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Showing results for tags 'Criminal behaviour'.
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News ArticleA woman was imprisoned for falsely pretending to be a psychiatrist with the NHS for more than 20 years has now been asked to pay back over £400,000 to the health service or face even more jail time. The 62-year-old woman, Zholia Alemi was sentenced to seven years in jail after she was found guilty of committing a string of frauds. Alemi had claimed that she got her qualifications from University of Auckland in New Zealand, however, a jury at Manchester Crown Court found that she had forged the degree certificate along with the letter of verification she used in 1995 to register herself with the General Medical Council. The Manchester Crown Court was told that Alemi, who is from Burnley moved across the country to work in a series of positions, which included posts in Greater Manchester to make sure that 'the finger of suspicion' did not point at her. Adrian Foster, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "We have robustly pursued the proceeds of crime with the NHS Counter Fraud Authority and have identified all the assets that she has available to pay her order. Alemi had little regard for patient welfare. "She used forged New Zealand medical qualifications to obtain employment as an NHS psychiatrist for 20 years. In doing so, she must have treated hundreds of patients when she was unqualified to do so, potentially putting those patients at risk. "Her fraudulent actions also enabled her to dishonestly earn income and benefits more than £1million, to which she was not entitled. She cheated the public purse and £406,624 will be paid in compensation to the NHS." Read full story Source: Wales Online, 5 June 2025
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Content Article
In this podcast interview series, NHS whistleblower Peter Duffy and Patient Safety Learning’s Chief Executive Helen Hughes explore how the healthcare system responds when its staff raise concerns about patient safety. In each episode, Helen and Peter interview someone who has spoken up about patient safety issues in healthcare organisations, or who works to help staff raise concerns where they see unsafe care. In this episode, emergency medicine doctor Chelcie Jewitt describes why and how she co-founded Surviving in Scrubs, a campaign that shares survivor stories of sexism, harassment and sexual assault in the healthcare workforce. She outlines the work the campaign is doing with professional regulators to set clear behavioural standards that will more effectively hold perpetrators to account. She also describes the training and support that Surviving in Scrubs offers healthcare staff and organisations on how to respond to harassment and abuse. Subscribe to our YouTube podcast to keep up to date with the latest episodes. View a transcript of this interview Read a blog from Peter and Helen about the interview series -
News Article
Manslaughter case launched into Nottingham baby deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A corporate manslaughter investigation has been opened into failings that led to hundreds of babies dying or being injured at maternity units in Nottingham. Nottinghamshire Police said it was examining whether maternity care provided by the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS trust had been grossly negligent. The trust is at the centre of the largest maternity inquiry in the history of the NHS, with about 2,500 cases of neonatal deaths, stillbirths and harm to mothers and babies being examined by independent midwife Donna Ockenden. The police investigation will centre on two maternity units overseen by the trust, which runs the Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital. NUH said it was "deeply sorry for the pain and suffering caused", and it was "absolutely right" that accountability was taken. In a statement on the force's website, Det Supt Matthew Croome, from the investigation team, said corporate manslaughter was a "serious criminal offence". He said: "The offence relates to circumstances where an organisation has been grossly negligent in the management of its activities, which has then led to a person's death. "In such an investigation we are looking to see if the overall responsibility lies with the organisation rather than specific individuals and my investigation will look to ascertain if there is evidence that the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has committed this offence." The force said its investigation into deaths and serious injuries related to NUH's maternity care - called Operation Perth - had seen more than 200 family cases referred to it so far. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 June 2025 -
News Article
USA: Columbia to pay $750m to hundreds of victims of gynaecologist
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An ex-doctor is now costing Columbia University over $1 billion after a new sex abuse settlement with nearly 600 victims in a deal approved in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday. Columbia University agreed to the record-breaking $750 million settlement with 576 victims of disgraced gynaecologist and convicted sex criminal Robert Hadden — with a per-case average of $1.3 million, the attorney for the victims announced. "This settlement is not about money — it's about accountability," said victim Laurie Maldonando. "Columbia University enabled sadistic abuse," said Maldonando, who was a patient of Hadden’s for nearly a decade, "and now, they’ve been forced to face the truth." In 2023, Hadden was sentenced to 20 years in prison for preying on — and sexually abusing — hundreds of vulnerable patients during his years as a gynaecologist at prestigious Big Apple hospitals, including ones associated with Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian. "For far too long, Columbia and New York-Presbyterian have prioritized protecting their reputations over protecting