🚨 INVESTIGATION: How
#LucyLetby
- Britain's worst child killer - was promised a role at Alder Hey Children's Hospital by managers who dismissed fears she was a killer.
The Sunday Times has the definitive story of how she almost got away with murder 🧵1/7
Goodness the scenes from Germany with people holding signs at train stations for how many
#ukraine
refugees they can host in their own home. That has got me. What good, decent people.
Boris Johnson just essentially admitted the NHS is going to be battered in the coming weeks but his view is we "just need to get through it".
But not everyone will make it, some will die either from Covid or other mistakes and NHS staff will be broken, some permanently so.
If I hear one more person talk about "if" there is unsustainable pressure on the NHS I am going to lose it.
The NHS has been in the grip of a crisis, cancelling cancer ops and leaving 999 callers waiting on hold for up to 10 minutes for literally months now.
"We don't believe the pressures on the NHS are unsustainable" says
@sajidjavid
...
Mate, you've literally had to call in the military to help the NHS to cope.
More than a decade ago I was rejected for the job of health correspondent on the local paper I was working for. It crushed me at the time.
Tonight I've changed my twitter profile to Health Editor
@thesundaytimes
. To all young journos out there, keep going.
BBC news this morning saying NHS intensive care units have coped. That is not true.
NHS has coped because tens of thousands of operations have been cancelled and those areas turned into makeshift ICUs with stretched staffing ratios amd machines. We need to be honest about this
🚨 It's crazy that the NHS has told 350 doctors training in anaesthesia that the NHS has no job for them after 3 years training.
At the same time we have massive shortages of, you guessed it, anaesthetists. These self-defeating bottlenecks defy logic. Statement from
@RCoANews
For a
@10DowningStreet
spokesman to deny the NHS is in crisis today is objectively bullshit of the worst kind. You can argue about funding and policy but let's not start dismissing people's actual avoidable deaths and horrible experiences waiting for care.
Just so I have this clear in my own mind...the Govt has relentlessly pushed the narrative of no need for more restrictions and yet the NHS is building makeshift field hospitals in its car parks 🤷♂️
Leeds Hospital to host one of the first 'Nightingale hubs' based in a car park at St James's Hospital. NHS wants space for up to 4k extra beds nationally...but who will staff these beds?
I'm seeing an emerging narrative that the NHS has coped. It definitely hasn't for too many patients and we shouldn't gloss over that. The NHS doesn't implode, it just fails many more individuals and their experience is missed at the system view level.
Health secretary
@sajidjavid
has pulled out of speaking to GPs at their annual conference this morning, on the day the Govt and NHS publish its GP 'rescue plan'
#RCGPAC
The King has been diagnosed with an incidental cancer following what on the NHS would have been an elective op.
Waits are now so big in England, approx 27k people will have an incidental cancer like him but won't know yet as they've not been seen. Scary.
Yikes. 170 patients in A&E, 90 waiting to be seen - wait time to see a doctor 7.5 hours - This is what
@sajidjavid
'health week' should be focused on solving
#NHSemergencycrisis
36 ambulances were stacked outside
@NNUH
last night with crews forced to swap oxygen cylinders with each other as they ran out because some patients were stuck many hours in the back of ambulances:
Tonight
@TheSundayTimes
will reveal a concerning public interest story after an investigation by myself.
For the first time, most of my tweets this weekend have been checked by our lawyers…so at least there will be fewer typos!!
We are about to experience a winter in the NHS where a lot of chickens will come home to roost.
Nursing shortages. Bed shortages. Collapse of community nursing services. Care home crisis. GP shortages.
Strap in.
Matt Hancock and partner were at Downing Street wine and cheese party...On the same day he told a press conference people should not socialise outside:
Sunak tells MPs Govt accepted recommendations of pay review bodies "in full".
Erm, not on junior doctors it didn't. Pay review body recommended a higher level of pay than planned in a multi-year deal. Instead Govt stuck with 2% pay rise.
Ballot of junior drs underway now.
#PMQs
BREAKING: A very serious situation at hospitals across Lincolnshire tonight as
@ULHT_News
declares a 'critical incident' over "extreme and unprecedented" staff shortages. It says it is "unable to maintain safe staffing levels" leading to "compromised care" across its sites:
From next week, soldiers will be deployed to several of England's ambulance services after a military aid request to
@DefenceHQ
by
@DHSCgovuk
- I say again for the NHS to be here in August is hugely worrying.
It's the demeaning of Number 10 that gets me. The seat of Govt. Working there should be a privilege and come with a weight you feel everytime you walk through the black door.
But under Johnson - who sets the tone like any leader - it's all just a laugh. A frat house. No respect.
