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Sam

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  1. Sam
    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.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 29 October 2023
  2. Sam
    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.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian. 28 October 2023
  3. Sam
    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.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 29 October 2023
  4. Sam
    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.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 30 October 2023
    Related reading on the hub:
    “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
     
  5. Sam
    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.
  6. Sam
    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."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 25 October 2023
  7. Sam
    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.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 26 October 2023
  8. Sam
    A not-for-profit health system in Maine has threatened legal action against a 15-year-old boy for shedding light on alleged patient safety issues in the paediatric ward of one of its hospitals.
    Samson Cournane, a student at the University of Maine, started a petition (Patient Safety in Maine Matters) advocating for an investigation into Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center last year, claiming conditions at the hospital were unsafe.
    Mr Cournane’s mother, Dr Anne Yered, had previously been fired from the hospital after reportedly voicing safety concerns to the hospital’s CEO and president in 2020.
    In the petition, Mr Cournane said his mother was threatened by hospital staff after raising concerns, with one hospital manager going so far as to show up in her backyard to confront her. Dr Yered subsequently claimed she was wrongfully terminated.
    Mr Cournane then began pushing for an investigation into the hospital, outlining problems in the petition, which was addressed to US Representative Jared Golden. He alleged that the medical director of the paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) — a former colleague of his mother’s — finished just one year of a three-year critical care fellowship, and implied other hospital employees may be scared to come forward with safety concerns.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 4 September 2023
  9. Sam
    The mother of Martha Mills, whose preventable death in hospital has led to calls for extra patients' rights, has said she is to meet the health secretary to discuss "Martha's Rule".
    If introduced, it would give families a statutory right to get a second opinion if they have concerns about care.
    Merope Mills said patients needed more clarity and to feel empowered.
    Her daughter, Martha, died two years ago after failures in treating her sepsis at King's College Hospital.
    She had entered hospital with an injury to her pancreas after falling off her bike. The injury was serious but should never have been fatal. Within days she had died of sepsis.
    In an interview on Radio 4's Today programme, Mrs Mills said she had raised concerns but doctors told her the extensive bleeding was "a normal side-effect of the infection, that her clotting abilities were slightly off".
    The King's College Hospital Trust said it remained "deeply sorry that we failed Martha when she needed us most" and her parents should have been listened to.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 12 September 2023
  10. Sam
    A hospital review of mesh operations by a surgeon who left dozens of patients in agony is now looking into another type of procedure he carried out.
    Tony Dixon, who used mesh surgery to treat bowel problems, has always maintained he did the operations in good faith.
    Now it has emerged that other patients who had their rectum stapled are also being written to.
    Spire Hospital Bristol said its "comprehensive" review remains ongoing.
    Mr Dixon pioneered the use of artificial mesh to lift prolapsed bowels and a review of the care he gave patients receiving Laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy has already concluded.
    Now the Spire has contacted patients who underwent a Stapled Transanal Rectal Resection (STARR operation) with Mr Dixon.
    Many of the affected patients have told the BBC they did not give informed consent for the procedure and are in chronic pain.
    Read full story
    Source: 11 September 2023
  11. Sam
    Tonjanic Hill was overjoyed in 2017 when she learned she was 14 weeks pregnant. Despite a history of uterine fibroids, she never lost faith that she would someday have a child.

    But, just five weeks after confirming her pregnancy she seemed unable to stop urinating. She didn’t realize her amniotic fluid was leaking. Then came the excruciating pain.
    “I ended up going to the emergency room,” said Hill, now 35. “That’s where I had the most traumatic, horrible experience ever.”
    An ultrasound showed she had lost 90% of her amniotic fluid. Yet, over the angry protestations of her nurse, Hill said, the attending doctor insisted Hill be discharged and see her own OB-GYN the next day. The doctor brushed off her concerns, she said. The next morning, her OB-GYN’s office rushed her back to the hospital. But she lost her baby.
    Black women are less likely than women from other racial groups to carry a pregnancy to term — and in Harris County, where Houston is located, when they do, their infants are about twice as likely to die before their 1st birthday as those from other racial groups. Black fetal and infant deaths are part of a continuum of systemic failures that contribute to disproportionately high Black maternal mortality rates.
    “This is a public health crisis as it relates to Black moms and babies that is completely preventable,” said Barbie Robinson, who took over as executive director of Harris County Public Health in March 2021. “When you look at the breakdown demographically — who’s disproportionately impacted by the lack of access — we have a situation where we can expect these horrible outcomes.”
    Read full story
    Source: KFF Health News, 24 August 2023
  12. Sam
    More than 120,000 died waiting for NHS treatment, as backlog hits all-time high. 
