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Found 2,341 results
  1. News Article
    The private laboratory that is under investigation for potentially issuing more than 40,000 false negative Covid tests was not fully accredited to perform the work, contrary to assurances made by health officials. The UK’s independent accreditation service, Ukas, told the Guardian on Monday that neither Immensa Health Clinics Ltd nor its sister company, Dante Labs, had ever been accredited by the service, and that it had informed the Department of Health that statements suggesting otherwise were incorrect. The UK Health Security Agency announced on Friday that it was suspending operations at Immensa’s laboratory in Wolverhampton pending an investigation into concerns that at least 43,000 people with coronavirus had been wrongly told their swabs tested negative for the virus. Because many of the individuals would have believed the typically more accurate PCR tests performed by Immensa over simpler lateral flow tests, there is a substantial risk they unwittingly spread the virus on to thousands more people. Read more Source: The Guardian, 18 October 2021
  2. Content Article
    When the history of the COVID-19 pandemic is written, it is likely to show that the mental models held by scientists sometimes facilitated their thinking, thereby leading to lives saved, and at other times constrained their thinking, thereby leading to lives lost. This paper from Trisha Greenhalgh explores some competing mental models of how infectious diseases spread and shows how these models influenced the scientific process and the kinds of facts that were generated, legitimised and used to support policy.
  3. Content Article
    A new report from two House of Commons committees highlights the UK’s failed pandemic response. Martin McKee, professor of European Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, unpicks the findings.
  4. Content Article
    Real-time training during global emergencies is critical for effective preparedness and response. The WHO COVID-19 channel provides learning resources for health professionals, decision-makers and the public for the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). As the outbreak continues to evolve, new resources will be added and existing courses will be updated to best reflect the changing context. 
  5. News Article
    Some acute trusts have failed to report large numbers of hospital-acquired covid infections as patient safety incidents, despite NHS England describing this as ‘fundamental’. HSJ examined the numbers of “infection control” patient safety incidents reported to the national reporting and learning system in 2020-21, and compared this to separate NHS England data on covid infections most likely to have been acquired in hospital. The number of incidents reported to the NRLS in the 12-month period should in theory be higher, as it covers all types of hospital-acquired infections, while the NHSE data only covered covid infections in the last seven months of the year. This appears to hold true nationally, with almost 59,000 incidents reported to the NRLS, compared to around 36,000 likely hospital-acquired covid infections suggested by the NHSE data. But for around a third of trusts, the incident numbers reported to the NRLS were smaller, with some appearing to report very low numbers. Helen Hughes, chief executive of patient safety charity Patient Safety Learning, said: “The scale of the under-reporting set out in these findings is particularly concerning.” “As this data informs assessment of performance at both organisational and national levels, it is possible that this could create a false assurance about the extent of harm in this period,” Ms Hughes said. “Where organisations are now retrospectively completing serious incident reports, there are obvious questions as to whether key insights will have been lost as memories of incidents fade over time and their causes.” “However, they rely on the capacity and commitment of staff behind them. The pandemic has placed an enormous strain on the health service and we have heard from staff the time constraints this has put on them to report patient safety incidents,” she added. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 October 2021
  6. News Article
    Around 43,000 people in England may have been wrongly told their Covid-19 test was negative because of errors at a lab. Testing at the Wolverhampton laboratory has been suspended following an investigation by NHS Test and Trace. It is now contacting those affected, mainly in the south west region, to ask them to take another Covid test. Concerns were raised when people had positive lateral flow tests but negative PCR results from the lab. Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 October 2021
  7. News Article
    The programme of giving third Covid vaccinations to people with compromised immune systems has been a “chaotic failure”, charities have said, with fewer than half of those eligible contacted about a third jab before an NHS deadline this month. Surveys by Blood Cancer UK and Kidney Care UK found that for both groups of patients, between 55% and 60% had yet to be invited to get a third injection, seen as particularly vital for conditions which affect people’s immune systems, as they are generally less protected by two jabs. The charities said many of those who responded were desperately worried and were struggling to get information about a third vaccination. Some people with blood cancer had resorted to going to vaccination centres without an appointment, pleading for a third dose, Blood Cancer UK said. Official figures show there were 45,066 confirmed new Covid cases in the UK on Thursday, the highest daily total since mid-July. Kidney Care UK said the poor communication highlighted what seemed to be a “woeful lack of preparation” for the programme, the guidance for which was agreed on 2 September. The third dose programme for people with compromised immune systems is separate to the wider rollout of booster jabs being offered to everyone over 50, and others with clinical vulnerabilities, which started on 15 September. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2021
  8. Content Article
    A major report from a year-long joint inquiry by the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee has now been published and offers a forensic analysis of six aspects of the government’s response to covid. Chris Ham is chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care System, Co-Chair of the NHS Assembly and non-executive director of the Royal Free London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and gave evidence to the inquiry. In this BMJ Opinion article, Chris discusses the report, the recommendations and the omissions.
