Jump to content
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,282

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Sam

Administrators

 Content Type 

News posted by Sam

  1. Sam
    Police forces will be able to “strong-arm” NHS bodies into handing over confidential patient data under planned laws that have sparked fury from doctors’ groups and the UK’s medical watchdog.
    Ministers are planning new powers for police forces that would “set aside” the existing duty of confidentiality that applies to patient data held by the NHS and will instead require NHS organisations to hand over data police say they need to prevent serious violence.
    Last week, England’s national data guardian, Dr Nicola Byrne, told The Independent she had serious concerns about the impact of the legislation going through parliament, and warned that the case for introducing the sweeping powers had not been made.
    Now the UK’s medical watchdog, the General Medical Council (GMC), has also criticised the new law, proposals for which are contained in the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill, warning it fails to protect patients’ sensitive information and could disproportionately hit some groups and worsen inequalities.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 18 October 2021
  2. Sam
    Some acute trusts have failed to report large numbers of hospital-acquired covid infections as patient safety incidents, despite NHS England describing this as ‘fundamental’. 
    HSJ examined the numbers of “infection control” patient safety incidents reported to the national reporting and learning system in 2020-21, and compared this to separate NHS England data on covid infections most likely to have been acquired in hospital.
    The number of incidents reported to the NRLS in the 12-month period should in theory be higher, as it covers all types of hospital-acquired infections, while the NHSE data only covered covid infections in the last seven months of the year. 
    This appears to hold true nationally, with almost 59,000 incidents reported to the NRLS, compared to around 36,000 likely hospital-acquired covid infections suggested by the NHSE data. But for around a third of trusts, the incident numbers reported to the NRLS were smaller, with some appearing to report very low numbers.
    Helen Hughes, chief executive of patient safety charity Patient Safety Learning, said: “The scale of the under-reporting set out in these findings is particularly concerning.”
    “As this data informs assessment of performance at both organisational and national levels, it is possible that this could create a false assurance about the extent of harm in this period,” Ms Hughes said.
    “Where organisations are now retrospectively completing serious incident reports, there are obvious questions as to whether key insights will have been lost as memories of incidents fade over time and their causes.”
    “However, they rely on the capacity and commitment of staff behind them. The pandemic has placed an enormous strain on the health service and we have heard from staff the time constraints this has put on them to report patient safety incidents,” she added. 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 15 October 2021
  3. Sam
    A new study by Staffordshire University shows that people who understand their ‘heart age’ are more likely to make healthy lifestyle changes.
    50 preventable deaths from heart attack or stroke happen every day and Public Health England’s online Heart Age Test (HAT) allows users to compare their real age to the predicted age of their heart.
    The tool aims to provide early warning signs of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, encouraging members of the public to reduce their heart age through diet and exercise and to take up the offer of an NHS Health Check.
    CHAD Research Associate Dr Victoria Riley, who led the study, said: “Deaths from heart attack or stroke are often preventable and so addressing health issues early is incredibly important. Our findings show that pre-screening tests, such as the HAT, can encourage individuals to evaluate their lifestyle choices and increase their intentions to change behaviour.”
    Read full story
    Source: Brigher Side of News, 10 October 2021
  4. Sam
    Dr Katherine Henderson, a senior A&E consultant in London and President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, says physical and verbal attacks have increased in recent months.
    Speaking to the Guardian, she says: “It is a sad reality that in recent months there has been a rise in abuse directed towards healthcare workers, but this abuse is not something new to frontline staff or emergency departments. It was bad before the pandemic, but there’s a changed atmosphere now.
    “During the pandemic people were being very positive about healthcare workers. But now the public are frustrated that services aren’t getting back to normal. Maybe people who weren’t the source of abuse before are now being the source of abuse. Abuse may be physical or verbal, it may be through social media, or it may be racial or misogynistic.
