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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS Supply Chain has suspended supplies of some ultrasound gels over concerns they might be connected with outbreaks of bacterial infections in multiple hospitals.
    Thirty hospitals have reported 46 cases of Burkholderia contaminans between October last year and January 2021. No patients have died but some developed sepsis symptoms.
    NHS Supply Chain has suspended supplies of three ultrasound gels as a “precautionary measure” and guidance has been updated on the safe use of gel to reduce the risk of transmission of infection. Existing stocks have not been recalled and NHS Supply Chain is stocking similar products as alternatives.
    Public Health England has said its provisional investigation suggests a potential link with ultrasound or ultrasound-guided procedures as many of the infected patients had undergone these before the bacterium was identified.
    It is also investigating how many of the patients have spent time in intensive care or high dependency settings.
    A related bacteria, called Burkholderia cepacian, was also found in 27 cases.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 4 March 2021
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    Thousands of similar errors contributing to patient deaths are being repeated by hospitals despite warnings from coroners, according to new research.
    An analysis of four years of official reports by coroners, issued after the conclusion of inquests into patient deaths, has revealed the impact of the NHS struggling with a lack of resources and staff. Coroners found similar mistakes across hundreds of inquests.
    Professor Alison Leary, chair of healthcare a workforce modelling at London South Bank University, and who led the study, told The Independent: “We are missing opportunities to prevent deaths. What we are seeing is the hard edge of underinvestment in the workforce and the under resourcing of the service.
    “Each of these coroner’s reports are someone’s sorrow. From talking to families, they assume when one of these reports is issued, they are acted on and the system learns from it. But the system doesn’t seem to be learning and people pay for this with their life.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 3 March 2021
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    New stats from Endometriosis UK this week for Endometriosis Awareness Month reveal that 62% of women (aged 16-54) would put off going to a doctor with symptoms of endometriosis.
    Reasons include they don’t think it’s serious enough to bother a doctor with, they’d be embarrassed, they don’t think they’d be taken seriously, or they think symptoms including painful periods are normal. This statistic rises to 80% of 16-24-year-olds.
    1.5 million UK women  are currently living with endometriosis, with average diagnosis time standing at an unacceptable 8 years
    Endometriosis UK says it is vital that Governments, society, the NHS and workplaces wake-up and recognise the symptoms and impact endometriosis can have, and afford those with the condition the support and access to treatment they need to manage their symptoms.
    Commenting on the new research, Emma Cox, CEO of Endometriosis UK said: “Endometriosis is a long-term chronic health condition affecting 1.5 million in the UK, yet it still all too often considered a taboo or not important due to links with the menstrual cycle. Symptoms including chronic pelvic pain, painful periods, painful bladder and bowel movements, and infertility, can have a major, life-long impact, physically and mentally. But far too many find their symptoms are not believed nor taken seriously."
    “Myths such as “chronic period pain is normal” or “you must have a low pain threshold” manifesting in society, workplaces, schools, and even healthcare settings contribute to those experiencing symptoms being put off from seeking medical advice and contribute to diagnosis taking on average a shocking 8 years.
    “The impact of delayed diagnosis on people’s physical and mental health can’t be overstated. If undiagnosed, the disease may progress, and negatively impact people’s careers, education, relationships and all aspects of their life.”
    Read full story
    Source: Endometriosis UK, 1 March 2021
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    Bodyform, known as Libresse outside the UK, has created a campaign to support earlier diagnosis of endometriosis and break the silence about the pain that many women endure throughout their lives. 
    #PainStories, by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, launched Tuesday (2 March) during Endometriosis Awareness Month. It tackles the “gender pain gap” by sharing stories and helping to articulate experiences of pain, with a focus on endometriosis. 
    An estimated one in 10 women of reproductive age – about 176 million women globally – suffers from endometriosis, a condition resulting from the appearance of endometrial tissue outside the uterus and causing pelvic pain. Despite the prevalence of the condition, however, it takes an average of seven-and-a-half years to diagnose it. 
    These delayed diagnoses are partly down to the perception that severe period pain is “normal”, according to the Essity brand. “[Endometriosis] is ever present but not out in the open. It is quite a suppressed thing,” Lauren Peters, one of the AMV creatives behind #PainStories, said. 
    #PainStories features the “Pain Dictionary”, a collection of new words and definitions for pain that are drawn from real descriptions from people with endometriosis. Each definition is brought to life by an artist to create a verbal and visual language for endometriosis pain, with the aim of helping people recognise and articulate their pain and to shorten long diagnostic delays. 
