Latest news with #CambridgeUniversityHospitalsNHSFoundationTrust
ITV News
4 days ago
- Business
- ITV News
NHS staff protest against 'huge' jobs cuts in Cambridge amid warnings patient care could be damaged
Staff are protesting against hundreds of job cuts at a major hospital trust, amid warnings that patient care could be "damaged." Members of the Unite union at the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) demonstrated outside Addenbrooke's Hospital on Wednesday. The trust has announced that over 500 jobs are at risk - approximately 4% of the total workforce - in a move described as a "difficult but necessary" decision. The cuts come after a mandate from NHS England earlier this year, which said that spending on support functions in NHS trusts must return to April 2022 levels. Five hundred roles at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH), which is Norfolk's largest hospital, have also been put at risk, although the exact number has yet to be decided. Unite's lead representative at Addenbrooke's Craig Jamieson, said: "My role in clinical engineering is at risk and it is very worrying. "Everybody you speak to at the hospital is very concerned and anxious about what will happen."Already, many of my colleagues work unpaid overtime, and stress and mental health problems are major reasons why staff go off sick. If these cuts are pushed through, I only see that getting worse." Roles up for redundancy include those working in "support functions" such as porters, maintenance staff, plumbers, engineers and those in administrative and clerical according to Unite, staff are concerned that losing these support roles will leave workers having to take on more as well as impacting patient care. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "These huge cuts across NHS trusts in Cambridgeshire are a blunt tool that risks damaging patient care, quality and waiting times."Unite stands firmly against these cuts." A CUH spokesperson said: 'Like all NHS Trusts, we have been asked to reduce the cost of our support functions this year to April 2022 levels."For CUH, which has a total workforce of 13,000 staff, this means a reduction of around 500 posts not delivering direct clinical care."The statement continued: 'We are taking all possible steps to minimise redundancies, through natural turnover by not recruiting to posts when staff leave, holding vacancies empty and a mutually agreed resignation scheme.'We appreciate it is a worrying and uncertain time for many colleagues working in the NHS, and we have put in place a range of measures to support staff during this process.'Over the past three years we have invested in additional staff, and our focus on productivity and efficiency means we delivered more than £53m of savings in the last financial year.'Taking these difficult but necessary decisions will help us manage our budget in the coming year and in the long term, while continuing to meet the needs of our patients now and in the future. "Throughout this process, we will ensure that patient safety remains our absolute priority.'
Business Mayor
22-05-2025
- Health
- Business Mayor
Extra cancer scans for women with dense breasts could save 700 lives a year
Hundreds of lives could be saved every year with extra cancer checks for women with very dense breasts, a study suggests. Millions of women undergo breast screening, but regular mammograms can be less effective at spotting cancer in the 10% with very dense breasts, as the tissue can hide tumours on X-rays. This is because very dense breasts look whiter on scans, making it harder to detect early-stage disease, which also appears white. Offering this group of women enhanced scans could find 3,500 more cases of cancer and save 700 lives a year in the UK, researchers from the University of Cambridge said. Their findings were published in the Lancet. The study's lead author, Prof Fiona Gilbert, said: 'Getting a cancer diagnosis early makes a huge difference for patients in terms of their treatment and outlook. We need to change our national screening programme so we can make sure more cancers are diagnosed early, giving many more women a much better chance of survival.' She added: 'In addition to the relevance for the UK's breast cancer screening programme, this study has global implications for all countries where screening is undertaken for women with dense breast tissue.' The study involved 9,361 women in the UK who had dense breasts and had received a negative (no cancer) mammogram result. When additional scanning methods were trialled, an extra 85 cancers were found. Two methods examined were contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM), in which dye is used to make blood vessels more visible, and abbreviated magnetic resonance imaging (Ab-MRI), which is faster than a regular MRI. Example mammogram images of healthy breasts showing fatty/least dense (left) and dense (right). Photograph: Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust/PA Researchers said adding either method to existing screening could detect 3,500 more cancers a year in the UK. With screening reducing mortality for about 20% of cancers detected, this could mean an extra 700 lives saved a year, the Cambridge team said. A third scanning method used in the trial – automated breast ultrasound (Abus) – also picked up cancers but was much less effective than CEM and Ab-MRI. CEM detected 19 cancers for every 1,000 women scanned, Ab-MRI found 17 and Abus found four. With mammograms already detecting about eight cases of cancer per 1,000 women with dense breasts, additional scans could more than treble breast cancer detection, the researchers said. The trial was funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) with support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. Although the trial showed the scans could detect additional small cancers, which would probably save lives, further research is needed to confirm whether they could reduce the number of deaths, in order to establish the risk of overdiagnosis and to estimate the cost-benefit ratio of offering extra scans. 'More research is needed to fully understand the effectiveness of these techniques, but these results are encouraging,' said Dr David Crosby, the head of prevention and early detection at CRUK. Dr Kotryna Temcinaite, the head of research communications and engagement at Breast Cancer Now, said: 'The UK National Screening Committee now needs to consider this research as part of their current review to determine whether women with very dense breasts should be offered additional imaging during their routine screening.' She added: 'Routine breast screening is the most likely route to finding breast cancer early, when treatment is most likely to be successful. While we know that the current process can be less effective in detecting cancers in dense breasts, we still encourage all women to attend mammogram screening when invited.' The Department for Health and Social Care said research into enhanced scans for women with dense breasts was being carried out as part of the NHS breast screening programme. 'The UK National Screening Committee is reviewing this evidence as it becomes available,' a spokesperson said.
