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‘Short termism’ is undermining NHS savings and safety, warns CEO

The government must allow health systems to plan their finances over a longer period to help deliver ‘real’ savings by rationalising services, says a leading chief executive.

Kevin McGee, who recently stepped down from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, said the “short-termism” baked into the annual NHS budget cycle is a major source of frustration for local leaders.

Many trusts and systems have struggled to deliver their financial plans this year due to the savings required, and Mr McGee warned that continuing to “salami slice” the budgets will exacerbate patient safety risks.

He said Lancashire and many other systems urgently need to rationalise and consolidate acute services on fewer sites, which would bring significant cost savings. However, changes such as these can often take years to plan and implement.

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Source: HSJ, 1 November 2023

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Black and Asian people find it harder to access NHS mental health services

Black, Asian and minority ethnic people experience longer waiting times, and are less likely to be in recovery after treatment, when accessing NHS mental health services compared with their white counterparts, a report has found.

The research looked at 10 years’ worth of anonymised patient data from NHS Talking Therapies, formerly known as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies – an NHS programme that launched in 2008 to improve patient access to NHS mental health services. A total of 1.2 million people accessed NHS Talking Therapies services in 2021-22, and by 2024 the programme aims to help 1.9 million people in England with anxiety or depression to access treatment.

The report, Ethnic Inequalities in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, commissioned by the NHS Race and Health Observatory and undertaken by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, found that people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds were less likely to go on to have at least one treatment session, despite having been referred by their GP, than their white counterparts.

Dr Lade Smith, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “For far too long we have known that people from minoritised ethnic groups don’t get the mental healthcare they need. This review confirms, despite some improvements, it remains that access, experience and outcomes of talking therapies absolutely must get better, especially for Bangladeshi people.

“There is progress, particularly for people from black African backgrounds, if they can get into therapy, but getting therapy in the first place continues to be difficult. This review provides clear recommendations about how to build on the improvements seen. I hope that decision-makers, system leaders and practitioners will act on these findings.”

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Source: The Guardian, 1 November 2023

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Warning as patients hospitalised after taking fake Ozempic weight-loss drug

People have been hospitalised after taking a fake version of the weight-loss control jab Ozempic, with 369 drugs seized by the UK’s medicines safety regulator.

The fake jabs, obtained without prescription through black market suppliers, were seized by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

Ozempic, the brand name for semaglutide, and demand for the medicine has contributed to shortages in the product, which is also used for people with type 2 diabetes.

The watchdog said a low number of patients had been hospitalised and reported serious side effects, including hypoglycaemic shock. Others ended up in a coma, which indicates the pens may have contained insulin rather than semaglutide.

It has urged the public not to buy drugs without a prescription and warned buying prescription-only medicines online “poses a direct danger to health”.

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Source: The Independent, 29 October 2023

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Patients waiting months could travel for treatment

Patients who have been waiting more than 40 weeks for treatment in England will be offered the option of getting seen in another part of the country.

About 400,000 will be contacted in the coming weeks and asked whether they would be willing to travel and how far.

Patients already have a right to ask for treatment elsewhere. But NHS England believes that by proactively contacting the longest waiters they will help unlock some of the worst bottlenecks in the system.

Only those who do not have an appointment already scheduled within the next eight weeks will receive the offer via text, email or letter.

The 400,000 figure represents about 5% of the total number waiting for treatment.

If a patient is happy to travel, the treatment could either be in an NHS or private sector hospital.

Those on low incomes will be entitled to some financial support to enable them to travel for treatment.

Patients will retain their place on the waiting list at their local hospital while other options are explored.

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Source: BBC News, 31 October 2023

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Parents of babies who died or were harmed in NHS care demand inquiry

Parents of babies who have died or been harmed as a result of poor care are demanding that ministers order a public inquiry into repeated failings in NHS maternity units.

They want Steve Barclay, the health secretary, to set up a judge-led statutory inquiry to investigate recurring problems in maternity services, which cost the NHS in England £2.6bn a year in damages.

Babies are still being damaged and dying, despite previous inquiries into maternity scandals at the Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford, and East Kent NHS trusts recommending changes. The NHS’s failure to improve maternity safety is so alarming that a public inquiry is needed to finally ensure that women and babies no longer come to harm, the families say.

The Maternity Safety Alliance, a group of relatives of newborns who have died due to lapses in NHS childbirth, warned that scandals will continue unless such an inquiry is held.

