Jump to content
  • articles
    6,996
  • comments
    73
  • views
    5,412,878

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

World Antibiotic Awareness Week: Letter from senior NHS and health system leaders

The World Health Organization's (WHO) World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW) aims to increase awareness of antibiotic resistance as a global problem, and to promote best practices among the general public, health workers and policy-makers to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.

Since their discovery, antibiotics have served as the cornerstone of modern medicine. However, the persistent overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human and animal health have encouraged the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance, which occurs when microbes, such as bacteria, become resistant to the drugs used to treat them.

As part of preparations for the 2019 Awareness Week this November, a group of senior leaders from across the health system, including NHS England and Improvement, have co-signed a letter, coordinated by Public Health England, that reminds commissioners and providers alike of their responsibility to contribute to this important agenda. The letter also reminds colleagues that this year’s WAAW campaign is the first of a new five-year UK National Action Plan for antimicrobial resistance, which contains stretching ambitions for reducing inappropriate prescriptions; as well as controlling and preventing infections.

Read more
 

Insurers overrule consultants on best treatment for patients

Patients are being left in pain and having operations delayed or denied because insurers are overruling consultants’ decisions on treatment.

Policy holders with breast cancer, heart conditions, arthritis and knee problems are among those who have been unfairly denied procedures, The Times has found.

Analysis of Financial Ombudsman Service reports shows that complaints about private medical insurers have risen sharply.

Richard Packard, chairman of the Federation of Independent Practitioner Organisations, estimates that hundreds of patients a year are denied recommended treatments. “Consultants have reported that their expert decisions for the benefit of the patient are being overturned,” he said. “This is being done by insurance administrators at the end of a telephone. Some would seem to lack medical knowledge and [make] decisions based on computer algorithms, which can result in delayed treatment and patients suffering pain for longer than necessary.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 18 November 2019

Read more
 

CDC: More people dying from antibiotic resistance than previously believed

More than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S. every year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result of those infections, according to a newly released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report.

The updated Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States (AR Threats Report) also estimates when antibiotic-resistant bacterium Clostridium difficile (or C. diff) is included, that number exceeds 3 million infections and 48,000 deaths. The report, which used data sources such as electronic health records not previously available, shows that there were nearly twice as many annual deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections as the CDC originally reported in 2013.

CDC officials called the numbers in this report "more precise, though still conservative, estimates of the human costs of antibiotic resistance.

Read full story

Source: FierceHealthcare, 13 November 2019

Read more
 

NHS staff shortages put 'cancer survival rates at risk'

Progress on treating cancer has stalled in Scotland because of staff shortages and a lack of funding, according to a parliamentary report.

The Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Cancer found that 18% of cancer patients in June were not seen within the six-week target. Their report, which will be published later, has been described as "deeply concerning" by Cancer Research UK.

The Scottish government said its £100m strategy would improve survival rates.

Cancer Research UK Chief Executive Michelle Mitchell said the Scottish government must "publish a long-term cancer workforce plan" to enable the NHS to prepare for rising demand in the future. She said: "The findings of this inquiry are deeply concerning".

"Diagnosing cancer early can make all the difference, but there are major shortages in the staff trained to carry out the tests that diagnose cancer. Cancer services in Scotland are already struggling. Without urgent action, this will only worsen as demand increases."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 18 November 2019

Read more
 

NHS health board Cwm Taf Morgannwg 'prioritised targets over safety'

A health board criticised for severe maternity failings put too much emphasis on targets instead of patient safety, according to a new review of quality governance arrangements at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University.

It found wider failings in Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board's governance. Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) and the Wales Audit Office (WAO) also found a high level of risk to patient safety was accepted as the norm in some departments. The health board said work was under way to address the issues raised.

The report was not an assessment of frontline care, but spoke to staff about procedures for reporting and learning from problems.

It found Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board had not given enough attention to the safety of its services, in contrast to a strong focus on targets and financial controls.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 19 November 2019

Read more
 

War veteran, 99, left 'crying out in pain' on A&E trolley for 10 hours

A 99-war-old war veteran was left in agony on an A&E trolley in a hospital for almost 10 hours.

Brian Fish, a former captain in the Royal Engineers, was left “crying out in pain” as he endured the long wait at Margate’s Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Hospital, his daughter said. Mr Fish had been urgently admitted to hospital with gall bladder problems.

Details of his ordeal emerged as figures showed the queues at NHS emergency departments are now the longest on record, with one in four patients at major A&Es waiting longer than four hours to be seen or treated in October.

