Jump to content
  • articles
    7,183
  • comments
    76
  • views
    6,402,598

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

 

Coronavirus: Government throwing ‘lit match into a haystack’ by discharging Covid patients to care homes

The government has been warned it is throwing “a lit match into a haystack” by discharging Covid-positive patients to care homes, with politicians demanding that the safety of residents and staff is guaranteed under the new policy.

During the first wave of the pandemic, approximately 25,000 hospital patients were sent to care homes – many of whom were not tested – which helped spread the virus among residents. Around 16,000 care home deaths have been linked to COVID-19 since the start of the crisis.

The strategy was one of the government’s “biggest and most devastating mistakes” of the crisis, says Amnesty International, and questions have been raised over the decision to introduce a similar policy as the UK’s second wave intensifies.

As part of the 2020 adult social care winter plan, the government has called on local authorities and care providers to establish “stand-alone units” – so-called “hot homes” – that would be able to receive and treat Covid hospital patients while they recover from the disease.

There is also an expectation that, due to housing pressures and a shortage of suitable facilities, some patients may be discharged to “zoned accommodation” within a home, before being allowed to return to normal living settings once they test negative for the virus.

Councils have been told to start identifying and notifying the Care Quality Commission of appropriate accommodation, and to ensure high infection prevention standards are met.

Under the requirements outlined by the government, discharged patients “must have a reported Covid test result". However, The Independent revealed on Monday that these rules have not been followed in some cases, with a recent British Red Cross survey finding that 26 per cent of respondents had not been tested before being discharged to a care home.

There is also concern whether care homes possess enough adequate personal protective equipment to prevent outbreaks, with the CQC revealing last month that PPE was still not being worn in some sites.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 27 0ctober 2020

Read more

Transformative learning programme to improve workplace wellbeing and cut business costs

Organisations across the UK and beyond are set to benefit from a unique NHS- academic partnership which sees a focus on staff safety and morale – and delivers significant cost savings.

Together Northumbria University and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust are pioneering professional development courses on Restorative Just Culture. This approach at the Liverpool-based Trust has seen reduced dismissals and suspensions, leading to substantial business savings, and has generated great interest across the health sector.

Starting in 2016 Mersey Care has worked to deliver a Restorative Just Culture. And despite increasing its workforce by 135%, the Trust has since seen an 85% reduction in disciplinary investigations and a 95% reduction in suspensions – helping them drive down costs significantly. During the same period, it has also seen improved staff engagement and safety culture scores as measured by the NHS national staff survey.

Mersey Care’s Executive Director of Workforce Amanda Oates says: “Mersey Care started on our journey towards a Restorative Just and Learning Culture after conversations with our staff about the barriers staff faced delivering the best care that they could possibly give."

“The feedback was overwhelmingly about the fear of blame if something didn't go as expected. This was preventing staff from telling us what wasn’t working. More importantly, it was preventing the opportunity for learning from those things to prevent them from happening again. As a Board, we had the conversation - are we looking at problems the wrong way?”

Read full story

Source: FE News, 27 October 2020

Read more

NHS hospital forced to postpone cancer operations as Covid spreads on wards

Cancer patients have had surgery cancelled because of coronavirus for the first time as pressure mounts on hospitals from the second wave, The Independent has learnt.

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has confirmed it had to postpone the operations because of the number of patients needing intensive care beds.

While hospitals across the north of England have been forced to start cancelling routine operations in the last 10 days, maintaining cancer and emergency surgery had been a red line for bosses given the risk to patients from any delays.

Cancer Research UK said it was “extremely concerning” that some operations had been postponed and called for urgent action and investment to make sure treatments were not curtailed further.

In a statement to The Independent, Nottingham University Hospitals medical director Keith Girling said: “We’ve had to make the extremely difficult decision to postpone operations for four of our cancer/pre-cancer patients this week due to pressure on our intensive care units from both Covid-19 and non-covid related emergencies."

