Victoria Macdonald
Pattern of failures that put babies’ lives at risk
A “catalogue of failures at almost every level” is linked to the death of three mothers and 16 babies at Furness General Hospital.
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Victoria Macdonald
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Ex-NHS boss Farrar avoids Morecambe Bay question
Former NHS Confederation Chief Executive Mike Farrar is confronted by Channel 4 News over a “dysfunctional” maternity unit, which led to the unnecessary deaths of 11 babies and one mother.
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Victoria Macdonald
‘A baby died an avoidable death’: one family’s fight for justice
Although the inquiry looks only at Morecambe Bay, it is clear that many of the problems the families faced following the deaths of their babies are far from unique.
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Victoria Macdonald
Savile’s offending in NHS ‘scarcely credible’
The story of Jimmy Savile’s offending in NHS hospitals is unusual to the point of being scarcely credible. That is the opening line from Kate Lampard’s report.
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Jimmy Savile was ‘evil, cruel, frightening’ – rape victim
Raped by Jimmy Savile when she was a vulnerable teenage patient at Stoke Mandeville hospital, “Anne” describes how he changed in an instant from “cuddly” TV persona to a terrifying predator.
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Hospital neglect: ‘my father was forgotten to death’
The son of a pensioner, who died of dehydration at an NHS hospital, tells Channel 4 News his father was “forgotten to death”, as figures reveal the scale of undernourishment deaths while in care.
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Councils gain new powers over NHS – the key questions
Councils in Greater Manchester are to be given a key role in how the NHS budget is spent in the region as English devolution gathers pace. Why is this happening and what will it mean?
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How I lost my daughter after taking her abroad for treatment
Mary Kidson was cleared last year of poisoning her daughter after taking her to Belgium for medical treatment – but despite the landmark ruling they have yet to be reunited. Ciaran Jenkins met her.
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Victoria Macdonald
Giving NHS whistleblowers the freedom to speak up
Over the years I have reported on a number of cases in which whistleblowers have had their careers, reputations and lives blown apart because they have tried to do the right thing.
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Jeremy Hunt wants hospitals ‘as safe as planes’
Avoidable deaths in English hospitals are the “biggest scandal in global healthcare”, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says as he announces plans to end the “cover-up culture” in the NHS.
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Labour divided on NHS reform
A pledge by shadow health secretary Andy Burnham to roll back privatisation gets a mauling from some Labour figures – he says he disagrees “profoundly” with former Health Secretary Alan Milburn.
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Victoria Macdonald
Burnham in spotlight for Labour’s 10-year NHS plan
If this winter has identified anything it is that the health and social care system is not working together as well as it should. Indeed, some less kindly souls might say it’s barely working at all.
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NHS ‘creaking at seams’ as problems spread beyond A&E
Waiting time targets breached, bed blocking on the increase, a third more operations cancelled than a year previously – the latest survey of the NHS by the Kings Fund think tank makes sombre reading.
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No guarantee another Shipman couldn’t happen again
Before he was arrested in 1998, GP Harold Shipman was able to kill 215 people, yet changes recommended to stop this ever happening again are still not in force. Critics say the delay is “apalling”.
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SNP MPs would vote on English matters – Sturgeon
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon causes a stir ahead of the election after saying that nationalists elected in May would be prepared to vote on the English NHS at Westminster.
