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Poorer areas falling behind on vaccination against coronavirus

The NHS is increasing efforts to reach out to ethnic minority communities in more deprived areas of England as analysis by The Independent shows poorer areas are vaccinating fewer at-risk people.

Among the most deprived parts of the country, fewer people aged over 80 and in their mid-70s had received their first dose of vaccine against coronavirus by 7 February when compared with more affluent areas, sparking concerns communities most at risk are being left vulnerable.

Comparing local NHS vaccination data with Public Health England’s deprivation scores for each NHS region reveals six of the most deprived parts of England were in the bottom 10 local areas for vaccine uptake among the over-80s and those aged over 75.

The worst performing NHS region was East London, with just 73& cent of over-80s vaccinated by 7 February. East London was also one of the worst-affected areas during the second wave of the virus as hospitals became overwhelmed early on in the crisis.

Dave Finch, a senior fellow at the Health Foundation, said: “Lower vaccine uptake in the most deprived areas is worrying as these areas have seen some of the very highest Covid-19 death rates. A higher likelihood of having poorer pre-existing health increases their risk of more severe symptoms if they do get the virus. And people living in poorer areas are increasingly showing signs of intense financial hardship as a result of lockdown measures."

“The government must prioritise understanding why vaccine uptake has been lower in these areas and take urgent, targeted action to address this. However, in the longer term, there must be a focus on investing across the UK to address major health inequalities in order protect everyone’s health and wellbeing.”

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Source: The Independent, 18 February 2021

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Funding ‘cliff-edge’ threatens to ‘distress’ families and hamper NHS recovery

Government plans to cut off funding for hospital discharge at the end of March will slow down the NHS recovery of planned care, and threatens ‘distress’ for families asked to quickly take over patients’ care.

Since the pandemic began the Department of Health and Social Care has funded measures to smooth discharge from hospital, to help free up capacity. From September last year this was via a £588m national pot for up to six weeks’ funded care and support after discharge. 

But a letter from NHS England director of community health Matthew Winn last week confirmed the funding will cease at the end of March, with local NHS organisations or councils liable for the continued funding of discharge packages in the 2021-22 financial year.

Jennifer Burns, president of the British Geriatrics Society (BGS), which has previously written to the government to urge an extension of the scheme, told HSJ: “The BGS is incredibly concerned… The disappearance of funding for care in the six-week period after discharge creates a cliff edge in the very near future. We urge the government to reconsider this decision and commit to recurrent discharge funding in the upcoming Budget.”

Miriam Deakin, NHS Providers director of policy and strategy, said the government’s funding had “played a crucial role in freeing up hospital beds [and] managing capacity”, despite the delays caused by other parts of the system during the coronavirus winter surge. 

Ms Deakin warned: “Trust leaders are keen to see this funding continue in the longer term. This new way of working does not come without a financial cost, particularly for community services and their staff who are now much more thinly stretched, supporting patients with a wider range of more complex needs at home and in other community settings. We would therefore urge government to continue discharge to assess funding from April 2021.” 

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Source: HSJ, 18 February 2021

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NHS board special measures call over child's hospital death

Scotland's biggest health board should be put in "special measures" over its handling of hospital infection issues, according to an MSP.

Anas Sarwar made the call after a mother accused NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) of covering up possible factors in her daughter's death.Mr Sarwar said the health board had tried to intimidate health service whistleblowers who had raised concerns.

NHSGGC said the source of the child's infection could not be determined.

Earlier this week a whistleblower revealed that a doctor-led review had identified 26 infections at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Children in 2017 which were potentially linked to problems with the water supply.

Kimberly Darroch, whose daughter Milly Main died at the hospital in August 2017 while in remission from leukaemia, said health officials gave her no inkling that contaminated water could have been a factor.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has said the first she knew of Milly's death was when Ms Darroch emailed her about her concerns in September.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has offered to meet the family to discuss their concerns - but said it was impossible to accurately determine the source of Milly's infection because there was no requirement for water testing at the time.

It said the hospital's water had been independently assessed as safe, and it criticised the whistleblower for causing "stress and anxiety" for Milly's parents when there was no evidence of a link.

Anas Sarwar, however, insisted the health board had let down both patients and staff.

He said: "There was an attempted cover-up of Milly's death, and there are still dozens of families who don't know the truth about infections contracted in the QEUH."

