Jump to content
  • articles
    6,946
  • comments
    80
  • views
    5,193,831

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

Cwm Taf maternity: Failings 'affected two-thirds of women'

Two-thirds of women at the heart of a review into maternity services at a Welsh health board could have had very different outcomes if they had received better care, a report has found.

The Independent Maternity Services Oversight Panel (Imsop) focused on the experiences of pregnant women at Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board.

Its maternity services have been in special measures since "serious failings" were found two years ago. 

Concerns emerged in late 2018 that women and babies may have come to harm because of staff shortages and failures to report serious incidents. This sparked a major independent review, which gave a damning verdict on maternity services in Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board.

Published on Monday, the Imsop report focuses on the care of mothers between January 2016 and September 2018. It found that 19 reviews of maternal care (68%) revealed at least one factor where "different management would reasonably have been expected to alter the outcome".

The panel's chairman, Mick Giannasi, said: "These findings will be concerning and potentially distressing for the women and families involved, and it will be difficult for staff."

"Of the 28 episodes of care, we concluded that in 27 of them, our independent teams who reviewed the care would have done something differently. Put simply, what went wrong, might not have gone wrong if things had been done differently."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 25 January 2021

Read more
 

Care home worker cancer misdiagnosis

A care home worker who was wrongly diagnosed with cancer said she thought it was a "cruel joke" when she was told doctors had made a mistake and she did not have cancer at all.

Mum-of-four Janice Johnston said her "world crumbled" when she learned she had a rare form of blood cancer at Kent and Canterbury Hospital in 2017.

She had 18 months of oral chemotherapy treatment, during which she experienced weight loss, nausea and bone pain, and had to give up her job as an auxiliary nurse. When the treatment did not appear to be working, she says, medics upped the dosage.

In 2018, she sought alternative treatment at Guy's Hospital in London. It was there a specialist told her she did not have cancer at all but a different condition.

Mrs Johnston was awarded £75,950 in damages after East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust admitted liability. Staff at the hospital had failed to do the necessary ultrasound scan and bone marrow biopsy before diagnosing her.

Read full story

Source:  BBC News, 25 January 2021

Read more

We're about to see a wave of long Covid. When will ministers take it seriously?

Long Covid is no respecter of youth, health or fitness. It afflicts more women than men but it can strike anyone down, including people whose initial infection seemed mild, or even asymptomatic. In some cases, long Covid could mean lifelong Covid.

The effects can be horrible. Among them are lung damage, heart damage and brain damage that can cause memory loss and brain fog, kidney damage, severe headaches, muscle and joint pain, loss of taste and smell, anxiety, depression and, above all, fatigue. We should all fear the lasting consequences of this pandemic.

Long Covid is shorthand for a range of conditions. Some scientists divide them into three broad categories, others into four. Of these, one seems to ring a bell. It’s a cluster of symptoms that bear a strong similarity to myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). This is a devastating condition that affects roughly a quarter of a million people in the UK, and is often caused, like long Covid, by viral infection.

Among the common symptoms of ME/CFS are extreme fatigue that is not relieved by rest, and “post-exertional malaise”: even mild physical or mental effort can make patients extremely unwell. Many sufferers are confined to their home or even their bed, with their working life, social life and family life truncated. There is, so far, no diagnostic test and no cure.

Yet ME/CFS has been disgracefully neglected by science and medicine. 

The NHS is now setting up specialist clinics to treat long Covid. But already, apparent mistakes are being made. Without the necessary caveats, the NHS recommends steadily increasing levels of exercise for people suffering from post-Covid fatigue. But as ME/CFS patients with post-exertional malaise know, this prescription, though it sounds intuitive, could be highly damaging.

We need massive research programmes into both long Covid and ME/CFS, coupled with better information for doctors. 

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 21 January 2021

Read more
 

Severe and long Covid risk could be established ‘very early on’

New research has suggested there are specific molecular responses found in some COVID-19 patients which could be used to determine their likelihood of suffering from severe or long Covid symptoms, very early on following infection.

