Community update on 'milestone' new West Sussex hospital centre
The two one-hour sessions will be held at the education centre in the main hospital building on 22 July at 15:00 BST and 18:00.The trust had planned for the single-storey building to be up and running by April 2026.
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Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Dentist being fined £150K by NHS for keeping patients' teeth too healthy
A Mirror special report from one of Britain's worst dental deserts exposes an NHS system 'not fit for purpose' and causing an exodus of dentists going private Britain has a hidden oral health crisis with children who've never seen a dentist needing multiple teeth removed after their first appointment. NHS dentist Rob Mew today reveals the upsetting cases he has encountered since opening his books to new child patients every Thursday. The Mirror came to Devon - one of Britain's worst 'dentistry deserts' - for the first of a series of special reports for our Dentists for All campaign. We visited Fairfield House Dental Surgery in Exmouth which is one of the few in Devon still seeing NHS patients. Its owner Rob believes passionately in the NHS and its founding principle that it should care for patients from 'cradle to grave'. But that is the only reason his practice still treats NHS patients. It could earn hundreds of thousands of pounds more going private. Rob is currently being fined £150,000 by the NHS in a funding 'claw back' effectively for keeping his patients too healthy with regular check-ups and preventative work. It is an example of the widely discredited NHS dental payment contract which is causing dentists to quit the health service in their droves to see only private patients. Every Thursday the practice opens its NHS books to local kids who have not seen a dentist in years - and in some cases have never seen one. Rob, who himself has three children aged ten, eight and four, said: 'That's one of the reasons I do it because I have young children but it's quite emotional. We were seeing four and five year olds who had so much decay we just had to send them to hospital to get extractions. There's such a backlog of sending these kids to have general anaesthetic to get the teeth out so we're trying to maintain them until they get their teeth extracted. 'One of the dentists saw a seventeen year old who hadn't seen a dentist in ten years and needed 28 fillings. You've got really emotional parents that are feeling really guilty that they have got themselves into this position. One of our nurses said she couldn't work on that list because it was too upsetting because she has kids of a similar age. It's a really sad situation.' Fairfield House Dental Surgery has been running for over 100 years. Rob became a partner in 2012 before becoming owner when another partner retired in 2017. The practice does free supervised tooth brushing at local primary schools as well as sending practitioners to breast feeding and toddler groups to educate parents. Rob, 43, said: 'We're blessed with a group of patients who've been with us for a long time, some have been coming here for more than 50 years. So that's why I'm still with the NHS because it feels like the right thing to do, to keep going for them. It's a kind of cradle to grave service which is what the NHS was supposed to be. But that's the only reason we're doing it - out of good will.' Why is top dentist being 'fined' £150,000 for keeping his patients' teeth too healthy? Rob Mew owns a rare example of a thriving NHS dental practice in the middle of a dental desert. Fairfield House Dental Surgery employs ten dentists and does free outreach work in the local community to improve oral health. However when we visited the surgery was in the process of returning £150,000 to the NHS because it had not carried out enough Units of Dental Activity (UDA). It was having to pay £50,000 a month over three months. UDAs are the metric used by the NHS in its dentistry payment contract which has been deemed 'not fit for purpose' by Parliament's Health and Social Care Committee. The contract requires practices to agree to perform a set number of UDAs - and they are penalised if they come in below or above this. A check-up is worth one UDA while giving a patient a filling racks up three UDAs. Rob told the Mirror: 'We are being penalised for preventing patients requiring more UDAs. We have £150,000 'claw back' this year but we have 19,000 NHS patients which is more than the practice has ever had. The clawback is for not doing enough UDAs but when patients are being looked after better they don't have as much need for dental work.' Fairfield surgery gives his patients a check up every 12 months whereas other practices call lower risk patients back for check ups every two years. Rob said: 'We are seeing them yearly and that's one UDA. We are preventing loss of tooth. A GP practice is paid for how many patients they have on their list. That's how they should be funding dentistry.' Rob says between five and ten people call the practice every day desperate to be seen by an NHS dentist. He has taken on as many as he can but has just started a waiting list. He said: 'We have got patients travelling to be seen here from as far away as north Wales, Manchester and Sheffield. "The NHS dental contract in England only funds enough for half the population to be treated so these patients have moved away but can't get a dentist. And the Exmouth population is exploding and we have a load of new housing but no more dentistry money to treat the people in those houses.' A key Mirror campaign demand is reform of the hated NHS payment contract which disincentivises dentists from treating the patients who need it most. Dentists get paid the same for delivering three or 20 fillings, often leaving the practice treating NHS patients at a loss. Last week the Government published its Ten Year Health Plan which pledged that "by 2035 the NHS dental system will be transformed" - but the British Dental Association insists contract reform must happen much sooner. Rob said: 'With these most vulnerable patients with high needs it's really tricky for the practice to to make that work [financially]. 