    The number of NHS patients dying while waiting for treatment has doubled in five years, new figures suggest.
    More than 120,000 people died while on waiting lists last year, according to an analysis of health service data. The total is even higher than it was in lockdown, with health leaders saying the pandemic and NHS strikes have made clearing backlogs more difficult.
    Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “These figures are a stark reminder about the potential repercussions of long waits for care. They are heartbreaking for the families who will have lost loved ones and deeply dismaying for NHS leaders, who continue to do all they can in extremely difficult circumstances."
    “Covid will have had an impact on these figures – but we can’t get away from the fact that a decade of under-investment in the NHS has left it with not enough staff, beds and vital equipment, as well as a crumbling estate in urgent need of repair and investment.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Telegraph, 31 August 2023
  13. Sam
    The inquiry into how nurse Lucy Letby was able to murder seven babies will now have greater powers to compel witnesses to give evidence.
    In a significant move, ministers upgraded the independent inquiry after criticism from families of the victims that it did not go far enough.
    The inquiry, ordered after Letby was found guilty this month, was not initially given full statutory powers.
    Health Secretary Steve Barclay said he had listened to the families.
    He said he had decided a statutory inquiry led by a judge was the best way forward and "respects the wishes" of the families.
    Mr Barclay said the key advantage was the power of compulsion.
    "My priority is to ensure the families get the answers they deserve and people are held to account where they need to be," he added.
    He said an announcement about who would chair the inquiry would be made in the coming days - ministers have already said it will be a judge.
    Richard Scorer, a lawyer who is representing two of the families, welcomed the government's announcement.
    "It is essential that the chair has the powers to compel witnesses to give evidence under oath, and to force disclosure of documents. Without these powers, the inquiry would have been ineffectual and our clients would have been deprived of the answers they need and deserve," he said.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 30 August 2023
  14. Sam
    Details of allegations against a surgeon who left dozens of patients in agony after undergoing mesh operations have been published.
    A tribunal will look at whether Tony Dixon failed to provide adequate clinical care to six patients at Southmead Hospital and the private Spire Hospital in Bristol.
    He had pioneered the use of artificial mesh to lift prolapsed bowels.
    The surgeon, who was dismissed in 2019, has always maintained the operations were done in good faith, and that any surgery could have complications.
    The Medical Practitioners Tribunal, which starts in Manchester on 11 September and is due to end on 23 November, will look into allegations that between 2010 and 2016 Mr Dixon failed to provide adequate clinical care in a number of areas, including:
    ensuring procedures for some of the patients were clinically indicated adequately advising some of the patients regarding options for treatment obtaining informed consent before performing clinical procedures adequately performing a procedure for one patient providing adequate post-operative care for some communicating appropriately with some of the patients and their family members. Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 24 August 2023
  15. Sam
    The United States is in the middle of a maternal health crisis. Today, a woman in the US is twice as likely to die from pregnancy than her mother was a generation ago.
    Statistics from the World Health Organization show the United States has one of the highest rates of maternal death in the developed world. Women in the US are 10 or more times likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than mothers in Poland, Spain or Norway.    
    Some of the worst statistics come out of the South - in places like Louisiana, where deep pockets of poverty, health care deserts and racial biases have long put mothers at risk.
    Dr Rebekah Gee: The state of maternal health in the United States is abysmal. And Louisiana is the highest maternal mortality in the US. So, in the developed world, Louisiana has the worst outcomes for women having babies."
    A third of Louisiana's parishes are maternal health deserts – meaning they don't have a single OB-GYN, leaving more than 51 thousand women in the state without easy access to care and three times more likely to die of pregnancy related causes.
    Read full story
    Source: CBS News, 20 August 2023
  16. Sam
    Hundreds of migrants have declined NHS treatment after being presented with upfront charges over the past two years, amid complaints the government’s “hostile environment” on immigration remains firmly in place.
    Data compiled by the Observer under the Freedom of Information Act shows that, since January 2021, 3,545 patients across 68 hospital trusts in England have been told they must pay upfront charges totalling £7.1m. Of those, 905 patients across 58 trusts did not proceed with treatment.
    NHS trusts in England have been required to seek advance payment before providing elective care to certain migrants since October 2017. It covers overseas visitors and migrants ruled ineligible for free healthcare, such as failed asylum seekers and those who have overstayed their visa. The policy is not supposed to cover urgent or “immediately necessary” treatment. However, there have been multiple cases of people wrongly denied treatment.
    Dr Laura-Jane Smith, a consultant respiratory physician and member of the campaign group Medact, said: “I had a patient we diagnosed as an emergency with lung cancer but they were told they would be charged upfront for treatment and then never returned for a follow-up. This was someone who had been in the country for years but who did not have the right official migration status. A cancer diagnosis is devastating. To then be abandoned by the health service is inhumane.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 20 August 2023
  17. Sam
    At least 20 patients have suffered harm due to their follow-up appointments not being booked at a hospital department where people ‘continue to come to harm’, according to an internal review.