Researchers, supported by NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, had set out to increase our understanding of the relationship between the immune response and COVID-19 symptoms by recruiting individuals who tested positive for the virus into a cohort of the NIHR BioResource.

Studying 207 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 over a three-month period, taking blood samples and measuring their symptoms, then comparing to samples taken from 45 healthy people, the researchers were able to uncover a number of interesting new findings.

Their research showed that people with either an asymptomatic or mild case of COVID-19 mounted a robust immune response to the virus soon after getting infected. These individuals produced a greater number of T cells, B cells and antibodies than patients with more severe COVID-19 infections and within the first week of infection - after which these numbers rapidly returned to normal.

The study also showed there was no evidence in these patients of widespread inflammation which can lead to damage in multiple organs.

In contrast, people with severe COVID-19 who required hospitalisation showed an impaired immune response, which led to a delayed and weakened attempt to fight the virus and widespread inflammation from the time of symptom onset. In patients requiring admission to hospital, the early immune response was delayed, and profound abnormalities were present in a number of immune cells.

Read full story

Source: NHE, 22 January 2021

Read more
 

Covid: How a £20 gadget could save lives

One of the mysteries of COVID-19 is why oxygen levels in the blood can drop to dangerously low levels without the patient noticing.

It is known as "silent hypoxia" and as a result, patients have been arriving in hospital in far worse health than they realised and, in some cases, too late to treat effectively.

But a potentially life-saving solution, in the form of a pulse oximeter, allows patients to monitor their oxygen levels at home, and costs about £20.

They are being rolled out for high-risk Covid patients in the UK, and the doctor leading the scheme thinks everyone should consider buying one.

A normal oxygen level in the blood is between 95% and 100%.

"With Covid, we were admitting patients with oxygen levels in the 70s or low-or-middle 80s," said Dr Matt Inada-Kim, a consultant in acute medicine at Hampshire Hospitals.

He told BBC Radio 4's Inside Health: "It was a really curious and scary presentation and really made us rethink what we were doing."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 21 January 2021

See hub resource on the 'Covid Oximetry @home' project

Read more

COVID-19: Working in medicine is “pretty awful” right now, says college president

The second wave of COVID-19 has put doctors under huge pressure, the Royal College of Physicians has warned, as two thirds of physicians report feeling tired or exhausted.

A survey of 25 500 members of the college from across the UK, conducted on 2 November, received 1890 responses. It found that two thirds (64%, 931) felt tired or exhausted, 48% (687) felt worried, and just under a third (29%, 424) felt demoralised. Almost a fifth (19%, 280) said they have sought informal mental health support, such as speaking to colleagues or friends, during the pandemic. Just 10% (155) said they had sought formal mental health support from either their employer, GP, or external services.

College president Andrew Goddard said he was concerned about the mental health of doctors, “There is no way to dress it up—it is pretty awful at the moment in the world of medicine. Hospital admissions are at the highest ever level, staff are exhausted, and although there is light at the end of the tunnel, it seems a long way away.”

He said that before the pandemic, few physicians would have expected to need formal mental health support during their career.

After the pandemic, staff will be in desperate need of a break, Goddard said, and will need specific time away if they’re to be at their best. “Doctors have demonstrated remarkable resilience throughout the pandemic, working under the most challenging conditions the NHS has ever faced, but they can’t continue working this way forever,” he said.

Read full story

Source: The BMJ, 21 January 2021

Read more

Huge local variation in covid vaccination rates

Just a third of people aged 80 and over have received the covid vaccine in one part of England, compared to four out of five in the area with the highest rate, new NHS England figures have revealed. 

Gloucestershire delivered at least one dose of the vaccine to 85% of its over 80s population between 8 December and 17 January. Three other STPs — Northamptonshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and Lancashire and South Cumbria — have all delivered at least one dose to at least three-quarters of over 80s in the area.

By contrast, Suffolk and North East Essex has vaccinated just 36% of its over 80s population. A further seven of England’s 42 STP/Integrated Care Systems had vaccinated under half of their over 80s population.