“Our babies are too precious to keep on ignoring the reality that despite a raft of national initiatives and policies implemented in the wake of investigations and reports, systemic issues continue to adversely impact on the care of women and babies.

“Far too much avoidable harm continues to devastate lives in circumstances that could and should be avoided. Fundamental reform is needed,” they said in a letter urging Barclay to intervene.

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Source: The Guardian, 31 October 2023

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'My NHS hell waiting for surgery and information'

Former BBC Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, now a writer and podcaster, has Parkinson's disease. Two weeks ago, after fracturing his elbow in a nasty fall, he found out just how difficult it can be to get answers from the NHS.

"Getting information about one's treatment seems like an obstacle race where the system is always one step ahead. But communication between medical staff within and between hospitals also appears hopelessly inadequate, with the gulf between doctors and nurses particularly acute.

"I also sense that, in some cases, new computer systems are slowing not speeding information through the system. On Saturday morning, as we waited in the surgical assessment unit, four nurses gathered around a computer screen while a fifth explained to them all the steps needed to check-in a patient and get them into a bed. It took about 20 minutes and appeared to be akin to mastering some complex video game beset with bear traps."

Rory's latest experience as a customer of the health service has left him convinced that more money and more staff won't solve its problems without some fundamental changes in the way it communicates.

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Source: BBC News, 29 October 2023

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Soaring private healthcare use piling pressure on NHS GPs, survey finds

Soaring use of private healthcare for tests and treatments is piling pressure on overstretched GP surgeries, with family doctors warning that standard NHS care is being squeezed as a result.

Record numbers of people are paying for private healthcare, with some having procedures such as cataract surgery and hip replacements, amid mounting frustration at NHS hospital waiting lists. Others are opting for private health checks, genetic testing or cosmetic surgery such as liposuction.

But the surge in private healthcare use is increasing the workload of GPs, many of whom say they are increasingly having to interpret questionable health checks done privately, organise blood tests or scans and manage additional administration related to private care. Some say more of their hours are being taking up providing follow-up appointments after patients paid for treatment or surgery abroad.

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Source: Guardian, 29 October 2023

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Whistleblowing ‘cost Hampshire doctor dearly’ after he loses tribunal

Dr Martyn Pitman claimed retaliatory victimisation after raising morale concerns but tribunal says it was his manner that cost him his job.

A doctor has said raising whistleblowing concerns about maternity care at his hospital “cost me very dearly” after he lost his employment tribunal.

Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Martyn Pitman was dismissed earlier this year from his job at the Royal Hampshire county hospital (RHCH) in Winchester, where he had worked for 20 years.

He told the Southampton tribunal, which concluded earlier this month, that he had been “subjected to brutal retaliatory victimisation” after exercising his rights under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.

A tribunal judgment released on Friday said there had been “unanimous” agreement that the arguments behind the whistleblowing claim “fail and are dismissed”.

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Source: Guardian, 29 October 2023

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The app that promised an NHS ‘revolution’ then went down in flames

Babylon Healthcare won NHS contracts after being championed by Matt Hancock but the company’s AI tech was oversold and it has now collapsed.
The NHS spent millions of pounds on a flawed AI chatbot whose creator used aggressive sales techniques and overpromised what it could do, former staff have claimed.

Babylon Health, a tech start-up championed by Matt Hancock and advised by Dominic Cummings, promised that its AI chatbot could keep patients who didn’t need to be seen by a health professional out of the overstretched NHS.

But the technology was not as sophisticated as the company claimed, with former staff now claiming that what began as a crude tool based on “decision trees written by doctors, put into an Excel spreadsheet” never realised its promised potential. Concerns — including the fact the app missed clear signs of a heart attack or dangerous blood clots — were raised.

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Source: The Times, 28 October 2023

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‘Misleading’ A&E figures in England hiding poor performance

NHS bosses are using misleading figures to hide dangerously poor performance by A&E units in England against the four-hour treatment target, emergency department doctors claim.

Some A&Es treat and admit, transfer or discharge as few as one in three patients within four hours, although the NHS constitution says they should deal with 95% of arrivals within that timeframe.

How well or poorly A&Es are doing in meeting the 95% target is not in the public domain because the data that NHS England publishes is for NHS trusts overall, not individual hospitals.

