Category Archives: NHS

One in three NHS doctors so tired their ability to treat patients is affected, survey finds

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Exclusive: Medics more sleep deprived now than during Covid crisis amid staff shortages and surging demand

One in three doctors in the NHS are so tired that their ability to treat patients is impaired, according to a report that reveals medics are more sleep deprived now than during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Longer hours, staff shortages and soaring demand for care on top of the backlog that worsened during the Covid crisis are causing extreme tiredness among doctors, leading to memory blanks, problems concentrating and patient harm.

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Coroner warns about NHS physician associates after misdiagnosis and death of woman

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Pamela Marking, suffering severe stomach issues, diagnosed in hospital with nosebleed and sent home by PA

A coroner has issued a warning about the role of physician associates in NHS hospitals after a woman with severe abdominal problems was wrongly diagnosed as having a nosebleed and died four days later.

The family of Pamela Marking, 77, were under the mistaken impression she had been seen by a doctor when she was examined in an emergency department, rather than a physician associate (PA) with far less training.

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Only 5% of UK medical school entrants are working class, data shows

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Sutton Trust says underrepresentation of poorer students is ‘outrageous’ but number has doubled in 10 years to 2022

Students from working class backgrounds still only make up 5% of entrants to medical schools across the UK, a proportion that has doubled over the past decade, analysis has found.

The research, conducted by the Sutton Trust and University College London (UCL), looked at almost 94,000 applicants to UK medical schools between 2012 and 2022, which represent almost half of all UK medical applicants.

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Wes Streeting to axe thousands of jobs at NHS England after ousting of chief executive

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NHS staff fear power grab by health department as health secretary looks to shrink body due to ‘duplication’ of roles

Wes Streeting will axe thousands of jobs at NHS England after his ousting of its chair and chief executive in what health service staff fear is a power grab.

The health secretary’s plan follows Amanda Pritchard’s shock announcement on Monday that she was stepping down as the organisation’s chief executive next month.

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NHS doctor who ‘glorified terrorist violence’ wins deportation challenge

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Home Office moved to cancel Menatalla Elwan’s leave to remain over posts on Hamas’s 7 October attack

An Egyptian NHS doctor who “glorified terrorist violence” by mocking Israeli civilians fleeing the Hamas attacks in October 2023 has won a legal challenge against deportation.

In one of three social media posts hours after the attacks began, Dr Menatalla Elwan, 34, who worked at an NHS trust in Liverpool, reposted footage of music festivalgoers running from Hamas terrorists and wrote “if it was your home, you would stay and fight”, accompanied by a smiling face emoji.

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NHS facing ‘crisis of public trust’ as most people fear being failed by A&E services

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Public concern about NHS is worrying and frightening, says leading emergency doctor after poll revealed

Three in four people in the UK fear getting stuck on a trolley in a hospital corridor or an ambulance not arriving after dialling 999, prompting claims that the NHS is facing “a crisis of public trust”.

Huge numbers also worry about their local A&E not having enough beds (77%) and not being able to get care at their GP surgery (70%), research also found.

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Dissatisfaction among gen Z staff is ‘ticking timebomb’ for NHS

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Warning from the Royal College of Nursing is based on Nuffield Trust analysis of NHS England staff surveys

The NHS in England is facing a “ticking timebomb” when it comes to retaining young staff, nursing leaders have warned, after new analysis showed its generation Z workers are becoming more stressed and unhappy over time.

A new report by the Nuffield Trust shows soaring dissatisfaction rates among staff in the health service’s youngest cohort, aged 21 to 30 – based on analysis of NHS surveys.

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Life expectancy growth stalls across Europe as England sees sharpest decline, say researchers

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Poor diet, obesity and inactivity blamed on decline with Norway the only country seeing a rise

Life expectancy improvement is stalling across Europe with England experiencing the biggest slowdown. Experts are blaming this on an alarming mix of poor diet, mass inactivity and soaring obesity.

The average annual growth in life expectancy across the continent fell from 0.23 years between 1990 and 2011 to 0.15 years between 2011 and 2019, according to research published in the Lancet Public Health journal. Of the 20 countries studied, every one apart from Norway saw life expectancy growth fall.

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Most NHS users in England affected by dysfunctional admin, report finds

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About 64% of people had difficulties with health service last year relating to communication about care

Patients routinely have to chase up test results, receive appointment letters after their appointments and do not know when their treatment will occur because the NHS is so “dysfunctional”.

That is the conclusion of research by two major patients’ organisations and the King’s Fund, which lays bare a host of problems with the way the health service interacts with it users.

32% had to chase up the results of a test, scan or X-ray.

32% had not been told how long they would have to wait for their care or treatment.

23% were unaware of who to contact while they waited.

20% received an invitation to an appointment after the date had passed.

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NHS England launches first advertising drive to boost breast cancer screenings

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TV, radio and online adverts aimed at increasing uptake of routine mammograms for women aged 50 to 71

Women in England will be encouraged to attend potentially life-saving screenings for breast cancer in TV, radio and online adverts as part of the first NHS awareness campaign for the disease.

