Jump to content
  • articles
    9,854
  • comments
    83
  • views
    12,508,652

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

 

Colchester nurse struck off for withholding morphine from brain tumour patient for being 'lazy'

A care home nurse has been struck off after he gave a brain tumour patient sugar and water instead of pain relief.

Vijayan Rajoo said he felt the patient was "just being lazy" and did not need pain relief.

Rajoo, 64, also failed to check supplies in the controlled drug cupboards at the start and end of his shifts, according to a misconduct panel.

He was struck off for 18 months after a deputy manager at the home, St Fillans in Colchester, Essex, discovered 20ml of liquid morphine Oramorph was unaccounted for in June 2019.

Rajoo later confessed to not giving the brain tumour patient a dose of Oramorph as a form of pain relief as he felt the patient "did not need it".

It was reported the patient could immediately tell the sugar and water mix "didn't taste right".

The misconduct panel found all charges against Rajoo proven. In their conclusions, the panel said Rajoo showed a "serious lack of compassion".

Read full story

Source: ITV News, 13 August 2022

Read more

Inspection blitz on maternity units amid new system safety concerns

Almost 200 maternity units in England will be inspected by the Care Quality Commission amid fears for mothers and babies’ safety and concerns that improvements are not happening fast enough.

The commission is taking the unusual step as NHS England faces accusations of pressuring hospitals to reorganise the way midwives work when they lack the staff to do it safely.

The new model of care, which is designed to provide mothers with a dedicated midwife throughout pregnancy, has been introduced only partially across the NHS, leading to a two-tier service in which hospital wards are left short of staff and women face potentially dangerous delays.

Under “continuity of carer”, midwives work in teams and are on call for specific mothers when they go into labour. But this can leave hospital wards understaffed and women not included in the programme waiting for a midwife.

NHS England is pushing hospitals to make this the default model of care by March 2024 despite a warning by Donna Ockenden, who led the inquiry into baby deaths at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, and who said in her final report that introduction of the new model should be suspended if services lack enough staff.

Read full story

Source: The Times, 14 August 2022

Further reading - Midwifery continuity of carer resources on the hub.

Read more
 

IUD perforation is rare, but women should still know about it

New study results in more precise language in the federally mandated warning about this possibility. (Article from the USA)

Women who choose to use an intrauterine device, or IUD, for birth control should be aware of the very small possibility that the device could puncture their uterus. They should know how to recognize that circumstance if it occurs, according to a new study published in The Lancet.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandated the study to evaluate women's risks when an IUD is placed in the year after giving birth and when an IUD is placed during the period that a woman is breastfeeding a baby. These results were compared, respectively, with non-postpartum insertions and insertions in non-breastfeeding individuals, explained UW Medicine’s Dr. Susan Reed, the study’s lead author.

Across the study cohort of 327,000 women, the percentage of perforation cases diagnosed within five years of IUD insertion was 0.6 %, the study concluded.

  • The risk of perforation increased by nearly seven times if it was inserted between four days and six weeks postpartum, and increased by about one-third if inserted during the span of breastfeeding.
  • The risk of an IUD-related perforation was relatively lower when inserted in women who were more than a year beyond delivery, in women who had never had a baby, and when the insertion occurred at delivery.

Read full article here

Read more
 

Heart check app keeps patients out of hospital

Monitoring heart patients via a smartphone app prevented readmissions and sped up discharges in a pilot scheme that its developers hope will be introduced across the country.

Patients sent data including their blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels and details of developing symptoms to their clinical team on an app.

The figures were collated on a “dashboard”, which flagged any signs that a patient might need medical help, allowing doctors and nurses to bring them into hospital or alter their medication as required.

The 12-week pilot by Huma, a healthcare technology company based in London, involved 40 patients at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board in south Wales and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in north Wales.

Click here to read full article (paywalled)

 
Read more
 

Virtual reality transports hospice patients to other side of the world

A hospice is using virtual reality (VR) to help patients relax and transport them away from their beds.

St Giles Hospice, which has bases in Lichfield and Sutton Coldfield, said the headsets allowed patients "to escape the realities of their present situation".

