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Showing results for tags 'Virus'.
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EventuntilAre you a patient who has been waiting to receive a diagnosis or test results during the last six months? This includes, but is not limited to, CT scans, MRI scans, and endoscopy and dermatology procedures. Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your service? Would you like to help to improve the patient experience of waiting for a diagnosis? The Patients Association is holding an online Zoom patient group discussion on this topic on Tuesday 27th October, 2.00-4.00pm, and we are seeking patients to take part. An £80 incentive payment will be offered in Amazon vouchers and places are limited. Participants will be chosen on the basis of suitability to ensure the group is representative of a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. Please fill in the registration form https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CRNMC2T if you are interested.
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Content ArticlePatient Safety Movement's Dr Donna Prosser is joined by Dr Steven Deeks, Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and Dr Jake Suett, Staff Grade Anaesthetist and Intensive Care Doctor, UUK, to discuss the long term implications of COVID-19 from clinical and personal perspectives. Dr Deeks shares the research around long COVID-19 symptoms and Dr Suett provides a personal anecdote of his experience with symptoms that have lasted months. Dr. Suett shares information about the COVID symptom study, which consists of an international mobile app to track COVID-19 symptoms over time.
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News ArticleMinisters have denied care home inspectors access to weekly testing for coronavirus – despite fears they could contribute to the spread of COVID-19 as cases rise across the country, The Independent can reveal. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) was told by the Department of Health and Social Care last month it could not have access to regular testing for inspection teams as the watchdog prepares for 500 inspections of care homes during the next six weeks. Officials said the teams, who are assessing care conditions for the vulnerable and elderly, did not get close enough to people to present a risk. During the first wave of the virus, after Public Health England initially said there was no risk to care homes, an estimated 16,000 residents died from the virus. At the height of the crisis up to 25,000 NHS patients were discharged to care homes by the NHS, with many not having been tested for the virus. Labour MP Barbara Keeley said: “The refusal of the Department of Health and Social Care to treat CQC inspectors in the same way as other staff going into care homes puts lives at risk.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 October 2020
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News ArticleCOVID-19 became a pandemic in March 2020, but the after-effects of it are becoming more apparent as many people are suffering from a wide variety of symptoms months after contracting the disease. Long COVID – as it is being called – has been affecting some of the earliest COVID-19 sufferers since the first few months of 2020, but little is known about it and the huge variety of symptoms is making research very difficult. Sky News looks at what the symptoms of long COVID are, how it has affected people's lives, how many are suffering, what treatments there are and how it could affect the economy. Read full story Source: Sky News, 19 October 2020
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News ArticleMany unpaid carers looking after vulnerable friends or relatives during the coronavirus crisis say they are worried about how they will cope this winter. Almost 6,000 unpaid carers completed a Carers UK online questionnaire. Eight in 10 said they had been doing more, with fewer breaks, since the pandemic began - and three-quarters said they were exhausted. The government said it recognised the "vital role" of unpaid carers. In the Carers UK survey, 58% of carers said they had seen their physical health affected by caring through the pandemic, while 64% said their mental health had worsened. People also said day centres and reductions in other services meant the help they once got had reduced or disappeared, leaving many feeling worn out and isolated. Carers UK wants such services up and running again as a matter of urgency. Helen Walker, chief executive of Carers UK, said: "The majority of carers have only known worry and exhaustion throughout this pandemic. "They continue to provide extraordinary hours of care, without the usual help from family and friends, and with limited or no support from local services." "It's no surprise that carers' physical and mental health is suffering, badly. I am deeply concerned that so many carers are on the brink and desperately worried about how they will manage during the next wave of the pandemic." Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 October 2020
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Content ArticleProviders deliver: Resilient and resourceful through COVID-19 is the third report from NHS Providers which celebrate and promote the work of NHS trusts and foundation trusts in improving care for patients and service users. Here is a case study from the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust. It shows: Deployed thermal imaging cameras to identify people with high temperature. Developed effective guidance for staff. Boosted public confidence in safety of hospital.
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Content ArticleAs a second wave of COVID-19 infections is underway in the UK, Sarah Scobie answers some key questions on how mortality figures are collected and measured during the pandemic. How do the numbers relate to the daily figures reported, and are all the extra deaths due to the coronavirus?
