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Sam

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  1. Sam
    NHS organisations have been told to prepare for redeploying or dismissing thousands of unvaccinated staff without an exit payment, and to raise the alarm about services which may be rendered unsafe.
    NHS England today issued guidance on ‘phase two’ of the government’s “vaccination as a condition of deployment”, which requires all patient-facing staff to have had two covid vaccinations by 1 April. 
    Tens of thousands of staff are believed to still be unvaccinated, and the cut off for having a first dose is 3 February.
    The guidance said efforts should be made to adjust roles or redeploy staff, but added: “From 4 February 2022, staff who remain unvaccinated (excluding those who are exempt) should be invited to a formal meeting chaired by an appropriate manager, in which they are notified that a potential outcome of the meeting may be dismissal.”
    It continued: “Whilst organisations are encouraged to explore deployment, the general principles which apply in a redundancy exercise are not applicable here, and it is important that managers are aware of this.”
    Employers will “not be concerned with finding ‘suitable alternative employment’ and there will be no redundancy entitlements, including payments, whether statutory or contractual, triggered by this process”.
    Trusts also do not have to “collectively consult” with staff being dismissed — as they would with a restructure — although this is “ultimately a decision for each organisation to take”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 14 January 2022
  2. Sam
    NHS England has encouraged trusts to consider taking legal action against patients who refuse to leave hospital beds when step-down care is made available.
    NHSE guidance sent to trusts late last year, seen by HSJ, advised clinicians that where people “with mental capacity” refuse to vacate a bed because they do not accept NHS-funded short-term care offers, the “local discharge choice policy” should be followed, which could involve legal action.
    The guidance said the process “may include seeking an order for possession of the hospital bed” under civil law, and that “appropriate formal notification of the process must be given to the person and their representatives/carers”.
    These legal powers were open to trusts prior to covid, but the memo from NHSE comes amid increasing pressure on trusts to improve discharge rates, as waits for emergency and elective care continue to soar.
    Helen Hughes, chief executive of Patient Safety Learning, said: “Given the current pressures posed by covid, it is understandable that the NHS is seeking to ensure that the hospital discharge process is as swift and effective as possible.
    “However, hospital discharges are complex processes and can potentially result in avoidable harm if patients are discharged before they are clinically ready. It only takes one element of this complex process failing to put a patient’s safety at risk.
    “We would be particularly concerned if patients and their carers were put under pressure to accept potentially unsafe discharge options due to the threat of possible legal action by an NHS trust.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 14 January 2022
  3. Sam
    A nurse who was struck off for refusing to admit a woman to a mental health unit before she killed herself said 'leave her, she will faint before she dies' before he kicked her out of the facility.
    Paddy McKee allegedly made the comment as Sally Mays, 22 - who had mental health issues - tried to strangle herself when she was refused admission.
    Ms Mays killed herself at home in Hull in July 2014 after being refused a place at Miranda House in Hull by McKee and another nurse.
    Despite her being a suicide risk, they would not give her a place at the hospital after a 14-minute assessment.
    Her parents Angela and Andy have fought for several years for improvements to be made and lessons to be learnt from her death.
    McKee was this month struck off following a Fitness to Practice hearing conducted by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The report by the NMC was this week published and condemned McKee, saying 'he treated her in a way that lacked basic kindness and compassion'.
    The NMC found his actions to refuse Ms Mays' admission had contributed to her death.
    Read full story
    Source: Mail Online, 12 January 2022
  4. Sam
    Hospitals across Kent, Sussex and Surrey are being asked to discharge hundreds of patients who are well enough to leave by Friday.
    The head of NHS South East, Anne Eden, said the beds are needed to deal with an expected surge in admissions of people ill with the Omicron variant.
    The NHS nationally has agreed to a reduction of 30% of such patients based on the baseline figure of 13 December.
    South East hospitals are being asked to make a 50% reduction by 31 January.
