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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    NHS Highland has been reprimanded for a data breach which revealed the personal email addresses of people invited to use HIV services.
    The health board used CC (carbon copy) instead of BCC (blind carbon copy) to send an email to 37 people.
    The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the error amounted to a "serious breach of trust". It called for improvements to be made to data protection safeguards for HIV service providers.
    The mistake meant all recipients of the email could see the personal addresses of the others receiving it.
    One person said they recognised four other individuals, one of whom was a previous sexual partner.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 30 March 2023
     
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    New restrictions are being introduced for autism assessments, with some areas now only accepting referrals for patients in crisis, HSJ has learned.
    Commissioners in North Yorkshire and York have become the latest to introduce new criteria for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder referrals.
    Getting a diagnosis is key to unlocking care packages such as speech and language therapy, counselling, or special educational needs.
    They said the changes are due to “unprecedented demand that has exceeded supply, resulting in unacceptable wait times and the need to prioritise resources towards children and most at-risk adults”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 30 March 2023
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    A review of the whistleblowing framework – the laws that support workers who blow the whistle on wrongdoing in the workplace – has been launched by the Government.
    The review will seek views and evidence from whistleblowers, key charities, employers and regulators.
    Whistleblowing refers to when a worker makes a disclosure of information which they reasonably believe shows wrongdoing or someone covering up wrongdoing.  Workers who blow the whistle are entitled to protections, which were introduced through the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA). Successive governments have taken steps to strengthen whistleblowing policy and practice.
    It provides a route for employees to report unsafe working conditions and wrongdoing across all sectors.
    This was keenly felt during the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, when the Care Quality Commission and Health and Safety Executive recorded sharp increases in the number of whistleblowing disclosures they received.
    The review will gather evidence on the effectiveness of the current regime in enabling workers to speak up about wrongdoing and protect those who do so. The evidence gathering stage of the review will conclude in Autumn 2023.
    Read full press release
    Source: Gov.UK, 27 March 2023
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    A rise in the use of slimming jabs could lead to an increase in unsafe treatment for tummy tucks and surgery to remove excess skin, UK surgeons have warned.
    Drugs such as semaglutide and liraglutide are approved for use on the NHS for certain groups of people with obesity, and could help people reduce their weight by more than 10%.
    Surgeons have warned that people using the jabs may not realise they could be left with excess skin.
    “Whilst the newly introduced weight-loss drugs are not likely to produce comparable weight loss to bariatric surgery there is always the possibility that accompanying weight loss, a patient might be left with a degree of deflation and redundant skin,” said Marc Pacifico, the president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.
    However, access to surgery on the NHS to remove excess skin is limited because the NHS do not fund post-weight loss plastic surgery any more, so it has to be undertaken in the private sector. That costs about £4,500 to £6,000 in the UK, so Mr Pacifico warned patients might seek cheaper procedures abroad..
    “I would strongly warn against this as there might not be the safeguards and assurances that the drugs being used are of the same quality and provenance as those being prescribed in the UK,” he said.
    He also warned that there are risks associated with having weight-loss plastic surgery abroad, such as the inability to undertake proper research on a surgeon, as well as the risks associated with flying straight after significant surgery – such as blood clots, as well as a lack of accessible follow-up with the surgeon and clinic to treat post-operative wound infections.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 29 March 2023
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    The Care Quality Commission’s follow-up of whistleblowing concerns from health and care staff has been poor and inconsistent, and there is a “widespread lack of competence and confidence” on dealing with race and racism at the organisation, two reviews have found.
    A “Listening, learning, responding to concerns” review was published by the Care Quality Commission, alongside a linked independent review into how the regulator failed Shyam Kumar, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in the North West, who was also a CQC specialist professional adviser.
    The wider review looked at a range of issues including how the CQC deals with racism; how well it listens to whistleblowers in providers; and how it deals with its own staff, including as part of a recent restructure, and its internal “Freedom to Speak Up” process. It followed concerns bring raised, in addition to Mr Kumar’s case, about these issues.
