Patient safety

Trust needs 200 extra beds to meet winter demand and dodge 120% occupancy rate

14.09.18: Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust has said it won’t have enough beds to cope this winter and needs a dramatic capacity increase of 208 more beds. The facility says it needs to increase its current bed numbers by a third to reach...

CQC takes enforcement action amid safety fears at Shrewsbury trust

06.09.18: The CQC has decided to take “urgent enforcement action” against a trust that was last week embroiled in controversy after more cases of poor care were allegedly identified at its maternity unit. The organisation has inspected Sh...

Scandal-hit Shrewsbury and Telford trust labels maternity failings accusations as ‘incorrect and irresponsible’

31.08.18: A scandal-hit maternity ward facing reports that dozens more poor cases of care have been discovered at the unit has hit back at the allegations, branding them “factually inaccurate and untrue.” A report by the Health Service Jo...

More NHS patients waiting longer to hear from test results, new figures show

28.08.18: The number of patients who have to wait longer to hear back from NHS Scotland medical tests is increasing, new figures show. Latest figures from NHS Scotland indicates that only 78.7% of patients were seen within the six-week waiting window...

The NICE impact on falls and fragility fractures

10.08.18: Falls should not be an inevitable part of ageing – and their snowball effect means the consequence of falls are far from limited to just hospital admissions, says Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive and director of health and so...

Bawa-Garba: junior doctor ‘whole-heartedly sorry’ for mistakes, hearing ends

26.07.18: The suspended Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba said she was “whole-heartedly sorry” for mistakes made that led to the death of a six-year-old boy in 2011 as her Court of Appeal trial ended today. Dr Bawa-Garba was struck off as a junior doc...

Health regulator calls for action in reducing radiology delays

19.07.18: There are significant variations in timescales for reporting on radiology examinations leading to delayed and potentially erroneous patient x-ray results, the health watchdog has said. In a report today by the Care Quality Commission (CQC)...

Health worker arrested on suspicion of infanticide at Countess of Chester Hospital

03.07.18: A female medical professional has been arrested on suspicion of murdering eight babies and attempting to murder a further six following an investigation at a Cheshire hospital. The staff member at the neonatal unit at Countess of Chester Ho...

Two-thirds of STPs report drop in bed numbers – with some losing 20% of capacity

27.06.18: The number of beds available across the NHS has reduced by an average of 140 per sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) footprint since 2014-15, representing a fall of over 6,000 nationally. Eye-watering figures published...

Scathing government review into NHS region blasts bullying and blame culture

26.06.18: A government-backed review into a major Scottish region has uncovered a culture of bullying and harassment where concerns raised were discouraged, with staff made to feel they had been “blamed rather than supported.” The review...

Gosport scandal: ‘Blame culture’ must end says Hunt, practice ‘probably repeated elsewhere’

21.06.18: Health and social care secretary Jeremy Hunt has hit back at claims from an expert on hospital mortality that the Gosport War Memorial scandal could be replicated elsewhere in the NHS. Prof Sir Brian Jarman, of the Dr Foster Unit...

GP’s ‘practice of shortening lives’ led to over 450 deaths at Gosport

20.06.18: A public inquiry into over 800 deaths at an NHS hospital over the prescription of opioid has said families have been failed by the “institutionalised practice of shortening lives.” Staff at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Hamps...

NHS trust to give payout in millions to teen brain-injured at birth

20.06.18: A girl who suffered a devastating brain injury during her birth has been awarded compensation from a major south east NHS trust. Becky Tyler, who is now studying for her GCSEs, won the payout after mistakes made during her birth led to her...

Medical examiners to be rolled out to investigate unexpected NHS deaths

11.06.18: All non-coronial unexpected deaths within the NHS in England and Wales are to be investigated by medical examiners in order to improve investigations into the cause of death, Jeremy Hunt has announced today. The announcement coincides with the...

Written submissions sought for gross negligence manslaughter review

06.06.18: The working group looking into gross negligence manslaughter in the medical profession has invited written submissions as the latest stage of its review. The General Medical Council ordered the review, which will be led by Dame Clare Marx, ...