“We expect to treat one of the postponed patients next week, and we’re in contact with the others to arrange a new date, which will be imminent. This delay, however short, will be incredibly hard for the patients and their families, and I’m truly sorry for any distress this will have caused.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 27 October 2020

Read more
 

NPA asks pharmacies to report all patient safety incidents as number plunge in Q2 of 2020

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has asked community pharmacies to report all patient safety incidents despite growing work pressure due to a persisting virus pandemic.

Since March, there has been a significant decrease in the number of patient safety incidents being reported, the NPA said in its medication safety update for the second quarter of 2020.

Overall, there was a 44.5% decrease in the number of incidents reported during the second quarter of the year, compared to the first quarter of 2020.

There was a 40.6% decrease in the number of patient safety incidents when compared to the same quarter in 2019.

“This is a significant reduction in number of incidents being reported. This may be due to the increased workload and pressure on pharmacy teams due to COVID-19 pandemic, whereby pharmacy teams may not be prioritising reporting of patient safety incidents, or due to other, as yet unknown, reasons,” NPA said in its update.

NPA advises community pharmacists to ensure that they report the actual degree of harm caused to the patient and not the potential harm that could have happened.

The pharmacy body also suggested pharmacists should make sure that they complete a detailed outcome if an incident did lead to moderate or severe harm to the patient. This allows a thorough analysis to be undertaken by the NPA.

Community pharmacists are also advised to ensure the incident form is fully completed, is accurate and includes sufficient details to allow meaningful analysis of the incident.

Read full story

Source: Pharmacy Business, 27 October 2020

Read more

CCG lead condemns ‘heartbreaking’ visiting rule at local hospitals

A GP commissioning leader has publicly criticised hospital visiting rules at local hospitals, after hearing that a stroke patient was denied seeing family or friends for six weeks.

Philip Stevens, a locality chair at Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), described the situation reported to him by one of his patients as “heartbreaking”, and has challenged visiting policies at Northampton General Hospital and Kettering General Hospital trusts. 

During a CCG governing body meeting, Dr Stevens called for explanation from the county’s director of public health, Lucy Wightman, who said trusts could choose their own rules.

Dr Stevens, who is also a GP at Brackley Medical Centre, argued that visitors were permitted in neighbouring counties, where he claimed there were similar covid case rates to Northamptonshire, which remains in tier 1 restrictions under the government’s framework.

He said: “I’ve been dealing this week with a family who, the wife’s husband, has been in Northampton General for six weeks now and has had no visitors at all during that time. He’s had a profound stroke and when he comes home he’ll need considerable community support which ordinarily the family would have been trained in but discharge is planned without any of that training.”

Mr Stevens said in an “adjacent county” hospital policy was that each patient would have ”one hour, one visitor each day” with 30-minutes in between visiting slots. While not named, trusts in neighbouring Cambridge and Lincolnshire both have policies that permit pre-booked visitors.

He added: “When I heard this story it seemed heartbreaking to me for this woman and her husband and I just wonder whether that this is a situation we should be challenging, particularly since it appears that the public health advice in an adjacent county may be different to that which is being offered within Northamptonshire.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 27 October 2020

Read more
 

Why most hospitals could save millions by improving patient safety

The first wave of COVID-19 may gave subsided in some areas of the United States, but in others it is growing and hospitals everywhere are continuing to face significant challenges.

The American Hospital Association recently estimated that hospitals will incur at least $323.1 billion in losses through the end of this year due to COVID-19. Key contributors include postponed and cancelled elective procedures, lower patient volumes across all departments, and higher costs for supplies and devices.

Other factors compound the financial challenges, including pressure for hospitals to implement new initiatives that foster a safer care environment for COVID-19 patients, non-COVID-19 patients, and healthcare providers. This pressure is mounting, as spikes in cases continue to appear in various regions, and as concerns grow about the flu season.

The good news is that improving patient, staff, and visitor safety can actually help hospitals recover from the financial losses they are experiencing due to the pandemic. For example, enhanced patient safety leads to:

  • Fewer costly events, such as hospital-acquired infections or conditions, acute kidney injuries, adverse drug events, readmissions, and return visits to the emergency department.
  • Faster and more proactive identification of cost-saving opportunities, such as IV to PO conversions and more optimal management of high-cost drugs.
  • Higher patient volumes due to a stronger quality and safety reputation. 

