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Sam

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  1. News Article
    An NHS trust has been charged over the deaths of two patients. The Care Quality Commission alleges Natalie Billingham, 33, and Kaysie-Jane Bland were exposed to "significant risk of avoidable harm" at Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital. The regulator has brought the charges against Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust over two alleged breaches of the Health and Social Care Act. This relates to the trust's duty to ensure safe care and treatment. Read full story Source: BBC News, 6 April 2021
  2. Event
    The WHO Patient Safety Flagship: A Decade of Patient Safety 2020-2030 is pleased to invite you to a webinar in the Global Patient Safety Network 2021 webinar series on the third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm. The aim of this Global Patient Safety Network webinar series is to introduce ongoing activities of the WHO Patient Safety Flagship, with the objective of sharing knowledge and experiences on important topics on patient safety and scaling up implementation. This webinar series is open to everyone who has an interest in patient safety. Learning objectives: To understand how to reduce medication-related harm. To learn about the third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm and some of the technical products to support its implementation. Considerations to bear in mind when implementing the Challenge at national, subnational, facility or community level. Further information and registration
  3. Event
    This conference will bring together maternity professionals, system leaders, subject specialists and patients and families to present the latest evidence on the safety of maternity care today, share examples of positive improvement and best practice and hear from senior leaders about the next steps in the national maternity safety programme. Further information and registration
  4. Event
  5. Event
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    AI mainly refers to doctors and hospitals analysing vast data sets of potentially life-saving information through AI algorithms. However, in primary care it has been getting an increasingly important role in standardising triaging, creating intelligent patient pathways and supporting prioritisation and decision making with urgency indications and differential diagnoses. In this webinar, we will provide an overview of applications of AI in improving patient flow and patient transfer within healthcare settings. Learn how organisations are achieving real results with AI supported triaging. Discover how to leverage Intelligent patient pathway management can increase capacity. See how you can build a strong data-driven organisation, while improving staff morale and the patient experience. Register
  6. News Article
    Growing numbers of women and men in England with eating disorders are being denied support because they are not considered to be thin enough to warrant it, a leading psychiatrist and other experts have warned in a briefing shared with ministers. Against the backdrop of a fourfold rise in people admitted to hospital with eating disorders during the Covid pandemic, doctors said body mass index (BMI) was too often used as a blunt measure to decide whether someone should get treatment. In some cases, women have not received an eating disorder diagnosis despite their periods stopping due to overexercising or restrictive eating. BMI uses height and weight to calculate a healthy weight score. A normal body weight is considered to be between 18.5 and 24.9, and some doctors consider anything below this a signifier of an eating disorder. Dr Agnes Ayton, the chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists eating disorders faculty, and the mental health campaigner Hope Virgo shared a briefing paper with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) urging funding to meet demand and “as a direct result of an increase in the number and severity” of patients during the pandemic. The paper, seen by the Guardian, said there had been a significant increase in eating disorders among ethnic minorities and men. Concern has been raised about “a state of emergency” for eating disorders, the briefing paper said. Hospital admissions have seen a fourfold increase in the last year without extra investment in specialist eating disorder inpatient services during this time, it added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 April 2021
  7. News Article
    A young NHS patient suffering a sickle cell crisis called 999 from his hospital bed to request oxygen, an inquest into his death was told. Evan Nathan Smith, 21, died on 25 April 2019 at North Middlesex Hospital, in Edmonton, north London, after suffering from sepsis following a procedure to remove a gallbladder stent. The inquest heard Smith told his family he called the London Ambulance Service because he thought it was the only way to get the help he needed. Nursing staff told Smith he did not need oxygen when he requested it in the early hours of 23 April, despite a doctor telling the inquest he had “impressed” on the nurses he should have it. Smith’s sepsis is thought to have triggered the sickle cell crisis – a condition that causes acute pain as blood vessels to certain parts of the body become blocked. Barnet Coroner's Court heard Smith, from Walthamstow in east London, might have survived if he had been offered a blood transfusion sooner but the hospital’s haematology team were not told he had been admitted. Read full story Source: The Independent, 3 April 2021
