Shaun Lintern
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shaunlintern.bsky.social
Shaun Lintern
@shaunlintern.bsky.social
Health Editor at The Sunday Times. Health Journalist of the Year 2023. Helped expose #MidStaffs. Public interest journalism matters #E17 #patientsafety

📰 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/profile/shaun-lintern
📝 DMs open
📨 shaun.lintern@sundaytimes.co.uk
Pinned
🚨 INVESTIGATION: Private clinics delivering NHS cataract surgery face investigation over claims they have artificially inflated costs for the taxpayer, performed unnecessary operations and incentivised high-street optometrists to refer patients to them: www.thetimes.com/article/245f...
Private cataract clinics investigated while making millions from NHS
Health service bosses fear price inflation and unnecessary operations are costing the taxpayer. Now a fraud unit is getting involved
www.thetimes.com
Proper snow in Stoke overnight. Ziggy is a big fan.
January 5, 2026 at 9:29 AM
What recovery for Swiss burns victims might look like. Great to speak to Dr Peter Dziewulski and Dr Cath Spoors from the St Andrew’s Centre for Plastic Surgery and Burns, in Chelmsford
www.thetimes.com/article/ac45...
What recovery may look like for Le Constellation burn victims
Specialist units have activated Europe’s disaster plan to help the seriously injured
www.thetimes.com
January 4, 2026 at 6:26 PM
Chelsea & Westminster FT has also carried out a review of Jabbar's patients - but unlike @greatormondst.bsky.social it has chosen secrecy. Sources tell me a significant number of harm has been found but trust would not say if it had even informed families
@rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social
🚨 EXC: @GreatOrmondSt surgeon Yaser Jabbar now confirmed to have harmed between 85 and 100 children at the world famous hospital. Some have lifelong derformed limbs. Insiders say trust managers have failed to tackle deeper cultural problems:
www.thetimes.com/article/90e3...
Rogue surgeon at Great Ormond Street hurt up to 100 children
Yaser Jabbar botched leg operations that left some patients with chronic pain, deformities and nerve damage
www.thetimes.com
January 4, 2026 at 10:33 AM
🚨 EXC: @GreatOrmondSt surgeon Yaser Jabbar now confirmed to have harmed between 85 and 100 children at the world famous hospital. Some have lifelong derformed limbs. Insiders say trust managers have failed to tackle deeper cultural problems:
www.thetimes.com/article/90e3...
Rogue surgeon at Great Ormond Street hurt up to 100 children
Yaser Jabbar botched leg operations that left some patients with chronic pain, deformities and nerve damage
www.thetimes.com
January 4, 2026 at 8:24 AM
The number of people in hospital with flu in England has fallen for the second week in a row. An average of 2,676 flu patients were in hospital during the week ending December 28, down 13% from 3,061 the previous week.
January 2, 2026 at 10:27 AM
Health secretary @rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social says he has not ruled out a public inquiry into maternity failings. If there is to be a public inquiry I think its focus should be on the national policy, decisions, leadership and responses to local problems at NHSE/DHSC levels. What do you think?
January 1, 2026 at 9:59 AM
Reposted by Shaun Lintern
Quiet as in "not newsworthy", but far from quiet in our Emergency Depts.
Not newsworthy as it is just the predictable pressures on acute care of a four day festive w/e with an ageing & multi morbid population who try to hold out over Xmas & whose limited community safety nets are still in twixtmas
December 30, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Surprisingly quiet post-xmas period so far for NHS. How is it where you are? NHS sit rep data will be published tomorrow, a crucial indicator as we head into January and temperatures expected to plunge.
December 30, 2025 at 11:40 AM
"If we continue to reduce registered nurse availability to patients in the current context of financial pressure, it’s extremely likely more people will die" says lead researcher @alisonleary1.bsky.social
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: English hospitals that cut registered nurses saw more deaths while those hiring nurses saw more patients survive. Even when hospitals tried to fill gaps with non-nurses, deaths still went up. Major new study exposes dangerous NHS variation:
www.thetimes.com/article/7eed...
Death rates rise when NHS cuts back on nursing
Using lower-paid workers to plug the gaps left by a failure to hire registered nurses damages safety, new research has shown
www.thetimes.com
December 21, 2025 at 8:48 AM
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: English hospitals that cut registered nurses saw more deaths while those hiring nurses saw more patients survive. Even when hospitals tried to fill gaps with non-nurses, deaths still went up. Major new study exposes dangerous NHS variation:
www.thetimes.com/article/7eed...
Death rates rise when NHS cuts back on nursing
Using lower-paid workers to plug the gaps left by a failure to hire registered nurses damages safety, new research has shown
www.thetimes.com
December 21, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Reposted by Shaun Lintern
Vaccine Crisis by The Sunday Times @thetimes.com has been named Campaign of the Year #BJA2025
December 11, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by Shaun Lintern
Highly commended in the Health & Life Sciences Journalism category is  @shaunlintern.bsky.social of The Sunday Times @thetimes.com #BJA2025
December 11, 2025 at 7:43 PM
An average of 2,660 flu patients were in hospital in England each day in the week to December 7, including 106 in critical care. This is up 55% from 1,717 the previous week, when 69 were in critical care.
December 11, 2025 at 1:31 PM
The BMA agrees to put a new government offer to resident doctors through an online survey
December 10, 2025 at 5:35 PM
In one of her final msgs to me my amazing mum told me she had no regrets, that she was proud of the man I had become. She told me to be a good person and to work hard and to do it for her.

