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Found 1,165 results
  1. News Article
    New weight loss drugs such as Wegovy will not be a “silver bullet” in tackling obesity, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. Francesco Branca, WHO director of food and nutrition safety, said weight loss drugs must be used alongside a healthy diet and exercise. Ms Branca’s comments come as the health body conducts its first review of obesity management guidelines in two decades. Semaglutide, marketed as Wegovy by drugmaker Novo Nordisk, is an appetite suppressant drug that has been approved by the UK medicines regulator and described by some as a “game changer” in helping people to shed weight. People will only be given Wegovy on prescription as part of a specialist weight management service involving input from several professionals and for a maximum of two years. Some experts described the decision as a “pivotal moment” for the treatment of people living with obesity but others warned that the drug is not a “quick fix”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 May 2023
  2. News Article
    The first non-prescription birth control pill in the US is on the way to approval, after a thumbs-up from an advisory committee of drug regulators. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel's unanimous vote is not binding, but means the agency is likely to formally approve the drug this summer. Opill has been available, but only by prescription, for the past 50 years. The push for over-the-counter access in the US comes amid Republican-led efforts to restrict access to abortion and contraception at the national and state level. Advisors on the panel said they were mostly confident women of all ages would use the drug as appropriate without first consulting a healthcare provider. "In the balance between benefit and risk, we'd have a hard time justifying not taking this action," said chairwoman Maria Coyle, an Ohio State University pharmacist. "The drug is incredibly effective, and I think it will be effective in the over-the-counter realm just as it is in the prescription realm." Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 May 2023
  3. News Article
    Children with serious health conditions are getting sicker as a result of persistent failings by Sciensus, a private company paid millions by the NHS to deliver essential medication, the Guardian can reveal. Parents of sick children say they are repeatedly let down by botched, delayed or missed deliveries, while NHS paediatric clinicians warn some are suffering avoidable harm as a result. Sciensus failed to send injections to Autumn Powell, an eight-year-old girl with Crohn’s disease, four times this year, according to her mother, Dallas Powell. As a result, she has suffered stomach cramping, pain and fatigue, and been off school sick. “It makes me mad, frustrated, but mostly it’s heartbreaking seeing my child suffering – and feeling helpless,” Powell said. “I am not one to go and complain publicly, but this is serious.” In a complaint to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the care regulator, three NHS paediatric clinicians working at two of the UK’s largest children’s hospitals have raised multiple concerns about Sciensus. Medicines ordered by the NHS to be sent urgently to sick children were delayed or never arrived, they said. Parents of those with serious health conditions also experienced difficulties with the company’s app. In some cases Sciensus did not respond to emails and calls about children’s missing medicines. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 May 2023
  4. News Article
    Antidepressants commonly used to treat chronic pain lack evidence as to whether or not they work, researchers have said, declaring the situation a global public health concern. Chronic pain, typically defined as pain lasting three months or more, is a widespread problem affecting up to one in three people, with conditions ranging from osteoarthritis to fibromyalgia. While exercise is often recommended, this is difficult for some patients, while there are concerns that opioids and other painkillers such as aspirin and paracetamol could do more harm than good. Increasing numbers of patients are prescribed antidepressants to treat their pain, with hundreds of thousands in the UK estimated to be taking amitriptyline. Antidepressants affect chemicals known as neurotransmitters, which is how they are thought to relieve pain. But a new Cochrane review, led by Prof Tamar Pincus, professor in health psychology at the University of Southampton, has revealed there is little evidence whether or not amitriptyline and many other common antidepressants work when it comes to tackling chronic pain. “The fact that we don’t find evidence whether it works or not, is not the same as finding evidence that it doesn’t work,” she said. “We don’t know. The studies simply are not good enough.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 10 May 2023
  5. News Article
