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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    An NHS trust has been criticised for advising pregnant women to stay at home for as long as possible during labour to increase the chances of a “normal birth”. University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust also suggested mothers should avoid having epidurals or inductions and should try to have a home birth.
    The advice has been described as “shocking” by experts, who said the guidance was contrary to evidence and could be “dangerous” for mothers and babies. Others criticised the language used by the trust which suggested women who needed medical help were somehow “abnormal”.
    Earlier this month, the Bristol trust paid out £5.8m in compensation to the family of a six-year-old boy after he was left brain damaged at birth following complications during labour.
    After being contacted by The Independent, the trust deleted the childbirth advice from its website and accepted it was “outdated”.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 13 February 2020
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    The current pharmacy system in the US needs to to change now, according to Thomas Menighan, APhA Executive Vice President and CEO in a recent blog. 
    "The current system sets pharmacists up to fail, and in turn, pharmacists are burning out at high rates", says Thomas. "This is an issue that not only puts patients at risk but deprives pharmacists of the opportunity to provide the kind of patient care we all got into pharmacy to provide". 
    "During my time as a community pharmacist, I cherished the relationships I established with patients and understood the great responsibility that came with the trust they placed in me. Pharmacists take an oath to, among other things, “assure optimal outcomes” for patients. I can attest to the emphasis our profession places on patient safety. When it comes to medication-related errors, even one is too many."
    Thomas suggests the solution comes from taking a hard look at how pharmacies are reimbursed and who profits from inadequate patient care. Meanwhile, state and local pilot projects that compensate pharmacists for greater involvement in team-based care have proven that when pharmacists are allowed to provide a full range of services, costs go down and patient outcomes improve.
    "It’s perverse that we pharmacists are begging for the opportunity to practice the kind of pharmacy we were extensively educated and trained to practice. And who benefits from this warped system? Here’s a hint: it’s not pharmacies or patients."
    "We must regulate the pharmacy benefit managers who make obscene sums of money without doing a single thing to serve patients. They say they keep prices and premiums down but simultaneously fight attempts to force them to be transparent about how they supposedly achieve this. If it’s not greedy, let’s see how it works. If it really helps patients, tell us how. But they won’t. It’s indefensible."
    Read full story
    Source: APhA, 11 February 2020
     
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    Delays diagnosing and treating children with arthritis are leaving them in pain and at a higher risk of lifelong damage, a national charity has warned.
    Arthritis is commonly thought to affect only older people, but 15,000 children have the condition in the UK. 
    Versus Arthritis says many children are not getting help soon enough. 
    The NHS said: "Arthritis in young people is rare and diagnosing it can be difficult because symptoms are often vague and no specific test exists."
    Zoe Chivers, Head of Services at Versus Arthritis, said: "We know that young people often face significant delays getting to diagnosis simply because even their GPs don't recognise that it's a condition that can affect people as young as two. It's often considered that they're just going through growing pains or they've just got a bit of a viral infection and that's not the case."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 12 February 2020
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    Leaving the EU means the UK has greater control over the training of healthcare professionals. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced that nurses and other allied healthcare professionals will be able to retrain as doctors ‘more quickly’ now the UK has left the EU.
    Under training standards set by the EU, existing healthcare professionals wishing to move into another area would have to complete a set standard of training, regardless of any existing health background or qualifications. Under the potential new system, a nurse who has been in the job for 10 years could benefit from training standards based upon experience and qualifications, rather than strict time-frames.
    Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Our incredible NHS is full of highly-qualified and dedicated professionals – and I want to do everything I can to help them fulfil their ambitions and provide the best possible care for patients. Without being bound by EU regulations, we can focus on ensuring our workforce has the necessary training which is best suited to them and their experience, without ever compromising on our high standards of care or on patient safety. The plans we are setting out today mean that we can retrain healthcare workers and get them back to the frontline faster. This is good for patients, and good for our NHS."
    Nursing leaders warn that the move needs to come without compromising patient care. Andrea Sutcliffe CBE, Chief Executive and Registrar at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said: “Having enough health and care professionals with the right knowledge, skills and values is vital to meet the individual needs of people across all four countries of the UK now and in the future."
    “The NMC supports the wish to explore how education and training for registered nurses and midwives may be achieved in more flexible ways while ensuring our high standards are maintained and not compromised. Every nursing and midwifery professional must be safe and competent to provide the best care and support possible."
