Published18 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Jill LockhartBy Andrew Picken & Lisa SummersBBC Scotland NewsA mum has been told her ten-year-old daughter’s spinal condition is now inoperable after having planned surgery cancelled seven times since September. The curvature of Eva Tennent’s spine is now so severe that her mum Jill Lockhart fears she will not survive. Her family said three of her operations at Edinburgh’s Sick Kids Hospital were postponed due to staff shortagesIt comes as BBC News learned that one of Scotland’s three paediatric spinal surgeons has been suspended. Patients and families under the care of surgeon Chris Adams, who was treating Eva, were told he would no longer be treating them last week – but were not told why by NHS officials. The suspension came a day after Mr Adams met with a BBC journalist and accompanied him on a visit to Eva in hospital, which had been requested by her parents. Shaye Armour, 13, was also under Mr Adams’ care ahead of planned spinal surgery in Edinburgh later this year but the teenager was moved to a hospital in Newcastle on Tuesday for a new surgical assessment. Nursing shortages are delaying spinal operations – surgeonChildren face ‘catastrophic’ wait for NHS treatmentWhen will Scotland’s NHS recover from Covid?BBC News is aware of another case where spinal surgery for a child planned with Mr Adams was postponed at the last minute. NHS Lothian said it does not comment on individual members of staff.Dr Tracey Gillies, the board’s medical director, apologised to patients and families affected by rescheduling operations and said the well documented wider pressures on the NHS was partly to blame. Last year, a BBC Disclosure investigation into Scotland’s NHS revealed claims by Mr Adams that nursing shortages at the Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP) were contributing to some children waiting up to three times longer than pre-pandemic for spinal surgery. Mr Adams and other staff members raised concerns within NHS Lothian about the number of operations being cancelled due to staffing shortages.The problem of bed and staff shortages is impacting all areas of Scotland’s NHS with The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health warning that the number of children waiting for some services had more than doubled in the past 11 years.’They are telling me it’s too late’Eva suffers from Rett syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects brain development, and has advanced scoliosis that causes her spine to twist and curve to the side.The curvature of her spine was 60.89 degrees in May, 2022, went up to 107.9 degrees last year and is now at 110 degrees, according to Jill. Her family say they’ve been told her condition means it is now inoperable.Image source, Jill LockhartJill told BBC News that Eva had been booked for surgery seven times since September last year, but each time it has been cancelled.”She was deemed operable in September, October and November – and they were only cancelled because of bed and nurse shortages,” she said. “They have left it so long, and now they are saying it’s too late. It feels like my daughter’s chances of survival have been sacrificed.”Jill said the most recent surgery cancellations were down to Eva’s deteriorating respiratory health, which she believes is a result of the delay in operating and the curvature of the ten-year-old’s spine putting increased pressure on her internal organs. Eva was due to undergo surgery on 28 March but this operation has also been cancelled.”We were told last week that the operation could go ahead,” Jill added.”Now, we’re being told she’s inoperable and I can’t get a proper explanation from the hospital why this situation has changed so quickly.”If Eva had this operation, she could live for another 15 to 30 years with her condition. Without it, she may die.”‘They have just left him in limbo’Image source, Nicole ArmourShaye Armour, from Greenock, has congenital kyphosis scoliosis, a condition which causes his spine to bend forward.The 13-year-old was being treated at Edinburgh’s RHCYP under the care of Mr Adams as part of a series of planned spinal operations this year. His mum Nicole said she was told by NHS Lothian that Mr Adams, who had been Shaye’s surgeon for nearly a decade, was no longer available to treat her son but she was not able to find out why from the senior official she spoke to. She said: “I asked was it personal reasons and he avoided the question. I asked has he been suspended, has he been sacked? “They said he wasn’t sacked, so I said has he been suspended then and the answer was no comment which I found pretty weird because Shaye was in the middle of getting his surgeries done.”This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.”I’m very upset and angry that they have done this to Shaye. They started something and just stopped mid way through, they have just left him in limbo. He’s left in the unknown, he has all these questions but has no answers.”If they delay things more or if they make the slightest mistake Shaye will end up paralysed from the neck down.”Nicole said Shaye “was devastated” by the news as he was very close to Mr Adams, who she described as a “great man”. ‘Significant pressures’Dr Gillies, the medical director of NHS Lothian, said: “We do not comment on individual members of staff.”If a clinician was not to be at work for any reason, patients and their families would be told if it impacted on their care and their case would be reassigned to another surgeon as soon as possible – particularly if it was time sensitive.”In cases of a specialist service, it can often be necessary to link in with the closest centre to ensure the patient is care for appropriately.”She added: “We do know that rescheduling elective procedures can be very upsetting for our patients and their families. We apologise sincerely to those who have been affected, especially those who have been rescheduled a number of times.”We have been open and honest about the significant pressures being experienced across our entire healthcare system and their negative impact on elective procedures and waiting times.”More on this storyChildren face ‘catastrophic’ wait for NHS treatmentPublished6 days agoNurse shortages are delaying spinal ops – surgeonPublished7 March 2023When will Scotland’s NHS recover from Covid?Published1 MarchAround the BBCBBC One – Disclosure, Is the NHS There for Me-