'We had a family last Thursday with three kids and they had never been seen by a dentist. There was decay everywhere and they clearly need a lot of work and the parents are saying we haven't been able to be seen anywhere. And they're just tired because they've been calling around practices trying to get in and it kind of gets put on the back burner. 'We had a 14 year old girl come in a couple of weeks ago and she had four crowns put on her back teeth. And you're thinking, if we hadn't handled that soon she would have a couple of back teeth missing and then a lower denture.' Dental practices have high overheads with staff costs and materials. Fairfield House Dental Surgery is currently trying to find the funds for a new dentist chair which will cost £30,000. Rob has worked in the NHS in some form for 28 years, starting at the age of 15 in a hospital kitchen. He added: 'I've got a lot of good will towards the NHS so yeh I try my best to make it work.' But NHS dentistry cannot rely on good will alone. The British Dental Association warned the Public Accounts Committee earlier this year that the Treasury has become reliant on practices delivering care at a loss - fuelling an exodus of NHS dentists into lucrative private work. The professional body estimates a typical practice loses over £40 delivering a set of NHS dentures and £7 for every new patient exam. A Parliamentary report by the Health Select Committee has described the state of NHS dentistry as "unacceptable in the 21st century". The NHS contract effectively sets quotas on the maximum number of NHS patients a dentist can see as it caps the number of procedures they can perform each year. At the same time over a decade of real terms funding cuts under the Tories means the £3 billion NHS dental budget for England is only enough to treat around half of the population. Devon worst 'Dental Desert' Data from 700,000 participants in last year's GP Patient Survey showed it is hardest to get an NHS dentist appointment in South West England. Questions on dentistry focused on respondents who had attempted to get an NHS dental appointment in the last two years suggests Devon may be one of the country's worst dentistry deserts. Survey responses were grouped by regional Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) which include NHS bodies, local councils and voluntary organisations. The One Devon ICB is responsible for the health of the population in the county. Among people who were already in with an NHS dentist, Devon saw just 72% of people successfully get an appointment. In the wider South West region this was 74% while for England as a whole it was 84%. Dentists for All campaign Save NHS Dentistry petition Sign our petition to save NHS dentistry and make it fit for the 21st century Our 3 demands Everyone should have access to an NHS dentist More than 12 million people were unable to access NHS dental care last year – more than 1 in 4 adults in England. At the same time 90% of dental practices are no longer accepting new NHS adult patients. Data from the House of Commons Library showed 40% of children didn't have their recommended annual check-up last year. Restore funding for dental services and recruit more NHS dentists The UK spends the smallest proportion of its heath budget on dental care of any European nation. Government spending on dental services in England was cut by a quarter in real terms between 2010 and 2020. The number of NHS dentists is down by more than 500 to 24,151 since the pandemic. Change the contracts A Parliamentary report by the Health Select Committee has branded the current NHS dentists' contracts as 'not fit for purpose' and described the state of the service as "unacceptable in the 21st century". The system effectively sets quotas on the maximum number of NHS patients a dentist can see as it caps the number of procedures they can perform each year. Dentists also get paid the same for delivering three or 20 fillings, often leaving them out of pocket. The system should be changed so it enables dentists to treat on the basis of patient need. Have you had to resort to drastic measures because you couldn't access an NHS dentist? Are you a parent struggling to get an appointment for a child? Email or call 0800 282591 Of those who attempted to get an appointment at a practice they had not been seen at before, only 14% were successful in Devon. This compared to 19% in the South West region and 33% as the average for England. The big caveat is that many will not have tried to get an appointment if they thought they had no chance. The data shows only a minority of dentists are taking on new adult patients, and in Devon and the South West, hardly any are. British Dental Association chair Eddie Crouch said: 'This shows why the government is right to commit to major surgery for NHS dentistry, rather than mere sticking plasters. But we need pace. This service is on the critical list, and demoralised dentists are walking away every day this contract remains in force. If we don't make a break in this Parliament there may not be a service left to save.' A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: 'This government inherited a broken NHS dental system but we are getting on with fixing it through our 10 Year Health Plan. 'We have already begun the rollout of 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments, a 'golden hello' scheme is underway to recruit dentists to areas with the most need and we are reforming the NHS dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists - including introducing tie-ins for those trained in the NHS."
