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News Article
Millions in compensation could be owed to women with mesh implants
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Mesh implants returned to the national spotlight as Sling the Mesh campaigners appeared on Good Morning Britain to highlight the devastating impact of surgical mesh procedures—and the urgent need for compensation and systemic reform. Campaign founder Kath Sansom was joined by Sharron Mahoney – who suffered severe autoimmune complications and chronic pain following rectopexy mesh surgery. Remarkably, Sharron’s symptoms began to clear within days of mesh removal -powerfully underscoring the direct link between these devices and the serious harm they can cause. Sharron’s story highlights the critical work of researchers such as Nicholas Farr from Sheffield University who recently published this study showing the plastic particles of surgical mesh can trigger autoimmune diseases – even after removal. Watch interview -
Content ArticleIn this video, Dr Gail Busby and Dr Andrew Heck discuss the option of sedation for hysteroscopy. Hysteroscopy involves inserting a narrow telescope into the womb (uterus) to see inside. There are several options for pain relief for this procedure. Dr Heck touches on all of the options and discusses sedation in detail. Further reading on the hub: Painful hysteroscopy discussion thread Through the hysteroscope: Reflections of a gynaecologist
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News Article
Vaginal mesh particles ‘could trigger autoimmune response even after removal’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Microscopic particles left behind by vaginal mesh could continue to trigger the immune system to attack healthy tissue even after the material has been removed, according to researchers. Experts suggest allergy testing patients before they are fitted with mesh may help to better understand why complications happen in some cases. Campaign group Sling the Mesh said the majority of its members have developed a reaction they believe is down to the material, including autoimmune diseases, unexplained rashes and chronic fatigue. Transvaginal mesh (TVM) implants are made from synthetic materials such as polypropylene, a type of thermoplastic, and have been used to treat pelvic organ prolapse and incontinence after childbirth. However, they can cause serious harm to some women, with side effects including infection, pelvic pain, and incontinence. The NHS restricted its use of TVM implants in 2018 and they are now used only as a last resort through a high-vigilance programme of restricted practice. A new article led by Dr Nicholas Farr, published in the journal Nature Reviews Urology, analysed studies which suggest polypropylene is a material which causes autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (Asia). Asia arises following exposure to substances that enhance the immune response in the likes of vaccines, silicone implants, or other foreign materials. Symptoms can vary widely, but include chronic fatigue and chronic pain. Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 June 2025 Related reading on the hub: Read a blog Dr Nicholas Farr wrote for the hub on medical device safety -
News Article
'I'm terrified of food - but I can't get specialist eating disorder treatment'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A woman whose wait for a diagnosis of a lesser known eating disorder left her feeling like a "problem that cannot be solved" has called for reform of how the condition is treated by Northern Ireland's health service. Sinead Quinn, from Londonderry, said binge eating compulsions had made her "a prisoner in her own home, afraid of food and afraid of herself". Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is not currently treated by eating disorder services in Northern Ireland - patients are instead referred to general mental health services. The Department of Health said regional adult eating disorder services were commissioned to treat anorexia, bulimia and atypical presentations of these conditions. BED is the second most common eating disorder in the UK, after atypical eating disorders, according to UK health assessment body NICE, external. The Department of Health said it did not collate data on how many people in Northern Ireland are living with BED. It also said there was no current review of the way the condition is treated. Experts say specialist care within the health service is urgently needed to help people get a formal diagnosis and recover from BED. Prof Laura McGowan, from the Centre for Public Health at Queen's University, hopes the recently announced roll-out of a regional obesity management service for Northern Ireland would include screening of eating disorders like BED. "BED is simply not widely recognised and the services for it not widely commissioned," she said. "For BED patients, especially those living with obesity, there is such an unmet need." Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 June 2025 -
Content ArticleEvidence of polypropylene mesh degradation has revealed particle accumulation in surrounding tissues, raising concerns about potential local and systemic immune responses. Associations between polypropylene degradation and autoimmune/autoinflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants-like symptoms have been made, and vigilant clinical assessment is important, especially in patients with a predisposition for allergy or autoimmune diseases. Related reading on the hub: Read a blog author Dr Nicholas Farr wrote for the hub on medical device safety
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News Article