    Read full story
    Source: Nursing Notes, 9 February 2020
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    The number of British cases of coronavirus has doubled to eight – with two healthcare workers among those testing positive – while a GP surgery in Brighton was closed amid fears of the infection spreading.
    Brighton’s County Oak medical centre closed on Monday with a warning notice on its door telling patients it was “closed due to operational difficulties”.
    According to reports, one of those infected was a GP, who was at work for one day but did not see any patients. Workers wearing protective suits were pictured cleaning the surgery and pharmacy on Monday afternoon.
    The government has since classified the virus, which has infected more than 40,000 people in China and led to the death of more than 1,000, as a “serious and imminent threat” to public health while activating emergency powers that can see it force people to remain in quarantine.
    “I will do everything in my power to keep people in this country safe,” Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said in a statement. “We are taking every possible step to control the outbreak of coronavirus. NHS staff and others will now be supported with additional legal powers to keep people safe across the country.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 11 February 2020
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    The Streatham terrorist attack has again highlighted one of the most difficult decisions the emergency services face – deciding when it is safe to treat wounded people.
    In the aftermath of the stabbings by Sudesh Amman, a passer-by who helped a man lying on the pavement bleeding claimed ambulance crews took 30 minutes to arrive. The London Ambulance Service (LAS) said the first medics arrived in four minutes, but waited at the assigned rendezvous point until the Metropolitan police confirmed it was safe to move in.
    Last summer, the inquest into the London Bridge attack heard it took three hours for paramedics to reach some of the wounded. Prompt treatment might have saved the life of French chef Sebastian Belanger, who received CPR from members of the public and police officers for half an hour. A LAS debriefing revealed paramedics’ frustration at not being deployed sooner.
    A group of UK and international experts in delivering medical care during terrorist attacks have highlighted alternative approaches in the BMJ. In Paris in 2015, the integration of doctors with specialist police teams enabled about 100 wounded people in the Bataclan concert hall to be triaged and evacuated 30 minutes before the terrorists were killed. The experts writing in the BMJ believe the UK approach would have delayed any medical care reaching these victims for three hours.
    These are perilously hard judgment calls. Policymakers and commanders on the scene have to balance the likelihood that long delays in intervening will lead to more victims dying from their injuries against the increased risk to the lives of medical staff who are potentially putting themselves in the line of fire by entering the so-called 'hot zone'.
    First responders themselves need to be at the forefront of this debate. As the people who have the experience, face the risks and want more than anyone to save as many lives as possible, their leadership and insights are vital.
    In the wake of the Streatham attack the government is looking at everything from sentencing policy to deradicalisation. Deciding how best to save the wounded needs equal priority in the response to terrorism.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 7 February 2020
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    A BBC News investigation has uncovered more preventable baby deaths at an NHS trust that has already been criticised for its maternity services.
    Four families said their babies would have survived had East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust provided better care. The NHS's Healthcare Safety Branch is investigating 25 maternity cases at the hospitals in Margate and Ashford.
    The trust has apologised for the care provided in two of the cases and said they were investigating a third. It has denied any wrongdoing in the fourth case.
    The government is due to receive the Healthcare Safety Branch's report into the 25 cases later, as well as a Care Quality Commission report from an inspection carried out in January.
    Last month, the BBC discovered at least seven preventable deaths may have occurred at the trust since 2016. Four further families have now spoken out, saying their babies would not have died if medics had provided better care. In two of the cases, the mothers said the actions of the trust left them feeling they were to blame for their babies' deaths.
    In a statement, East Kent Hospitals Trust it had set up a board sub-committee "to ensure we are complying with national safety standards and ensure we are implementing the coroner's recommendations fully and swiftly".
    "We are deeply saddened by the stories of families who have suffered the death of a much-loved baby, and we are extremely sorry for their loss," it added.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 February 2020
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    A woman described as a "high risk" anorexia patient faced delays in treatment after moving to university, an inquest has heard.
    Madeline Wallace, 18, from Cambridgeshire, was told there could be a six-week delay in her seeing a specialist after moving to Edinburgh.
    The student "struggled" while at university and a coroner said there appeared to be a "gap" in her care. Ms Wallace died on 9 January 2018 due to complications from sepsis.
    A parliamentary health service ombudsman report into her death was being written at the time of Ms Wallace's treatment in 2017 and issues raised included moving from one provider to another and higher education.
