Companies and charities are making millions of pounds by treating NHS patients in psychiatric hospitals that are sometimes substandard and fail to provide adequate or safe care, an investigation by The … Read more
patient safety
A father has seen off a council’s bid to secure a gagging order stopping him from speaking out about his daughter’s treatment in a psychiatric unit. Bethany, 17, who has … Read more
Over 750 practices could close within the next five years because they are relying on GPs approaching retirement, the RCGP has warned. The college fears that this would have a … Read more
A care home in West Sussex has been urgently shut down with residents told to leave immediately after a series of damning inspections by the Care Quality Commission. Horncastle House … Read more
Full story in The Guardian, 17 September 2018 Patients with serious mental health problems are being sent more than 300 miles away from their home areas because of widespread bed … Read more
The severe shortage of beds for children and young people with serious mental health problems means that they are being treated as far as 285 miles away from their homes, … Read more
Full Story: BBC, 25 July 2018 The report by the the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says it meant thousands of GPs, dentists and opticians had been delayed in treating patients. … Read more
NHS England’s outsourcing of primary care support services was short-sighted, disruptive to thousands of medical professionals, and had the potential to put patients at “risk of serious harm,” MPs have … Read more
A private mental health hospital which treats NHS funded patients including children has been judged inadequate for safety by CQC inspectors. The Priory Hospital North London was rated “requires improvement” overall by … Read more
Patients have been “put at serious risk of harm” by the failure of a £330m outsourcing exercise which NHS England contracted to the private firm Capita in a bid to cut costs, the National Audit … Read more
Up to 450,000 women aged 68-71 were denied mammograms as a result of an IT error that wasn’t highlighted for nearly 10 years. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt revealed that up … Read more
The death of an NHS patient has led to the issue of safety for NHS patients treated in private hospitals being raised directly with health secretary Jeremy Hunt. Simon Nelson, … Read more
E-zec Medical Transport Service took over responsibility for non-emergency patient transport service from the NHS on April 1. The company was requested to take an elderly patient who cannot walk … Read more
Over-reliance on informal arrangements by independent hospitals and doctors is a “major concern” and could put patients at risk, the Care Quality Commission has warned. Following inspections of more than … Read more
Private hospitals have been given two weeks to come up with a plan to “get their house in order” on safety and quality or else face tough sanctions imposed by … Read more
EMRAD covers eight trust in the East Midlands and paid £30m for a cloud-based picture archiving and communication system from GE Healthcare. However, even in 2016 the programme was causing … Read more
Dozens of women who had been assured that their cervical cancer screening results were negative are now being told they were abnormal and have been advised to contact their GPs … Read more
Thousands of Londoners have signed up for a controversial NHS smartphone service that allows video consultations with a GP around the clock. The GP at Hand app attracted almost 7,000 Londoners in its first … Read more
Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesbrough has voiced concern over the “shoddily-built” £75m Roseberry Park mental health hospital. The hospital only opened seven years ago, but has suffered problems with … Read more
The government will launch an independent national inquiry into the actions of the rogue surgeon Ian Paterson, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail in August after carrying out … Read more