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Source: BBC News, 16 February 2021

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Calls for compensation scheme for UK frontline workers with long Covid

Boris Johnson is being urged to launch a compensation scheme for frontline workers who are suffering from the long-term effects of coronavirus.

The all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus said the prime minister should recognise long Covid as an occupational disease, saying some sufferers have found it hard to return to work. 

A letter, signed by more than 60 MPs and peers, has been sent to Johnson.

Layla Moran, the APPG’s chair, said: “Long Covid is the hidden health crisis of the pandemic, and it is likely to have an enormous impact on society for many years to come.

“When it comes to frontline NHS, care and key workers, they were specifically asked to go to work and save lives while everyone else was asked to stay at home."

“They were exposed to an increased level of risk of catching the virus, often without adequate levels of PPE.”

The group wants the government to follow France, Germany, Belgium and Denmark, which have formally recognised Covid as an “occupational disease”.

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Source: The Guardian, 18 February 2021

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Trust warned by regulator after cluster of never events

The Care Quality Commission has ordered immediate improvements to a trust after it reported six never events inside eight months.

The watchdog has issued a warning notice to Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust after it carried out an announced inspection which focused on the trust’s surgical care group – where six never events had occurred between February and October last year.

In November, HSJ reported that a total of eight never events had been recorded in 2020, with trust chief executive Kate Shields saying it had raised fears the trust had not fully embedded safety improvements initiated as part of the special measures regime.

The inspectors visited three of the trust’s sites where the never events had happened. These were: Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, St Michael’s Hospital in Hayle and West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance.

The inspectors reported that governance processes were “not effective enough” to ensure that changes were made across the trust, and that lessons from incidents and near misses were “not shared with the whole team and wider service to ensure patient safety”.

Their report also stated the trust’s safety checklist for surgical procedures had improved but was not fully compliant with the World Health Organisation’s standards.

However, the CQC found staff apologised and provided patients with information when things had gone wrong, and that there was an open culture in which staff felt able to raise concerns.

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Source: HSJ, 17 February 2021

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'Most healthcare apps not up to NHS standards'

A firm which reviews healthcare apps for several NHS trusts says 80% of them do not meet its standards.

Failings include poor information, lack of security updates and insufficient awareness of regulatory requirements, said Orcha chief executive Liz Ashall-Payne.

The firm's reviews help determine whether an app should be recommended to patients by NHS staff.

There are about 370,000 health-related apps available online, Orcha said.

App developers can categorise their apps themselves and the ones reviewed by the firm include those tagged health, fitness and medical. So far, the firm has reviewed nearly 5,000 apps and found many poor examples, including:

  • A diabetes management app offering complex medical support without any back-up from experts.
  • A physiotherapy app offering exercise plans without any visible input from professionals.
  • An app to help smokers quit, which had not had security updates in more than two years.

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Source: BBC News, 16 February 2021

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1 in 5 female doctors concerned about PPE

One in five female doctors are concerned about whether their personal protective equipment (PPE) is the correct size as fears grow over more infectious strains of coronavirus.

Exclusive data from the British Medical Association, which polled over 7,000 UK healthcare workers, found a fifth of female doctors were not at all confident their PPE is “fully fit-tested” or adjusted to tally with their requirements. Just 13% of men said the same.

The professional organisation for doctors argues PPE is generally designed to fit the “size and shape of male bodies” even though women make up 75% of NHS workers.

Helena McKeown, chair of the BMA representative body, told The Independent the situation is not improving due to a lack of action from the government as she warned there is a dearth of different sized PPE for a range of body shapes available.

Dr McKeown, who is a GP, said: “Without properly sitting face protection, these doctors are putting themselves at risk. Poorly fitting PPE makes performing simple tasks more difficult and at worst exposes health professionals to dangerous infection."

“We’ve had the pandemic a year and we know a one size fits all approach does not work. Whether that is for the size of the gown, clothes or fit of the face mask. We have had a year to get this right.”

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Source: The Independent, 16 February 2021

 

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Think tank claims NHS waiting list could reach 10 million by April

Waiting lists for NHS surgery in England could hit 10 million by April, a think tank has claimed while calling for NHS hospitals to use more private sector capacity to reduce delays for patients.