    In a letter seen by the BBC, Ms Eden said: "This is in order to create the headroom to manage any further Covid pressures, with current modelling indicating a peak in Covid activity in mid-January."
    She wrote: "It is now critical that we redouble our efforts to discharge those patients who no longer require bedded care, to create capacity, improve flow and reduce the pressure on staff."
    Ms Eden said staff absences and the need to maintain delivery of critical care for patients mean the NHS "must continue to focus on creating the necessary capacity to meet demand".
    "Failure to do this will significantly increase the risk of a further rise in patient harm," she said.
    She said hospitals must work with partners, including social care providers, to achieve the reduction in the number of patients in hospital who were well enough to be discharged.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 January 2022
  5. Sam
    A health minister has asked NHS England to look into a stricken ambulance trust that is asking patients to get a lift to A&E.
    The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said staff should “consider asking the patient to be transported by friends or family.” See previous news story.
    NEAS medical director Dr Mathew Beattie said the service had “no option than to try to work differently” amid Covid staff shortages.
    However, Health Minister Gillian Keegan said she would ask NHS England to look into the situation.
    She told Sky News: "That is not what we have put in place at all. We have more ambulance crews in operation than we have ever had."
    “We also gave £55 million extra just for this period to cover staff and make sure we had increases in staff and staffing levels.
    "I've actually asked NHS England to look at that particular case because that doesn't sound to me like that's an acceptable approach.
    “People should be able to get an ambulance if they have a heart attack and that's why we've put that extra funding in place, and why we've been building up our ambulance service over the last couple of years."
    Read full story
    Source: Mirror, 5 January 2022
  6. Sam
    Lessons learnt in relation to increasing uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among ethnic minority groups should now be applied to the booster programme, a government progress report recommends.
    This includes continuing to use respected local voices to build trust and to help tackle misinformation, the report from the government’s Race Disparity Unit says. Such approaches should also be carried over to the winter flu and childhood immunisation programmes and be applied to the work to tackle longer standing health disparities.
    In June 2020 the minister for equalities was asked to look at why COVID-19 was having a disproportionate impact on ethnic minority groups and to consider how the government response to this could be improved. This latest report is the final one of four.
    Taken together the reports identified that the main factors behind the higher risk of COVIDd-19 infection for ethnic minority groups include occupation, living in multigenerational households, and living in densely populated urban areas with poor air quality and high levels of deprivations.
    Read full story
    Source: BMJ, 3 December 2021
  7. Sam
    A hospital trust has been told to "immediately improve" its maternity and surgical services.
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) made unannounced inspections in September and October at four of the hospitals run by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.
    Inspectors raised concerns about staff shortages, skills training and risk management.
    At the trust's four maternity services, inspectors found departments "did not have enough staff to keep women and babies safe" and staff were "not up to date" with training.
    Infection prevention measures in surgical services at the Royal Sussex County Hospital were "not consistently applied" and managers were not running services well, inspectors noted.
    The report also said morale was low and often staff "did not have time to report incidents".
    The trust said it has taken "urgent action" to make improvements.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 December 2021
  8. Sam
    NHS bosses have warned the high prevalence of long Covid among staff is adding to rising healthcare pressures, amid growing concern that the new omicron variant could further drive infections and absences in the workforce.
    Some 40,000 (3.26%) of healthcare workers in the UK are estimated to have long Covid, according to the Office for National Statistics. This figure has risen by 5,000 since July.
    Many will be unable to work, though others are continuing to work despite their debilitating symptoms, experts say.
    “Trust leaders have told us they are concerned about the prevalence of long Covid amongst health and care staff,” said Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers.
    “Staff who are unwell need time to recover with support. But this may worsen unavoidable absences and sickness levels in the NHS at a time when pressures on the health service are mounting.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 9 December 2021
  9. Sam
    A trust will not face a second prosecution over the death of a baby seven days after a chaotic birth at one of its hospitals, unless new evidence emerges.
    Kent police had been looking into incidents at the maternity services department of East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust. These incidents include the death of Harry Richford, who was born at Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Hospital in November 2017. A coroner found a string of failures in his care amounted to neglect.
