Jump to content
  • articles
    7,179
  • comments
    76
  • views
    6,396,686

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

Coronavirus: High-risk health workers 'may not be protected' in Wales

Guidance to protect at-risk healthcare workers in Wales from coronavirus infection has been relaxed, the BBC has learned.

A risk assessment tool initially recommended high-risk workers should not work in the parts of a hospital where infection was most likely. But it now says their personal protective equipment (PPE) should be reviewed or duties changed.

The Welsh government says this reflects latest data and low infection rates. However, healthcare professionals say the change to the all-Wales COVID-19 workforce risk assessment tool was made without consultation, and are concerned it was done to prevent hospitals from losing frontline staff ahead of a potential second wave of the virus.

Mr Amol Pandit, a urologist who helped to design the tool, has written to the Welsh government four times seeking clarity on the basis for the changes, and why no one was made aware of them before the tool was rolled out.

"The changes could have been made in order to keep as many healthcare workers on the frontline as possible, which is why I sent a specific list of questions to the Welsh government, so that I could have assurances that it wasn't done for that reason, but for clinical, evidence-based reasons," Mr Pandit said.

Mr Pandit believes healthcare workers who fall into the high-risk category and work in environments where aerosol-generating procedures are performed - considered to carry a high risk of transmission of the virus - may not be fully protected by the current version of the tool if PPE supplies fall short and additional safeguarding measures aren't put into place.

"The government needs to be absolutely sure that there is adequate PPE and that it is going to be available to everybody - we have to trust them on that," he said

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 27 August 2020

Read more
 

Data on Covid care home deaths kept secret 'to protect commercial interests'

COVID-19 death tolls at individual care homes are being kept secret by regulators in part to protect providers’ commercial interests before a possible second coronavirus surge, the Guardian can reveal.

England’s Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland are refusing to make public which homes or providers recorded the most fatalities amid fears it could undermine the UK’s care system, which relies on private operators.

In response to freedom of information requests, the regulators said they were worried that the supply of beds and standards of care could be threatened if customers left badly affected operators. The CQC and Care Inspectorate share home-by-home data with their respective governments – but both refused to make it public.

Residents’ families attacked the policy, with one bereaved daughter describing it as “ridiculous” and another relative saying deaths data could indicate a home’s preparedness for future outbreaks.

“Commercial interest when people’s lives are at stake shouldn’t even be a factor,” said Shirin Koohyar, who lost her father in April after he tested positive for Covid at a west London care home. “The patient is the important one here, not the corporation.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 27 August 2020

Read more
 

NHS test and trace hit by delays and COVID home test failures

England’s test-and-trace system has been hit with fresh problems after there were delays in contacting nearly 2,000 people infected with coronavirus, and one in seven home tests failed to produce a result.

An internet outage meant nearly 3,000 more people than usual were transferred to the contact-tracing system after testing positive for COVID-19 in the week ending 19 August. Two-thirds of these people had been tested days or weeks earlier, meaning there was a delay in reaching them and their close contacts when they should have been self-isolating.

The proportion of home tests kits failing to produce a result that week rose sharply, from 4% to 15% of the total, equating to more than 18,000 tests.

The Department of Health and Social Care figures also show that test and trace failed for a ninth week running to reach its target of contacting 80% of close contacts of people who test positive for COVID-19.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, acknowledged on Thursday that the programme was “not quite there” in reaching that target. He told LBC radio: “One of the challenges is we want to get NHS test and trace up to over 80% of contacts, getting them to self-isolate – we’re at just over 75%, so we’re nearly there but not quite there.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 27 August 2020

Read more

Women forced to wait more than five times ‘longer than men for heart failure diagnosis’

Women are forced to wait more than five times longer than men for a heart failure diagnosis, a new study has found.

Researchers discovered women are 96 per cent more likely to get an incorrect diagnosis of heart failure than men – attributing sharp disparities to such problems being wrongly viewed as “a man’s disease”.

The study, conducted by leading heart failure charity the Pumping Marvellous Foundation, found men said they waited an average of just over three and a half weeks to get a formal diagnosis after their first GP visit, but women waited just over 20 weeks instead.

Researchers warned such delays were linked to “poorer quality of life, financial losses, mental health issues and avoidable deaths” – adding that health professionals do not give heart failure the same attention and gravity as cancer and other diseases.

