Sunday, 1 June 2014

New H10N8 bird flu 'not imminent global threat'

New H10N8 bird flu 'not imminent global threat'

By James GallagherHealth and science reporter, BBC News
Influenza virus

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The latest type of bird flu detected in China, H10N8, does not pose an imminent global threat, say researchers.
There have been three reported cases and two deaths since December 2013.
UK Medical Research Council scientists analysed the molecular structure of the virus to show it did not share the characteristics of previous pandemics.
Instead they argued resources should be focused on other flu viruses that are emerging or are already present in South East Asia.
There are a number of bird flus that are making the jump from animals to humans.
The phenomenon is most notable in China, where there is a large population that culturally lives closely with birds, such as live poultry markets.
H7N9 emerged in March last year and there were more than a hundred cases in the first month. There is also the longstanding threat of H5N1 influenza, which kills nearly two in three people infected.
'Need to be aware'
The study on the latest bird flu to emerge, published by the journal Nature, analysed how well the surface of the virus could bind to human tissue - a key measure of how likely it is to spread.
It showed the H10N8 virus still had a clear preference for infecting birds rather than humans, a trait that it is likely would need to be reversed before it became a serious threat.
Dr John McCauley, the director of the World Health Organization Influenza Centre at the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research, told the BBC: "This has been a pretty rare event in one place in China. It highlights the need to be aware, but I don't think there's an imminent threat.
"There are higher priorities than H10N8. Other avian influenzas emerging in China or those around for the past 10 years pose a more significant threat than H10N8."

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Saturday, 31 May 2014

shocking image

The family of a 45-year-old mother have released a shocking image which they say shows her curled up in agony after she was "abandoned" by medics at a hospital linked to a series of scandals.
Margaret Lamberty's family say they plan to sue the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, alleging that doctors and nurses failed to diagnose her treatable condition and then did not respond to her calls for help.
The grandmother-of-eight died of multiple organ failure triggered by blood clots in her bowel on April 30 after collapsing at her home in Stoke-on-Trent.
Her daughter Laura, 28, said the family repeatedly warned doctors Mrs Lamberty had a history of blood clots when she was admitted to the hospital with chronic stomach pains three days earlier.
Laura said doctors overlooked their warnings and failed to conduct the correct tests.
"My mum was failed by the doctors and the nurses. She was abandoned in a side room while she died in agonising pain," Laura said.
"It was horrific for her and the worst thing I have ever had to see. We told the doctors over and over again she suffered from blood clots but they simply ignored us.
"We are determined to get justice for mum and find out the truth about what happened. No one should go through what she did."
Her family claim that in the days before her death she was left in blood-stained sheets for 24 hours and forced to wait half an hour for a nurse after buzzing for help.
Laura, from Chell Heath, Stoke-on-Trent, said she took the pictures of her mother lying on the hospital floor to show doctors how much pain she was in.
She said : "Before she was admitted to hospital, mum was fit and healthy.
"But then she was cradling her stomach in a ball on the floor, she was in so much pain. She has been taken from us and we want to know why.
"I just wish the doctors would have taken her seriously and then maybe she would still be here."
The mother-of-four's death is the latest in a series of scandals to hit the £400m hospital.
Last November 81-year-old Lillian Baddeley's family alleged she died after catching four superbugs at the hospital.
Several months earlier an inquest heard how two premature babies died due to a "breakdown in hand hygiene" at the hospital.
According to NHS whistleblower Julie Bailey, Mrs Lamberty's case is not unique in the UK medical system.
Mrs Bailey, who has set up campaign group Cure The NHS, said: "Time and time again patients are not being listened to.
"Very often patients, and their families, know what is wrong with them but medics do not listen to them.
"Too many times we see medics dismissing patients concerns and failing to listen to what they are saying.
"It is appalling that this family felt so desperate they were forced to take a picture of their mother in such terrible pain."
Mrs Lamberty's family have now submitted a letter of complaint to the hospital
A spokesman for the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust told Sky News: "The Trust attempted to contact the family of Mrs Lamberty earlier this month. We recently received correspondence from Mrs Lamberty’s family and we will again be attempting to contact them to discuss their concerns.
"The Trust would like to offer its sincere condolences to Mrs Lamberty’s family."
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Friday, 30 May 2014

shift away from big centralised hospitals


Simon StevensNew NHS chief executive Simon Stevens said hospitals serving smaller communities were sustainable

