Clinical & Medical Negligence Newsletter - Attwaters Jameson Hill - Spring 2018

Spring 2018 Medical Negligence Newsletter | 05 Patients left in severe pain following surgery delays Following the decision taken by the NHS to postpone routine operations over the winter months to free up beds for Accident and Emergency use, nearly 4,000 planned operations were cancelled. Many of these scheduled operations were for knee and hip surgery. The Royal College of Surgeons expressed its concern that the cancellation of this type of operation meant that patients were often left in severe pain, potentially causing their condition to deteriorate. They also underlined the need for a clear plan to deal with the growing backlog of cancelled operations. In addition, those needing brain surgery for benign tumours, inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn’s disease were also among the type of cases that were postponed. NHS England defended the decision, saying it had helped to free up 1,400 beds over the winter months, roughly equivalent to two to three hospitals. Figures show that there were 544,000 operations carried out in December and January, compared with 585,500 for the same period in the previous year. Midwifery training numbers to rise by 25 per cent In a bid to transform safety standards in maternity care, the government has announced what the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has referred to as ‘ambitious’ plans to boost midwifery staffing, training more midwives in England over the next four years. In late March, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt introduced new measures that include: „ „ An increase in NHS midwives and maternity support staff, with a plan to train more than 3,000 extra midwives over four years, with 650 places available next year „ „ Plans to ensure that women are cared for by the same midwives throughout their pregnancy „ „ Introduction of a new defined maternity support worker role, and new training routes into midwifery. He went on to say that the statistics showed that having a dedicated team in place that knows the mother and the history of her pregnancy can transform outcomes for both mother and baby, reducing stillbirths, miscarriages and neonatal deaths and the agony that comes with these tragedies. Commenting on these moves, the RCM said: “This is a very long overdue acknowledgement by the government that England’s maternity service needs more midwives. Whilst we welcome the commitment to continuity of care, it is ambitious. The additional midwives who start training next year won’t be qualified midwives working in our maternity services until 2022”.