Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Patient suffering'.
Found 290 results
-
News ArticleMore than 120,000 died waiting for NHS treatment, as backlog hits all-time high. The number of NHS patients dying while waiting for treatment has doubled in five years, new figures suggest. More than 120,000 people died while on waiting lists last year, according to an analysis of health service data. The total is even higher than it was in lockdown, with health leaders saying the pandemic and NHS strikes have made clearing backlogs more difficult. Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “These figures are a stark reminder about the potential repercussions of long waits for care. They are heartbreaking for the families who will have lost loved ones and deeply dismaying for NHS leaders, who continue to do all they can in extremely difficult circumstances." “Covid will have had an impact on these figures – but we can’t get away from the fact that a decade of under-investment in the NHS has left it with not enough staff, beds and vital equipment, as well as a crumbling estate in urgent need of repair and investment.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 31 August 2023
-
News ArticleIn England, only a third of adults – and half of children – now have access to an NHS dentist. As those in pain turn to charity-run clinics for help, can anything stop the rot? It is over an hour before the emergency dental clinic is due to open, but Jodie Manning is taking no chances. She hasn’t been able to eat for four days – “I can’t physically bite down any more” – and is determined to get an appointment. Aged 19, she has been to hospital with severe toothache “three-and-a-half times” in the previous year. The half is when they sent her home without treatment; on the other occasions, she was kept in overnight after collapsing from pain and dehydration, when even drinking liquids hurt her swollen mouth. Morphine has become her crutch: she fell asleep in college recently after taking the powerful painkiller. Like many of those waiting grimly in line, she has been struck off by her NHS dentist after not attending for two years, even though surgeries were shut to all but emergency cases during Covid. The same desperation can be seen across England, particularly in the north and east. Only a third of adults – and less than half of English children – now have access to an NHS dentist, according to the Association of Dental Groups (ADG). At the same time, three million people suffer from oral pain and two million have undertaken a round trip of 40 miles for treatment, the ADG calculated recently, calling dentistry “the forgotten healthcare service”. Tooth extraction is now the most common reason for a child to be admitted to hospital, costing the NHS £50m a year. The decline of NHS dentistry has deep roots. Years of underfunding and the current government contract, blamed for problems with burnout, recruitment and retention. Dentists are paid a flat fee for services regardless of how long a treatment takes (they get the same amount if they extract one tooth or five, for example). Covid exacerbated existing challenges, with the airborne disease posing a health risk for dentists peering into strangers’ mouths all day. As the British Dental Association put it in its most recent briefing: “NHS dentistry is facing an existential threat and patients face a growing crisis in access, with the service hanging by a thread.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 24 May 2022
-
News ArticleHundreds of thousands of patients referred to specialists by their GPs are being rejected by hospitals and left to deteriorate because there are no appointments available. NHS waiting lists are already buckling under record-high backlogs and now delays are being compounded as local doctors struggle to even get their patients to outpatient services. Patients’ referrals are rejected by hospital trusts if there are no appointment slots available, meaning they get bounced back to the GP who is unable to help with their complex needs, leaving them without the care they desperately need. Clare Rayner, 54, from Manchester, has been left distraught by delays which have hampered the treatment she needs for complex spinal problems. She is still waiting to find out if an upcoming appointment with a neurologist is going ahead after a request for an urgent review from her GP was ignored five times. Outpatient referrals are typically classed as having an “appointment slot issue” (ASI) when no booking slot is available within a specific time frame, under the NHS e-Referral system. According to experts, the situation varies between specialities, but is reportedly particularly bad in areas such as mental health and neurology. Ms Rayner, a former medical teacher who had to retire because of ill health, said: “I’ve been sent all around the country for neurosurgery over the last few years so have been directly affected by being bounced back to my GP." “A unit in London rejected me because they said I lived too far away, which was ridiculous as they take people from all over the UK, and a local consultant just never replied to my GP’s email. Ms Rayner said she has endured “massive delays” to her care which had left her intensely frustrated. “It’s left me with significant deterioration with my spinal problems and that’s been very distressing,” she said. Helen Hughes, chief executive of charity and campaign group Patient Safety Learning, said: “NHS England needs to urgently investigate, quantify the scale of the problem and take action if we are to prevent these capacity problems resulting in avoidable harm for patients.” A target for providers to reduce ASIs to a rate of 4% or less of their total outpatient activity was set by NHS England in 2019. Guidance in subsequent years has seen a move towards the requirement for providers to implement “innovative pathways” to support prevention of ill health. Read full story Source: iNews, 22 May 2022 Related blogs on the hub: Rejected outpatient referrals are putting patients at risk and increasing workload pressure on GPs A child left waiting for ‘urgent’ surgery, a blog by Clare Rayner