    Read full story
    Source: Campaign Live, 2 March 2021
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    The development of coronavirus vaccines tweaked to target new variants will be fast-tracked in the UK and four other countries, Britain’s regulator has said, adding that “robust evidence” on effectiveness and safety will still be required for authorisation.
    The approach, similar to the regulatory process for the modified flu vaccine, will not need a brand new approval or “lengthy” clinical studies, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said on Thursday.
    This will "significantly reduce" the length of time it takes for the vaccines to be ready, with concern mounting over the threat posed by the South African and Brazilian variants and their ability to partially evade the body’s immune response.
    Under the new guidance, developers will need to provide clear evidence their adapted vaccines produce a strong immune response to the variant and meet the high safety standards outlined by the MHRA.
    “This is based on scientific principles and does not cut any corners on safety or effectiveness,” said Dr Christian Schneider, chief scientific officer at the MHRA.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 4 March 2021
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    A healthcare professional at Blackpool Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a stroke patient.
    Lancashire Police released a statement this evening which says the man has also been arrested on suspicion of two offences of rape and one offence of sexual assault. The suspect is currently in custody. He has also been suspended by the trust.
    It comes after a police investigation was launched in November 2018 into allegations of mistreatment and neglect on the stroke unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
    As part of the probe, a number of post-mortem examinations were conducted, including for Valerie Kneale, 75, from Blackpool, who died from a haemorrhage caused by a non-medical related internal injury.
    Police said this led to a murder investigation, which is being treated separately to an ongoing investigation into allegations of poisoning and neglect on the stroke unit, in which a number of staff have previously been arrested.
    Detective chief inspector Jill Johnston, of Lancashire Police, said: “We understand this will cause some significant concern in the community but please be reassured we have a dedicated team of officers conducting a number of enquiries."
    “If you have any information or have worked on the stroke unit and can assist with our enquiries, please come forward and speak to police immediately.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 3 March 2021
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS workers have raised concerns about the prospect of all health and social care staff in England being compelled by law to take the Covid vaccine.
    The Downing Street review which is considering making it mandatory for NHS workers to have the jab, as a way of protecting patients, has led to questions about its moral and legal implications.
    A consultant in a busy north-west hospital said they would feel “incredibly uncomfortable” with the idea of forcing NHS staff to have the vaccine. They said they would prefer a concerted high-profile campaign to encourage staff to have the vaccine, with a last-resort option of asking unvaccinated staff to take on different roles, away from the frontline.
    “I would feel very uncomfortable with us forcing anyone to have it – you can’t force an injection into someone,” the consultant said.
    Last week Care UK said it only wanted to hire new staff who had had the vaccine, while another care provider, Barchester, said it wanted all of its staff, including current workers, to have had the jab by 23 April, adding that if they did not they would not be considered for shifts.
    The matron of a care home in Merseyside said there had been a lot of pressure put on her to have the vaccine, which was making her anxious.
    “I don’t want to be bullied into a decision when I have legitimate concerns. I feel being told I am selfish and putting others at risk is insulting," she said.
    However, a CBT therapist in her 30s, who also works in the north-west of England believed all NHS staff should be vaccinated, regardless of their role. She said her hospital trust’s values emphasised “care, compassion and commitment” and individuals who refused the vaccine could potentially harm others.
    “If we’re going to be caring for people, it comes under that value and it’s a core part of what the NHS is about. So if someone is saying they don’t want the vaccine, it puts into question whether you are going against the values of the trust.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 3 March 2021
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    A man was left in a care home for five months without regard for "basic human rights", an investigation has found.
    The Nottinghamshire man, who had dementia, was placed in the home for two weeks as respite for his family. But the county council failed to properly assess whether he could return home, leaving his family with a £15,000 care bill, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said.
    The authority has apologised and said it would make improvements.
    The ombudsman launched an inquiry after complaints from the man's family.
    He was placed in the care home by his wife while she struggled to look after her son, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The investigation found that after the first two weeks, the man's wife said she still could not cope with his return.
    But instead of carrying out a review or assessment to judge what support was needed for him to potentially go home, the council allowed the case to "drift".
    The ombudsman, Michael King, said: "The man had a right to respect for his family life, and to enjoy his existing home peacefully."
    "But the council did not have any regard for the man's human rights during those five months he was away from his family."