their patients," said attorney Anthony T. DiPietro, who has battled with Columbia in court on behalf of hundreds of Hadden victims since 2012. DiPietro said he discovered a "smoking gun" that year — a letter penned by the then-head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia in 1995, apologizing for "Hadden’s assault" and undercutting the institution’s claims they were unaware — by digging around the Utah basement of a client. The attorney had already secured $277 million in previous settlements against Columbia for Hadden victims, bringing the hospitals' total payouts to just over $1 billion with Monday’s agreement. "We deeply regret the pain that his patients suffered, and this settlement is another step forward in our ongoing work and commitment to repair harm and support survivors," said a spokesperson for the university, who "commended" the survivors for their "bravery." Read full story Source: Fox News, 6 May 2025 -
News Article
German doctor charged with murder of 15 patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A German palliative care doctor has been charged with murdering 15 of his patients using a cocktail of lethal drugs. Prosecutors in Berlin have accused the 40-year-old of setting fire to the homes of some of his suspected victims to cover his tracks. He allegedly killed 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024, though prosecutors have said they believe that total could rise. The doctor, who has not been named due to strict privacy laws in Germany, has not admitted to the charges, prosecutors said. He is accused of administering an anaesthetic and a muscle relaxant to his patients without their knowledge or consent. The relaxant "paralysed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death within minutes", the prosecutor's office said in a statement. He worked in several German states, and the ages of those whose deaths are being treated as suspicious range from 25 to 94. The doctor was initially suspected of having killed four people in his care when he was arrested in August 2024 but investigations have uncovered other suspicious deaths, with more exhumations on potential victims planned. A "lifelong professional ban" and "preventative detention" is being sought for the 40-year-old suspect. He remains in custody. Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 April 2025 -
News Article
Nearly 400 people killed by mental health patients in six years
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS mental health trusts are refusing to say how many of their patients go on to kill, saying they do not want to risk identifying offenders. Figures provided via freedom of information requests revealed that an average of 65 mentally ill people carry out homicides in England every year. However, this figure is thought to be a significant underestimate because nearly a quarter of trusts refused to give exact numbers. Julian Hendy, founder of the charity Hundred Families, which made the FoI requests, said some trusts denied the full request, claiming that the small numbers of homicides in question could lead to the identification of offenders. NHS England was recently accused of attempting to suppress details of serious failures in the treatment of Valdo Calocane, the paranoid schizophrenic responsible for the deaths of three people in Nottingham. It had intended to publish a bland 30-page summary that did not contain damning details in the case of Calocane, who fatally stabbed Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, in June 2023. NHS England reversed its decision after the plan was exposed by The Times. The full review detailed how Calocane had been discharged with no follow-up the year before the attacks — despite having been sectioned four times, possessing a history of violence, and staff being aware he was not taking his medication. Dr Sanjoy Kumar, Grace O’Malley-Kumar’s father, warned that “there is no accountability when there is no transparency”. He said that in other areas, such as maternal deaths, specific figures were published annually. “To not have this information published is a cover-up. They are covering up their failures. These are avoidable deaths.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 20 March 2025 -
News ArticleCould killer nurse Lucy Letby have been stopped sooner? She was convicted of killing seven babies and attempting to murder seven more. Now a public inquiry is examining whether bosses at the Countess of Chester Hospital failed to act fast enough when suspicions were raised. The inquiry is not examining the question of Letby’s guilt. Instead, it is exploring how she was able to kill repeatedly, hearing more than 60 days of witness evidence and reviewing thousands of emails, text messages and handwritten notes. The hurried memos from doctors about babies collapsing in Letby’s presence and curt replies from hospital execs reveal, in vivid detail, the chaos behind the scenes. Judith Moritz, who has covered the Letby case from the start, looks at the evidence to piece together how events unfolded - and why it took more than a year to stop a killer. Read full story Source: BBC News, 19 March 2025
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News Article
Texas charges midwife in first arrest under state’s abortion ban