    “People are being angry – very angry – with us. They are angry about long waits, about having to stand outside emergency departments in queues, about delays in ambulances coming, including to take their relative home from hospital. The public haven’t really caught up with how struggling the whole NHS is."
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2021
  5. Sam
    An adoptive mother is calling for the NHS to improve its diagnosis for children exposed to alcohol in the womb, so their families can be helped.
    Amanda Boorman's two sons have Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) but they were not diagnosed correctly. She said: "This is a brain and body condition that is lifelong so really the professionals need to step up."
    Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) covers the various health and mental issues which can affect children.
    A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said: "We are committed to reducing future cases of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and we have asked NICE [National Institute for Healthcare Excellence] to produce a Quality Standard in England for FASD to help the health and care system improve diagnosis and care of those affected.
    "We have also published England's first Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Health Needs Assessment to improve the lives of families living with it and increase understanding amongst clinicians and policy makers."
    Mrs Boorman, from Brent Knoll in Somerset, said: "There's no way an adoptive parent should ever have to go to a chief executive of a hospital and say 'what is your strategy for diagnosing FASD?' What needs to happen is that clinical commissioning groups, the boards of those, chief executives in hospitals, directors of children's services, social care and education need to be much more proactive."
    "What we've seen is reactive or just not really knowing - it's complete ignorance."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News. 7 October 2021
     
  6. Sam
    One of the largest hospital trusts in England has been downgraded by the care watchdog amid safety fears and criticism that bosses did not act on staff concerns.
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it found bedpans covered in faeces, urine and hair during 10 visits to wards at University Hospitals Birmingham Trust in June.
    Staff in A&E told inspectors they were put under pressure to nurse patients in corridors. At one stage 20 ambulances were queuing outside Heartlands Hospital with patients waiting outside.
    The CQC said staff felt “disconnected from leaders” who didn’t show an understanding of the pressures they were under.
    Consultants to the regulator staff were experiencing fatigue and they felt executives at the trust “were no longer interested in staff welfare”.
    In its inspection report, the CQC said staff did not always clean equipment and said labels for when items were last cleaned were being applied incorrectly.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 8 October 2021
  7. Sam
    Continuity of care in general practice reduces use of out-of-hours care, acute hospitalisations and mortality, researchers have shown - as GP leaders warned staff shortages and heavy workload means it is becoming harder to deliver in the UK.
    Long-lasting personal continuity with a GP is 'strongly associated with reduced need for out-of-hours services, acute hospitalisations, and mortality', according to a study by researchers in Norway.
    An association lasting more than 15 years between a patient and a specific GP reduces the probability of any of these factors by 25-30%, the study published in the British Journal of General Practice found.
    The researchers said 'promoting stability among GPs' should be a priority for health authorities, and warned that continuity of care was under pressure.
    The findings come as general practice in the UK faces intense pressure amid a shortage of GPs and intense workload after more than 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Responding to the findings, RCGP chair Professor Martin Marshall said: "Continuity of care is highly valued by patients and GPs and our teams alike. It is what allows us to build relationships with our patients, often over time, and this study builds the strong evidence base of its benefits for patients and the NHS."
    Read full story
    Source: GP Online, 4 October 2021
  8. Sam
    Flu deaths could be the worst for 50 years because of lockdowns and social distancing, health chiefs have warned, as the NHS launches the biggest ever flu vaccination drive.
    More than 35 million people will be offered flu jabs this winter, amid concern that prolonged restrictions on social contact have left Britain with little immunity.
    Officials fear that this winter could see up to 60,000 flu deaths – the worst figure in Britain since the 1968 Hong Kong Flu pandemic – without strong uptake of vaccines.
    There is also concern about the effectiveness of this year’s jabs, because the lack of flu last year made it harder for scientists to sample the virus and predict the dominant strains.
    Health chiefs said the measures introduced over the past 18 months to protect the country against coronavirus would now put the public at greater risk of flu.
    The NHS has already begun the rollout of flu jabs and COVID-19 boosters. Health chiefs will urge everyone eligible to take up their chance, with the launch of a major campaign today to drive take-up.