'I will fade away without vital pancreas medication'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A Kent man who has had three-quarters of his pancreas removed says he will "fade away" without a medication that there has been a nationwide shortage of since 2024. Paul Elcombe, from Hartley, takes Creon three times a day, after major surgery three years ago left him no longer able to create enough enzymes to break down food. As it stands, he has three and a half weeks worth of tablets left, having only had one prescription filled this year. He said: "You need it to survive, without it [Creon] your body can't break down the food...it's as important as insulin is to a diabetic." The nationwide shortage, which the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) says is a "European-wide" supply issue, has forced the 63-year-old and his wife to spend time travelling to different pharmacies in a bid to get the medication. He said: "I know it sounds dramatic, but without it you will just fade away...it's very scary." Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 June 2025 -
Content Article
In 2015, few people had even heard of pelvic mesh implants, let alone the devastating complications they could cause. Women were told their pain was “normal,” their concerns dismissed, their injuries hidden behind a wall of medical gaslighting. But what began as a small group of women raising their voices against an invisible epidemic turned into one of the UK’s most powerful grassroots campaigns for patient safety and medical justice. As Sling The Mesh marks its 10th anniversary, it celebrates a decade of courage, compassion, and relentless campaigning that has changed lives – and policy – forever. Over the next decade, Sling The Mesh will: Demand proper aftercare and support for all mesh-injured patients. Push for accountability from manufacturers and regulators. Campaign for awareness around hernia and other less-recognised mesh complications. Advocate for safer alternatives and patient-centred decision-making. Empower the next generation of campaigners to keep raising their voices. Push for tougher regulations and oversight of medical devices. Lobby for Sunshine legislation for transparency around funding from industry to the healthcare sector which can bias prescribing and affect research integrity. -
News Article
Pharmacists warn drug shortage affecting cancer patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Pharmacists have warned that "one of the worst" examples of medicine shortages is affecting cancer patients. Creon, a pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (Pert), helps digestion and is required by patients with pancreatic cancer, cystic fibrosis, and chronic pancreatitis. It is thought more than 61,000 patients in the UK need the medicine. Some patients are said to be "skipping meals" to ration their medication due to a shortage of it, according to the National Pharmacy Association (NPA). A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said there were "European-wide supply issues" and it was "working closely with industry and the NHS" to mitigate the impact on patients. Without the drug, patients lose weight and strength, which means their ability to cope with treatment such as chemotherapy is reduced. Some experts have predicted shortages continuing until next year. The Department of Health and Social Care has extended a serious shortage protocol for Creon which has already been in place for a year. This indicates concern about shortages of a medicine and allows pharmacists to give patients an alternative - though they argue other drugs are also in short supply. A spokesperson for the department said the "European-wide supply issues" were caused by manufacturing supply constraints. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 June 2025 Related reading on the hub: Medication supply issues: A pharmacist’s perspective Medicines shortages: minimising the impact on patients -
News Article
'I feel forgotten after 100 weeks on urgent surgery list'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Tracey Meechan's pain from an ovarian cyst is so severe she can't bend over - she relies on her children to help her put her shoes and socks on. Every day the 41-year-old wakes up and wonders if any new symptoms are going to appear. She has been on an "urgent" NHS waiting list for surgery for 100 weeks and now feels "forgotten". As the latest NHS Scotland waiting times data is due to be published, Mrs Meechan told BBC Scotland News that the wait for treatment has affected every part of her life. She said: "I can't live my life to the fullest. I can't do the activities I want to do with my kids. I can't do the job that I love. "I was signed off work at the end of January as a home carer because of the pain and the physicality of my job - I can't do it. "My mental health has declined. This has been years and the symptoms have worsened. It's impacted my life, my personal life and my family." Before the pandemic it was rare for anybody to face a wait of a whole year to start NHS treatment, but that is not the case now. Waiting always has consequences – more frequent visits to the GP to manage pain, struggles to work or stay healthy in other aspects of life. The government says tackling waits is a priority and has set a target to create 150,000 additional appointments this year. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 May 2025 -
News ArticleAlmost a quarter of elective operations in NHS hospitals in England that were cancelled at the last minute took longer than the required 28 days to rearrange, figures show. They also reveal that the number of cancellations breaching the 28-day standard for a new date has more than doubled within a decade, from 9,000 in 2015-16 to 19,400 in 2024-25. The figures obtained by the House of Commons library on behalf of the Liberal Democrats show that a decade ago only 7% of cancelled elective operations were not rearranged within 28 days. Last year’s total of 19,400 cancellations not rearranged in time represents 23% of the 85,400 operations due to take place. This figure was also up by 1,500 from the previous year – an increase of 8%. Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem health and social care spokesperson, said the figures showed patients were being abandoned. She said: “Patients are being left in the lurch, forced to wait in pain and distress for potentially life-altering operations. Each of these delays represents an extra month that someone’s misery is prolonged.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 March 2025
