Category Archives: Hospitals

NHS consultants offer to call off strikes for 12% pay rise in apparent olive branch

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BMA also offers to take non-pay investments into account to reach agreement – but No 10 insists pay talks will not be reopened

Hospital consultants in England have offered to call off their strikes if they receive a pay rise of about 12% this year – double the increase that ministers insist is their final offer.

Their proposal, and the disclosure of recent “constructive” conversations with the government, appear to be a conciliatory move by the British Medical Association (BMA) to end their pay dispute.

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Doctors’ strike to disrupt care ‘unlike anything seen before’, warn NHS officials

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Consultants and junior doctors will take joint action this week for the first time in escalating pay dispute

NHS officials have warned that doctors’ strikes this week are likely to cause disruption to patient care “unlike anything before”, as Wednesday will see consultants and junior doctors taking joint strike action for the first time in the escalating dispute over pay.

Junior doctors, who have already staged five days of industrial action this year, will now strike again from 20 to 22 September – the first day of which coincides with action by consultants.

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Rishi Sunak blocked rebuild of hospitals riddled with crumbling concrete

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Exclusive: Delay to work on five buildings in 2020 led to warnings of ‘catastrophic’ safety risk

Rishi Sunak blocked plans to rebuild five hospitals riddled with crumbling concrete three years ago, prompting warnings of a “catastrophic” risk to patient safety, the Guardian has learned.

Just two of the seven hospital rebuilding projects requested by the Department for Health were signed off by the Treasury at the 2020 spending review when Sunak was chancellor and Steve Barclay, now the health secretary, was his chief secretary.

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Two in five inpatients in England report health decline while on NHS waiting list

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New CQC report also finds growing number of patients think there are too few nurses to care for them

Two in five people admitted to hospital for planned care in England last year had their health worsen while they were on the NHS waiting list, a major survey reveals.

The finding emerged in a new report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that also found that growing numbers of patients think there are too few nurses on duty to care for them.

39% of patients would like to have been admitted sooner.

Almost one in five (18%) felt they waited “far too long” to get a bed once they had been admitted – a big rise on the 8% who said that in 2020.

Only 52% thought there were always enough nurses on duty.

Discharge was often unsatisfactory for patients, with only 48% given enough notice about when they would leave and only 45% told how their post-hospital care would happen.

Hospital care was less good than before Covid struck in 2020, patients said.

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‘Martha’s rule’: ministers consider law to give right to second medical opinion

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Mother of girl who died after hospital failed to admit her to intensive care says policy would make it easier for patients and families to seek advice from senior doctor

Ministers are considering introducing Martha’s rule in England to make it easier for patients and their families who believe their concerns are not being taken seriously by medical staff to get a second medical opinion.

Steve Barclay, the health secretary, said a similar measure enforced in Australia had been shown to have saved lives. He said officials had been tasked with looking into such initiatives could “improve patient safety here in the UK”.

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England’s concrete crisis could extend to hospitals and courts, experts say

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Labour demands urgent audit of government’s handling of longstanding concerns about Raac

England’s growing buildings crisis could expand beyond schools to other public buildings such as hospitals and courts, experts have said.

More than 100 schools were forced to partially or fully close this week after a dramatic escalation of the government’s approach towards crumbling concrete.

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Parents of baby killed by Lucy Letby say they got a ‘total fob off’ from hospital

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Exclusive: after newborn son was murdered, family say repeated calls to Countess of Chester’s medical director were unanswered

Demands for a statutory inquiry into the Lucy Letby murders have intensified after a bereaved family accused the hospital of “a total fob off” when they pleaded for answers.

The parents, whose newborn son was murdered and his twin poisoned, said they tried repeatedly to meet the hospital’s medical director but their calls went unanswered.

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Nurses ‘rocked to core’ by Lucy Letby murders fear impact on public trust

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Profession faces long task to reassure families and patients that crimes and apparent failings will not be repeated

At hospitals around the UK nurses continue to pull on fresh scrubs and prepare for another day caring for patients. But many have been “rocked to the core” by the Lucy Letby case and some fear the foundation of public trust has been shaken.

That was the message from senior nurses on Tuesday as the horror of the child killer’s sentencing sank in and the profession braced for a long task to reassure families and patients that Letby’s crimes, and the institutional failings that appeared to have allowed them to continue, were truly an anomaly.

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Doctors must show zero tolerance of sexual harassment, says UK medical council

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Updated guidance covers verbal and written comments, displaying or sharing images and physical contact

Doctors will be expected to demonstrate “zero tolerance” of sexual harassment, the General Medical Council has announced.

For the first time, new professional standards, published on Tuesday, introduce explicit rules on sexual harassment towards colleagues.

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Lucy Letby sentenced to whole-life jail term after murdering seven babies

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Former nurse will never be released from prison as judge describes ‘deep malevolence bordering on sadism’

The serial killer nurse Lucy Letby will never be released from prison after a judge sentenced her to a rare whole-life term for the “sadistic” murder of seven babies.