    Millions of patients in England will be able to get prescriptions for seven common conditions, plus more blood pressure checks and the contraceptive pill, directly from pharmacies under proposals to tackle the crisis in GP surgeries. Those suffering from earache, a sore throat, sinusitis, impetigo, shingles, infected insect bites and uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women are set to be prescribed medicine by pharmacists without the need to see a doctor or nurse for the first time. The reforms are designed to free up 15m GP appointments over the next two years. The blueprint was broadly welcomed by health leaders, with Thorrun Govind, chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England, calling it a “real game-changer” for patients. But experts said not all pharmacies would be able to offer all or any of the new services, meaning the shake-up could result in frustrated patients being “bumped from pillar to post, only to end up back at the GP”. There are also concerns that patients may not be able to recognise the seriousness of some conditions, including whether a UTI can be classed as “uncomplicated”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 May 2023
  6. News Article
    Two years ago, administrators and caregivers at St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago were stunned when they flunked a basic standard for patient safety. "It was a real jolt," said Charles Holland, the hospital's president and CEO. "We thought we were doing patient safety and we thought we were doing it well." But the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit health care watchdog organisation, found the hospital fell short on documenting and having comprehensive approaches to hand-washing, medication safety systems and fall and infection prevention. The wake-up call led Holland to hire a Patient Safety and Quality Officer and to use Leapfrog's criteria as a roadmap for improving patient safety. It worked. In its latest annual review of hospital safety, released Wednesday, Leapfrog awarded the century-old charity hospital an A. The fact that St. Bernard could turn around so quickly and so effectively without spending a fortune in the process shows that patient safety is an attainable goal, said Leah Binder, Leapfrog's president and CEO. Read full story Source: USA Today, 3 May 2023
  7. News Article
    The watchdog responsible for investigating unresolved healthcare complaints has been warned repeatedly for nine months about problems with Sciensus, a private company paid millions to deliver vital medicines to NHS patients, the Guardian can reveal. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has received 18 official requests to examine grievances against Sciensus since August last year, but has not begun any investigations, according to a person familiar with the matter. The revelation comes after a Guardian investigation exposed serious and significant concerns raised by patients, clinicians and health groups about Sciensus. The investigation revealed that the company has struggled to provide a safe or reliable service. Patients persistently complain about delayed or missed home deliveries of medication, the Guardian found, with clinicians warning that the health of some has deteriorated as a result. The investigation also uncovered how some NHS staff experience “daily issues” with Sciensus. Others reported an increase in patients “flaring” as a result of missed or delayed medication. Some have seen a rise in hospital admissions. In the wake of the investigation, the Care Quality Commission, the care regulator, said it was “aware of concerns raised” about Sciensus, and was reviewing them. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 May 2023
  8. News Article
    The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that a batch of contaminated India-made cough syrup has been found in the Marshall Islands and Micronesia. The WHO said that the tested samples of Guaifenesin TG syrup, made by Punjab-based QP Pharmachem Ltd, showed "unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol". Both compounds are toxic to humans and could be fatal if consumed. The WHO statement did not specify if anyone had fallen ill. The latest alert comes months after the WHO linked other cough syrups made in India to child deaths in The Gambia and Uzbekistan. Sudhir Pathak, managing director of QP Pharmachem, told the BBC that the company had exported the batch of 18,346 bottles to Cambodia after getting all due regulatory permissions. He said he didn't know how the product had reached the Marshall Islands and Micronesia. Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 April 2023
  9. News Article
    Women in labour should be offered an alternative to an epidural spinal block injection, say new draft guidelines for the NHS. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is recommending remifentanil, which is a fast-acting morphine-like drug given into a vein. Women control the medication themselves, by pressing a button to get more of the drug for pain relief. A timer ensures the user cannot administer too much of it. Women who decide to try remifentanil and do not like it could still decide to have an epidural instead if there is no medical reason why they should not. They can use gas and air, also called Entonox, which is a mix of oxygen and nitrous oxide, at the same time. NICE says having remifentanil as a treatment option has advantages - it might enable women to be more mobile than with an epidural, which makes the legs numb and weak, for example. Evidence suggests fewer epidurals might mean fewer births using instruments like forceps and ventouse vacuum suction, says NICE. Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 April 2023