  9. News Article
    The government’s actions in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic have received a mixed review from MPs in a report that set out the successes and failures of the UK response. Although the joint report from the House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee  praised the UK’s covid vaccination programme as highly effective, it also condemned serious errors, especially delayed lockdowns and how a test, trace, and isolate system was set up. Overall, the MPs’ inquiry found that some government initiatives were examples of global best practice but that others represented “serious mistakes.” The UK’s pandemic planning was based too narrowly on a flu model that had failed to learn the lessons from the SARS, MERS, and Ebola epidemics, said the MPs, which meant that its covid planning was worse than in other countries. Delays in establishing an adequate test, trace, and isolate system hampered efforts to contain the outbreak, said the MPs, and the government’s initial decision to delay a comprehensive lockdown had revealed its then “fatalistic” assumption that it was impossible to suppress the virus, which amounted, in practice, to accepting that herd immunity by infection was inevitable. The report said that many thousands of deaths could have been avoided if the government had not let hospitals discharge people into care homes in the initial phase of the pandemic and that this showed the “longstanding failure” to give social care sufficient priority and the same attention as the NHS. Read full story Source: BMJ, 12 October 2021
  10. News Article
    Britain’s early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history, with ministers and scientists taking a “fatalistic” approach that exacerbated the death toll, a landmark inquiry has found. “Groupthink”, evidence of British exceptionalism and a deliberately “slow and gradualist” approach meant the UK fared “significantly worse” than other countries, according to the 151-page “Coronavirus: lessons learned to date” report led by two former Conservative ministers. The crisis exposed “major deficiencies in the machinery of government”, with public bodies unable to share vital information and scientific advice impaired by a lack of transparency, input from international experts and meaningful challenge. Despite being one of the first countries to develop a test for Covid in January 2020, the UK “squandered” its lead and “converted it into one of permanent crisis”. The consequences were profound, the report says. “For a country with a world-class expertise in data analysis, to face the biggest health crisis in 100 years with virtually no data to analyse was an almost unimaginable setback.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2021
  11. Content Article
    The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee have published their Report following a joint inquiry, which began in October 2020, examining six key areas of the UK's response to COVID-19: the country's preparedness for a pandemic; the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as border controls, social distancing and lockdowns to control the pandemic; the use of test, trace and isolate strategies; the impact of the pandemic on social care; the impact of the pandemic on specific communities; and the procurement and roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines. The 150-page Report contains 38 recommendations to the Government and public bodies, and draws on evidence from over 50 witnesses as well as over 400 written submissions. The inquiry concluded that some initiatives were examples of global best practice but others represented mistakes. Both must be reflected on to ensure that lessons are applied to better inform future responses to emergencies.