Letby, 33, is one of only three women alive to have been given such a jail term in the UK. She was sentenced at Manchester crown court on Monday.

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Doctors were forced to apologise for raising alarm over Lucy Letby and baby deaths

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Guardian investigation also reveals Countess of Chester hospital executive feared contacting police would ‘damage reputation’

Lucy Letby’s colleagues were ordered to apologise to her after repeatedly raising concerns that the nurse may have been behind a series of unexplained baby deaths, the Guardian has learned.

Senior doctors had warned for months that Letby was the only staff member present during the sudden collapses and deaths of a number of premature babies on the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit.

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Cyberattack disrupts hospital computer systems across US, hindering services

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‘Data security incident’ began Thursday at facilities operated by California’s Prospect Medical Holdings

A cyberattack has disrupted hospital computer systems across the United States, forcing emergency rooms in several states to close on Thursday and ambulances to be diverted.

Many primary care services remained closed on Friday as security experts worked to determine the extent of the problem and resolve it.

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Nose-picking healthcare workers more likely to catch Covid, data suggests

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Rhinotillexis may be underestimated cause of transmission between staff, say researchers

Nose-picking should be given greater consideration as a potential health hazard, researchers have said, after finding healthcare workers who engaged in rhinotillexis were more likely to catch Covid than those who refrained.

Scientists in the Netherlands say research has previously found healthcare workers who had direct contact with Covid patients were more likely to catch Covid than those who did not.

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Leeds hospital trust apologises after rapper MF Doom Dumile Daniel Thompson died in its care

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London-born musician Dumile Daniel Thompson, 49, had a lack of oxygen to his brain after a reaction to a blood pressure drug

An NHS trust has apologised for the substandard care given to MF Doom, an underground rap icon who died aged 49 while having hospital treatment.

The artist behind songs including Accordion and That’s That, whose real name was Dumile Daniel Thompson, died in October 2020 due to a lack of oxygen to his brain after a reaction to a drug prescribed for blood pressure.

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Plans to shorten medical training put quality of NHS care at risk, doctors say

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Unions say government proposals to cut training by a year and introduce apprenticeships could dilute skills

Plans to shorten medical training could dilute the calibre of doctors entering the NHS in England and damage the quality of care patients receive, doctors’ leaders have warned.

Government proposals to cut doctors’ time in medical school from five to four years, and to introduce medical apprenticeships, could “water down” training for health service staff, they said.

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UK aid should not fund private hospitals in developing countries, says Oxfam

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Development charity says patients denied treatment or held hostage until fees paid in private facilities in India and Kenya

Private hospitals in India and Kenya accused of refusing people on low incomes vital healthcare, or holding them hostage until bills have been paid, benefit from UK government investment funds, according to a report by Oxfam.

Investments worth hundreds of millions of pounds by government-backed agencies are used to facilitate the “impoverishment and even the imprisonment of the very people [the private hospitals] are supposed to be helping”, said the development charity.

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Heatwave brings surge in A&E patients as England doctors’ strike begins

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Some hospitals record highest ever A&E attendance figures as heat, high pollen count and air pollution bring rise in demand

A&E units across the UK are experiencing a surge in patients seeking care as a direct result of the heatwave, which is leaving many people unwell with shortness of breath, heat exhaustion and sunburn.

The number of people suffering problems as a direct result of the sustained high temperatures in many parts of the country has resulted in some hospitals recording their highest A&E attendance figures.

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Man arrested after car crashes into Downing Street gates – UK politics live

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Armed officers at the scene but no reports of injuries, Metropolitan Police says

Rishi Sunak is being interviewed on ITV’s This Morning.

He says immigration levels are too high, but he rejects claims it is out of control. This is from the Daily Mirror’s Lizzy Buchan.

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Record rise in people using private healthcare amid NHS frustration

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Data prompts speculation NHS inability to cut waiting lists could make private healthcare ‘new normal’

Record numbers of people are paying for private healthcare, spending up to £3,200 on having a cataract removed and £15,075 on a new hip, amid growing frustration at NHS waiting lists.

Across the UK last year 272,000 people used their own funds to cover the cost of having an operation or diagnostic procedure at a private hospital. That was up from 262,000 the year before and a sharp rise on the 199,000 who did so in 2019, the year before the Covid pandemic struck.

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Woman died on floor after waiting over five hours for ambulance in Wales

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Family of Rachel Rose Gibson believe she had heart attack at home five minutes from hospital in Wrexham

A 58-year-old woman died alone curled up in a blanket on the floor of her bedroom as she waited more than five hours for an ambulance.

Relatives of Rachel Rose Gibson believe she had a heart attack at her home in Wrexham, north Wales, only a short drive away from a hospital, but died before an ambulance reached her.

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