  10. News Article
    Chronically ill patients across the UK allege they've had to go without vital medication amid delays by a private company contracted by the NHS to deliver drugs. In the last year alone, Sciensus was awarded NHS contracts worth more than £5 million, despite being placed into special measures by health regulators in 2021 following widespread delivery failings. ITV News has revealed that the CQC is currently reviewing whether to take further regulatory action against Sciensus, having been made aware of concerns about the company’s performance. The company, which is based in Burton-on-Trent and says it "works with every NHS Trust in the country", should provide a lifeline for those who rely on specialised medications. These include those with long-term conditions - like cancer, HIV, and haemophilia - which often require drugs that can't be collected from high street or hospital pharmacies. One new mother with rheumatoid arthritis said she was taken to A&E after Sciensus left her without medication for three weeks. The 37-year-old, who wishes to remain anonymous, told ITV News: "I was unable walk with a small baby... it was such a chronic flare that I couldn't walk, which I've never, ever had before in my life." Read full story Source: ITV News, 21 April 2023
  11. News Article
    The US Supreme Court has extended until Friday a temporary block on limits to access of a popular abortion pill. A Texas judge suspended approval of abortion drug mifepristone on 7 April, questioning its safety. Parts of that decision were upheld on appeal, prompting the Biden administration to make an emergency request to the Supreme Court. It's the most significant such case since the Supreme Court last year ended the nationwide right to abortion. The pill - used in more than half of abortions in the US - was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) more than two decades ago. Critics say that by overriding the FDA's approval, the court in Texas has usurped the federal health agency's remit to regulate food, medicine, and medical devices. Legal experts warn the ruling opens the door for challenges to other approved medicines in the US and could also stifle development of future drugs. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 April 2023
  12. News Article
    A team from NHS Ayrshire & Arran has successfully created a system to ensure that people with Parkinson’s get their medication on time while they are in hospital. Parkinson’s nurse specialist Nick Bryden, who led the team, explains: “The timely administration of medication is hugely important in helping to control symptoms in people with Parkinson’s. "Guidance states that Parkinson’s medication should be administered within 30 minutes, either side, of the prescribed time which can be challenging within a busy hospital ward environment." Nick, who works out of Biggart Hospital in Prestwick, added: “When we initially worked with our digital pharmacist, Richard Cottrell, it was to develop a system that would alert us to when a Parkinson’s patient was admitted to hospital. "It then became clear that we could take the system a step further and use it to monitor if people are on the right medication and whether or not it is being administered at the right time.” The team worked to develop a further system of clear visual prompts with NHS Digital services, which appear alongside relevant patient details on wards’ electronic whiteboards. Every patient prescribed Parkinson’s medication has a tulip symbol beside their name which changes colour and flashes when it’s close to the time to administer the medication. The system was initially piloted in a couple of wards and, due to its success, has now been rolled out to almost every ward in Ayrshire and Arran. Read full story Source: The Herald, 19 April 2023 Related reading on the hub: Top picks: Seven resources about Parkinson’s Professionals with Parkinson’s tackle time critical patient safety issue: a blog by Sam Freeman Carney
  13. News Article
    England’s pharmacies are on the brink of collapse – struggling with a shortage of staff and medical supplies – combined with increased patient demand and soaring costs, according to an industry survey shared exclusively with this programme. Staff say that some patients are so frustrated by the supply problems, they’re getting aggressive. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the industry body which carried out the survey, says the Government and NHS need to step in now, before it’s too late. View video Source: Channel 4 News, 12 April 2023
  14. News Article