In a new report the right-wing think tank Reform said the worst case scenario for patient waits could see one in six people in England waiting for treatment by April. It said the impact of coronavirus had turned the NHS into a “national Covid service” with six million fewer referrals for treatment in 2020.

It warned the delays in treatments could have dire consequences for patients with an estimated 1,660 additional lung cancer deaths.

But NHS bosses have hit back at the report saying it is inaccurate to say the NHS focused only on Covid, and that despite widespread cancellations it has continued to treat other patients.

Predictions that the NHS waiting list would hit 10 million were made last year and proved wrong after hospitals ramped up routine services during the summer – although the second wave of the virus has again led to widespread cancellations including for surgery patients.

The new Reform report claims capacity in private sector hospitals, where NHS England has secured new contracts to take on additional work during the Covid surge, have not been effectively used.

The think tank wants NHS England to mandate the publication of ‘waiting list recovery plans’ by NHS trusts setting out how each hospital will use the private sector.

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Source: The Independent, 17 February 2021

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Covid: Extra 1.7m vulnerable added to shielding list

There is to be a large expansion of the number of people being asked to shield in England.

An extra 1.7 million people are expected to be added to the 2.3 million already on the list. Half of the group have not yet been vaccinated so will now be prioritised urgently by their local GPs.

It comes after a new model was developed that takes into account extra factors rather than just health.

This calculation includes things such as ethnicity, deprivation (by postcode) and weight to work out a person's risk of becoming seriously ill if they were to catch Covid. It also looks at age, underlying health issues and prescribed medications. 

Prof Andrew Hayward, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), which has been involved in the modelling, said it considered a "combination of factors" such as age, ethnicity and chronic illness and put them together to reach a score.

He told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that this score could "more or less order people in the population according to their level of risk" and "identify those at the top of that range to say, 'you should be prioritised for vaccine and you have a level of risk that is similar to those on the shielding list'".

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Source: BBC News, 16 February 2021

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Self-harm rates ‘double’ among pre-teen children

An average of 10 pre-teen children are admitted to hospital for self-harm each week, it has been revealed, in an apparent doubling of rates.

Between 2019 and 2020 there were 508 recorded hospital admissions for self-injury, such as cutting oneself, within the 9-12 age group in the UK, compared to 221 between 2013 and 2014, suggesting rates have doubled in the past six years, according to an analysis of the data from BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme.

“The increase in the data that you've looked at is in keeping with what we're finding from our research databases,” Keith Hawton CBE, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford and consultant psychiatrist at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, told BBC File on 4.

Prof Hawton, who is also principal investigator of the multicentre study of self-harm in England, said: “It's almost as though the problem is spreading down the age range somewhat. And I do think it is a concerning problem. And I do think it's important that it's recognised that self-harm can occur in relatively young children, which many people are surprised by."

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Source: The Independent, 16 February 2021

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'Doing my cancer treatments alone was scary'

A campaign has started to prevent children and young people receiving cancer treatment alone in the pandemic.

Charities behind the #Hand2Hold campaign want to enable all young people aged 16 to 25 to be allowed a chaperone, instead of only some.

Mikaela Forrester, 18, from Somerset had some of her cancer treatments alone and said she did not want other young people to have that experience.

She said without her mother she found it "scary" and "lonely".

Miss Forrester lives in Frome and was diagnosed in July 2019 with Stage 2 Hodgkin Lymphoma, an uncommon cancer that develops in the lymphatic system. In March 2020 she was told she had relapsed and would need to undergo a further round of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and a stem cell transplant.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, she was told she had to have those treatments on her own, without immediate support from her family or friends.

She said: "When I had my transplant and my cells harvested with three weeks in hospital, with no visitors, it was just so scary. It was quite lonely."

"Even if I could hug my parents, or if they could stand two metres away with a mask on, just knowing they were there during the most difficult times would have made me feel comfortable because it was so overwhelming."

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Source: BBC News, 16 February 2021

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Beds for children hit ‘crisis point’ amid covid demand surge

Availability of inpatient child and adolescent mental health services beds — particularly for eating disorders — has reached ‘crisis point’, with young people left waiting on a standard paediatric ward or at home as demand surged during the covid pandemic.

A report to Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in January read: “Availability of tier four beds [inpatient mental health beds for children and adolescents, commissioned centrally by NHS England] in the South East and across the country is at crisis point and providers have to compete for the small pool of beds."