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
‘My disabled child will need PIP for life – I fear what will happen when I die'
Welfare reform is a hot topic, as the Government considers whether to cut benefits for the disabled. But, while politicians wrestle with their balance sheets, one mum tells what it's really like to bring up a child with a disability Born with the rare genetic disorder FOXP1, writer Kate Skelton's daughter Annabelle, 10, receives Disability Living Allowance which at 16, would have transitioned to PIP – one of the benefits under threat. Here, Kate 43, who lives in Bromley, Greater London, with her NHS worker husband Philip 44, twins Alexander and Oliver, 6, son, James, 13, and Annabelle, reveals how just two weeks ago she met other children like her daughter for the very first time. Two weeks ago Annabelle and I boarded a flight to Amsterdam. A life changing moment, it was the first time we'd ever met a child like her and the first time in 10 years I've felt like I belonged . You see, Annabelle is one of only 652 people worldwide diagnosed with Forkhead box protein P1 syndrome (FOXP1) - a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, causing cognitive, behavioural and physical challenges. It has resulted in her having cerebral palsy, autism, ADHD, global development delay, hypotonia and challenging behaviour. I am in awe of Annabelle's determination, fearlessness and resilience. She has defied expectations. She can walk, dance and ride a bike. Although mostly non-verbal, she can talk in simple sentences, she sings beautifully, she gives the most amazing cuddles and has a smile that lights up every room. She is learning to colour in and is learning to read simple words. She has an amazing laugh and sense of humour, she is funny, kind and patient. She also faces immense challenges – physically and mentally – and, as her family, with no one who truly understands to talk to, until now, so have we. It's not just Philip and me, either. Her brothers are impacted – they're always looking out for her, making sure she is safe. But now, in Amsterdam at a special conference for FOXP1, we were connecting with families like us from all over the world - even the UK. Meeting them and their children, I cried tears of joy. It had taken us a decade and we'd had to fly across Europe but, finally, it was like the pieces of our jigsaw were slotting together. After 10 years of me feeling lost, afraid and alone, we were part of a community. I couldn't believe it when we met Zahra, from Hampshire, with her 13-year-old boy Oscar, who has FOXP1 and was diagnosed three years ago – six weeks after his dad died suddenly and unexpectedly. Her feelings echoed my own, when she said: 'Finally meeting other children and adults with FOXP1 and their parents and carers was the best decision I've made.' When Annabelle was born on 23 December 2014, I knew something was wrong. She had a squint and was floppy. She had a strange cry – and while her head was on the 90th centile, her body was on the 9th. She choked on my milk and didn't make eye contact. But I could never have imagined the journey that lay before us – the hospitalisations, the battle for therapy and support, the loneliness and isolation, the fears for her future that would keep me from sleeping. As she continually missed milestones, I raised my concerns with the medical profession. After months of being dismissed as neurotic, things unravelled quickly when Annabelle got a cold at 10 months and ended up in intensive care with bronchiolitis and RSV, covered in wires and fighting for her life. Suddenly the hospital doctors started listening. After a barrage of treatment and recovery, a doctor diagnosed developmental delay, and hypotonia (decreased muscle tone), saying she was 'catastrophically' disabled and may never walk or talk.' 'Buy a calendar - you are going to have a lot of appointments,' said the consultant. A neurologist showed me her brain MRI and explained that Annabelle had an abnormal brain with enlarged ventricles and loss of white matter. I burst out crying and was told I was upsetting other patients. When I asked the same neurologist if she might eventually have a relationship, she replied: 'If she ever has sex, it will be rape, because she will lack the mental capacity to consent.' I was utterly shell-shocked. As our life became a whirlwind of hospitalisations and medical appointments, consultants knew no more than their belief she had a genetic condition. Not knowing what either Annabelle's – or the rest of our family's future looked like was agony. Years of battling for support, paying for private therapies we could ill afford and struggling for any positives followed. Finally, in 2018, we celebrated the birth of our twins, Alexander