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Sam

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  1. Content Article
    Poster from World Physiotherapy for World Physiotherapy Day 2021 highlighting the symptoms of Long Covid similar to ME/chronic fatigue syndrome which can worsen with exertion.
  2. News Article
    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
  3. Event
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    The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) Annual Professional Development Conference aims to provide an authoritative update on clinical issues and current affairs in women’s health. The theme of this year’s course is providing practical hands-on solutions to clinical problems. Featuring case discussions, debates and a chance to ‘stump the experts’, our carefully designed programme means expert speakers will give presentations suitable to colleagues working in all areas of O&G. Delivered entirely virtually, with all sessions available online, this event will be accessible to all. Learning objectives: Discover the latest advancements in the specialty from experts, which has been deliberately tailored for a diverse audience UK specialist societies will host parallel breakout sessions, giving you the opportunity to personalise your experience based on your own specialist interests Hear more about the latest College activities through informal discussions with RCOG Officers Register
  4. News Article
    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
  5. News Article
    London’s fragmented children’s cancer services will finally be reformed following a decade of delays and allegations of cover-up by senior officials. NHS England has said it will adopt recommendations that will see the capital’s services brought up to standards already common across the rest of the country, with children’s cancer centres needing to be based in hospitals with full paediatric intensive care units. The changes will be imposed “with no exceptions or special arrangements permitted,” it said in a letter yesterday. This means the Royal Marsden’s children’s service at its base in Sutton, south London, will have to move to a new hospital. Currently sick children who deteriorate at the Marsden’s site have to be rushed by ambulance to St George’s Hospital 40 minutes away. More than 330 children were transferred from the Marsden to other hospitals between 2000 and 2015 and in one year 22 children were transferred for intensive care a total of 31 times, with some experiencing at least three transfers individually. The changes will also affect cancer care at University College London Hospital which links with Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. The world-renowned Royal Marsden trust, whose chief executive Dame Cally Palmer is also NHS England’s national cancer director, was at the centre of a cover-up scandal before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, the Health Service Journal revealed a major report, commissioned by NHS bosses in London following the deaths of several children, had been “buried” by NHS England. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 November 2021
  6. News Article
    Patient safety in the NHS in England is being put at “unacceptably high” risk, with severe staff shortages leaving hospitals, GP surgeries and A&E units struggling to cope with soaring demand, health chiefs have warned. The health service has hit “breaking point”, the leaders say, with record numbers of patients seeking care. Nine in 10 NHS chief executives, chairs and directors have reported this week that the pressures on their organisation have become unsustainable. The same proportion is sounding “alarm bells” over staffing, with the lack of doctors, nurses and other health workers putting lives of patients at risk. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has come under fire for recently claiming, at a No 10 press conference, that he did not believe the pressure on the NHS was unsustainable. But the survey of 451 NHS leaders in England finds the health service already at “tipping point”. The results of the poll, conducted by the NHS Confederation, which represents the healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, show that 88% of the leaders think the demands on their organisation are unsustainable, and 87% believe a lack of staffing in the NHS as a whole is putting patient safety and care at risk. Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “Almost every healthcare leader we’ve spoken to is warning that the NHS is under unsustainable pressure, and they are worried the situation will worsen, as we head into deep midwinter, unless action is taken. They are also sounding alarm bells over risks to patient safety if their services become overwhelmed, on top of a severe workforce crisis." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 10 November 2021
  7. News Article
    Pfizer’s oral antiviral drug paxlovid significantly reduces hospital admissions and deaths among people with COVID-19 who are at high risk of severe illness, when compared with placebo, the company has reported. The interim analysis of the phase II-III data, outlined in a press release, included 1219 adults who were enrolled by 29 September 2021. It found that, among participants who received treatments within three days of COVID-19 symptoms starting, the risk of covid related hospital admission or death from any cause was 89% lower in the paxlovid group than the placebo group. Commenting on the announcement, England’s health and social care secretary, Sajid Javid, said, “If approved, this could be another significant weapon in our armoury to fight the virus alongside our vaccines and other treatments, including molnupiravir, which the UK was the first country in the world to approve this week.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 8 November 2021