-
News Article
Ambulance wait times endangering patients, doctors say
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Doctors and paramedics have told the BBC that long waits for ambulances across the UK are having a "dangerous impact" on patient safety. BBC analysis found a 77% rise in the most serious safety incidents logged by paramedics in England over the past year, compared to before the pandemic. In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the 999 system is also under "tremendous pressure", doctors say. NHS England said the safety of patients is its "absolute priority". In October, nine-year-old Willow Clark fell off her bike on a country path in Hertfordshire, cracking her helmet and leaving her with a fractured skull and a nine-inch laceration across her leg. "I could see it was a really bad accident and I was 20 minutes away from home screaming for help," said her mother Sam. "These really nice people who were passing by phoned 999. "They explained she had a severe head injury and her leg was badly hurt but we were told it would be a 10-hour wait for an ambulance and we'd have to get her to hospital ourselves." When they got to A&E, Willow was immediately transferred to the trauma department. Doctors told her family that she should not have been moved because of her back and neck injuries. She later found out that Willow had been classified as an "urgent" category three case, meaning an ambulance should have arrived within 120 minutes. Coroners and lawyers have highlighted recent cases including: Staffordshire's assistant coroner issued a 'prevention of future deaths' warning after a patient in Stoke died after waiting eight hours for an ambulance. The family of a man who died after waiting nine hours for treatment has issued a legal challenge against the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service over a "chronic shortage" of ambulances. The London Ambulance service is investigating after a man died when paramedics took almost 70 minutes to respond to a suspected heart attack. Dr Katherine Henderson, an A&E consultant and president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told the BBC's Today programme the problem with ambulance waits was "more serious than we've ever seen it". Read full story Source: BBC News, 12 May 2022 -
News Article
Chronic pain treatments are failing millions, say experts
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Relentless. Unbearable. Overwhelming. These are just some of the words used by the thousands of people who have revealed their battle with long-term, persistent pain. An exclusive survey of over 4,000 adults aged 16-75 for BBC News, carried out by research company Ipsos, suggests that a quarter of people in the UK are living with chronic pain - an often hidden and misunderstood condition. And pain specialists warn the health service is not set up to deal with such complex conditions. They say the treatments on offer are decades behind the science, leaving millions of patients without the support they need to manage their pain. Jen Proudler says chronic pain has left her grieving for "the person she was". It started four years ago with sporadic back pain. After several incorrect diagnoses, Jen was eventually told by a neurosurgeon that she had a "pretty massive" far lateral disc herniation in her spine. The pain has now spread around her body - Jen has burning pins and needles sensations down her leg, as well as sharp pain, as if being cut by a razor. Sometimes it's so bad, she can't even bear any fabric to touch it. "Our nervous system becomes more and more protective, it feels danger and sends warning signals - and those warning signals contribute to the pain," explains Dr Chris Barker, clinical director of an NHS community pain service in Ainsdale, Merseyside. He says such pain can be hard to diagnose, and the difficulty of getting the correct treatment can make things worse. "Incorrect diagnoses, delayed diagnoses, poor experiences in and out of the health system, not being believed - all of these can contribute to a more intense experience of pain." Dr Barker says the NHS is not set up to deal with such a complex condition, despite the fact it is so common. "The prevalence of pain is huge. It dwarfs most other conditions." Read full story Source: BBC News, 11 May 2022 Further reading: Is pain a patient safety issue? Blog from Patient Safety Learning -
News Article
Woman waits six hours for ambulance after fall on her 100th birthday