His daughter Hilary Casement, who witnessed her father’s hospital ordeal, said: “It was traumatic for him. He lay for hours crying out in pain on a hard trolley. Eventually, with much pleading from me, he was transferred, actually tipped, on to a slightly more comfortable hospital bed and eventually seen by the kind, but overworked, medical team".

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 19 November 2019

Read more
 

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital: Babies and mums died 'amid toxic culture'

Babies and mothers died amid a "toxic" culture at a hospital trust stretching back 40 years, a report has said. The catalogue of maternity care failings at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust are contained in a report leaked to The Independent.

It reveals that some children were left disabled, staff got the names of some dead babies wrong and, in one case, referred to a child as "it".

The trust apologised and said "a lot" had been done to address concerns.

In 2017, then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced an investigation into avoidable baby deaths at the trust, which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal. It is being led by maternity expert Donna Ockenden, who authored the report for NHS Improvement.

Its initial scope was to examine 23 cases but this has now grown to more than 270 , covering the period from 1979 to the present day. The cases include 22 stillbirths, three deaths during pregnancy, 17 deaths of babies after birth, three deaths of mothers, 47 cases of substandard care and 51 cases of cerebral palsy or brain damage.

The interim report said the number of cases it is now being asked to review "seems to represent a longstanding culture at this trust that is toxic to improvement effort".

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 20 November 2019

Read more
 

The NHS needs a culture change to deliver safer care

The avoidable deaths of babies and mothers in Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust’s maternity services are heartbreaking. What makes them a scandal, however, is that the problems have been known about for so long, and yet the instinct of managers was to deflect and minimise. 

The Healthcare Commission, a forerunner to the Care Quality Commission, was concerned about injuries to babies in the trust’s maternity units as long ago as 2007. It was not until Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton insisted on answers about the death of their baby Kate in 2009 that the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman concluded in 2013 that it had been the result of serious failings in care. 

Trusts need to ensure lessons stemming from failings are being implemented while patients and their families are being treated with respect and as a valuable source of feedback.

Read full editorial (paywalled)

Source: The Independent, 20 November 2019

Read more
 

Nine in 10 NHS bosses say staffing crisis endangering patients

Hospitals are so short of doctors and nurses that patients’ safety and quality of care are under threat, senior NHS leaders have warned in a dramatic intervention in the general election campaign

Nine out of 10 hospital bosses in England fear understaffing across the service has become so severe that patients’ health could be damaged. In addition, almost six in 10 (58%) believe this winter will be the toughest yet for the service.

The 131 chief executives, chairs and directors of NHS trusts in England expressed their serious concern about the deteriorating state of the service in a survey conducted by the NHS Confederation. The findings came days after the latest official figures showed that hospitals’ performance against key waiting times for A&E care, cancer treatment and planned operations had fallen to its worst ever level. However, many service chiefs told the confederation that delays will get even longer when the cold weather creates extra demand for care.

“There is real concern among NHS leaders as winter approaches and this year looks particularly challenging,” said Niall Dickson, the chief executive of the confederation, which represents most NHS bodies, including hospital trusts, in England."

 “Health leaders are deeply concerned about its ability to cope with demand, despite frontline staff treating more patients than ever."

Read full story

Source: 19 November 2019

Read more
 

The Shrewsbury scandal proves what women tell me every day – NHS maternity care is in crisis

As many as one in three women in the UK are traumatised by their birth experiences, and one in 25 of those will go on to develop full-blown PTSD. 

Following the most recent scandal at Shrewsbury, Milli Hill, the founder of the Positive Birth Movement, talks to The Independent about why we need to bring human connection back into maternity services, as well as continuing to invest in the research and technology that can save the lives of those most at risk and, why, above all, we need to start listening to women. If we don’t do these things, history will only repeat itself.

Milli says: "We cannot continue to see scandals like Shrewsbury and Morecambe Bay as isolated, instead we must be brave enough to view them as symptomatic of a wider problem of a maternity system that has become completely dehumanised and unable to listen to women."

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 20 November 2019

Read more
 

Australian women win landmark vaginal mesh class action against Johnson & Johnson

Hundreds of women left in debilitating pain by faulty transvaginal mesh devices have won a landmark case against multinational giant Johnson & Johnson.

The Australian class action against companies owned by Johnson & Johnson was won on behalf of 1,350 women who had mesh and tape products implanted to treat pelvic prolapse or stress urinary incontinence, both common complications of childbirth.

