Joined-up strategy needed to protect women and girls from violence | Letter

In your report (Government not learning lessons from deaths of domestic abuse victims, report finds, 15 July), the domestic abuse commissioner rightly calls for the government’s strategy on violence against women and girls to “link more closely to the NHS plan”. We agree and would go further – the approach to violence against women must be joined up across all relevant government departments, agencies and public services.As barristers, we see violence against women and girls, coercive/controlling behaviour and domestic abuse daily – not only in the criminal courts, which you would expect, but also in our family courts, where it’s estimated by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service and Women’s Aid Federation that domestic abuse allegations are present in more than 60% of private law children cases.To take a narrow view of violence against women and girls by looking only through the lens of the criminal justice system would miss countless opportunities to prevent harm. As the government finalises its strategy over the summer, we urge ministers to take a broad and joined-up approach

NHS must adapt to work better in heatwaves | Letters

Higher temperatures are becoming more frequent with climate change, and our patients are paying the price (‘Profound concern’ as scientists say extreme heat ‘now the norm’ in UK, 14 July). Increasingly, physicians are seeing more patients whose health is affected by extreme heat. During heat periods in the summer of 2022, there were 3,271 excess deaths in England and Wales, and last month’s heatwave alone will cost hundreds of lives.Demand for healthcare will rise as a result of extreme temperatures. It is not only people’s health at risk, but our ability to care for patients too

As a long-term psychiatric patient, I’ve had superior care from the NHS | Letters

I read with interest the letters about psychiatric care in the NHS (11 July), prompted by Rachel Clarke’s review of Bella Jackson’s book Fragile Minds (A furious assault on NHS psychiatry, 30 June). I have not read the book but, as a long-term psychiatric patient, I would like to make two points.First, care naturally varies in quality, suitability and success. Following three years in unsatisfactory private care (after many previous years in NHS care), I have happily returned to the NHS. I find its care superior, but hamstrung by limited resources, which can mean waiting many months for an appointment

‘Difficult’ state of NHS maternity care is due to Tory inaction, inquiry head says

One of the UK’s most senior midwives has said inaction by the previous government over maternity care failures has led to the “difficult” situation in wards across England and a rise in reports of birth trauma.Donna Ockenden, who is leading the biggest inquiry in NHS history into maternity failures in Nottingham, said the Conservatives had been given a “blueprint” for how to improve maternity services but that it had not been implemented.“I think the current government has inherited a really, really difficult picture around perinatal care, birth care and increasing reports of birth trauma. If only the previous government had done what it said it would do, that inheritance would have been very different,” she said.Ockenden is leading a review into maternity services at the Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust, the largest inquiry into a single service in the history of the NHS, with 2,406 affected families taking part

Half of black women in UK who raise concerns during labour did not receive suitable help, study finds

Almost half of pregnant black women raised concerns to healthcare professionals during labour, with half saying that their concerns were also not properly addressed, according to the largest report of its kind.Black women in the UK are up to four times more likely to die during childbirth compared with their white counterparts, and are also more likely to experience serious birth complications and perinatal mental health illnesses.Five X More, an organisation dedicated to improving black maternal health outcomes, confirmed these findings through a study of the maternity experiences of more than 1,000 black and mixed-race people who were pregnant between July 2021 and March 2025.The report found that more than half (54%) of respondents experienced challenges with healthcare professionals, and that just under a quarter (23%) of black women did not receive pain relief when they requested it. And of these women, 40% said they were given no explanation as to why that was the case