  8. News Article
    Countries must set ambitious national climate commitments if they are to sustain a healthy and green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO COP26 Special Report on Climate Change and Health, spells out the global health community’s prescription for climate action based on a growing body of research that establishes the many and inseparable links between climate and health. “The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the intimate and delicate links between humans, animals and our environment,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The same unsustainable choices that are killing our planet are killing people. WHO calls on all countries to commit to decisive action at COP26 to limit global warming to 1.5°C – not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s in our own interests. WHO’s new report highlights 10 priorities for safeguarding the health of people and the planet that sustains us.” The WHO report was launched at the same time as an open letter, signed by over two thirds of the global health workforce - 300 organisations representing at least 45 million doctors and health professionals worldwide, calling for national leaders and COP26 country delegations to step up climate action. “Wherever we deliver care, in our hospitals, clinics and communities around the world, we are already responding to the health harms caused by climate change,” the letter from health professionals reads. “We call on the leaders of every country and their representatives at COP26 to avert the impending health catastrophe by limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and to make human health and equity central to all climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.” Read full story Source: World Health Organization, 11 October 2021
  9. Event
    Panelists will provide a robust overview of the challenges that accompany medical care and propose actionable recommendations for patients, family members, and carers to balance life demands for patients with complex medical needs. Register
  10. Event
    Without coordination of improvement efforts across the system, we will continue to compete for resources and compromise sustainment. Panelists will review the root causes of this problem and propose actionable solutions for healthcare professionals to adopt a holistic, continuous improvement framework. Register
  11. News Article
    Long waiting times in emergency departments are becoming normal, with some patients spending days in A&E wards before they can be moved into other hospital beds, emergency physicians have warned. Leaders of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) and the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) said that some hospitals had effectively run out of space, meaning patients could not receive the right care until a bed became free. NHS figures for September show that 5,025 patients waited for more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital in England. That is only 1% of the 506,916 admitted via A&Es, but it is more than 10 times as many as the 458 waiting more than 12 hours in September 2019 and nearly twice as many as the January peak of 2,847. Scientists at the Zoe Covid study said last week that UK cases of coronavirus may have peaked. But the React study at Imperial College found that the R number was between 0.9 and 1.1 with Covid cases at their highest levels. Pressures on hospitals have prompted the Royal College of Nursing to call for a return to compulsory mask-wearing, while Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said that ministers should reimpose a legal obligation to wear masks on public transport, allowing police to enforce the law. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 7 November 2021
  12. News Article
    From next month, patients will be able to access all new entries in their online health records, if their GP practice use TPP or EMIS IT systems. According to NHS Digital, patients who use online accounts – such as the NHS App – and whose surgery uses TPP, will be able to view entries from December 2021 onwards. While, patients on an EMIS system should expect to see theirs from ‘early 2022’. Practices which use the Vision system are still currently in discussions over access. NHS Digital says that patients will not be able to see specific personal information, such as positive test results, until they have been ‘checked and filed’, so that GPs have the opportunity to contact them first. The body adds that the move, ‘supports NHS Long Term Plan commitments to provide patients with digital access to their health records’, and also shares its aim for patients to be able to request their historic coded records from 2022, through the NHS App. As ’80 per cent of the 18 million NHS App users’ are said to want ‘easy access to their health records and personal information’, it’s hoped that the initiative will reduce queries around negative test results and referrals, and encourage patient awareness and empowerment in regards to their health. However, NHS Digital does advise General Practice staff to ‘be aware that patients will be able to see their future records’, and to ensure ‘sensitive information is redacted as it is entered’ into systems, with a support package and training sessions available to guide clinicians and staff in these areas. Read full story Source: Health Tech Newspaper, 5 November 2021