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A Houston-area midwife was arrested for providing illegal abortions, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said Monday, marking the first criminal charges under the state’s near-total abortion ban. Maria Margarita Rojas, 49, was charged with the illegal performance of an abortion and practicing medicine without a license, Paxton’s office said in a news release. Rojas owned and operated health clinics in Waller, Cypress and Spring, Paxton’s office said. Her facilities employed unlicensed people who presented themselves as medical professionals, officials alleged. Performing an abortion in Texas is punishable by up to life in prison and up to $100,000 in civil penalties. Abortions are only permitted when a pregnant woman is at risk of death or “substantial impairment of a major bodily function.” The law targets anyone who performs or helps set up an illegal abortion, including people who facilitate the distribution of abortion pills. Women seeking abortions can’t be charged under the state’s law. “In Texas, life is sacred,” Paxton said in a statement Monday. “I will always do everything in my power to protect the unborn, defend our state’s pro-life laws, and work to ensure that unlicensed individuals endangering the lives of women by performing illegal abortions are fully prosecuted. Texas law protecting life is clear, and we will hold those who violate it accountable.” Marc Hearron, interim associate director of ligation at the Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization that aims to protect reproductive rights, condemned Paxton’s efforts to ban abortions. “While details of this case remain unclear, we know that Texas officials have been trying every which way to terrify healthcare practitioners from providing care and to trap Texans,” Hearron said in a statement. “Their ultimate goal is to end abortion access for all Texans entirely — and they will throw people in jail to get there.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: Washington Post, 18 March 2025 -
News ArticleThe NHS trust that failed to stop the killer behind the Nottingham attacks in June 2023 has been accused of failing other victims. It was a sunny morning in June 2023 as news broke that a major incident had been declared in Nottingham. As the hours went by it emerged three people had been stabbed. Students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar had been walking home from a night out when they were fatally attacked. School caretaker Ian Coates was heading into work when he was killed. When he heard the news, Delvin Marriott, says he knew instinctively that the killer of Barnaby, Grace, and Ian would turn out to be a mental health patient and blames the loss of his brother on the same system that allowed paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane to be out on the streets armed with a knife. In August 2022, Delvin's brother, Rudi Marriott, stabbed his father 75 times in a frenzied attack at home in Nottingham. The family says they had repeatedly called the police and mental health services about Rudi's violence but their warnings were ignored. A recent NHS report found that in the four years before Calocane carried out his attacks there were 15 incidents of patients either under the current care of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust or who had been discharged perpetrating serious violence towards members of the community. Most of the incidents involved stabbings and three cases resulted in fatalities. Neil Hudgell, a lawyer representing the families, says the public inquiry due to begin into the deaths of the Nottingham attack victims needs to ensure the trust is held accountable for failings. "I think we've seen tragic story after tragic story where patients, their families, and victims have been let down," he says. "We need to get to the bottom of why that happened, who's responsible for that and to have some genuine change." Read full story Source: Sky News, 17 March 2025
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News ArticleThe hospital where Lucy Letby murdered babies is now being investigated for gross negligence manslaughter as well as corporate manslaughter, police have announced. Cheshire Constabulary has released a statement saying that its corporate manslaughter investigation into the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been “widened”. “We will not be confirming the number of people involved or their identity" The scope of the investigation now includes gross negligence manslaughter, which is where a death is caused by an otherwise lawful but grossly negligent “act or omission” by an individual or individuals. The corporate manslaughter investigation, which is looking into the actions of senior leaders at the hospital trust in relation to deaths at the neonatal unit, was launched in October 2023. This happened a few months after the conviction of 35-year-old Letby for the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six others while working as a neonatal nurse at the trust in 2015 and 2016. Letby was later found guilty of attempting to murder a seventh baby. Read full story (paywalled) Source: Nursing Times, 14 March 2025
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News ArticleTwo women who police allege practised as unregistered midwives have been charged with manslaughter after a baby died after a home birth on the New South Wales mid north coast. The women, aged 41 and 51, appeared in Coffs Harbour local court on Wednesday in relation to the newborn boy’s death in 2022. Emergency services were called to a home in Karangi, north-west of Coffs Harbour, when the baby was unresponsive after the home birth on 11 September 2022, NSW police said in a statement. Paramedics treated the baby before he was airlifted to Coffs Harbour base hospital where he died. Police allege the younger woman was an unregistered midwife at the time of the birth while the older woman held no medical qualifications and had been practising unregistered home-birth midwifery. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 March 2025
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News Article
US gynaecologist charged with sexual abuse and performing unnecessary procedures