That means official figures are an aggregate of performance at sometimes two A&Es run by the same trust or include data for any walk-in centres, minor injuries units or urgent treatment centres that a trust also operates. Forty-eight trusts have two A&Es and many also run at least one of the latter.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), which represents A&E doctors, wants that system scrapped. It is urging NHS England to start publishing data that shows the true performance of every individual emergency department against the 95% standard.

“The current data is misleading,” Dr Adrian Boyle, the college’s president, told the Guardian. “It’s a good example of a lack of transparency and also of performance incentives. Being open about the long delays in some A&Es would shine a light in some dark places.”

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Source: The Guardian. 28 October 2023

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Trusts may no longer be fined for missing quality standards

Trusts may be spared financial penalties if they fail to meet care quality standards under new proposals from NHS England. 

NHSE is looking at “pausing” the financial element of the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme from next year according to information seen by HSJ. This states “a wider review of incentives for quality” is also under way.

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Source: HSJ, 30 October 2023

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Death of baby after UK hospital missed vitamin jab ‘beyond cruel’, parents say

The parents of a baby boy who died at seven weeks old after a hospital did not give him a routine injection have described the failure as “beyond cruel”.

William Moris-Patto was born in July 2020 at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, where it was recorded in error that he had received a vitamin K injection – which is needed for blood clotting. The shot is routinely given to newborns to prevent a deficiency that can lead to bleeding.

His parents, Naomi and Alexander Moris-Patto, 33-year-old scientists from Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, want to raise awareness about the importance of the vitamin after a coroner concluded William would not have died had the hospital administered the injection. On Friday, the coroner Lorna Skinner KC described the omission as “a gross failure in medical care amounting to neglect”.

Alexander Moris-Patto, a researcher at the University of Cambridge who recently co-founded William Oak Diagnostics to test for deficiencies in babies, said: “What’s come out of the inquest for me is that the systems they [the trust] put in place to try to prevent this happening again are not satisfactory.”

He stressed the importance of the vitamin K injection, adding that about 1% of the UK population opt out of it. “We want people to know more about it, to understand how critical it can be, and for hospitals to take seriously the responsibility they have in those first precious hours of a baby’s life,” he said.

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Source: The Guardian, 29 October 2023

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Complaints about poor NHS dental services rise 66% in five years

Record numbers of patients are complaining to the NHS Ombudsman about poor care, exorbitant fees and difficulty getting treatment from NHS dental services in England.

Mistakes by dentists mean some patients are being left in agony – in some cases unable to eat – while others are being landed with huge bills for work on their teeth.

“Poor dental care leaves patients frustrated, in pain and out of pocket,” said Rob Behrens, the parliamentary and health service ombudsman.

The number of complaints he receives every year about NHS dental services has jumped from 1,193 in 2017-18 to 1,982 in 2022-23 – a rise of 66%.

Behrens also disclosed that the proportion of complaints he upholds about NHS dentistry after an investigation has increased from 42% to 78% over the same period. That 78% figure for upheld complaints about dental services is “significantly more” than for any other area of NHS care, such as GP, hospital or mental health care, where the overall average is 60%, he said.

Dentistry has become one of the public’s main concerns about the NHS, especially the obstacles many people face when trying to access NHS care. A BBC survey last year found that 90% of surgeries across the UK were not accepting new adult patients and 80% were not taking on children as new patients.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 October 2023

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“I’ve been mocked, scolded and gaslighted”: a harmed patient’s experience of orthodontic treatment

A patient harmed by orthodontic treatment shares their story

We want to hear from patients with experience of NHS and/or private orthodontists and dentists in any healthcare setting, including community practices and hospitals.

  • Did the orthodontist/dentist give you the treatment and support you needed?
  • If you had ongoing problems, how did the orthodontist/dentist and other healthcare professionals respond?
  • Have you tried to make a complaint?

Share your experience of orthodontist and dentistry services

 

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Michael Watt hearing: Lawyers withdraw over mental health concerns

Lawyers for a doctor at the centre of Northern Ireland's biggest patient recall have withdrawn from his new fitness to practise hearing.

Legal representatives for Michael Watt said they are "concerned about his serious mental health condition".

They told the Medical Practice Tribunal Service that the continuation of the hearing in public "presents a real risk to his mental health".

A new fitness to practise hearing began in September.

The legal team has also formally withdrawn an application to the tribunal for Michael Watt to remove himself from the medical register.

It followed a ruling by the High Court earlier this year to quash a decision where he previously was voluntary erased from the medical register.