  8. News Article
    Patients could be waiting as much as two years for vital operations by the time of the next election due to a “truly frightening” backlog of care caused by the pandemic, the NHS’s former boss has said. Lengthening delays in getting treatment in England are will become a major political problem for Boris Johnson and pose a risk to patients’ health, Sir David Nicholson told the Guardian. “The backlog is truly frightening. We can very easily get to the next election with people waiting over two years. It’s easy to do that,” said Nicholson, citing an explosion in the number of people waiting at least a year since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. “The whole issue of access [to care] is a greater threat to the NHS than privatisation because poor access undermines confidence amongst those people who fund the service – taxpayers,” he added. The widespread suspension of normal NHS diagnostic tests and surgery during the pandemic as hospitals prioritised Covid care has left the service in England with a record 4.59 million people waiting for hospital treatment. That number is set to rise to what the NHS Confederation believes could be as much as 6.9m cases by the end of the year as people on a “hidden waiting list” – who put off seeking help after discovering symptoms of illness – finally visit a GP. According to the most recent figures, the number of people who have been waiting for at least a year has rocketed from 1,613 before the pandemic struck to 304,044. Under the NHS Constitution, 92% of people waiting are meant to be treated within 18 weeks. However, a third of the 4.59 million people have already waited longer than that. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 April 2021
  9. News Article
    Mental health "hubs" for new, expectant or bereaved mothers are to be set up around England. The 26 sites, due to be opened by next April, will offer physical health checks and psychological therapy in one building. NHS England said these centres would provide treatment for about 6,000 new parents in the first year. Five years ago, 40% of areas in England had no dedicated maternal mental health services. Things have improved since then with some specialist services available in each of the 44 local NHS areas in England. But in the NHS's Long Term Plan, published in 2019, the health service pledged to offer more "evidence-based" support, including to partners and families through these hubs or "outreach clinics". The NHS hopes to offer services to people with moderate-to-severe difficulties, whereas earlier investment focused on the most acutely unwell mothers. These clinics will "integrate maternity, reproductive health and psychological therapy for women experiencing mental health difficulties directly arising from, or related to, the maternity experience," NHS England said. Read full story Source: 5 April 2021
  10. News Article
    The submissions are in, the guest judges have voted, and the results have been announced for the Leading Healthcare Awards 2021. We are delighted that Patient Safety Learning's hub has won the 2021 Patient Safety category of the Leading Healthcare Awards. View al the winners here
  11. News Article
    Intense pressures on the already overstretched NHS are being exacerbated by the tens of thousands of health staff who are sick with Long Covid, doctors and hospital bosses say. At least 122,000 NHS personnel have the condition, the Office for National Statistics disclosed in a detailed report that showed 1.1 million people in the UK were affected by the condition. That is more than any other occupational group and ahead of teachers, of whom 114,000 have it. Patient care is being hit because many of those struggling with Long Covid are only able to work part-time, are too unwell to perform their usual duties, or often need time off because they are in pain, exhausted or have “brain fog”. “Ongoing illness can have a devastating impact on individual doctors, both physically and by leaving them unable to work. Furthermore, it puts a huge strain on the health service, which was already vastly understaffed before the pandemic hit,” said Dr Helena McKeown, the workforce lead at the British Medical Association, which represents doctors. “With around 30,000 sickness absences currently linked to Covid in the NHS in England, we cannot afford to let any more staff become ill. Simply put, if they are off sick, they’re unable to provide care and patients will not get the care and treatment they need. “In the longer term, if more staff face ongoing illness from past COVID-19 infection, the implications for overall workforce numbers will be disastrous.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 April 2021
  12. News Article
    Campaigners have started legal action against the government over guidance that bans care home residents in England aged 65 and over from taking trips outside the home. John's Campaign, of residents and their loved ones, says the ban is unlawful. They are also challenging the requirement for residents to self-isolate for 14 days after such visits. The government said its guidance provides a "range of opportunities" for visitors to spend time with loved ones. Nearly all residents have now had at least one dose of the vaccine, and care homes have been cautiously reopening, allowing indoor visits with designated family or friends. But the government guidance, updated on 8 March, says trips to see family or friends "should only be considered" for under-65s while national Covid restrictions apply because they increase the risk of bringing Covid into a home. Visits out for residents, whatever their age, "should be supported in exceptional circumstances such as a visit to a friend or relative at the end of their life", it adds - but on returning to the home, the resident must self-isolate for two weeks. The legal letter sent to the Department of Health and Social Care by John's Campaign says the decision whether someone can go on a visit outside a care home should be based on individual risk assessments. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 April 2021