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A gynecologist who is accused of sexually abusing four women in Memphis, Tennessee, and reused unsanitary medical devices in unnecessary procedures was arrested on Friday. Sanjeev Kumar, 44, was charged with sexual abuse, medical fraud and illicitly reusing unsanitary medical devices after he enticed four women to travel across state lines to his clinic, where he subjected them to sexual abuse under the guise of medical procedures. Kumar’s arrest adds to a spate of cases in the US involving medical physicians being at least accused of violating patients in their most vulnerable moments. Between 2019 and 2024, Kumar allegedly performed unnecessary gynecologic procedures using medical devices that were kept in unsanitary conditions and improperly reused, with some designated for single use or requiring sterilization. According to the indictment authorities obtained against him, the 44-year-old Kumar did not inform patients about this practice before inserting the devices during procedures. Kumar, who worked at the Poplar Avenue Clinic, then billed the federal Medicare and Medicaid insurance programs for hysteroscopy biopsy services as if the treatments were medically necessary – and as if he had used new or properly sterilised equipment. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 March 2025 -
News ArticleThe number of patient deaths being investigated as possible manslaughter at a troubled NHS hospital has more than doubled to 90, the Guardian can reveal. The growing number of allegedly suspicious deaths, up from an initial total of 40, has forced Sussex police to ask the Home Office for extra resources in dealing with its expanding inquiry into University Hospitals Sussex (UHS), known as Operation Bramber. It is examining allegations of medical negligence and cover-up in the general surgery and neurosurgery departments of Brighton’s Royal Sussex County hospital, part of UHS, between 2015 and 2021. There are also growing internal concerns within the trust about surgeons who continue to operate at the hospital, despite their alleged negligence being reviewed by police. Earlier this month, a group of anaesthetists asked the trust’s medical director for guidance on what to tell patients who inquire about the safety of surgeons about to operate on them. A source at the trust said: “It’s a very valid question. The anaesthetists are in an awkward position of having to anaesthetise the patients before surgery with consultants under suspicion.” There have been calls to suspend some surgeons while police investigate. The source added: “I think the reason they have been allowed to continue, is that the trust does not want to show they have made any mistakes.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 25 February 2025
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News ArticleA 74-year-old surgeon accused of abusing 299 people, most of them children, while they were anaesthetised or recovering from operations has told a French court he did “hideous things” and is prepared to take responsibility for them. Joël Le Scouarnec is accused of raping or sexually abusing the victims, whose average age was 11, during a 30-year career, and detailing the abuse in notebooks. “I’ve done hideous things,” the 74-year-old told a court in Vannes on Monday, the opening day of his trial. He said he was “perfectly aware that these wounds cannot be erased or healed” and he was ready to “take responsibility” for his actions. Almost all the children were unaware of the alleged abuse until police knocked at their doors having discovered their names in the handwritten “black books” found at Le Scouarnec’s home. The abuse is alleged to have taken place between 1989 and 2014, when Le Scouarnec worked at more than a dozen private and public hospitals in Brittany and other parts of western France. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 24 February 2025
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News Article
CEO met ‘a great deal of resistance’ over admitting failures
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A former chief executive of the Countess of Chester hospital said she faced “great resistance” over her preparations to admit its mistakes in its handling of concerns about baby deaths and the role of Lucy Letby. Susan Gilby, who led The Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust from September 2018 until December 2022, gave evidence on Monday to the public inquiry into the events there following Letby’s conviction in 2023. Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies, and attempting to murder seven more, in 2015 and 2016 while working at the hospital. Dr Gilby’s oral evidence is the last to be heard by the inquiry before closing submissions next month. Lady Justice Thirlwall is expected to deliver her report in the autumn. The CoCH chief executive told the inquiry she had commissioned a report into how the trust had responded to paediatricians’ initial concerns about neonatal deaths, ahead of Letby’s trial. She said she planned to draw on it when verdicts were reached: “I personally would have stood there and said: ‘We made mistakes, there is learning, we are accountable for this, and we want to be held to account for how we implement that learning. “But unfortunately, that is not how the NHS operates. There was a great deal of resistance to my intention to openly say that after the verdict. That was my intention, and that was known to be my intention, and it was made clear to me, ’that was not how we dealt with things’.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 24 February 2025 -
News Article
Hospitals prosecuted over baby deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The trust at the centre of a maternity investigation is to be prosecuted by the Care Quality Commission over the deaths of three babies. Nottingham University Hospitals Trust intends to plead guilty to the charges relating to care and treatment to the babies, it has said. The trust is at the centre of the NHS’s largest ever maternity investigations, which is expected to cover around 2,500 cases. It has already been fined £800,000 after admitting failings in the care of Wynter Andrews, who died in 2019. In a statement, the trust said: “We can confirm that the CQC is bringing charges against Nottingham University Hospitals Trust following an investigation into three deaths which occurred in our maternity services in 2021. “We have co-operated with the CQC throughout their investigation, and intend to plead guilty to the charges when proceedings open. “We are not able to comment any further at this stage.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 7 February 2025 -
