Good afternoon and welcome to my regular patient safety update. This week we’ve come to the end of the road on the Health and Care Bill, seen changes made to the independent review of maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals, had more on the Sodium Valproate scandal and take a look at the mystery of the missing still birth consultation response. 

HEALTH AND CARE BILL FOOT SHOOTING Last night the government defeated the workforce amendment supported by me and over 100 other NHS organisations and the Bill has now gone forward for Royal Assent without desperately needed improvements in our workforce planning. I tried one more time in the House of Commons on Monday to persuade the government to change tack but the Treasury continued to block it. There were other sensible compromises on NHS reconfigurations and modern slavery in supply chains and overall the Bill has many sensible changes to the regulatory architecture although check out this salutary warning from HSJ Editor Alastair McLellan. None the less I can’t say I am anything other than bitterly disappointed that the government has put its head in the sand with respect to shortages in nearly every discipline. This excellent study from the excellent study from the Kings Fund is well worth a read as it shows brilliantly why saying you are recruiting  ‘more’ doctors or nurses doesn’t mean you are recruiting ‘enough.’ As I know from experience staff recruitment and retention is hard but every single thing the Health Secretary wants to do will now be put at risk due to the severe staff shortages the NHS and social care sectors face. None of us campaigners will, however, give up on the issue - but a massive thank you to Chris Hopson, Helen Stokes-Lampard, Anita Charlesworth, Simon Stevens, Julia Cumberlege and many others for helping put up such a good fight.

NOTTINGHAM MATERNITY MESS Late last Friday the NHS published a letter to the families affected by poor maternity care at Nottingham University Hospitals announcing that Julie Dent CBE would be the independent review’s new chair only for the families to write in saying they have no confidence in her. No disrespect to Julie Dent but why on earth didn’t they ask Donna Ockenden to do it? Donna knows how to do it, skilfully won over the confidence of the Shrewsbury and Telford families and - most importantly - can make recommendations that build on her earlier ones rather than try to reinvent the wheel. I have asked Sajid Javid about this so let’s see if there is any movement.

SODIUM VALPROATE SCANDAL Following last week’s revelations by the Sunday Times the Select Committee has decided to hold a short inquiry into why pregnant women are still being prescribed sodium valproate. This should take place in June and we’ll want to know from Ministers why that is still happening and what steps are being taken in terms of compensation.

CORONIAL STILL BIRTH CONSULTATION Way back in 2019 my colleague Tim Loughton got the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration) Bill onto the statute books. This gives the Lord Chancellor the power to introduce coronial investigations into still births. The government also launched a consultation on doing just that. Well here’s a mystery: THREE  years later the government is apparently still analysing the feedback into this. The government did tell the Justice Select Committee in September 2021 that they are still committed to introducing this but still nothing. What are we waiting for? Any longer and I will send Jacob Rees Mogg round to DHSC to check there are enough officials at work…

COVID LATEST The ONS continues to show us some good news on the Covid front as new cases continue to decline. In the week ending 16th April 1 in 17 people in the community in England had the virus compared to 1 in 14 the week before. The dashboard shows more recently that this trend continues with cases down 30% in the last week. Patients being admitted to hospital and the total number with Covid in hospital are also dropping. Long may this continue!

THE ADMIN Lots going on again so please do sign up to receive this update via our website here. Patient safety matters! 

Jeremy Hunt