    Scott Durairaj, a CQC director who joined it last year and led the review work along with a panel of advisers, reported there was “clear evidence, during the scoping, design phase and throughout the review, of a widespread lack of competence and confidence within CQC in understanding, identifying and writing about race and racism”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 29 March 2023
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    The leaders of University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) must acknowledge and seek to tackle the organisation’s pervasive bullying culture, and those who cannot may need to leave, the lead author of its patient safety review has warned.
    In an interview with HSJ, Mike Bewick said humility is required to address major cultural issues identified through conversations he had with senior medics and former employees.
    Professor Bewick’s overall view was that UHB was a “safe” place to receive care, but his team had been “disturbed” by consistent reporting of a bullying culture. Professor Bewick wrote in his report that even during his six-week review, initial goodwill from the trust had “dissipated”, adding his team has seen an organisation that is “culturally very reluctant to accept criticism”.
    Speaking to HSJ, he acknowledged there were people within UHB who do not accept cultural problems, adding: “I would hope they see the right thing to do is to accept [they] didn’t get everything right, to do a bit of mea culpa, have some humility, and move on. Because I don’t think there’s necessarily a place for people who can’t move on.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 28 March 2023
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    An inquest report into the death of a young boy who died at home in his sleep has called for health bodies to take action to prevent further deaths.
    Louis Rogers' death was initially categorised as Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) but the report recorded febrile seizures contributed.
    The recommendations include:
    A greater emphasis on medical education, research and public information for sudden unexpected deaths associated with febrile seizures Referrals for assessment of febrile seizures should be undertaken earlier to exclude more severe underlying illnesses The NHS website and pamphlet given to parents and guardians following a child's febrile seizure should be updated to help assist them in picking up potential early indicators of a more severe illness "Robust national guidance" and education should be given to GPs so that timely referrals could be made A checklist should be provided for health practitioners so that a child was not given a misdiagnosis of a febrile seizure Records of all contact with health practitioners - including GPs and paramedics - should be available for all The recommendations were made to six health authorities: Royal College of Paediatricians, Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Royal College of General Practice, Royal College of Emergency Medicine and NHS England.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 29 March 2023
     
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    People dying in the UK face “uncontrollable” pain and “unbearable suffering”, which palliative care alone cannot fix, according to the first evidence to a major new parliamentary inquiry asking if assisted dying should finally be legalised.
    In a shocking submission in favour of a law change, Molly Meacher told the Commons health and social care committee that the reality of end of life could include vomiting faeces, endless nausea and decaying tumours that smelled so bad they drove people out of hospital wards.
    People “are existing, they’re not living”, the crossbench peer and chair of the charity Dignity in Dying told the committee inquiry, which comes eight years after the House of Commons last considered changing legislation in 2015.
    Arguing strongly against any law change, Ilora Finlay, a crossbench peer and palliative care physician warned of the risk of “elder abuse” being worsened by a law change and said wider availability of palliative care, which remains patchy in the UK, must instead be a priority.
    Charles Falconer, a Labour peer and former Lord Chancellor, described the current situation, where dying people sometimes withdraw their own treatment rather than taking drugs to end their life, as “a mess”. He proposed that assisted dying should be available only to terminally ill people and not those facing “unbearable suffering”, as others have suggested. A diagnosis would be needed from two doctors plus approval from high court judge.
    “The bills that have been proposed [previously but defeated] say the person who decides to have an assisted death must have the capacity to make that decision,” he said.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 28 March 2023
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    Mothers and babies are being put at risk because maternity services are still providing unsafe care, despite a series of scandals that have cost lives, the NHS ombudsman has warned.
    More tragedies will occur unless the health service takes decisive action to put an end to repeated and deeply ingrained problems which lead to “the same mistakes over and over again”, he said.
    Rob Behrens, the NHS ombudsman for England, voiced his concerns when he launched a report on Tuesday which details the failings several women experienced while giving birth. It also sets out the lessons the NHS needs to learn, but Behrens claimed that too many trusts were not doing so.
    Behrens voiced alarm that, although efforts have been made to improve the care mothers and their children receive, progress is too slow – and that means patients remain in danger.
    His report says that: “We recognise that people working in maternity services want to provide high-quality care. Culture, systems and processes can get in the way of achieving that goal.