    Read full story
    Source: The Telegraph, 8 October 2021
  9. Sam
    More than one in ten secondary school pupils and over a third of school staff who had COVID-19 have suffered ongoing symptoms, figures suggest.
    The most common symptom reported by staff and pupils was weakness/tiredness, while staff were more likely to experience shortness of breath than pupils, according to a small study of schools in England.
    The survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that about 35.7% of staff and 12.3% of secondary school pupils with a previously confirmed Covid-19 infection reported experiencing ongoing symptoms more than four weeks from the start of the infection.
    Among those experiencing ongoing symptoms, 15.5% of staff and 9.4% of secondary school pupils said their ability to carry out day-to-day activities had been significantly reduced.
    Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “This survey data reveals the largely hidden long-term effects of Covid on both students and school and college staff.
    Read full story
    Source: Wales Online, 28 September 2021
  10. Sam
    Sajid Javid has said medical device manufacturers should check their products work well for people of all ethnic backgrounds, citing problems that those with dark skin have experienced when using pulse oximeters.
    Several studies have found oximeters are not as good at identifying hypoxia in people with darker skin. The devices have been widely used during the covid pandemic to monitor people at risk of deteriorating at home. They are meant to trigger a response when needed. Official guidance was updated this summer to encourage caution in their use. 
    The health and social care secretary has identified health inequalities as one of his priorities. He gave the issue as an example of racial bias in healthcare when speaking at the Conservative party conference on Tuesday evening.
    He said: “It turned out that pulse oximeters, all of them that exist in the world, were giving often the wrong reading for people with dark skin, because they were designed by companies where basically all they were thinking about were white people. Why is that? Because the companies, their market was white countries with a majority of white people.”
    Mr Javid, who has a British Pakistani background, continued: “They just weren’t thinking whether these things could work on people with a skin colour like mine or just darker skin, and that’s not right.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 6 October 2021
  11. Sam
    GPs are failing to urgently refer patients with “red flag” signs of suspected cancer to a specialist, research suggests.
    Six out of 10 patients in England with key symptoms indicating possible cancer did not receive an urgent referral for specialist assessment within two weeks, as recommended in clinical guidelines, according to a new study.
    Nearly 4% of these patients were subsequently diagnosed with cancer within the next 12 months. The findings were published in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety.
    In the study, researchers analysed records from almost 49,000 patients who consulted their GP with one of the warning signs for cancer that should warrant referral under clinical guidelines. Of the 29,045 patients not referred, 1,047 developed cancer within a year (3.6%).
    Early diagnosis and prompt treatment is crucial to survival chances. Every four-week delay in cancer treatment increases the risk of death by 10%.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 5 October 2021
  12. Sam
    The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) outgoing chief inspector of hospitals has called on integrated care system leaders to be ‘courageous’ in putting quality first.
    Speaking at the HSJ’s Patient Safety Congress, Ted Baker implored ICS leaders to not focus solely on financial and operational targets, although he also acknowledged “there is a lot of pressure to meet [those] targets”.
    In his speech yesterday, he said: “It’s often taken really courageous leaders to put quality first ahead of financial targets and operational targets… You have to be courageous to do that and I think some of the leaders of the ICSs, they need to be that courageous.
    “They need to focus on quality and safety within an [ICS] and not, if you like, go down the kind of NHS path of focusing on financial and operational targets.
    “If we can do that, we can have a really transformative effect on integrated care across [the] system. I suppose that’s what I’m asking for: courage from all of us to tackle some of the cultural issues in the NHS."
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 22 September 2021
  13. Sam
    The health service ombudsman has warned he will ‘be in no position to investigate’ the behaviour of another watchdog under the government’s health service reforms.
    Rob Behrens, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said plans to create a “closed safe space” for the information provided by clinicians to the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) will mean a reduction in his powers and he will not be able to hold HSIB to account.