The devices all but ruined the lives of many. Women have been left in severe, debilitating and chronic pain, and often unable to have intercourse. The vast majority also suffered a significant psychological toll. The mesh eroded internally in many cases, has caused infections, multiple complications, and is near impossible to completely remove, Australia’s federal court has heard.

The devices were not properly tested for safety before being allowed on to the Australian market, though Johnson & Johnson and the associated companies clearly knew the potential for serious complications. 

The companies were accused of launching a “tidal wave” of aggressive promotion at doctors, marketing the devices as cheap, simple to insert, and a relatively risk-free way to boost profits. All the while, their potential dangers were minimised, downplayed or ignored, both in communications to doctors and patients, the plaintiffs alleged. When patients complained of pain, they were frequently disbelieved.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 21 November 2019

Read more
 

West Suffolk Hospital's maternity services 'needs improvements'

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) issued a warning notice to the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds, which must improve by 31 January.

It has not released details but the hospital said inspectors flagged up how it recorded observations and monitored women in its care.

A hospital spokeswoman said: "We have taken this feedback seriously and are acting accordingly."

She added: "Concerns have been raised about how we record patient observations after we have taken them, which are currently not in line with national guidance". "The CQC also identified that we should make changes to the way we monitor women in our care, again to bring us in line with national guidance".

"We are making the necessary changes and the CQC is satisfied with the plans we have in place to make the improvements required."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 21 November 2019

Read more
 

Patient died after 'transplant surgeon error'

A transplant patient died after a surgeon failed to disclose he had spilt stomach contents on organs which went on to be used in NHS operations.

The 36-year-old died of an aneurysm caused directly by infection from a donated liver, while two other patients became ill from transplants.

The incident took place in 2015 but only came to light when one of the sick patients attended a hospital in Wales. It had involved a surgeon from Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust.

Several organs became infected with Candida albicans, a fungal infection, after the surgeon cut the stomach in a donor while retrieving organs, spilling the contents over other organs. The surgeon did not tell anyone as he should have done and the organs were transplanted into three patients.

The patient, who did not want to be named, said: "What angers me to this day is that fact that the surgeon who removed the organs from the donor wasn't honest. It was only when people who received the organs became unwell that the truth was told."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 21 November 2019

Read more
 

The Morecombe Bay scandal took my baby’s life – history has repeated itself and the NHS must act now

In March 2015, the Morecambe Bay investigation, chaired by Dr Bill Kirkup, published its report into serious failures in care that led to the avoidable deaths of 11 babies and a mother at Furness General Hospital (FGH) between 2004 and 2012. One of the babies that died was James Titcombe's son, Joshua.

The report described a seriously dysfunctional maternity unit where certain midwives pursued an “over-zealous” approach to promoting “normal” childbirth, relationships between doctors and midwives was poor, midwifery practice fell well below acceptable standards and, unforgivably, instances of avoidable harm and death were covered up – meaning lessons were not learned and similar failures were repeated year after year. 

The report detailed how opportunities to intervene at Morecambe Bay were missed at all levels and how the families who raised concerns were treated as problems to be managed, rather than voices that needed to be heard. More than four years later, it is both tragic and distressing to read about the litany of failures identified in the leaked interim report into care at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH). Far from events at Morecambe Bay being a “one-off”, it is now painfully clear that not only have similar failures in care occurred elsewhere, but that they have happened on an even larger scale.

James, speaking to The Independent, says "Worryingly, the reason why we are reading about these issues now isn’t because the regulatory system identified a problem and called for further scrutiny, but rather because of the extraordinary efforts of bereaved families."

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 21 November 2019

 

 

Read more
 

Dr Michael Watt: Suspended neurologist offers 'sympathy' to patients

Suspended Belfast neurologist Michael Watt has offered his "sincere sympathy" to those affected by Northern Ireland's biggest patient recall.

Dr Michael Watt worked at the Royal Victoria Hospital as a neurologist diagnosing conditions like epilepsy and Parkinson's Disease. He was suspended after 3,000 patients were given recall appointments last year.

Dr Watt said he recognised the "distress these events have caused".

On Tuesday, a BBC Spotlight investigation found that he had carried out hundreds of unnecessary procedures on patients.

The programme also obtained details of a Department of Health report, as yet unpublished, that said one-in-five patients of the consultant neurologist were misdiagnosed.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 22 November 2019

Read more
 

Shrewsbury maternity scandal: Medical watchdog asks NHS for information about doctors at trust

The General Medical Council (GMC) has asked the NHS to share concerns about any doctors involved in poor care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust.