All of England's ambulance services now at REAP level 4 - equivalent to 'black alert' - amid heatwave pressures and massive delays outside hospitals. Data I've seen suggests some trusts have only a handful of crews to respond to hundreds of waiting incidents.
#nhsummercrisis2
Please don't wait to be vaccinated. Covid has finally touched my extended family and a light in our lives has gone out. RIP Kaye.x
Over the past 18 months I've said many times how awful Coronavirus is. But I'm feeling some special level hatred for it today.
#GetVaccinated
"The PMs attempts to reassure the public that the NHS is not being overwhelmed does not chime with the experience of staff up and down the country who are facing fast rising hospital admissions" says
@FRSAMatthew
BREAKING: All hospitals in England told to take "immediate steps" to find extra space for patients so that no ambulance waits longer than 30mins. This must be done despite the extra burden on hospital staff, say NHS chiefs.
🚨 A little news...
I'm delighted to be joining
@thesundaytimes
as Health Editor from 1 Dec.
I'll be continuing it's great tradition of investigative journalism, in what is a big job at an important time for healthcare, the NHS and patient safety.
If you're having a suspected heart attack or stroke, on avg based on December's data, it will take an hour and half for paramedics to get you. 10% will wait 3 hours and 30 minutes. Absolute disaster for anyone falling ill or having a serious injury in Britain.
This idea we can have a month long lockdown to "pay" for Christmas with families should be a non-starter.
I really want Christmas with my parents. But they might "pay" for it with their lives. A lockdown to prevent more deaths later wont help me or my dead parents.
I know this is going to go down like a bag of sick but pausing the end of lockdown on 19th isn't going to stop the summer wave of Covid is it? So when do we start talking about more restrictions? Or are we seriously just going to let the NHS collapse and "the bodies pile high?"
BREAKING: Junior doctors in
@HCSANews
have voted to strike. 97% voted yes on a turnout of almost 75%. The HCSA is a smaller union than the
@TheBMA
but this could indicate what many have suspected - the vote for strike feels almost inevitable.
Thousands of people could be dying waiting for ambulances or because of long waits on trolleys in A&E. While
@sajidjavid
talks about elective backlogs, emergency care in the NHS is collapsing. Today's
@thesundaytimes
report here:
4k
@thecsp
physiotherapists are striking today. They were there during Covid drafted onto ICU wards to prone patients. They ensure people recover faster and get back to their life sooner. They keep patients out of hospital. People like me don't write nearly enough about them.
🚨 Exclusive: Hospitals across the country are reporting shortages of portable oxygen cylinders as the sheer number of patients in "grossly overcrowded" A&Es has soared:
If junior doctors vote to strike (many think it inevitable)
@TheBMA
says they will walk out for 72 hours and will include emergency care - this is a significant move that will put huge strain on NHS services. Consultants will cover, but marks a major escalation in pay disputes.
A spokesperson for Moorfields Eye Hospital said:
“There is very little evidence to suggest that
#Covid19
can affect eyesight. Cases where Covid-19 is recorded alongside an impact on eyesight are rare, so we cannot establish a direct causal effect."
What this story tells us is what we maybe knew all along - the
#dailybriefings
have become a charade and we are so far from "following the science" now that perhaps we need to re-think the daily spin session they've become?
Amanda Pritchard telling
@CommonsHealth
that the NHS was "not overwhelmed" during Covid will jar with many clinicians who actually witnessed what happened on wards I think.
It was around this time last year that the mgs started to come in to me from paramedics and hospital staff about how serious the situation was for the NHS in their area. They were concerned the public were being misled and told it was all ok. The staff were proven right sadly.
🚨 BREAKING:
@nottmhospitals
has tonight declared a critical incident with 220 people in its A&E and 120 waiting to be admitted. Patients are in ambulances who cannot be safely off loaded:
Many of the NHS staff I've spoken to over the past 18 months are in my thoughts. They've faced waves of a pandemic, followed by a summer crisis, and now a new wave. Their leave is being cancelled, they're being redeployed & staff to patient ratios stretched to unsafe levels again
Some of the coverage of
#JuniorDoctorsStrike
today seems unfair in claiming
@BMA_JuniorDocs
are refusing to budge from 35% pay rise demand. The BMA said before the strike that what they wanted was a "credible offer" and 35% was a starting point.
So where is the counter offer?
I honestly dont understand how ministers can stand at Downing St briefings and present a completely false impression that the NHS is coping. The army has been called in to staff wards, cancer ops delayed, transplants delayed, 200k waiting over a year. This isn't coping
#COVID19
For the Covid denialists...this is not normal. Never in 10 years of reporting on growing NHS pressures, have I seen hospitals warning about oxygen supplies for sick patients.