"One of them [GP] actually said, your symptoms are probably not to do with your heart because you’re young and you’re female. Even though my father had a heart condition," says Sarah, who was diagnosed at the age of 42.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 27 August 2020

Read more
 

Unclear UK advice on PPE cited in home care COVID-19 death inquiry

A home care worker who did not wear protective equipment may have infected a client with a fatal case of coronavirus during weeks of contradictory government guidance on whether the kit was needed or not, an official investigation has found.

The government’s confusion about how much protection care workers visiting homes needed is detailed in a report into the death of an unnamed person by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), which conducts independent investigations of patient safety concerns in NHS-funded care in England. It was responding to a complaint raised by a member of the public in April.

The report shows that Public Health England published two contradictory documents that month. One advised care workers making home visits to wear PPE and the other did not mention the need. The contradiction was not cleared up for six weeks.

The government’s guidance had been a shambles that had placed workers and their vulnerable clients at risk, the policy director at the United Kingdom Homecare Association, Colin Angel, said on Wednesday. The association also accused the government of sidelining its expertise and publishing new guidance with little notice, sometimes late on Friday nights, meaning that it was not always noticed by the people it was intended for.

Read more
 

CQC steps in at troubled trust over covid infections

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken immediate enforcement action at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust citing “serious concerns” over patient safety.

The regulator confirmed it was taking action today after inspectors visited on 12 August following concerns being raised about the standard of care and risk to patients.

The CQC confirmed the action had been taken, but it said it could not comment further due to legal restrictions and the trust’s right to appeal the decision.

HSJ understands the enforcement action was taken due to concerns over infection prevention control and the number of patients who have contracted COVID-19 in hospital. It is believed to be the first such action against a trust.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 27 August 2020

Read more

NHS on life support: Patients face diagnosis delays as hospitals struggle with surge in screenings

Hospitals are not equipped to deal with the surge in screenings and tests as the health service restarts care – leaving patients facing delays in diagnosis and treatment for conditions including cancer, according to medical leaders.

As the NHS tries to recover from the worst of the coronavirus crisis, more than a million laboratory samples from cancer screening services are expected in pathology labs, while as many as 850,000 delayed CT and MRI scans need to be carried out.

But 97% of labs do not have enough pathologists to carry out the work – with staff already working unpaid hours to tackle the existing backlog – while the number of radiology posts nationally would need to be increased by a third to deal with the rise, experts say. Precautions to protect against the spread of coronavirus also limits the number of scans that can be carried out. The royal colleges of pathologists and radiologists warned that cancers would go undiagnosed and treatments for all patients across the NHS could be further delayed as a result.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 27 August 2020

Read more
 

Obesity increases risk of COVID-19 death by almost 50%, study suggests

Obesity may double the risk of falling seriously ill with Covid-19 and increase the chances of dying by almost 50 per cent, according to researchers, who also warned any future vaccine may be less effective for the clinically overweight.

Health issues caused by obesity include a number of pre-existing conditions known to exacerbate a Covid-19 infection – including heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Now a global assessment of health data gathered since the start of the the pandemic by researchers at the University of North Carolina has found people with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 30 were 113 per cent more likely to be hospitalised.

Those admitted to hospital were found to be 74% more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit, while the risk of death among obese patients increased by 48%.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 26 August 2020

Read more

UK flu jab rates prompt complacency warning

Complacency over the flu jab risks overwhelming the NHS, experts warn, as data reveals the scale of the challenge in expanding the vaccination programme.

Last month, the government announced plans to double the number of people who receive the influenza jab. But BBC analysis has found the take-up rate among people in vulnerable groups eligible for a free jab has declined.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said he did not want a flu outbreak "at the same time as dealing with coronavirus".

The government wants to increase the number of people vaccinated from 15 million to 30 million amid fears coronavirus cases will rise again in the autumn.

Local authorities in England saw an average 45% of people with serious health conditions under 65 take up the offer of a free vaccine last winter, data shows. That represents a drop from 50% in 2015.

