Last week in the English county of Cheshire, nurse Lucy Letby was reportedly arrested on suspicion of murder. The alleged victims in the case were eight newborn babies. This arrest is part of a broader probe into the deaths of 17 infants at the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital between March 2015 and July 2016.
The case came to light when concerned parties began exploring the data concerning unexplained and unexpected infant fatalities.
One of the organisations involved, Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries (MBRRACE-UK), crunches numbers, transforming data into intelligence to help healthcare organisations improve by highlighting how they compare nationally with similarly sized and focused organisations.
MBRRACE-UK reports showed that between 2014 and 2015 the rate of neonatal deaths at the Countess of Chester unit more than doubled, increasing from 1.32 deaths for every 1,000 births, to 2.96 babies dying for every 1,000 born.
Comparing this data to other similarly sized units, the Countess of Chester neonatal unit was an outlier. It was clear that something was wrong: neonatal mortality had gone from unremarkable to among the highest in the land.
This is undeniably a tragic case. However, if there is one positive to take away from this unfolding nightmare, it is that the spike in deaths was quickly detected – and investigative and remedial actions were rapidly initiated.
This has not always been the case. We only have to look back at the horrific case of Harold Shipman who, in January of 2000, was found guilty of murdering fifteen patients under his care. Shipman is actually suspected of killing perhaps as many as 250 patients between 1975 and 1998.
According to Dr John Chisholm, former chairman of the British Medical Association's general practitioners committee, one of the reasons Shipman went undetected for as long as he did, was related to systemic failures in the monitoring and analysing of death and cremation data.
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Read more from Justin Thomas:
Psychologists have been telling us for 50 years that separating children from parents can do lifelong damage. So why would Trump tear families apart?
Anthony Bourdain's tragic death shows depression has many faces
Hugging it out: why being touchy-feely can be good for you
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Although we live in the information age, lots of data sources routinely go unanalysed or are merely analysed in isolation. When we do start to look at this data, examining it in a joined-up way, we can get clarity about what is going right and what is going wrong within our organisations.
For example, I once worked in the UK health service for a large group of mental health hospitals (under the umbrella of Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust). From an analysis of our incident reporting data, we noticed that there was a significant annual spike in serious incidents – mostly suicides – every April, going back as far as the records existed.
This alone was useful to know. However, we couldn’t explain it until we also looked at the database recording staff leave and absence.
It turned out that April was also the time of year when lots of staff took holidays. This mass exodus in April was due to an existing HR policy stipulating that leave not taken before April 30 could not be carried over into the next financial year.
Changing this policy ensured wards were no longer dangerously low on staff during that month, or any other time of the year, contributing to improved patient safety and the reduction of serious incidents.
How many years might this situation have persisted had we not analysed the data we collected? How many lives were saved?
It is not only in healthcare; many other sectors are guilty of collecting data that they fail to analyse. Collecting bits of information can give us a false sense of security. But if we don’t interpret the data we collect, we can never hope to benefit from it.
Some organisations still have a rather talismanic approach to data and technology. "If we collect lots of bits of information using the latest gadgets," the line goes, then "it's all good".
Data can help us, but only if we have the willingness and ability to translate it into knowledge, to transform it into robust and actionable intelligence. Unfortunately, many of our organisations are still driven by the data imperative – unthinkingly collecting data just because it feels like the right thing to do.
Such organisations amass data mountains that are never meaningfully mined for the nuggets of information that can transform organisations and protect us from systemic malevolence and malpractice. And, at least in the health sector, doing so could save lives.
Dr Justin Thomas is professor of psychology at Zayed University
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In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
- 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
- 150 tonnes to landfill
- 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal
800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Company%20Profile
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Panipat
Director Ashutosh Gowariker
Produced Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shelatkar, Reliance Entertainment
Cast Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Mohnish Behl, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman
Rating 3 /5 stars
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Voices: How A Great Singer Can Change Your Life
Nick Coleman
Jonathan Cape
UAE SQUAD
UAE team
1. Chris Jones-Griffiths 2. Gio Fourie 3. Craig Nutt 4. Daniel Perry 5. Isaac Porter 6. Matt Mills 7. Hamish Anderson 8. Jaen Botes 9. Barry Dwyer 10. Luke Stevenson (captain) 11. Sean Carey 12. Andrew Powell 13. Saki Naisau 14. Thinus Steyn 15. Matt Richards
Replacements
16. Lukas Waddington 17. Murray Reason 18. Ahmed Moosa 19. Stephen Ferguson 20. Sean Stevens 21. Ed Armitage 22. Kini Natuna 23. Majid Al Balooshi
The%20specs
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Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
Notable cricketers and political careers
- India: Kirti Azad, Navjot Sidhu and Gautam Gambhir (rumoured)
- Pakistan: Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi (rumoured)
- Sri Lanka: Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan (rumoured)
- Bangladesh (Mashrafe Mortaza)
Tips for taking the metro
- set out well ahead of time
- make sure you have at least Dh15 on you Nol card, as there could be big queues for top-up machines
- enter the right cabin. The train may be too busy to move between carriages once you're on
- don't carry too much luggage and tuck it under a seat to make room for fellow passengers
ACL Elite (West) - fixtures
Monday, Sept 30
Al Sadd v Esteghlal (8pm)
Persepolis v Pakhtakor (8pm)
Al Wasl v Al Ahli (8pm)
Al Nassr v Al Rayyan (10pm)
Tuesday, Oct 1
Al Hilal v Al Shorta (10pm)
Al Gharafa v Al Ain (10pm)
New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24
New Zealand
Penalties: Barrett (7)
British & Irish Lions
Tries: Faletau, Murray
Penalties: Farrell (4)
Conversions: Farrell