Hospitals face significant financial challenges, but they must also act quickly to ensure patient, staff, and visitor safety. Luckily, improving margins and enhancing patient safety don’t need to be competing priorities. When hospitals implement effective safety improvement approaches, margin improvements naturally follow.

Read full story

Source: MedCity News, 25 October 2020

Read more
 

After scandals like Winterbourne View, why is basic decency still remarkable?

In late July 2019, Sara Ryan tweeted asking families with autistic or learning disabled children to share their experience of “sparkling” actions by health and social care professionals. She was writing a book about how professionals could make a difference in the lives of children and their families.

"These tweets generated a visceral feeling in me, in part because of the simplicity of the actions captured. Why would you not ring someone after a particularly difficult appointment to check on them? Isn’t remembering what children like and engaging with their interests an obvious way to generate good relationships? Telling a parent their child has been a pleasure to support is commonplace, surely?"

Sara's own son, Connor, was left to drown in an NHS hospital bath while nearby staff finished an online Tesco order. "Certain people, children and adults, in our society are consistently and routinely positioned outside of 'being human', leading to an erasure of love, care and thought by social and healthcare professionals. They become disposable."

What has become clear to Sara is how much the treatment of people and their families remains on a failing loop, despite extensive research, legislative and policy change to make their lives better, and potentially transformative moments like the exposure of the Winterbourne View scandal. At the heart of this loop are loving families and a diverse range of allies, surrounded by a large cast of bystanders who, instead of fresh eyes, have vision clouded by ignorance and sometimes prejudice.

"To rehumanise society, we need more people with guts and integrity who are prepared to step up and call out poor practice, and to look afresh at how we could do things so much better with a focus on love and brilliance."

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 27 October 2020

Sara Ryan's book: Love, learning disabilities and pockets of brilliance: How practitioners can make a difference to the lives of children, families and adults

Read more

Fears of 'two-tier' system as NHS waiting lists prompt more people to go private

Concerns are growing that long NHS waiting times caused by the coronavirus crisis are exacerbating pre-existing health inequalities and creating a “two-tier” system, as more people turn to the private sector for quicker treatment.

As leading doctors warn mass cancellations of NHS operations in England are inevitable this winter after waiting times reached the highest levels on record this summer, data shows a rise in the number of people self-funding treatment or investing in private health insurance.

“COVID-19 has not impacted everyone equally, and there is clearly a risk that the backlog in routine hospital treatment is going to add to those inequalities if some people are able to get treatment faster because they’re able to pay,” said Tim Gardner, from the Health Foundation thinktank.

As the NHS heads into winter and a growing second wave of the virus, experts stressed the need to help those affected by the backlog now.

“There is a need to prioritise the most urgent cases, but simply because someone’s case isn’t urgent doesn’t mean it’s not important. It doesn’t mean that people aren’t waiting in pain and discomfort, or waiting anxiously for a diagnosis,” said Gardner.

“We think it’s incumbent on the health service to make the best possible use of the capacity it’s got. But also it needs to make sure it’s supporting people while they’re waiting. We just can’t have people left in limbo.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 27 October 2020

Read more
 

Patients discharged from hospitals without Covid test results

Almost half of hospital patients have been discharged without receiving the results of their coronavirus test – including some patients who were sent to care homes, new research from Healthwatch and British Cross has revealed.

Independent national patient body Healthwatch England said it had learned many patients were discharged from hospitals between March and August this year without proper assessments with many vulnerable people sent home without medication, equipment or the care they needed.

At the start of the pandemic thousands of patients were discharged to care homes as NHS England instructed hospitals to free up 15,000 beds ahead of the first wave of coronavirus.

Approximately 25,000 patients were sent to care homes with some not tested, sparking fears this helped seed care homes with the virus. There have been around 16,000 care home deaths linked to COVID-19.