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Smaller community hospitals should play a bigger role especially in the care of older patients, the new head of the NHS in England has said.
In an interview in the Daily Telegraph, Simon Stevens signalled a marked change in policy by calling for a shift away from big centralised hospitals.
The health service chief executive said there needed to be new models of care built around smaller local hospitals.
The NHS said he was not suggesting the return of 50s-style cottage hospitals.
In recent years the health service has emphasised the benefits of centralised services.
This has paid dividends in areas such as stroke care and major trauma where significant benefits have been gained by concentrating specialist care.
But this has raised questions about the future of the many smaller district general hospitals across the NHS.
In the interview in Friday's paper, Mr Stevens said they should play an important part in providing care, especially for the growing number of older patents who could be treated closer to home.
He said: "A number of other countries have found it possible to run viable local hospitals serving smaller communities than sometimes we think are sustainable in the NHS.
"Most of western Europe has hospitals which are able to serve their local communities, without everything having to be centralised."
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Hospital closures
Ashby District, Poltair and Lowestoft hospitalsAshby District Hospital and Poltair Hospital will close, while Lowestoft Hospital no longer has inpatient beds
Simon Stevens' support for smaller hospitals comes as, in some parts of England, such hospitals close.
A commissioning group said the 16-bed hospital needed £900,000 of repairs and was underused, and said it wanted to provide "more services closer to people's homes".
Earlier this month a health trust said Poltair Hospital in Cornwall would close, saying the "cost of backlog maintenance work to meet current standards is too expensive".
But West Cornwall Health Watch said the decision was based on"dangerously unproven assumptions" and West Cornwall MP Andrew George called it a "backward step".
Lowestoft Hospital in Suffolk closed its 25-bed inpatient facility at the end of March and the main hospital building is due to close later this year.
The hospital's north wing is to be redeveloped to offer services including phlebotomy and outpatient clinics.
But Lowestoft Coalition Against the Cuts said many elderly people would suffer owing to the closure of such "excellent local hospitals".
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Mr Stevens said elderly patients were increasingly ending up in hospital unnecessarily because they had not been given care which could have kept them at home.
Mr Stevens also told the Telegraph:
  • The NHS needed to abandon a fixation with "mass centralisation" and instead invest in community services to care for the elderly
  • Waiting targets introduced by Labour became "an impediment to care" in too many cases
  • The European Working Time Directive damaged health care in the NHS, making it harder to keep small hospitals open
  • Businesses should financially reward employees for losing weight and adopting healthy lifestyles
An NHS England source said Mr Stevens was saying that smaller hospitals had a part to play in shifting services into the community, not that there would be no closures of local hospitals in the future.
Helen Tucker, vice president of the Community Hospitals Association, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Mr Stevens' comments were "great news", sending a "good, strong message that small is beautiful".
A "balance is needed" with centralised specialist hospitals, she said, but smaller institutions were "the hospitals that local communities really value," she said.
Mr Stevens, a former adviser on health to Tony Blair, will outline his vision for the NHS in a major speech at the NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool on Wednesday.
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Analysis
By Dominic Hughes, BBC health correspondent
Palliative careThe review looked at the care given to over 6,500 people
In recent years the health service in England has emphasised the benefits of centralised services.
So those suffering from a stroke or a heart attack might be taken to a specialist centre rather than the local hospital.
But with only limited resources, the future of smaller district general and community hospitals has been less clear.
Now Simon Stevens, the new chief executive of the NHS in England, says they should play an important part in providing care - especially for older patents who could be treated closer to home.
That might mean they take over GP services or community care.
But what he is not calling for is a return to 1950s-style cottage hospitals nor is he saying that no hospitals will close.
It is more subtle - that the debate in the NHS has focused too much on centralisation and there is still a place for smaller local hospitals.
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Chris Ham, the chief executive of the King's Fund think tank, told the BBC the plans could lead to "much more joined up, coordinated care that many older people need".
He added: "We know much of the demand for hospital care these days is for routine acute care for growing numbers of older people.