The mixture of reasons for the differences are not known — it may be due to supply, delivery issues, the nature of the area, or the size of the over-80s population. NHS England has maintained that the vaccine is being used nearly as quickly as it is available each week, with supply the main constraint. NHSE decides when sites are able to open and when they have supply. 

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 21 January 2021

Read more
 

Ambulance service facing 'terrifying' levels of risk, says trust chief

The chief executive of a small acute trust has described the “terrifying situation” faced by ambulance crews and hospital staff in trying to provide adequate emergency care as coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the local NHS services.

Susan Gilby, of Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust, told HSJ staff are seeing “tragic and potentially avoidable” instances where patients with COVID-19 have reached the emergency department too late.

She suggested this is due to a combination of patients waiting too long to call 999, and then having to wait long periods for an ambulance to arrive.

Cheshire has been among the hardest hit areas in England during this third wave of coronavirus, with all four of its acute hospitals having very high covid occupancy rates.

Dr Gilby, a former critical care consultant, said her trust has been at around 60 per cent covid occupancy for the last fortnight, which has made her increasingly fearful of the difficulties in admitting patients through the emergency department due to a lack of beds. This can then cause knock-on delays for patients arriving in ambulances, and ties those ambulance crews up for long periods, preventing them from responding to further 999 calls.

She said ambulance turnaround times had been relatively good at the Countess of Chester, but she had spoken to paramedics handing over patients who were “really struggling” to get to people quickly enough.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 22 January 2021

Read more
 

More than 400 care homes investigated over deaths

A special Crown Office unit set up to probe Covid-linked deaths is investigating cases at 474 care homes in Scotland, the BBC can reveal.

The unit was set up in May to gather information on the circumstances of all deaths in care homes. Prosecutors will eventually decide if the deaths should be the subject of a fatal accident inquiry or prosecution.

Care homes say the investigation is "disproportionate" and placing a huge burden on overstretched staff.

The COVID-19 Deaths Investigation Team (CDIT) had received 3,385 death reports as of Thursday. The majority of them relate to people who lived in care homes.

Behind the Crown Office statistics are hundreds of families grieving for loved ones who died in Scotland's care homes.

Alan Wightman's 88-year-old mother Helen died in May last year during a Covid outbreak at Scoonie House in Fife

Helen's death is part of the Crown Office probe and Mr Wightman's hopes for the investigation are that it looks "at the bigger picture and appreciates that on the ground people were doing the best they could".

He added: "I thought that Scoonie House did the best they could in a very difficult situation, sourcing their own PPE and stopping people coming from hospital."

"My own view is that care homes were put in an impossible situation because we had successive governments which did not properly prepare for a pandemic, you only have to look at the lack of PPE at the beginning of the pandemic to see that."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 22 January 2021

 

Read more

Discover the new technology managing cancer symptoms for patients

In a new trial, cancer patients across the UK have been using the eRAPID technology system to help them manage their cancer symptoms.

The system has been developed by the University of Leeds, and this is the first trial to offer automated advice to early-stage patients whose treatment aims to cure cancer. Hundreds of early-stage colorectal, breast, or gynaecological cancer patients took part in the trial which used computer algorithms to help manage their symptoms and improve their wellbeing. They were able to report online symptoms from home and receive instant advice on whether to self-manage or seek medical attention.

Cancer can cause a range of different symptoms for patients living with the disease, as well as from the side effects of treatments such as chemotherapy, which are sometimes life-threatening and all of which lower a patients’ quality of life. Better monitoring and management of these symptoms can help in improving treatment delivery and reducing patients’ physical distress.

All patients in the trial received their usual care, with 256 receiving the eRAPID system as additional care. The patients reported better symptom control and physical wellbeing in the early weeks of treatment, with the system preventing symptom deterioration in about 9% of patients after 12 weeks.

Dr Kate Absolom, University Academic Fellow in the Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James’s and the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences at the University of Leeds, said: “The encouraging results from this study will help pave the way for future development and refinement of these interventions in broader cancer settings. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need and speeded a shift towards technology-enabled care, so these study results are very timely.”