    Coroner Sean Horstead said Ms Wallace only had one dietician meeting in three months, despite meal preparation and planning being an area of anxiety she had raised.
    Dr Hazel said she had tried to make arrangements with the Cullen Centre in Edinburgh in April 2017 but had been told to call back in August. The Cullen Centre said it could only accept her as a patient after she registered with a GP and that an appointment could take up to six weeks from that point.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 February 2020
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    The ghosts of medical errors haunt Dr. Peter Pronovost. Two deaths, both caused by mistakes. First, his father’s, who died as the result of a cancer misdiagnosis. Then a little girl, a burn victim who succumbed to infection and diagnostic missteps at the hospital where Pronovost worked early in his career.
    Those deaths led Pronovost to pursue a medical career dedicated to patient safety, and to create the medical checklist he has become known for worldwide.
    Now, he’s implementing his second act, at University Hospitals in the USA, as its Chief Transformation Officer, a job he has held since late 2018. His goal: To transform a $4 billion health care system by reducing shortcomings in medical care and increasing the quality of treatment.
    The challenge fits Pronovost, says one of his former Johns Hopkins University professors, Dr. Albert Wu. “He’s one of the few people for whom the title might be appropriate, because his work has led to significant changes and innovations in how we deliver health care in the United States.
    “He’s a once-in-a-generation guy.”
    Read full story
    Source: Cleveland.com, 9 February 2020
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    It has been revealed that three patients a day are dying from starvation or thirst or choking on NHS wards. 
    In 2017, 936 hospital deaths were attributed to one of those factors, with starvation the primary cause of death in 74 cases.The Office for National Statistics data reveals malnutrition deaths are 34% higher than in 2013.
    Over-stretched nurses are simply too busy to check if the sick and elderly are getting nourishment. 
    However, Myer Glickman from the ONS says the data is not conclusive proof of poor NHS care. He said:“There has been an increase over time in the number of patients admitted to hospital while already malnourished. This may suggest that malnutrition is increasingly prevalent in the community, possibly associated with the ageing of the population and an increase in long-term chronic diseases.”
    Yet campaigners say too many vulnerable people are being “forgotten to death” in NHS hospitals and urgent action is needed to identify and treat malnutrition.
    In a recent pilot scheme the number of deaths among elderly patients with a fractured hip was halved by simply having someone to feed them. Six NHS trusts employed a junior staff member for each ward tasked with getting 500 extra calories a day into them. More survived and the patients spent an average five days less in hospital, unblocking beds and saving more than £1,400 each.
    It wasn’t just the calories though – it helped keep their morale up.
    Because, as one consultant said: “Food is a very, very cheap drug that’s extremely powerful.”
    Read full story
    Source: Mirror, 4 February 2020
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    A doctor and mother of two with just months left to live has warned of a “hidden epidemic” of asbestos-related cancers among NHS staff and patients because hospitals have failed to properly handle the toxic material.
    Kate Richmond, 44, has spoken out to raise awareness after she won a legal case against the NHS for negligently exposing her to asbestos while she was working as a medical student and junior doctor.
    An investigation by The Independent has learnt there have been 13 prosecutions linked to NHS breaches of regulations for the handling of asbestos since 2010, while 381 compensation claims have been made by NHS staff for work-related diseases, including exposure to asbestos, since 2013, costing the health service more than £26m.
    According to data from the Health and Safety Executive, between 2011 and 2017, a total of 128 people working in health and social care roles died from mesothelioma, the same asbestos-related cancer which is killing Kate Richmond.
    She described how maintenance staff removed asbestos ceiling tiles with no protective measures, allowing dust and debris to fall on to wards where patients were in their beds and staff were working. Managers at the Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry failed to heed warnings by workers that they were putting people at risk.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 9 February 2020
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    Reports of illegal teeth-whitening that could leave patients at risk of health problems including burns or lost teeth have increased, the BBC has found.
    General Dental Council (GDC) figures showed a 26% rise in reports last year.
    Teeth-whitening can only be performed legally in the UK by professionals registered with the GDC. One beauty school claimed to have provided "thousands" of candidates with illegitimate qualifications, an undercover investigation found. Failure to comply with the requirement to be registered can result in a criminal record and an unlimited fine.
    Untrained beauticians using teeth-whitening kits have been known to cause tooth loss, burns and blisters.