  13. News Article
    Maternity services are at risk because demoralised midwives are planning to quit the NHS, healthcare leaders have warned. A new report, carried out by the Institute for Public Policy Research, suggests 8,000 midwives may depart due to the “unprecedented pressure” of the coronavirus pandemic. Researchers, who surveyed about 1,000 healthcare professionals from around the country in mid-February, discovered that two-thirds reported being mentally exhausted once a week or more. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Independent, 31 March 2021
  14. News Article
    An estimated 10% to 30% of people who get COVID-19 suffer from lingering symptoms of the disease, or what's known as "long COVID." Judy Dodd, who lives in New York City, is one of them. She spent nearly a year plagued by headaches, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and problems with smell, among other symptoms. She says she worried that this "slog through life" was going to be her new normal. Everything changed after she got her COVID-19 vaccine. "I was like a new person, it was the craziest thing ever," says Dodd, referring to how many of her health problems subsided significantly after her second shot. And she's not alone. As the U.S. pushes to get people vaccinated, a curious benefit is emerging for those with this post-illness syndrome: Their symptoms are easing and, in some cases, fully resolving after they get vaccinated. Judy Dodd suffered lingering symptoms of COVID-19 for nearly a year, until she got her vaccine. It's the latest clue in the immunological puzzle of long COVID, a still poorly understood condition that leaves some who get infected with wide-ranging symptoms months after the initial illness. The notion that a vaccine aimed at preventing the disease may also be a treatment has sparked optimism among patients, and scientists who study the post-illness syndrome are taking a close look at these stories. Read full story Source: NPR, 31 March 2021
  15. Content Article
    The NHS Complaint Standards, model complaint handling procedure and guidance set out how organisations providing NHS services should approach complaint handling. They apply to NHS organisations in England and independent healthcare providers who deliver NHS-funded care.
  16. News Article
    Coronavirus tests for patients in mental health hospitals should be couriered to testing labs and prioritised for results to prevent patients being forced to self-isolate for longer than is necessary, according to new guidance. NHS England has told mental health hospitals they need to use dedicated couriers for urgent swabs and tests should be specifically labelled for mental health patients so they can be turned around faster. Health bosses are worried thousands of patients in mental health wards could deteriorate ifare forced to self-isolate in their rooms for longer periods. More than 14,000 patients were being detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act in January 2021, with patients needing to be tested on admission to wards and if they show symptoms. Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 March 2021
  17. News Article
    A quarter of NHS workers are more likely to quit their job than a year ago because they are unhappy about their pay, frustrated by understaffing and exhausted by COVID-19, a survey suggests. The findings have prompted warnings that the health service is facing a potential “deadly exodus” of key personnel just as it tries to restart normal care after the pandemic. A representative poll of 1,006 health professionals across the UK by YouGov for the IPPR thinktank found that the pandemic has left one in four more likely to leave than a year ago. That includes 29% of nurses and midwives, occupations in which the NHS has major shortages. Ministers must initiate a “new deal” for NHS staff that involves a decent pay rise, better benefits, more flexible working and fewer administrative tasks, the IPPR said. “The last 12 months have stretched an already very thin workforce to breaking point. Many are exhausted, frustrated and in need of better support. If the government does not do right by them now, more many leave their jobs,” said Dr Parth Patel, an NHS doctor and IPPR research fellow who co-wrote its new report on how the NHS can retain and recruit more staff. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 30 May 2021
  18. News Article
    Today marks the last day that about four million of the most clinically vulnerable people in England and Wales are advised to shield at home. Letters have been sent out to the group in the last few weeks. They are still being advised to keep social contacts at low levels, work from home where possible and stay at a distance from other people. The change comes amid falling Covid cases and hospital admissions. According to NHS Digital, there are 3.8 million shielded patients in England and 130,000 in Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland are expected to lift their restrictions later in April. People affected by shielding included Rob Smith, from Hull, who has muscular dystrophy. Shielding for more than a year has been a "nightmare", he told BBC Breakfast. "Where I was able to go out, I didn't feel I wanted to. I didn't feel confident to face people again," he said. "I've always been sociable.... It's had a massive impact." Mr Smith now says he feels anxious about the future and believes for many people who have been shielding, it will "take time to get used to being out there again". He is also wary of the risk of mixing with others again. Read full story Source: BBC News, 31 March 2021
