This week marked 250 days since Wes Streeting took the reins as Health Secretary and pledged, heroically, to ‘turn our health service around’. His first speech was strident and sombre. ‘From today, the policy of this department is that the NHS is broken,’ he said, casting himself as the man to fix it.
Indeed, in the run-up to the election, the MP for Ilford North – then Shadow Health Secretary – claimed he was ‘careful to only make promises we can keep’, pointing out that ‘the only thing worse than no hope is false hope’.
But some promised changes, such as setting up fracture liaison services in hospitals across the country to diagnose osteoporosis – which The Mail on Sunday has campaigned for – have failed to materialise.
Problems affecting millions of people in the UK, such as medicines shortages, which have directly led to patient deaths, show no sign of being tackled.
Targets to improve dementia diagnoses and boost women’s health have been dropped from NHS planning guidance. And controversies, such as physician associates (PAs) – ‘cut-price medics’ with only two years’ training – being used to plug staffing gaps and replace doctors, have not been given the prominence campaigners would like.
Meanwhile, leading doctors’ hopes that the Government would take a tough stance on the food industry to curb our intake of ultra-processed foods have ended in ‘bitter disappointment’.
On Thursday, the Government announced it is to dismantle NHS England to ‘cut bureaucracy’ – a bold move that Mr Streeting says will save money in the long run.
Yet he faces fierce criticism. At best, Mr Streeting and his department have been accused of ‘inertia’ on important health issues. At worst, these delays are said to have caused death and harm.
Both Coleen Howe and Emily Chesterton died after blunders by physician associates
Pamela Marking’s strangulated hernia was mistaken for a nosebleed, while David Crompton couldn’t get hold of epilepsy medication
Hannah Jacobs died of a severe dairy allergy and Ava Hodgkinson was killed by sepsis that was not recognised
Just some of those who have lost their lives, leaving their devastated loved ones reeling in shock, are featured on these pages.
No move to end drug shortage nightmare
It is a shocking saga which has seen desperate patients lose their lives over a shortage of critical prescription drugs.
For several years, common medications such as statins, antibiotics, epilepsy drugs, anti-psychotics, asthma inhalers, and HRT have been in short supply, largely triggered by increased global demand and manufacturing issues.
A staggering half of UK adults have been affected since 2022, research shows, causing conditions to worsen – and deaths.
Coroners have issued red flag warnings over three fatalities linked to such shortages this year alone. Both Charlie Marriage, 32, and David Crompton, 44, were found lifeless after being unable to get hold of epilepsy medication.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has been accused of breaking promises
Ava Hodgkinson died of sepsis aged two, after a pharmacist did not have the required dose of an antibiotic in stock to treat her Strep A infection. And Hannah Jacobs, who had a severe dairy allergy, died when she was 13 after suffering a reaction to a sip of Costa Coffee hot chocolate.
The local pharmacy was ‘out of stock’ of the correct EpiPen dose which might have saved her life. The MoS has featured all their stories as part of our campaign to End the Prescription Shortage Nightmare.
Mr Streeting has not responded to our campaign, but told BBC Breakfast last month he was ‘extremely sorry people have been in this position’, which he acknowledged could cause a ‘huge amount of anxiety’. But he stopped short of pinpointing exactly when things would improve, saying he ‘hoped’ to see progress this year.
Referring to the deaths, his team at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said they are ‘committed to learning lessons to prevent tragedies like this in the future’, and that they were ‘working with the NHS and manufacturers to resolve supply issues’.
Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, which is backing our campaign, says there have been ‘a series of calls’ between pharmacy leaders and DHSC officials ‘but nothing in the way of progress’.
‘There is still nothing tangible,’ Ms Hannbeck says. ‘Where are the results, Wes? Patients have died. Some really important medicines are now hard to get hold of, which is unacceptable.’
Our drug shortage campaign has four key demands – which industry leaders say would be simple to implement and help to significantly alleviate patient misery.
It calls on the Government to give pharmacists the power to make substitutions for patients when drugs are out of stock – something it has already done with certain medicines hit by shortages including HRT – and for patients to be able to use hospital pharmacies to source crucial drugs.
We also want manufacturers to be required to give advance warning of shortages, with fines if they fail, and for a database to be created allowing patients to see which pharmacies have their prescriptions in stock.
