1,145 women, carried out by leading pregnancy charity Birthrights and shared exclusively with The Independent, also found that a third said healthcare professionals did not even seek their own opinions on the childbirth process, while 14& said their choices were overruled. One woman told The Independent she had been forced to give up her career as a lawyer following what she described as a “violent delivery”, while her baby daughter also sustained serious injuries to her face which can still be seen now – 12 years after she gave birth. Birthrights, which campaigns for respectful pregnancy care for women, pointed to the fact half a decade has passed since Nadine Montgomery’s Supreme Court case proved mothers-to-be are the primary decision-makers in their own care yet this is still not the reality for the majority of women. Read full story Source: The Independent, 3 September 2020
  2. News Article
    Theresa May has urged the government to consider “redress” for the victims of a hormone pregnancy test blamed for causing serious birth defects. The former prime minister said that while Primodos victims had received an apology, “lives have suffered as a result” of the drug’s use. In an interview for a Sky News documentary, she praised campaigners who had been “beating their head against a brick wall of the state” which tried to “stop them in their tracks”. A review in 2017 found that scientific evidence did “not support a causal association” between the use of hormone pregnancy tests such as Primodos and birth defects or miscarriage. But Ms May ordered a second review in 2018, because, she said, she felt that it “wasn’t the slam-dunk answer that people said it was”. “At one point it says that they could not find a causal association between Primodos and congenital anomalies, but neither could they categorically say that there was no causal link,” she said. The second review concluded last month that there had been “avoidable harm” caused by Primodos and two other products – sodium valproate and vaginal mesh. An interview for Bitter Pill: Primodos, which will air on Sky Documentaries, Ms May said: “I think it’s important that the government looks at the whole question of redress and about how that redress can be brought up for people. Read full story Source: The Independent, 28 August 2020
  3. News Article
    A damning new report has exposed numerous lapses in nursing care on wards at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust amid a culture which left patients at risk of “unsafe and uncaring” treatment, the care watchdog has said. Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) cited multiple examples of nurses at the scandal-hit trust lacking the knowledge to look after patients safely and failing to record key information needed to keep patients safe during an inspection of medical wards in June this year. The inspectors found poorly completed nursing records, equipment unavailable and nurses not following procedures. This meant some patients developed pressure sores, fell from their beds and were injured or suffered pain at the end of their life. Other patients were at risk of suffering similar harm. Inspectors ruled the trust, which was rated inadequate and put into special measures in 2018, was unsafe and criticised the hospital leadership for what it said was a “collective failure” that was perpetuating the problems at the hospital. Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 August 2020
  4. News Article
    Like most women affected by incontinence, 43-year-old Luce Brett has her horror stories. As a 30-year-old first time mum she recalls wetting herself and bursting into tears in the “Mothercare aisle of shame”, where maternity pads and adult nappies sit alongside the baby nappies, wipes and potties. But, she adds, these isolated anecdotes don’t really do justice to what living with incontinence is really like. “It’s every day, it’s all day. People talk about leaking when you sneeze or when you laugh, but for me it was also when I stood up, or walked upstairs. It was always having two different outfits every time I left the house to go to the shops. Incontinence robbed me of my thirties; it made me suicidally depressed,” Luce explains. “Everyone kept telling me it was normal to be leaky after a vaginal birth. It took quite a long time for me to find the courage or the words to stop them and say: ‘Everybody in my NCT (National Childbirth Trust) class can walk around with a sling on, and I can’t do that without wetting myself constantly’,” she adds. Read full article here.