According to a survey of almost 600 discharged patients and interviews with 60 NHS staff, Healthwatch England said it had found serious flaws with the way hospitals had followed NHS England’s instructions.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 24 October 2020

Read more
 

Trust warned by CQC sees fourth inpatient death following ‘humongous’ problems

A fourth suspected suicide has occurred at a mental health trust which was recently warned by the Care Quality Commission after three other similar inpatient deaths in quick succession, HSJ can reveal.

All four deaths at Devon Partnership Trust had common themes, including the use of ligatures, and occurred amid a year-long delay to the trust’s plan to reduce ligature risks.

Figures obtained by HSJ under freedom of information laws also reveal the trust took nearly a year to investigate the first two deaths. The target is 90 days.

The trust told HSJ it had faced “humongous” problems addressing ligature risks and had been too “patient” with another trust which was helping to investigate the deaths.

Read full story (paywallled)

Source HSJ, 27 October 2020

Read more
 

Covid: Antibodies 'fall rapidly after infection'

Levels of protective antibodies in people wane "quite rapidly" after coronavirus infection, say researchers.

Antibodies are a key part of our immune defences and stop the virus from getting inside the body's cells. The Imperial College London team found the number of people testing positive for antibodies has fallen by 26% between June and September.

They say immunity appears to be fading and there is a risk of catching the virus multiple times.

More than 350,000 people in England have taken an antibody test as part of the REACT-2 study so far. 

In the first round of testing, at the end of June and the beginning of July, about 60 in 1,000 people had detectable antibodies. But in the latest set of tests, in September, only 44 per 1,000 people were positive.

"Immunity is waning quite rapidly, we're only three months after our first [round of tests] and we're already showing a 26% decline in antibodies," said Prof Helen Ward, one of the researchers.

The fall was greater in those over 65, compared with younger age groups, and in those without symptoms compared with those with full-blown COVID-19. The number of healthcare workers with antibodies remained relatively high, which the researchers suggest may be due to regular exposure to the virus.

There have been very few confirmed cases of people getting Covid twice. However, the researchers warn this may be due to immunity only just starting to fade since the peak infection rates of March and April.

The hope is the second infection will be milder than the first, even if immunity does decline, as the body should have an "immune memory" of the first encounter and know how to fight back.

The researchers say their findings do not scupper hopes of a vaccine, which may prove more effective than a real infection.

One of the researchers, Prof Graham Cooke, said: "The big picture is after the first wave, the great majority of the country didn't have evidence of protective immunity. The need for a vaccine is still very large, the data doesn't change that."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 27 October 2020

Read more
 

Mother and baby units: 'It's our job to keep them safe'

"Women may be suicidal or want to die. They may have thoughts about harming their baby. It's our job to keep them safe until they can keep themselves safe," says Debbie Sells.

She manages a mother-and-baby unit in Nottingham which supports a small group of new mothers and pregnant women with serious psychological problems.

It's one of 19 units across England which each year treat about 800 women with perinatal mental health problems like psychosis and severe depression.

Clinicians say it is important to keep mothers and babies together to protect their relationship and the infant's development.

Some clinicians fear there may soon be an increased demand for their services due to extra pressures pregnant women are facing during the pandemic.

"We are hearing stories of women delivering on their own and not having the support of their partner, says Debbie.

"A traumatic birth can lead on to other things. Now not only are women becoming seriously unwell with a baby, but it's happening within a pandemic"

NHS England says while it is understandable some women and their families may have felt uneasy about seeking help in the early stages of the outbreak, it is vital they ask for support if it is needed.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 26 October 2020

Read more

Endometriosis: Urgent action required to stop women with this excruciatingly painful condition being let down for years

In ‘Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed For Men’ author Caroline Criado Perez writes about Rachael, a woman who suffered years of severe and incapacitating pain during her period. 

It takes, on average, eight years for women in the UK to obtain a diagnoses of endometriosis. In fact, for over a decade, there has been no improvement in diagnostic times for women living with the debilitating condition. You might think, given the difficulty so many women experience in having their symptoms translated into a diagnosis, that endometriosis is a rare condition that doctors perhaps don’t encounter all that often. Yet it is something that affects one in ten women – so what is going wrong?