News Article
Killer evaded medication over needle fear, report says
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Triple killer Valdo Calocane was not forced to take his anti-psychotic medication because he did not like needles, a major review of his NHS care has revealed. The NHS England report identified numerous failings that show "the system got it wrong" with Calocane, who stabbed to death Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates in Nottingham in June 2023. It laid out how Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, had no contact with mental health services or his GP for about nine months prior to the killings - and was discharged after failing to engage with them. The NHS said it had taken the decision to publish the report in full, in line with the wishes of the families, and "given the level of detail already in the public domain". The independent review, by Theemis Consulting, looked into the treatment given to Calocane by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust prior to the killings, as well as the interactions the NHS had with other agencies involved in his care. The key findings of the report include: Calocane's risk "was not fully understood, managed, documented or communicated". There were missed opportunities to take more assertive action towards Calocane's care. The voice of Calocane's family "was not effectively considered to support the dynamic evaluation of risk" during his treatment. Other patients under the care of the same trust, some of whom had been discharged, had also perpetrated acts of "serious violence" across 15 incidents between 2019 and 2023. Calocane had no contact with mental health services or his GP for about nine months prior to the killings. Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 February 2025 -
Content ArticleNHS England have published an Independent Mental Health Homicide Review which examines the case of Valdo Calocane. The investigation was commissioned by NHS England following the fatal stabbings of three people in Nottingham in June 2023. Three others sustained serious injuries. The purpose of the investigation is to help the NHS and partners understand if there are lessons that could be learned that could prevent something similar happening in the future. The report published shares all the findings and recommendations for that purpose. NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have produced a joint action plan to describe how they are delivering the recommendations.
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Content ArticleThis document from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has been produced to help deliver early, co-ordinated and effective action following incidents where there is ‘reasonable suspicion’ that a patient or service user’s death or ‘serious life-changing harm’ occurred as a result of an incident where there is suspected criminal activity in the course of healthcare delivery. This document will: assist those responsible for carrying out any safety, regulatory or criminal investigation provide clarity for all involved on their responsibilities and liabilities help to ensure that such investigations are handled correctly.
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News Article
Families urge NHS to publish full report into Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Families of the victims of Nottingham knife killer Valdo Calocane have urged NHS England to rethink a decision not to publish a report into the care he received in full. Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after killing 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, and 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates, before attempting to kill three others, in a spate of attacks in Nottingham in June 2023. Prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to murder after medical evidence showed he had paranoid schizophrenia. He was later sentenced for manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility and attempted murder. A summary of the independent mental health homicide report is due to be made publicly available later this week, but the full version will be kept confidential due to “data protection legislation relating to patient information”. Speaking on behalf of the families ahead of the NHS England (NHSE) report's publication, adviser Radd Seiger said: “The families have already reached out to NHSE to strongly urge them to publish the findings in full. “They believe it is very much in the public interest and in the interests of safety to do so. NHSE have thus far refused.” An NHS England spokesperson said: “Independent mental health homicide reports are commissioned by NHS England and published in line with the requirements of confidentiality and data protection legislation relating to patient information.” In August, a damning report by the Care Quality Commission into the care previously received by Calocane found the trust’s mental health unit “minimised or omitted” key details of the serious risk he posed to others. The watchdog laid out “gross, systematic failures”. It found that risk assessments had played down Calocane’s refusal to take his medication and his persistent symptoms of psychosis, and that he was released after undergoing eight separate risk assessments. Read full story Source: The Independent, 4 February 2025 -