    The manufacturer of eyedrops recently linked to deaths and injuries lacked measures to assure sterility at its factory in India, according to U.S. health inspectors. Food and Drug Administration officials uncovered about a dozen problems with how Global Pharma Healthcare made and tested its eyedrops during an inspection from late February through early March. The FDA released its preliminary inspection report Monday. The company uses procedures that can’t actually ensure its products are sterile, FDA staff wrote. In particular, the inspectors found that the plant had used “a deficient manufacturing process” between December 2020 and April 2022 for products that were later shipped to the US. The plant in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state produced eyedrops that have been linked to 68 bacterial infections in the U.S., including three deaths and eight cases of vision loss. Four people have had their eyeballs surgically removed due to infection. The drops were recalled in February by two U.S. distributors, EzriCare and Delsam Phama. In a statement, the FDA's Jeremy Khan wrote, “We urge consumers to stop using these products which may be harmful to their health.” Read full story Source: NBC News, 4 April 2023
  15. News Article
    Cancer drug information leaflets for patients in Europe frequently omit important facts, while some are “potentially misleading” when it comes to treatment benefits and related uncertainties, researchers have found. Cancer is the biggest killer in Europe after heart conditions, with more than 3.7m new cases and 1.9m deaths every year, according to the World Health Organization. Medicines are a vital weapon against the disease. But critical facts about them are often missing from official sources of information provided to patients, clinicians and the public, according to a study led by researchers from King’s College London, Harvard Medical School and the University of Sydney, among others. “Regulated information sources for anticancer drugs in Europe fail to address the information needs of patients,” the study’s authors wrote in The BMJ journal. “If patients lack access to such information, clinical decisions may not align with their preferences and needs.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 March 2023
  16. News Article
    Certain cough medicines sold behind the counter at pharmacies are being withdrawn over safety concerns. Health experts say there is a very rare chance that some people could experience an allergic reaction linked to an ingredient called pholcodine. People should check the packaging of any cough tablets or syrups they have at home to see if pholcodine is listed among the ingredients. If it is, talk to your pharmacist about taking a different medicine. Products containing pholcodine do not need a prescription, but cannot be bought without consultation with the pharmacist as they are kept behind the counter. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) described removing the products from sale as a precautionary measure. Read full story Source: BBC News. 15 March 2023
  17. News Article
    The US Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI) has said the paediatric mental health crisis is the most pressing patient safety concern in 2023. ECRI, which conducts independent medical device evaluations, annually compiles scientific literature and patient safety events, concerns reported to or investigated by the organization, and other data sources to create its top 10 list. Here are the 10 patient safety concerns for 2023, according to the report: 1. The pediatric mental health crisis 2. Physical and verbal violence against healthcare staff 3. Clinician needs in times of uncertainty surrounding maternal-fetal medicine 4. Impact on clinicians expected to work outside their scope of practice and competencies 5. Delayed identification and treatment of sepsis 6. Consequences of poor care coordination for patients with complex medical conditions 7. Risks of not looking beyond the "five rights" to achieve medication safety 8. Medication errors resulting from inaccurate patient medication lists 9. Accidental administration of neuromuscular blocking agents 10. Preventable harm due to omitted care or treatment For the number one spot, ECRI said the COVID-19 pandemic raised the situation, which includes high rates of depression and anxiety among children, to crisis levels. ECRI President and CEO Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, said social media, gun violence and other socioeconomic factors were fueling the issue, but COVID-19 pushed it into a crisis. "We're approaching a national public health emergency," Dr. Schabacker said in a statement. Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 13 March 2023
  18. Content Article
    This Quality Standard from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been updated to instruct healthcare professionals to diagnose women under the age of 65 with a urinary tract infection (UTI) if they have two or more key symptoms.
  19. Content Article
    There is little longitudinal information about the type and frequency of harm resulting from medication errors among outpatient children with cancer. This study aimed to characterise rates and types of medication errors and harm to outpatient children with leukaemia and lymphoma over 7 months of treatment.
