Rebecca Thomas
Rebecca is a senior correspondent covering mental health, learning disabilities and autism. She previously managed the leadership section of HSJ's best practice content and assisted with the brand's commercially sponsored content. She has a background in healthcare, volunteering for St John's Ambulance.
Contact info
- Tel:
- 020 7608 9048
- Email:
- rebecca.thomas@wilmingtonhealthcare.com
News25 Jan update: Regions see mixed fortunes as covid hospital patients go into week-on-week decline
The number of covid positive hospital patients in England stood at 32,907 yesterday, a 1 per cent fall on a week before and 4 per cent below the highest total recorded on 18 January.
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GPs receive 'urgent' call to volunteer for work in crisis-hit ITU
GPs in Birmingham have been sent an “urgent” plea to assist in their acute trust’s crisis hit critical care services, HSJ can reveal.
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Doctors at covid crisis trust accused of dodging ICU work
A medical leader at England’s largest acute trust has warned fellow doctors that its ‘priority is now [intensive care] at [the] expense of dropping all activities’, and suggested that some are avoiding critical care work.
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200 Army medics and personnel drafted into Midlands hospitals
Around 200 army medics and other personnel have been sent to work in hospitals in the Midlands, HSJ understands.
- HSJ Local
City ‘under the cosh’ from covid forced to admit adults to children’s critical care unit
Liverpool has been forced to re-open a paediatric intensive care unit to adults as the NHS chief executive warned the city was “right back under the cosh” from the third wave of the pandemic.
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NHS England pushes for more private capacity and cancels planning round
NHS England has told local leaders to outline plans to use up to 100 per cent of their private sector capacity from next week.
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Thousands of London’s 999 calls answered by other regions
Thousands of calls have been redirected from London’s ambulance trust to providers in other regions in “unprecedented” levels of sustained support, leaked data has revealed.
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NHS England: Hospitals must ‘surge’ ICU so other regions don’t have to ration care
NHS England has asked hospitals across the country to open hundreds more intensive care beds so they can take in patients from the hardest hit areas, to prevent those patches having to ration access.
- HSJ Local
Trust with largest ICU redeploys 200 doctors as it faces being ‘overwhelmed’
The trust with the country’s largest intensive care unit capacity is set to redeploy 200 doctors as it faces being “overwhelmed” by covid-19 patients.
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NHSE orders further dilution of staffing ratios to help double ICU capacity
NHS England has told hospitals in the Midlands to further dilute their staffing ratios so critical care capacity can be doubled, HSJ has learned.
- HSJ Local
Trainees deployed to wards as overseas recruitment ‘blown out the water’
A trust in the Midlands says its international recruitment plans have been ‘blown out of the water’ by the new covid variant and recent travel bans – and forced it to deploy medical trainees to the wards.
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Exclusive: Leak reveals urgent care patients face 30-hour waits because of covid pressures
Patients calling NHS 111 in London could face a 30-hour wait before being admitted to a hospital bed, the capital’s ambulance service has warned.
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Updated: Hospital declared it may ‘refuse critical care’ as ‘overwhelmed’ by covid
A hospital in the South East today declared a level of critical care alert meaning that it may be forced into ‘refusal or withdrawal of critical care due to resource limitation’ because it has been ‘overwhelmed’ — but later claimed it was an ”administrative error”.
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Exclusive: Region could run out of critical care beds in two weeks
Hospitals in the Midlands could exceed their maximum number of critical care beds in just two weeks, data leaked to HSJ indicates.
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Roll out covid vaccinations to frontline staff ‘immediately’, says NHS England
Covid-19 vaccinations should now be “immediately” rolled out to front line staff, NHS England has told trust leaders.
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London critical care patients could be sent to Yorkshire as capital’s ICUs top 100pc occupancy
Requests have been made to transfer patients in need of intensive care from London to hospitals in Yorkshire, HSJ has learned, as leaked figures reveal that critical care is running at 100 per cent-plus capacity across the south east and east of England.
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Troubled children’s service taken out of special measures
An independent children’s and adolescents’ mental health service has been taken out of special measures after cutting beds by two-thirds.
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CEOs frustrated by ‘discriminatory’ approach to vaccine prioritisation
Chief executives of mental health trusts have expressed their frustration at the government’s failure to include people with learning disabilities higher up the priority list for covid vaccines.
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Trusts told to make immediate improvements after maternity scandal report
NHS England has ordered trusts to make immediate improvements to maternity safety following the publication of the report into the Shrewsbury and Telford maternity scandal.
- HSJ Local
Trusts to share chair after NHSE ordered 'rapid' move to group model
Two trusts have agreed to appoint a joint chair amid efforts to form a group model across their sustainability and transformation partnership.