The latter could have saved the life of Charlie Marriage.
Charlie Marriage with his mother Henrietta Hastings. He died aged 32
The 32-year-old occupational therapy student died in June 2021 after spending two days desperately trying to get hold of the epilepsy medication Fycompa, which had kept his serious seizures under control for two years. He was unable to pick up his repeat prescription from his usual pharmacy near his university campus after being advised to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace.
But his GP failed to tell him about a little-known law that – because epilepsy is a ‘cliff-edge condition’ which can escalate rapidly without medication – would have allowed him to receive a five-day emergency supply from any pharmacy without a prescription.
NHS 111 sent paperwork allowing him to get the drugs to a pharmacy near his flat in south London which, after a three-hour wait, said it did not have them in stock.
He found some out-of-date Fycompa at a lower dose at his girlfriend’s flat – but suffered a severe seizure and was found dead the following day.
His mother, Henrietta Hastings, 64, from Snettisham, Norfolk, said: ‘Losing Charlie has been beyond terrible. He was just a lovely human being.
‘For it to have happened because of such basic failures and mismanagement adds to our agony.
‘Setting up a database so everyone knows where drugs are in stock shouldn’t be difficult. And it would be life-saving.’
A coroner at Charlie’s inquest warned there was a ‘clear cohort of patients’ who might be ‘similarly vulnerable in the future’.
Despite this, Jane Hanna, of the epilepsy charity SUDEP Action warned there is still ‘nothing in place to prevent a future sudden death’. Alongside this charity, Charlie’s family has developed the Charlie Card, a physical or electronic card to show pharmacists that someone has a ‘cliff edge’ condition and needs their medication.
Epilepsy Action, the Epilepsy Society and SUDEP Action sent a joint letter to Mr Streeting last month, signed by 45 MPs, calling for him to ‘appreciate the urgency’ of addressing medicine shortages.
Let down by silence on ‘cut-price medics’
There is also a mounting death toll linked to PAs – NHS staff with two years’ training who are said to be working beyond their scope, replacing doctors in over-stretched hospitals and GP practices.
Around 3,500 are employed by the NHS, and despite warnings from multiple medical organisations, there are plans to almost triple that number by 2037.
There is evidence PAs have diagnosed patients in A&E, ordered X-rays, performed anaesthesia and prescribed medication, leading the British Medical Association to raise concerns over safety.
The MoS has featured several heartbreaking stories as part of our campaign to Rein In The Physician Associates, which aims to restrict what PAs can do.
Emily Chesterton, 30, died in 2022 of a pulmonary embolism after twice being misdiagnosed by a PA. Colleen Howe, 34, died in 2023 of breast cancer after initially being told by a non-medic, when she was eight months pregnant, that a lump was likely to be ‘a blocked milk duct’.
Grandmother Susan Pollitt, 77, died in July 2023 after a PA carried out an ‘unnecessary’ procedure to remove excess fluid from her abdomen and left a drain inside her for so long it caused a fatal infection. Last month it emerged that Pamela Marking, also 77, died when a PA mistook her strangulated hernia for a nosebleed.
Mr Streeting has ordered a review of the PA role, and of anaesthetist associates (AAs), which is being carried out by Professor Gillian Leng, president of the Royal Society of Medicine and will report back later this year.
However, he has refused to commit to any regulations and insists many PAs are ‘providing great care and freeing up doctors to do the things only doctors can do’. He has not mentioned patient safety, only saying there are ‘legitimate concerns’ over scope of practice and substituting for doctors.
Emily Chesterton’s mother, Marion, ‘doesn’t have confidence’ Mr Streeting will take the findings of the review seriously, having written to him four times with no reply.
‘I’ve been a Labour voter all my life and I was so full of optimism once they got into power because I thought, at last, something’s going to get done,’ she said.
‘To have been ghosted by him is such a let down. I understand it takes time for things to happen but this has to be a priority before someone else dies.’
Mrs Chesterton and her husband Brendan are taking legal action against the General Medical Council alongside campaign group Anaesthetists United, with the hearing in May, in a bid to make it enforce a scope of practice and proper PA and AA supervision.
Inaction on junk food and women’s health
Other opportunities for Mr Streeting to make meaningful change by tackling obesity have been missed, experts say.
