Category: Latest

There are calls for an inquiry into rising death rates in England and Wales. According to recent research, there has been an additional 20,000 deaths at the start of 2018 that have gone without explanation.

In the midst of what many are still calling an NHS crisis over funding and staffing issues, the news of rising death rates doesn’t bode well.

The authors of the research are asking for an urgent investigation to explain why there has been a rise in death rates at the start of this year. According to the research, there doesn’t appear to be an obvious explanation for the deaths.

Read More “Calls for inquiry into rising death rates in England and Wales”

The NHS funding boost is not enough, senior healthcare experts warn.

Some 100 senior NHS doctors and nurses have written an open letter to the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, to let her know that this hugely-anticipated NHS funding boost is simply not enough.

We’ve been calling for an NHS funding boost for a long time now, and although it’s good to see that the government has finally listened to reason and accepted that the NHS is stretched beyond its means, senior healthcare professionals are downplaying the announcement on the basis that more funds are still needed.

Read More “NHS funding boost is not enough, senior healthcare experts warn”

Staff shortages are reportedly leaving patients in the hands of untrained Healthcare Assistants who are forced to step in and do the jobs of doctors and nurses without proper training and qualifications.

Healthcare Assistants are, of course, vital for the care of patients, and it’s certainly not their fault that they’re having to fill the gaps due to staff shortages. But this is very dangerous. Staff having to undertake the type of care that requires training and proper supervision is leaving patients in a vulnerable position, and it’s not fair on the Healthcare Assistants either.

Read More “Staff shortages leaving patients in the hands of untrained Healthcare Assistants”

Amidst the need for victims of medical negligence to claim for cancer misdiagnosis, or a lack of diagnosis, the Medical Negligence Lawyers call for increased funding for cancer care and treatment.

The preventative approach must always prevail, and the more that can be done to save lives and spot cancer early, and avoid any incidents of a misdiagnosis or cancer being diagnosed too late, must be at the forefront of the NHS’s mind.

Once cancer is missed and is later diagnosed, for many, the damage is done, and it’s too late to do anything about it. It’s important that more is done to safeguard and secure better funding in an age where funding issues are resulting in a lack of specialised staff available to care for cancer patients.

Read More “The Medical Negligence Lawyers call for increased funding for cancer care and treatment”

Cancer care cuts over a lack of staff are an “open door to negligence”, Our Medical Negligence Lawyers warn.

Earlier this year, we saw the story of a leading NHS hospital reportedly delaying chemotherapy services for cancer patients, and cutting treatment for terminally-ill patients, as a result of chronic staff shortages.

Whilst we can all appreciate the funding struggles of the NHS right now, we cannot have cases of delayed or reduced treatment that stem from a lack of resources, and something must be done.

Read More “Cancer care cuts over lack of staff an “open door to negligence””

The delay for ambulance crews being able to hand patients over to hospitals in overcrowded A&E departments is said to be putting lives at risk.

With NHS figures indicating that almost 150,000 patients were cared for by ambulance crews for over half an hour over winter, from either being stuck in the back of an ambulance or in hospital corridors, crews are caught at hospital when they could be out on the road and ready to help people.

For every ambulance crew stuck at hospital looking after a patient because the A&E department is unable to take them as a result of overcrowding, there is a patient at home waiting for an ambulance that may not arrive in time.
Read More “Patients put at risk due to ambulance delays because their stuck in overcrowded A&E departments”

According to a BBC Freedom of Information request, a third of NHS Trusts are missing the government guidelines for psychological therapy, which should start within six weeks for 75% of referrals.

What’s more concerning is that, in some cases, there were patients waiting more than two years for the vital mental health treatment they needed.

Mental health intervention is key to saving lives. Although we all know the NHS is stretched right now, lives are clearly at risk if some patients are having to wait too long for the psychological treatment they need.
Read More “Two-year wait for mental-health treatment not good enough”

Pharmaceuticals have a responsibility to tell doctors and users about any side-effects a drug might have.

But what if the list contains over 20 or 30 potential side-effects?

Even when just taking a paracetamol tablet we may be faced with a long list of potential reactions and potential problems of varying degrees. Are pharmaceutical companies doing this to cover their backs, or are they doing it to confuse the user by downplaying the risks?

Some are suggesting the latter…
Read More “Serious side-effect warnings may be getting diluted on medication labels”

A 42-year-old woman was admitted to East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust hospital on a Friday evening with a liver abscess and sepsis. Her condition rapidly deteriorated over the weekend and she tragically died two days later of multiple organ failure.

This death was confirmed to have been entirely preventable.

This incident was apparently the last straw for the Trust’s critical-care lead, Dr Kate Murray. Prior to this incident, Murray was unhappy with an abundance of problems with how the hospital take patient observations, and as a result of the incident, she sought to do something about it.
Read More “NHS pushed into upgrading its monitoring system following avoidable death”

Mental health care has gained more recognition and dedication of resources to help those who suffer from mental illness over the last few decades. Antidepressants can be used to treat symptoms of depression and can help the body to produce hormones that promote positive mood-levels and emotions and can even reduce pain. However, as with many drugs, this kind of medication can have potentially dangerous side effects such as “akathisia”.

Although the drug carries warnings of potentially increasing the risk of depression and suicidal thoughts in people under the age of 25, recent developments suggest that it could also impact those over 25 as well…
Read More “Antidepressant side effects may increase risk of suicide by triggering “akathisia””

Plagued by a reported opioid crisis, the U.S. has released national statistics on drug-related deaths, revealing staggering results that reflect the country’s problems.

In the last year alone, the U.S reports a death toll of 64,000 for people who suffered fatal overdoses.

Here in the U.K., the Office for National Statistics puts the figure for deaths involving substance abuse at 952, which is a significant increase from 579 just five years ago. Irrelevant of whether our death-rates are nowhere near as bad as the U.S. or not, the issue is that the U.K. could be headed in a similar direction to the U.S. when it comes to medicinal drug overuse and problems, and this cannot be ignored.
Read More “A reported 22% increase in fatal drug overdoses involving Fentanyl in just one year”

Authorities have reportedly been conducting investigations and raiding health clinics that purport to offer “miracle treatments” using stem cells.

Since the discovery of stem cell techniques, doctors and researchers have been overjoyed to use such procedures for regenerative medicine, with stem cells often extracted from bone marrow, blood and fat. However, there are reportedly a small number of institutions who have taken the opportunity to allegedly exploit eager patients by offering “unproven and potentially dangerous treatments” involving stem cell techniques.
Read More “Authorities cracking down on unapproved stem cell “miracle” treatments”