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News Article
Coronavirus: Survival rate of intensive care patients improving, data suggests
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
As hospitalisations and intensive care admissions surge around the country, new figures indicate coronavirus patients in critical care have a better survival rate now than when the pandemic first began. The latest report from The Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) into critical care for England, Wales and Northern Ireland looks at patients admitted to intensive care up until 31 August and those admitted from 1 September. The data shows that on average, 39% of critical care coronavirus patients died up until the end of August while less than 12% have died since September. The proportion of patients who died after being admitted to critical care fell by almost a quarter from the peak and as much as half in hospitals overall. However, the Dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, Dr Alison Pittard, told the BBC that the difference may be attributed to an insufficient amount of time having passed which impedes an accurate and longterm patient assessment, as some remain in hospital. Meanwhile, scientific advisors continue to warn that the next few weeks are critical for regulating hospital admissions. Read full story Source: The Independent, 18 October 2020 -
EventuntilHealthcare provision and practice have changed significantly as a result of the NHS response to COVID-19, some for better and some for worse. Join the Royal Society of Medicine to reflect on recent changes and look at how they have impacted different groups, from healthcare professionals across disciplines to patients and carers. Register
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EventuntilOver the last twenty years in particular, the NHS has been focusing on how to create better care pathways that improve patient outcomes. Improving care pathways has a positive impact on clinical outcomes, cost reduction, patient satisfaction, teamwork and process outcomes, but COVID-19 has created a significant disconnect in these pathways meaning patients are either not entering them or not flowing through them as smoothly as they need to. The administrative elements of managing patients through pathways are significant and, at a time when the NHS is experiencing workforce shortages, routinely take staff away from caring for and reassuring patients. At this King's Fund event, decision points within pathways will be explored and how digital technology can transform how pathways operate, enabling clinicians to better understand where each patient is on the pathway, what they are waiting for and what needs to happen next. Learn how to improve pathway ‘hand-offs’ and administration, to free up time for staff to care for patients in a more personalised way. The event will include examples of how industry and the NHS can come together to build smarter pathways, using technology to augment the expertise of caregivers. Register for free
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News Article
Covid: Greater Manchester running out of hospital beds, leak reveals
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Greater Manchester is set to run out of beds to treat people left seriously ill by COVID-19, and some of the region’s 12 hospitals are already full, a leaked NHS document has revealed. It showed that by last Friday the resurgence of the disease had left hospitals in Salford, Stockport and Bolton at maximum capacity, with no spare beds to help with the growing influx. The picture it paints ratchets up the pressure on ministers to reach a deal with local leaders over the region’s planned move to the top level of coronavirus restrictions. It suggested that Greater Manchester’s hospitals are quickly heading towards being overwhelmed by the sheer number of people with Covid needing emergency care to save their lives, in the same way that those in Liverpool have become in recent weeks. By Friday 211 of the 257 critical care beds in Greater Manchester – 82% of the total supply – were already being used for either those with Covid or people who were critically ill because of another illness. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 18 October 2020 -
News Article
Covid survivors say ‘brain fog’ has impaired their ability to function normally
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
After contracting COVID-19 in March, Michael Reagan lost all memory of his 12-day vacation in Paris even though the trip was just a few weeks earlier. Several weeks after Erica Taylor recovered from her coronavirus symptoms of nausea and cough, she became confused and forgetful, failing to even recognise her own car, the only Toyota Prius in her apartment complex’s parking lot. Lisa Mizelle, a veteran nurse practitioner at an urgent care clinic who fell ill with the virus in July, finds herself forgetting routine treatments and lab tests, and has to ask colleagues about terminology she used to know automatically. It is becoming known as Covid “brain fog”: troubling cognitive symptoms that can include memory loss, confusion, difficulty focusing, dizziness and grasping for everyday words. Increasingly Covid survivors say brain fog is impairing their ability to work and function normally. “There are thousands of people who have that,” said Dr Igor Koralnik, chief of neuro-infectious disease at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, who has already seen hundreds of survivors at a post-Covid clinic he leads. The effect on the workforce that is affected is going to be significant, he added. Read full story Source: The Irish Times, 18 October 2020- Posted
