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Showing results for tags 'Appointment'.
Found 211 results
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News Article
Rise in A&E visits for hiccups and earaches add to strain on NHS
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS in England is facing mounting pressure amid a surge in patients attending A&E departments with minor ailments, health bosses have said. Emergency departments, which are designed for serious injuries and life-threatening emergencies only, are seeing an increase in people attending with sore throats, insomnia, coughs and earache. Data analysed by the Press Association news agency also shows more people going to A&E with complaints such as hiccups, nasal congestion, backache and nausea. Cases where sore throat was the chief complaint rose by 77% between 2021-22 and 2022-23, from 191,900 cases to 340,441. Patients going to A&E with coughs rose by 47%, from 219,388 to 322,500, while attendances for nosebleeds rose by a fifth, from 47,285 cases to 56,546. Miriam Deakin, the director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said: “The rise in A&E admissions is piling even more pressure on to an already stretched NHS. Persistent strain on primary care services, including GPs and dentists, means patients often resort to A&E when they cannot access timely care elsewhere. “Minor ailments such as coughs, earache, fever, nausea and hiccups can and should be managed through more appropriate services such as pharmacies and NHS 111 online. This could ease pressure on emergency departments, whose priority is to deliver urgent care for those most in need. Boosting capacity of staff, beds and equipment in these settings would also significantly help. However, this requires proper funding and support from the government.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2023 -
News Article
Patients put ‘at risk’ by NHSE plans to cut follow-ups
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS England plans to reduce follow-up appointments is leading to patient safety risks and causing waiting lists to grow, an acute trust has warned. The NHSE plans were set out in the 2023-24 planning guidance which says trusts must cut outpatient follow-ups by 25% against 2019-20 levels by March, to increase capacity for new patients. But North Cumbria Integrated Care Foundation Trust has raised concerns that adhering to the policy will “exacerbate” its follow-up backlogs, warning that the delays “potentially… pose a risk of harm to patients whose condition may deteriorate when follow-up is late”. NHS Confederation told HSJ it thought the policy “has risks” because it could mean that patients needing follow-ups will wait for longer, although the organisation also saw benefits. It said hospital leaders had “mixed feelings” about the policy. The Patients Association also raised concerns that cancelling follow-ups for some patients “will exacerbate health inequalities”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 12 October 2023 -
Content ArticlePeople with chronic pain need personalised care – an approach offering patients choice and control over their mental and physical health, basing care on what matters to them personally, and focusing on individual strengths and needs. People in this position need someone to listen and acknowledge that these symptoms are real, not all in their head. They need someone to explain their chronic pain and other symptoms, but also someone for everything else too. As well as medical care, people need time and emotional care. But how on earth can this be achieved in UK primary care in 2023? Is this really the role of a modern GP? Even if it was how can it now be in our over-stretched, fragmented, target-driven services? In North-West London, Selena Stellman and Benjamin Ellis have tested a personalised care model to improve the care offered to patients with fibromyalgia and high impact chronic pain. In this opinion piece in BJGP Life, they discuss the two key changes in their approach.
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News ArticleOne in 10 people attempting to contact their GP practice do not manage to get in contact, while a further 6% are only told to try again another day, according to new official survey findings commissioned by the government. The Office for National Statistics has been quietly carrying out the new regular GP access survey since the spring after ministers said they wanted to monitor the impact of their primary care recovery plan. After a sign of slight improvement in the summer, the latest survey results – for October – show no significant change since May. It also found, as did previous rounds, that of those who had tried to contact a GP practice in the past month, 10 per cent said they could not do so (see chart below, ‘Contact with GP practice’). Of those who did make contact, a further 6 per cent reported they were told to try again another day (see chart below, ‘Next step after contact’). The government and NHS England have made it a high priority in recovery plans that patients should no longer be asked to call back another day to book an appointment and should know “on the day” how their request will be managed, which may mean being advised to use a different service. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 November 2023
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Content Article
Health appointment information sheet: Easy read
Claire Cox posted an article in Learning disabilities
This easy read document, from Macintyre, should be used as an aid in helping people to: prepare for their appointment participate in the appointment understand the advice given at the appointment. It can also be presented to the health professional - by using information from One Page Profile, the document serves as an aid for the health professional on how to engage with the person during the appointment. -
Content ArticleCaring for people with learning disabilities in an acute hospital setting can be challenging, especially if that patient has transitioned from children’s services to adult services. The experience in children’s acute care differs to adult acute care; this difference in processes of care can cause great anxiety for the patient and their family and carers. The reasonable adjustments that were perhaps made and sustained in children’s services may now not exist. The purpose of this blog is to demonstrate the importance for services to be designed around patients’ needs with patients, families and carers. If we get this right, the quality of care given will be improved, patient satisfaction increases and, in turn, a reduction in patient harm. It is important to note that designing services around patients is not exclusive to learning disabilities; designing services with ALL patients at the centre with their involvement is crucial for trusts to provide safe care.
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Content ArticleShared decision making (SDM) is when patients and clinicians work together to make evidence-based decisions based on patient values and preferences. This may be to select a test or intervention, such as going ahead with surgery. SDM ensures individuals are supported to make decisions which are right for them. The Centre for Perioperative Care has a number of resources on their website on shared decision making.
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Content ArticleGeneral practice has always been the foundation and gateway to the NHS, but this part of the healthcare system is now under strain due to greater demand from an increasingly complex patient profile, and a stretched workforce. Lack of staff and coherent planning means that the current model is not fit for purpose, and this has resulted in a recent decrease in patient satisfaction. This proposal by the think tank Policy Exchange outlines the reforms that could help the NHS develop a model of general practice to better meet the needs and interests of patients and healthcare workers.
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Content ArticleHughes et al. studied video consulting in the NHS during 2020–2021 through video interviews, an online survey and online discussions with people who had provided and participated in such consultations. Video consulting had previously been used for selected groups in limited settings in the UK. The pandemic created a seismic shift in the context for remote consulting, in which video transformed from a niche technology typically introduced by individual clinicians committed to innovation and quality improvement to offering what many felt was the only safe way to deliver certain types of healthcare. A new practice emerged: a co-constitution of technology and healthcare made possible by new configurations of equipment, connectivity and physical spaces. Despite heterogeneous service settings and previous experiences of video consulting, we found certain kinds of common changes had made video consulting possible. The authors used practice theory to analyse these changes, interpreting the commonalities found in our data as changes in purpose, material arrangements and a relaxing of rules about security, confidentiality and location of consultations.
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Content ArticleFewer than 1% of UK general practice consultations occur by video. This study by Trisha Greenhalgh and colleagues aims to explain why video consultations are not more widely used in general practice.
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Content ArticleThe Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) have identified a safety risk involving outpatient follow-up appointments which are intended but not booked after an inpatient stay. If a patient does not receive their intended follow-up appointment, it could lead to patient harm owing to delayed or absent clinical care and treatment. The investigation was launched after HSIB identified an event where a patient was discharged from hospital on two separate occasions with a plan to follow-up in outpatient clinics. Neither of the outpatient appointments were made.