Read the full article here in The Scotsman

Read more

Baby death prompts new maternity concerns at Morecambe Bay hospital trust

A hospital that was at the centre of a major inquiry into unsafe maternity care five years ago is facing new questions over its safety after bosses admitted a baby boy would have survived if not for mistakes by hospital staff.

Jenny Feasey, from Heysham in Lancashire, is still coming to terms with the loss of her son Toby who was stillborn at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, part of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust in January 2017 after a series of mistakes by staff who did not act on signs she had pre-eclampsia.

Jenny, 33, has backed The Independent’s campaign for improved maternity safety and called on midwives to learn lessons after what happened to her family.

She added: “This was an easily avoidable situation. They just didn’t piece it together, all they had to do was carry out a test and I lost my son because of it."

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 25 October 2020

Read more

NHS denies elderly people were refused care during early Covid

NHS bosses have denied claims that thousands of frail elderly people were denied potentially life-saving care at the peak of the pandemic in order to stop the health service being overrun.

NHS England took the unusual step on Sunday of issuing a 12-page rebuttal to allegations in the Sunday Times that patients deemed unlikely to survive were “written off” by being refused intensive care.

Prof Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said: “These untrue claims will be deeply offensive to NHS doctors, nurses, therapists and paramedics, who have together cared for more than 110,000 severely ill hospitalised Covid-19 patients during the first wave of the pandemic, as they continue to do today."

“The Sunday Times’ assertions are simply not borne out by the facts. It was older patients who disproportionately received NHS care. Over two-thirds of our COVID-19 inpatients were aged over 65. “The NHS repeatedly instructed staff that no patient who could benefit from treatment should be denied it and, thanks to people following government guidance, even at the height of the pandemic there was no shortage of ventilators and intensive care.”

The newspaper claimed the high coronavirus infection rate in the UK before lockdown began on 23 March and the NHS’s limited supply of mechanical ventilators going into the pandemic meant that “the government, the NHS and many doctors were forced into taking controversial decisions – choosing which lives to save, which patients to treat and who to prioritise – in order to protect hospitals”.

The Sunday Times said its claims were the result of a three-month investigation that involved speaking to more than 50 sources in the NHS and the government about the health service’s response to the pandemic.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 25 October 2020

Read more
 

Misery of the COVID-19 long-haulers: ‘We’re all guinea pigs, we don’t know what’s around the corner’

It has a plethora of symptoms, strikes the young and old, and lasts for months – maybe much longer. It’s also so new that scientists aren’t sure what they’re dealing with. For those whose lives have been deeply affected by long-term repercussions of Covid, the battle to be recognised is just the start.

There are thousands of people in the UK dealing with the long-term effects of COVID-19, experiencing debilitating symptoms that last for weeks and months beyond the initial infection.

One of the most commonly reported is fatigue, along with breathlessness, joint pain and muscle aches. Neurological issues are common, particularly brain ‘fog’ and a loss of memory and concentration. Some have chest pain or heart palpitations, skin rashes, diarrhoea, headaches, hearing or eyesight problems, or hair loss. Others have lost their senses of taste and smell. In online support groups, people are sharing stories of bone-crippling exhaustion, constant pain in their chest or heart, or the inability to remember a name or follow a conversation.

These people don’t fit the binary model of the virus we thought we knew – that if you’re in the small minority who are seriously affected you might be hospitalised, end up in ICU or worse; otherwise you’ll likely be better after two weeks. Many only had mild cases originally and were not deemed to be in vulnerable categories.

Widely varying symptoms have added to the confusion and fear surrounding the condition, which currently has no formal definition. For months, people with Long Covid had no one to turn to but each other. It’s only recently – through increasing research emerging, and sufferers publicly sharing their stories – that it has started to be taken more seriously. Earlier this month, NHS England announced a £10 million investment to set up one-stop services for physical and mental health issues caused by Covid alongside a Long Covid task force and, crucially, research on 10,000 patients.