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News ArticleA wider range of healthcare workers—including midwives, paramedics, physiotherapists, and pharmacists—are now allowed to give flu and potentially COVID-19 vaccines after the introduction of new laws by the UK government. The changes to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, first proposed in August1 and consulted upon last month, came into effect on 16 October. The Department of Health and Social Care said that the expanded workforce will have to undergo additional training to ensure patient safety. It added that government planning will “ensure this does not affect other services in hospitals and in GP and community services, by drawing on a pool of experienced NHS professionals through the NHS Bring Back Scheme.” Commenting on the changes, England’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said, “The measures outlined today aim to improve access and strengthen existing safeguards protecting patients.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 16 October 2020
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News Article
Deaths at home: More than 26,000 extra this year, ONS finds
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More men than normal are dying at home from heart disease in England and Wales and more women are dying from dementia and Alzheimer's disease, figures show. More than 26,000 extra deaths occurred in private homes this year, an analysis by the Office for National Statistics found. In contrast, deaths in hospitals from these causes have been lower than usual. The Covid epidemic may have led to fewer people being treated in hospital or it may be that people in older age groups, who make up the majority of these deaths, may be choosing to stay at home – but the underlying reasons for the figures are still not clear. Read full story Source: BBC News, 19 October 2020- Posted
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News Article
Hospitals Liverpool Covid admissions will 'devastate' other hospital care
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The large number of COVID-19 patients being admitted to hospitals at the centre of the second wave will “devastate” care for people with other illnesses, a top doctor has said. Dr Tristan Cope said Liverpool’s acute hospitals would not be able to continue providing normal care because of the high number of people being treated for serious Covid symptoms. Unless the surge in coronavirus admissions slowed down it would “have a devastating effect on planned care, such as operations”, he said. Cope is the medical director of Liverpool university hospitals NHS trust, where almost all critical care beds are already full because the city’s high infection rate has placed intense pressure on the trust’s three hospitals: the Royal Liverpool, Broadgreen and Aintree. “Liverpool hospitals are under enormous pressure with admissions of sick Covid patients. We are used to pressure, but this is over and above that,” Cope tweeted last week. “We have the highest number of Covid patients in the UK, nearly as many now as at the peak of the first wave. We also have more Covid patients in ICU [intensive care units] than any other trust in the UK.” Cope said: “If we don’t reduce the rate of infection in the community and Covid admission rates continue to rise, it will inevitably have a massive effect on non-urgent care." “If we don’t get control of [the] spread of the virus in the community and admissions continue at the current rate, our hospitals will not be able to cope. This will have a devastating effect on planned care, such as operations.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2020 -
Content ArticlePhysicians and patients have concerns associated with a shift toward virtual medicine. This interview with a Dr Paul Hyman, a primary care physician, highlights how the loss of physical touch and in-person communication could negatively affect care and the patient/physician relationship.
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Content ArticleMs Cath Rennie, ENT Consultant Surgeon, and Lizzie Bullock, Rhinology Clinical Nurse Specialist, discuss Post Viral Olfactory Loss, COVID-19 and the impact it has on smell and taste. Lizzie shares her personal experiences and talks with Cath about medical treatments, access to care and self-management tools. Fifth Sense are hosting a programme of online conversations and webinars on a range of topics to support people affected by smell and taste disorders.
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Content ArticleDoctors who contracted COVID, and thought the symptoms would be over in weeks, tell Jennifer Trueland about their continuing pain, exhaustion and – sometimes – struggle to be believed
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching effects upon people’s lives, health care systems and wider society. As yet there is little research into the number of people at risk of developing ongoing COVID-19. Early attention has been on the acute illness generated by the virus, but it is becoming clear that, for some people,COVID-19 infection is a long term illness. This rapid and dynamic review authored by Dr Elaine Maxwell draws on the lived experience of patients and expert consensus as well as published evidence to better understand the impact of ongoing effects of COVID19, how health and social care services should respond, and what future research questions might be.
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Content ArticleIn this letter, Jeremy Hunt, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, welcomes recent announcements regarding future support for Long COVID patients but raises a number of continuing concerns. Hunt makes several calls for action, as the number of people suffering continues to increase.