    In its report, the watchdog said it found "fault causing injustice".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 4 March 2021
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    Endometriosis is not uncommon – in fact, it’s believed to affect one in 10 women/people who menstruate. Yet it’s still widely misunderstood, and those affected can struggle for years before getting proper help.
    Because it’s associated with the menstrual cycle (it occurs when cells similar to those that grow in the womb lining grow outside the womb too, resulting in inflammation, scar tissue or adhesions and blood-filled cysts/endometriomas), it’s often dismissed as being ‘just bad periods’. But endometriosis is a medical condition which can have a huge impact.
    To mark Endometriosis Month, Abi Jackson helps bust some misconceptions around this common condition.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 1 March 2021
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    Endometriosis care across the UK needs urgent improvement and diagnosis times need to be cut in half, a report by MPs says. It found an average wait for a diagnosis was eight years and that has not improved in more than a decade.
    Endometriosis affects one in 10 women in the UK and causes debilitating pain, very heavy periods and infertility.
    Nadine Dorries, minister for women's health, said awareness was increasing but there was still a long way to go.
    More than 10,000 people took part in the All-Party Political Group inquiry which found that 58% of people visited the GP more than 10 times before diagnosis and 53% went to A&E with symptoms before diagnosis.
    The majority of people also told MPs their mental health, education and careers had been damaged by the condition.
    About 90% said they would have liked access to psychological support but were never offered it, with 35% having a reduced income due to endometriosis.
    Helen-Marie Brewster, 28, from Hull, has been told by doctors that her only remaining treatment option is a full hysterectomy. She had symptoms throughout secondary school but was only diagnosed when she left education.
    "GPs ask me to explain to them what endometriosis is, because they don't know. They're the ones who are meant to help."
    "Last year I visited the A&E department 17 times trying to find help and pain relief for this condition, even for just a few days so I can keep going. The wait time for diagnosis is so long that in that time it's spreading and doing more damage the longer it is left untreated... We can't carry on like this."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 19 October 2020
    Read press release
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    Health secretary Matt Hancock has said integrated care systems (ICS) will be rated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
    The government’s recent white paper for a new NHS bill did not discuss any change in the CQC’s legal framework to allow it to rate ICSs, which sparked uncertainty around how ICSs would be regulated.
    However, speaking in the House of Commons today of the “crucial” role the regulator plays in rating hospitals, Mr Hancock said: “I think that it is vital that the CQC has a similar role when it comes to ICSs.”
    The CQC has not confirmed what, if any, legal changes it is seeking. Currently, if the regulator wants to inspect how well a system is working, it must ask permission from the secretary of state to do so.
    It has carried out around 25 inspections of systems since 2017, but has not issued ratings.
    Giving evidence at a Parliamentary committee meeting earlier today, Sir Robert Francis, Healthwatch England chair, said: “A rating [from the CQC] that summarises the performance of the organisation to the public is a form of accountability. It doesn’t affect patient choice in quite the same way as a provider rating does, but it may be a way of explaining to the public how their system is doing.”
    He added that if inspectors are “continually being directed to go to the places the secretary of state chooses” then they may not carry the authority or credibility of an independent process.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 2 March 2021
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    A bid for more control over the NHS by ministers risks undermining patient safety and sowing confusion over who is ultimately responsible for services, MPs have been warned.
    The Commons Health Select Committee was told the proposals, set out in a new white paper published last month, lacked detail on the involvement of patients in local services and needed urgent clarification of the new powers the health secretary will have.
    The plans will give ministers new powers over the independent Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), including being able to tell it what to investigate and the power to remove protections for NHS staff who give evidence in secret.
    Last week experts warned the plans for HSIB could undermine its role and have lasting consequences on efforts to encourage NHS staff to be honest about errors. Under the proposals the health secretary would be able to remove so-called “safe space” protections for evidence given by NHS workers.
    Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, told the committee hospitals were worried about the plans.
    He said: “We are very nervous about this relationship between the secretary of state and HSIB. In order for it to be an effective independent organisation, it does need to be free from the appearance of any kind of political control. There's a very high degree of nervousness about the ability to somehow switch safe space on and off. People need to know where they stand.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 2 March 2021
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    Doctors are being issued with new guidance for cases where children are repeatedly brought in when there is nothing wrong.
    The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says cases where parents know there's nothing wrong are rare. Instead genuine, if misplaced, health anxieties are more common.
    They advise referring to "perplexing symptoms" instead of "fabricated or induced illness".
    Paediatricians say there has been a rise in cases where children are repeatedly brought in, despite nothing being found to be wrong. 