Programme lead Professor Galina Velikova, at the Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James’s, University of Leeds, and the Leeds Cancer Centre, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Rising numbers of cancer patients are receiving a range of anti-cancer treatments which means patients are living longer and require longer periods of care and monitoring.

“Remote online monitoring options have the potential to be a patient-centred, safe, and effective approach to support patients during cancer treatment and manage the growing clinical workload for cancer care.”

Read full story

Source: Health Europa, 11 January 2021

Read more
 

Safety watchdog says NHS ‘never event’ mistakes are not yet truly preventable

At least seven so-called NHS “never events” should be reclassified because the health service has failed to put in place effective measures to stop them from repeatedly happening, safety experts have said.

The independent Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) said NHS England should remove the never event incidents from the list of 15 it requires hospitals to report, because they are not “wholly preventable” and the NHS has not adequately recognised the systemic risks that mean they keep happening.

The errors include examples such as a 62-year-old man having the wrong hip replaced during surgery and a nine-year-old girl who was given a drug by injection that should have been given by mouth.

Other incidents included a woman who had a vaginal swab left inside her following the birth of her first child and a 26-year-old man who had a feeding tube accidentally inserted into his lung rather than his stomach.

In a new report, investigators from HSIB carried out a detailed analysis of seven incidents it has investigated which account for the majority of never events recorded by NHS hospitals in 2018-19.

NHS England claims there are steps hospitals can take that mean the errors should never happen but HSIB says many of the steps are administrative, such as a checklist, and do not fully take into account the environment staff work in, the nature of the errors or how they happen.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 21 January 2021

Read more
 

Just over half of British Indians would get Covid vaccine, survey shows

Only a little over half of British Indians say they would get a coronavirus vaccine, according to research. 

Some 56% of British Indians said they would take up a vaccine when asked by the 1928 Institute, a new think tank led by academics from the University of Oxford. However, 31% per cent were unsure, while 13% said they would decline a jab, the online poll of 510 respondents found.

The think tank said much of this stemmed from people feeling they were not informed enough about the vaccines, while a significant proportion felt other people deserved to receive a vaccine more.

The researchers are calling for an urgent public health campaign and funding, with messaging in different languages and co-produced with community leaders to assuage doubts.

The government should also widely share information on how it is helping poorer countries distribute vaccines, given that several participants said vulnerable people and those in poorer countries should take priority, they said in their report.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 21 January 2021

Read more

NHS commandeers private hospitals in attempt to recover cancer surgery

‘Surge’ clauses allowing the NHS to again take over private hospitals — as it did in the spring — have been triggered in some areas, HSJ has learned.

An email from NHS England to private hospitals in London, seen by HSJ, was sent last week, triggered a seven-day notice period under NHSE’ covid contracts with the providers.

The letter said the London region had requested the move after taking into account “critical care capacity, the doubling rate [and the] forecast acute admission rate related to local prevalence.”

The letter refers to the north central London health system, but HSJ understands similar arrangements have been triggered for north east London. The two areas have a combined population of 3.9m people and have been some of the hardest hit by covid admissions. The clause is also thought to have been triggered in other parts of south east England, but it is not known which ones.

The letter listed six hospitals, five owned by BMI Healthcare and one by Aspen Healthcare, which would, from Friday, commit “100 per cent” of their capacity to NHS use.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 20 January 2021

Read more

Covid smear-test delays prompt calls for home HPV tests

Smear-test delays during lockdown have prompted calls for home-screening kits.

Cervical cancer screening has restarted across the UK - but some women say they will not attend their appointments for fear of catching Covid.

Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust is urging "faster action" on home tests for HPV, which causes 99% of cervical cancers.

An NHS official said GP practices should continue screening throughout lockdown, and "anyone invited for a cervical smear test should attend".

Cancer Research UK said it was not yet known how effective and accurate self-sampling could be in cervical screening.