“Waits for beds or being placed far from home is a distressing and unacceptable experience for children and young people and families and places an additional burden on other parts of the system such as paediatric wards.”

The report noted a “demand upsurge to the highest levels in the last three years” since the pandemic. It stated, in mid-January, the CCG had two patients awaiting eating disorder beds being managed on paediatric wards as they had become “physically too unwell to be managed at home”. Four others also waiting for a CAMHS bed were being managed at home. 

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Source: 16 February 2021

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Long covid: WHO calls on countries to offer patients more rehabilitation

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to prioritise rehabilitation for the medium and long term consequences of covid-19 and to gather information on “long covid” more systematically.

WHO has produced a standardised form to report clinical data from individual patients after hospital discharge or after their acute illness to examine the medium and long term consequences of COVID-19.1 It has also set up technical working groups to build a consensus on the clinical description of what WHO now calls “the post-covid-19 condition” and to define research priorities.

Speaking at the first of a series of seminars, WHO’s director general, Tedros Ghebreyesus, highlighted the “three Rs”—recognition, research, and rehabilitation. Recognition of the post-covid-19 condition was now increasing, he said, but still not enough research was carried out. He added that countries needed to show commitment to including rehabilitation as part of their healthcare service. “Long covid has an impact on the individual, on society, and on the economy,” he warned.

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Source: BMJ, 10 February 2021

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CT scan catches 70% of lung cancers at early stage, NHS study finds

Thousands of lives could be saved if people at risk of developing Britain’s deadliest cancer were screened to diagnose it before it becomes incurable, a major NHS study has found.

Giving smokers and ex-smokers a CT scan uncovers cancerous lung tumours when they are at an early enough stage so they can still be removed, rather than continuing to grow unnoticed, it shows.

Experts are demanding the government moves to bring in routine CT scanning of smokers and ex-smokers in order to cut the huge death toll from lung cancer. About 48,000 people a year are diagnosed with the disease in the UK and 35,100 die from it – 96 a day.

Lung cancer is a particularly brutal form of cancer because it is hard to detect and three out of four cases are diagnosed at stage three or four, when it is already too late to give the person potentially life-saving treatment. However, the Summit study, being run by specialists in the disease at University College London Hospital NHS trust, offers real hope that lung cancer can become a condition that is detected early.

CT scanning meant that 70% of the growths detected in people’s lungs were identified when the disease was at stage one or two – a huge increase in the usual rate of early diagnosis.

“It’s really a major breakthrough for lung cancer,” Dr Sam Janes of UCLH, the senior investigator of the trial, told the Guardian. "Lung cancer has never had anything that enabled us to detect this devastating cancer earlier and offer curative treatment to this number of lung cancer patients.”

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Source: The Guardian, 14 February 2021

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‘Legally wrong’ to make pregnant women with Covid give birth alone

NHS guidance which often forces pregnant women who test positive with coronavirus to give birth alone is legally wrong, lawyers warned.

Official guidance drawn up by NHS England states that if a woman tests positive for Covid, their husband or partner must self-isolate at home and is not allowed to support them during childbirth.

But campaigners and lawyers told The Independent their guidance for visitor restrictions in maternity services during the pandemic is legally inaccurate as people have the “right to private and family life” under Article Eight of the Human Rights Act.

Maria Booker, of Birthrights, a leading maternity care charity, said: “The NHS oversimplifies the government’s self-isolating Covid regulations and tells partners they have to stay at home. But this hasn’t taken into account the legal nuance that government rules state people can leave home if they have a reasonable excuse."

“A woman being anxious about giving birth alone, which most people will be, is likely to legally constitute as a reasonable excuse."

“It is completely inhumane for a woman to give birth without a partner or supporter. It is even scarier giving birth alone you are Covid positive. It is terrifying. Nobody should give birth alone and that includes Covid positive women.”

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Source: The Independent, 13 February 2021

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Backlog of long cancer waits has doubled

The backlog of patients who have been waiting for cancer treatment for more than 104 days has more than doubled since last year, according to internal NHS England papers seen by HSJ.

At the start of February, the backlog of cases already at more than 15 weeks had hit 6,109, compared to 3,000 at the same point in 2020.

National targets state cancer patients should be treated with 62 days of being referred.