  13. News Article
    A hospital in Devon has been told it "requires improvement" as patient safety has been put at risk by staff shortages. The North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in July 2021 following concerns about its staffing levels. The CQC found the hospital’s medical care services were limited because there were not enough members of medical or nursing staff available. But staff were praised for treating patients with compassion and kindness. The report added that care was not always provided "in a timely manner" and the CQC’s head of hospital inspection, Cath Campbell, believes the situation is concerning. She said: "When we inspected the medical care services at North Devon District Hospital, we found a high number of vacancies with a reliance on agency staff, and not addressing issues around the availability and responsiveness of medical staff for deteriorating patients. This put patients at risk of harm. "Although nursing staff were quick to identify and act when they spotted patients who were at risk of deteriorating, medical staff did not always attend to these patients quickly." Read full story Source: ITV News, 3 November 2021
  14. News Article
    A health watchdog has scrapped a previous recommendation of graded exercise therapy for ME. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a long-awaited and contentious final update to guidance on treatment. Many patients with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) say the therapy, which encourages patients to slowly increase their levels of activity, makes their condition worse. The advice was due out in August, but NICE pulled the publication at the last minute. At that time, NICE said the delay was necessary to allow more conversations with patient groups and professionals, so that its advice would be supported. There are strong and varied views on how the illness should be best managed. The updated guidance for England and Wales recommends people judge their own "energy limit" when undertaking activity of any kind, and a physical activity programme should only be considered in specific circumstances. It warns practitioners: "Do not advise people with ME/CFS to undertake exercise that is not part of a programme overseen by an ME/CFS specialist team, such as telling them to go to the gym or exercise more, because this may worsen their symptoms." It also clarifies advice on a talking therapy, known as CBT, stressing that it is only helpful in treating anxiety around the condition, not the illness itself. And it emphasises the need for early and accurate diagnosis. Read full story Source: BBC News, 29 October 2021
  15. News Article
    There is a “lack” of NHS services available to people with allergies, a group of MPs has said. Despite increasing rates of hospital admissions for severe allergic reactions – also known as anaphylaxis – allergy services “have largely been ignored”, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Allergy said. The group warned allergies are “poorly managed” across the health service due to a “lack of training” and only a small number of allergy experts. “This mismatch has continued despite millions of patients having significant allergic disease,” it said. In its latest report, which is to be delivered to Government on Wednesday, MPs said there are 20 million people in the UK who are living with allergic disease, including five million whose illness is severe enough to need specialist care. “Yet our allergy services remain inadequate, often hard to access and are failing those who need them the most,” the report adds. The group made a series of recommendations including: devising a “national allergy plan” to address problems; expanding the specialist workforce and ensuring all GPs get training in how to deal with allergies. Read full story Source: ITV News, 27 October 2021
  16. News Article
    A drug developed over 20 years ago to treat cancer could help patients living with crippling pain, according to new research. Kenpaullone switches on a gene that douses chronic inflammation, say scientists. Experiments on mice and humans found it was remarkably successful at alleviating nerve injury and bone tumour symptoms. The US team is hopeful clinical trials will see equally successful results in humans suffering a host of conditions. Up to 8 million people in the UK live with chronic pain. Major causes include arthritis and spine damage. Lead author Professor Wolfgang Liedtke said: “New drugs and other therapies against chronic pain need to be safe, i.e., the fewer side effects the better. “It’s especially important they be non-addictive and non-sedative, while being effective against nerve injury pain and cancer pain, preferably with a minimal time to official approval." Read full story Source: The Independent, 27 October 2021
  17. News Article