    Dr Ben Atkins, president of the Oral Health Foundation, said: "When things go wrong in dentistry, they can really go wrong. I've been that dentist with the full back up service when the patient's had that heart attack. It would be catastrophic for the patient and the person who's been trained and told it's legal to do it."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 February 2020
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    Concerns have been raised that NHS ambulance staff are being "silenced" over bullying allegations.
    Hundreds of East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) employees reported bullying in 2018, while 28 non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) have been issued since 2016. The GMB union said the figures showed a "heavy-handed culture".
    The service said it took bullying and harassment "extremely seriously" and had policies to prevent such behaviour.
    EEAS faced scrutiny in November when it emerged three members of staff died in 11 days. One, Luke Wright, 24, is believed to have taken his own life. An independent investigation, which dealt in part with bullying claims, has been carried out with the results reported to the trust in January.
    The 28 NDAs had been made in cases where bullying, harassment or abuse by colleagues had been reported, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. These involved an individual agreement, often with a payment, which prevented the person speaking about their case.
    In the latest staff survey from 2018, 23% of staff reported bullying, up from 21% in the previous year.
    The GMB said NDAs were seen as a "method of silencing rather than resolving" and called on the trust to discuss more meaningful ways of dealing with problems.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 February 2020
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    A key element in the new covid-19 response service run by NHS 111 urgently needs more doctors, NHS England has said.
    The national covid-19 clinical assessment service, or CCAS, serves a cohort of patients with coronavirus symptoms deemed by 111 as needing a clinical assessment over the phone or online.
    An email to GPs from NHSE’s primary care directors on Friday evening said: “We urgently need more GPs help to staff this service, especially as covid-19 cases increase over coming days, because of your expertise and experience.”
    Read full story
    Source: HSJ, 6 April 2020
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    Shipman, Mid Staffordshire, Morecambe Bay, and now Ian Paterson, the breast surgeon that performed botched and unnecessary operations on hundreds of women. The list of NHS-related scandals has got longer. It's tempting to say the health service has not learned lessons even after a string of revelations and reviews. But is that fair? asks BBC Health Editor Hugh Pym.
    The inquiry, chaired by Bishop Graham James, makes clear there were failings at every level of a dysfunctional health system when it came to patient safety.
    The public and private health systems did not compare notes about suspicious behaviour by a consultant. Staff working with Paterson thought that his surgical methods were unusual but, perhaps cowed by being ignored after raising concerns, kept their heads down. Add to that the power and status of a surgeon in the medical world and, in the words of the report, Paterson was "hiding in plain sight".
    So could it happen again?
    James says it's clearly impossible to eliminate the activities of determined criminals in any profession. He acknowledges that some improvements have been made on policing. But he says that a decade on from the Paterson scandal, he is not convinced that medical regulators, with a combined budget of half a billion pounds a year, are doing enough collectively or collaboratively to make the system safe for patients.
    The review chair notes tellingly that while regulators spoke of major improvements which should identify another Paterson, some doctors and nurses had told the inquiry that it was "entirely possible that something similar could happen now".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 4 February 2020
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    A&E waiting times have hit a record high, as more than 1,000 people waited at least 12 hours to be seen by a doctor for the first time since records began.
    Official statistics released yesterday show the proportion of people left waiting more than eight and 12 hours in December were at the worst level for a single month since records started in 2007. Patients who were seen within the four-hour waiting time target also reached the lowest level on record.
    Scottish Conservatives health spokesman Miles Briggs described the figures as "an utter disaster".
    Mr Briggs said: "Patients are waiting in pain, discomfort and distress which in turn significantly affects staff."
    Read full story
    Source: The Telegraph, 4 February 2020
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    In early January, authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan were trying to keep news of a new coronavirus under wraps. When one doctor tried to warn fellow medics about the outbreak, police paid him a visit and told him to stop. A month later he has been hailed as a hero, after he posted his story from a hospital bed.
    It's a stunning insight into the botched response by local authorities in Wuhan in the early weeks of the coronavirus outbreak.
    Dr Li was working at the centre of the outbreak in December when he noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like SARS - the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003. On 30 December he sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them about the outbreak and advising they wear protective clothing to avoid infection. What Dr Li didn't know then was that the disease that had been discovered was an entirely new coronavirus.