    The trust pleaded guilty to failing to meet fundamental standards of care and was fined £733,000 in a case brought by the Care Quality Commission earlier this year.
    But detective chief superintendent Paul Fotheringham, head of major crime at Kent Police, said: “After careful consideration and following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, we took the decision that a criminal investigation would not be undertaken at this time as there is no realistic prospect of conviction against any individual or organisation based on the evidence currently available."
    In a statement, Harry’s family said: “We are disappointed that Kent Police, in collaboration with the CPS special crime unit in London, have not been able to take forward a charge of corporate manslaughter for Harry at this time. They have assured us that they will keep an open mind on this matter, and any other appropriate charges as and when new evidence is brought before them.
    “We believe that the Kirkup inquiry and investigation may allow them to revisit a raft of charges on behalf of harmed babies in east Kent in due course. Only when senior leaders are properly held to account, will there be lasting change.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 9 December 2021
  10. Sam
    Incidents including a cardiac arrest where an ambulance took more than an hour to arrive and the patient died have prompted trust chiefs to suggest they cannot prevent patient harm under their current funding levels.
    A report to the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said patients suffering harm due to delayed ambulance response times “is a continuing theme due to the unprecedented demand the service is currently experiencing”.
    The report said the trust is trying to secure additional funding from commissioners, which would “reduce the likelihood of a similar incident for other patients in future”.
    NEAS has upheld several recent complaints made by families or patients about the harm being caused by delayed response times, but suggested the levels of demand on the service meant there was nothing it could have done differently.
    In one example, a woman in her 50s died from a cardiac arrest shortly after arrival to hospital after NEAS took 62 minutes to respond to a 999 call. NEAS had designated the woman, who had a history of heart attacks, a category two response – which should aim to arrive within 18 minutes on average.
    "All ambulance trusts have been seeing significant patient harm and the mainstream press have been strangely silent about this."
    "That it has got the stage where patients are routinely dying and being harmed while the resources are available, but tied up waiting outside hospitals, is truly maladministration on a grand scale."
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 9 December 2021
  11. Sam
    Vacancies for nurses and midwives in Scotland have increased by almost 20% in just three months, new figures show.
    Official figures revealed that at the end of September the whole time equivalent (WTE) of 5,761.2 posts were unfilled across the NHS – a rise of 18.9% from the WTE total of 4,845.4 that was recorded at the end of June.
    The rise in vacancies comes at the same time as health service staffing reached a record high, with the NHS employing the equivalent of 154,307.8 full-time workers as of September 30 – 5.2% higher than a year ago.
    However, opposition leaders warned the health service, which is coming under ongoing pressure as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, is facing a “staffing crisis” this winter.
    Scottish Labour health spokeswoman and deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “Across our NHS services are on the brink of collapse, and things will only get worse as the cold weather bites.
    “This staffing crisis at the heart of this catastrophe has unfolded entirely on Nicola Sturgeon’s watch and will jeopardise the ability of services to remobilise and cope with demand.
    “Looking at the state of services in Scotland, we can all only hope we don’t get sick this winter.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 8 December 2021
  12. Sam
    "You hear his heartbeat and the next thing you know, you've got nothing."
    A woman whose son was stillborn has said she wants to change the law to enable an inquest to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.
    Katie Wood's son Oscar was stillborn on 29 March 2015, but under law in England and Wales, inquests for stillborn babies cannot take place.
    A consultation was put out by the UK government in March 2019, but the findings have yet to be published. The UK government said it would set out its response in due course, but this delay was criticised by the House of Commons justice committee in September.
    Katie and her family said they have never received satisfactory answers about why Oscar died.
    Her pregnancy, while challenging, had not given any serious cause for concern.
    An investigation by the Aneurin Bevan health board found a number of failings in Katie's care.
    A post-mortem examination suggested a condition known as shoulder dystocia, where the baby's shoulder becomes stuck during birth, may have contributed, but this is rarely fatal.
