Inquiry to be held into north-east England NHS trust after patient deaths

A public inquiry will be held into the failures of a north-east NHS foundation after the deaths of several patients, Wes Streeting has confirmed.The health secretary made the announcement in Darlington, speaking to the families of patients who died while receiving treatment from hospitals run by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS foundation trust, which is headquartered in the County Durham town.The inquiry will look into the number of the trust’s patients who took their own lives in the past decade, which the Department of Health and Social Care called “concerning”.Three of the people known to have died while under the trust’s care were the 17-year-olds Nadia Sharif and Christie Harnett, who killed themselves at West Lane hospital in Middlesbrough in June and August 2019 respectively, and 18-year-old Emily Moore, who died in February 2020 after a week at Lanchester Road hospital in County Durham.Speaking in Darlington, Streeting called the deaths unacceptable and said that families’ “courageous and tireless campaigning” had been “nothing short of inspirational”

NHS bracing for worst ever winter crisis in next fortnight amid rising flu cases

The NHS is bracing for its worst ever winter crisis in the next fortnight because of a worsening “flu-nami” that has left hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulances services under intense strain.Hospitals are already treating record numbers of people seriously ill because of flu for the time of year. But things will get worse in the days ahead, NHS leaders said, as medical bosses urged people to get vaccinated against the virus so they can enjoy Christmas gatherings more safely.Keir Starmer and the health secretary, Wes Streeting, have launched a coordinated assault on the British Medical Association for its “irresponsible” decision to call thousands of resident doctors in England out on strike next week.They urged resident – formerly junior – doctors to endorse the government’s latest offer to settle the long-running pay and jobs dispute and avoid the NHS having to grapple with a five-day strike due to start next Wednesday that has caused huge alarm in the service

What is happening to the assisted dying bill in the House of Lords?

The assisted dying bill could fall even after passing the House of Commons – and perhaps even without a vote on the substance of the bill in the House of Lords. We explain what is happening and what may come next.The terminally ill adults (end of life) bill, which would legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults with less than six months to live in England and Wales, passed in the Commons earlier this year and is now in the House of Lords.Peers are at the committee stage, which is a line-by-line review where amendments they put down are debated and voted on.In the Commons, the speaker selects amendments for debate and vote

Weighing up the risks and benefits of prostate cancer screening | Letters

It is understandable for patients suffering from a late diagnosis of prostate cancer, or families who have lost loved ones, to demand that something should be done (Letters, 5 December). I, however, respect the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation not to screen most men using the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test.The job of the committee was to weigh up the benefits and harms of any available test for routine screening. PSA testing, as a first step to diagnose cancer, results in false negatives and a significant number of false positives, meaning it has both low sensitivity and low specificity, making it a poor screening marker. PSA screening has been conducted in the US; there are varying estimates that, over three decades, it has resulted in more than 1 million patients receiving treatment (eg surgery or radiotherapy) they did not need

Senior opponents of assisted dying bill urge Lords not to deliberately block it

Senior opponents of assisted dying legislation have called on peers not to hold up the progress of the bill through parliament, warning there was a serious danger of the Lords losing democratic legitimacy.Many supporters now admit the bill is in serious danger of running out of time in the Lords before the end of the parliamentary session, meaning it will fail to pass, because of the slow pace of considering more than 1,000 amendments means the bill will probably run out of time for a vote.In a letter to the Guardian, two former ministers, Justin Madders and Dame Nia Griffith, and another select committee chair, Debbie Abrahams, who previously opposed the substance of the bill have now urged peers not to deliberately filibuster it.Just 80 of more than 1,150 tabled amendments have been covered during three days of debate. However, some opponents of the bill say the lengthy consideration of amendments is normal for a complex issue and that it has been up to peers to attempt to address a series of significant concerns about the bill, including from key professional bodies like the Royal College of Psychiatrists

‘We don’t have enough rooms to isolate’: NHS doctor reveals impact of rise in flu cases

As cases of flu rise sharply across the UK, the Guardian spoke to Amir Hassan, an emergency medicine consultant and the divisional medical director at Epsom and St Helier University hospitals NHS trust, who shared his views.“We’re seeing increased numbers of patients coming through, a lot of them with respiratory-type illnesses. It means we need to try to isolate these patients and treat them – so they’ll come in with shortness of breath, [and a] cough.And while the numbers are going up, we’re still getting the other patients coming in with falls and heart attacks and trauma. It puts pressure on the emergency department, and it puts pressure on the wards because you’re increasing the number of respiratory patients you’re managing