    Four days later he was summoned to the Public Security Bureau where he was told to sign a letter. In the letter he was accused of "making false comments" that had "severely disturbed the social order". "We solemnly warn you: If you keep being stubborn, with such impertinence, and continue this illegal activity, you will be brought to justice - is that understood?" 
    He was one of eight people who police said were being investigated for "spreading rumours".
    At the end of January, Dr Li published a copy of the letter on Weibo and explained what had happened. In the meantime, local authorities had apologised to him but that apology came too late.
    For the first few weeks of January officials in Wuhan were insisting that only those who came into contact with infected animals could catch the virus. No guidance was issued to protect doctors.
    "A safer public health environment… requires tens of millions of Li Wenliang," said one reader of Dr Li's post.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 4 February 2020
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    A culture of "avoidance and denial" allowed a breast surgeon to perform botched and unnecessary operations on hundreds of women, an independent inquiry has found.
    The independent inquiry into Ian Paterson's malpractice has recommended the recall of his 11,000 patients for their surgery to be assessed.
    Paterson is serving a 20-year jail term for 17 counts of wounding with intent. One of Paterson's colleagues has been referred to police and five more to health watchdogs by the inquiry.
    The disgraced breast surgeon worked with cancer patients at NHS and private hospitals in the West Midlands over 14 years.
    His unregulated "cleavage-sparing" mastectomies, in which breast tissue was left behind, meant the disease returned in many of his patients. Others had surgery they did not need - some even finding out years later they did not have cancer.
    Patients were let down by the healthcare system "at every level" said the inquiry chair, Bishop of Norwich the Rt Revd Graham James, who identified "multiple individual and organisational failures".
    One of the key recommendations from the report is that the Government should make patient safety a the top priority, given the ineffectiveness of the system identified in this Inquiry. 
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 4 February 2020
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    A Surrey hospital trust has become the first in the country to appoint a nurse dedicated to preventing patient falls and medication mix-ups.
    The consultant nurse has been appointed by Ashford and St Peter's (ASP) Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to reduce the number of patients who are injured while being treated at its sites.
    This includes looking at ways to reduce the amount of people who fall over, suffer with venous thromboembolism or experience tissue damage while in hospitals in north west Surrey.
    The trust says the harms prevention nurse will be the first in the country hired for such a role and will also work with the team who look at incidents of medication mix-ups and mistakes.
    Read full story
    Source: Surrey Live, 4 February 2020
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    A number of doctors have claimed a service under which adolescents with gender dysphoria can be given puberty-suppressing hormone blockers is "unsafe" and must be immediately stopped, but their concerns were suppressed.
    The service is provided in Ireland by flying in two clinicians from an NHS trust in London to run clinics at Crumlin Children's Hospital. But the Irish Independent has learned at least three doctors working in the gender area expressed grave concerns over the service provided by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust at Crumlin.
    The concerns over standards of clinical care and governance were raised at a meeting of doctors and hospital officials in Crumlin last March. These included that children had been started on hormone treatment when they did not appear to be suitable. However, the issues raised and calls by the doctors for the service to be "terminated with immediate effect" were omitted from draft minutes of the meeting.
    News of their concerns comes days after it emerged a lawsuit was being taken by a former nurse, a parent, and a former patient against the trust in the London High Court. The action is challenging the clinic's practice of prescribing hormone blockers and cross-sex hormones to children under the age of 18.
    The trust has also been hit by a series of resignations by psychologists amid disquiet about the alleged "over-diagnosis" of gender dysphoria.
    Read full story
    Source: Irish Independent, 3 February 2020
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS leaders have urged Boris Johnson’s government to build 100 new hospitals and give the service an extra £7bn a year for new facilities and equipment. They want the Prime Minister to commit to far more than the 40 new hospitals over the next decade that the Conservatives pledged during the general election.
    So many hospitals, clinics and mental health units are dilapidated after years of underinvestment in the NHS’s capital budget that a spending splurge on new buildings is needed, bosses say. Too many facilities are cramped and growing numbers are unsafe for patients and staff, they claim.
    Johnson has promised £2.7bn to rebuild six existing hospitals and pledged to build 40 in total and upgrade 20 others, although has been criticised for a lack of detail on the latter two pledges.
    The call has come from NHS Providers, which represents the bosses of the 240 NHS trusts in England that provide acute, mental health, ambulance and community-based services.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 3 February 2020
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    Help is arriving for overworked NHS staff as a growing number of hospitals bring in sleep pods for doctors and nurses to grab power naps during their shifts.