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A woman has described how she spent more than six hours of her 100th birthday waiting in agony for an ambulance after slipping and fracturing her pelvis while getting ready for a family lunch. Irene Silsby was due to be picked up by her niece, Lynne Taylor, for a celebration to mark her centenary on 9 April. But she fell in the windowless bathroom of her care home in Greetham, Rutland, and staff called an ambulance at 9am after she managed to summon help. “All I remember is I was in terrible pain,” said Silsby from her hospital bed on Saturday. When asked of the ambulance delay, she said: “It’s disgusting. I don’t know how I stood it so long, the pain was so severe.” Taylor expected to meet the ambulance as she arrived 45 minutes later. But when she reached the care home, the manager said it would be a 10-hour wait, she said. What was to be her aunt’s first trip outside the care home in more than five months turned into her lying on a cold floor surrounded by pillows and blankets to keep her warm and quell some of the discomfort. Taylor, 60, recalled her aunt saying: “They’re not coming to me because they know I’m 100 and I’m not really worth it any more.” Taylor said she had never felt so scared, frustrated and worried. After calling 999 and expressing her outrage, she was told that life-threatening conditions were being prioritised. “I thought she was going to die,” she said. “I didn’t think that any frail, tiny, 100-year-old body could put up with that level of pain on the floor.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 April 2022 -
News ArticleMums who have given birth at Sheffield's largest maternity unit have revealed all about the "horrible" conditions, with some parents saying they feared for their baby's lives. One mum - a midwife herself - was so concerned about her unborn baby's welfare that she and her partner temporarily moved to London just weeks before her due date. "I felt like my son and I might have died if we had the pregnancy in Sheffield," she said. Several mums have spoken to Yorkshire Live about their stories after a scathing report uncovered the scale of the issues on the Jessop Wing. CQC inspectors highlighted all manner of major issues about the care given at Sheffield Teaching Hospital's specialist maternity unit, including examples of emergency help not arriving when staff called for it. Distraught mums said they were left naked and covered in bodily fluids while others complained about being ignored for hours despite begging for pain relief. Dangerously low staffing levels exposed patients to the risk of serious harm, while midwives themselves revealed a toxic environment of a "bullying and intimidating culture" from senior management. As a Trust spokesperson said "we are very sorry" and vowed to make big improvements, we spoke to some of the families worst affected by the problems as they explained how "basic dignity and care have gone out the window". Read full story Source: 12, April 2022, Yorkshire Live
-
News Article
‘You lose your human rights’: Mental Health Act usage up by 12%
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
“When you’re sectioned under the Mental Health Act, you not only lose your voice, but you lose your human rights too”, Kelly a 47-year-old from Surrey tells The Independent. After experiencing a mental health crisis in 2019, Kelly was subject to a “traumatic” detention under the Mental Health Act, during which she says she was “criminalised” for being unwell. Kelly’s story comes as a new analysis of NHS data has revealed the number of people detained under the Mental Health Act increased by 12% in December 2021 compared to the 12 months prior. Major charity Mind, which carried out the analysis, has called for promised reforms to the Mental Health Act to be implemented after recommendations following a major review published in 2019. According to the analysis, the number of people subject to detention under the mental health act increased from, 10,760 in December 2020 to 12,013 December 2021. Speaking with The Independent Kelly, who has had several experiences of being detained under the Mental Health Act, described her most recent experience in 2019 as “very traumatic.” She said: “I had a very public breakdown near where I live. I had neighbours on the phone to the ambulance, and I had, you know, warrants for a psychiatrist or social worker and to enter my property. To have people invade your privacy like that, and to have a warrant to enter property, it’s almost like they’re criminalising you because you’re unwell. Read full story Source: The Independent, 21 March 2022 -
News Article
'He was there four hours begging for help'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An 86-year-old man died after lying in the road waiting more than four hours for an ambulance, his family have said. George Ian Stevenson was hit by a car near his home in Johnstown, Wrexham county, last Wednesday. His family said the first 999 call was made at 19:31 GMT, and the ambulance did not arrive until 23:37 GMT. The Welsh Ambulance Service is looking into the incident, but said that at the time of the call, all its vehicles were already committed to other patients. Two off-duty paramedics stopped to help, but were reluctant to move him in case they caused further injury. Mr Stevenson's granddaughter, Ellie Williams said on the night of the accident it was raining, freezing and foggy. She said: "Left there for four hours, begging for help, waiting for help. And that makes us so sad. "A hard-working man who has paid his taxes all his life and paid into the system has been let down when he's needed them the most, and I just can't quite comprehend what has happened to him." Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 March 2022 -