The UK government has an ambition to vaccinate 55% of people in vulnerable groups, which includes people with multiple sclerosis (MS), diabetes or chronic asthma.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously said countries should vaccinate 75% of people in "vulnerable" categories.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 27 August 2020

 

Read more

Coronavirus: Thousands of health and care staff infected at work, new data shows

At least 6,500 health and care workers may have been infected with coronavirus through their work, including 100 who died, according to data from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The regulator told The Independent it was reviewing each case and could launch investigations under the Health and Safety at Work Act if hospitals or care homes are suspected of not taking adequate steps to protect staff from infection.

This could result in a hospital or care home being prosecuted.

The latest data from the HSE shows between 10 April and 10 August there were a total of 3, 382 healthcare workplace infections, including 50 fatal incidents. In residential care there were 3,168 infections reported to the watchdog with 48 fatal cases.

The results of the review, first revealed earlier this month by The Independent, is being kept secret but where a medical examiner finds a worker may have died as a result of a workplace infection the death will have to be reported to the HSE for possible investigation. Coroners may also hold inquests into deaths.

It will also make it easier for families to claim compensation from the government’s additional death in service payments of £60,000 which was announced by health secretary Matt Hancock in April.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 25 August 2020

Read more
 

Review launched after ‘injustices suffered by BAME staff’

A clinical commissioning group (CCG) has ordered an independent review of its culture which it said was prompted by the “injustices experienced by black Asian and minority ethic colleagues” during the pandemic, HSJ has learned.

The review at Surrey Heartlands CCG, due to report in the autumn, is being led by Duncan Lewis, emeritus professor of management at Plymouth University. He has led several major reviews into culture at NHS organisations, including one into bullying and harassment at South East Coast Ambulance Service Foundation Trust in 2017 and one into workplace culture at Whittington Health Trust in 2018.

HSJ asked the CCG for the terms of reference of the review and the reasons why it felt it necessary to commission such an inquiry. It said the review’s scope would be determined by what staff felt was important regarding “our organisational culture, policy and practice – things we do well and things we need to improve”.

It added in a statement: “We will listen to the findings of the review and we will make any changes that are necessary.”

It is not yet clear if specific events within the organisation itself prompted the CCG to take the unusual step of commissioning the work. But the commissioner’s interim chief did say “feedback from staff” had been a driver.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 26 August 2020

Read more
 

US nurse sues Kindred Healthcare, alleges retaliation for his patient safety complaints

A nurse in the US sued Louisville, Ky.-based Kindred Healthcare this week, alleging the organisation fired him in retaliation for raising patient safety concerns.

Sean Kinnie worked as an intensive care unit nurse at Kindred Hospital-San Antonio. Mr Kinnie claims he was suspended twice and then fired after leaders at the 59-bed transitional care hospital learned he anonymously reported patient safety concerns to The Joint Commission in November 2019 and January. 

Mr Kinnie said issues related to inadequate staffing and unsanitary care environments put patients in "grave danger," according to the lawsuit. He also said the hospital created a culture in which employees were afraid to stand up for patients for fear of retaliation from management. 

In January, Mr Kinnie told the hospital's chief clinical officer Sharon Danieliewicz that he was the staff member who reported the patient safety concerns to The Joint Commission. Mr. Kinnie claims he faced increased scrutiny after this disclosure and was ultimately fired Feb. 24 for violating facility policy.

Read full story

Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 24 August 2020

Read more

Make It Public – new strategy marks step-change in making health research findings available to the public

The Health Research Authority has launched a new strategy to ensure information about all health and social care research – including COVID-19 research - is made publicly available to benefit patients, researchers and policy makers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of sharing details of research taking place - to understand the virus and find the tests, treatments and vaccines - so that results can inform best quality care and preventive measures. This also means researchers do not duplicate efforts and can build on each other’s work while the public can see what research is going on. Now the new Make it Public strategy aims to build on this good practice and make it easy for researchers to be transparent about their work.

The strategy, delivered by the HRA in partnership with NHS Research Scotland (NRS), Health and Care Research Wales and Health and Social Care Northern Ireland, is about making transparency ‘the norm’ in research and making information more visible to the public. New measures set out in the strategy – will improve transparency and openness in health and social care studies, by:

  • expecting researchers to plan how they will let research participants know about the findings of the study from the beginning
  • introducing additional monitoring to check that researchers are reporting results and to collect information about study findings
  • making information on individual research projects – and their transparency performance - available to the public
  • introducing a system to consider past transparency performance when reviewing new studies for approval and in the future introducing sanctions. 
Read more
 

Covid-19: US approves emergency use of convalescent plasma despite warnings over lack of evidence

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved convalescent plasma for emergency use in hospital patients with COVID-19.