A survey by gynaecological cancer charity the Eve Appeal indicates nearly one in three missed smear tests are the result of people being "put off" by coronavirus. And a Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust survey during the pandemic suggests the same proportion would prefer to take their own human-papillomavirus (HPV) test rather than go to a GP.

Acting chief executive Rebecca Shoosmith said coronavirus had added "more barriers" to going for a smear test. "Sadly those who found it difficult before are likely to be no closer to getting tested," she said. "Self-sampling would be a game-changer."

Both charities emphasise smear tests are for "women and anyone with a cervix" and transgender and non-binary people may have additional barriers to going.

Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust said DIY tests could also help people who had been sexually assaulted and those with disabilities or from backgrounds where smear tests were taboo.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 21 January 2021

Read more
 

£100 million donation from Ineos to create new institute to fight antimicrobial resistance

A new state of the art institute for antimicrobial research is to open at Oxford University thanks to a £100 million donation from Ineos.

Ineos, one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, and the University of Oxford are launching a new world-leading institute to combat the growing global issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which currently causes an estimated 1.5 million excess deaths each year- and could cause over 10m deaths per year by 2050. Predicted to also create a global economic toll of $100 trillion by mid-century, it is arguably the greatest economic and healthcare challenge facing the world post-Covid.

It is bacterial resistance, caused by overuse and misuse of antibiotics, which arguably poses the broadest threat to global populations. The world is fast running out of effective antibiotics as bacteria evolve to develop resistance to our taken-for-granted treatments. Without urgent collaborative action to prevent common microbes becoming multi-drug resistant (commonly known as ‘superbugs’), we could return to a world where taken-for-granted treatments such as chemotherapy and hip replacements could become too risky, childbirth becomes extremely dangerous, and even a basic scratch could kill.

The rapid progression of antibacterial resistance is a natural process, exacerbated by significant overuse and misuse of antibiotics not only in human populations but especially in agriculture. Meanwhile, the field of new drug discovery has attracted insufficient scientific interest and funding in recent decades meaning no new antibiotics have been successfully developed since the 1980s.

Alongside its drug discovery work, the IOI intends to partner with other global leaders in the field of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) to raise awareness and promote responsible use of antimicrobial drugs. The academic team will contribute to research on the type and extent of drug resistant microbes across the world, and critically, will seek to attract and train the brightest minds in science to tackle this ‘silent pandemic’.

Read full story

Source: University of Oxford, 19 January 2021

Read more

Trusts told to treat more COVID-19 patients at home

Hospitals should ramp up their treatment of COVID-19 patients at home to free up more beds during the peak of the pandemic, under plans announced by NHS England/Improvement.

All NHS trusts will receive up to 300 oximeters, which measure oxygen saturation levels and can be used to monitor COVID-19 patients in their own homes, rather than in hospital beds.

NHSE has “recommended” that all areas of England “pursue immediate roll-out” given the “intense pressure on hospital beds right now”, according to a letter from medical director Steve Powis and two other national directors.

Currently, nearly 60 trusts have COVID-19 patients in at least a third or more of their beds, and the total number of COVID-19 patients is peaking at around 37,000. There have been particular strains on hospital discharge, particularly of covid patients, whom many care homes are unable or unwilling to receive.

The scheme, dubbed “covid virtual wards”, has been used at some trusts since the pandemic’s first wave.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 19 January 2021

Read more
 

Bullying on NHS maternity units and poor training a risk to safety, MPs told

Doctors and midwives working in maternity services face higher levels of bullying than any other part of the NHS, MPs have been told.

According to the General Medical Council, trainee doctors in maternity services report more than twice the level of bullying seen in the rest of the NHS while the Nursing and Midwifery Council said midwives were also more likely to be bullied.

MPs on the Commons health select committee heard that the culture in some maternity units was a major barrier to improving safety and tackling poor care.

In an evidence session as part of an ongoing inquiry into maternity care, MPs were also warned the lack of properly funded training was forcing some midwives to pay out of their own pocket.

The inquiry by the committee was launched last year after repeated maternity scandals at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust and East Kent Hospitals University Trust.