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We know much of the demand for hospital care these days is for routine acute care for growing numbers of older people”
Chris HamKing's Fund
"What they want is a really good, local, accessible hospital, there for them when they need it.
"This message is quite right, it will be welcomed by many people."
'Recalibrating'
Ruthe Isden, from charity Age UK, said Mr Stevens' comments were "very welcome to us" and she looked forward to hearing more details in his speech next week.
Speaking to BBC News, she said his views signalled a change in tone in the way the NHS is moving.
"In recent years, there has been a lot of thinking about specialist care but we also need to think about wrap-around, community care.
"This is a recalibrating of the way we think about these issues."
She added: "We need to invest in services which look at the holistic needs of the elderly. Things like social care, making sure they don't get lonely and that they are given opportunities to exercise.
"It's a case of not just seeing medical care as the answer to everything."
Katherine Murphy, the chief executive of the Patients Association, said: "For older patients in particular, the prospect of having to travel great distances to get to hospital can be daunting and inconvenient.
"Elderly people need to be treated close to home, with an emphasis on compassion, privacy, dignity and respect.
"In addition, there is a need to have a workforce in place that is trained to look after older people."
Mr Stevens took up the post of chief executive of the NHS in England after 11 years working for private health care firms in Europe, the US and South America.
The Scottish government said it was working to improve "intermediate care" as a "bridge between hospital and home".
Northern Ireland health minister Edwin Poots commissioned a review which said services should be provided "in the community, closer to people's homes where possible".
He said "significant progress" was now being made
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Thursday, 22 May 2014

people in A&E lying in corridors

Hundreds of thousands of patients are being sent home from hospital in the middle of the night despite a promise to limit the practice.
During the past two years at least 300,000 people, many of them elderly, have been discharged between 11pm and 6am to relieve pressure on wards.
An investigation by The Times in 2012 revealed that patients were being woken and removed from their beds, even if they had no way of getting home. Some were left in night clothes, with no medication or paperwork, and in vulnerable or dangerous situations.
At the time, health chiefs promised that patients would be moved at night only in exceptional circumstances, but new figures obtained under a freedom of information request show that the practice remains just as widespread.
More than half of the NHS trusts that responded reported that the number of patients sent home at night had increased during the past three years. Almost 60,000 of the patients were over 75. The true number of patients discharged overnight is likely to be much higher because less than half of England’s 160 NHS trusts responded to the data request by Sky News.
Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said: “These figures are truly shocking. It is simply unacceptable that patients are being discharged from hospital late at night.
“We are particularly concerned that tens of thousands of these patients are aged over 75. For older people, spending time in hospital can be extremely distressing and disorientating.
“Patients need to be treated with care, compassion and dignity. For the many older people who live alone, being discharged after early evening shows not only a lack of care and thought, but can actually be dangerous.”
Nadra Ahmed, chairwoman of the National Care Association, said that elderly patients were returning home or arriving at care homes in disarray.
“They come out very often without the appropriate papers that would give information and the history of what has happened to them. Often they will come out without the appropriate medication, because the hospital pharmacy has closed, and there is no cross-referencing to what medication they’re already on.
“You’re also discharging them into the hands of night staff at care homes, when the manager or owner may not be there, so it’s creating an unplanned and chaotic atmosphere. They may find it disorientating and very distressing. We keep hearing these platitudes that things are so much better now. But I’ve heard of people being discharged with no clothes on, just a blanket around them, or wearing soiled incontinence pads that haven’t been changed. We’re not a third world nation.”
Two years ago, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS, demanded that all hospitals review how they discharged patients, describing the practice of sending elderly people home in the middle of the night as unacceptable.
He said: “By and large the NHS is coping reasonably well, but there are times of peak admissions where there are real, significant pressure on beds. But the answer to that is not chucking people out in the middle of the night.”
Two months ago, he added that moving patients within hospitals at night struck at the heart of NHS efforts to “treat all patients with respect and compassion”. He ordered hospitals to review night-time ward transfers and stop all but the essential.
Dr Mike Smith, chairman of the Patients Association, said: “They have got people in A&E lying in corridors, they have got to be admitted and they have no beds. It’s for the convenience of staff and the person they are admitting but at the gross detriment to the person they are chucking out.”
NHS England said: “Discharging patients at night without appropriate support is unacceptable. The decision to do this should always be based on what is best for the patient
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Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Thousands die of thirst and poor care in NHS