So, I'd best get to it....back to work tomorrow. Thanks for all the msgs.
December 8, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Looking thru mum's finances. This is a real list of some direct debits.
Dogs Trust, Barnardos, RNIB, PDSA, CF Trust, Guide Dogs, Friends of Elderly, Donna Louise Hosp, Donkey Sanctuary, Age UK, Sal Army, WWF, Iris Cats in Need, Shelter, B Red Cross, RSPCA, GOSH, Doug Mac Hospice
November 27, 2025 at 9:15 PM
💔 #MND Pls support the @mndassoc.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 9:10 PM
A hospital under investigation for poor maternity care spent a decade pursuing a “normal birth” ideology that families believe compromised safety: www.thetimes.com/article/f3af...
Hospital at centre of inquiry pursued ‘natural birth’ ideology
In the period that Leeds maternity unit had the lowest number of caesareans, its rate of stillbirths and newborn deaths became the worst nationally
www.thetimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:04 AM
🚨 Student midwives are being stopped from graduating and forced to extend training "to make up for deficits in theory and practice" the NMC has said. 67 separate concerns have been raised with the NMC about university courses in the past year:
www.thetimes.com/article/24e9...
Student midwives blocked from graduating after training ‘failures’
The regulator has intervened after The Sunday Times revealed that dozens of courses are still promoting ‘normal birth’ ideology
www.thetimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:17 AM
"I see evidence midwives don’t have the training, understanding, to manage women who are very sick because of the change in the characteristics of women giving birth. What worries me is curricula are not moving with the times to recognise that change" - Prof Marian Knight of @Mbrrace
🚨 INVESTIGATION: Britain's maternity crisis has deeper roots, extending into the universities trusted to train the next generation of midwives. A majority are still promoting a normal birth ideology while women are more complex than ever:

READ: www.thetimes.com/article/b4fe...
Stop promoting natural birth ideology, midwife courses told
Despite a litany of scandals, universities are still pushing ‘normal birth’ over medical interventions. Now our investigation has prompted the regulator to act
www.thetimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:58 AM
The NMC wrote to all universities on Friday telling them to stop promoting normal birth and gave them 1 month to alert the NMC to any deviations from their approved course material.
🚨 INVESTIGATION: Britain's maternity crisis has deeper roots, extending into the universities trusted to train the next generation of midwives. A majority are still promoting a normal birth ideology while women are more complex than ever:

READ: www.thetimes.com/article/b4fe...
Stop promoting natural birth ideology, midwife courses told
Despite a litany of scandals, universities are still pushing ‘normal birth’ over medical interventions. Now our investigation has prompted the regulator to act
www.thetimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Reposted by Shaun Lintern
Before I did midwifery training I worked as a nurse on renal dialysis and liver transplant units in the 90s.I remember being shocked by newly created direct entry midwives who knew little about diabetes monitoring or blood gasses. I wonder if the issue here is curriculum of direct entry midwifery?
November 9, 2025 at 8:27 AM
🚨 Exclusive: A damning inquiry will reveal tomorrow how NHS leaders ignored warnings over unsafe hearing tests 12 years ago leaving 300 children permanently disabled.

@camillakingdon.bsky.social labels it a "disaster" and calls for a change in leadership:
www.thetimes.com/article/2f23...
Hundreds of deaf children misdiagnosed in NHS ‘disaster’
Many were wrongly given the all-clear when they needed hearing aids or cochlear implants, permanently stunting their development
www.thetimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:10 AM
🚨 INVESTIGATION: Britain's maternity crisis has deeper roots, extending into the universities trusted to train the next generation of midwives. A majority are still promoting a normal birth ideology while women are more complex than ever:

READ: www.thetimes.com/article/b4fe...
Stop promoting natural birth ideology, midwife courses told
Despite a litany of scandals, universities are still pushing ‘normal birth’ over medical interventions. Now our investigation has prompted the regulator to act
www.thetimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:29 PM