Giving evidence to the committee, Charlie Massey, chief executive of the General Medical Council said: “We do see in our data some quite troubling data around bullying."

“If you are an obstetrics or gynaecology trainee, we see in our national training survey each year that some 14% report that they have experienced bullying – and that’s against an average for all trainees of 6%. You see more than double the rate of bullying in obstetrics and gynaecology than you do elsewhere.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 20 January 2021

Read more
 

Covid: 'Sharp drop' in heart-attack hospital admissions

There has been a sharp drop in the number of patients admitted to hospitals in England with heart attacks or heart failure in recent months, research reveals.

Experts are worried that people who need urgent medical help are not seeking it. This was also the case during the first wave of the pandemic.

The researchers included 66 hospitals in the study and compared daily admission rates in the year before the pandemic with those during the first and second waves in England, up to 17 November.

During the first lockdown, daily admissions for heart attacks or heart failure decreased by more than 50%. They went up again in the summer, as coronavirus rates decreased in the UK and the NHS became less busy with the virus.

From October, when coronavirus cases were rising again, heart admissions began to drop - by between 35% and 41% compared with pre-pandemic data, according to the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Researcher Prof Chris Gale, from Leeds University, said: "Medical emergencies do not stop in a pandemic. I am afraid that we are seeing a re-run of one of the preventable tragedies of the first wave - people were either too afraid to go to hospital for fear of contracting COVIDd-19 or were not referred for treatment."

"The message to patients needs to be clear. If they experience symptoms of a heart attack or acute heart failure, they need to attend hospital."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 20 January 2021

Read more
 

Gender identity development service for children rated inadequate

The UK’s main gender identity development service for children is leaving thousands of vulnerable young people at risk of self-harm as they wait years for their first appointment, according to a highly critical report.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) took immediate enforcement action against the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust when it completed the inspection in November, which rated the service overall “inadequate” and highlighted overwhelming caseloads, deficient record-keeping and poor leadership.

The commission, which heard from young people using the service, parents, carers and staff in the course of its inspection, told the trust that services and waiting times in the Gender Identity Development Services (GIDS) in both their London and Leeds clinics “must improve significantly”, demanding monthly updates on numbers on waiting lists and actions to reduce them.

The service has faced major scrutiny in recent years, with some former staff and campaigners raising concerns about the “overdiagnosing” of gender dysphoria, the consequences of early medical interventions and the significant increase in referrals of girls questioning their gender identity.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 20 January 2021

Read more
 

Almost 30% of Covid patients in England readmitted to hospital after discharge

Nearly a third of people who were discharged from hospitals in England after being treated for COVID-19 were readmitted within five months – and almost one in eight died, a study suggests.

The research, which is still to be peer-reviewed, also found a higher risk of problems developing in a range of organs after hospital discharge in those younger than 70 and ethnic minority individuals.

“There’s been so much talk about all these people dying from Covid … but death is not the only outcome that matters,” said Dr Charlotte Summers, a lecturer in intensive care medicine at the University of Cambridge who was not involved in this study.

“The idea that we have that level of increased risk in people – particularly young people – it means we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

There is no consensus on the scale and impact of “long Covid”, but scientists have described emerging evidence as concerning. According to recent figures provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a fifth of people in England still have coronavirus symptoms five weeks after being infected, half of whom continue to experience problems for at least 12 weeks.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 18 January 2021

Read more

COVID-19: We can't bounce back with only physicians

For the last 10 months, everyone in healthcare has lived their lives as if they were trapped in a burning building without a fire escape. 

No matter how much water we throw on the fire or how many firefighters (healthcare providers in this instance) we send in, we cannot gain control of the flames. The catastrophic loss of life has been insurmountable, and we often haven’t had enough physicians to take care of everyone. 

This is not new for a healthcare system. For years prior to this pandemic, there has been a physician shortage in the United States that is expected to worsen over the coming years. The Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicts that the US could see a shortage between 54,000 and 139,000 physicians in both primary and specialty care by 2033. Although the total physician supply is expected to grow, it won’t be at a fast enough rate to outpace demand. 