    The health board said it conducted a serious incident investigation into Oscar's death and added: "Whilst we seek to find answers during any investigation, in some cases, a full understanding around the cause of death may not always be achieved and we accept the unavoidable distress this may pose for families."
    Clinical negligence and medical law specialist, Mari Rosser, says allowing coroners to look into the reasons for a baby's death is long overdue.
    "Currently parents who suffer a still birth can have the circumstances investigated, but the circumstances are investigated by the health board and of course that's less independent," she said.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 9 December 2021
  13. Sam
    Health experts have expressed fears over the impact tighter Covid restrictions in England could have on cancer patients as alarming new figures reveal that the number taking part in clinical trials plummeted by almost 60% during the pandemic.
    Almost 40,000 cancer patients in England were “robbed” of the chance to take part in life-saving trials during the first year of the coronavirus crisis, according to a report by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), which said COVID-19 had compounded longstanding issues of trial funding, regulation and access.
    Figures obtained from the National Institute for Health Research by the ICR show that the number of patients recruited on to clinical trials for cancer in England fell to 27,734 in 2020-21, down 59% from an average of 67,057 over the three years previously. The number of patients recruited for trials fell for almost every type of cancer analysed.
    Health experts said the relentless impact of Covid on the ability of doctors and scientists to run clinical trials was denying many thousands of cancer patients access to the latest treatment options and delaying the development of cutting-edge drugs.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 9 December 2021
  14. Sam
    A vulnerable man detained for 10 years was failed by a system meant to care for him, an independent NHS investigation has found.
    Clive Treacey, a man who lived his life in the care of NHS and social care authorities, experienced an “unacceptably poor quality of life”, and was not kept safe from harm before his death at just 47.
    The findings of the independent review, The Independent and Sky News can reveal, have concluded Mr Treacey’s death was “potentially avoidable” and comes after years of his family “fought” for answers.
    His family are now pursuing a second inquest into his death after the review found a pathologist report and post-mortem used by coroners did not follow guidelines, along with new CCTV footage from the night he died.
    NHS England commissioned the review, under the Learning Disability Mortality Review Programme, in January 2020 – three years after Mr Treacey’s death and after his family was initially denied a review.
    In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Mr Treacey’s sister, Elaine Clark said: “We have fought on because Clive deserved nothing less. He spent his entire life being incarcerated and so did we, his entire family. He didn’t matter. His voice didn’t matter. His human rights didn’t matter. His life choices didn’t matter. The system and its people believed he did not matter and nobody in it had enough ambition to do anything differently."
    “Well Clive did matter. It matters what happened to him. It matters that it’s still happening to other people. And it matters that nothing seems to be changing we are one family but there are many others like us.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 9 December 2021
  15. Sam
    Around 80% of adolescents who died by suicide or who had self-harmed had consulted with their GP or a practice nurse in the preceding year, shows new research.
    The large study of 10 to 19-year-olds between 2003 and 2018, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, also puts forward a series of proposals to deal with the problem.
    The study, funded by the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (NIHR GM PSTRC), a partnership between The University of Manchester and The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA).
    It showed that 85% who later took their own lives consulted with their GP or a practice nurse at least once in the preceding year; the equivalent figure was 75% for those youngsters who harmed themselves non-fatally.
    Lower than expected rates of diagnosis of psychiatric illness, around a third in both groups, were probably down to a lack of contact with mental health services, rather than an absence of psychiatric illness, argue the research team. Depression was by far the commonest of the examined conditions among both groups, accounting for over 54% of all recorded diagnoses.
    Also, while suicide was more common in boys, non-fatal self-harm was more common in girls. Two-thirds of adolescents who died by suicide had a history of non-fatal self-harm.
    And while self-harm risk rose incrementally with increasing levels of deprivation, suicide risk did not.