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Content ArticleIn recent years we have become familiar with the idea of “dental deserts” – areas of the country where it is impossible to get basic dental treatment on the NHS. The situation was already bad five years ago when, pre-pandemic, only half of the adult population (49%) had access to an NHS dentist. Covid accelerated the decline and now only 4 in 10 have access. This report, from the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts. explains that in 2024 the then government launched a dental recovery plan. There were three main goals: to deliver an additional 1.5 million courses of treatment in 2024–25, to improve children’s oral health through the Smile for Life programme, and to introduce measures to support the dental workforce. The Committee’s judgement on the plan is blunt. They say that it has “comprehensively failed to deliver improvements in access to NHS dentistry”. One consequence is that “the most vulnerable patients continue to suffer the most from long–standing failures in the system”. The underlying cause, according to the Committee, was that “The modelling that underpinned the dental recovery plan was flawed, and even if the plan had performed in line with expectations it was never actually ambitious enough to meet its stated aim of ensuring that everyone who needs to see an NHS dentist would be able to".
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News ArticlePeople in at least 70 countries are missing out on much-needed medical treatment thanks to aid cuts by the US and other nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) director has said – in a stark warning about the colossal impact of these moves. The Donald Trump-sanctioned slashing of US-funded programmes under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the most prominent example. But Germany, France and the Netherlands have also taken an axe to aid spending, while the UK is set to cut foreign assistance spending by billions of pounds. "Patients are missing out on treatments, health facilities have closed, health workers have lost their jobs, and people face increased out-of-pocket health spending," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an address to the World Health Assembly. “Many ministers have told me that sudden and steep cuts to bilateral aid are causing severe disruption in their countries and imperilling the health of millions of people,” Dr Tedros added. Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 May 2025
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News Article
‘My son is falling through the cracks of the child mental health system’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A six-year wait for ADHD treatment on the NHS highlights a growing crisis. One mother tells of her frustrations: I wasn’t surprised by the children’s commissioner report out today, calling for urgent action to tackle waiting lists in mental health care for children. Ten years ago, I received a call from my son's reception teacher. They asked me to come in and said he was showing some developmental delays, and autistic traits. Within six months my son, who is now 15, was diagnosed with autism and ADD (attention deficit disorder) and medicated. Fast forward to his younger brother, and he has been languishing on a waiting list for six years. The school referred him to CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services) to be assessed for ADHD in November 2021. The school could see how much I was struggling and sent CAMHS an email each week asking where he was on the waiting list. Despite this, it took until October 2024 for him to be diagnosed with ADHD. By then he was in secondary school. Something Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, said really stuck out to me. She said: “The numbers in this report are staggering — but these are not numbers, these are real children.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 19 May 2025 -
News ArticleA Northern Ireland nurse failed to properly manage a dying patient's pain on the last night of her life, a tribunal has heard. Veteran staff nurse Bernard McGrail has been issued with a four-month suspension order over his failings in dealing with an end-of-life care resident while on a night shift at a Spa Nursing Homes Group facility in July, 2021. A Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness to practice panel said Mr McGrail's misconduct had caused "emotional distress" to the family of the woman, identified as Resident A. It added: "There was a real risk of harm to Resident A through the inadequate management of their pain on their last evening." A remorseful and apologetic Mr McGrail admitted a series of allegations including: a failure to appropriately manage Resident A’s pain; failure to investigate whether Resident A’s syringe driver was working correctly and a failure to escalate that the alarm on Resident A’s syringe driver sounded repeatedly. Mr McGrail also admitted that without clinical justification, he administered a 5mg doses of Apixiban to Resident B on three dates on October 2020. And on occasions between April 2020 and May 2022 failed to administer and/or record the administration of named medications to six other residents. Read full story (paywalled) Source: Belfast Telegraph, 12 May 2025
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News Article
Children waiting more than two years for tooth extractions