New measures are being introduced as a precaution to slow down the spread of the
#OmicronVariant
of
#COVID19
:
➡️Face coverings in shops & on public transport
➡️PCR tests for international arrivals
➡️Self-isolation for contacts of suspected Omicron cases
More info 🔽
You cost hardworking people thousands in higher mortgage payments during a cost of living crisis and nearly collapsed the pound and pension sector.
Get. In. The. Bin.
I have written for the Sunday
@Telegraph
about what happened during my time in Downing Street and the lessons I have learned… 👇🏻
‘I assumed upon entering Downing Street my mandate would be respected. How wrong I was’
Why is the NHS workforce so angry? Why is med twitter so toxic and lashing out? Why is goodwill and discretionary effort in freefall? Because of crap like this.
Just had my rota through for the next 8 months. Despite me giving over one year's notice, they have rostered me to work 9AM-9PM on the weekend of my wedding 🙃
This is a brilliant achievement by the NHS. The lesson here...give the NHS the resources it needs and it will get the job done.
UK vaccinates 15 million people
🚨Breaking: Junior doctors in Scotland win major pay deal from Scottish Government - equivalent to 17.5% over two years. BMA has suspended its strike action to consult members on the deal:
Your regular reminder that the NHS in England last met the target to see and treat 92% of patients within 18 weeks in February 2016.
Covid did not cause the NHS capacity crisis.
NHS waiting list will keep rising to March 2024
@sajidjavid
has told MPs. NHS must end two year waits by July this year, and 1 year waits by March 2025.
Remember the majority are supposed to be seen within 18 weeks.
Leeds Hospital to host one of the first 'Nightingale hubs' based in a car park at St James's Hospital. NHS wants space for up to 4k extra beds nationally...but who will staff these beds?
I missed the boat last time, but I'm on it now. I'm setting up a company to help supply fuel to the NHS. My mate from the pub is filling out the forms to submit to Cabinet Office contracts team today. We have a couple of watering cans....
Wow. UK's National Cancer Research Institute is to closedown after more than 20 years over concerns about its funding. I am told this infrastructure is vital to cancer clinical trials across UK.
Letter today from NCRI chair:
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Internal NHS reports reveal hospital buildings are at imminent risk of "catastrophic" collapse, with significant loss of life, as a result of crumbling concrete:
Matt Hancock says there are issues of "affordability" with regards pay.
That argument cannot be taken seriously given the amount of unplanned spending in the past year. These are policy choices.
Matt Hancock in Parliament says UK is doing more testing per head of population than any other country. 20m tests now done.
This is like the PPE scandal all over again. Big numbers that have little actual relevance to daily situation
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Rishi Sunak is funneling thousands of NHS patients into private hospitals but are they safe? The Sunday Times has learned of hundreds of cases of unnecessary surgery. 🧵 1/9
So Sunak has told drs today's 6% pay offer is final saying: "No amount of strikes will change our decision"
So that means strikes going on for months and months impacting hundreds of thousands of patients. His waiting lists target is also dead in the water
#JuniorDoctorsStrike
“A No 10 SPAD [special adviser] asked her directly how she would answer the Dominic Cummings question and she refused to play along and told them she would answer the same way as Jonathan Van-Tam. She was dropped immediately from the press briefing.”
I wish some of those who deny severity of Covid could meet and talk to the frontline clinicians I am speaking to. Some are really struggling and seeing the impact for real everyday. To then see people claiming its all lies is having a real detrimental impact on NHS staff
#CovidUK
There are some really tough decisions being made inside hospitals and across NHS services right now at all levels as the Omicron wave looms. With lots of uncertainty and impact on patients.
We should not underestimate the weight of this responsibility
🚨 BREAKING: Nurses vote for strikes at 119 NHS organisations says
@theRCN
. First action could take place before Christmas.
"This will be as much for patients as it is for nurses" -
@patcullen9
Full list of strike locations below:
Bolton Hosptal has 42 Covid patients, with no new admissions in the past 24 hours and 1 discharge. It's holding steady, a positive sign given rise in cases locally over the past three weeks.
Has the vaccine broken the link between cases and hospitalisations and deaths?
The fear of an Omicron wave and trauma of past 2 years is making some staff refuse to be redeployed to Covid wards. The NHS faces mounting pressures on all sides. My piece today for
@thesundaytimes
At least 120k people have died. Maybe 3 or 4x that may have long term health problems due to Covid.
We can do a few more months of not going to the pub.