    Read full story
    Source: The University of Manchester, 7 December 2021
  16. Sam
    Three pharmacy and medication safety organisations are warning clinicians about a reported increase in age-related COVID-19 vaccine mix-ups.
    The Institute for Safe Medication Practice's National Vaccine Errors Reporting Program said it's seen a "steady stream" of mix-ups involving the Pfizer vaccine intended for kids ages 5-11 and formulations for people 12 and older. ISMP said the reports involved hundreds of children and included young children receiving formulations meant for those 12 and up or vice versa.

    The safety organisation said some errors were linked to vial or syringe mix-ups. In other situations, healthcare providers gave young children a smaller or diluted dose of the formulation meant for people 12 and up.
    "Vaccine vials formulated for individuals 12 and up (purple cap) should never be used to prepare doses for the younger age group," the organisation said.
    Read full story
    Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 7 December 2021
  17. Sam
    A young NHS patient suffering a sickle cell crisis called 999 from his hospital bed to request oxygen, an inquest into his death was told.
    Evan Nathan Smith, 21, died on 25 April 2019 at North Middlesex Hospital, in Edmonton, north London, after suffering from sepsis following a procedure to remove a gallbladder stent.
    The inquest heard Smith told his family he called the London Ambulance Service because he thought it was the only way to get the help he needed.
    Nursing staff told Smith he did not need oxygen when he requested it in the early hours of 23 April, despite a doctor telling the inquest he had “impressed” on the nurses he should have it.
    Smith’s sepsis is thought to have triggered the sickle cell crisis – a condition that causes acute pain as blood vessels to certain parts of the body become blocked.
    Barnet Coroner's Court heard Smith, from Walthamstow in east London, might have survived if he had been offered a blood transfusion sooner but the hospital’s haematology team were not told he had been admitted.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 3 April 2021
  18. Sam
    The first new sickle-cell treatment in 20 years will help keep thousands of people out of hospital over the next three years, NHS England has said.
    Sickle-cell disease is incurable and affects 15,000 people in the UK.
    And the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said the hope of reducing health inequalities for black people, who are predominantly affected and often have poorer health to start with, made the drug worth recommending.
    It called it "an innovative treatment".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 5 October 2021
  19. Sam
    Dying patients are going without care in their own homes because of a collapse in community nursing services, new data shared with The Independent reveals.
    Across England a third of district nurses say they are now being forced to delay visits to end of life care patients because of surging demand and a lack of staff. This is up from just 2% in 2015. The situation means some patients may have to wait for essential care and pain medication to keep them comfortable.
    Other care being delayed includes patients with pressure ulcers, wounds which need treating and patients needing blocked catheters replaced.
    More than half of district nurses said they no longer have the capacity to do patient assessments and psychological care, in an investigation into the service.
    Professor Alison Leary, director of the International Community Nursing Observatory, said her study showed the country was “sleepwalking into a disaster,” with patients at real risk of harm.
    She said the situation was now so bad that nurses were being driven out of their jobs by what she called the “moral distress” they were suffering at not being able to provide the care they knew they should.
    “People are at the end of their tether. District nurses are reporting having to defer work much more often than they did two years ago. What they are telling us is that the workload is too high. This is care that people don’t have time to do.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 29 November 2021
  20. Sam
    Plans to scrap tens of millions of “unnecessary” hospital follow-up appointments could put patients at risk and add to the overload at GP surgeries, NHS leaders and doctors are warning.
    Health service leaders in England are finalising a radical plan under which hospital consultants will undertake far fewer outpatient appointments and instead perform more surgery to help cut the NHS backlog and long waits for care that many patients experience.
    The move is contained in the “elective recovery plan” which Sajid Javid, the health secretary, will unveil next week. It will contain what one NHS boss called “transformative ideas” to tackle the backlog. Thanks to Covid the waiting list has spiralled to a record 5.8 million people and Javid has warned that it could hit as many as 13 million.
    Under the plan patients who have spent time in hospital would be offered only one follow-up consultation in the year after their treatment rather than the two, three or four many get now.