Not much is known about what causes Long Covid and there is little firm consensus. There are theories it occurs when a patient’s immune system overreacts to the infection, which can lead to widespread inflammation that theoretically affects any organ. Last week, a study by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) suggested Long Covid symptoms could actually be caused by four separate syndromes: post-intensive-care syndrome, post-viral fatigue syndrome, permanent organ damage to the lungs and heart, or lingering COVID-19 symptoms.

Read full story

Source: The Telegraph, 24 October 2020

Read more

Partners still banned from UK maternity wards despite rule change

When Jess and Patrick discovered they were expecting their first baby in the new year, they looked forward to an early glimpse of their unborn child via an ultrasound scan.

But the couple, who live in the north-west of England, were soon told that Patrick would not be able to attend any antenatal appointments, including routine scans at 12 and 20 weeks. When their baby begins its journey into the world, Patrick will be permitted to join Jess only when labour is fully established, and he must leave an hour after delivery. He will not be able to visit his new family in hospital again.

“It’s taken the shine off the pregnancy,” said Jess, a junior doctor. “Patrick hasn’t been able to come to a single appointment. It’s making me very anxious and stressed – I’ve had actual nightmares about things going wrong and Patrick not being with me. He’s had to wait at home when I’ve gone for appointments, worrying and waiting for me to call to say everything’s OK.”

The hospital where Jess will give birth is among 43% of NHS trusts that – despite official guidance – have not eased restrictions imposed during lockdown on partners attending antenatal appointments, being present throughout labour, and staying with new mothers and babies after the birth. And as Covid transmissions rise across the UK, almost a quarter of NHS trusts have said they expect to reimpose such restrictions.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 24 October 2020

Read more
 

How the elderly paid the price of protecting NHS from COVID-19

n the day Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital with COVID-19, Vivien Morrison received a phone call from a doctor at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill. Stricken by the virus, her father, Raymond Austin, had taken a decisive turn for the worse. The spritely grandfather, who still worked as a computer analyst at the age of 82, was not expected to survive the day. His oxygen levels had fallen to 70% rather than the normally healthy levels of at least 94%.

Vivien says she was told by the doctor that her father would not be given intensive care treatment or mechanical ventilation because he “ticked too many boxes” under the guidelines the hospital was using.

While ministers delayed lockdown, soaring cases were putting immense pressure on hospitals. This investigation from The Times shows officials devised a brutal ‘triage tool’ to keep the elderly and frail away.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Sunday Times, 25 October 2020)

Read more

On the edge of exhaustion in the NHS

"I still have nightmares most nights about being completely out of my depth."

Gemma, a ward nurse in Northern Ireland, was redeployed to a critical care unit at the end of March when the first wave of coronavirus struck.

"I had never looked after a critically ill intensive care patient in my life," she says.

"I just thought, I'm coming in here and I'm going to die. I'm going to catch Covid and I'm going to be one of those patients in the beds."

As the second wave of the pandemic takes deep root across parts of the UK, thousands of NHS workers are struggling to recover from what they have already been through.

"We were all in PPE all the time," recalls Nathan, a senior intensive care nurse at a hospital in the Midlands. "All you can see is people's eyes, you can't see anything else."

He describes trying to help junior members of staff survive long and difficult days.

"And I'd see these eyes as big as saucers saying help me, do something. Make this right. Fix this."

"The pressure was insane, and the anxiety just got me," he says. "I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't eat, I was sick before work, I was shaking before I got into my car in the morning."

Nathan ended up having time off with severe anxiety, but he is now back at the hospital, waiting for the beds to fill up again.

The BBC has spoken to a number of nurses and doctors across the UK who are deeply apprehensive about what lies ahead this winter.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 24 October 2020

Read more
 

Mass cancellations of NHS operations inevitable this winter, say doctors

Mass cancellations of routine operations in England are inevitable this autumn and winter despite an NHS edict that hospitals must not again disrupt normal care, doctors’ leaders have said.