    The laboratory at the centre of the Covid testing fiasco returned just four positive results out of more than 2,400 tests sent to it from one city, the Guardian has learned, raising questions about why it was not discovered sooner. The positivity rate of just 0.2% from Sheffield tests sent to the Wolverhampton lab run by Immensa contrasts sharply with the national rate of about 5-8% at the time of the scandal. Data released under freedom of information laws by Sheffield city council showed there were four positive results, 2,391 negative and 13 void results processed by the lab from 1 September until it was suspended in mid-October. The disclosure also shows the scandal covers local authorities as far away from Wolverhampton as Yorkshire, with the UK Health Security Agency refusing to disclose which areas are affected beyond saying they are mostly in south-west England. One expert suggested there should have been about 200 positive results based on prevalence figures from the time. Kit Yates, a senior lecturer in mathematics at Bath University, said the country needed to see a full list of all the walk-in/drive in centres that were affected. “It’s all well and good notifying those people who were tested, but because of the nature of this communicable disease, this scandal now reaches well beyond those people,” he said. “The public deserve to know if their area was affected.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 October 2021
  18. News Article
    A Liverpool NHS trust has been rated as "requires improvement" by the health service watchdog due to concerns over care and safety. The moves comes following inspections at Aintree University Hospital and Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Inspectors said Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust required improvement in safety while it was classed as inadequate for leadership. The trust said "immediate action" had been taken to address the concerns. Ted Baker, chief inspector of hospitals at the Care Quality Commission, said the inspections in June and July highlighted concerns that the trust's leadership team "had a lack of oversight of what was happening on the frontline". Mr Baker said "lengthy delays" and "poor monitoring" were putting patients at serious risk of harm, and the trust was rated as requires improvement overall. He added: "We were particularly concerned about how long people were waiting to be admitted onto medical wards and by the absence of effective processes to prioritise patients for treatment based on their conditions. "There weren't always the right number of staff with the right skills and training to treat people effectively or keep them safe in the trust's emergency departments and on medical wards." Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 October 2021
  19. News Article
    A nurse from scandal-hit Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital ordered a pregnant woman to take medication she was allergic to. Christine Speake, who had worked in the NHS for almost 40 years as a midwife and nurse, has been struck-off the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register after a tribunal heard she told the mother to “just take it” and then tried to cover-up her mistake after the woman suffered a reaction. The NMC hearing was told the 11-week pregnant patient and her unborn child could have died after being prescribed the Buscopan by a junior doctor to treat severe nausea and vomiting in January 2019. The woman – named only as 'Patient A' – was given the drug by Speake despite her allergy being included in her medical records. Speake was employed as a sister on the gynaecology ward at the Princess Royal Hospital. When the mother questioned what she was being given, Speake, who has worked as a midwife and nurse since 1985, snapped "just take it". The panel heard Patient A then had a violent reaction and broke out in a rash and started vomiting. But Speake, who realised her mistake, then failed to tell her colleagues in a bid to “cover up” what she had done and later resigned, the NMC tribunal heard. Read full story Source: The Independent, 26 October 2021
  20. News Article
    People are dying at home without the correct nursing support or pain relief because of staff shortages, according to the end-of-life charity Marie Curie. One in three nurses, responding to a survey by the charity and Nursing Standard, say a lack of staff is the main challenge providing quality care to dying people. More than half of the nurses said they feel the standard of care has deteriorated during the coronavirus pandemic. Some 548 nursing staff across acute and community settings in the UK completed the survey in September. They raise concerns about the increased number of people dying at home and insufficient numbers of community nurses to support these people and their families. One nurse who responded to the survey said: "If more [people] are dying at home then there is a huge pressure on local district nursing teams which struggle with staffing as it is." Julie Pearce, chief nurse and executive director of quality and caring services at Marie Curie, said: "The pandemic has accelerated change across many care settings. "More people are dying at home and staffing to support this shift isn't there. "The data shows a hidden crisis happening behind closed doors and people dying without access to pain relief or the dignity they deserve." Read full story Source: The Independent, 27 October 2021
  21. News Article