Thousands die of thirst and poor care in NHS

Up to 40,000 patients die annually because hospital staff fail to diagnose a treatable kidney problem, a figure that dwarfs the death toll from superbugs like MRSA


A floor sign at an NHS hospital reminds staff and public to wash their hands to stop the spread of infection
A floor sign at an NHS hospital reminds staff and public to wash their hands to stop the spread of infection Photo: Alamy

By
6:35AM BST 22 Apr 2014
Comments623 Comments
At least 1,000 hospital patients are dying needlessly each month from dehydration and poor care by doctors and nurses, according to an NHS study.
The deaths from acute kidney injury could be prevented by simple steps such as nurses ensuring patients have enough to drink and doctors reviewing their medication, the researchers say.
Between 15,000 and 40,000 patients die annually because hospital staff fail to diagnose the treatable kidney problem, a figure that dwarfs the death toll from superbugs like MRSA.
The report comes less than a year after the NHS watchdog NICE was forced to issue guidelines on giving patients water after it found that 42,000 deaths a year could be avoided if staff ensured the sick were hydrated.

It highlighted how old and vulnerable patients can be left on wards without fluids, quickly becoming too weak from dehydration to request a drink from nurses, which hastens their deterioration.
The latest research said the condition, often called “the silent killer” because it goes unnoticed by medical staff, may affect as many as one in seven hospital patients and costs the NHS £1 billion a year.
The infection causes a loss of kidney function and can develop very quickly. It can occur in people already ill from conditions such as heart failure or diabetes, and those admitted to hospital with infections.
It can also develop after major surgery, such as some kinds of heart surgery, because the kidneys can be deprived of normal blood flow during the procedure. Severe dehydration is one of the main causes of the condition.
“Many of the failings identified in the report related to basic medical care, such as checking of electrolytes, performance of physiological observations and adequate senior review,” the researchers found.
The condition, which costs the NHS more than breast, lung and bowel cancer combined, is responsible for nearly eight times as many deaths as the superbug MRSA at its peak, according to the study commissioned by NHS Improving Quality.
The study, carried out by kidney disease experts and Insight Health Economics, found that the condition is five times more prevalent in English hospitals than previously thought.
Report co-author Professor Donal O'Donoghue, consultant renal physician at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We know that at least a thousand people a month are dying in hospital from acute kidney injury due to poor care.
"These deaths are avoidable. This is completely unacceptable and we can't allow it to continue. Good basic care would save these lives and save millions of pounds for the NHS.
"Doctors and nurses need to make elementary checks to prevent AKI. In general, people who are having surgery shouldn't be asked to go without water for longer than two hours.
"Sometimes that is unavoidable but then medical staff need to check their patients are not becoming dehydrated. They also need to be aware that some common medications increase the risk of AKI."
Joyce Robins from Patient Concern said: "These figures are really alarming. Too often we are hearing of cases where patients, especially the elderly, are not being properly hydrated - about cases where patients are left begging for water and being told to wait."
She said: "Some cases can be complex but in too many others we are seeing basic care being neglected. Ensuring patients are fed and hydrated is the very minimum we should be able to provide in the 21st century NHS - this is a deeply disturbing refection of the care being provided."
The infection usually develops before patients enter hospital and is often down to problems like dehydration, or an adverse reaction from seriously ill patients to over-the-counter medicines such as ibuprofen, as a result of their condition.