 

The tribunal is inquiring into the allegation that, between 7 and 22 of October 2018, Michael Watt underwent a General Medical Council assessment of the standard of his professional performance.

It is alleged that that performance was unacceptable in the areas of maintaining professional performance, assessment, clinical management, record keeping and relationship with patients.

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Source: BBC News, 27 October 2023

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Performance of vital demand management service collapses

The performance of one of the NHS’s flagship strategies to reduce demand on over-stretched hospitals has collapsed, HSJ  can reveal.

Internal NHS figures show the number of processed advice and guidance requests (A&G) from GPs to hospital consultants fell by 28% between June and August, alongside a 32% fall in the number of processed cases where patients were diverted away from secondary care. This comes despite the overall number of A&G requests from GPs only falling by 5% in the same period.

A&G services allow GPs to contact hospital consultants before making a referral in order to ensure only clinically appropriate patients are referred to secondary care.

The model is described by NHS England as a ”a key part of the National Elective Care Recovery and Transformation Programme’s work.”

The data showing the fall in processed requests and diversions from secondary care came from NHSE’s specialist advice activity dashboard, which HSJ has seen.

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Source: HSJ, 26 October 2023

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Women 'angry and frustrated' over smear test review

Women affected by a review of cervical smears in the Southern Health Trust have said they are "angry, frustrated and scared" for their future.

About 17,500 patients in the trust are to have their previous smears re-checked as part of a major review of cervical screening dating back to 2008.

Some of these women will be recalled to have new smear tests carried out. But the process has not started yet and will take at least six months to complete.

Letters were sent out by the trust earlier this month to those affected.

The Southern Trust says it expects to recall around 4,000 women for a new smear test after it reviews 17,368 historic slides.

The Trust's medical director, Dr Steve Austin, told its board meeting that the review of slides was expected to start next week.

It also emerged that the number of calls from concerned women has increased with many asking for more "specialist" answers.

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Source: BBC News, 27 October 2023

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Sunak ‘highly unlikely’ to meet promise to cut NHS waiting lists, warn health leaders

Rishi Sunak is “highly unlikely” to meet his promise to cut NHS waiting lists, health leaders have warned, as a “sobering” analysis suggests the backlog will rise to 8 million and won’t begin to fall until next summer.

The prime minister vowed in January that “NHS waiting lists will fall” as he outlined five pledges upon which he staked his premiership. The backlog was 7.2 million at the time. It is now 7.75 million, the highest since records began in 2007.

But a grim report published today by the Health Foundation, an independent thinktank, will pile further pressure on Sunak over the NHS. The 15-page analysis predicts that the waiting list for hospital treatment in England will continue to rise for at least 10 months and ultimately top 8 million, regardless of whether or not strikes continue.

The thinktank modelled four different scenarios and concluded that, based on current trends, NHS waiting list figures could peak by August 2024 if there was no more strike action by healthcare workers, before starting to come down. If strikes were to continue, the list could increase a further 180,000, it said.

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “This analysis all but confirms that the prime minister’s pledge to reduce the size of the waiting list is increasingly unlikely to be met.”

He added: “As the Health Foundation report rightly says, the root cause of the delays to treatment that patients are now experiencing is a decade of underinvestment in the NHS.”

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Source: The Guardian, 27 October 2023

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A home help for eight days after giving birth? Why Dutch maternity care is the envy of the world

To new parents processing the shock of delivery and swimming in hormones, newborns can feel like a tiny, terrifying mystery; unexploded ordinance in a crib. “We were totally unprepared,” says Odilia. Neither she or her husband had ever changed a nappy and had no idea the baby needed feeding every three hours. “If you’re a new mum or dad, you have no idea,” recalls Anouk, a new mother. “I’m a doctor,” says Zarah, another new mother, incredulously. “So, you would expect that I’d know something, and I knew some things, but you really don’t have any clue.”

The difference for these new parents, compared to the rest of us, is that they gave birth in the Netherlands. That meant help was instantly at hand in the form of the kraamzorg, or maternity carer. Everyone who gives birth in the Netherlands, regardless of their circumstances, has the legal right – covered by social insurance – to support from a maternity carer for the following week.

These trained professionals come into your home daily, usually for eight days, providing advice, reassurance and practical help. It’s a different role to midwives, who continue to monitor women and babies after the birth in the Netherlands; the maternity carer updates the midwife on the mother and baby’s health and progress as well as supporting the parents as they come to terms with their new child.