    Torbay and South Devon Foundation Trust is reviewing its ophthalmology service after 22 people were harmed following “system failures” with their follow-up appointments.  
    The trust’s initial investigation, obtained by HSJ with the Freedom of Information Act, warned there were “potentially” other patients affected by the failures who had not yet been identified.
    In response, the trust said its ophthalmology department had already “undertaken a significant amount of work to address a large proportion of the actions arising from the review”, including building another operating theatre and recruiting more staff.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 21 August 2023
  18. Sam
    In September last year, Ebrima Sajnia watched helplessly as his young son slowly died in front of his eyes.
    Mr Sajnia says three-year-old Lamin was set to start attending nursery school in a few weeks when he got a fever. A doctor at a local clinic prescribed medicines, including a cough syrup.
    Over the next few days, Lamin's condition deteriorated as he struggled to eat and even urinate. He was admitted to a hospital, where doctors detected kidney issues. Within seven days, Lamin was dead.
    He was among around 70 children - younger than five - who died in The Gambia of acute kidney injuries between July and October last year after consuming one of four cough syrups made by an Indian company called Maiden Pharmaceuticals.
    In October, the World Health Organization (WHO) linked the deaths to the syrups, saying it had found "unacceptable" levels of toxins in the medicines.
    A Gambian parliamentary panel also concluded after investigations that the deaths were the result of the children ingesting the syrups.
    Both Maiden Pharmaceuticals and the Indian government have denied this - India said in December that the syrups complied with quality standards when tested domestically.
    It's an assessment that Amadou Camara, chairperson of the Gambian panel that investigated the deaths, strongly disagrees with.
    "We have evidence. We tested these drugs. [They] contained unacceptable amounts of ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol, and these were directly imported from India, manufactured by Maiden," he says. Ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol are toxic to humans and could be fatal if consumed".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 21 August 2023
  19. Sam
    More than 3,000 patients have died following incidents in the Irish health service since 2018, new data shows.
    New HSE data shows more than 480,000 incidents potentially causing harm were recorded across hospitals and community healthcare groups since 2018. These include falls, attacks on patients or staff, problems with medication, treating the wrong limb, or reactions to medical devices, among other issues.
    Last year’s total of 106,967 was the highest of five years recorded, up from 94,422 in 2018.
    While around half the incidents annually led to no injury, last year 0.65% or 556 led to a death. That stood at 0.59% or 557 deaths in 2018.
    A spokesperson for the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said the figures are very high, but not surprising.
    “Hospitals are not supposed to be dangerous places," she said.
    "No matter how highly skilled your staff are, patient safety issues and the risk of missed care incidents are inevitable in a situation where patients are lining corridors on trolleys and there aren’t enough staff to care for them."
    Read full story
    Source: Irish Examiner, 18 August 2023
  20. Sam
    Nurse Lucy Letby has been found guilty of murdering seven babies on a neonatal unit, making her the UK's most prolific child serial killer in modern times.
    The 33-year-old has also been convicted of trying to kill six other infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
    Letby deliberately injected babies with air, force fed others milk and poisoned two of the infants with insulin.
    Commenting on the verdict, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Rob Behrens said:
    “We know that, in general, people work in the health service because they want to help and that when things go wrong it is not intentional. At the same time, and too often we see the commitment to public safety in the NHS undone by a defensive leadership culture across the NHS.
    “The Lucy Letby story is different and almost without parallel, because it reveals an intent to harm by one individual. As such, it is one of the darkest crimes ever committed in our health service. Our first thoughts are with the families of the children who died. 
    “However, we also heard throughout the trial, evidence from clinicians that they repeatedly raised concerns and called for action. It seems that nobody listened and nothing happened. More babies were harmed and more babies were killed. Those who lost their children deserve to know whether Letby could have been stopped and how it was that doctors were not listened to and their concerns not addressed for so long. Patients and staff alike deserve an NHS that values accountability, transparency, and a willingness to learn.  
    “Good leadership always listens, especially when it’s about patient safety. Poor leadership makes it difficult for people to raise concerns when things go wrong, even though complaints are vital for patient safety and to stop mistakes being repeated. We need to see significant improvements to culture and leadership across the NHS so that the voices of staff and patients can be heard, both with regard to everyday pressures and mistakes and, very exceptionally, when there are warnings of real evil.”
  21. Sam
    Older patients should walk around hospital wards and along corridors to prevent their muscles weakening, research suggests.
