Diabetes deaths ‘preventable’

Up to 24,000 people with diabetes suffer an avoidable death in England every year, according to the National Diabetes Audit. These deaths are often due to patients not receiving better healthcare checks, having unhealthy lifestyles or not taking medication appropriately. Through better...<<Read More>>

Surgeons protest cuts on operations

‘Misunderstandings’ over waiting times

Waiting times may be creeping up since targets and central monitoring were relaxed – but the data is not completely clear. That is the verdict of John Appleby, chief economist at the King’s Fund health think thank, writing in the... <<Read More>>

List of things that should ‘never happen’ in the NHS extended to 25

Trusts guilty of causing severe harm by allowing ‘never events’ to happen will face “powerful financial disincentives” in a government push to tackle substandard care. It has extended the list of NHS ‘never events’ from eight to 25, and will now include...<<Read More>>

Hundreds of trusts missing safety deadlines

There were more than 650 cases of NHS trusts not complying with patient safety alerts within deadline this year – but that still constitutes a fall of 50% on last year. The alerts are issued when potentially harmful situations are identified in health settings, such as...<<Read More>>

Safety warnings over hospital airway suction devices

Hospitals have been warned to examine their airway suction equipment. Failures of the devices are though to have contributed to seven deaths and 105 serious incidents in England and Wales from January 2005... <<Read More>>

NHS estates failing on fire safety, asbestos and hazardous waste - report

Nearly half of the backlog maintenance costs of NHS estates in Wales are for urgent and significant repairs, a new report shows. The repairs backlog is £460m, with urgent repairs at £209m. The Estate and... <<Read more>>

Domestic abuse identification scheme for GPs shows good results

A programme helping GPs identify victims of domestic abuse and get them help has had “highly promising” results. A case study published by the Health Foundation has lessons for PCTs and commissioning... <<Read More>>

Call for medics to be charged in neglect cases

Academics have suggested that a new charge of “wilful neglect” should be brought against clinicians who fail to adequately look after their patients. The researchers at Manchester University’s Centre for Social Ethics and Policy say medic... <<Read more>>

After Francis

Did we learn anything from the Francis inquiry? We did not. Cure the NHS met him last week to ‘feed back’ our views. Let’s say there was not a meeting of minds, says Julie Bailey

The planned secrecy and privacy can now be seen as the total failure which we knew they always would be. Did hundreds of nurses and doctors, encouraged by being able to speak in complete confidence, come flooding out to give evidence to the inquiry? No, of course not, hardly any appeared...

Health & safety

Since its inception the National Patient Safety Agency has worked to improve standards in patient safety in the NHS. Richard Mackillican spoke toSuzette Woodward to find out about its plans for 2010

Increasing patient safety is no longer just about ensuring that staff give the right medication to the right patient. In today’s NHS, it is also about communicating a message.

Safety first

It may seem ironic that an organisation set up to improve people’s health can sometimes have the opposite effect but efforts are underway to reduce avoidable harm to patients, reports Richard Mackillican