A maternity carer in the Netherlands, explains Betty de Vries of Kenniscentrum Kraamzorg, the organisation that registers maternity carers, “takes care of the woman the first week, advises her on breastfeeding and bottle feeding, hygiene, gives advice … everything to do with safe motherhood and a safe baby. She is there for the whole day most of the time so she can see how they are doing.” Her colleague, director Esther van der Zwan, adds: “It’s a lot of responsibility.” To prepare, maternity carers train for three years – a combination of academic and on-the-job placements – and have regular refresher training in everything from CPR to breastfeeding support.

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Scottish Covid Inquiry: Care home residents 'left to starve'

Some care home residents may have been "neglected and left to starve" during the pandemic, Scotland's Covid Inquiry is expected to hear.

Lawyers representing bereaved relatives said they also anticipate the inquiry will hear some people were forced into agreeing to "do not resuscitate" plans.

Shelagh McCall KC told the inquiry that evidence to be led would "point to a systemic failure of the model of care".

The public inquiry is investigating Scotland's response to the pandemic.

Ms McCall is representing Bereaved Relatives Group Skye, a group of bereaved relatives and care workers from Skye and five other health board areas of Scotland.

In her opening statement, she told the public inquiry that families wanted to know why Covid was allowed to enter care homes and "spread like wildfire" during the pandemic.

She added: "As well as revealing the suffering of individuals and their families, we anticipate the evidence in these hearings will point to a systemic failure of the model for the delivery of care in Scotland, for its regulation and inspection.

"We anticipate the inquiry will hear that people were pressured to agree to do not resuscitate notices, that people were not resuscitated even though no such notice was in place, that residents may have been neglected and left to starve and that families are not sure they were told the truth about their relative's death."

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Source: BBC News, 25 October 2023

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Lack of ownership within NHSE for struggling service is ‘complete failure of leadership’

No senior NHS England director is prepared to take responsibility for ADHD services — which are facing waits of up to a decade and severe medication shortages — HSJ has discovered. 

Despite soaring demand for assessments and widespread drug shortages recently triggering a national patient safety alert, responsibility for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder services does not sit within any NHS England directorate.

HSJ understands that none of NHSE’s mental health, learning disability, or autism programmes have been given any resources for ADHD. It is also claimed that the medical and long-term conditions teams “are not very interested” in taking responsibility, and “assumed someone else was doing it”.

A senior source, very close to the issue, told HSJ that no NHS senior director had taken “ownership” of the issue, and there was a widespread misapprehension that responsibility for ADHD services was part of the autism remit given to the mental health directorate. 

“We haven’t got the attention we need around ADHD,” said the source, “we need a [dedicated] neurodiversity programme.”

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Source: HSJ, 26 October 2023

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Several hospitalised in Austria after using suspected fake diabetes drug

Several people have been admitted to hospital in Austria after using suspected fake versions of Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic, the country’s health safety body has said, the first report of harm to users as a European hunt for counterfeiters widened.

The patients were reported to have suffered hypoglycaemia and seizures, serious side-effects that indicate that the product contained insulin instead of Ozempic’s active ingredient semaglutide, the health safety regulator Bundesamt für Sicherheit im Gesundheitswesen (BASG) said on Monday.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) warned last week that pens falsely labelled as Ozempic were in circulation, and Austria’s criminal investigation service said on Monday that the fake injection pens could still be in circulation.

The Danish maker of the drug, Novo Nordisk, has warned of a rise in the online offers of counterfeit Ozempic as well as its weight-loss drug Wegovy, both based on semaglutide.

“It appears that this shortage is being exploited by criminal organisations to bring counterfeits of Ozempic to market,” said BASG.

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Source: The Guardian, 24 October 2023

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NHS England to investigate why dead people invited for Covid and flu jabs

The NHS has launched an investigation after it sent “priority” letters to people who died years ago, in some cases decades, urging them to book flu and Covid-19 jabs to reduce their risk of serious illness.

The health service is asking eligible patients to arrange appointments for both vaccines to avoid a potential “twindemic” of flu and coronavirus this winter, which would pile further pressure on hospitals and GP surgeries.

“You are a priority for seasonal flu and Covid-19 vaccinations,” the two-page letter tells recipients. “This is because you are aged 65 or over (by 31 March 2024).