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News Article
England's 'fragile' care sector needs immediate reform, says regulator
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government must immediately deliver a new deal for social care with major investment and better terms for workers, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has said, as it warned that the sector is “fragile” heading into a second wave of coronavirus infections. In a challenge to ministers, the regulator’s chief executive, Ian Trenholm, said overdue reform of the care sector “needs to happen now – not at some point in the future”. Boris Johnson said in his first speech as prime minister, in July 2019: “We will fix the crisis in social care once and for all.” But no reform has yet been proposed, and more than 15,000 people have died from COVID-19 in England’s care homes. Trenholm said Covid risked turning inequalities in England’s health services from “faultlines into chasms” as the CQC published its annual State of Care report on hospitals, GPs and care services. The report reveals serious problems with mental health, maternity services and emergency care before the pandemic, and says these areas must not be allowed to fall further behind. The regulator argued that the health system’s response to the pandemic needs to change. After focusing on protecting NHS services from being overwhelmed, health leaders must now adapt to prevent people who need help for non-Covid reasons from being left behind, it said. These include people whose operations were cancelled and people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, people with disabilities, and people living in deprived areas who have suffered more severely from the impact of Covid. “Covid is magnifying inequalities across the health and care system – a seismic upheaval which has disproportionately affected some more than others,” said Trenholm. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 October 2020- Posted
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News Article
Leaking vials supplied for NHS test and trace, say whistleblowers
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Leaking vials and suspected contamination were identified in a batch of more than 500,000 test tubes produced for the NHS Covid test and trace operation over the summer, whistleblowers have said. The test tubes were provided by a small UK-based company, Life Science Group (LSG), which produces materials for the diagnostics industry. According to the whistleblowers, there have been repeated problems with test tubes filled by LSG leaking. Stocks of some 600,000 test tubes were inspected in August as a result, and records seen by the Guardian describe the discovery of what looked like hair and blood contamination. It is understood firms in the supply chain concluded that the contamination was not hair or blood, following inspections. However, records seen by the Guardian suggested at least one bag of LSG test tubes thought to be contaminated “cannot now be found”. The whistleblowers said that rather than rejecting the entire potentially compromised batch, as would be normal safety protocol with NHS supplies, only part of the batch with visible problems was removed from use. They said they had blown the whistle because they were concerned for public safety. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 October 2020 -
News Article
Infection control experts issue open letter on care home visiting
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A group of experts in nursing and infection prevention and control (IPC) is today warning against the use of IPC measures as a “rationale” for stopping safe and compassionate visits in care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a new open letter published in Nursing Times, the specialists say that preventing people from visiting loved ones in social care settings in the name of IPC is a “misinterpretation and at times even abuse” of IPC principles. The letter is the brainchild of independent global health consultant and former Infection Prevention Society (IPS) president, Jules Storr. Among the signatories are five former IPC presidents, current president Pat Cattini as well as incoming president Jennie Wilson. Dr Ron Daniels, chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, is also on the list, Helen Hughes, chief executive of Patient Safety Learning, as well as leading IPC nurse specialists, nurse academics, a GP and carers. Ms Storr, a nurse by background, and the hub topic lead, said she was motivated to take action after hearing “the most heart-breaking” stories from health professionals and relatives of residents about restricted visits in the UK in the wake of COVID-19. Some had not seen relatives for weeks or months, whilst others were only allowed to see their loved one once a week for 20 minutes at a distance, she said. One individual had told her how when their father had died only one family member was permitted in the home and they were not allowed to sit close enough to hold his hand. Ms Storr said these practices were “absolutely outrageous and wrong from an infection prevention point of view”. Read full story Source: Nursing Times, 16 October 2020- Posted
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Content ArticleAn open letter has been published in the Nursing Times from infection prevention and control experts, together with interested and concerned individuals and organisations, about the restrictions enforced in nursing, care and residential homes. Restrictions are being imposed in relation to COVID-19 across too many nursing, care and residential homes in the UK and beyond, in the name of infection prevention and control. A number of experts in this field, led by Jules Storr, independent global health consultant and former Infection Prevention Society (IPS) president, summarise in an open letter why infection prevention and control should be an enabler not a barrier to safe, compassionate human interaction in nursing, care and residential homes. By adding their voice their intention is to accelerate action to end this uncompassionate treatment of people in homes as well as for their families and other loved ones.
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Content ArticlePatients collectively made Long Covid – and cognate term ‘long-haul Covid’ – in the first months of the pandemic. Patients, many with initially ‘mild’ illness, used various kinds of evidence and advocacy to demonstrate a longer, more complex course of illness than laid out in initial reports from Wuhan. Long Covid has a strong claim to be the first illness created through patients finding one another on social media: it moved from patients, through various media, to formal clinical and policy channels in just a few months. This initial mapping of Long Covid – by two patients with this illness – focuses on actors in the UK and USA and demonstrates how patients marshalled epistemic authority. Patient knowledge needs to be incorporated into how COVID-19 is conceptualised, researched, and treated.