News Article
Parents sue over failures in child hearing service at NHS Lothian
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than a dozen families are seeking compensation following "significant failures" at NHS Lothian's hearing service for children. The health board apologised to more than 155 families after an independent investigation found serious problems diagnosing and treating hearing loss. Sophie was born partly deaf and failed repeated hearing tests for years. Her family say no help was offered by the paediatric audiology department at NHS Lothian who kept saying she would be fine. But her parents say she is not. Sophie is now seven. Her speech and language has not developed fully and is sometimes hard to understand. Her confidence has been affected. Her mum Sarah said: "They failed Sophie. You kind of trust what they were doing, you thought maybe she doesn't need hearing aids, maybe she will just catch up and now she's almost eight years old and she's still not caught up and you think 'OK, maybe there were mistakes made then'." An independent investigation by the British Academy of Audiology (BAA), published in December last year, found "significant failures" involving 155 children over nine years at NHS Lothian. Several profoundly deaf children were diagnosed too late for vital implant surgery. The health board has "apologised sincerely" to those affected. The BAA looked at more than 1,000 patient records finding "significant failures" in almost 14% of them. The BAA said it found "no evidence" that national guidelines and protocols on hearing tests for children had been followed or consistently applied "at any point since 2009". Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 March 2022 -
News Article“So you’re just gonna leave me to die? That’s what you’re doing? Because I can’t do that, I’m telling you: I’ve been trying to do that, and I can’t. So now what?” Over a year on, Amy, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, is still waiting for an answer – and for the help she desperately needs. The 30-year-old, who has battled anorexia since she was 16 and has been admitted to hospital multiple times, was responding to her eating disorder psychiatrist telling her the service could no longer help her. Amy was told to try to get better on her own by upping her calorie intake, and was warned that she could only be referred to her GP for emergency help if her BMI dropped below 13. A healthy level is between 18 and 25. She is just one example of what experts fear is a growing number of patients who are being told they are “too thin” for care, as stretched NHS services attempt to “ration” the help they offer in an effort to manage demand. Amy complained to the NHS East of England commissioners about the decision by psychiatrists to withdraw her treatment. In a response seen by The Independent, the service treating Amy admitted the move was not conventional. “The decision to use this approach is not taken lightly, but is seen as positive risk management, intended to empower the person to meet their goals for recovery with the support of their GP, who will medically monitor their health, with a clear aim of [the service] ultimately engaging the person in active treatment following a period of self-recovery,” it said. Read full story Source: The Independent, 21 August 2023 Related reading on the hub: People with eating disorders should not face stigma in the health system and barriers to accessing support in 2022
-
News Article
Mesh bowel patients call for publication of Bristol Spire Hospital report
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Patients whose lives were damaged by surgery for bowel problems are calling for a long-awaited report to be published. More than 200 patients underwent mesh bowel operations in Bristol that they might not have needed. The surgery was carried out by Tony Dixon at Southmead Hospital and the private Spire Hospital, in Redland. A review by North Bristol NHS Trust was published in May 2022, but patients are still waiting to hear from Spire. Jill Smith, 69, from Westbury-on-Trym, paid privately to go to Spire. She said she is still in severe pain following her surgery. "Emotionally it has affected me big time. It is just horrible," she said. "The stress and panic I get going anywhere, is, 'will I have an accident or something?'." Read full story Source: BBC News, 18 August 2023 -