In the North West region, the backlog has nearly tripled over the same time period, from 289 to 831 (see regional breakdown below). Senior sources told HSJ the increase had been largely driven by acute providers in Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

Cases in which patients have to wait more than 104 days for treatment are generally considered serious breaches, and typically trigger a process to identify if the delay has caused harm to the patient. Some local systems have declared a “zero tolerance” for such instances. The data in the papers is provisional.

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said the impact of covid-19 on cancer patients has been “devastating”. She added: “The government must urgently make sure the NHS gets the funding it needs to increase cancer service capacity, and give every person with cancer the timely diagnosis and treatment they deserve.”

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Source: HSJ, 13 February 2021

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Fury at ‘do not resuscitate’ notices given to Covid patients with learning disabilities

People with learning disabilities have been given do not resuscitate orders during the second wave of the pandemic, in spite of widespread condemnation of the practice last year and an urgent investigation by the care watchdog.

Mencap said it had received reports in January from people with learning disabilities that they had been told they would not be resuscitated if they were taken ill with COVID-19.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said in December that inappropriate Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices had caused potentially avoidable deaths last year.

DNACPRs are usually made for people who are too frail to benefit from CPR, but Mencap said some seem to have been issued for people simply because they had a learning disability. The CQC is due to publish a report on the practice within weeks.

The disclosure comes as campaigners put growing pressure on ministers to reconsider a decision not to give people with learning disabilities priority for vaccinations. There is growing evidence that even those with a mild disability are more likely to die if they contract the coronavirus.

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Source: The Guardian, 13 February 2021

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Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to be tested on children

A new trial is to test how well the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine works in children.

Some 300 volunteers will take part, with the first vaccinations in the trial taking place later in February.

Researchers will assess whether the jab produces a strong immune response in children aged between six and 17.

The vaccine is one of two being used to protect against serious illness and death from Covid in the UK, along with the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.

As many as 240 children will receive the vaccine - and the others a control meningitis jab - when the trial gets under way.

Andrew Pollard, professor of paediatric infection and immunity, and chief investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial, noted that most children were relatively unaffected by Covid and were unlikely to become unwell with the virus.

But he said it was important to establish the safety and immune response to the vaccine in children and young people as some children might benefit from vaccination.

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Source: BBC News, 14 February 2021

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Community nursing faces ‘rehabilitation disaster’ as Covid leaves thousands in need

Tens of thousands of coronavirus survivors needing long-term care are heaping pressure on Britain’s stretched community services, threatening a crisis that experts warn could dwarf that seen in hospitals over the past 12 months.

As many as 100,000 intensive care patients, including up to 15,000 Covid-19 survivors, will need long-term community nursing care after being discharged from hospitals during the past 12 months, The Independent has been told.

This will be on top of an as yet unknown number of Covid patients from the 350,000 treated on general wards since the pandemic began, as well as tens of thousands of people who were sick without going to hospital but have been left with debilitating symptoms of long Covid.

Labour’s shadow health minister Liz Kendall warned: “There will be huge pressures on community services as people who need long-term support are discharged back into their own homes.

“Ministers have got to put in place a proper workforce strategy for the NHS and community care otherwise we will see people struggling to recover and the burden of care could also fall on their families."

“This is one of the long-term consequences of Covid that we haven’t begun to even think through yet.”

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Source: The Independent, 14 February 2021

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Healthcare staff must be given time to recuperate from pandemic, say leaders

The NHS must have a realistic and steady approach to resuming services disrupted by the pandemic that explicitly recognises the need for staff to recover, NHS leaders have said.

In a letter to the prime minister leaders from the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare providers, warned, “The NHS cannot recover its services at the same rate of increase when staff are so exhausted.”

The letter noted that there were over 5000 more patients with COVID-19 in UK hospitals right now that at the peak of the first wave and that this was taking its toll on staff. The leaders called for sustained local mental health support for the NHS workforce beyond the end of March and for a long term, fully funded plan to increase staffing numbers.

The government must also set out clear expectations for the public on when routine procedures and other treatments would be fully back on line, they added.

“With a workforce on its knees and many of the pre-pandemic challenges still very much at play they need your government both to acknowledge the consequences of the immense pressure their workers have been under so far, and to be realistic and honest with the public about what the NHS can safely deliver moving forward,” the letter said.

Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said that while health leaders would continue to prioritise urgent care and patients with the greatest clinical need, the prime minister must “be upfront with the public about what the NHS can safely deliver in this next phase.”

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Source: The BMJ, 11 February 2021

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One in four critical care units got busier in past week

The number of patients in critical care grew at one in four English hospital trusts in the past week, despite overall covid-19 occupancy falling, HSJ can reveal.

It comes with adult critical care occupancy still very high in many areas — 10 trusts still have at least double the number of patients that they normally have space for. It highlights the ongoing pressure still on hospitals, with the prime minister due to decide in coming days on a timetable for loosening lockdown.

HSJ analysis of NHS sitrep data shows that 31 trusts (of a total 125 general acute trusts) saw the number of critically ill adults climb between 2 and 9 February.

Twenty-five of these trusts were either at or above their total capacity available last winter. The critical care units still seeing increasing pressure when compared to last year are spread nationally, but are predominantly in Yorkshire, Midlands and the North West, where the covid third wave peaked later.

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Source: HSJ, 11 February 2021

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Covid: Disabled people account for 6 in 10 deaths in England last year

Nearly 6 out of every 10 people who died with coronavirus in England last year were disabled, figures suggest.

Some 30,296 of the 50,888 deaths between January and November were people with a disability, Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows. It also suggests the risk of death is three times greater for more severely disabled people.

Charities have called for urgent government action, describing the data as "horrifying and tragic".

The ONS figures suggest disabled people were disproportionately affected by the pandemic - accounting for 17.2% of the study population but nearly 60% of coronavirus deaths.

Among women, the risk of death involving coronavirus was 3.5 times greater for more-disabled women - defined as having their day-to-day activities "limited a lot" by their health - compared with non-disabled women.

For less-disabled women, defined as having their day-to-day activities "limited a little", the risk was two times greater.

Compared to non-disabled men, the data showed that the risk was 3.1 times greater for more-disabled men, and 1.9 times greater for less-disabled men.

Looking at people with a medically diagnosed learning disability, the risk of death involving Covid was 3.7 times greater for both men and women compared with people who did not have a learning disability.

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Source: BBC News, 11 February 2021

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Arthritis drug cuts Covid deaths, scientists discover

A drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis could cut the number of Covid deaths and speed up recovery, a new scientific trial has found.

The drug, tocilizumab, could save the lives of one in 25 coronavirus patients in hospital and reduce the need for ventilators in intensive care.

Researchers say around half of the people admitted to hospital with coronavirus could benefit from the treatment.

Scientists from the nationwide Recovery trial said when tocilizumab was given alongside the steroid dexamethasone, it reduced the absolute risk of mortality by four percentage points. The medicine was already being used by the NHS to treat some coronavirus patients after early results last month showed it reduced the risk of death as well as time spent in hospital by up to 10 days.

As a result of the latest findings, the health secretary said the drug would be made more widely available on the NHS to help treat Covid patients.

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Source: The Independent, 11 February 2021

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Doctors warn intensive care units still face months of extra pressure

Hospitals across the UK opened more than 2,250 extra intensive care beds to cope with the demand from coronavirus patients during the last 12 months – the equivalent of 140 new intensive care units.

In a new report, the Intensive Care Society (ICS) warned pressure on hospitals could last for many more months with makeshift beds for critical care patients having to stay open, hampering efforts to restart more routine services.

The ICS said that 20,675 patients had been admitted to intensive care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by 5 February. It said patients had a median length of stay in the first wave of 12 days, a lot longer than normal with 2,251 extra beds occupied in January 2021 compared to last year.

The ICS warned thousands of extra staff drafted in to look after critical care patients would be needed for months to come and this was despite staffing levels been stretched to dangerous levels.

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Source: The Independent, 10 February 2021

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NHS urged to back plan to help patients harmed by mistakes

Patients and families who suffer avoidable harm as a result of mistakes in the NHS should be given targeted help and support to recover.

Campaign group the Harmed Patients Alliance and patient safety charity Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) believe the NHS needs to develop a specific harmed patient pathway to care for families affected by errors in their care.

They are hoping to define what the pathway will look like in partnership with families, patients and NHS trusts with the idea of piloting an approach in the NHS and getting it adopted nationally.

There are more than two million safety incidents reported in the NHS every year, with more than 10,000 incidents resulting in severe harm and death.

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Source: The Independent, 11 February 2021

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