The study into the economic impact of the condition in England found it was present on admission to hospital in nearly 75 per cent of cases. The authors said efforts to prevent infection will need to focus on primary and community care.
Once in hospital, the infection can easily be diagnosed by a simple blood test or urine measurement, both of which are standard practice, but clinical staff are not always sure what warning signs to look for, the researchers found.
After being diagnosed, the condition can often be treated by addressing the underlying problem, for example by ensuring the patient stays hydrated or by switching their medication, with only 10 per cent of patients requiring dialysis.
Older people are particularly vulnerable to the infection but younger patients are also affected. The study found that one in 25 of all hospital inpatients under the age of 40 develops the condition.
Retired maths teacher Maura Murray, 72, from Epsom, Surrey, endured a nightmare ordeal after becoming dehydrated in hospital and developing the condition.
“I’d had an operation for a broken leg but I was so ill for ten days after being discharged that my husband took me to accident and emergency at Epsom, where they recognised my kidneys weren’t functioning properly,” she said.
The grandmother was put on a drip that fed fluids intravenously. But when weekend staff were unable to change her canula for the intravenous tube, she was left to dehydrate on the ward.
“They kept saying to me, ‘you must drink’ but I was vomiting so much I couldn’t keep anything down. I was trying but I couldn’t do anything about it and no one was noticing,” she said.
“When you’re feeling very poorly, you haven’t got the energy to shout and fight them, you can’t do anything about it.”
The result was that Mrs Murray’s kidney function dipped to just 10 per cent, a life-threatening level. After treatment, her function is now at 19 per cent, which has left her with permanent health problems such as anaemia.
“I feel very cross, it was such an awful shock to think that something like that could happen because of the staff’s ineptitude. When you go into hospital, you trust them to care for you. I hope no one has to suffer like I did,” she said.
Marion Kerr, health economist at Insight Health Economics, said: "AKI costs the NHS more than £1 billion every year. That's more than we spend on breast, lung and bowel cancer combined.
"Every day more than 30 people are dying needlessly. Compare that to MRSA which was killing about four people a day at its peak.
"Simple improvements in basic care could save the NHS £200 million pounds a year and, more importantly, save thousands of lives."
A spokesman for NHS England said: "We have taken steps to ensure the NHS puts in place coherent long-term plans to reduce avoidable deaths in our hospitals, and to improve the way data is used in decision making.
"Health research based on real-life evidence like this is vitally important for NHS commissioners in choosing where to target their resources, and we thank Insight Health Economics and NHS Improving Quality for carrying it out."
Charlotte Leslie MP, Conservative member of the Commons health select commitee said: "This is really concerning - it highlights a lack of fundamental care in some of our hospitals and suggests that in some places basic standards are not being met."
"We saw in Mid-Staffs that the unthinkable can happen. We have to look again at nursing training, at continuity of medical care and that the management focus is on having sufficient frontline staff to look after patients."
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “The Health Secretary is clear in his ambition to make the NHS the safest health service in the world.
“Hospitals are ‘signing up to safety’ as part of their commitment to save more lives and reduce harm.
“Following the Francis Inquiry into care at Mid Staffordshire, we are also introducing new fundamental NHS standards covering the basics of care, including proper hydration.
"Increased effort is being put into training doctors and nurses about how to spot and treat Acute Kidney Failure and NICE has issued strong guidance on preventing this condition."
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NHS care 'leads to 12,000 kidney deaths a year'