News ArticleA director at a major acute trust said it needs to stop “caving in” to demand pressures by opening extra escalation beds. Board members at Mid and South Essex were discussing a recent report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which rated medical services as “inadequate”. The CQC flagged significant staffing shortages and repeated failures to maintain patient records, among other issues. Deputy chair Alan Tobias told yesterday’s public board meeting: “We have just got to hold the line on these [escalation] beds. We never do. Every year we cave in… “We have just got to hold the line with this… Do what some other hospitals do, they shut the doors then. We have never had the bottle to do that.” Barbara Stuttle, another non-executive director, said: “Our staff are exhausted… We don’t have the staff to give the appropriate care to our patients when we have got extra beds. To have extra beds on wards, I know we have had to do it and I know why, [but] you are expecting an already stretched workforce to stretch even further. “And when that happens, something gives. Record keeping, that’s usually the last thing that gets done because they’d much rather give the care to patients.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 28 July 2023
-
News Article
Patients 'waiting for days' in Emergency Department
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said patients are waiting for days in corridors at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital's Emergency Department. Rita Devlin, NI director of the RCN, visited the unit on Thursday after getting calls from nursing staff. She described the situation as "scandalous". Speaking to Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme, Ms Devlin said while it was the Royal Hospital on Thursday, the situation is "bad right across the EDs". She said talking to nurses at the Royal, she was struck by "the absolute despair" some are feeling. "I spoke to some young, newly qualified nurses who are leaving because they just can't take the stress and the pressure any more," she said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 July 2023 -
News Article
Girl, 14, could be left unable to walk after brain surgery cancelled three times
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A14-year-old girl could lose the ability to walk after her brain surgery was cancelled three times as NHS children’s services are stretched to breaking point. Piper Miller, who has severe autism, needs urgent surgery to remove fluid on her brain that if unaddressed could also leave her unable to control her bladder. But her operation has been pushed back three times in the past month due to emergency operations taking priority and severe short staffing made worse by junior doctors’ strikes. Her mum, Toni Milner said the delays had had a “heartbreaking and gut-wrenching” effect on her daughter whose anxiety is “sent through the roof” each time she is told she is not having her surgery. Piper’s story comes as NHS data uncovered by The Independent reveals at least 340 life-saving children’s operations, such as transplant and lung surgery, were shelved from April to December 2022, while 763 emergency operations were refused due to a lack of intensive care beds. Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 July 2023 -
News Article
NHS waiting list in England hits record 7.5 million
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS waiting lists in England have climbed to a record level, according to new figures that show 7.47 million patients were waiting to start routine hospital treatment at the end of May, up from 7.42 million at the end of April. The growing list includes 416,000 children waiting to start treatment – up 9.7% in just one month, and including 21,282 who have been waiting more than a year. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health president Camilla Kingdon said it is “unacceptable” and “unfathomable” to have so many children waiting so long. However, hospital leaders warned on Thursday they are not confident they will hit key NHS targets to reduce the waiting list in 2024 and 2025. The figures come during a five-day junior doctors’ strike during which tens of thousands of operations and appointments are expected to be cancelled and ahead of NHS consultants’ strikes where the major of planned care is expected to be paused. Read full story Source: The Independent, 13 July 2023 -
News ArticleThe head of NHS England has warned that July's planned strikes in the health service could be the worst yet for patients. Amanda Pritchard said industrial action across the NHS had already caused "significant" disruption - and that patients were paying the price. This month's consultant strike will bring a "different level of challenge" than previous strikes, she said. Junior doctors and consultants will strike for a combined seven days. Ms Pritchard told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that the work of consultants - who are striking for the first time in a decade - cannot be covered "in the same way" as junior doctors. "The hard truth is that it is patients that are paying the price for the fact that all sides have not yet managed to reach a resolution," she said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 July 2023
-
News Article
Pensioner's anger at having to travel for knee surgery
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A pensioner is furious with Northern Ireland politicians who, she said, left her with no option but to spend her savings on knee surgery in Poland. Christine Wallace was told the wait for her knee replacement surgery could be five years - although the health department says most waits are shorter. She spent £8,500 on her hospital stay. While Ms Wallace said the relief of her new knee was fantastic, she felt she had no alternative but to pay as she could no longer live with the pain. The latest available health department figures, from 31 March, showed 25,075 patients were waiting for inpatient or day case admission under the trauma and orthopaedic surgery specialty. The department said its median waiting time for such operations was 74 weeks, with only 1 in 20 patients waiting more than five years. "Our preferred measure of average is the median... because waiting times tend to be skewed by longer waits and therefore more patients are waiting for less time than the mean," said a department statement. Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 June 2023 -