Sky News
19-03-2025
- Health
- Sky News
Children operated on by now-suspended surgeon 'are being let down again', lawyer warns
Children who underwent operations with a now-suspended surgeon at a Cambridge hospital are being let down again by a lack of information and transparency from the hospital's trust, according to a lawyer representing one of the families. Last month, Addenbrooke's Hospital announced it had contacted the families of nine children whose complex hip surgeries "fell below" the expected standard, following an external review. The orthopaedic surgeon, who has not been named, has since been suspended while a second external review is carried out. But families are said to be "frustrated" by a lack of communication from Addenbrooke's, which is yet to release the findings of the first review. A lawyer instructed by one of the families has accused Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust of failing to follow official guidance in their handling of the patients and their families. Catherine Slattery, associate solicitor at Irwin Mitchell, told Sky News: "Families should feel they are being supported through this process, and that their child is the centre of this investigation. "At the moment, it doesn't feel that way." The National Patient Recall Framework - for patients "recalled" by a healthcare provider after a problem has been identified - states that the patient's needs should "always be placed at the centre" of the process. The guidance adds: "There should be appropriate and compassionate engagement with patients to ensure that the process remains patient focused." But Ms Slattery, who has spoken to more than one of the families affected, says Addenbrooke's is falling short of the framework and needs "to be a lot more transparent about the situation". She said: "I think the communication has been lacking. I think that there hasn't been enough information provided. "The priority has to be patient safety to ensure that if there are any ongoing symptoms or issues that they are dealt with promptly." In February, the chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust apologised to families affected, and admitted they had been let down. So far, the outcomes of nine surgeries were found to fall below the expected standards. A second external review is now investigating every planned operation performed by the surgeon in question. In a statement, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "We take this matter extremely seriously and we reiterate our unreserved apologies to the children and their families whose care was below the standard they should have received. "We proactively contacted the parents of children where the initial external review had identified that treatment had fallen below the standard we would expect and that they and their families are entitled to expect from us. "We have put in place arrangements for a further independent and external review into all of the planned surgical operations carried out by the individual during their employment with the trust. "We will contact any child and their family if this independent process identifies the possibility that there has been a poorer than expected outcome from their treatment."
BBC News
29-01-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Cambridge 'super-survivor' to join international cancer study
A woman diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour and told she had months to live, is now in remission, five years later, making her survival of interest to Webster, 52, from Cambridge, was told she had a grade four glioblastoma in March 2020 when she was 47. It is a fast-growing, aggressive type of brain tumour, with 25% of patients surviving more than a year, and only 5% of patients surviving more than five years, according to The Brain Tumour surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Ms Webster has been described in medical circles as a cancer "super-survivor". In March, when she marks five years since her diagnosis, she will be invited to take part in the Rosalind study, an international trial aimed at understanding the biological factors behind long-term cancer survival. The UK phase of the Rosalind study is being co-ordinated by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with eight UK hospitals joining others around the world identifying the small percentage of cancer patients who beat the odds and survive years after being clinical oncologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, and chief investigator for the UK part of the study, Dr Thankamma Ajithkumar, said the work was focusing on the three most aggressive and deadly cancers - advanced small-cell lung cancer, advanced pancreatic cancer and said: "Rather than focusing on why cancer patients do not survive, this study seeks to understand what it is that makes them live. "By investigating the biology of this elite group of super-survivors, the study aims to discover insights that could potentially benefit and improve outcomes for all patients." 'Such a joy' Ms Webster does suffer some memory loss and has had physiotherapy to help with the rehabilitation of her right hand side, but otherwise describes herself as doing "remarkably well". "I'm not sure what the secret is as to why I am still here," she said. "I was told that I had months to live, not years. "Almost five years on from receiving that cancer diagnosis, I try to make the most of life - I live every day as if it's my last."Ms Webster used to row competitively before her diagnosis, and with help and support from family and friends at Chesterton Rowing Club, she now rows every week."Rowing is a big passion, so the thought of returning to the river got me through radiotherapy and chemotherapy," she said."After receiving such a shocking prognosis, it is now such a joy for me being out on the river. "I can't believe I'm potentially one of these so-called cancer super-survivors."Researchers intend to gather tumour samples from more than 1,000 consenting patients who are among the top 3% in terms of cancer Ajithkumar added: "We don't want to just hear stories like Katherine's – we want to learn from them." Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