Published4 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, PA MediaBy Andrew Picken & Lisa SummersBBC Scotland NewsAn NHS watchdog has apologised to 29 doctors at Scotland’s biggest hospital for not fully investigating their concerns about patient safety. A&E consultants at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital wrote to Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to warn patient safety was being “seriously compromised”.They offered 18 months’ worth of evidence of overcrowding and staff shortages to back their claims. But HIS did not ask for this evidence.The watchdog also did not meet any of the 29 doctors – which is almost every consultant in the hospital’s emergency department – to discuss the concerns after it received the letter last year. Doctors ask health board to declare major incidentNHS whistleblowers warn of ‘unsafe’ A&E staff shortagesWhen will Scotland’s NHS recover from Covid?Instead, it carried out an investigation where it only spoke to senior executives at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde before then closing down the probe. HIS has now issued a “sincere and unreserved apology” to the consultants and upheld two complaints about the way it handled their whistleblowing letter about patient safety. One consultant who signed the letter told BBC Scotland: “We’d exhausted all our options and thought HIS was a credible organisation. “We offered to share evidence of patient harm. We were shocked that they ignored this and didn’t engage with us as the consultant group raising concerns.” Another consultant added they were “shocked at their negligence”.Image source, PA MediaA Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) source told BBC Scotland: “The inquiry seems to have started and ended with HIS asking hospital managers if everything was okay and being assured it was. “If almost 30 named consultants raising very serious fears for patient safety does not prompt a rigorous independent investigation, what will?”.HIS said it had apologised for the shortcomings in its response and is committed to learn lessons.NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said improving overall patient safety at QEUH was its top priority. The consultants’ plea There have been longstanding concerns about patient safety standards in the emergency department at the QEUH.It is one of the country’s busiest A&Es and has regularly failed to meet Scottish government targets on treating patients within four hours. In 2022, BBC Scotland revealed how A&E doctors had urged NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to declare a major incident at the hospital amidst fears the department would be overwhelmed.In May last year, 29 consultants in emergency medicine at QEUH wrote to HIS to warn that patient safety was being “seriously compromised” by issues in the A&E such as treatment delays, “inadequate” staffing levels and patients being left unassessed in unsuitable waiting areas.They claimed this has resulted in “preventable patient harm and sub-standard levels of basic patient care”.The doctors also said this meant “a number of critical events have occurred including potentially avoidable deaths”.The medics’ signed off the letter by saying they were getting in touch with HIS as they said repeated efforts to raise the issues with health board bosses “failed to elicit any significant response”. Complaint closedIn August last year, HIS wrote to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde chief executive Jane Grant to tell the board it was closing its investigation into the consultants’ complaint as it was satisfied there was “awareness and oversight of the issues and of the performance of the emergency department”.The letter lists what the board told HIS it was doing to address the problems but also points out a “great deal remains to be done in order to improve communication and relationships” with staff. It also reveals some of the internal reviews required to be carried out after significant adverse events in the hospital were “significantly overdue”. The letter referenced a meeting between HIS officials and Morag Gardner, the board’s deputy nurse director, and Scott Davidson, deputy medical director.After getting hold of this HIS letter to the health board, the consultants complained to watchdog for failing to meet them or reviewing any of the “extensive documentary evidence” they offered to provide. In January this year, HIS upheld a complaint that it did not provide any of the 29 doctors with the opportunity to discuss their concerns directly with its officials.A second complaint, that there was no opportunity to provide evidence to substantiate the consultants’ claims, was also upheld. In a letter from Robbie Pearson, HIS chief executive, to the consultants, he said: “I would like to offer my sincere, unreserved apology for our shortcomings in this matter and the clear distress they caused you all. “May I also offer an assurance that HIS will learn lessons and implement changes to published process and their application as a direct result of your complaint”.Evidence of patient safety concerns offered by the consultants has now been shared with HIS and it is being reviewed with the potential of leading to a new review of the concerns about QEUH’s emergency department being launched. Dr Lailah Peel, a member of the BMA Scottish Council and an A&E doctor in the west of Scotland, said doctors were increasingly seeing patients come to avoidable harm due to conditions in hospital.She said: “The fact that consultants have had to go to that level to raise these kinds of concerns – and then they’ve been essentially ignored until this point – is really, really worrying. “I think what we really need to see now is not just an apology but some actual action that’s going to help these consultants, help the whole department and help patient safety.” She told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme how hospitals were often working at capacity, which meant A&E departments had to work to a one-in-one-out policy.The types of concerns raised about the A&E at the QEUH have been mirrored across Scotland in recent years. In August last year a group of senior doctors accused NHS Grampian of ignoring their safety concerns about emergency departments in Elgin and Aberdeen.Elsewhere, “serious concerns” were raised about overcrowding at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh’s A&E. Improvement planA HIS spokesperson said: “Following our initial response outlining our findings, we received a complaint from the consultants about their experience of the process. “Our handling of the process did not include adequate engagement with the clinicians raising the concern. “We have formally acknowledged this, apologised for shortcomings and committed to learn lessons.”A NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokesperson said: “We are committed to improving the patient experience at the QEUH and have been working with consultants within the Emergency Department (ED) alongside HIS following concerns raised around staffing and capacity levels. “The ED team are involved in hospital-wide plans to support the department by relieving pressures on the front door and improving overall patient safety which remains our top priority.”More on this storyWhistleblowers warn of ‘unsafe’ A&E staff shortagesPublished23 August 2023’Serious concerns’ raised about overcrowded A&EPublished18 May 2023Doctors ask health board to declare major incidentPublished30 December 2022When will Scotland’s NHS recover from Covid?Published1 March