    The unexplained symptoms could be because a genuine condition has not yet been diagnosed. But there are cases where a parent or carer might make up or cause illness in their children - a rare form of abuse which used to be known as Munchausen's By Proxy Syndrome.
    But often, doctors say, it is genuine concerns - and they believe the rise may be fuelled by bad information online.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 2 March 2021
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    Care home residents and staff were put at risk of infection because personal protective equipment (PPE) was used wrongly, a health watchdog has said.
    Croft House, in Ossett, near Wakefield, has been put in special measures after being deemed "inadequate" by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors. The home was "not well-led", according to the inspectors who visited last year.
    The CQC report, which was published last week, highlighted a number of measures had not been taken, meaning staff and residents were exposed to the risk of infection transmission, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
    "Staff could not safely put on and take off PPE as this was stored in people's rooms. Staff needed to cross the room to collect the PPE," the report said. Meanwhile, there was no hand sanitiser in the corridors or bins to dispose of PPE and staff "were not effectively wearing PPE", it added.
    Residents at the home, which provides nursing and residential care for up to 68 people, were at "risk of missing medication or being given incorrect medication" because of how systems were managed, the report said.
    However, relatives spoke highly of staff at the home, with one family member describing an employee they knew as "accommodating and helpful", according to the report.
    Countrywide Care Homes, which runs the site, said improvements had been made since the inspection on 18 December.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 2 March 2021
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    Some 1 in 10 people still experience persistent ill health 12 weeks after having COVID-19, termed “long COVID” or post-COVID conditions. A new policy brief from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies documents responses to post-COVID conditions in different countries of the WHO European Region and looks at how sufferers, including medical professionals, are driving some of those responses.
    Written for decision-makers, this brief summarises what is known about the conditions, who and how many people suffer from them, diagnosis and treatment, and how countries are addressing the issue.
    Commenting on long COVID, WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge said, “COVID-19 has caused a great deal of suffering among people across the Region, with reports of long COVID an extra cause for concern. It’s important that patients reporting with symptoms of long COVID are included as part of the COVID-19 response to mitigate some of the longer-term health impacts of the pandemic. This policy brief makes clear the need for policy-makers to take the lead on this issue.”
    Read full story
    Source: WHO, 25 February 2021
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    The Royal College of GPs has called for an independent review of the link between poor Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection ratings and the ethnicity of GP partners.
    The college called for the regulator to commission the work in particular for those rated “requires improvement” and “inadequate” over the past five years, including practices which have since closed down. This will assess “if there is an association between the outcomes of inspections and ethnicity or country of qualification of the GP partners”, according to the RCGP.
    In addition, the RCGP wants to work with the regulator to discuss how the availability and transparency of this information can be improved to ensure minority ethnic GPs’ experiences are heard.
    Minority ethnic GPs shared their experiences of CQC inspections at an RCGP council meeting last week, where council members voted to support the above actions.
    Dr Howsam said: “The college’s BAME action plan commits us to delivering positive change for all our Black, Asian and minority ethnic members and we will continue to work constructively with the CQC towards an improved system of inspection that is supportive of GPs and keeps patients safe as we move away from the immediate crisis of the pandemic and into recovery.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 1 March 2021
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    Scientists have warned that emerging data on Long Covid in children should not be ignored given the lack of a vaccine for this age group, but cautioned that the evidence describing these enduring symptoms in the young is so far uncertain.
    Recently published data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that 13% of under 11s and about 15% of 12 to 16 year olds reported at least one symptom five weeks after a confirmed COVID-19 infection. 
    Although children are relatively less likely to become infected, transmit the virus and be hospitalised, the key question is whether even mild or asymptomatic infection can lead to Long Covid in children, said Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London.
    “The answer is that it certainly can, and the Long Covid support groups contain a not insignificant number of children and teens,” Altmann said.
    Frances Simpson, a lecturer in psychology at Coventry University and co-founder of the Long Covid Kids group, said she was very worried about the emerging data on Long Covid in children. “We just think that there should be a much more cautious and curious approach to long Covid rather than a kind of a sweeping generalisation that children are OK, and that we should just let them all go back to school without any measures being put in place.”
    One issue, she said, is the sizeable gap between acute infection and Long Covid kicking off. Some children are initially asymptomatic or have mild symptoms but then it might be six or seven weeks before they start experiencing long Covid symptoms, which can range from standard post-viral fatigue and headaches to neuropsychiatric symptoms such as seizures, or even skin lesions."