News ArticleThe Home Office has been accused of abandoning 55 asylum seekers with a range of severe disabilities and life-limiting conditions at a former care home in an Essex seaside town. The asylum seekers, who fled various conflict zones including Sudan and Afghanistan, are struggling with a range of health conditions they have suffered from since childhood or life-changing injuries suffered in war zones. One told the Guardian: “Everybody is suffering in this place. It used to be a care home but now there is no care. We are free to come and go but to me, this place feels like an open prison. We have just been left here and abandoned.” Those living in the former care home are struggling with health conditions including loss of limbs, blindness, deafness and mobility issues requiring a wheelchair – although not all have been able to access one. At least eight are paraplegic. They were placed in the former care home, which opened in November, by Home Office officials. It is staffed like a standard Home Office asylum seeker hotel with security guards and reception staff but does not have trained care workers or nurses there as part of the contract. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 June 2023
-
News Article
Failure to act on cost of living risks another health crisis
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Responding to the Ofgem announcement on the energy price cap, Jo Bibby, Director of Health at the Health Foundation said: 'Today’s announcement confirms the mounting financial pressures facing people this winter. 'Cold, damp homes make people ill. When people are having to make a choice between heating and eating, their health is going to suffer. Many will face the stress of managing debt and, in the long run, the price will be paid in poorer health, more pressure on the NHS, and fewer people in work. 'The cost-of-living crisis should be a spur for action for the new government – bringing forward the Health Disparities White Paper. In particular, it must deliver significant emergency support in the autumn, targeted at lower-income families who are most at risk of poorer health. Without the speed and scale of action we saw through the pandemic, there is a risk the cost-of-living crisis becomes another health crisis.' Read full story Source: The Health Foundation, 26 August 2022 -
News Article
Staffing crisis leaves many English care home residents’ basic needs unmet
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Thousands of vulnerable people are suffering inadequate care as severe staffing shortages in previously good care homes push operators to break rules and put residents at risk. A wave of inspections has revealed the human impact of a worsening nationwide staffing crisis, with people being left in their rooms 24 hours a day, denied showers for over a week, enduring assaults from fellow residents, and left soaking in their own urine. Stretched staff have described scrambling to help residents with buzzers going off and fear the squeeze on their time is dangerous. Analysis by the Guardian revealed that staff shortages were identified as a key problem in three-quarters of all the care homes in England where the Care Quality Commission regulator had cut their rating from “good” before Covid-19 to “inadequate” this summer. A further 10% of homes whose rankings slumped had enough staff, but failed to recruit safely, either not taking references properly, carrying out criminal records checks, or training staff adequately. Families said the staffing shortages had reached “crisis point”. “Older people are paying a heavy price for these failings, as poor care robs them of their dignity, breaks their will and makes them feel unsafe in their own home,” said Helen Wildbore, director of the Relatives and Residents Association. “Older people need much more than empty slogans from the next prime minister about ‘fixing social care’.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 August 2022 -
News ArticleAt 34 years old, Dawn Jaxson had two young daughters. Since going through childbirth she had been experiencing a prolapsed bladder and urinary incontinence. Her doctors recommended she have a vaginal mesh fitted to treat the problem, and she didn’t question their advice. But more than 15 years later, she wishes she had. “As soon as I’d actually had it fitted, I felt discomfort,” says Jaxson, now 50. “Then the pain just didn’t go.” After years of almost constant pelvic pain and “countless” medical appointments, Jaxson says: “This little tiny piece of tape is still ruining my life.” “I can literally be sat down and then out of nowhere, it will be like somebody is shoving a red-hot poker through my bladder,” she tells iNews. “Being intimate with somebody is just impossible. Sex is no joy. Imagine your worst period pain you could possibly have, and that’s what it’s