    “While it is important that immediate action is taken to tackle the largest ever backlog of care these short-term proposals by the health secretary have the potential to present significant challenges for patients and seek to worsen health disparities across the country,” said Dr David Wrigley, the deputy chair of council at the British Medical Association.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 25 November 2021
  21. Sam
    One hundred people with learning disabilities and autism in England have been held in specialist hospitals for at least 20 years, the BBC has learned.
    The finding was made during an investigation into the case of an autistic man detained since 2001. Tony Hickmott's parents are fighting to get him housed in the community near them.
    Mr Hickmott's case is being heard at the Court of Protection - which makes decisions on financial or welfare matters for people who "lack mental capacity".
    Senior Judge Carolyn Hilder has described "egregious" delays and "glacial" progress in finding him the right care package which would enable him to live in the community. He lives in a secure Assessment and Treatment Unit (ATU) - designed to be a short-term safe space used in a crisis. It is a two-hours' drive from his family.
    This week, Judge Hilder lifted the anonymity order on Mr Hickmott's case - ruling it was in the public interest to let details be reported. She said he had been "detained for so long" partly down to a "lack of resources".
    Like many young autistic people with a learning disability, Mr Hickmott struggled as he grew into an adult. In 2001, he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He is now 44.
    In addition to the 100 patients, including Mr Hickmott, who have been held for more than 20 years - there are currently nearly 2,000 other people with learning difficulties and/or autism detained in specialist hospitals across England.
    In 2015, the Government promised "homes not hospitals" when it launched its Transforming Care programme in the wake of the abuse and neglect scandal uncovered by the BBC at Winterbourne View specialist hospital near Bristol. But data shows the programme has had minimal impact.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 24 November 2021
  22. Sam
    Wales' Health Minister has rejected a suggestion that the NHS is “harming patients” due to the severe levels of pressure on its services. 
    Eluned Morgan MS acknowledged that the speed at which patients were receiving treatment was being impacted but said she would “not accept for a moment” that the NHS was harming its patients.
    ITV Cymru Wales has spoken to a number of NHS staff and health sector bodies and heard concerns over the sustainability of the health service in its present form.
    Ms Morgan said: “I don’t think the NHS is harming patients, no.
    “I think our ability to get to patients quickly, that is perhaps compromised by the pressures that we’re under at the moment but no, I would not accept for a moment that the NHS is harming patients. 
    “I think the situation is that maybe people have to wait a bit longer for care because of the pressures that have grown as a result of the pandemic and let’s be clear about that, that we’re seeing about 20% more people going to their GPs, we’ve got hugely long waiting lists because, of course, we had to be very careful about who was able to go into hospitals during the height of the pandemic. 
    “We’re trying to reign all that back at the same time as dealing with Covid, because that hasn’t finished yet.”
    Speaking to ITV Cymru Wales for Wales This Week, looking at the challenges facing the NHS, Dr Pete Williams, a consultant in emergency medicine and paediatric medicine at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor, said he felt the current pressures on services were causing harm to patients. 
    He said: “This is not sustainable. We, this department, other departments around the country and the wider NHS, are harming patients because they’re not getting timely care."
    Read full story
    Source: ITV News, 22 November 2021
     
     
  23. Sam
    Researchers have launched a major clinical trial investigating whether people on long-term immune-suppressing medicines can mount a more robust immune response to COVID-19 booster jabs by interrupting their treatment.
    The VROOM trial will have implications for people on immune-suppressing medicines, who are among the millions of clinically vulnerable patients advised to ‘shield’ during the pandemic. The study is funded by an NIHR and the Medical Research Council (MRC) partnership, and led by a team at the University of Nottingham.
    Approximately 1.3 million people in the UK are prescribed the immune-suppressing drug methotrexate for inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, and skin conditions such as psoriasis. Many of them were among the 2.2 million clinically extremely vulnerable people advised to shield during the first phase of the pandemic, depending on specialist advice and on their risk factors.