#Covid19UK
If someone tells you NHS should be a social insurance model ask how, exactly, that will provide new hospitals, new CT & MRIs, cut drug prices, & deliver thousands of drs & nurses. It will cost £££ (+ cost of change). Insurers won't do it out of the goodness of their heart
#NHS75
Lots of speculation about reasons for fall in Covid cases. No one really knows and what crucially matters is if we start seeing a fall in hospitalisations in 7-10 days. That is when we'll know this is real and not a consequence of people avoiding tests after 'pingdemic' headlines
I object to my journalism being used to push this fake claim. Immigration is the only way the NHS has been able to have enough staff to treat the ageing British population. Foreigners are more likely to treat you than to be ahead of you in the queue.
Mass immigration is totally unsustainable and places an unacceptable burden on our public services. Now an 85-year-old man has died waiting in A&E because of 'dangerous overcrowding'.
When will politicians wake up to the human cost of our open borders?
The number of cases of hepatitis among children under the age of 10 being investigated has risen to 108,
@UKHSA
has said. There is no link to the Covid-19 vaccine as none of the children have been vaccinated. But infection with Covid + adenovirus infections are being looked at
I'm told
@NHSEngland
is not at this stage considering declaring a national level incident like it did in Covid. Regardless, across the country the NHS, patients and staff are in serious trouble...
🚨 Exclusive: Hospitals across the country are reporting shortages of portable oxygen cylinders as the sheer number of patients in "grossly overcrowded" A&Es has soared:
🚨 BREAKING: NHS chiefs and regulators have written to hospital bosses admitting winter could be so bad NHS staff may have to "depart from established procedures" to care for patients. Letter says regulators will take the challenging situations into context...
So we've seen a week of really awful NHS pressures with silence from NHS and Govt leadership.
A wafer thin New Year statement from Simon Stevens, given under controlled conditions, and now as Oxford vaccine approved
@MattHancock
pops up to take a bow. People will see through it
There were more than 14 million face to face GP surgery appointments in July. 57% of the total and 45% of appointments took place on the same day.
#justsaying
I'm listening to the promises on booster campaigns and NHS E chief promising the service will rise to the challenge...
Meanwhile my DMs are full of broken, desperate NHS staff from hospitals, community teams and paramedics with horrific stories of service failure happening now.
🚨 NEW: Ambulance took more than 30 mins to reach dying baby - 8 mins to answer the 999 call. From next week, 2 NHS ambulance trusts plan to downgrade some emergency calls as crisis deepens:
If Owen Patterson brought the House of Commons into disrepute, what did his mates yesterday do?
Should stand as an absolutely shameful moment in the history of Parliament I think.
Remember when the government said there was no shortage of antibiotics?
Today the DHSC has issued 'serious shortage protocols' for 3 penicillin medicines to help pharmacists meet demand:
"Nursing staff will watch the PM's statement in disbelief. One described to me today that the NHS feels more broken than she’s ever known it. This is not hysteria, this is blowing the whistle on falling standards as patient care comes under real threat" -
@theRCN
chief Pat Cullen
🚨 EXC- A hospital ICU ceiling collapsed onto a patient this week sparking a major incident. Hours later a doctor at another hospital suffered a broken leg after a lift plunged 4 floors - Our crumbling NHS, in tomorrow's Sunday Times:
Tonight
@thesundaytimes
will make a major intervention into one of the worst health scandals I think I have ever come across in two decades of journalism. Don't miss our in-depth coverage from 6pm.
#teaser
I'll admit the apprehension over Omicron is very real. And I'm about as far from the NHS frontline as you can get. For NHS staff who lived through the horror of Covid waves, I can't even begin to think how they must be feeling. 🤞 this turns out to be overblown.
🚨Exclusive: Migrants with suspected diphtheria have been moved around Britain with NHS and public health officials left in the dark, The Sunday Times can reveal. With
@cazjwheeler
and
@HarryYorke1
NEW | Major incident at Queen Alexandra hospital, Portsmouth, after huge leak leaves wards without water
- Source tells
@Telegraph
one tank is reserved for Covid ward
- Doctors unable to use sinks
- Burst pipe above gynaecology ward thought to be cause
The silence from official NHS channels &
@DHSCgovuk
about situation in hospitals & ambulance services, particularly in London, seems like an attempt to hoodwink the public. It also fuels Covid denialists and is self-defeating if ppl think NHS is fine & ignore rules.
#covid19uk
More good news from Bolton Hospital. Number of Covid patients has fallen again. Now 34 Covid patients in total, down from 49 last Thursday. Six in ICU/HDU down from 12 on Mon. 3 new admission in past 24 hours but 8 discharges
#Covid19UK