It comes as West Mercia Police said it was considering a range of criminal charges against the hospital including corporate manslaughter.

Anthony Omo, Director of Fitness to Practice for the GMC, said the reports of poor maternity care at the trust were “shocking” and his thoughts were with the families. He added: “We are in contact with the trust and have asked NHS England and NHS Improvement for details of any concerns about individual doctors." 

“All doctors have a responsibility to take action if they are aware that patient safety may be put at risk.”

Meanwhile, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has said it will make changes to the way it inspects hospitals after criticism of the way it allowed a report into the Shrewsbury trust in 2017 to be used.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 22 November 2019

Read more
 

Older people dying for want of social care at rate of three an hour, claims charity

At least 74,000 older people in England have died, or will die, waiting for care between the 2017 and 2019 general elections. A total of 81 older people are dying every day, equating to about three an hour, research by Age UK has found.

In the 18 months between the last election and the forthcoming one, 1,725,000 unanswered calls for help for care and support will have been made by older people. This, said the charity, was the equivalent of 2,000 futile appeals a day, or 78 an hour.

Age UK’s director, Caroline Abrahams, said: “This huge number of requests for help did not lead to any support actually being given for three main reasons: because the older people died or will die before services were provided, because of a decision that they did not meet the eligibility criteria as interpreted by their local authority, or because their local authority signposted them to some other kind of help than a care service.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 22 November 2019

Read more
 

Concerns raised with speak-up guardians are steadily rising

The number of concerns reported to the NHS’s Freedom to Speak Up Guardians has been steadily increasing since the guardians were introduced in England in 2017. Since April that year thousands of concerns have been reported to the guardians at NHS trusts, data from the National Guardian’s Office shows.

View full story (paywalled)

Source: BMJ, 19 November 2019

Read more
 

No safety switch: How lax oversight of EHRs puts patients at risk

Back in 2009, healthcare experts, including mainly members of the American Medical Informatics Association, envisioned creating a national databank to track reports of deaths, injuries and near misses linked to issues with the move to have computerised medical records.

The experts at that September 2009 meeting agreed that safety should be a top priority as federal officials poured more than $30 billion into subsidies to wire up medical offices and hospitals nationwide. However, it never happened. Instead, plans for putting patient safety first — and for building a comprehensive injury reporting and reviewing system — have stalled for nearly a decade, because manufacturers of electronic health records (EHRs), health care providers, federal health care policy wonks, academics and Congress have either blocked the effort or fought over how to do it properly, an ongoing investigation by Fortune and Kaiser Health News (KHN) shows.

Meanwhile, patients remain at risk of harm. In March, Fortune and KHN revealed that thousands of injuries, deaths or near misses tied to software glitches, user errors, interoperability problems and other flaws have piled up in various government-sponsored and private repositories. One study uncovered more than 9,000 patient safety reports tied to EHR problems at three pediatric hospitals over a five-year period.

Despite such incidents, experts believe EHRs have made medicine safer by eliminating errors due to illegible handwriting and in some cases speeding up access to vital patient files. But they also acknowledge they have no idea how much safer, or how much the systems could still be improved because no one — a decade after the federal government all but mandated their adoption — is assessing the technology’s overall safety record.

Read full story

Source: Kaiser Health News, 21 November 2019

Read more
 

Hancock rejects GP vote to remove home visits from contracts

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has ruled out scrapping home visits by GPs, describing the idea as “a complete non-starter”.

Doctors argued that they were no longer able to provide home visits as part of their core work and voted at a conference on Friday to remove them from their NHS contract. Under the proposals GPs would negotiate a separate service for urgent visits to patients. However, the health secretary said he was strongly opposed to the plans and insisted that they would not come to fruition.

“The idea that people shouldn’t be able, when they need it, to have a home visit from a GP is a complete non-starter and it won’t succeed in their negotiations,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He admitted that most home visits were done by nurses but said that on some occasions a GP was needed.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 24 November 2019

Read more
 

Latest NHS maternity scandal is product of toxic 'can't happen here' mentality

Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust has uncovered dozens of avoidable deaths and more than 50 babies suffering permanent brain damage over the past 40 years. But how many more babies must die before NHS leaders finally tackle unsafe, disrespectful, life-wrecking services? The NHS’s worst maternity scandal raises fundamental questions about the culture and safety of our health service.

Too many hospital boards complacently believe “it couldn’t happen here”. Instead of constantly testing the quality and reliability of their services, they look for evidence of success while explaining away signs of danger.