    While methotrexate is effective at controlling these conditions and has emerged as first line therapy for many illnesses, it reduces the body’s ability to generate robust responses to flu and pneumonia vaccines.
    Researchers will recruit 560 patients currently taking methotrexate, to investigate whether taking a two week break in this drug immediately after they receive the COVID-19 booster jab improves their immune response to vaccination, while preventing flare-ups of their long-term illness. The study will take between one to two years to complete. All participants will have had the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as their third jab, as part of the national vaccination programme against COVID-19.
    Professor Andy Ustianowski, NIHR Clinical Lead for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme and Joint National Infection Specialty Lead, said: “Although the vaccine rollout has saved many lives and helped drive down the effects of the pandemic, there are still groups of vulnerable people who can’t always mount robust immunity against the virus. "
    “It’s important to establish if people can safely improve protection from their booster jabs by taking a break from their immune-supressing medicines, and this pivotal study will help develop our understanding of immune responses in people taking this widely prescribed medicine."
    Read full story
    Source: NIHR, 12 November 2021
  24. Sam
    When 60-year-old Milind Ketkar returned home after spending nearly a month in hospital battling COVID-19, he thought the worst was over.
    People had to carry him to his third-floor flat as his building didn't have a lift. He spent the next few days feeling constantly breathless and weak. When he didn't start to feel better, he contacted Dr Lancelot Pinto at Mumbai's PD Hinduja hospital, where he had been treated.
    Dr Pinto told him inflammation in the lungs, caused by Covid-19, had given him deep vein thrombosis - it occurs when blood clots form in the body and it often happens in the legs.
    Fragments can break off and move up the body into the lungs, blocking blood vessels and, said Dr Pinto, this can be life-threatening if not diagnosed and treated in time.
    Mr Ketkar spent the next month confined to his flat, taking tablets for his condition. "I was not able to move much. My legs constantly hurt and I struggled to do even daily chores. It was a nightmare," he says.
    He is still on medication, but he says he is on the road to recovery.
    Mr Ketkar is not alone in this - tens of thousands of people have been reporting post-Covid health complications from across the world. Thrombosis is common - it has been found in 30% of seriously ill coronavirus patients, according to experts. These problems have been generally described as "long Covid" or "long-haul Covid".
    Awareness around post-Covid care is crucial, but its not the focus in India because the country is still struggling to control the spread of the virus. It has the world's second-highest caseload and has been averaging 90,000 cases daily in recent weeks.
    Dr Natalie Lambert, research professor of medicine at Indiana University in the US, was one of the early voices to warn against post-Covid complications.
    She surveyed thousands of people on social media and noticed that an alarmingly high number of them were complaining about post-Covid complications such as extreme fatigue, breathlessness and even hair loss.
    The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in the US reported its own survey results a few weeks later and acknowledged that at least 35% of those surveyed had not returned to their usual state of health.
    Post-Covid complications are more common among those who were seriously ill, but Dr Lambert says an increasing number of moderately ill patients - even those who didn't need to be admitted to hospital - haven't recovered fully.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 28 September 2020
  25. Sam
    Pakistanis and Bangladeshis over the age of 30 experience the same level of poor health as their white counterparts that are 20 years older.
    Those from the subcontinent face stark ethnic health inequalities across the population, according to a new study.
    It means the group has the worst health out of any ethnicity.
    London-based Aideen Young, Senior Evidence Manager at the Centre for Ageing Better, has called on the Government to do more to address these inequalities.
    She said: “This study reveals really shocking health inequalities between different ethnic groups, with some groups experiencing the rates of poor health that White people typically see at much older ages.
    “It’s also depressing to see that these inequalities haven’t changed for the last 25 years. In the wake of the pandemic, we risk seeing them widen – so it’s vital that government makes tackling health inequality a priority in the recovery.
    “To properly address the problem we need much better data, which is why we are calling for ethnicity data reporting to be mandatory for all official data monitoring.
    Read full story
    Source: My London, 11 November 2021
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