  12. News Article
    A cabinet minister has refused to apologise for the government’s handing of the COVID-19 pandemic despite a new report finding that errors cost “thousands of lives”. Cabinet Office minister Stephen Barclay defended the government’s decision making to Sky News, saying: “We followed, throughout, the scientific advice. We got the vaccine deployed extremely quickly, we protected our NHS from the surge of cases.” His comments come as family members who lost loved ones to COVID-19 described the MPs’ report as “laughable” for failing to take evidence from the bereaved. The COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group criticised the parliamentary report as being “more interested in political arguments about whether you can bring laptops to Cobra meetings that it is in the experiences of those who tragically lost” family members to COVID-19. When asked, for a second time, if he would apologise by presenter Kay Burley, Stephen Barclay replied: “Well no, we followed the scientific advice, we protected the NHS, we took the decisions based on the evidence before us.” He made these comments despite the report finding that the delayed decision to lock down in spring last year was one of the “most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 October 2021
  13. News Article
    Unvaccinated pregnant women accounted for nearly a fifth of the most severely ill coronavirus patients in England in recent months, according to health officials. Between July and September, 17% of COVID-19 patients who required a special lung bypass machine while in intensive care were mothers-to-be who had not received their first vaccine dose, NHS England said. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used when a patient’s lungs are so damaged by Covid-19 that a ventilator cannot maintain oxygen levels. While just six per cent of the women aged 16 to 49 who needed ECMO at the start of the pandemic were pregnant, nearly a third of women among that age group who required the lung bypass in recent months were unvaccinated mothers-to-be. The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) called the statistics a “damning indictment of the lack of attention given to this vulnerable group as restrictions have eased”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 11 October 2021
  14. Content Article
    The World Health Organization IWHO) has developed a clinical case definition of post COVID-19 condition by Delphi methodology that includes 12 domains, available for use in all settings. This first version was developed by patients, researchers and others, representing all WHO regions, with the understanding that the definition may change as new evidence emerges and our understanding of the consequences of COVID-19 continues to evolve.
  15. News Article
    An inquest into the death of a London bus driver at London’s Nightingale Hospital during the first wave of coronavirus has heard evidence about equipment mistakes which may have harmed patients. Kishorkumar Patel, aged 58, was one of the first patients to be admitted to the field hospital at London’s Excel Conference Centre in April last year. An inquest at East London Coroner’s Court was told doctors and nurses were forced to work “leanly” because of limited staff and ventilators to help patients breathe. Mr Patel is one of 10 patients who had the wrong filter used on the ventilator machines which it is thought triggered a cardiac arrest in Mr Patel, a father of six. A serious incident report identified 10 patients were affected by the use of the wrong filter, with three said to have been harmed as a result. Read coroner's report Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 October 2021
  16. Content Article
    As a growing number of hospitals pressed for resources due to the COVID-19 surge suspend elective surgeries, some healthcare professionals want the public to know exactly how important an "elective" procedure can be.  The term "elective surgery" does not describe the acuity of the medical condition or necessity of the procedure. Rather, the use of "elective" distinguishes these surgeries that are scheduled in advance from emergency surgeries, such as trauma cases.  As Americans learn of elective surgeries once again being postponed, physicians are taking to the web to debunk what can be a misnomer.
  17. Content Article
    A new analysis of the risks and benefits of offering two doses of COVID-19 vaccination to all 12-17 year olds in England shows that the benefits clearly outweigh the risks, given the current high case rates. In the UK currently a single dose of vaccine is recommended for all 12-17 year olds. The research, which is in press with the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, estimates hospital and ICU admissions, deaths and cases of long COVID averted over a 16-week period by vaccinating all 12-17 year olds in England. The analysis includes high and low case rate scenarios.
  18. News Article
    The country’s largest clinical study is being launched in Greater Manchester to investigate the best gap between first and second Covid-19 vaccine doses for pregnant women. Led by St George’s, University of London, the Preg-CoV study will provide vital clinical trial data on the immune response to vaccination at different dose intervals – either four to six weeks or eight to 12 weeks. This data will help determine the best dosage interval and reveal more about how the vaccine works to protect pregnant mothers and their babies against Covid-19. Pregnant women are more likely to develop severe Covid-19 or die from the disease but are excluded from clinical trials with new vaccines. This means there are currently very limited clinical trial data on the immune response and side effects caused by the vaccines for these women. Read the full story here Source: National Health Executive
  19. Content Article
    This study, published online by Cambridge University Press, looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on incidences of healthcare-associated infection in hospitals in the United States of America. The authors analyse events reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network for 2019 and 2020 by acute-care hospitals.
