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Sam

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  1. Event
    This Westminster Health Policy forum conference will discuss the next steps for improving care and support for pregnant women. Delegates will assess priorities for the safety and quality of maternity services moving forward following the release of the Final Ockenden review: Independent Review of Maternity Services, and for the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigation Special Health Authority (MNSI) division of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch being established for April 2023. It will be an opportunity to assess priorities for the Secretary of State, and to examine the future outlook for supporting pregnant women following the publication of the Women’s Health Strategy for England, which highlighted a need for pregnant women to be listened to - and included the ambition for 4m people to receive personalised care by March 2024. Areas for discussion include: personalised care: assessment of individual needs - improving the access to mental health services - promoting healthy lifestyle choices during pre-conception, pregnancy, and early years workforce support: encouraging professional development, including funding and education - maternal workforce recruitment and retention - improving senior leadership improving patient safety ensuring strong communication in maternity teams providing appropriate pregnancy risk assessment recommendations and guidance for clinical decision making encouraging and delivering continuity of care progress and next steps for the Maternity Transformation Programme following the Better Births report investigation: priorities for the MNSI and ensuring safety concerns are investigated and addressed - learning from mistakes - listening to families quality of care: developing best practice guidelines - delivering high quality services - improving pregnancy outcomes - improving communication with pregnant women inequalities: addressing variation in service provision - tackling disparities in pregnancy outcomes, particularly for ethnic minorities. Register
  2. News Article
    Ministers have been urged to launch a public inquiry into the care of mental health patients after The Independent revealed allegations that patients had suffered “systemic abuse” in inpatient units. A joint investigation with Sky News found that teenagers at facilities run by The Huntercombe Group had been left with post-traumatic stress disorder by their treatment despite hundreds of warnings to regulators and the NHS. Now the government is facing calls to review all mental health care services over fears that these cases are “the tip of the iceberg”. Labour’s shadow mental health minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan has called for a “rapid review” by the government into inpatient mental health services, while Deborah Coles, the chief executive of charity Inquest, has called on the new health secretary Steve Barclay to launch a statutory public inquiry. Read full story Source: The Independent, 28 October 2022
  3. News Article
    Parents are being urged to get their young children vaccinated against flu as data suggests hospitalisation rates among under-fives have almost doubled in England in the space of two weeks. Data suggests the UK could face a triple whammy of respiratory illness this winter. While experts are concerned there could be another Covid wave, levels of both flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are increasing. The latter is a common winter virus that typically affects young children and can cause bronchiolitis. Dr Conall Watson, consultant epidemiologist for the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said hospital admission rates for flu had risen in recent weeks and were highest in children under five. “Already this year a small number of young children have needed intensive care. Please book your preschooler in for flu vaccine at your GP surgery as soon as you can,” he said. “Flu nasal spray vaccine is also currently being offered to all primary school children and will be available for some secondary school years later this season.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 28 October 2022
  4. News Article
    Researchers in the US have found a genetic link between people with African ancestry and the aggressive type of breast cancer. They hope their findings will encourage more black people to get involved in clinical trials in a bid to improve survival rates for people with the disease. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is more common in women under 40 and disproportionately affects black women. A study published in the journal JAMA Oncology found that black women diagnosed with TNBC are 28% more likely to die from it than white women with the same diagnosis. Now a new study has confirmed a definitive genetic link between African ancestry and TNBC. Lisa Newman, of Weill Cornell Medicine, has been part of an international project studying breast cancer in women in different regions of Africa for 20 years. She says representation of women with diverse backgrounds on clinical trials is absolutely critical. "Unfortunately, African-American women are disproportionately under-represented in cancer clinical trials and we see this in the breast cancer clinical trials as well," says Dr Newman. "If you don't have diverse representation, you don't understand how to apply these advances in treatment. "Part of it is because there is some historic mistrust of the healthcare system. "We do continue to see systemic racism in the healthcare delivery system where it has been documented, tragically, that many cancer care providers are less likely to offer clinical trials to their black patients compared with their white patients."