The announcement on 23 August said that the FDA had concluded that plasma from recovered patients “may be effective” in treating the virus and that the “potential benefits of the product outweigh the known and potential risks.” The move came despite the absence of results from randomised controlled trials, with only a preprint paper on the effects on hospitalised COVID-19 patients being published to date.

Experts have warned that although these early findings show promise there is not enough evidence to show that it works.

Plasma from recovered patients was approved on a case by case basis by the FDA for people critically ill with COVID-19 in March. Since then more than 70 000 patients have been treated with plasma. Emergency use approval allows clinicians to use unapproved medical products to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life threatening diseases or conditions when there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives.

The FDA’s commissioner, Stephen Hahn, said, “I am committed to releasing safe and potentially helpful treatments for covid-19 as quickly as possible in order to save lives. We’re encouraged by the early promising data that we’ve seen about convalescent plasma. The data from studies conducted this year shows that plasma from patients who’ve recovered from covid-19 has the potential to help treat those who are suffering from the effects of getting this terrible virus.”

But Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Oxford and lead researcher for the RECOVERY trial, which is comparing treatments for COVID-19, including convalescent plasma for hospital patients, urged caution. He said, “There is a huge gap between theory and proven benefit. That is why randomised clinical trials are so important. At present, we simply don’t know if it works."

Read full story

Source: BMJ, 25 August 2020

Read more
 

‘I want to hide under the covers’: Female NHS staff suffering stress and exhaustion amid coronavirus crisis

Women working in the NHS are suffering from serious stress and exhaustion in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, a troubling new report has found.

Some 75% of NHS workers are women and the nursing sector is predominantly made up of women – with 9 out of 10 nurses in the UK being female.

The report, conducted by the NHS Confederation’s Health and Care Women Leaders Network, warns the NHS is at risk of losing female staff due to them experiencing mental burnout during the global pandemic.

Researchers, who polled more than 1,300 women working across health and care in England, found almost three quarters reported their job had a more damaging impact than usual on their emotional wellbeing due to the COVID-19 emergency.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 25 August 2020

Read more

CQC chief sceptical about need for ‘patient safety commissioner’

The Care Quality Commission's chief executive Ian Trenholm has said he is sceptical about the need to appoint an NHS patient safety commissioner, one of the key recommendations of the recently published Cumberlege review.

In a wide-ranging interview with HSJ, Mr Trenholm also revealed that he wants the Care Quality Commission to review the collaboration of every health system in England.

Mr Trenholm told HSJ he is “not sure” a patient safety commissioner was needed and that it would need to perform a “role that was different from what’s already in place” for it to add value.

He said: “If you look at the work we’re doing on patient safety, the work that HSIB are doing on patient safety, and then we’ve got people within the NHS itself doing work on patient safety, I think there are enough people playing. The question is, are we all working together as effectively as we possibly could be.

“If another player helps that work [then] great, but I’m not sure that’s something that is necessary.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 24 August 2020

Read more
 

Primodos scandal: Government should consider ‘redress’ for victims of pregnancy test drug, says Theresa May

Theresa May has urged the government to consider “redress” for the victims of a hormone pregnancy test blamed for causing serious birth defects.

The former prime minister said that while Primodos victims had received an apology, “lives have suffered as a result” of the drug’s use.

In an interview for a Sky News documentary, she praised campaigners who had been “beating their head against a brick wall of the state” which tried to “stop them in their tracks”.

A review in 2017 found that scientific evidence did “not support a causal association” between the use of hormone pregnancy tests such as Primodos and birth defects or miscarriage. But Ms May ordered a second review in 2018, because, she said, she felt that it “wasn’t the slam-dunk answer that people said it was”.

“At one point it says that they could not find a causal association between Primodos and congenital anomalies, but neither could they categorically say that there was no causal link,” she said.