    At the moment there is no consensus on the scale and impact of long Covid in adults, but emerging data is concerning. For children, the data is even more scarce.
    Recent reports from hospitals in Sweden and Italy have generated concern, but this data is not from national trials – they are single-centre studies – and include relatively small patient numbers, said Sir Terence Stephenson, a Nuffield professor of child health at University College London.
    Stephenson was awarded £1.36m last month to lead a study investigating Long Covid in 11- to 17-year-olds. “I don’t have a scientific view on what long Covid is in young people is – because frankly, we don’t know,” he said.
    Preliminary results are expected in three months.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 2 March 2021
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    Elderly and vulnerable people could be forced to move out of their own homes into institutional care unless the chancellor invests billions of pounds to shore up social services and reform England’s broken care model, The Independent has been told.
    In an exclusive interview ahead of Rishi Sunak’s Budget on Wednesday, James Bullion, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), warned the care system risked “catastrophic failure in some areas” without urgent changes to the way vulnerable people, including younger disabled people, are looked after.
    He warned the number of people needing care had doubled in some parts of the country since March, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
    Ministers are planning to bring forward reforms to social care later this year, but Mr Bullion, who leads social services in Norfolk, said the system needed at least £4bn over the next two years “just to keep the show on the road”.
    He warned the sector had been rocked by more than 30,000 deaths in care homes from Covid, with a 40% turnover in staff, higher sickness, and more than 100,000 vacancies on top of rising costs.
    “We’ve got social care providers who are very much more fragile and at risk than they were a year ago. We were able to pay premiums to providers to keep going, but we've now reached the point where the revenue consequences of the last year will come home to roost. And we're very worried about the impact on the social care market and whether it will still be there for us in a way that it’s been in the past year if we take that support away.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 1 March 2021
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    A woman with dementia was effectively left housebound for the last eight years of her life due to surgical delays, an investigation found.
    The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales said the individual worried about being "caught short" due to incontinence and it affected her family relationships.
    Her son complained about the care she received at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Denbighshire, in particular. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has since apologised to the family.
    Ombudsman Nick Bennett said it was clear there was "significant injustice" in the case of the individual, who was identified in the report findings as Mrs B.
    The patient's son complained there had been surgical delays for a rectal prolapse issue dating back to 2011, concerns over inpatient medical care provided by an elderly care consultant, and a delayed diagnosis of terminal ovarian cancer during a hospital stay.
    The ombudsman found that clinical decision-making by colorectal surgeons "was not in keeping with accepted clinical practice".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 2 March 2021
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    A single shot of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid jab reduces the chance of needing hospital treatment by more than 80%, an analysis in England shows.
    The Public Health England (PHE) data showed the effect kicked in three to four weeks after vaccination. It was based on people aged over 80 who were the first to receive the jab.
    Government scientists hailed the result, but stressed that two doses were needed for the best protection.
    It comes after similar findings were published by Scottish health authorities last week, which they hailed as "spectacular".
    The PHE data, which has not been peer reviewed, also suggested the Pfizer vaccine, which started being rolled out a month before the AstraZeneca vaccine, leads to an 83% reduction in deaths from Covid. This was based on people over the age of 80 who had died.
    The data also showed vaccination cuts the risk of people over 70 developing any Covid symptoms by around 60%, three weeks after an initial dose.
    Prof Van-Tam, England's deputy chief medical officer, said the decision to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to older people was "clearly vindicated".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 1 March 2021
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    The government has been called on to take action over the national “backlog” for a specialist mental health service after a woman died after a substantial wait to access treatment. 
    Carole Mitchell, who died by suicide on 22 November 2019, waited almost seven months for a first appointment after being referred to Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust for psychology services.
    In a prevention of future deaths report, published earlier this month, coroner Alison Mutch said the inquest was told waits had since increased and “someone in Mrs Mitchell’s position today would be more likely to wait nine months”. 
    The coroner added evidence heard suggested the delay experienced was “reflective of both the regional and national backlog for appointments”. The report has been sent to both the Department of Health and Social Care and Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 1 March 2021
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    Delays due to the COVID-19 crisis have created tens of thousands of year-long waiters for ophthalmology treatment, and a surgery backlog which experts say may never be recovered.
    NHS England provisional data shows the number of people waiting 52 weeks or longer for ophthalmology treatment increased to more than 23,000 in December, up 57,580% on just 40 the year before. 