    Mr Behrens, speaking at HSJ’s Patient Safety Congress, said that although coroners would be able to access information gathered by HSIB investigations under the reforms, the ombudsman would not be able to access this “safe space” without the permission of the High Court.
    The reforms would see HSIB become a new statutory independent organisation, the Health Service Safety Investigations Body, and prohibit the disclosure of “protected material” such as information or documents obtained during investigations.
    However, this prohibition of disclosure would not apply to information required by coroners, ordered by the High Court or necessary to investigate an offence or address a “serious and continuing” safety risk to a patient or the public.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 22 September 2021
  14. Sam
    A major acute trust in the East Midlands has been forced to restrict how much chemotherapy it is able to offer due to staff shortages.
    Nottingham University Hospitals Trust confirmed in a statement its chemotherapy service has been affected by long-term staff sickness and staff vacancies. 
    A trust spokeswoman said: “We continue to provide chemotherapy to patients who benefit most from the treatment and the small number of patients affected have been contacted directly by their specialist cancer team and offered support.”
    She added: “We are recruiting to posts as well as working with neighbouring NHS and private providers to ensure that any delays are minimal.”
    The trust added all its patient care decisions adhered to national guidance aimed at helping chemotherapy centres categorise and prioritise treatments when these situations arise.
    The Nottingham Post first reported the difficulties facing the trust, suggesting the restrictions would specifically affect palliative care patients who receive chemotherapy at NUH’s City Hospital site.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 23 September 2021
  15. Sam
    Scotland's Health Secretary Humza Yousaf says the NHS is facing the "biggest crisis" of its existence.
    There's a shortage of beds, the demand for ambulances is soaring and waits in accident and emergency departments are getting longer.
    On top of that, COVID-19 admissions have been rising fast as the number of infections in Scotland spiralled at the end of the summer.
    BBC News share five charts illustrating the enormous pressures currently being felt by NHS Scotland.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 23 September 2021
  16. Sam
    Record numbers of children and young people are seeking access to NHS mental health services, figures show, as the devastating toll of the pandemic is revealed in a new analysis.
    In just three months, nearly 200,000 young people have been referred to mental health services – almost double pre-pandemic levels, according to the report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
    Experts say the figures show the true scale of the impact of the last 18 months on children and young people across the country.
    “These alarming figures reflect what I and many other frontline psychiatrists are seeing in our clinics on a daily basis,” said Dr Elaine Lockhart, the college’s child and adolescent faculty chair. “The pandemic has had a devastating effect on the nation’s mental health, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that children and young people are suffering terribly.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 23 September 2021
  17. Sam
    A woman with stage 4 endometriosis said she was told she needed to "be more positive" before her diagnosis - despite heavy blood loss and pain.
    Anna Cooper, from Newbridge, Wrexham, started her periods at 11 and by the time she turned 14, her mother was pushing for a referral.
    Since then she has had 13 surgeries, with a 14th due in the coming months.
    She said: "It is not taken seriously enough. It seems to be that we are just not being heard at the minute."
    Watch video
    Source: BBC News, 9 September 2021
  18. Sam
    A catalogue of failures among prison and health professionals has been highlighted in an investigation report into the death of a teenager’s baby after she gave birth alone in her cell at the largest women’s prison in Europe.
    The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman published the devastating report into the events in September 2019 at HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Middlesex on Wednesday. The case was first revealed by the Guardian and the baby’s death triggered 11 separate inquiries.
    The report details a disturbing series of events that culminated with the young woman, who cannot be named, being in “constant pain” on the night of 26 September and eventually passing out while giving birth.