like on a daily basis.” NHS Digital records show that between April 2008 and March 2017, 100,516 patients had a tape insertion procedure for stress urinary incontinence. A further 27,016 patients had a mesh procedure for pelvic organ prolapse. But the surgery was suspended in Scotland in 2014 and across the rest of the UK by 2018 following complaints about complications – and a review ordered. The review panel, overseen by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, spoke to more than 700 affected individuals and concluded that pelvic mesh procedures had caused “anguish, suffering, and many ruined lives”. In 2020, the panel set out nine recommendations to help the thousands of women affected, including the creation of specialist centres, so patients could have their mesh removed or receive further treatment. But two years on from that landmark report, women say they are still suffering debilitating symptoms and struggling to access the help they so desperately need. Kath Sansom, the founder of the campaigning group Sling the Mesh, has heard many similar stories from among the group’s 9,700 members. “The lack of action on financial redress is the biggest disappointment for women,” she says. “Pelvic mesh caused lifelong damage, and worse, the majority of us were not given any information on the risks. It’s not our fault this happened to us." “Some women have been left disabled in wheelchairs or walking with sticks. Others have had organs removed where mesh has turned brittle and sliced into them. Seven in 10 have lost their sex life. Everyone suffers chronic pain in varying degrees. Women have lost jobs, marriages, homes, and their quality of life.” Read full story Source: iNews, 18 August 2022
-
News ArticleA shortage of some medicines is putting patients at risk, pharmacists have warned. A poll of 1,562 UK pharmacists for the Pharmaceutical Journal found more than half (54%) believed patients had been put at risk in the past six months due to shortages. A number of patients have been facing difficulties accessing some medicines in recent months, sometimes having to go to multiple pharmacies to find their prescription or needing to go back to their GP to be prescribed an alternative. Since June, the government has issued a number of "medicine supply notifications", which highlight shortages. Some of these include: pain relief drugs used in childbirth; mouth ulcer medication; migraine treatment; an antihistamine; a drug used by prostate cancer and endomitosis patients; an antipsychotic drug used among bipolar disorder and schizophrenia patients; a type of inhaler and a certain brand of insulin. Read full story Source Sky News, 11August 2022
-
News ArticleLast month saw the highest number of ambulance callouts for life-threatening conditions since records began, NHS England officials say. There were more than 85,000 category one calls, for situations like cardiac arrests and people stopping breathing. The heatwave could have been one reason for increased demand, but experts say hospitals already face immense pressures. Nearly 30,000 patients waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital. The number is up 33% on the previous month and the highest since records began in 2010. Richard Murray, chief executive of The King's Fund said the pressure on hospitals was also being felt right across the health and social care system. He added: "At the end of July, 13,014 people were still in hospital beds despite being medically fit to be discharged, often due to a lack of available social care support. The challenges affecting the NHS cannot be solved without addressing the issues in social care." Read full story Source BBC News, 12 August 2022
-
News Article
"I've been let down - I shouldn't have stage-4 cancer"
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A woman with fast-growing stage-four breast cancer says the NHS has let her down, with delays at every stage of her treatment. Caroline Boulton, 56, had several appointments for a mammogram, which checks for early signs of cancer, cancelled because of Covid, in March and November 2020. In late 2021, she found a small lump, went to her GP and was referred urgently to a specialist - but then the delays began. "They haven't moved quickly enough," Ms Boulton says, who lives in Greater Manchester. "It's been really, really slow." "Between each appointment, each scan, there's been four-, five-, six-, seven-, eight-week waiting times and delays every time." The referral letter came through "very quickly" but then she waited three weeks, instead of the recommended two, to see a consultant. "When I first found the lump, it was only pea-sized," Ms Boulton says. "By the time I got to see the consultant, it was the size of a tangerine." Her cancer was growing quickly, she was told, but it would be eight weeks before a mastectomy could be scheduled to remove her breast. "Considering it was fast-growing, that's a huge concern - you're living with that, waiting, knowing it's growing," Ms Boulton says. When she finally saw an oncologist seven months after finding the lump, had another scan and received the results, the cancer had spread to her liver - and there was no longer any treatment they could offer. "I've now got stage-four cancer that I shouldn't have - and two years to live." Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 August 2022