  5. News Article
    The mother of a former patient at a north Wales mental health unit has said she "couldn't let" her daughter "go back there" as new details about people being "neglected" there have emerged. ITV News has seen a leaked copy of the Robin Holden report from 2014. It was commissioned by Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board after staff on the Hergest mental health unit, which is situated within Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor, blew the whistle over management and patient safety concerns. It reveals details never before made public, about how staff struggled to care for patients. The document, which the health board has fought for six years to keep out of public view, gives an account of the death of a patient while no doctor was available because of rota gaps, another of a patient who tried to take their own life, again when no doctor was available, and inadequate staffing affecting patient care. Read full story Source: ITN News, 31 August 2020
  6. News Article
    A dedicated team of 32 volunteers are hitting the roads across North Wales assisting the Welsh Ambulance Service in dealing with fallers. Based out of the Ambulance headquarters in St Asaph, the Community First Responder Falls Team was launched on 30 April this year and has already assisted almost 250 people. The team was created to use the talents and experience of the familiar Community First Responders (CFRs) who had to be stood down from their normal duties at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read the full article here.
  7. News Article
    The safety of maternity services in the NHS are to be investigated by MPs after a string of scandals involving the deaths of mothers and babies highlighted by The Independent. The Commons health select committee, chaired by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, has announced it will hold an inquiry looking at why maternity incidents keep re-occurring and what needs to be done to improve safety. The committee will also examine whether the clinical negligence process needs to change and the wider aspects of a “blame culture” in the health service and its affects on medical advice and decision making. Read the full article here
  8. News Article
    A private company carrying out dermatology services has had its contract suspended by the NHS over concerns about patients safety. DMC Healthcare ran the service which oversaw the care of almost 2,000 patients in north Kent and Medway for more than a year. NHS bosses says those patients may have been harmed and the contract was suspended in June. A helpline has been set up to ensure affected patients are seen by GPs and follow-up treatment can be arranged. Paula Wilkins, Chief Nurse at Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "In mid-June we suspended most of DMC's dermatology service when we became concerned about patient safety." "I'm very sorry to say, we now know there have been delays in appointments, including for the diagnosis and treatment of cancers, and that has exposed people to the risk of harm." Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 July 2020
  9. News Article
    A low secure unit for people with learning disabilities and autism has been put into special measures after inspectors found the use of restraint and segregation affected the quality of life for some patients. Cedar House, in Barham near Canterbury, houses up to 39 people and had been rated “good” by the Care Quality Commission early last year. But at an inspection in February this year inspectors rated the service – run by the Huntercombe Group — “inadequate,” saying it was not able to meet the needs of many of the patients at the unit. It was issued with three requirement notices. One patient had been subject to prolonged restraint 65 times between September and February. Each time he was restrained by between two and 19 staff, for an average of nearly two hours. On one occasion, this restraint lasted for eight hours. But the inspectors were told that in the six months before the inspection 29 staff had been injured during these restraints, and the hospital had been trying to refer the patients to a more secure environment. “The impact of this inappropriately placed patient was considerable for both the patients and the hospital,” the report said. “The staff who were regularly involved in restraining the patient were tired and concerned about the welfare and dignity of the patient.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 July 2020
  10. News Article
    Daniel Mason was born half a century ago without hands, with missing toes, a malformed mouth and impaired vision. From an early age, he and his family had to deal with people asking about his disabilities. The impact on his life has been considerable. Daniel’s mother Daphne long suspected the cause of his problems was a powerful hormone tablet called Primodos that was given to women to determine whether they were pregnant. But when she raised her concerns with doctors, they were dismissed. Now, at last, Daphne has been vindicated with official confirmation this week that her fears were right, in the landmark review by Baroness Cumberlege into three separate health scandals that has exposed a litany of shameful failings by the NHS, regulatory authorities and private hospitals. This damning report shows again the danger of placing a public service on a pedestal, with politicians happy to spout platitudes but scared to tackle systemic problems or confront the medical establishment. But how many more of these inquiries must be held? How many more disturbing reports and reviews must be written? How many more times must we listen to ministerial apologies to betrayed patients? How much more must we hear of ‘lessons being learned’ when clearly they are largely ignored? Read full story Source: Mail Online, 9 July 2020