  5. News Article
    More than 900 invitees converged on Manchester Central last night to find out which projects would emerge winners in the latest edition of our Patient Safety Awards. The awards recognise and reward the hard-working teams and individuals who, in these times of austerity, pay restraints and workforce shortages, are striving to deliver improved patient care. HSJ correspondent Annabelle Collins gave a welcome speech before comedian and writer Justin Moorhouse hosted the event, which was held at the end of the first day of the Patient Safety Congress. Ms Collins said: “Not only are you treating more and more patients, in difficult circumstances, you’re treating them safely and innovating during a time when the health service is being told by the government to be more efficient. To do more, with less. I think this makes your work and achievements even more special. This year, the awards were presented under four key areas: Clinical and specialist excellence; Enacting organisation-wide change; Proactive prevention and harm avoidance; and Service/system innovation. Read about the winners Source: HSJ, 25 October 2022
  6. News Article
    An endometriosis sufferer has said her reproductive organs are so damaged by a three-year delay for surgery, it has affected her ability to have children. Claire Nicholls, 29, has been in pain for years with the condition - which involves tissue similar to the lining of the womb growing elsewhere. Ms Nicholls said she was passed from "pillar to post" and for 10 years, medical professionals did not seem to believe how much pain she was actually in. She has stage four endometriosis, which is the most severe and widespread. "The pain can be excruciating, at times I can't get out of bed and I have also had to attend the emergency department," she said. After opting to go private, her surgeon said he was unable to see many of her organs due to the amount of scarred tissue caused by the delay in surgery. "He told me the scarred tissue and adhesions were all around my organs... they couldn't remove it all as it could have damaged other organs including my bladder - it was just too severe," she said. Northern Ireland has the longest gynaecological waiting lists in the UK, according to a professional body. It is calling for two regional endometriosis centres. The report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists found 36,900 women in Northern Ireland are on a gynaecology waiting list - a 42% increase since the start of the pandemic. Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 October 2022
  7. News Article
    Hospitals “desperate” to free up beds could be putting patients in danger, The Independent has been told. NHS trusts are being forced into “risky behaviours” in the push to free up hospital beds and A&E departments, experts have warned. It comes as new data reveals that waits for ambulance crews outside hospitals hit 26 hours in September, with more than 4,000 patients likely to have experienced severe harm due to delays. In documents leaked to The Independent, hospital leaders in Cornwall warned staff that current pressures in its emergency care system combined with ambulance delays have “tragically resulted in deaths”. Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust and the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said in the document that ambulance delays and waits in A&E were causing a “risk to life”, and that as a result they were planning to begin discharging patients into the care of the voluntary sector. The document said: “It is likely that the risk of such support not meeting all the patients’ individual requirements is less than the risk to life currently experienced in the community when there are significant handover delays at the hospital front doors.” It comes as North West Ambulance Service launched an investigation after a patient died waiting in the back of an ambulance outside A&E, the Manchester Evening News reported. Read full story Source: The Independent, 24 October 2022
  8. News Article
    Cancer patients in this country should have the best survival chances in the world. With its universal healthcare system and world-leading researchers, the UK should be able to offer every patient the knowledge and reassurance that their disease will be picked up quickly and treated rapidly, with the best that science can throw at it. Yet Britain languishes towards the bottom of developed nations’ league tables of cancer performance. On nearly every metric this is one of the worst places in the western world to get cancer — and some experts fear that survival rates are about to go backwards for the first time in a generation. Britain is now operating a “late diagnosis service” for the disease, a former UK cancer tsar has said, while waiting times are creeping up and up and nearly half of patients are diagnosed when their tumours have already spread, slashing their survival chances. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 22 October 2022
  9. News Article
    Research led by Trinity College in Ireland has found that a regulation which came into effect in May 2021 with the aim of improving the oversight of medical devices in Ireland is leading to unintended consequences which may put some surgeries for children, and the treatment of rare diseases, at risk. The study has been published in the journal Pediatric Cardiology. Medical devices include a great diversity of technologies, which are evaluated and approved in the European Union (EU) according to a revised law that came into effect on 26 May 2021, known as the Medical Device Regulation or MDR (EU 745/2017). It has a transition period that allows products that were approved under the previous rules (the EU Medical Device Directives) to continue to be marketed until 26 May 2024 at the latest. As a result of a series of unforeseen factors, there is a possibility that the MDR may result in products becoming unavailable, with the consequent risk of a loss of some interventions that are reliant upon those devices. Devices that are used for orphan or paediatric indications are particularly vulnerable to this. The paper provides an example of one device, the Rashkind balloon catheter, first developed by Dr William Rashkind in 1966 to open the upper chambers in the heart in neonates with congenital heart disease. A number of these balloons were once available in Europe and now there is only one. This device may become unavailable next year. If this happens, it will not be possible to continue this procedure, and alternative surgeries or treatments are far less optimal. The paper also describes the timeline and cost of bringing the device to market in the EU, the US and Canada, and the cost and time needed to access the EU market has become much greater. Researchers believe there is now an urgent need for policy to be developed to protect essential medical devices for orphan indications and for use in children, to ensure that necessary interventions can continue, and to ensure a more sustainable system in Europe over the longer term. Read full story Source: Trinity College Dublin, 20 October 2022