This is where physician assistants (PAs) and advanced practice nurses (APRNs) come in. Many people don’t realise that PAs and APRNs have been around for over 50 years. 

For 50 years, a plethora of research has shown that PAs and APRNs are safe, reliable, high quality healthcare providers and essential members of the healthcare team. But too often critics claim that because they have not gone through physician training, they cannot provide exceptional medical and surgical care. In fact, they already do. A recent comprehensive review of PA and APRN outcomes from 2008 to 2018 found that PAs and APRNs had similar outcomes compared to physicians including hospital length of stay, readmission rates, quality and safety and patient and staff satisfaction. 

Read full story

Source: The Hill, 16 January 2021

Read more

Hospitals in England told to keep performing urgent cancer surgery

NHS bosses have instructed hospitals to keep performing urgent cancer surgery despite Covid pressures, after a growing number cancelled procedures because they did not have enough intensive care beds or available staff.

They have told England’s regional directors of cancer to ensure treatment of people who need cancer surgery within four weeks gets the same priority as care of patients who have Covid.

The move was unveiled in a letter, obtained by HSJ, sent last Friday by Amanda Pritchard, the chief operating officer at NHS England and NHS Improvement. It was also signed by Cally Palmer, the NHS’s national cancer director, and Prof Peter Johnson, a highly respected specialist who is the NHS’s national clinical director for cancer.

They have acted after unease among cancer specialists that growing numbers of hospitals, including all those in London, had cancelled urgent operations. Hospitals have felt obliged to do so either because they did not have enough intensive care beds for patients who might need one after their cancer procedure or because surgical staff had been repurposed to help care for Covid patients.

Doctors voiced alarm at the scale of recent postponements of what the NHS classes as “priority two” operations. That means they should be done within 28 days to ensure that someone with cancer does not see their disease spread or become inoperable because it was delayed.

More than 1,000 cancer patients in London are now waiting to have “priority two” or “P2” urgent surgery, but none have been given a new date for when it will happen, HSJ reported last week.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 18 January 2021

Read more
 

Call to prioritise minority ethnic groups for Covid vaccines

People in high-risk minority ethnic groups must be prioritised for Covid immunisations, alongside a targeted publicity campaign, experts and politicians have said amid growing concerns over vaccine scepticism.

With figures on Monday recording more than 4m Covid vaccine doses now administered across the UK, and the rollout being expanded to all over-70s, public health experts and MPs called for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities to be better protected.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has also raised concerns after research showed up to 72% of black people said they were unlikely or very unlikely to have the jab.

Prof Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, urged Whitehall to begin a public health campaign. “We are concerned that recent reports show that people within BAME communities are not only more likely to be adversely affected by the virus but also less likely to accept the Covid vaccine, when offered it,” he said.

“As such, where appropriate, we’re calling for public health communications to be tailored to patients in BAME communities, to reassure them about the efficacy and safety of the vaccine and ultimately encourage them to come forward for their vaccination when they are invited for it.”

His remarks came as the vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, admitted he feared some BAME communities could remain exposed to coronavirus despite high expected uptake of the jabs.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 18 January 2021

Read more
 

Lessons learned after diabetic bled to death at Shropshire hospital

The family of a man who bled to death during kidney dialysis treatment at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital have said they believe lessons have been learned.

Mohammed Ismael Zaman, known as Bolly, died after hospital staff failed to check the connection on his dialysis machine, despite it sounding an alarm after the catheter had become disconnected.

During Mr Zaman’s treatment at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on October 18, 2019, his dialysis machine set off a venous pressure alarm.

An unidentified member of staff reset the alarm without checking that the connection was still secure. As a result of the reset, Mr Zaman bled out for seven minutes losing 49% of his blood circulating volume.

He was found unconscious in a pool of blood and despite resuscitation attempts, died two hours later.

The coroner, Mr John Ellery concluded that the death was due to systems failure and individual neglect on the part of the unidentified staff member.

Read full story

Source: Shropshire Star, 16 January 2021

Read more
×
×
  • Create New...