  11. News Article
    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published its response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review. In its response, the MHRA said: “Today’s publication of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review is of profound importance for the MHRA, since the safety of the public is our first priority." "We therefore take this report and its findings extremely seriously. Throughout the Review’s work we have listened intently to the many distressing experiences of women and their families. We will now carefully study the findings and recommendations of the Report. We recognise that patient safety must be continually protected and that many of the major changes recommended by the Review cannot wait. We are therefore making changes without delay to ensure that we listen to patients and involve them in every aspect of our work. We are already taking steps to strengthen our collaboration with all bodies in the healthcare system and will strive to ensure that, working with these other bodies, the safety changes we advise are embedded without delay in clinical practice. We wholeheartedly commit to demonstrating to those patients and families who have shared their experiences during the Review, and anyone else who has suffered, that we have learned from them and are changing and improving because of what they have told us. We are determined to put patients and the public at the heart of everything we do." Read full statement Source: GOV.UK, 8 July 2020
  12. News Article
    Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned ministers not to let the Cumberlege review “gather dust on a shelf”. The chair of the Commons Health and Social Care Committee told The Independent it was vital action was taken to implement the recommendations. Mr Hunt, who made patient safety a key focus of his tenure as health secretary, backed the idea of an independent patient safety commissioner that would be outside the NHS and have powers to advocate for patient issues. Mr Hunt said: “This report should be a powerful wake-up call that our healthcare system is still too closed, defensive and focused on blame rather than learning lessons. It’s truly harrowing to hear of all the women and families who live with permanent anguish because of these medicines and devices, and it has clearly taken too long for their voices to be heard.” “The NHS is one of the safest health systems in the world, and we’re all rightly in awe of our frontline heroes. But in healthcare getting it right ‘most’ times isn’t good enough because the exceptions wreak lifelong devastation on families. So we must not allow this seminal report to gather dust on a shelf: lessons must be learnt once and for all.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 July 2020
  13. News Article
    Many lives have been ruined because officials failed to hear the concerns of women given drugs and procedures that caused them or their babies considerable harm, says a review. More than 700 women and their families shared "harrowing" details about vaginal mesh, Primodos and an epilepsy drug called sodium valproate. Too often worries and complaints were dismissed as "women's problems". It says arrogant attitudes left women traumatised, intimidated and confused. June Wray, 73 and from Newcastle, experienced chronic pain after having a vaginal mesh procedure in 2009. "Sometimes the pain is so severe, I feel like I will pass out. But when I told GPs and surgeons, they didn't believe me. They just looked at me like I was mad." The chairwoman of the highly critical review, Baroness Julia Cumberlege, said the families affected deserved a fulsome apology from the government. She said: "I have conducted many reviews and inquiries over the years, but I have never encountered anything like this; the intensity of suffering experienced by so many families, and the fact that they have endured it for decades. Much of this suffering was entirely avoidable, caused and compounded by failings in the health system itself." Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 July 2020
  14. News Article
    An independent provider’s NHS contract has been suspended, and a harm review is to be carried out on patients who have faced a long wait. Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group suspended DMC Healthcare’s contract to provide dermatology services in north Kent “to ensure patient safety” on Friday. It said it had showing some patients had been on waiting lists longer than they should have been. It is unable to say how many patients are likely to be involved in the harm review, but it is expected to focus on those who have waited longer than they should or where harm is suspected. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 24 June 2020
  15. News Article
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has issued a plan for re-starting routine inspections — but has been warned by the NHS Confederation that the health service needs this “like a hole in the head”. The organisation said there would be a “managed return” of “routine inspections” in the autumn. It also stated in a statement today: ”Inspectors are now scheduling inspections of higher risk services to take place over the summer.” But the CQC later insisted to HSJ that this was not a change to its current policy, in place since the beginning of the UK COVID-19 peak, as it would only be inspecting in response to information it receives which raises “serious concerns”. The CQC suspended its routine inspections in March – and has instead been calling healthcare providers and only physically attending where there are serious concerns about harm, abuse or human rights breaches. The new approach to regulation, which the CQC called its “emergency support framework”, was criticised by 11 older people’s and disabled groups, which said the decision not to carry out routine inspections broke human rights and equalities laws. Read full story Source: HSJ, 17 June 2020