  10. News Article
    The NHS in Wales needs to "speed up the process" of treating people waiting over two years for hospital treatment, the health minister said. Eluned Morgan said health boards need to prioritise the "longest waiters and they're not always doing that". There are 59,350 people waiting over two years in Wales, although the number has fallen for a fifth month in a row. The Welsh NHS Confederation, which represents NHS health organisations, has been asked to comment. In Wales, there are 183,450 operations and procedures waiting more than a year. Overall waits - from referral to treatment - have passed 750,000. Scotland has 7,650 patients waiting more than two years, England has 2,646. Asked on BBC Politics Wales why so many more people are waiting longer in Wales, Ms Morgan said: "Our health boards need to make sure that they're taking people from the longest waiters and they're not always doing that." Read full story Source: BBC News, 23 October 2022
  11. News Article
    Trust chief executives risk becoming “prisoners” of organisations with poor cultures if they do not “step back and see the bigger picture”, a former chief inspector of hospitals has said. Ted Baker said he was “tired” of people getting angry about cultural problems in the NHS while doing nothing to change it, amid an appeal for “less anger and more thoughtful interventions”. He told HSJ’s Patient Safety Congress greater understanding was needed about what will change culture, and working to do so, rather than “rail against the culture in the way people do all the time”. Professor Baker said: “One of my real concerns is that we often end up criticising individuals in organisations because they, if you like, embody the ‘wrong’ culture. “But many individuals are often prisoners of the culture themselves, but we don’t see that. “You put a chief executive into an organisation with a poor culture, if they don’t have the wisdom and the vision to step back and see the bigger picture, they could become trapped in the culture themselves.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 24 October 2022
  12. News Article
    About 4,000 UK victims of the infected blood scandal are to receive interim compensation payments of £100,000 by the end of this month. It is being paid to those whose health is failing after developing blood borne viruses like hepatitis and HIV. It is also being paid to partners of people who have died. Conan McIlwrath, from Larne in County Antrim, who is among the 100 or so victims affected in Northern Ireland said it was "very much welcomed". "This is the first compensation that's ever been paid - anything prior has been support," he told BBC News NI. All victims have campaigned for actual 'compensation' as they have said only this would acknowledge decades of physical and social injury, as well as loss of earnings and the cost of care. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 October 2022
  13. News Article
    The NHS is launching an effort to recruit tens of thousands of nurses to help fill the record number of vacancies that low pay, Covid and heavy workloads have created across the service. A multimedia blitz will try to raise nursing’s profile as a worthwhile career by featuring patients who benefited from nurses’ skills and dedication. NHS England’s “We are the NHS” campaign will use radio, social media and cinema advertisements to portray nursing as a varied and fulfilling role that can change people’s lives. It comes soon after NHS figures showed that the number of empty posts in nursing across hospitals, mental health, community care and other services had reached 46,828 – the largest number ever. That means that more than one in 10 nursing roles (11.8%) are unfilled across the service overall. While the NHS is short of almost every type of staff, service chiefs say the acute lack of nurses is a key reason why so many patients are waiting so long for A&E, cancer treatment and other care. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 24 October 2022
  14. News Article
    The troubled agency that supplies blood to the NHS has a ’very serious problem’ with racism, a staff survey has revealed. Six hundred staff at NHS Blood and Transplant were surveyed and the results have been summarised in an internal memo, seen by HSJ. It said 55% of respondents felt the problem of racism at NHSBT is “extremely or very serious”, while half had little confidence in the organisation’s recent efforts to tackle racial inequality. When contacted for comment, a NHSBT spokeswoman said the results were “difficult to read” and added that “we are deeply sorry to those who have experienced negative behaviour”. The issues over race and leadership come at perhaps the most operationally challenging period in NHSBT’s history. It is struggling to find enough staff for its donation clinics, which meant it issued its first-ever “amber alert” over blood supplies recently. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 October 2022
  15. News Article