    “But improvements are not happening quickly enough, and we have not seen sustainable change. We must do more to make services safer for everyone.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 28 March 2023
    Further reading on the hub:
    Patient Safety Learning - Mind the implementation gap: The persistence of avoidable harm in the NHS  
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    Repeated cases of bullying and a toxic environment at one of England's largest NHS trusts have been found in a review.
    The Bewick report was ordered after a BBC Newsnight investigation heard from staff at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) saying a climate of fear had put patients at risk.
    A first phase of the rapid review, headed by independent consultants IQ4U and led by Prof Mike Bewick, was published Tuesday.
    It is one of three major reviews into the trust, commissioned following a series of reports by Newsnight and BBC West Midlands in which current and former staff raised concerns.
    Summarising the findings, Prof Bewick, a former NHS England deputy medical director, said: "Our overall view is that the trust is a safe place to receive care.
    "But any continuance of a culture that is corrosively affecting morale and in particular threatens long-term staff recruitment and retention will put at risk the care of patients across the organisation - particularly in the current nationwide NHS staffing crisis.
    "Because these concerns cover such a wide range of issues, from management organisation through to leadership and confidence, we believe there is much more work to be done in the next phases of review to assist the trust on its journey to recovery."
    The West Midlands trust said it fully accepted the report's recommendations.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 28 March 2023
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    More than three quarters of NHS workers are seriously considering leaving their jobs amid the ongoing strain on the health service.
    According to research from the worker-led network Organise – which surveyed 2,546 NHS staff in March – 78.5% are thinking about packing it all in.
    Only a fifth (21.5%) said they had no plan to give up their NHS job any time soon.
    And the survey shows this sentiment is shared across a range of professions within the health service – with nurses, healthcare assistants, paramedics, doctors, health visitors and more all struggling with their jobs right now.
    This comes after years of public concerns about the longevity of the health service, amid funding cuts, staff shortages and burnout – not to mention the additional strain from the Covid pandemic.
    The findings also show that in the last three years:
    79% of respondents experienced stress 62% reported anxiety 55% reported burnout. More than half (55%) of respondents said they needed to take time off from their jobs as a result, with a quarter saying this meant a month or more away from work.
    Read full story
    Source: Huffington Post, 29 March 2023
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    A scandal-hit children’s mental health hospital will close months after an investigation by The Independent uncovered claims of poor care and systemic abuse.
    Taplow Manor hospital, in Maidenhead, was threatened with closure by the NHS safety watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, only last week if it failed to make improvements following a damning report.
    Active Care Group, which runs the hospital, confirmed it would close by the end of May, saying a decision by the NHS to stop admitting patients had rendered its “service untenable”.
    The move comes after an investigation by The Independent and Sky News heard from more than 50 patients who alleged “systemic abuse” by the provider, while Taplow Manor is facing two police probes – one into a patient death and a second into the alleged rape of a child involving staff.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 29 March 2023
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    “There’s a gap today that no locum filled, so I am carrying both bleeps and doing the work of two people.” That recent tweet, by a children’s doctor, is one of many examples posted on social media by medics illustrating how NHS staff shortages affect them, patients, the smooth running of important services – and, sometimes, the safety of those who are receiving care.
    It is a concern shared by every organisation that represents frontline staff, by regulators such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and by NHS England, the body that oversees the service. 
    In January the CQC reported that an inspection it had undertaken of Colchester hospital in Essex found patients were missing out on meals because there were too few staff on duty to feed them. Some patients were wearing dirty dressings, and others did not have their call bells answered promptly, for the same reason.
    In a letter to the trust that runs the hospital, it said: “All wards’ actual staffing levels and skill mix meant staff were often overstretched. All staff we spoke with expressed concern about the impact on patient care and personal wellbeing.
    “Some staff we spoke to were tearful, reported feeling exhausted and concerned that they were unable to care for patients well enough to keep them safe.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 26 March 2023
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    Hospices will be forced to turn dying patients away because they are struggling with steeply rising costs at a time when the NHS is not increasing funding.