and Oliver, and - having signed up to the 100,000 genome project - Annabelle's geneticist told us she had FOXP1, before discharging her. Through it all, I had no FOXP1 families to meet up with, have a coffee with – with whom to share our woes. But now, in Amsterdam, we were joining 75 families like ours from 15 countries across the world - including 5 from the UK - at the two day conference. In all, we met 49 children and adults with FOXP1 – ranging in age from 2 to 46. Meeting scientists and hearing about new research and treatments was awesome. But nothing beats meeting other people like Annabelle and other mums like me. To my astonishment, I even met another family from London who are only about 10 miles away from us. At last, I was making connections. People I could laugh and cry with. People who understood. And as we talked, I finally started getting answers to questions that haunted me. What will Annabelle's future look like? Will she continue to progress? Will she ever live independently? Will she ever have a job? Make friends? How do I cope with her challenging behaviour? What will happen when I die? Until this moment, I hadn't realised that feeling lost, frightened and lonely had become my normal. I felt like I'd known these families for years. I particularly loved seeing all the teenagers hanging out together, forming friendships. It gave me hope for Annabelle. Zahra agreed, saying: 'Meeting so many FOXP1 families was mind blowing, overwhelming and emotional at times, but I felt so comfortable talking and sharing our stories. 'We laughed and we cried as we shared stories of life with our Foxes.' I also met Karl Whitney – co-founder and co-president of the International FOXP1 Foundation, whose 20-year-old son, Jonah, has FOXP1 and whose YouTube video I found when Annabelle was first diagnosed. I'd connected with some people on FOXP1 Facebook and WhatsApp groups, but it's no substitute for face-to-face contact. It was truly magical for me and worth all the nerves and the special assistance we needed with the flights. When it was time to leave Amsterdam, I cried. I didn't want to leave the families I'd connected with behind. Annabelle has taught me to reassess what actually matters in life and to see the world in a different way. I feel incredibly lucky to have her. Now, at last, we have found people just like her. We were no longer alone.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Drugs crisis in jails ‘worse than ever' as seizures by prison officers near record-high
The drugs crisis in prisons is the worst it has ever been, experts have warned, with the prevalence of illicit substances rendering jails ' almost impossible to run positively'. Ministers have been warned that an unacceptable level of criminality is rampaging unchecked in many prisons, as the most recent data shows annual drug seizures by prison officers returning to record highs of more than 21,000. New analysis by The Independent highlights how the ongoing crisis first exploded during the austerity years, as the prison service was hollowed out by cuts and staff layoffs. The warning comes as staffing levels remain on the brink at some prisons and as the government prepares for the largest overhaul of the system in decades to ease overcrowding and refocus the justice system towards rehabilitating offenders. 'We generally feel there is a bigger and more diverse and profitable drug market in prisons than there's ever been,' said Mike Trace, chief executive of the Forward Trust, a charity delivering drug treatment in 20 prisons. 'Obviously we can't itemise that in terms of GDP figures, but the feeling for most professionals on the wings is this is a bigger part of prison life than it's ever been before.' Warning that this 'makes prisons almost impossible to run positively ', Mr Trace – who previously served as a government drugs tsar under Tony Blair – also expressed concern that an influx of new synthetic drugs are posing a risk to safety, with fatally potent synthetic opioids feared to be 'in the mix'. Mr Trace told The Independent: 'A lot of the market in prisons now is liquids and powders that people receiving and taking them are not really sure what's in them. That means the risk of overdose or adverse reaction is heightened because people aren't in a good position to manage dose and potency.' 