Flawed NHS care 'leads to 12,000 kidney deaths a year'
By Prof Donal O'DonoghueFormer National Clinical Director for Kidney Care
Elderly woman drinking waterKeeping patients hydrated is a simple way of preventing the condition

Scrubbing Up

The quality of patient care in the NHS is once again under the spotlight as part of the investigation into complaints after deaths at Furness General Hospital.
In this week's Scrubbing Up, Prof Donal O'Donoghue, National Clinical Director for Kidney Care from 2007-2013, warns a simple-to-avoid kidney disorder is being missed leading to around 12,000 unnecessary deaths a year.
The recent "horrific" case of 100-year-old Lydia Spilner who died of dehydration in a Leicester hospital led Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to call for a 'radical overhaul' of the NHS's patient safety approach.
This followed the government's newly appointed patient safety tsar, Prof Don Berwick, diagnosing an "enormous sickness" within the NHS, caused by a deteriorating culture of safety in the wake of the disturbing events at Mid Staffs.
Prof's Berwick patient safety group is expected to report in July on how the culture of the NHS and the care it provides can improve, and where not "a single injury" is tolerated.
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one such "injury" - yet it it has a low profile, is poorly understood and also seriously under-prioritised within patient safety debates.

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AKI is clearly one of the major patient safety issues for the NHS”
What may have gone unnoticed in Lydia Spilner's tragic case was that her ultimate cause of death was AKI.
AKI is the sudden loss of kidney function, which can easily develop in any sick person through infection such as pneumonia, diarrhoea or a heart attack.
Dehydration, and some commonly used medicines prime the kidney for an acute shut down.
'Conservative' estimate
For Lydia Spilner, just as for around one third of cases, AKI could have been prevented through the provision of basic clinical care.
That's as simple as making sure that patients are hydrated, medication is reviewed, and infections are treated promptly and reliably.
What is more, conservative estimates indicate that providing this care could prevent up to 12,000 deaths each year.
To help put these statistics in perspective, the numbers of preventable deaths from AKI is exactly 10 times the number of people that died in Mid Staffs, and works out at 32 people each day in the NHS.
AKI is clearly one of the major patient safety issues for the NHS.
It affects the vulnerable and leads to thousands of unnecessary deaths because of failings in care.
In spite of this, a report in 2009 from the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death found that only half of patients with AKI had received 'good' care, with delays in diagnosis due to only a third receiving inadequate investigations.
A fifth of fatal cases were caused by drug prescribing errors.
'Zero harm' aim
Notwithstanding the need of addressing the human tragedy caused by AKI, there is clearly a practical reason for the government to focus on AKI.

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If we can get it right for AKI, we will get basic care right across the NHS”
It is about ensuring that some of the most vulnerable patients in the NHS are treated with dignity and respect.
We can therefore see AKI as the single measure which will tell us if we are making progress from the nadir of Mid Staffs.
Put simply, if we can get it right for AKI, we will get basic care right across the NHS.
To truly achieve a "zero harm" NHS, then the plans to tackle AKI and delivering good kidney care must be at the heart of the NHS patient safety approach.
Ensuring that healthcare professionals think of the kidney as a marker of good quality care and consider the risks of AKI as a matter of course, will drive exactly the care needed to make certain that patients are treated with dignity and respect.
Improving AKI treatment will therefore not only prevent many unnecessary and tragic deaths, but it will be the key to unlocking the culture shift that Hunt and Berwick are calling for and the NHS so clearly needs.
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Wednesday, 26 March 2014

Jeremy Hunt is urging the NHS in England to reduce the number of serious mistakes

NHS urged to halve serious mistakes and save 6,000 lives
By Nick TriggleHealth correspondent, BBC News
Hospital nursesA duty of candour was one of the recommendations of the Stafford Hospital public inquiry