    According to the report the teenager "appeared to have been regarded as difficult and having a ‘bad attitude’ rather than as a vulnerable 18-year-old, frightened that her baby would be taken away”. Failings included:
    There was confusion among different health professionals about her due date. The day before her baby was born she told a prison nurse she would kill herself or someone else if the baby was taken away from her, but this information was not adequately shared. On 26 September she was put on extended observation, meaning she should have been regularly checked but this did not happen. She rang the bell twice at 8.07pm and 8.32pm that day. A call was connected then immediately disconnected at 8.45pm. She did not press the bell again. Checks by prison officers at 9.27pm and 4.19am revealed “nothing untoward”. It was left to two prisoners to alert staff to the fact that there was blood in her cell at 8.21am on 27 September. Prisons and Probation ombudsman Sue McAllister said: “Ms A gave birth alone in her cell overnight without medical assistance. This should never have happened. Overall, the healthcare offered to Ms A in Bronzefield was not equivalent to that she could have expected in the community.”
    The publication of the report has triggered multiple calls for an end to the imprisonment of pregnant women from the Royal College of Midwives, NGOs and academics in the field. 
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 22 September 2021
  19. Sam
    Consultants at a major tertiary centre have written to their chief executive, warning services are in ‘an extremely unsafe situation’ and calling for elective work to be diverted elsewhere.
    Surgeons and anaesthetists at the former Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust — now part of University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust — said: “We are devastated to report that the care we aspire to is not being provided at UHS… we are forced to contemplate that it is not safe to be open as a trauma tertiary centre and we feel elective activity must be proactively diverted elsewhere.”
    The letter from BSUH’s anaesthetist and surgical consultant body is dated yesterday and was sent to UHSussex chief executive Dame Marianne Griffiths. The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton — part of the trust — is the major trauma centre for the South East coast, from Chichester to parts of Kent.
    In the letter, seen by HSJ, the consultants claimed a shortage of theatre staff is leading to “clinical safety issues, gross operational inefficiencies and burnout within our remaining depleted staff groups”. 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 21 September 2021
  20. Sam
    It was "regrettable" that the government said there was "no conclusive proof" AIDS could be transmitted by blood products in 1983, a public inquiry has heard.
    Giving evidence, former secretary of state Lord Fowler said it would have been better to add that it was likely NHS treatment could be contaminated. But he said he didn't think the change would have made a crucial difference.
    Survivors have accused ministers of playing down the risks at the time.
    It's thought around 3,000 haemophiliacs died of AIDS and hepatitis C after being treated with a blood-clotting product called Factor VIII in the 1970s and 1980s.
    Groups representing families of those affected by the scandal claim the use of the phase "no conclusive proof" minimised the danger from blood products at the time.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 22 September 2021
  21. Sam
    Leaked results from a national survey of NHS staff has revealed a sharp drop in those who believe their health and wellbeing is being supported by their employer.
    The People Pulse is a national, monthly survey launched in 2020. It enables provider and commissioner organisations to monitor the NHS workforce’s health and wellbeing.
    According to a snapshot of the results recorded between May and August seen by HSJ, there was a drop of 9.6 percentage points in “perceptions of wellbeing support”, with “positivity” sitting at 57.3%.
    Almost a quarter of the survey respondents reported a “negative” experience of health and wellbeing support.
    The survey results also revealed almost a third of respondents said they wanted to speak up about a specific issue during the pandemic, especially on issues of staff safety, health and wellbeing, but they did not because they feared repercussions or believed nothing would happen.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 21 September 2021
  22. Sam
    Life expectancy in England has fallen to its lowest level since 2011, a Public Health England (PHE) report has said. Deaths were 1.4 times higher than expected between 21 March 2020 and 2 July 2021, according to the report’s findings.
    The increase, largely driven by the pandemic the report said, resulted in a life expectancy decrease of 1.3 years in males, to 78.7, and a 0.9 year decrease in females, to 82.7 years - the lowest life expectancy since 2011.
    Life expectancy inequality is also widening between people in the most and least deprived areas. The gap in male life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas in England is 10.3 years in 2020, which is a year higher than the 2019 level. Similarly for females, this same gap was 8.3 years in 2020, 0.6 years greater than in 2019.
    The PHE report said the inequality gap reached its highest since it began recording data on deprivation linked life expectancy over two decades ago.