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Children needing a general anaesthetic for tooth extraction are waiting nearly three years in a hidden crisis that is not recorded on national waiting lists. A national report on hospital dentistry found there were more children on locally held waiting lists for assessment than on the nationally reported waiting list – 27,285 compared to 22,474. Some of the longest waits are thought to be in Kent and Medway, where 200 children are waiting for dental extractions – many of them with autism or learning disabilities. The longest wait is 143 weeks — about two years and nine months. The issue is going under the radar because there is a lack of a consistent dataset for community dental services, which are responsible for dentistry for children with special care needs, such as physical or learning disabilities. Children with additional needs often can’t have teeth extracted under a local anaesthetic and instead need to be admitted to a hospital with a paediatric intensive care unit where they can have a general anaesthetic. Being on a locally held waiting list – typically when a community dental service is not part of an acute trust – can mean commissioners are unaware of the scale of children waiting. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 6 May 2025 -
News ArticleOne by one, 29 women sat before Dr Laura Abbott in similarly small, nondescript rooms across five UK prisons, and described losing their babies. They were not bereaved in the conventional sense – although they were clearly holding in grief, as once the guards had left, they let rare public tears fall. Prisoners who had given birth in custody, they had been separated from their newborn children. In some cases this had happened within four or five days of becoming mothers. “It was worse than giving birth,” said one woman. “That was the hardest pain of my life. I’ve never felt pain like it … It was in my chest, in my heart. Even in my belly.” “It was as if my whole body craved him,” said another woman. “It’s like losing a limb, losing your sight,” a third explained. “It’s like losing any hope.” Some of the mothers were still producing milk when Abbott and her assistants spoke to them. One said she was so reluctant to raise this in the prison that she was expressing manually into her cell sink. Abbott, 54, a former midwife and senior lecturer in midwifery at the University of Hertfordshire, spoke to the women last year for the Lost Mothers Project, which will be launching at the British Museum in London on 8 May. A collaboration between the university, the charity Birth Companions and an advisory team of women with lived experience, the report, which is the result of three years of research, examines the experiences and needs of an invisible cohort. Anna (not her real name), 38, has endured this. She was six months pregnant when she was sent to prison nine years ago for her first offence. She was at full term when she finally stood before an MBU board. She is vocal about the horrors of giving birth in custody. She had to press her call bell “four or five times for an hour” when she felt labour pains. She says she was taken to hospital in handcuffs: “[The guard] told me to be grateful that she put me in long cuffs.” They were taken off before she was taken to the delivery suite – since 2022, it is mandated that restraints must not be used on pregnant women taken to appointments unless they are deemed essential. But it is when she talks about her subsequent separation from her son that Anna momentarily loses her words. She was initially granted an MBU place, but when bailed before sentencing she had to go back to the beginning, and needed to reapply when she returned to prison. This bureaucratic delay resulted in a five-week separation. Anna began to feel suicidal, and even stopped her mum bringing her son to visit. “It was just getting harder. Sometimes my legs felt heavy, as if they didn’t want to walk away,” she says. “Sorry, I’m getting upset …” She continues: “It was as if somebody was tearing my heart out.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 6 May 2025
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Content ArticleMore than a million older people faced waits of 12 hours or more in A&Es in England last year – and shockingly, the older a person is, the more likely they are to experience a long stay in the emergency department – new data from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) reveals.It comes as the College publishes a new report looking at the care older people receive in emergency departments.The research, titled ‘Care of Older People 2023-24’, is part of the College’s clinical Quality Improvement Programme which aims to improve the care of patients attending Emergency Departments. This interim report reflects the findings of the second year of the three-year programme. Across the UK, 149 Emergency Departments submitted 24, 865 patient cases from 4 October 2023 – 3 October 2024. A key finding was that among patients over the age of 75, there was insufficient screening for three common conditions which primarily affect this age group: Only 16% of patients were screened for delirium – a reversible condition which can be associated with mortality, characterised by a sudden change in mental function.On average less than half (48%) had screening to assess the risk of falling.An average of 56% underwent screening for general frailty – which if detected can trigger early intervention and support in hospital and in the community.Despite a year-on-year improvement from 2023, these patients are enduring the longest waits in A&Es and are bearing the brunt of an Urgent and Emergency Care system in crisis. Older people are often more likely to suffer with complicated or multiple health issues. This, combined with the wider issues related to a shortage of in-patient beds, mean they can often end up enduring extreme long waits in A&E – often on trolleys in corridors.