However, some of the letters, which contain personal information such as NHS numbers, have been sent to people who died years ago. Others have been sent to people who are not eligible for the vaccines, with no connection to the addressee.

In a statement, NHS England told the Guardian it was investigating. It declined to answer questions about when the error was first discovered, what had caused it and how many people had been affected.

“We have been made aware of some letters sent in error and appreciate this may have been upsetting for those who received it – we are working as quickly as possible to investigate this,” a spokesperson for NHS England said.

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Source: The Guardian, 24 October 2023

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Four trusts report quarter of all ‘critical incidents’

More than a quarter of ‘critical incidents’ have been declared by just four trusts since the start of the crisis in urgent and emergency care.

Data obtained by HSJ shows 241 critical incidents have been declared by organisations due to “operational” or “system pressures” between April 2021, when long waits for urgent care began to surge upwards, and last month. Four trusts account for 68 of these (28%).

Critical incidents are declared when the level of disruption “results in an organisation temporarily or permanently losing its ability to deliver critical services, or where patients and staff may be at risk of harm”. These incidents may require “special measures and support from other agencies, to restore normal operating functions,” according to the NHS England definition. 

Most critical incidents were only in place for a few days before being stood down by the trust or system, but some were in place for much longer – sometimes for several months at a time, the data suggests.

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Source: HSJ, 25 October 2023

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Jasper Brooks inquest: Baby died due to 'neglect' at hospital

A coroner has found neglect contributed to a baby's death at the hospital where he was born.

Jasper Brooks died at the Darent Valley Hospital in Kent on 15 April 2021. The coroner found gross failures by midwives and consultants at the hospital and says Jasper's death was "wholly avoidable".

Jasper was a second child for Jim and Phoebe Brooks. Due to a complication during pregnancy of her first child, Phoebe was booked in to have an elective Caesarean section to deliver Jasper. But in April 2021 those plans changed overnight.

A check-up found Phoebe had raised blood pressure. She was told to remain in hospital and that the C-section would happen the following morning - nine days earlier than planned - when there were more staff on duty.

Jasper's parents say the midwives caring for Phoebe repeatedly failed to listen to her and Jim's concerns - that she was shaking violently, feeling sick, and thought she was bleeding internally.

"We felt like an inconvenience - no-one wanted to deal with me that night," Phoebe says. "The doctor didn't want to do my C-section, the midwife that's meant to be looking after me, she just doesn't really care.

"I remember saying clearly to her, 'my whole body is shaking - something's happening, and no-one's taking the time to listen to what I'm saying or listen in on my baby'."

At the inquest hearing, midwife Jennifer Davis was accused by the family's barrister, Richard Baker KC, of "failing to act on signs of blood loss, failing to determine if Phoebe was in active labour, and failing to call a senior doctor when necessary".

Jasper was born without a heartbeat, so a resuscitation team was called. But during the inquest, the family learned that further errors were made because the correct people failed to attend the resuscitation.

There was no consultant neonatologist on site - a doctor with expertise in looking after newborn infants or those born prematurely. Intubation, the process of placing a breathing tube into the windpipe - which should only take a few minutes - did not occur for 18 minutes. There was also a delay in administering adrenaline to try to stimulate Jasper's heart.

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Source BBC News, 24 October 2023

 

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Confirm there is no plan to ‘replace doctors’, NHSE told

The medical regulator has told NHS England to ‘directly tackle’ a perception there is a plan to replace doctors with physician associates amid an ‘intense’ debate about their future.

General Medical Council chief executive Charlie Massey wants NHS England and health systems in the devolved nations to address several issues surrounding the expansion of medical associate roles.

This follows intense debate over recent weeks, including multiple media reports of safety incidents where the involvement of physicians and anaesthesia associates has been questioned. The debate has been partially prompted by ambitions in the long-term workforce plan to increase their numbers, and the impact this would have on post-graduate medical training.

Last week almost 90% cent of Royal College of Anaesthetists members voted to pause the rollout of anaesthesia associates, after an extraordinary general meeting. This prompted NHSE leaders to stress to trusts that associates should be working within established guidelines and have appropriate supervision.

In response, Mr Massey has written to NHSE, calling for it to: “Directly tackle the perception that there is a plan for the health services to ‘replace’ doctors with PAs or AAs by convening and leading a system-wide discussion on an agreed vision for these roles.”

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Source: HSJ, 25 October 2023

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