The second review concluded last month that there had been “avoidable harm” caused by Primodos and two other products – sodium valproate and vaginal mesh.

An interview for Bitter Pill: Primodos, which will air on Sky Documentaries, Ms May said: “I think it’s important that the government looks at the whole question of redress and about how that redress can be brought up for people.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 28 August 2020

Read more
 

Coronavirus: Study reveals alarming impact of Covid on care home sector

Nursing homes were put under “constant” pressure to accept patients with coronavirus while being regularly refused treatment from hospitals and GPs for residents who became ill at the height of the Covid crisis, a landmark study has found.

The Queen’s Nursing Institute said homes were told hospitals had blanket “no admissions” policies during April and May while GPs and local managers imposed unlawful do not resuscitate orders on residents.

The findings have emerged in a survey by the QNI, the world’s oldest nursing charity, which surveyed 163 care home nurses and managers working across the country.

Carried out between May and June this year, the study establishes an evidence base of the impact on the sector from coronavirus, in addition to the official figures showing care home death rates.

One nurse said they were under “constant pressure to admit people who were Covid positive” while another said: “The acute sector pushed us to take untested admissions. The two weeks of daily deaths during an outbreak were possibly the two worst weeks of my 35-year nursing career.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 22 August 2020

Read more
 

Trust warned after CQC’s ‘serious concerns’ for patients

Safety inspectors have ordered a mental health trust to make immediate improvements after visiting two inpatient wards where three patients died inside six months.

The Care Quality Commission this week warned Devon Partnership Trust it would take “urgent action” over “serious concerns about patients” unless the trust made the required improvements swiftly.

The watchdog inspected the trust’s Delderfield and Moorland wards in June following concerns about three patient deaths in September, October and March, along with “a number of” patient safety incidents - including ligature incidents.

The CQC also highlighted poor patient observation routines and a lack of learning from previous incidents, amid delays in completing investigations into safety incidents.

Read full story

Source: HSJ, 21 August 2020

Read more
 

Coronavirus: Majority of pregnant women who died were ethnic minority background, report finds

A majority of pregnant women who died from coronavirus during the peak of the pandemic were from an ethnic minority background, it has emerged.

A new study of more than a dozen women who died between March and May this year also heavily criticised the reorganisation of NHS services which it said contributed to poor care and the deaths of some of the women.

This included one woman who was twice denied an intensive care bed because there were none available, as well as women treated by inexperienced staff who had been redeployed by hospitals and who made mistakes in their treatment of the women.

The report, by experts at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, based at the University of Oxford, also criticised mental health services after four women died by suicide. The report said women were “bounced” between services which had stopped face-to-face assessments during the crisis.

The report looked at 16 women’s deaths in total. Eight women died from COVID-19, seven of whom had an ethnic minority background. Two women with Covid-19 died from unrelated causes, four died by suicide and two were victims of homicide.

In the report, published on Thursday, the authors concluded improvements in care could have been made in 13 of the deaths they examined. In six cases, improvements in care could have meant they survived.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 21 August 2020

Read more
 

Millions of women lose access to contraception and abortions amid coronavirus crisis

Millions of women and girls around the world have been left unable to access contraception and abortions amid the coronavirus crisis, a new report has found.

A study by Marie Stopes International, which provides abortion and contraception services worldwide, warns 1.9 million women and girls lost their usual access to its contraception and safe abortion services in the first half of the year as a result of the global public health emergency.

The abortion provider is preparing for 900,000 additional unintended pregnancies, 1.5 million extra unsafe abortions, and 3,100 additional pregnancy-related deaths after the disruption to services in the first half of the year.

Dr Rashmi Ardey, of Marie Stopes, said: “Women’s needs do not suddenly stop or diminish during an emergency – they become greater. And as a doctor, I have seen only too often the drastic action that women and girls take when they are unable to access contraception and safe abortion.

“This pandemic has strained healthcare services all over the world, but sexual and reproductive healthcare was already so under prioritised that once again women are bearing the brunt of this global calamity.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent,19 August 2020

Read more
 

Coronavirus: Study into 'Long COVID' finds 3 in 4 patients suffering symptoms months later

Nearly three-quarters of coronavirus patients admitted to hospital suffer ongoing symptoms three months later, new research suggests.