    Hospices look after 300,000 patients and families every year across the UK. It costs about £1.5 billion a year for them to provide this care, with only a third of that coming from the NHS. The rest relies on charitable donations and fundraising in local communities as well as sales in charity shops.
    As hospices battle to keep going, the Treasury has rejected pleas for a £30 million rescue package this year.
    The money, those in the sector say, would prevent some from having to close inpatient units and beds or reduce their hospice-at-home teams, which care for patients in the community. Some are already making staff redundant and getting rid of beds.
    Toby Porter, chief executive of Hospice UK, said the government was making “a huge avoidable mistake”, adding: “People will have a lesser experience at an incredibly important moment and it will lead to system pressures affecting the whole health system.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 26 March 2023
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    Last year the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report warning of a “ticking time bomb” threatening health systems in Europe and Central Asia: a growing shortage of health workers.
    With quickly ageing populations and an ageing health workforce—40% of doctors in Europe are close to retirement in a third of countries—along with a surge in chronic illnesses and the ongoing effects of the covid pandemic, WHO warned that many countries could soon see their healthcare systems collapse unless they take urgent action.
    Six months on, the situation has worsened, as healthcare workers throughout Europe increasingly resort to industrial action over pay and conditions.
    Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said, “The health workforce crisis in Europe is no longer a looming threat—it is here and now. Health providers and workers across our region are clamouring for help and support...
    “We cannot wait any longer to address the pressing challenges facing our health workforce. The health and wellbeing of our societies are at stake—there is simply no time to lose.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: BMJ, 24 March 2023
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    Dilshad Sultana was 36 weeks pregnant with her second child in 2019 when she experienced stomach pain and noticed her baby was moving less.
    Mrs Sultana, from Sutton Coldfield, said she had been due to have a Caesarean section on 8 July but on 20 June she started to feel pain in her abdomen and lower back.
    She said she was confused but that it did not feel like a contraction and called hospital staff at about 17:00 to say it felt like her baby was moving less.
    After following advice to rest and take pain relief, she attended hospital at about 22:30 and staff started monitoring Shanto's heart rate.
    It was not until almost three hours later that Shanto was delivered by emergency C-Section. Shanto suffered severe brain damage and would spent the next 22 days in intensive care, suffering seizures and multiple brain haemorrhages.
    Shanto now requires around-the-clock care and Mrs Sultana enlisted lawyers to pursue a care of medical negligence against the trust.
    Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust has admitted liability and made a voluntary interim payment allowing the family to move to a new home specifically adapted to meet Shanto's extensive care, therapy and equipment needs.
    Fiona Reynolds, the chief medical officer, said: "We'd like to offer our heartfelt apologies again to the family.
    "It's clear the standard of care we offered to them fell below those required and expected. For this, we are truly sorry."
    Now, Mrs Sultana is campaigning for change - she wants to see mothers listened to in maternity care and more attention paid to monitoring babies' heart rates.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 27 March 2023
     
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    Two external reviews have been carried out into a trust’s general surgery services amid concerns about whether it is a ‘safe interpersonal working environment’.
    But University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust has refused to make the reviews – which were both completed last year – public, partly because of what it says are concerns that they could lead to “harassment” of doctors who spoke to the authors.
    Both reviews were into aspects of the general surgery services at the Royal Sussex County Hospitals in Brighton. The trust has had a series of highly critical Care Quality Commission reports into some of its surgical services and a “well led” report is expected to be released in the next few weeks.
    The trust has refused HSJ’s Freedom of Information Act request to release the reviews, arguing that those interviewed had been promised confidentiality, and the issues involved are “emotive and sensitive matters”.
    “Disclosure could cause those involved in the reviews damage, distress and upset and could even lead to harassment,” it said.
    Read full story
    Source: HSJ, 27 March 2023
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    A woman whose daughter took her own life after being left in chronic pain caused by giving birth has spoken of her family's heartbreak.
    Sara Baines, 34, from Flintshire, died in September last year leaving her family devastated.
    This week an inquest heard Sara suffered from chronic pain due to complications resulting from surgical mesh that was implanted after she gave birth in 2011.
    Her mother, Alison Sharrock, says Sara was failed by the health system on multiple occasions.
