Patient safety

Shropshire baby death review expanded to over 200 cases of maternity failings

14.11.18: A scandal-hit NHS trust investigating dozens of mother and baby deaths has now identified more than 200 cases as the review is widened for the third time. The CQC review into the maternity deaths focused on 23 cases when it launched in 2017...

NHS Wales given damning ‘wake-up call’ over its outdated IT systems

14.11.18: The Welsh Assembly has published a damming “wake-up call” on efforts to modernise NHS IT systems in Wales, raising “serious question marks” over a “culture of self-censorship and denial.” An assembly inqu...

Wales and England NHS bodies get new cross-border healthcare regulations

13.11.18:  Lord O’Shaughnessy has announced a new set of arrangements on the delivery of healthcare across the border between Wales and England. The government said that whilst healthcare across the border is “collaborative and high...

NHS England in legal battle with American firm over medicine procurement

07.11.18: An American pharmaceutical company has launched a legal challenge against NHS England over a procurement process seeking suppliers for ground-breaking hepatitis C treatment. The legal proceedings were launched by the American firm Abbvie in...

NHS Emergency care is now in ‘all year crisis,’ BMA warns

07.11.18: NHS emergency care services are struggling to cope with a “year-round crisis” which is damaging patient care, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned. The BMA’s new analysis of NHS England data shows that emergenc...

NHS nursing vacancies could top 51,000 by the end of Brexit transitional period

07.11.18: The NHS could be short by 51,000 nurses, enough to staff 45 hospitals, by the end of the Brexit transition period, according to a new report from a coalition of 36 health and social care organisations. The ‘Brexit and the Health and S...

Investigation launched into claims a Bristol NHS trust covered up death of eight-week old boy

06.11.18: A Bristol NHS trust has launched an investigation into claims that staff at a hospital made attempts to cover up the death of an eight-week old baby boy in 2015. The CQC said it has written to the University Hospitals Bristol NHS FT, which...

Home care provider Allied Healthcare’s future at risk amid funding crisis

06.11.18: The CQC has reported that Allied Healthcare has only been able to confirm it has funding to survive until 30 November, and that there has been no assurance that the company has or will have the investment to ensure it can operate beyond this dat...

Five new AI medical centres to open next year in £50m Industrial Strategy investment

06.11.18: Five new medical technology centres utilising medical advances in Artificial Intelligence will be built, using £50m of government funding to improve early diagnosis of disease. The clinics will be built in Leeds, Oxford, Coventry, Gla...

Landmark mental health law will protect patients against excessive force after tragic death

01.11.18: A new law restricting and monitoring the use of force against patients in mental health units has today been given royal ascent after an eight-year battle by the family of a young man who died after being excessively restrained. The Mental...

CQC to evaluate online GP providers like GP at Hand’s effects on wider care services

31.10.18: The chief inspector of GP services at the CQC has said that the health inspectorate will be evaluating the impact Babylon’s ‘GP at Hand’ mobile app will have on overall standards of care. Speaking at the Commons Health Sel...

GPs risking patient safety and confidentiality by forwarding misdirected mail to Capita, says NHS England

26.10.18: GPs are putting patient’s safety and confidentiality at risk by redirecting incorrectly addressed mail to Capita instead of returning it to the sender, Primary Care Support England (PCSE) has cautioned. A notice on the PCSE’s we...

NHS trusts stuck in ‘unsustainable cycle of severe winter pressures’ fear winter worse than last year

22.10.18: There are “clear warning signs” that the coming winter will be even worse for NHS trusts than last year, a new report from NHS Providers has warned. Growing staff shortages are putting “additional strain on a workforce alr...

The right culture is key to antimicrobial stewardship

11.10.18: Prof. Dilip Nathwani is a speaker at the Infection Prevention Society’s Infection Prevention Conference 2018, consultant in infectious diseases and honorary professor of infection at the University of Dundee, and past president of the...

NHS England pledges £50m health-screening programme for Grenfell survivors amid smoke and asbestos fears

10.10.18: NHS England’s chief executive has announced that the NHS is providing up to £50m for a five-year screening programme for survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire to examine the effects of smoke and asbestos exposure. Speaking to del...