Women in the UK are invited for their first routine mammogram between the ages of 50 and 53, with further invitations arriving every three years until they reach 71, after which they can request screening.

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Student died from sepsis after antibiotics error in London hospital, inquest hears

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Potentially life-saving drug was prescribed for William Hewes but not given quickly enough due to communication mix-up

A consultant paediatrician warned medical colleagues treating her son that they had failed to give him life-saving antibiotics hours before he died from sepsis, an inquest has heard.

William Hewes, 22, a history and politics student, died on 21 January 2023 of meningococcal septicaemia at east London’s Homerton hospital, where his mother, Dr Deborah Burns, worked.

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NHS staff barred from workplace for considering Palestine demonstration

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An investigation found the pair had no case to answer and that the trust had breached its own disciplinary policy

Two NHS professionals were investigated and barred from their workplace for expressing interest in organising a peaceful protest in support of Palestine during their lunch break.

The therapist and nurse were accused of posing a threat to the “personal safety” of the staff at Kensington and Chelsea child and adolescent mental health service, and of “bringing the trust into disrepute” for considering the demonstration.

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Children still being sent far from home for mental health care in England

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Figures show practice continues eight years after pledge to end it, potentially impeding young people’s recovery

Children and young people in England with serious mental health problems are still being sent for treatment many miles away from their homes because bed shortages in some areas remain so severe, despite a pledge to end such practices eight years ago.

NHS England promised in 2017 to stop forcing highly troubled under-18s to leave family and friends after some received care more than 300 miles from where they lived.

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Labour MP to push for better maternal mental health care after friend’s suicide

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Laura Kyrke-Smith says perinatal mental health care in England is ‘postcode lottery’, with disadvantaged women more likely to miss out

A new Labour MP will speak in parliament on Wednesday of her anguish over her friend’s suicide just 10 weeks after giving birth – despite the friend having repeatedly sought help for her anxiety.

Laura Kyrke-Smith, the MP for Aylesbury, will call for more specific mental health support to be embedded in maternity services.

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NHS to launch world’s biggest trial of AI breast cancer diagnosis

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If successful, the scheme could speed up testing and reduce radiologists’ workload by around half

The NHS is launching the world’s biggest trial of artificial intelligence to detect breast cancer, which could lead to faster diagnosis of the disease.

AI will be deployed to analyse two-thirds of at least 700,000 mammograms done in England over the next few years to see if it is as accurate and reliable at reading scans as a radiologist.

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NHS England told to scrap improvement pledges and prioritise cutting waiting times

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Plans shelved include earlier cancer diagnosis, boosting women’s health and expanding access to dental care

NHS England is scrapping plans to diagnose more cancers early, boost women’s health and ramp up childhood vaccinations after ministers told it to prioritise cutting waiting times.

The health service is also abandoning pledges to expand access to dental treatment, give more people drugs to prevent strokes and enhance care for those with learning disabilities.

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Quarter of people in England had poor NHS care in past year, report says

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Survey for patient watchdog finds over half of those who made complaint were not satisfied with process or outcome

A quarter of people in England experienced poor NHS care over the last year but fewer than one in 10 of them complained about it, a report by the patient watchdog has revealed.

When people did complain, more than half were not satisfied with either the process involved or the outcome, Healthwatch England said. Complaints take many months to resolve.

24% of patients had received poor care in that time – the equivalent of 10.7 million people in England.

56% took no action – and only 9% made a complaint.

20% were scared that complaining would affect their treatment.

34% did not trust the NHS to use a complaint they made to improve services.

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Wes Streeting to criticise Nigel Farage’s ‘miserabilist, declinist’ vision of Britain

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Health secretary will say it is time to fight battle of ideas against populist right and repairing NHS is vital for success

Wes Streeting is to criticise Nigel Farage for pushing a “miserabilist, declinist” vision of Britain, arguing it is time to start fighting a battle of ideas against the rightwing populists.

In a speech on Saturday the health secretary will say failing public services have been a “fertiliser of populism” because they have bred cynicism about the ability of politics to effect change.

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Gender dysphoria diagnoses among children in England rise fiftyfold over 10 years

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Study of GP records finds prevalence rose from one in 60,000 in 2011 to one in 1,200 in 2021 – but numbers still low overall

The number of children and young people in England with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria recorded by a GP has risen fiftyfold over 10 years, researchers have found, though numbers are still relatively small.

The growing number of birth-registered females seeking referrals to gender clinics has raised concerns in recent years, with tensions over how best to tackle gender dysphoria in children resulting in the Cass review last year.

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Child mental health admissions to acute wards in England rise 65% in a decade

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Hospital wards struggle to cope with rising cases of self-harm and eating disorders, the study warns

The number of children admitted to acute hospital wards in England due to serious concerns over their mental health has increased by 65% in a decade, with a particularly alarming surge in girls who have self-harmed, research reveals.

Doctors are treating almost 40,000 children with acute mental ill health in general wards every year, up from about 24,000 10 years ago. The increase is six times higher than the rise in admissions of children for all conditions (10.1%) over the same period.

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