    Experts say ophthalmology procedures have been hit particularly hard by the cancellation of elective work due to COVID-19 pressures. On average, roughly 130,000 ophthalmology patients completed treatment per month in England in 2019, most of which would likely have been cataract surgeries.
    Royal College of Ophthalmologists professional standards chair Melanie Hingorani told HSJ that many in the discipline feared “traditional” ways of working were too “fragmented” to address the size of the challenge. She said that without a “much more innovative” approach it would be “really difficult” to deal with the surgery backlog on ophthalmology and that clearing it could take “two years, maybe longer”.
    There remained a danger, however, she added that: “Maybe we never catch up”. 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 1 March 2021
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    More than 34,000 people with dementia are estimated to have died from coronavirus in the UK since the start of the pandemic, according to new figures.
    The condition has been identified in just over a quarter of all deaths due to COVID-19, partly due to the large number of deaths in care homes. Nearly 12,000 care home residents have died since January alone.
    A coalition of charities, including Alzheimer's Society, Dementia UK, John's Campaign and Together in Dementia Every Day (tide), are now calling for introduction of universal social care – free at the point of use like the NHS – as a legacy of COVID-19.
    It comes as new figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that deaths of care home residents, where around 70% of people have dementia, are 30%t higher than previously thought. Nearly 12,000 have died since January alone.
    The charities also revealed the result of a survey of 1,001 people who care for someone close to them with dementia, demonstrating that the toll of the pandemic reaches further than simply deaths from the virus. More than nine in ten (92%) said the pandemic had accelerated their loved one's dementia symptoms, with a third (31%) reported a more rapid increase in difficulty speaking and holding a conversation, and a quarter (25%) in eating by themselves.
    Nearly a third (32%) of those who lost a loved one during the pandemic thought that isolation/lack of social contact was a significant factor in that loss.
    The Alzheimer Society and Dementia UK said their helplines had been flooded with calls from relatives reporting how quickly their loved ones were deteriorating.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 1 March 2021
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    Women aged 70 or over are receiving substandard care to tackle ovarian cancer with one in five patients in their seventies getting no treatment whatsoever, a new study has found.
    A report from Ovarian Cancer Action revealed almost half of patients in their 70s do not undergo surgery to treat the disease, even though it provides the best long-term prognosis for one of the most common types of cancer in women.
    In total, around one in five (22%) of ovarian cancer patients aged 70 to 79  and three in five women with ovarian cancer who were over 80 years old were given no treatment for the disease.
    The inadequate healthcare given to older ovarian cancer patients causes a disproportionately high short term death rate for them, the study found.
    The study found older patients are substantially less likely to be referred by their GP for diagnostic tests such as ultrasounds when ovarian cancer symptoms surface.
    Dr Susana Banerjee, a consultant medical oncologist at The Royal Marsden, said: “With an ageing population, many more patients with ovarian cancer are over the age of 70, so there is an urgent need to understand the best way to effectively treat older women."
    “Optimising patients for treatment through frailty assessments and interventions, sharing best practice across cancer centres and representing older patients in clinical trials are important steps towards ensuring equal access to effective and tolerable treatment that could help more women live beyond their diagnosis, with a good quality of life, no matter their age.”
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    People whose spouse or partner died as a result of the contaminated blood scandal are to receive financial help. Annual payments of up to £33,500 will be given to those whose loved one died after contracting HIV or hepatitis C having been given infected blood.
    About 5,000 people, including 99 from Northern Ireland, were infected by what has been described as "the worst scandal in the history of the NHS".
    The health minister said those who had been bereaved had not been forgotten.
    Robin Swann added: "I have listened to their experiences of how contaminated blood has impacted on their lives and the sacrifices they have had to make.
    "I sincerely hope this annual financial support will provide some long-term financial certainty as well as recognition for those bereaved through contaminated blood."
    The contaminated blood scandal resulted in people who had haemophilia being treated with blood infected with hepatitis C or HIV in the 1970s and 1980s. 
    At the time the UK was struggling to keep up with demand for the Factor VIII blood clotting treatment, so supplies were imported from the US. But much of the human blood plasma used to make it came from donors such as prison inmates and drug-users who sold their blood. Those groups were at higher risk of blood-borne viruses.
    Victims have campaigned for decades, saying the risks were never explained to them and the scandal was covered up.
    An ongoing public inquiry has been hearing harrowing stories from people across the UK about how lives had been destroyed by the blood.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 1 March 2021
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