    Lying in a hospital bed for several days can cause a sharp deterioration in strength, leaving some elderly patients struggling to walk or live independently when they are discharged.
    New research shows this decline can be prevented if patients are helped to walk for at least 25 minutes a day while in hospital.
    The best effect was observed when patients walked around the hospital for at least 50 minutes a day. The study suggested that a mixture of physical activity, such as 20 minutes working with resistance bands while seated and 20 minutes of walking, also helped.
    The authors said patients who remained active during their stay in hospital were less likely to suffer “adverse events” after they were discharged.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 4 August 2023
  22. Sam
    A man died after A&E doctors sent him home from hospital and “told him to drink Lucozade” despite him vomiting 100 times in 24 hours.
    Nick Rousseau died from an undiagnosed blocked bowel in 2019 after doctors at Milton Keynes Hospital failed to spot that he had the life-threatening condition.
    The 47-year-old was sent home twice in three days and reassured he “would be alright” as doctors believed he had gastroenteritis, his “devastated” wife Kimberly White said.
    But Mr Rousseau was actually suffering from an ischaemic bowel, a condition which blocks the arteries to the bowel. He had been to see his doctors several times and had lost three stones in weight over two years due to vomiting and diarrhoea but was never diagnosed.
    His family, represented by Osbornes Law, received a six-figure payout in June from Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. While it did not admit negligence, it accepted that there were features of Mr Rousseau’s illness which could have justified admission, inpatient observation, and further tests, which could have given a definitive diagnosis.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 4 August 2023
  23. Sam
    The prospect of waiting at least six weeks for a biopsy was too much for Neil Perkin. In February, the 56-year-old was told that he had suspected prostate cancer which needed to be confirmed by examining a sample of his tissue.
    “After the initial appointment with the consultant, there were no letters, texts or anything,” Perkin said. Instead, he decided to pay for it himself: £5,000 – a substantial sum for the part-time ferry operator. The results from a private hospital in Guildford confirmed the cancer.
    “I’d lost faith in the NHS by this point and I went private,” he said. “The cancer was spreading and my surgeon made it clear that if I’d waited for the NHS for my prognosis, [the] chances of cancer recurrence would be far worse.”
    In May he paid another £22,500 for the prostate to be removed at a private hospital in London, with financial help from his family. “I feel let down. It turned out from the pathology that this was urgent and a delay would have made a huge difference to my outcome, my prognosis and quality of life. They got there in the nick of time.”
    Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust said it was sorry to have been unable to meet Perkin’s expectations and strived to provide quality and timely care. “But we recognise that across the NHS there is an increased demand on services and this can impact patient waiting times.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 30 July 2023
  24. Sam
    A director at a major acute trust said it needs to stop “caving in” to demand pressures by opening extra escalation beds.
    Board members at Mid and South Essex were discussing a recent report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which rated medical services as “inadequate”.
    The CQC flagged significant staffing shortages and repeated failures to maintain patient records, among other issues.
    Deputy chair Alan Tobias told yesterday’s public board meeting: “We have just got to hold the line on these [escalation] beds. We never do. Every year we cave in…
    “We have just got to hold the line with this… Do what some other hospitals do, they shut the doors then. We have never had the bottle to do that.”
    Barbara Stuttle, another non-executive director, said: “Our staff are exhausted… We don’t have the staff to give the appropriate care to our patients when we have got extra beds. To have extra beds on wards, I know we have had to do it and I know why, [but] you are expecting an already stretched workforce to stretch even further.
    “And when that happens, something gives. Record keeping, that’s usually the last thing that gets done because they’d much rather give the care to patients.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 28 July 2023
  25. Sam
    An award-winning hospital consultant says he has been “hunted” out of the NHS after 43 years for flagging patient safety failings.
    Peter Duffy, 61, performed his final surgical procedure, supervising a bladder cancer removal, earlier this month at Noble’s Hospital on the Isle of Man.
    He said he had “been looking forward to a good few more years of full-time work — another five, at least”. But the cumulative toll of a long-running whistleblowing dispute with his former employer, Morecambe Bay NHS Trust (UHMBT), instead pushed him into “an abrupt, even savage termination of my calling”.
    The General Medical Council watchdog recently dropped a 30-month probe into Duffy prompted by emails that he alleges were falsified. The emails, which were apparently sent by Duffy in December 2014 but did not surface until 2020, appeared to implicate him in the string of clinical errors that led to the death of Peter Read, a 76-year-old man from Morecambe.
    The GMC concluded that it could not attach weight to the emails as evidence. However, Duffy says the ordeal of “having the responsibility for an avoidable death I’d reported being flipped and of having the finger pointed back at me” drove him to contemplate suicide.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 24 July 2023
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