  16. News Article
    There should be independent reviews of the NHS’ readiness for a potential second major outbreak of coronavirus in the UK, senior doctors are arguing. The Royal College of Anaesthetists said a series of reviews should be carried out, overseen by an independent group formed from clinical royal college representatives, independent scientists and academics. It would encompass investigation of what happened to care quality during the peak of infection and demand through March, April and May — there are major concerns that harm and death was caused by knock of effects, with some health services closed and people being afraid to use others. Hospitals were unable to provide many other services as staff, including most anaesthetists, were redeployed to help with critical care. Ravi Mahajan, president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, told HSJ areas such as capacity, workforce and protective equipment were key issues to be reviewed. He said: “We can’t wait for [the pandemic] to finish and then review. [The reviews] have to be dynamic, ongoing, and the sooner they start the better. Read full story Source: HSJ, 17 June 2020
  17. News Article
    Young people with learning disabilities are being driven to self-harm after being prevented from seeing their families during the coronavirus lockdown in breach of their human rights, a new report finds. The Joint Committee on Human Rights warned that the situation for children and young people in mental health hospitals had reached the point of “severe crisis” during the pandemic due to unlawful blanket bans on visits, the suspension of routine inspections and the increased use of restraint and solitary confinement. The report concluded that while young inpatients' human rights were already being breached before the pandemic, the coronavirus lockdown has put them at greater risk – and called on the NHS to instruct mental health hospitals to resume visits. It highlighted cases in which young people had been driven to self-harm, including Eddie, a young man with a learning disability whose mother, Adele Green, had not been able to visit him since 14 March. “When the lockdown came, it was quite quick in the sense that the hospital placed a blanket ban on anybody going in and anybody going out,” said Ms Green. “Within a week, with the fear and anxiety, he tried to take his own life, which really blew us away. We were mortified.” The Committee is urging NHS England to write to all hospitals, including private ones, stating they must allow visits unless there is a specific reason relating to an individual case why it would not be safe, and said the Care Quality Commission (CQC) should be responsible for ensuring national guidance is followed. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 June 2020
  18. News Article
    The pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to settle a legal action by hundreds of Scottish women who claimed they suffered serious injuries from the company’s pelvic mesh implants. The settlement came as four lead cases brought by women who suffered pain and other serious side effects from the implants, made by Johnson and Johnson subsidiary Ethicon, were about to reach court in Edinburgh. Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 2 June 2020
  19. News Article
    The use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to treat depression should be immediately suspended, a study says. ECT involves passing electric currents through a patient's brain to cause seizures or fits. Dr John Read, of the University of East London said there was "no place" for ECT in evidence-based medicine due to risks of brain damage, but the Royal College of Psychiatrists said ECT offers "life-saving treatment" and should continue in severe cases. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) currently recommends the use of ECT for some cases of moderate or severe depression as well as catatonia and mania. However, peer-reviewed research published in the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry concludes "the high risk of permanent memory loss and the small mortality risk means that its use should be immediately suspended". In response to the study, the Royal College of Psychiatrists said ECT should not be suspended for "some forms of severe mental illness". Dr Rupert McShane, chair of the college's Committee on ECT and Related Treatments, said there was evidence showing "most people who receive ECT see an improvement in their condition". "For many, it can be a life-saving treatment," he said. "As with all treatments for serious medical conditions - from cancer to heart disease - there can be side-effects of differing severity, including memory loss." Read full story Source: BBC News, 3 June 2020
  20. News Article