Across the NHS there are passionate clinicians and managers dedicated to building a culture that delivers consistently high quality care. But they are undermined by a pervasive willingness to tolerate and excuse poor care and silence dissent. Until that changes, the scandals will keep coming.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 2 November 2019

Read more
 

Let’s do our duty: Top nurse leads NHS staff flu jab drive

England’s most senior nurse has called on the NHS’ million-plus frontline workers to protect themselves and their patients this year by taking up their free flu jab.

Ruth May, the Chief Nursing Officer for England, is spearheading this year’s drive to ensure that as many NHS staff as possible get vaccinated against seasonal flu – meaning they are both less likely to need time off over the busy winter period, and less likely to pass on the virus to vulnerable patients.

Since September, hospitals and other healthcare settings across the country have been laying on special activities designed to highlight the importance of the flu vaccine, and celebrate those staff who choose to protect themselves and their patients. A record 70% of doctors, nurses, midwives and other NHS staff who have direct contact with patients took up the vaccine through their employer last year, with most local NHS employers achieving 75% or higher.

Ruth has been joined in writing an open letter to NHS staff by other heads of professions like the NHS National Medical Director, Professor Stephen Powis, Chief Allied Health Professions Officer, Suzanne Rastrick, Chief Midwifery Officer, Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, and Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, Dr Keith Ridge. In it they urge every member of the NHS’ growing frontline workforce to work together to achieve even higher level of coverage this year.

Read full story

Source: NHS England, 25 November 2019

Read more
 

Hospital alarms prove a noisy misery for patients

When Kea Turner’s 74-year-old grandmother checked into Virginia’s Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital in the US, with advanced lung cancer, she landed in the oncology unit where every patient was monitored by a bed alarm.

“Even if she would slightly roll over, it would go off,” Turner said. Small movements — such as reaching for a tissue — would set off the alarm, as well. The beeping would go on for up to 10 minutes, Turner said, until a nurse arrived to shut it off.

Tens of thousands of alarms shriek, beep and buzz every day in every US hospital. All sound urgent, but few require immediate attention or get it. Intended to keep patients safe by alerting nurses to potential problems, they also create a riot of disturbances for patients trying to heal and get some rest.

Alarms have ranked as one of the top 10 health technological hazards every year since 2007, according to the research firm ECRI Institute. That could mean staffs were too swamped with alarms to notice a patient in distress, or that the alarms were misconfigured. The Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals, warned the nation about the “frequent and persistent” problem of alarm safety in 2013. It now requires hospitals to create formal processes to tackle alarm system safety, but there is no national data on whether progress has been made in reducing the prevalence of false and unnecessary alarms.

The commission has estimated that of the thousands of alarms going off throughout a hospital every day, an estimated 85-99% do not require clinical intervention. Staff, facing widespread “alarm fatigue,” can miss critical alerts, leading to patient deaths. Patients may get anxious about fluctuations in heart rate or blood pressure that are perfectly normal, the commission said.

Read full story

Source: The Washington Post, 24 November 2019

Read more
 

GP who downplayed symptoms of boy who died from Addison’s disease is suspended

A GP who gave wrongly dated and misleading medical notes to police inquiring into the death of a 12 year old boy from undiagnosed Addison’s disease has been suspended from the UK medical register for nine months.

Ryan Morse died in the early hours of 8 December 2012, hours after his mother rang the local Blaenau Gwent surgery twice in a day, reporting high temperature, extreme drowsiness, and involuntary bowel movement. The second time, she spoke to GP Joanne Rudling, telling her that the boy’s genitals had turned black.

But Rudling failed to check the notes of the first call or give adequate weight to the fact that the mother was calling again, the tribunal found. She failed to obtain an adequate history or reach an appropriate conclusion about the change in genital colour.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: BMJ, 25 November 2019

Read more
 

New hospital tech disrupts doctors' and nurses' jobs, forces improvisation to ensure patient safety

Doctors and nurses must adapt their routines and improvise their actions to ensure continued patient safety, and for their roles to be effective and to matter as new technology disrupts their working practices.

Research from Lancaster University Management School, published in the Journal of Information Technology, found electronic patient records brought in to streamline and improve work caused changes in the division of labour and the expected roles of both physicians and nursing staff.

These changes saw disrupted working practices, professional boundaries and professional identities, often requiring complex renegotiations to re-establish these, in order to deliver safe patient care. Managers implementing these systems are often quite unaware of the unintended consequences in their drive for efficiency.

Read full story

Source: EurekAlert, 25 November 2019

Read more
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

 Accept Cookies  Reject Cookies