A round-up of the health news in the papers on Wednesday 15 February.
The Daily Mail covers Pulse's lead story this morning which comes after our survey of 500 GPs found a third of family doctors say their patients are being put at risk in NHS hospitals because of ‘dangerously' poor care.
The Mail reports how GPs told Pulse wards were like ‘factory production lines' and admitted they would not refer their own family: 'One in ten thinks that in the past 12 months at least one of their patients died unnecessarily because the hospital either misdiagnosed them or they were not given the correct treatment.'
One GP told us that he wouldn't send his dog to his local hospital; a statement which the Mail gleefully quoted. Read our full, in-depth coverage and analysis of the survey results here.
‘Official papers expose risks of health reforms' says the front page of the Guardian this morning. The internal NHS reports say the reforms run a ‘high risk of reducing levels of safety and patient care' while also leading to overspending.
The potential for conflicts between different branches of the NHS under the new system and during the transition is ‘high', say risk assessments drawn up by four English NHS regions. Apparently there's also a high chance that the long-promised management improvements and budget cuts will not be achieved.
The NHS ‘lets mentally disabled patients die' according to a study by the charity, Mencap and reported in the Times (paywall). The report accuses the NHS of imposing ‘do not resuscitate' on dying patients with learning disabilities without the knowledge or consent of their families.
Mencap says patients are being allowed to die solely on the basis of their learning disability and that DNR notices are being applied ‘hastily and in inappropriate situations'. A review of 74 deaths of patients with learning disabilities while in NHS care over the past 10 years shows a ‘routine failure to abide by discrimination law, delays in diagnosing and treating serious illness, a neglect of basic care needs and a failure to consider crucial advice from families'.