    Its report stated: “This demonstrates that the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities in life expectancy by deprivation.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 16 September 2021
     
  23. Sam
    The Scottish government has asked the MoD for military assistance for the country's ambulance service.
    Nicola Sturgeon said health services were dealing with the most challenging combination of circumstances in their history due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Opposition politicians have highlighted a series of serious ambulance delays, including one where a man died after a 40-hour wait. They said this should not be happening in Scotland in 2021.
    Ms Sturgeon said her government was looking at a range of plans to deal with the significant challenges facing the health services, with the detail of a request for military assistance being considered.
    Investigations are ongoing into several cases reported in the media on Thursday, including one where a Glasgow pensioner died after a 40-hour wait for an ambulance.
    The Herald newspaper reported that the family of 65-year-old Gerard Brown were told that he could have survived had help arrived sooner.
    Mr Brown's GP - who is said to have repeatedly warned 999 call handlers that the patient's status was critical - was quoted as describing the crisis engulfing the Scottish Ambulance Service as being like "third world medicine".
    The Scottish Ambulance Service is investigating the circumstances of the case, and said it will be "in contact with Mr Brown's family directly to apologise for the delay".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 16 September 2021
  24. Sam
    One in 40 people with coronavirus has symptoms lasting at least three months, Office for National Statistics figures suggest.
    In April, an ONS report put the proportion at about one in every 10. The latest, large and comprehensive analysis suggests long Covid may be less common than previously thought.
    But the condition is not fully understood and still has no universally agreed definition, leading to different studies producing different figures.
    However, like many other reports, the analysis suggests women, 50- to 69-year-olds and people with other long-term health conditions are the most likely to have symptoms of long Covid 12 weeks after a Covid infection.
    People with high levels of virus in their body when testing positive are also more likely to have long Covid, the analysis suggests.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 17 September 2021
  25. Sam
    Surgical hubs, new technology and innovative ways of working will help tackle waiting lists and treat around 30% more elective care patients by 2023 to 2024.
    Backed by a new £36 billion investment in health and social care over the next 3 years, ‘doing things differently’ and embracing innovation will be the driving force to get the NHS back on track.
    The funding will see the NHS deliver an extra 9 million checks, scans and operations for patients across the country, but it’s not enough to simply plug the elective gaps. The NHS will push forward with faster and more streamlined methods of treatments.
    Surgical hubs already being piloted in a number of locations, including London, are helping fast-track the number of planned operations, including cataract removal, hysterectomies and hip and knee replacements, and will be expanded across the country. Located on existing hospital sites, surgical hubs bring together the skills and resource under one roof while limiting infection risk and providing a COVID-secure environment, with more planned to open in the coming year.
    The NHS has been trialling a range of new ways of working in 12 areas, backed by £160 million, to accelerate the recovery of services. This includes setting up pop-up clinics so patients can be treated quickly, in person, and discharged closer to home, as well as virtual wards and home assessments to allow patients to receive medical support from the comfort of their home, freeing up beds in hospitals.
    GP surgeries are using artificial intelligence to help prioritise patients most in need and identify the right level of care and support needed for patients on waiting lists.
    The latest cancer tests being deployed across the NHS are also helping speed up diagnosis and spot cancer early on. Thanks to the hard work of staff, a quarter of a million people were checked for cancer in June – the second highest number on record – and more than 27,000 people started treatment for cancer in the same period.
    Professor Steve Powis, NHS England medical director, said:
    "Although the pandemic is still with us and we will have to live with the impact of COVID for some time, the NHS has already made effective use of additional resources to recover services. From adopting the latest technologies to more evening and weekend working, NHS staff are going to great lengths to increase the number of operations carried out.
    The further funding announced this week will support staff to deliver millions more vital checks, tests and operations, so if you have a health concern, please do come forward to receive the care and treatment you may need."
    Read full story
    Source: 8 September, Department of Health and Social Care
×
×
  • Create New...