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News Article
The United States is witnessing the return of psychiatric imprisonment
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Across the USA, a troubling trend is accelerating: the return of institutionalization – rebranded, repackaged and framed as “modern mental health care”. From Governor Kathy Hochul’s push to expand involuntary commitment in New York to Robert F Kennedy Jr’s proposal for “wellness farms” under his Make America Healthy Again (Maha) initiative, policymakers are reviving the logics of confinement under the guise of care. These proposals may differ in form, but they share a common function: expanding the state’s power to surveil, detain and “treat” marginalized people deemed disruptive or deviant. Far from offering real support, they reflect a deep investment in carceral control – particularly over disabled, unhoused, racialized and LGBTQIA+ communities. Communities that have often seen how the framing of institutionalization as “treatment” obscures both its violent history and its ongoing legacy. In doing so, these policies erase community-based solutions, undermine autonomy, and reinforce the very systems of confinement they claim to move beyond. Take Hochul’s proposal, which seeks to lower the threshold for involuntary psychiatric hospitalization in New York. Under her plan, individuals could be detained not because they pose an imminent danger, but because they are deemed unable to meet their basic needs due to a perceived “mental illness”. This vague and subjective standard opens the door to sweeping state control over unhoused people, disabled peopleand others struggling to survive amid systemic neglect. Hochul also proposes expanding the authority to initiate forced treatment to a broader range of professionals – including psychiatric nurse practitioners – and would require practitioners to factor in a person’s history, in effect pathologizing prior distress as grounds for future detention. This new era of psychiatric control is being marketed as a moral imperative. Supporters insist there is a humanitarian duty to intervene – to “help” people who are suffering. But coercion is not care. Decades of research show that involuntary (forced) psychiatric interventions often lead to trauma, mistrust, and poorer health outcomes. Forced hospitalization has been linked to increased suicide risk and long-term disengagement from mental health care. Most critically, it diverts attention from the actual drivers of distress: poverty, housing instability, criminalization, systemic racism and a broken healthcare system. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 April 2025 -
News Article
'We wait too long for endometriosis diagnoses'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
After seven years of doctors discounting my symptoms, Ellie Tutt joined the end of a fifty-five-week-long waiting list to find out whether she had endometriosis. About 1.5 million women in the UK, external are thought to have the condition, which causes pain and extreme tiredness as a result of tissue similar to the womb lining growing elsewhere in the body. But for many of these women, it is taking a long time to get a diagnosis. Endometriosis can cause chronic pain, heavy bleeding and, if untreated, organ damage, external and infertility. Despite this, Dr Kate Dyerson, a GP from Berkshire, said it was taking some women four or five trips to their doctor before they were taken seriously. She said: "I think there's a degree of ignorance among the medical profession as to how many women are affected." Women's medical problems had long been dismissed, she said, adding many doctors would assume a teenager was just adjusting to period pains. "I don't think it's sexist so much, I think it's that inbuilt sense that women have periods, periods are unpleasant, we don't want to talk about them, and if they hurt, well, take your pain elsewhere." Dr Dyerson said it took an average of eight years for women to get a diagnosis and felt GPs needed to get better at making referrals. Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 April 2025 -
News ArticleAlmost three thousand children had tooth decay so severe they attended A&E last year, new data reveals. MPs have called for an end to the “national scandal” facing NHS dental care, as new figures reveal that in some areas of the country, A&E attendances for tooth decay have risen 40-fold since 2019. Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrat Party under the Freedom of Information Act reveal 2,800 children attended A&E due to tooth decay issues last year – up by a fifth since 2019 but slightly down on 2023. Overall, there were 16,100 A&E attendances over tooth decay in 2024, with areas such as Northwest Anglia NHS Trust seeing cases increase from just 6 in 2019 to 238. The figures come after a report this month from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the national dental plan set out by the former government had “comprehensively failed”. The PAC’s report said the current national contract for dentists “remains unfit for purpose”, with current arrangements only sufficient for about half of England’s population to see an NHS dentist over two years. The Liberal Democrats’ health and social care spokesperson Helen Morgan said: "It is a national scandal that children are ending up in A&E in agony because they can’t get a dentist appointment. “Parents are being forced to watch their little ones cry through the night, all because the NHS dental system has been left to rot. We’re now seeing vast swathes of the country being turned into dental deserts, with no sign of things getting better. “This almost medieval situation of people pulling their own teeth out with pliers as they can’t get an appointment must end. That must start with a complete overhaul of the dental contract to boost the numbers of dentists and appointments and finally rid this country of dental deserts.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 April 2025