News ArticleA cyber attack has forced a US non-profit blood donor centre to postpone appointments despite declaring blood shortages just one week earlier. New York Blood Center Enterprises announced that it had “identified suspicious activity” affecting its IT systems on on 26 January 2025. In a statement, published on 29 January, it said: “We immediately engaged third-party cybersecurity experts to investigate and confirmed that the suspicious activity is a result of a ransomware incident. “We took immediate steps to help contain the threat and are working diligently with these experts to restore our systems as quickly and as safely as possible. Law enforcement has been notified.” On 1 February and 2 February 17 blood drives were cancelled as a result of the cyber attack. The centre, which is the largest independent blood supplier in the New York City area, confirmed that although it is still accepting blood donations, “processing times may be longer than normal”. There is no estimated timetable for fully restoring its operations. The attack echoes the ransomware attack on NHS pathology provider Synnovis in June 2024, which led to NHS Blood and Transplant urgently calling for donations of O Positive and O Negative blood to boost stocks. Read full story Source: Digital Health, 3 February 2025
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News ArticleSouth Carolina, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Indiana legislatures are considering bills that would classify abortion as homicide and therefore allow patients who have abortions to be charged with murder. Three of the states have the death penalty for murder. All four states already have bans or very strict restrictions on abortion. South Carolina bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, North Dakota has a total ban on abortion that is currently in the courts, and Oklahoma and Indiana have complete bans already. Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 27 January 2025
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News Article
Fraudsters steal £100m from NHS as scammers target hospitals
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Fraudsters have stolen more than £100m from the NHS in the past five years, exploiting weaknesses in IT systems to commit crimes ranging from stealing credit card data to hacking supplier emails, The Independent can reveal. Scams have cost the NHS the equivalent of funding more than 2,000 senior nurses’ salaries for a year or providing over 20,000 rounds of radiotherapy for cancer patients. Experts warned that the “inexcusable” losses, revealed as part of an Independent investigation, were ones the already overstretched health service can “ill afford”, calling for the NHS to protect itself better against fraud. Read full story Source: The Independent, 31 December 2024 -
News Article
Alder Hey children’s hospital explores ‘data breach’ after ransomware claims
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A ransomware gang claims to have stolen data from the Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, allegedly including patient records. The INC Ransom group said it had published screenshots of data on the dark web that contained the personal information of patients, donations from benefactors and procurement information. Sources confirmed that snapshots of spreadsheets purporting to be from Alder Hey’s systems had been displayed on the INC site carrying the message “evidence of large scale data”. There were 11 screenshots, understood to contain names, addresses, medical reports and financial papers. The Alder Hey children’s NHS foundation trust said it was aware of the alleged leak and was working to verify whether the data belonged to the hospital. “We are aware that data has been published online and shared via social media that purports to have been obtained illegally from systems shared by Alder Hey and Liverpool Heart and Chest hospital NHS foundation trust. We are working with partners to verify the data that has been published and to understand the potential impact,” the trust said. Alder Hey treats more than 450,000 patients a year making it one of Europe’s busiest children’s hospitals. It said its services were operating as normal and patients should continue to attend appointments. The hospital said it was working with the National Crime Agency to secure its IT systems and that the alleged data theft was not linked to another “cyber incident” that occurred this week at the nearby Wirral university teaching hospital NHS trust. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 November 2024 -
News Article
‘I acted in good faith’ says Letby trust CEO
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A former trust chief executive at the centre of the Lucy Letby scandal has defended his actions, stating both he and other executives were “acting in good faith”. Tony Chambers, who led The Countess of Chester Foundation Trust from December 2012 until September 2018, spoke publicly for the first time since Letby’s conviction last year, giving evidence to the public inquiry into the events. Neonatal nurse Letby was convicted last year of murdering seven babies, and attempting to murder seven more, from 2015-16, while working in the hospital. Mr Chambers told the inquiry on Wednesday: “I stand by the decisions that we made. We were acting in good faith. I was acting in good faith. I listened to the doctors when they raised their concerns. I also listened to the nurses when they raised their support [for Letby].” Since her conviction, Chester paediatricians have accused the executives of pushing back on concerns they raised, rather than taking them seriously. Part of their response was to commission several internal and external reviews. Mr Chambers defended his actions. “I was being presented with things that, at times, felt quite binary. I never took a binary view. I listened to both. “Therefore, Letby was removed from frontline duties and therefore we also focused on the safety of the unit, redesignated [downgraded it so it did not take high-risk cases] and so forth, and all the inquiries that went through were done all in good faith. “The biggest cause of unnatural, unexplained deaths in maternity and neonatal units is not deliberate harm, but failure in systems of care. There are many examples. The Kirkup report, the Ockenden report, many, many examples.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 27 November 2024