    Sara bled heavily whilst giving birth and suffered a second-degree tear. She had to have two surgeries to repair the tear, neither of which was completely successful. Sara found herself completely incontinent, at the age of 24.
    In 2015, Sara was advised to have mesh fitted.
    Alison said: "We were told the mesh was a 'quick-fix'. It felt like the answer to all her problems and she was thrilled. She had surgery but afterwards, though the incontinence improved, she had terrible abdominal pain."
    The pain became so severe that Sara was offered a hysterectomy, aged 28. Afterwards, the pain only intensified, and her general health deteriorated. She suffered water infections, skin rashes, gum disease and unexplained pain. Unable to eat or sleep, she became depressed and anxious.
    "She felt nobody was really listening to her. She felt she was gaslighted and fobbed off," said Alison.
    Kath Sansom, founder of Sling The Mesh which has almost 10,000 members suffering irreversible pan and complications from surgical mesh implants, said: "Our hearts go out to Sara's family. Nine out of 10 people in our support group were not told any risks of having a plastic mesh permanently implanted."
    Read full story
    Source: Mail Online, 24 March 2023
    Further reading on the hub:
    Doctors’ shocking comments reveal institutional misogyny towards women harmed by pelvic mesh “There’s no problem with the mesh”: A personal account of the struggle to get vaginal mesh removal surgery ‘Mesh removal surgery is a postcode lottery’ - patients harmed by surgical mesh need accessible, consistent treatment 
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    Whistleblowers have described the accident and emergency (A&E) department at Hull Royal Infirmary as "incredibly dangerous" and a "death trap".
    The Care Quality Commission (CSC) found Hull University Teaching Hospitals required improvement overall and its A&E department was rated inadequate.
    Two clinical staff members, who wished to remain anonymous, described it as a "toxic" place to work.
    Speaking to the BBC, the two staff members who have worked in Hull's A&E department said they had raised concerns with senior managers and the CQC.
    They said there were frequently fewer staff than needed and warned inexperienced staff, one whom had never seen a cardiac arrest, were working in areas like resuscitation, which was "incredibly dangerous".
    "Nurses who aren't even signed off to give oral medication are being put in resuscitation," one said.
    "It's a death trap, it is terrifying."
    Despite these concerns, CQC inspectors in December and November did find the service "had enough nursing and support staff to keep patients safe".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 28 March 2023
     
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    The NHS in England needs a massive injection of homegrown doctors, nurses, GPs and dentists to avert a recruitment crisis that could leave it short of 571,000 staff, according to an internal document seen by the Guardian.
    A long-awaited workforce plan produced by NHS England says the health service is already operating with 154,000 fewer full-time staff than it needs, and that number could balloon to 571,000 staff by 2036 on current trends.
    The 107-page blueprint, which is being examined by ministers, sets out detailed proposals to end the understaffing that has plagued the health service for years. It says that without radical action, the NHS in England will have 28,000 fewer GPs, 44,000 fewer community nurses and an even greater lack of paramedics within 15 years.
    However, the Guardian understands that the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is playing a key role in behind-the-scenes moves by the Treasury to water down NHS England’s proposals to double the number of doctors that the UK trains and increase the number of new nurses trained every year by 77% – because it would cost several billion pounds to do that.
    A senior NHS leader said: “Jeremy Hunt has been very resistant to the numbers in the workforce plan. The Treasury and Hunt don’t want numbers in it. They want it to be not very precise. They want the numbers to be projected in a different way that would be less expensive and to not commit to training specific numbers of doctors, nurses and others.
    “While intellectually Hunt gets it, and emotionally he gets the patient safety argument, it seems that his priority, if the government has any financial headroom, is to use that for tax cuts or giving the army more money rather than training more doctors, nurses and speech and language therapists.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 26 March 2023
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    A son has accepted a settlement and an apology from the north Wales health board nearly 10 years after his mother was a patient in a mental health unit.
    Jean Graves spent nine weeks at the Hergest unit in Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor in 2013 after struggling with anxiety and depression.
    Her son David said she was left "severely malnourished" and fell.