'That's why you get the large number of blue-light ambulances calling,' he said. Warning that 'blue lights are a normal part of prison life now', Mr Trace added: 'There are prisoners who need medical attention on a daily/weekly basis.' His warnings were echoed in a major watchdog report published last month, in which the Independent Monitoring Board described drugs as a growing problem 'endemic across the prison estate' – with 'a seemingly unstoppable flow' into many jails. The watchdog's annual report said: 'At some prisons the impact of drugs was inescapable: debt drove up violence and bullying, while prisoners frequently experienced medical emergencies, which added further disruption as staff resource was directed towards assisting them and providing hospital escorts.' That is despite intensified efforts to crack down on the flourishing illicit market, as staff in the crumbling prison estate battle against increasingly adept drone deliveries and hard-to-detect substances. Official data shows there were a total of 21,145 drug seizures in the year to March 2024 – a rise of 35 per cent on the previous year, and close to an all-time high of 21,575 hit four years prior. Of the seizures made last year, more than 7,200 drug finds in the year to March 2024 were logged as 'unknown' substances. Nearly 5,000 others were categorised as 'psychoactive substances' – which can include the synthetic cannabinoid spice – and more than 3,000 as 'other'. The Independent previously revealed that new super-strength synthetic opioids now infiltrating the UK drugs market had already claimed lives behind bars, with two deaths in June 2022 at HMP Lewes caused by overdoses of isotonitazene, a substance 250 times stronger than heroin. But experts warn that, in both prison seizures and post-mortem examinations, officials are still failing to test for these new opioids, which have been discovered in not just heroin but illicit vapes, diazepam and codeine pills. When nitazenes were discovered during a prison seizure in 2023, the government claimed the sample was deemed to be too dangerous for the private laboratory to handle. The Independent' s analysis of official data underscored the rapid explosion in the crisis during the austerity years led by the former Tory government, when funding cuts saw experienced officers laid off and drug treatment avenues diminish. There were an average of 3,813 annual drug seizures in prisons over the eight years to 2014, but this soared to a yearly average of 15,350 over the following decade. From 2014, confiscations skyrocketed from fewer than 4,500 to more than 21,000 just six years later. Mr Trace said 'massive austerity cuts' from 2012 onwards saw long-serving prison staff replaced with 'relatively inexperienced and poorly trained officers ' – resulting in the loss of 'an awful lot of prison craft experience' and handing 'much more freedom to prisoners to exploit laxer security to build up drug trade'. Simultaneously, the number of addiction treatment programmes in prisons, such as drug-free wings, were slashed from 110 in 2013 to around 15 just six years later, according to Mr Trace. It coincided with the arrival of spice – which is easier to produce and circulate behind bars than cannabis – and 'increased the incentives of drug dealing gangs to target prisons'. Now, the arrival of drones – which Mr Trace describes as the 'current front line in the arms race for dealing' – have taken the drugs trade to 'another level', with a single delivery capable of serving a prison for a month. Previously, piecemeal supplies came via family visits and corrupt officers which lasted only a matter of days. HM chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, told The Independent the effects of drugs, often brought in on drones, 'is the biggest challenge currently facing many of our prisons'. He said: 'Inspectors regularly smell drugs as they walk around the wings and random drug tests in some jails are regularly coming back more than 30 per cent positive. Where there are drugs, there is debt, which is one of the causes of increasing violence. 'It is simply not acceptable that these levels of criminality are going on, unchecked, in so many English and Welsh prisons.' Experts frequently warn that drugs and related debts are a major driver of violence behind bars, with assaults on staff hitting a record high of more than 10,000 in the year to March. Placing HMP Manchester into emergency measures last October, inspectors said 'catastrophic' levels of drugs were 'clearly undermining every aspect of prison life, particularly safety', fuelling the highest rates of serious assaults of any jail in the country. HMP Winchester followed suit days later to become the ninth jail put in emergency measures in just two years, with inspectors also citing drugs and violence as serious issues. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: 'This government inherited a prison system in crisis – close to collapse, with drugs and violence rife. 'We take a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and are cracking down on illicit items using X-ray body scanners and drone-restricted fly zones – measures that are making a clear impact.'