    Early warning scores are used in the NHS to identify patients in acute care whose health is deteriorating, but medics say it could actually be putting people in danger. The rollout of an early warning system used in hospitals to identify patients at the greatest risk of dying is based on flawed evidence, according to a study published in the BMJ which suggests that much of the research supporting the rollout of NEWS was biased and overly reliant on scores that could put patients at greater risk.. Medical researchers said problems with NHS England's National Early Warning Scores (NEWS) system had emerged "frequently" in reports on avoidable deaths. The system sees each patient given an overall score based on a number of vital signs such as heart rate, oxygen levels, blood pressure and level of consciousness. Doctors and nurses can then prioritise patients with the most urgent NEWS scores. But some professionals have argued that the system has reduced nursing duties to a checklist of tasks rather than a process of providing overall clinical assessment. Professor Alison Leary, a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing and chair of healthcare and workforce modelling at London South Bank University, told The Independent: “In our analysis of prevention of future death reports from coroners, early warning scores and misunderstanding around their use feature frequently". “It's clear that some organisations use scoring systems and a more tick box approach to care as they lack the right amount of appropriately skilled staff, mostly registered nurses.” “Early warning scores might not perform as well as expected and therefore they could have a detrimental effect on patient care,” the authors of the research conclude. “Future work should focus on following recommended approaches for developing and evaluating early warning scores, and investigating the impact and safety of using these scores in clinical practice.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 21 May 2020
  21. News Article
    Hundreds of ventilators the UK government bought from China to relieve a major shortage are the wrong type and could kill patients, senior doctors have warned in a newly uncovered letter. The medical staff behind the letter say the devices were designed for use in ambulances rather than hospitals, had an "unreliable" oxygen supply and were of "basic" quality. Seen by Sky News' partner organisation NBC, the document also claims the ventilators cannot be cleaned properly, are an unfamiliar design and come with a confusing instruction manual. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove triumphantly announced the arrival of "300 ventilators from China" to help treat COVID-19 patients on 4 April. But the letter of warning from doctors was issued just nine days later. "We believe that if used, significant patient harm, including death, is likely," it says. Read full story Source: Sky News, 30 April 2020
  22. News Article
    An independent investigation into one of the worst maternity safety scandals in NHS history has written to 400 families today as the number of cases under investigation swell to almost 1,200. Despite the coronavirus crisis the review, chaired by midwifery expert Donna Ockenden, is continuing its work investigating poor maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust where dozens of babies died or suffered brain damage as a result of poor care over several decades. Read full story Source: The Independent, 21 April 2020
  23. News Article
    The NHS should expect a “huge number” of legal challenges relating to decisions made during the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare lawyers have warned. The specialists said legal challenges against clinical commissioning groups and NHS providers would be inevitable, around issues such as breaches of human rights and clinical negligence claims. Francesca Burfield, a barrister specialising in children’s health and social care, told HSJ’s Healthcheck podcast: “I think there is going to be huge number of challenges. If and when we move through this there will not only be a public enquiry, [but] I anticipate judicial reviews, civil actions in relation to negligence claims and breach[es] of human rights….” She said criminal proceedings by the Care Quality Commission or Crown Prosecution Service would also be a possibility, around issues such as deprivation of liberty, neglect, safeguarding, and potential gross negligence manslaughter. Read full story Source: HSJ, 20 April 2020
  24. News Article
    An acute trust in the Midlands has contacted 136 women who received major treatment from a gynaecology consultant, after initial investigations revealed “unnecessary harm” to several patients. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 17 April 2020
  25. News Article
    “Recurrent safety risks” around clinical care at an embattled NHS trust’s maternity service have been identified in a report published on Tuesday. The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has been investigating East Kent hospitals university NHS foundation trust since July 2018 after a series of baby deaths. Among those treated at the trust was Harry Richford, whose death was “wholly avoidable”, seven days after his emergency delivery in November 2017, an inquest found. Speaking on Tuesday, Harry’s grandfather Derek Richford said it is clear that sufficient lessons were not learned from his death. The independent report, published on Tuesday by the Department of Health and Social Care, discusses 24 maternity investigations undertaken since July 2018, including the deaths of three babies and two mothers. It said: “These investigations have enabled HSIB to identify recurrent safety risks around several key themes of clinical care in the trust’s maternity services.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 8 April 2020
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