Organisations representing frontline doctors, including the British Medical Association (BMA), also criticised NHS England for ordering hospitals to provide “near normal” levels of non-Covid care in the second wave of the pandemic, and demanded that fines for failing to meet targets be scrapped.

"Things are very, very difficult at the moment, very challenging at the moment. It feels like a juggling act every day,” said one official in the South Yorkshire NHS. “The problem is both the growing numbers of patients coming into hospital with Covid and the numbers of staff we have off sick due to Covid, either because they are ill themselves or because someone in their household has symptoms, so they are isolating.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 23 October 2020

Read more

Women aged 50-60 at greatest risk of ‘long Covid’, experts suggest

Women aged 50-60 are at greatest risk of developing “long Covid”, analysis suggests. Older age and experiencing five or more symptoms within the first week of illness were also associated with a heightened risk of lasting health problems.

The study, led by Dr Claire Steves and Prof Tim Spector at King’s College London, analysed data from 4,182 COVID Symptom Study app users who had been consistently logging their health and had tested positive for the virus.

In general, women were twice as likely to suffer from Covid symptoms that lasted longer than a month, compared with men – but only until around the age of 60, when their risk level became more similar.

Covid vaccine tracker: when will a cor

Increasing age was also associated with a heightened risk of long Covid, with about 22% of people aged over 70 suffering for four weeks or more, compared with 10% of people aged between 18 and 49.

For women in the 50-60 age bracket, these two risk factors appeared to combine: They were eight times more likely to experience lasting symptoms of Covid-19 compared with 18- to 30-year-olds. However, the greatest difference between men and women was seen among those aged between 40 and 50, where women’s risk of developing long Covid was double that of men’s.

“This is a similar pattern to what you see in autoimmune diseases,” said Spector. “Things like rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease and lupus are two to three times more common in women until just before menopause, and then it becomes more similar.” His guess is that gender differences in the way the immune system responds to coronavirus may account for this difference."

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 21 September 2020

Read more
 

CQC launches criminal investigation into medication incidents at major acute trust

A major acute trust has confirmed the health service inspectorate has begun a criminal investigation into three incidents at its hospitals.

University Hospitals Birmingham FT told HSJ the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has started a criminal investigation into incidents involving potential errors around the provision of anti-coagulant medication.

The trust received a letter from the CQC this month informing it that the regulator has begun the investigation under regulation 22 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (regulated activities) regulations 2014. The incidents happened at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and Good Hope Hospital — the trust’s two main sites.

Regulation 22 says: “In order to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of service users, the registered person must take appropriate steps to ensure that, at all times, there are sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, skilled and experienced persons employed for the purposes of carrying on the regulated activity.”

The CQC launched a prosecution into East Kent Hospitals University FT this month for failing to meet fundamental standards of care. The regulator also successfully prosecuted University Hospitals Plymouth Trust in September after it pleaded guilty to breaching the duty of candour. 

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 23 October 2020

Read more
 

Alfreton's Field House mental health unit in special measures

A mental health unit where a patient was found dead has been placed into special measures over concerns about safety and cleanliness.

Field House, in Alfreton, Derbyshire, was rated "inadequate" by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following a visit in August. A patient died "following use of a ligature" shortly after its inspection, the CQC said.

Elysium, which runs the unit for women, said it was "swiftly" making changes.

The inspectors' verdict comes after the unit was ordered to make improvements, in January 2019.

Dr Kevin Cleary, the CQC's mental health lead, said: "There were issues with observation of patients, a lack of cleanliness at the service and with staffing.

"There were insufficient nursing staff and they did not have the skills and experience to keep patients safe from avoidable harm. Bank and agency staff were not always familiar with the observation policy."

"It was also worrying that not all staff received a COVID-19 risk assessment, infection control standards were poor, and hand sanitiser was not available in the service's apartments."