A total of 81 patients out of 110 discharged from Southmead Hospital in Bristol were still experiencing symptoms from the virus, including breathlessness, excessive fatigue and muscle aches, after 12 weeks.

Many were struggling to carry out daily tasks such as washing, dressing or going back to work, the study found.

The majority of patients reported improvements in the initial symptoms of fever, cough and loss of sense of smell, and most had no evidence of lung scarring or reductions in lung function.

The findings are part of North Bristol NHS Trust's Discover project, which is studying the longer-term effects of coronavirus - so-called Long COVID.

An intensive care doctor, Dr Jake Suett, told Sky News in June that he was still suffering COVID-19 symptoms three months after contracting the disease. Dr Jake Suett, 31, had no underlying health conditions but was still suffering chest pain, breathlessness, blurred vision, memory loss, a high temperature, concentration problems.

Dr Rebecca Smith, from North Bristol NHS Trust, said: "There's still so much we don't know about the long-term effects of coronavirus, but this study has given us vital new insight into what challenges patients may face in their recovery and will help us prepare for those needs."

Read full story

Source: Sky News, 20 August 2020

Read more
 

Hancock extends emergency patient data sharing rules

Matt Hancock has extended four national data sharing orders which allow GPs and NHS organisations to share confidential patient information, as part of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The data sharing instructions were initially put in place in March when the pandemic broke out in earnest, and they were due to expire at the end of September.

Under the arrangement GPs, NHS providers, NHS Digital, NHS England/Improvement, local authorities and the UK Biobank can share information about patients’ treatment and medical history - if doing so would help their response to COVID-19.

The data sharing instructions have now been extended until 31 March next year. 

According to the Department of Health and Social Care’s update which notified organisations of the extension, NHS entities can share information for reasons such as helping to support the NHS Test and Trace service, identifying further patients at risk of COVID-19, and understanding information about patient access to health and adult social care services.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 20 August 2020

Read more
 

COVID-19: Impact of long term symptoms will be profound, warns BMA

A third of doctors have treated patients with long term COVID-19 symptoms, including chronic fatigue and anosmia, a survey conducted by the BMA has found.

Richard Vautrey, chair of the BMA’s GP committee for England, said it was clear that the long term impact of COVID-19 on patients and the NHS would be profound. 

“With more patients presenting with conditions as the result of infection, it’s essential that sufficient capacity is in place to support and treat them,” Vautrey said. “With the growing backlog of non-COVID-19 treatment, the likelihood of a season flu outbreak, and the possibility of a second wave of infections we need to see a more comprehensive long term plan to enable doctors to care for their patients this winter and beyond.”

The survey also asked doctors about their own experiences of COVID-19: 63% said they did not believe they had contracted the virus, 12% had had a diagnosis of COVID-19 confirmed by testing, and 14% believed they had been infected with the virus.

David Strain, co-chair of the BMA’s medical academic staff committee, said that the NHS could not afford more failures of quality and supply in personal protective equipment. “Risk assessments should be available to all working in the NHS and appropriate steps should be put in place to mitigate the risk of catching the virus, even in those that have a low risk of a bad outcome from the initial infection,” he said.

Read full story

Source: BMJ, 13 August 2020

Read more

Depression in British adults doubles during pandemic, new data shows

The number of adults experiencing depression has almost doubled during the pandemic, according to new figures.

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that almost one in five adults (19.2 per cent) were likely to be experiencing some form of depression in June. This had risen from around one in 10 (9.7%) between July 2019 and March 2020, before the imposition of the nationwide lockdown.

Dame Til Wykes, a professor of clinical psychology and rehabilitation at King’s College London, warned of a looming “mental health crisis” once the pandemic passes.

“This study tells us, yet again, that we might have a mental health crisis after this pandemic. The social effects of distancing and isolation for some affects their emotional wellbeing.

Dr Billy Boland, chairman of the General Adult Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the UK’s mental health services would be faced with a “tsunami of referrals” in the coming months.

“Isolation, bereavement and financial insecurity are some of the reasons why the nation’s mental health has deteriorated since the start of the pandemic.

“The government must speed up the investment to mental health services if we are to treat the growing numbers of people living with depression and other mental illnesses.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 18 August 2020

Read more
×
×
  • Create New...