    Researchers are calling on five million UK adults to join what they hope will be one of the biggest studies in the world, to create the most detailed picture ever of the nation's health. The aim is it to find better ways to prevent, spot and treat illnesses like cancer and dementia early on. It will involve collecting health and genetic data and creating a long-term repository of health information. Our Future Health is part-funded by government, industry and charities. They hope to get their first set of results in the next few years. Chairman of the programme, Prof Sir John Bell, said the ambition is to use the results to fundamentally shift the focus of healthcare systems to earlier diagnosis and prevention. Invitations will go out this autumn to more than three million people in London, West Yorkshire, West Midlands and Greater Manchester. Over time it will be open to all UK adults. Volunteers will: fill in questionnaires about their lifestyles and any health problems have blood tests for measurements such as blood sugar and cholesterol have their height, weight and blood pressure measured take genetic tests consent to share their NHS records. According to the plans the information will be used in a number of different ways. Scientists will collate and combine this information and store it so that people cannot be identified, building up a bank of health and genetic data. Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 October 2022
  16. News Article
    A patient flow model which involves moving A&E patients to wards “irrespective” of whether there are beds available, is under review for wider rollout by NHS England and is being endorsed by senior clinicians, despite safety fears, HSJ has learned. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has said it would be “unethical” for leaders not to at least consider implementing some form of “continuous flow” model for emergency patients. The approach has been been trialled recently by North Bristol Trust and at several London trusts. HSJ understands NHS England is considering the wider implementation of the continuous flow model, although no final decision has yet been made. The calls come despite patient safety concerns about the model being raised by the Nuffield Trust think tank, who said the evidence for the model is “poor” and could spread risk to other parts of the hospital. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 October 2022
  17. News Article
    Sarah was only allowed to see her 78-year-old mother through a small, double-glazed window that opened 2in at the bottom. There had been a Covid outbreak in her care home and her family were barred from entry, contrary to government guidelines. But this was not December 2020. It was two months ago. “It was just horrific,” said Sarah. “Mum said, ‘I feel like I’m in prison.’ And it was hard for us to disagree.” Sarah and her sisters kept pushing for visitor rights, offering to wear full PPE, but the home, which charged £1,050 a week, instead issued a 28-day eviction notice, saying they “could not meet the family’s needs”. In March this year, all restrictions on care homes were lifted. In a Covid outbreak — two or more positive tests — “visits should happen in all circumstances”. Each resident is allowed one visitor, and this does not need to be the same person throughout the outbreak. However, privately run homes are not following government guidelines. “We saw a massive, tragic loss of life at the beginning of the pandemic among this demographic,” said Helen Wildbore, director of Relatives and Residents Association. “But now care homes have swung dramatically to the other extreme and they have become medically risk averse at the cost of people’s mental health and quality of life. We know people in isolation who have just given up the will to live, who feel like they have been abandoned.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 23 October 2022 You may also be interested to read these two original blogs posted on the hub: Visiting restrictions and the impact on patients and their families: a relative's perspective It’s time to rename the ‘visitor’: reflections from a relative
  18. News Article
    Paramedics in England cannot respond to 117,000 urgent 999 calls every month because they are stuck outside hospitals looking after patients, figures show. The amount of time ambulance crews had to wait outside A&E units meant they were unavailable to attend almost one in six incidents. Long delays in handing patients over to A&E staff meant 38,000 people may have been harmed last month alone – one in seven of the 292,000 who had to wait at least 15 minutes. Of those left at risk of harm, 4,100 suffered potential “severe harm”, according to the bosses of England’s ambulance services. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 October 2022
  19. News Article
    Some batches of an antibiotic medicine called teicoplanin (brand name Targocid) are being urgently recalled in the UK because of possible contamination. The two affected batches are labelled 0J25D1 and 0J25D2, say safety experts. Patients and prescribers are being asked to check packs and stop using the medicine if it has either batch number. Four patients so far have suffered high fevers just hours after being given a dose from these batches. Other products containing teicoplanin are not affected by the recall. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) says the two batches of Targocid 200mg powder for making a solution to take as an injection, by infusion or by mouth, were found to contain high levels of bacterial endotoxins - a toxic compound found in bacterial cell walls that can cause inflammation-related symptoms, high fever and, in very serious cases, septic shock. Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 October 2022
  20. News Article
    A key national policy change recommended by the inquest which led to the East Kent maternity inquiry will not be implemented until next February – more than three years after it was called for by a coroner. The recommendation – that obstetric locum doctors be required to demonstrate more experience before working – was made in a prevention of future deaths report following the inquest into the death of seven-day-old Harry Richford at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust. The remaining 18 recommendations from the PFD report were requiring specific actions by the trust, rather than national policy makers. The trust says they have been implemented. However, NHS England and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have only in recent months produced guidance on using short-term locums in these services, and it will not come into effect until February. When it does, it will require them to complete a certification of eligibility, demonstrating they have had recent experience in a number of clinical situations, including complex Caesarean sections. Middle-grade locums have until next February to gain the certificate. The independent inquiry into maternity at the trust – prompted by Harry’s death – will report tomorrrow, Wednesday 19 October, and is expected to be highly critical of the trust, and of national efforts to make services safe over recent years. Read full story (paywalled) Source: 18 October 2022