The CQC said a follow-up inspection on Monday had showed "areas of improvement" but it would continue to monitor the service.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 22 October 2020

 
 
Read more

'I couldn't hold my baby': how Covid hit the families of very ill children

Parents and professionals have been devastated by the impact of the pandemic on some of the UK’s most vulnerable patients

Kelly Stoor gave birth to her daughter, Kaia, 14 weeks early. On 12 March, the midwife held her up for Kelly to see before whisking Kaia off to the neonatal unit for critical care. Kaia became seriously ill and was transferred to a hospital in Southampton, 50 miles away from home, for specialist treatment just before lockdown was imposed on 23 March. While there, she teetered on the edge of life and death for weeks and underwent life-saving surgery twice.

The impact on Kelly, her husband, Max, and their other three children has been enormous. Hospital restrictions in April dictated that only one parent was allowed to visit. Both parents were not able not hold their daughter for the first time until 88 days after she was born.

“It was extremely difficult,” says Kelly. “I wasn’t allowed to hold her because of Covid. I had to wear gloves if I was going to touch her. We didn’t know if she was going to make it, and Max and I weren’t allowed in together to be with her. There was one time I was with her for three hours and I couldn’t cope any more. I wanted to break.”

Kelly is not alone. In the UK, at least 25,000 children are living with conditions that require palliative care support and their lives, along with those of their families, have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic and accompanying restrictions.

A report by Rainbow Trust found that lockdown was a distressing experience for many; 80% of those surveyed by the charity in April said their situation was worse or much worse than before lockdown. Nearly 60% of parents, meanwhile, say that their mental health is worse than before the pandemic.

Families have had to take on the strain of caring full-time for a child with a life-limiting illness, such as cancer or neurological conditions, with little to no support. There has been no respite, explains Dr Jon Rabbs, a consultant paediatrician and trustee for Rainbow Trust. When lockdown was announced, many community healthcare services had to stop face to face contact and special schools which supported children were also closed. “One of my families is at breaking point, they are so exhausted and worried,” he says.

In child healthcare there have been delays, he says. Urgent treatment is always available but follow-up care has been cancelled or delayed in some places. “In my practice we have not missed any significant relapses,” he adds. “But imagine the worry not knowing whether things were going to be OK or not.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 22 October 2020

 

Read more

Full picture of how covid is hitting hospitals in the north

The most comprehensive picture so far of how covid’s second wave has hit the NHS in the north of England is revealed in new figures obtained by HSJ.

The latest data confirms that parts of the North West region now have more coronavirus patients in hospital beds than they did in the spring. It comes amid intense public debate about the best way to fight covid, and whether or not it is close to swamping the NHS.

Collected from local NHS sources in a joint HSJ and Independent investigation, the information shows for example that:

  • Lancashire and South Cumbria had 544 confirmed covid hospital patients yesterday (around 15-18% of the bed base), about 20 more than during the April peak.
  • Liverpool University Hospitals – which remains the most severely affected trust – had 408 confirmed covid patients yesterday (20-25% of bed base), whereas it never topped 400 in the spring.

The data is sent routinely by trusts to NHS England but most of it is not published – something some politicians are now calling for.

As of yesterday, there were nearly 6,100 confirmed-covid patients across England, about 650 of whom were in critical care, and 560 receiving mechanical ventilation, according to information shared with HSJ.

The number of “unoccupied” hospital beds is much lower now than in the spring, when they were cleared out in anticipation of a major hit. In the North West, up to 5,500 acute beds were reported as “unoccupied” in the spring, whereas the figure now is about 2,500 (around 14-18% of the bed base).

However, critical care is the major pinch point in the most affected areas, with nearly half of the mechanical ventilation beds open at Liverpool’s hospitals (29 of 62) occupied by confirmed covid patients; and a third of those across the North West (178 of 556).

However, hospitals in the area have opened very few extra critical care “surge” beds so far. The total numbers of mechanical ventilation (a subset of critical care) beds open in LUH and the rest of the region has not increased much in recent weeks, and falls well short of what they have declared they could open as potential surge capacity, if they cancelled large amounts of non-urgent care and reorganised staffing and wards.

Read full story

Source: HSJ, 23 October 2020

Read more
×
×
  • Create New...