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Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is urging the NHS in England to reduce the number of serious mistakes being made and save 6,000 lives over the next three years.
Mr Hunt said NHS trusts should draw up plans to halve "avoidable harm" such as medication errors, blood clots and bedsores by 2016-17.
He says this could stop a third of the preventable deaths in the coming years - equivalent to 6,000 lives saved.
The trusts that take action will get reduced premiums for insurance cover.
The push - called Sign up to Safety - will be voluntary and reliant on individual trusts identifying how many mistakes they make and coming up with plans to reduce them by half.
It is being primarily aimed at hospitals, but other trusts including those providing mental health and community services are also being invited to take part.
The drive is being accompanied by a number of other measures designed to improve safety in the health service.
These include the introduction of a duty of candour compelling the NHS to be open and honest with patients about mistakes. This was called for by the Francis Inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal.
'Biggest advance'
Mr Hunt, who on Wednesday will be making a speech on patient safety at a hospital in Seattle, which launched a big safety drive after a woman was accidentally injected with cleaning fluid and died, also said the NHS would be recruiting 5,000 safety champions.
These people will be in charge of identifying areas of unsafe care and developing solutions to fix it at a local level and will be supported by a national Safety Action for England (Safe) team. It will see doctors, managers and patients working together on safety.

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The government is failing to learn the lessons of the Francis Review - having handed out P45s to thousands of nurses and frontline staff”
Jamie ReedShadow health minister
A new section of the NHS Choices website will also be launched in June called "How Safe Is My Hospital" allowing patients to compare patient safety across a range of indicators.
Mr Hunt said: "It is my clear ambition that the NHS should become the safest healthcare system anywhere in the world.
"We now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to save lives and prevent avoidable harm - which will empower staff and save money that can be re-invested in patient care."
Peter Walsh, of the campaign group Action Against Medical Accidents, praised Mr Hunt for his "leadership" on this issue.
He said the duty of candour was "potentially the biggest advance in patients' rights and patient safety since the creation of the NHS".
"For decades the NHS has frowned upon cover-ups but has been prepared to tolerate them. A lack of honesty when things go wrong adds insult to injury and causes unnecessary pain and suffering for everyone," he added.
But shadow health minister Jamie Reed said: "The government is failing to learn the lessons of the Francis Review - having handed out P45s to thousands of nurses and frontline staff.
"More than half of nurses now say their ward is dangerously understaffed, and more believe patient safety has got worse over the last year rather than better."
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Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Izabelle Easen

When Izabelle Easen suffered an asthma attack in 2008, James McKenna declared her dead at the scene, ignoring rules stating he should continue resuscitation and get her to hospital for treatment that might have saved her life.
The inquest, at Doncaster Coroner's Court, is being held only after a Sky News investigation identified Izabelle from redacted minutes of McKenna's disciplinary hearing.
McKenna was struck off over his behaviour.
But Yorkshire Ambulance Service did not tell Izabelle's mother anything was wrong, nor was she informed a hearing was being held about her daughter's death.
McKenna was found to have mistreated other patients including a retired South Yorkshire teacher who was dying of cancer, with a hospital nurse telling the hearing the man suffered as a result.
The man's widow, who has asked not to be identified, was not told about the negligence but has not pushed for an inquest to protect his elderly mother from hearing the distressing details.
Sky's investigation uncovered a culture of secrecy in the NHS, with the regulator of paramedics, the Health Professions Council (HPC), and a number of ambulance services keeping details of paramedic misconduct from the families of dead patients.
In another case, Marion Giles was paid an out of court settlement by North East Ambulance Service after Sky News informed her that paramedic Brian Jewers was struck off over her husband's treatment.
A coroner subsequently ruled there had been a failure of care after Jewers refused to give Grahame Giles, 61, a vital injection following a heart attack in 2008.
Mr Giles' widow Marion Giles accused the NHS of criminal behaviour, while Izabelle's mother Lorna Easen said it was "morally wrong" she had not been told about what had happened
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