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News Article
Thousands of prisoners wrongfully restrained in hospital every year
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Pregnant women handcuffed during and after labour. Dying men shackled to their hospital bed. A prisoner restrained while having his leg amputated. Channel 4 News can reveal these are just some of the extraordinary cases where restraints are being wrongfully used on vulnerable prisoners while they’re receiving medical care. In a rare and exclusive interview, the Prisons Ombudsman, Adrian Usher, told us: “Thousands of people, men and women, are being restrained inappropriately… the fact that the Prison Service, frankly, get it wrong so frequently is an issue that we should all be concerned about.” Mr Usher said he has raised his own concerns many times with the Prison Service, but that not enough is being done quickly enough to tackle what he called “inhumane practices.” He is particularly concerned about cases like ‘Laura’ – a young ex-offender who spoke to us about being restrained while in labour in 2023. We’re not using her real name to preserve her anonymity. Serving time at HMP Bronzefield for drugs offences, she was deemed a “low risk” prisoner. She had suspected pre-eclampsia – a condition which can be life threatening for both mother and baby – and was handcuffed to a prison officer in hospital for hours after being induced and going into labour. “I felt like an animal. I was handcuffed and I was having a lot of pain in my tummy and I asked her if she could loosen my handcuffs and she argued she couldn’t do it. I was crying. I got angry and very sad for being there chained and going through the very fragile moment,” she said. “Many times I asked them to remove the chains, “ she went on. “I couldn’t have privacy with the doctor, I couldn’t use the toilet properly. And sometimes I couldn’t even walk properly. I couldn’t sleep. It was hurting me. Every time I ask them or question them about the handcuffs they told me that they had to use them, it was the rules.” Read full story Source: Channel 4 News, 8 April 2025 -
News Article
Almost 1.7 million hernia mesh implanted in NHS in 20 years
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Almost 1.7 million people have had hernia mesh surgery in the NHS since 2004, figures released by the NHS have revealed. The statistics do not include people who’ve had hernia mesh in private hospitals. Nobody can say how many are now suffering complications – because patients are not tracked for their lifetime. Yet campaigners and academics globally say it can take many years for mesh to cause problems- so the scale of suffering falls into a black hole of missing data. Moreover, support groups show that patients are being implanted with hernia mesh in their thousands ever year – but nobody is being given fully informed consent of the potential risks such as pain, loss of mobility, loss of sex life and losing the ability to have children. Also autoimmune diseases and allergies caused by the plastic mesh material. The figures came to light thanks to a Written Parliamentary Question asked by MP Sharon Hodgson, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for First Do No Harm. In its response, The Department of Health say: “Clinicians are expected to inform patients about risks associated with recommended treatments, including reasonable alternatives, to enable informed consent and a balanced patient decision.” But campaign group Sling The Mesh says that the majority of people are told hernia mesh is ‘not the mesh in the media’, or it is a new mesh, or that this is a gold standard treatment and that mesh receives undeserved negative attention. Read full story Source: Sling the Mesh, 25 March 2025 -
News Article
NHS billions wasted as bipolar patients left 'forgotten and failed'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Failing to properly diagnose and treat people with bipolar disorder, external is wasting billions of pounds a year in the UK, according to new data shared exclusively with the BBC. Experts say many of the estimated million people living with this condition are "ghosts in the system", whose lives are being torn apart by poorly managed extreme suicidal lows or manic, erratic highs. Emma was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in her early 30s, after experiencing a mental health crisis. When she was 32 weeks pregnant, her grandmother died unexpectedly, sending her into a "deep low". "I felt awful, but the perinatal team wouldn't take me on," she says. "They said my symptoms weren't that