  20. News Article
    Hospitals in England have been given the green light to ease some of the Covid infection-control measures that have been in place during the pandemic. The changes, recommended by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), are aimed at easing pressure on the NHS. It says testing and isolating patients before planned operations can be dropped and hospitals can return to normal cleaning procedures. Social distancing can also be reduced from 2m (6ft) to 1m in some areas. UKHSA chief executive Dr Jenny Harries said the new recommendations would help local hospitals plan more elective care. "This is a first step to help the NHS treat more patients more quickly, while ensuring their safety and balancing their different needs for care," she said. Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: "As ever more people benefit from the protection of our phenomenal vaccination campaign, we can now safely begin to relieve some of the most stringent infection controls where they are no longer necessary, to benefit patients and ease the burden on hardworking NHS staff." Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 September 2021
  21. News Article
    The co-founder of a coronavirus bereaved families group has said he hopes Boris Johnson will "at long last... take us seriously" when he meets them at Number 10 today. Matt Fowler said it is vital the prime minister understand the need to start a public inquiry as soon as possible. Mr Johnson will meet members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group today - more than a year after promising to meet people whose loved ones had died. They will share how their family members caught the disease and died, and repeat calls for a public inquiry to get priority. The group plans to raise issues with the PM such as the disproportionate effect of COVID on some ethnic groups, transmission of the disease on public transport and in the workplace, the impact of late lockdowns, and failures to learn from the first wave. Boris Johnson previously said the inquiry would start in spring 2022. Read full story Source: Sky News, 28 September 2021
  22. News Article
    Anti-vaccine Facebook groups in the United States have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units. Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with COVID-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks. Some people in groups that formed recently to promote the false cure ivermectin, an anti-parasite treatment, have claimed extracting Covid patients from hospitals is pivotal so that they can self-medicate at home with ivermectin. But as the patients begin to realize that ivermectin by itself is not effective, the groups have begun recommending a series of increasingly hazardous at-home treatments, such as gargling with iodine, and nebulizing and inhaling hydrogen peroxide, calling it part of a “protocol.” The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave. Those concerns echo various local reports about growing threats and violence directed toward medical professionals in the US. In Branson, Missouri, a medical center recently introduced panic buttons on employee badges because of a spike in assaults. Violence and threats against medical professionals have recently been reported in Massachusetts, Texas, Georgia and Idaho. Read full story Source: NBC News, 24 September 2021
  23. Content Article
    The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed the respiratory isolation capacity in hospitals; many wards lacking high-frequency air changes have been repurposed for managing patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 requiring either standard or intensive care. Hospital-acquired COVID-19 is a recognised problem amongst both patients and staff, with growing evidence for the relevance of airborne transmission. This study from Conway-Morris et al. examined the effect of air filtration and ultra-violet (UV) light sterilisation on detectable airborne SARS-CoV-2 and other microbial bioaerosols.
  24. Content Article
    UK prime minister Boris Johnson recently announced a fuzzy blueprint for his “winter plan”, in which further lockdowns and compulsory mask-wearing were not being introduced but could not be ruled out.  In a blog to the Conversation, Trish Greenhalgh, Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, offers an alternative blueprint.
  25. Content Article
    On 24 March 2021, an investigation into the death of Hazel Fleur Wiltshire was opened. The conclusion of the inquest was that Mrs Wiltshire died from pneumonia caused by a fall and by COVID-19 that she acquired in hospital. The fall was caused by her trying to relieve herself without assistance in the context of long delays in answering calls bells at the time.
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