  21. News Article
    Very sick babies and children will be diagnosed and start treatment more quickly thanks to a “revolutionary” new genetic testing service being launched by the NHS. Doctors will gain vital insights within as little as two days into what illnesses more than 1,000 newborns and infants a year in England have from the rapid analysis of blood tests. Until now, when doctors suspected a genetic disorder, such tests have sometimes taken weeks as they had to be done in a sequential order to rule out other possible diagnoses, delaying treatment. NHS England bosses say the service could save the lives of thousands of seriously ill children over time and will usher in “a new era of genomic medicine”. The clinical scientists, genetic technologists and bioinformaticians will carry out much faster processing of DNA samples, including saliva and other tissue samples as well as blood. They will share their findings with medical teams and patients’ families. “This global first is an incredible moment for the NHS and will be revolutionary in helping us to rapidly diagnose the illnesses of thousands of seriously ill children and babies, saving countless lives in the years to come,” said Amanda Pritchard, NHS England’s chief executive. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2022 Further hub reading Genetic profiling and precision medicine – the future of cancer treatment
  22. News Article
    An ambulance service rated ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission has set out a wide-ranging improvement plan, including ‘civility training’ for senior leaders and ensuring board members hear a mix of ‘positive and negative’ stories from patients and staff. South Central Ambulance Service has been moved into the equivalent of “special measures” by NHS England, in the wake of the Care Quality Commission report in August which criticised “extreme positivity” at the highest levels of the organisation. This means 3 out of only 10 dedicated ambulance service trusts in England are now in segment four of NHSE’s system oversight framework, the successor to special measures. The other ambulance services in segment four are East of England and South East Coast. In a damning inspection report published in August, the care watchdog said that leaders were “out of touch” and staff had faced a “dismissive attitude” when they tried to raise concerns. One staff member told inspectors: “When sexual harassment is reported it seems to be brushed under the carpet and the person is given a second chance. Because of this, a lot of staff feel unsafe, unsupported and vulnerable when coming to work.” An improvement plan summary published at the start of last month included a large number of priorites and actions, including to “ensure [a] mix of positive and negative patient/staff stories are presented to [trust] board meetings” – an apparent attempt to address CQC concerns that its positive outlook could feel “dismissive of the reality to frontline staff”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 11 October 2022
  23. Event
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  24. Event
    This conference focuses on prehabilitation – Principles and practice, and will provide a practical guide to delivering an effective prehabilitation programme, ensuring patients are fit and optimised for surgery/treatment. This is even more important in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns which have had a negative effect on many individual’s health and fitness levels, and currently high waiting lists could be used as preparation time to ensure the best outcomes. The conference will look at preoperative/pre treatment optimisation of patients fitness and wellbeing through exercise, nutrition and psychological support. This conference will enable you to: Network with colleagues who are working to deliver effective prehabilitation for surgery/treatment. Reflect on a patient lived experience to understand how to engage patients in prehab programmes. Learn from outstanding practice in implementing a prehabilitation programme. Embed virtual prehabilitation into your programme during and beyond Covid-19. Demonstrate a business case for prehabilitation and ensure prehab services continue through and beyond the pandemic. Reflect on national developments and learning. Improve the way we support patients to prepare themselves, physically and emotionally for surgery/treatment. Develop your skills in Behaviour Change and Motivational Interviewing.. Embed virtual prehabilitation into your programme during and beyond Covid-19. Learn from case studies. Understand how you can improve emotional and psychological support. Explore the role of prehabilitation in older people. Work with patients to improve nutrition. Ensure you are up to date with the latest evidence. Self assess and reflect on your own practice. Supports CPD professional development and acts as revalidation evidence. This course provides 5 Hrs training for CPD subject to peer group approval for revalidation purposes. Register
  25. News Article
    Nurses will start voting on Thursday on whether to strike over pay amid warnings that record numbers are leaving the profession. Around 300,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) are being asked if they want to mount a campaign of industrial action in the union’s first UK-wide ballot. The RCN said new analysis by London Economics to coincide with the ballot launch showed that pay for nurses has declined at twice the rate of the private sector in the last decade. It is the first time in its 106-year history that the RCN has balloted members across the UK on strike action and it is urging them to vote in favour. RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said in a message to those being balloted: “This is a once-in-a-generation chance to improve your pay and combat the staff shortages that put patients at risk. “Governments have repeatedly neglected the NHS and the value of nursing. We can change this if together we say ‘enough is enough’. “Record numbers are feeling no alternative but to quit and patients pay a heavy price. We are doing this for them too." Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 October 2022
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