In October, a House of Lords report called for a sweeping crackdown to fix the ‘broken’ food system, including new taxes on products containing high levels of fat, sugar and salt. It also recommended bans on price promotions, and preventing fast food chains from opening near schools.
The Government has moved to introduce a ban on junk food adverts before 9pm, and online, to prevent ‘20,000 cases of childhood obesity’. Mr Streeting has promised to place new limits on takeaways near schools, ban energy drinks for under-16s, and has not ruled out a ban on junk food deals.
But the Government’s official response to the House of Lords report, published in January, was a ‘bitter disappointment’, according to prominent epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector.
It rejected calls for the new taxes on certain foods, mandatory health targets and to exclude food companies from negotiations on public health policy. It also asked scientists for more evidence linking ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to poor health outcomes – despite Professor Spector saying there was ‘adequate’ evidence already.
‘The Government is failing the public in how we can change our terrible food environment in a meaningful way,’ he said.
‘This inertia is reminiscent of the protracted legal debate and delay around smoking tobacco and passive smoking orchestrated by industry lobbying.
‘My biggest gripe is the Government refuses to keep food corporations and their paid advisers out of the policy-making process.’
One of Mr Streeting’s advisers is former Labour health minister Alan Milburn, who also advises Bridgepoint Capital – Burger King’s franchiser in the UK.
Elsewhere, the scrapping of targets to diagnose two-thirds of dementia cases and establish a women’s health hub in every area have been criticised. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said these hubs would be a cost-effective way of cutting gynaecological waiting lists and treating the menopause.
Mr Streeting also promised to ‘finally grasp the nettle on social care reform’ and build a National Care Service, but in January he said this would take time – and that proposals on long-term funding will not be delivered until 2028.
Tory MP Joe Robertson, a member of the health and social care select committee, said: ‘There [are] a lot of promises he is rowing back on. In my view, Wes Streeting’s priority is to become prime minister and he’s worried about damaging his chances.’
…And minister’s reply (sort of)
The Mail on Sunday contacted the Department of Health and Social Care with a list of the serious NHS issues that Health Secretary Wes Streeting has failed to tackle.
However, Mr Streeting chose not to respond personally to our article and instead had officials draft a response attributed to an unnamed department spokesman – which makes no reference to any of the issues.
The statement, in full, said: ‘In the last eight months, we’ve reformed the GP contract to bring back the family doctor, ended industrial action, delivered the extra 2 million appointments a year we promised in our manifesto seven months early, and cut NHS waiting lists by 193,000. Just this week, we abolished NHS England – the largest quango
in the world – to bring the NHS back under democratic control and end wasteful duplication. There’s a lot more to do, but thanks to our Plan for Change, for the first time in a long time, the NHS is on the road to recovery.’
Fracture service delays ‘costs lives’
Corinne Turnbull was diagnosed just before turning 40
Wes Streeting insisted, prior to the election, that the rollout of fracture liaison services (FLS) across every hospital in the country by 2030 would be one of his first priorities as Health Secretary.
This would revolutionise care for the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, which affects one in three women and one in five men over 50. It causes 500,000 fractures a year, which increase the risk of death and disability.
Universal FLS would improve early diagnosis by examining anyone over 50 who has broken a bone for the disease.
The Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) says this would prevent 74,000 fractures over five years, including 31,000 life-threatening hip fractures.
But for months there was no movement on Mr Streeting’s pledge, until last month he confirmed that ‘universal by 2030’ remains the policy. In that time, the ROS estimates more than 1,000 people may have needlessly died from preventable hip fractures.
Baroness Altmann, who
has long supported the FLS campaign, told the MoS: ‘Every month it’s estimated that more than 12,000 hospital beds are taken up with preventable fractures, and there are 500 preventable hip fractures.
‘Any announcement of a timetable would show this is really happening, but at the moment, it’s just promises.’ One of those waiting is Stephen Robinson, 72, who suffered ten spinal fractures in a year before receiving an osteoporosis diagnosis.
He believes he was overlooked because the disease more commonly affects women. The forklift truck driver, from Yorkshire, has called for universal FLS to allow for earlier diagnoses.
Corinne Turnbull, 52, also spent six months in pain before getting diagnosed. At nearly 40, she was deemed ‘too young’ for osteoporosis.