serious." When Emma gave birth, the extreme lows of her pregnancy were replaced by an unexpected high. She felt amazing in the days after her baby was born - but she didn't sleep and her behaviour became increasingly erratic. A few weeks later, her mood flipped again. When her baby was three weeks old, Emma took an overdose. It took a week in hospital for her liver function to return. But even after that, she was in and out of hospital for a year before finally being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and medicated correctly. "If I had the correct care, and been listened to during my pregnancy or even earlier, I could have avoided taking that overdose - 100%," she says. Experts have told the BBC how most people living with bipolar disorder in the UK are "undertreated, undiagnosed and left to try and survive in a system that has failed them". The majority who, like Emma, are eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, are incorrectly prescribed antidepressants initially, which makes their symptoms worse rather than better. Experts also say there is a lack of continuity of care from GPs through to psychiatrists. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), bipolar disorder is a manageable condition. Dr Trudi Seneviratne, registrar at the RCPsych and a commissioner on the Bipolar Commission, says it is "completely treatable" with a combination of medication, talking therapies and lifestyle factors. "But there are many, many people who are suffering in silence with lower levels of symptoms because there isn't a good clinical care pathway for them in the UK." Read full story Source; BBC News, 1 April 2025 -
News Article
Almost 1.7 million hernia mesh implanted in NHS in 20 years
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Almost 1.7 million people have had hernia mesh surgery in the NHS since 2004, figures released by the NHS have revealed. The statistics do not include people who’ve had hernia mesh in private hospitals. Nobody can say how many are now suffering complications – because patients are not tracked for their lifetime. Yet campaigners and academics globally say it can take many years for mesh to cause problems- so the scale of suffering falls into a black hole of missing data. Moreover, support groups show that patients are being implanted with hernia mesh in their thousands ever year – but nobody is being given fully informed consent of the potential risks such as pain, loss of mobility, loss of sex life and losing the ability to have children. Also autoimmune diseases and allergies caused by the plastic mesh material. The figures came to light thanks to a Written Parliamentary Question asked by MP Sharon Hodgson, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for First Do No Harm. In its response, The Department of Health say: “Clinicians are expected to inform patients about risks associated with recommended treatments, including reasonable alternatives, to enable informed consent and a balanced patient decision.” Read full story Source: Sling the Mesh, 25 March 2025 -
News Article
Corridor care ‘endemic’ in Welsh A&Es as RCEM research reveals shocking reality
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Every Emergency Department in Wales is caring for people in corridors new data from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has revealed. The survey asked clinicians to record various data points including how many patients were in the department, how many were being treated in corridors and in ambulances, and how many were waiting to be admitted. The findings, published today (24 March 2025), reveal that all 12 EDs in Wales had people being treated in corridors or waiting areas, and on at least one of the three sample days, all had patients being cared for in the back of ambulances. In total 44% of patients in departments at the time were waiting for an in-patient bed. The results revealed that: 12 out of 12 Welsh EDs had patients being treated in corridors Of the average total of 619 patients present in EDs at the time, 13.5% were being treated on trolleys in corridors and other inappropriate spaces. A further 10.7% of patients in waiting areas were deemed as needing a clinical space. 43.9% (272) of all patients were waiting for an inpatient bed. Every ED’s cubicles were full, with the average cubicle occupancy being 176%. The highest being 278% in one department where there were 75 patients and just 27 cubicles. Responding to the findings RCEM Vice President Wales, Dr Rob Perry, said: “Recently the Welsh Government said that compromising the quality of care, privacy, or dignity of patients only happens on ‘occasions when the NHS faces exceptional pressure’. “Well our research clearly shows that exceptional pressure is now the everyday norm in Wales’ Emergency Departments. “And this must not be dismissed as just being down to but the annual seasonal upsurge. I am confident the results would be similar which ever time of the year we undertook this survey. “These findings should shock and shame the Government into action. “So called ‘corridor care’ is dangerous, degrading, dehumanising and it is now endemic here in Wales. Addressing it and its causes must be a political priority, and it must act now.” Read full story Source: Royal College of Emergency Medicine, 24 March 2025