  20. Content Article
    In this study, Hawkins and Morse explored nurses’ work in the context of medication administration, errors and the organisation. Secondary analysis of ethnographic data included 92 hours of non-participant observation, and 37 unstructured interviews with nurses, administrators, and pharmacists. Think-aloud observations and analysis of institutional documents supplemented these data. Findings revealed the nature of nurses’ work was characterised by chasing a standard of care, prioritising practice and renegotiating routines. The rich description identified characteristics of nurses’ work as cyclical, chaotic and complex, shattering studies that explained nurses’ work as linear. A new theoretical model was developed, illustrating the inseparability of nurses’ work from contextual contingencies and enhancing our understanding of the cascading components of work that result in days that spin out of the nurses’ control. These results deepen our understanding why present efforts targeting the reduction of medication errors may be ineffective and places administration accountable for the context in which medication errors occur.
  21. Content Article
    In this report, Dr Henrietta Hughes, Patient Safety Commissioner for England, reflects on her first 100 days in this new role. She sets out what she has heard, what she has done and her priorities for the year ahead.
  22. Content Article
    Chronic pain is common and debilitating, affecting about one in five people globally. However, chronic pain can be difficult to treat, and management is often suboptimal. The 2021 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline for chronic primary pain explicitly recommends against the use of pain medicines, with the exception of antidepressants. To provide patients and clinicians with an updated and comprehensive resource on the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of antidepressants to treat pain, Ferreira et al. conducted an overview of relevant systematic reviews.  The study found no review could provide high certainty evidence on the effectiveness of antidepressants for pain for any condition. Nine reviews did provide evidence that some antidepressants were effective, such as moderate evidence suggesting serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), such as duloxetine, were effective for back pain, post-operative pain, fibromyalgia and nerve pain. However, the study only found low certainty evidence that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were effective for people with depression and pain related to other conditions, and that tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) were effective for irritable bowel syndrome, nerve pain and chronic tension-type headaches. The findings suggest that a more nuanced approach is needed when prescribing antidepressants for pain conditions.
  23. Content Article
    In this YouTube video, Jerika T. Lam, Associate Professor at Chapman University, School of Pharmacy, offers insights on patient safety from a pharmacist’s perspective. As someone who works in a clinic that serves marginalised and underserved communities, she describes the important role pharmacists can play on a healthcare team alongside doctors and nurses to ensure patients get the appropriate medications with minimal drug interactions.
  24. Content Article
    This paper aims to highlight how to reduce medication errors through the implementation of human factors science to the design features of medication containers. Despite efforts to employ automation for increased safety and decreased workload, medication administration in hospital wards is still heavily dependent on human operators (pharmacists, nurses, physicians, etc.). Improving this multi-step process requires its being studied and designed as an interface in a complex socio-technical system. Human factors engineering, also known as ergonomics, involves designing socio-technical systems to improve overall system performance, and reduces the risk of system, and in particular, operator, failures. The incorporation of human factors principles into the design of the work environment and tools that are in use during medication administration could improve this process. During periods of high workload, the cognitive effort necessary to work through a very demanding process may overwhelm even expert operators. In such conditions, the entire system should facilitate the human operator’s high level of performance. Regarding medications, clinicians should be provided with as many perceptual cues as possible to facilitate medication identification. Neglecting the shape of the container as one of the features that differentiates between classes of medications is a lost opportunity to use a helpful characteristic, and medication administration failures that happen in the absence of such intentional design arise from “designer error” rather than “user error”. Guidelines that define a container’s shape for each class of medication would compel pharmaceutical manufacturers to be compatible and would eliminate the confusion that arises when a hospital changes the supplier of a given medication.
  25. Content Article
    On 4 March 2020 an investigation into the death of Yvonne Eaves was opened. The inquest came to a narrative conclusion that "The Deceased suffered from a chronic mental disorder and serious self-neglect. After compulsory admission to hospital under the Mental Health Act there was a gross failure to provide her with basic medical care which contributed to her death and it was possible that if she had received that care and VTE prophylaxis treatment she would not have developed a pulmonary thromboembolism and died."
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