    He previously said his mother - who was 78 when she was treated at the unit - collapsed six times and, over the course of six weeks, lost 25% of her body mass.
    The health board also apologised for the "distress" the family experienced while seeking answers "over many years" and said it hopes to "learn and improve" from Mr Graves's experience.
    In a letter to him, executives said: "It is very clear to us that we have failed your mother and that she should have had a better care whilst in our services."
    It said her records were incomplete or were "amended without proper evidence" and she was placed on a ward with a mix of patients with both psychiatric illness and older organic mental illness, which was not "best practice".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 26 March 2023
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    A young woman receiving end-of-life care says she is “just waiting to die” as an agonising three-year wait for a kidney transplant has left her “living like a prisoner”.
    Diana Isajeva is one of approximately 7,000 patients who are on the waiting list, according to the NHS Blood and Transplant service (NHSBT) – the highest figure in a decade.
    The 29-year-old was due to have a transplant last year but was denied it at the last minute, after the living donor she was matched with pulled out just 24 hours before her planned surgery.
    Data from NHSBT shows that the rate of families giving consent for their loved ones’ organs to be donated has dropped – despite a change in the law in 2020 aimed at boosting the number of organs available, which means that consent for donation is now presumed after death.
    Professor Peter Friend, transplant lead for the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS), said decreasing donor rates are a “big challenge” and that it is concerning that the number of donations has not yet recovered to its pre-pandemic level.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 27 March 2023
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    The high-profile Australian neurosurgeon Charlie Teo admits making an error by going “too far” and damaging a patient, but maintains she was told of the risks.
    The doctor on Monday appeared at a medical disciplinary hearing to explain how two women patients ended up with catastrophic brain injuries.
    Teo also defended allegations that he acted inappropriately by slapping a patient in an attempt to rouse her after surgery, contrasting it with Will Smith’s notorious slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards last year.
    “It wakes them up and it wakes them up pretty quickly. And I will continue to do it.”
    Charlie Teo tells inquiry he ‘did the wrong thing’ in surgery that left patient in vegetative state
    One of the issues the panel of legal and medical experts is considering is whether the women and their families were adequately informed of the risks of surgery.
    Both women had terminal brain tumours and had been given from weeks to months to live. They were left in essentially vegetative states after the surgeries and died soon after.
    “We were told he could give us more time,” one of the husbands said, according to court documents. “There was never any information about not coming out of it".
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 27 March 2023
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    UK ministers should act to ensure Long Covid sufferers receive the support they need from employers, with as many as two-thirds claiming they have been unfairly treated at work, a report argues.
    The report, from the TUC and the charity Long Covid Support, warns that failing to accommodate the 2m people who, according to ONS data, may be suffering from long Covid in the UK will create, “new, long-lasting inequalities”.
    The analysis is based on responses from more than 3,000 long Covid sufferers who agreed to share their experiences.
    Two-thirds said they had experienced some form of unfair treatment at work, ranging from harassment to being disbelieved about their symptoms or threatened with disciplinary action. One in seven said they had lost their job.
    The report makes a series of recommendations, including urging the government to designate Long Covid as a disability for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act, to make clear sufferers are entitled to “reasonable adjustments” at work; and to classify Covid-19 as an occupational disease to allow people who contracted it through their job to seek compensation.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 27 March 2023
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    Plans for integrated care systems (ICSs) to be given Care Quality Commission (CQC) ratings are on hold, and no ratings will be issued until summer 2024 at the earliest, HSJ  understands. 
    The government had previously said ICSs would be given ratings – after pressure from Jeremy Hunt, then Commons health committee chair and now chancellor – and there was an expectation the process would begin next month. 
    However, while legislation says the CQC will review and assess ICSs, it does not require it to give ratings. 
    HSJ understands the Department of Health and Social Care supports the CQC beginning early work on assessing ICSs shortly, but does not plan to sign off on ratings being issued, nor set any date for that to happen. 
    It means that, at the very earliest, more detailed reviews leading to ratings could happen from spring/summer 2024. One source with knowledge of the decision said there was not strong support for ratings work to start, and the CQC still needed to do a lot of work to adapt its approach to ICSs. 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 27 March 2023
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