ONS figures suggest 9.7 million people are waiting for hospital appointment or treatment

Almost 10 million people across England could be waiting for an NHS appointment or treatment, 2 million more than previously suggested, according to a survey by the Office for National Statistics.

The ONS survey of about 90,000 adults found that over one in five (21%) were waiting for a hospital appointment or to start receiving treatment on the NHS.

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New research into the dying brain suggests the line between life and death may be less distinct than previously thought

Patient One was 24 years old and pregnant with her third child when she was taken off life support. It was 2014. A couple of years earlier, she had been diagnosed with a disorder that caused an irregular heartbeat, and during her two previous pregnancies she had suffered seizures and faintings. Four weeks into her third pregnancy, she collapsed on the floor of her home. Her mother, who was with her, called 911. By the time an ambulance arrived, Patient One had been unconscious for more than 10 minutes. Paramedics found that her heart had stopped.

After being driven to a hospital where she couldn’t be treated, Patient One was taken to the emergency department at the University of Michigan. There, medical staff had to shock her chest three times with a defibrillator before they could restart her heart. She was placed on an external ventilator and pacemaker, and transferred to the neurointensive care unit, where doctors monitored her brain activity. She was unresponsive to external stimuli, and had a massive swelling in her brain. After she lay in a deep coma for three days, her family decided it was best to take her off life support. It was at that point – after her oxygen was turned off and nurses pulled the breathing tube from her throat – that Patient One became one of the most intriguing scientific subjects in recent history.

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Rishi Sunak promised speedier care, but specialists believe long waits for hospital beds are costing thousands of lives

On one half of Rishi Sunak’s NHS pledge to voters, there has been some modest progress in recent months. Waiting lists for pre-planned hospital treatment and outpatient appointments in England fell from 7.8m to 7.6m between September and December last year. Given the intense pressures on the health system from multiple directions, this improvement is a remarkable achievement by the trusts that brought it about – even while the overall situation remains dire, with waiting lists predicted to remain longer than before the pandemic until 2030 at the earliest.

But the prime minister’s commitment was not limited to waiting lists. The pledge he made in January last year, as one of five priorities on which he said voters should judge him, was that “NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly”. New calculations by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) show that, with regard to the broader aim of delivering speedier treatment, his government is falling shockingly short .

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RCEM calculates 268 people are likely to have died each week in 2023 while waiting up to 12 hours for a bed

Almost 14,000 people died needlessly last year in England while waiting in A&E for up to 12 hours for a hospital bed, a new estimate suggests.

Calculations by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) based on a large study of excess deaths and waiting times show that 268 people are likely to have died each week in 2023 because of excessive waits in emergency departments.

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Christopher Sidle was refused crisis admission to hospital despite warnings and died after self-harming

A series of failings by a troubled NHS mental health trust contributed to the death of a former government climate change adviser, a coroner has found.

Christopher Sidle, 51, who had a history of psychosis, fatally self-harmed on 1 July last year during a psychotic episode two days after being refused a crisis admission by Norfolk and Suffolk foundation trust (NSFT) despite warnings from his family and a trust psychiatrist, Norfolk coroner’s court heard.

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Simon Bramhall was a high-flying transplant specialist who risked it all – and lost his career. Why did he do it?

On the morning of 21 August 2013, a patient with acute liver failure was on the urgent transplant list at Queen Elizabeth hospital, Birmingham (QEHB). If a donor couldn’t be found within 72 hours, she would die. But she got lucky. By 7pm the woman – later known in court as Patient A – was anaesthetised and unconscious on the operating table, with a healthy, deep-red donor liver glistening on ice for her nearby.

QEHB had one of the UK’s leading liver units, and Simon Bramhall, the hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgeon on call that evening, was one of only about two dozen in the country at the time who specialised in liver transplants. At 49 years old, Bramhall had already performed the operation nearly 400 times. On any given day, there would be at least 10 trainees from around the world working with him, learning from his experience. In a centre of excellence, he was one of the best.

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Queen’s Medical Centre had 1,800 incidents of aggression, violence and harassment in 2022-23

• ‘We’re an easy target’: an A&E nurse on life on the healthcare frontline

“I’ve seen patients take swings at doctors because they’re not happy with the time it’s taken or the doctor’s diagnosis. I’ve seen fire extinguishers set off and thrown at people, computers lifted and thrown across the emergency department and people run out of cubicles and punch other patients – people they don’t know – for no reason.”

Roger Webb, a security supervisor at the Queen’s Medical Centre hospital in Nottingham, is recalling some of the more unsavoury incidents he has witnessed in the course of his work.

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Following a campaign by her family in memory of Martha Mills, the NHS is introducing Martha’s rule giving hospital patients in England access to a rapid review from a separate medical team if they are concerned with the care they are receiving

When Martha Mills fell off her bike on a family holiday in Wales in 2021, she damaged her pancreas and needed treatment in hospital. It was serious, beyond the expertise of the local hospital, so the 13-year-old was transferred to King’s College hospital in London.

The medics at King’s, one of the UK’s leading teaching hospitals, were reassuring. Although the injury was serious, it was treatable and Martha could expect to make a full recovery and be back at school within weeks.

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Initiative before national rollout will allow review of care for patients whose condition is deteriorating

Patients whose health is failing will be granted the right to obtain an urgent second opinion about their care, as “Martha’s rule” is initially adopted in 100 English hospitals from April at the start of a national rollout.

The initiative will allow patients and their loved ones to get a review of their condition and treatment directly from doctors and nurses not involved in the medical team treating them.

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