  19. News Article
    That throbbing headache just won’t go away and your mind is racing about what may be wrong. But Googling your symptoms may not be as ill-advised as previously thought. Although some doctors often advise against turning to the internet before making the trudge up to the clinic, a new study suggests that using online resources to research symptoms may not be harmful after all – and could even lead to modest improvements in diagnosis. Using “Dr Google” for health purposes is controversial. Some have expressed concerns that it can lead to inaccurate diagnoses, bad advice on where to seek treatment (triage), and increased anxiety (cyberchondria). Previous research into the subject has been limited to observational studies of internet search behaviour, so researchers from Harvard sought to empirically measure the association of an internet search with diagnosis, triage, and anxiety by presenting 5,000 people in the United States with a series of symptoms and asked them to imagine that someone close to them was experiencing the symptoms. The participants – mostly white, average age 45, and an even gender split – were asked to provide a diagnosis based on the given information. Then they looked up their case symptoms (which, ranging from mild to severe, described common illnesses such as viruses, heart attacks and strokes) on the internet and again offered a diagnosis. As well as diagnosing the condition, participants were asked to select a triage level, ranging from “let the health issue get better on its own” to calling the emergency services. Participants also recorded their anxiety levels. The results showed a slight uptick in diagnosis accuracy, with an improvement of 49.8% to 54% before and after the search. However, there was no difference in triage accuracy or anxiety, the authors wrote in the journal JAMA Network Open. These findings suggest that medical experts and policymakers probably do not need to warn patients away from the internet when it comes to seeking health information and self-diagnosis or triage. It seems that using the internet may well help patients figure out what is wrong. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 March 2021
  20. News Article
    A French court has fined one of the country’s biggest pharmaceutical firms €2.7m (£2.3m) after finding it guilty of deception and manslaughter over a pill linked to the deaths of up to 2,000 people. In one of the biggest medical scandals in France, the privately owned laboratory Servier was accused of covering up the potentially fatal side-effects of the widely prescribed drug Mediator. The former executive Jean-Philippe Seta was sentenced to a suspended jail sentence of four years. The French medicines agency, accused of failing to act quickly enough on warnings about the drug, was fined €303,000. The amphetamine derivative was licensed as a diabetes treatment, but was widely prescribed as an appetite suppressant to help people lose weight. Its active chemical substance is known as Benfluorex. As many as 5 million people took the drug between 1976 and November 2009 when it was withdrawn in France, long after it was banned in Spain and Italy. It was never authorised in the UK or US. The French health minister estimated it had caused heart-valve damage killing at least 500 people, but other studies suggest the death toll may be nearer to 2,000. Thousands more have been left with debilitating cardiovascular problems. Servier has paid out millions in compensation. “Despite knowing of the risks incurred for many years, … they [Servier] never took the necessary measures and thus were guilty of deceit,” said the president of the criminal court, Sylvie Daunis. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 March 2021
  21. News Article
    Many GPs find telephone appointments with patients frustrating and want to see them in person because they fear they will otherwise miss signs of illness , the leader of Britain’s family doctors has said. Prof Martin Marshall told the Guardian that remote consultations felt like working “in a call centre” and risked damaging the relationship between GPs and their patients. Telephone and video appointments had proved useful during the Covid pandemic, when GP surgeries limited patients’ ability to come in for face-to-face appointments, he said. However, while that helped limit the spread of coronavirus, “this way of working has been frustrating for some GPs, particularly when most consultations were being delivered remotely, who have felt like they’ve been delivering care via a call centre, which isn’t the job they signed up for." “Remote consultations have advantages, particularly in terms of access and convenience for patients. But we know that patients prefer to see their GP face to face." “Remote working has been challenging for many GPs, particularly when delivering care to patients with complex health needs,” said Marshall, who is a GP in London. “It can also make it harder to pick up on soft cues, which can be helpful for making diagnoses.” His remarks come as NHS leaders and doctors groups are discussing how far appointments should return to being in person now the pandemic is receding. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 28 March 2021