    Gender bias is leaving many women with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder undiagnosed, leading psychologists are warning. The prevailing stereotype ADHD affects only "naughty boys" means at least tens of thousands in the UK, it is estimated, are unaware they have the condition and not receiving the help they need. "I used to tell doctors and therapists all the time, 'You've got to make this constant noise in my head stop. I can't think. I can't sleep. I can't get any peace,' but this was always dismissed as anxiety or women's problems," Hester says. Diagnosed with depression at 16, she spent much of her 20s unsuccessfully battling to be referred to a psychiatrist. And she constantly felt she was not reaching her true potential. Hester was finally diagnosed with ADHD in 2015, aged 34, and only, she says, because her husband had discovered he had the condition, a year earlier. His diagnosis took 12 months. "At no point did anyone say to Chris, 'This sounds like anxiety,' or 'Have some tablets,'" Hester says. "He was taken seriously." "Whereas with me, I was on the doctor's radar from the age of 16. "Bluntly, it took so long for me to be diagnosed because I'm a woman." Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 October 2021
  22. Content Article
    When Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge upgraded its face masks for staff working on COVID-19 wards to filtering face piece 3 (FFP3) respirators, it saw a dramatic fall – up to 100% – in hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections among these staff. Healthcare workers – particularly those working on COVID-19 wards – are much more likely to be exposed to coronavirus, so it’s important we understand the best ways of keeping them safe The findings are reported by a team at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Foundation Trust. The research has not yet been peer-reviewed, but is being released early because of the urgent need to share information relating to the pandemic.
  23. News Article
    Tackling inequalities was “often not a main priority” for local health and care systems over the past year, the care regulator for England has said. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the pandemic had exposed and exacerbated inequalities, and most services demonstrated some understanding of these. But it found that tackling inequalities “was often not a main priority for systems, or strategies to identify and tackle health inequalities were not yet well established”. Issues included poor accessibility of information in different languages for some people, varying service provision and access, and a lack of understanding of how people’s individual characteristics affected the care they needed. The regulator said an example of this was the specific needs of people with a learning disability from black and minority ethnic groups. It also flagged that an increase in remote or digital care could be a barrier to people who cannot access technology or do not feel comfortable doing so. The report found inequalities had also been exposed by the coronavirus vaccine rollout, with take-up lower in all minority ethnic groups compared with in the white population, and variances according to levels of deprivation. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 22 October 2021
  24. News Article
    Failings by NHS 111 contributed to the death of an autistic teenager, a coroner has ruled. Hannah Royle, 16, suffered a cardiac arrest as she was driven to hospital by her parents after a 111 algorithm failed to notice she was seriously ill. A coroner said her death had exposed a risk people were being misled about the capability of the system and its staff. An NHS spokesperson said it would act on the findings and learnings "where necessary". Hannah's father Jeff Royle said he regretted dialling 111 and wished he had taken his daughter straight to hospital. "I feel so dreadful, that I have let her down and she has been let down by the NHS," he said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 October 2021
  25. News Article
    The government’s failure to quickly roll out third doses of the Covid vaccine to clinically vulnerable people and those with weakened immune systems is endangering thousands of lives, patient groups and experts have warned. Immunocompromised individuals currently account for one in 20 Covid patients being admitted to intensive care, according to a new analysis by Blood Cancer UK. These people are less able to mount an immune response after two doses, so are therefore being offered a third to keep them protected. This is separate from the ongoing booster programme, applicable to all over-50s and health care workers. However, a recent Blood Cancer UK survey suggested that less than half of people with blood cancer, who make up about 230,000 of the 500,000 immunocompromised people in the UK, had been invited to receive their third dose by the second week of October. Other clinically vulnerable people have reported struggling to book an appointment via their GP practices after being told by NHS England to come forward for a third vaccine dose. With the situation in Britain reaching a “tipping point”, charities and scientists are fearful the number of immunocompromised in intensive care could further worsen in the weeks to come if they remain unable to access booster jabs. Read full story Source: The Independent, 21 October 2021
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