    Pods have been installed or are being trialled by a dozen hospitals in England. Royal Wolverhampton NHS trust was the first to try them, in June 2018. “Too many staff end up exhausted because they have long, busy, sometimes stressful shifts, often with little chance to grab a break because pressure on the NHS is so intense,” said Prof Steve Field, the trust’s chair.
    “We know that doctors provide better, safer care when they are fresh and alert. We have found [the pods] to be very popular with staff and also very effective in helping them get more rest,” said Field, a former GP.
    Dr Mike Farquhar, a consultant in sleep medicine at the Evelina children’s hospital in London, who has persuaded NHS chiefs to take staff slumber more seriously, said hospitals were finally taking practical action.
    “Air traffic controllers are only allowed to work for two hours and then they must take a 30-minute break, because if they were tired and made a mistake, bad things could happen,” he said. “But in the NHS, where the pressure is often high and sustained, the problem is that the people delivering care will usually choose to prioritise everything else – especially patients – over themselves and sacrifice things like breaks and sleep.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 3 February 2020
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    New monitors that can detect the deadly blood condition sepsis are being fitted at a Scottish children's hospital. The equipment will be installed at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.
    Charlotte Cooper, who lost her nine-month-old daughter Heidi to sepsis last year, said she had "no doubt" the monitors would help save babies' lives. She told BBC Scotland: "You don't have time to come to terms with the fact that someone you love is dying from sepsis because it happens so quickly."
    Ms Cooper now wants to see the monitors installed in every paediatric ward in Scotland. "We need to do whatever we can to stop preventable deaths from sepsis in Scotland," she said.
    The monitors record and track changes in heart rate, temperature and blood pressure, and can pick up early sepsis symptoms. The machines, which have been installed in a critical care area, use the  Paediatric Early Warning Scores to monitor the children for any signs of deterioration in their condition.
    Sepsis Research said early warning of the changes would mean sepsis being diagnosed and treated faster.
    The monitors were accepted on behalf of the hospital by senior staff nurse Sharon Pate, who said: "In a very busy paediatric word it is vital all our patients are monitored regularly and closely for signs of deterioration. The addition of these new monitors will greatly improve our ability to monitor patients and provide vital care."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 4 February 2020
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    Mothers-to-be must be respected and listened to by medics, regulators have said, after warnings that pleas for pain relief in labour have been ignored. The intervention by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) follows an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph.
    Last week it was revealed that six NHS trusts were in breach of medical guidance which says pain relief should be provided at any point of labour if it is requested. Women said they were told “‘It’s not called labour for nothing, it’s meant to be hard work” as doctors refused their pleas.
    The findings prompted the Health Secretary to order an investigation. 
    Today Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Executive of the NMC, which regulates nurses and midwives said such actions should not be tolerated. In a letter to The Telegraph she said: "As the regulator for nursing and midwifery professionals, we know that all women deserve to have their views, preferences and decisions respected during pregnancy and birth."
    The watchdog recently published updated standards for midwives, which she said underlined this point. 
    "Enabling women to make safe, informed decisions about the care they receive, including choices about pain relief during birth, is at the heart of our new Future Midwife Standards," the Chief Executive continued. 
    Ms Sutcliffe said midwives should work "in partnership" with women in labour. "While midwives don’t administer epidurals, they do play a key role in helping women to make informed choices and advocating on their behalf to make sure those choices are understood and respected by the wider care team," she said.
    Read full story
    Source: The Telegraph, 2 February 2020
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS Trusts have spent nearly £20 million in four years battling whistleblowers, defending claims of workplace discrimination and fighting employment disputes, the Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
    Data obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) has revealed that a minority of healthcare trusts, often advised by the same law firms, are repeatedly running up huge legal bills.
    Former health minister Sir Norman Lamb said some of the NHS employment cases he has witnessed in the last eighteen months involved ‘scandalous’ uses of public money. “It is not all NHS trusts in the country, but there are a small number where the culture is clearly wrong,” said Sir Norman.
    Commenting on the findings, Tim Farron, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, who has fought for whistleblowers in his own constituency,  said: “Millions of pounds of tax payers’ money is being spent across our health service by NHS Trusts defending their actions in employment tribunals in cases of discrimination and unfair dismissal. It is only right that questions are being asked."
    Read full story
    Source: The Telegraph, 1 February 2020
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