  22. News Article
    A 40-year-old mother of four took her own life at an NHSmental health unit after multiple opportunities were missed to keep her safe, an inquest has found, prompting her family to call for a public inquiry. Azra Parveen Hussain was allegedly the seventh in-patient in seven years to die by the same means while in the care of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHT). Despite this, an inquest at Birmingham and Solihull Coroner’s Court last week heard that the Trust had not installed door pressure sensor alarms, which could have potentially alerted staff to the fatal danger these patients faced. While BSMHT is now taking action to install pressure sensors at Mary Seacole House, where Hussain died on 6 May, Coroner Emma Brown noted a lack of national regulation or guidance on the risks presented by internal doors in patients’ bedrooms and is issuing a Prevention of Future Deaths report calling for this to be remedied across the country. Read full story Source: The Independent, 28 March 2021
  23. News Article
    Devices which measure blood oxygen levels could be giving “seriously misleading” results for Black and minority ethnic people, possibly contributing to increased Covid-19 mortality, experts have warned. Pulse oximeters attach a clip-like device to a person’s finger, toe or earlobe and send a beam of infrared light to measure oxygen levels in the blood. The resulting reading can be used to monitor oxygen levels of people with a variety of conditions, including by people at home with coronavirus, and to assess patients in hospital. At the moment, coronavirus patients who call an ambulance but are not yet deemed sick enough to go to hospital are being given new home oxygen monitoring kits to help spot those who may deteriorate earlier, and over 300,000 oximeters have been sent out by NHS England. But a new paper cites a “growing body of evidence” that pulse oximetry is less accurate in darker skinned patients. This could be contributing to health inequalities such as the increased COVID-19 mortality rates of ethnic minority patients, according to a review conducted for the NHS Race and Health Observatory. It is now calling for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to urgently review pulse oximetry products for ethnic minority people used in hospitals and by the wider public. Read full story Source: The Independent, 27 March 2021
  24. News Article
    Wards at a trust facing an inquiry over the deaths of vulnerable patients have been downgraded to ‘inadequate’ over fresh patient safety concerns. The Care Quality Commission said five adult and intensive wards across three hospitals run by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) Foundation Trust “did not manage patient safety incidents well”. It also criticised the trust’s leaders for failing to make sure staff knew how to assess patient risk. The watchdog rated the trust’s acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units as “inadequate” overall as well as for safety and leadership. The trust was also served a warning notice threatening more enforcement action if the patient safety issues are not urgently addressed. At the previous inspection in March 2020, the service was rated “good”. TEWV said it has taken “immediate action” to address the issues, including a rapid improvement event for staff and daily safety briefings, and will also spend £3.6m to recruit 80 more staff. The trust’s overall rating of “requires improvement” remains unchanged after this inspection. Brian Cranna, CQC’s head of hospital inspection for the North (mental health and community health services), said: “We found these five wards were providing a service where risks were not assessed effectively or managed well enough to keep people safe from harm." “Staff did not fully understand the complex risk assessment process and what was expected of them. The lack of robust documentation put people at direct risk of harm, as staff did not have access to the information they needed to provide safe care." Read full story (paywall) Source: HSJ, 26 March 2021
  25. News Article
    Two nurses whose failures contributed to the death of a disabled woman carried on working at a care home because they "knew residents well". Rachel Johnston died after an operation to remove all her teeth in 2018. Staff at Pirton Grange, near Worcester, failed to spot her decline and did not carry out basic checks. Worcestershire Coroner's Court heard that despite their actions amounting to misconduct, they were "consistent" and it was better if residents knew carers. Senior coroner David Reid concluded last month that neglect contributed to her death. and the 49-year-old would probably have survived if the staff acted sooner. Agency nurses Sheeba George and Gill Bennett failed to carry out routine checks and get emergency medical assistance, the inquest heard. Giving her delayed evidence on Friday, care home manager Jane Colbourn said she accepted their actions amounted to misconduct, but they were allowed to carry on working at the home and other residents were not at risk. "At the time I would say, although what's happened has happened, they were consistent nurses who knew those residents well and it's better to have those nurses rather than nurses that don't know the other 34 residents at all," she said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 March 2021
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