"I've never experienced anything quite like it in my life - I was totally lost in the moment," Janet, 71, said.

The VR experiences include cities of the world, space, and wildlife.

Beth Robinson, Occupational Therapist at St Giles Hospice, said the VR headsets helped patients "immerse themselves into a calming space".

To read the full article, click here

Read more

Dr Penny Kechagioglou on digitising patient reported outcome measures

Dr Penny Kechagioglou, Chief Clinical Information Officer and Deputy Chief Medical Officer at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, kindly shared her thoughts on digitising patient reported outcome measures in a blog for HTN.

The UK digital transformation wave is mainly characterised by the roll-out of electronic health records and is an opportunity to transform patient care by collecting and analysing patient reported outcome measures digitally.

A recent study at the European Society of Medical Oncology open journal (Modi, 2022) showed that patient reported outcome measures are predictive of cancer patient treatment response and quality of life for physical and mental parameters. The knowledge of patient reported outcomes (PRO) and experience (PRE) measures can be valuable in the monitoring of individual patient symptoms in clinic or remotely in the community and also for aggregating and interpreting population health data.

To read the full article, click here

Read more
 

Negligence legal costs can be three times as much as compensation

Legal costs in some lower-value medical negligence claims can be double or even triple the amount of compensation paid to patients. 

Figures in the Medical Defence Union’s (MDU’s) annual report for 2021 reveal the average sum paid in claimants’ legal costs on medical claims settled for up to £10,000 was in excess of £18,500. 

For claims settled between £10,000 and £25,000, the average was nearly £35,000. 

The not-for-profit indemnifier called on the Government to proceed quickly with the reforms needed to the clinical negligence system to make disproportionate legal costs a thing of the past. 

Its chief executive Dr Matthew Lee said: "Disproportionate legal costs are one of several defects in the current litigation system and particularly affect lower value claims. 

"It cannot be right for legal costs paid to claimants’ lawyers to regularly exceed the damages paid to claimants by double or triple the amount."

Read full story

Source: Independent Practitioner Today, 9 August 2022

Read more
 

Pharmacists warn shortages of drugs putting patients at risk

A shortage of some medicines is putting patients at risk, pharmacists have warned.

A poll of 1,562 UK pharmacists for the Pharmaceutical Journal found more than half (54%) believed patients had been put at risk in the past six months due to shortages.

A number of patients have been facing difficulties accessing some medicines in recent months, sometimes having to go to multiple pharmacies to find their prescription or needing to go back to their GP to be prescribed an alternative.

Since June, the government has issued a number of "medicine supply notifications", which highlight shortages.

Some of these include: pain relief drugs used in childbirth; mouth ulcer medication; migraine treatment; an antihistamine; a drug used by prostate cancer and endomitosis patients; an antipsychotic drug used among bipolar disorder and schizophrenia patients; a type of inhaler and a certain brand of insulin.

Read full story

Source Sky News, 11August 2022

Read more
 

Ambulance calls for most serious conditions hit record

Last month saw the highest number of ambulance callouts for life-threatening conditions since records began, NHS England officials say.

There were more than 85,000 category one calls, for situations like cardiac arrests and people stopping breathing.

The heatwave could have been one reason for increased demand, but experts say hospitals already face immense pressures.

Nearly 30,000 patients waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital.

The number is up 33% on the previous month and the highest since records began in 2010.

Richard Murray, chief executive of The King's Fund said the pressure on hospitals was also being felt right across the health and social care system.

He added: "At the end of July, 13,014 people were still in hospital beds despite being medically fit to be discharged, often due to a lack of available social care support. The challenges affecting the NHS cannot be solved without addressing the issues in social care."

Read full story

Source BBC News, 12 August 2022

Read more
 

NHS chiefs fear cyber attackers have accessed patient data

Criminals have issued ‘demands’ to an NHS IT supplier targeted by a cyber attack, leading health chiefs to fear they have accessed confidential patient data, HSJ has learned. 

IT firm Advanced was targeted last week. The company provides electronic patient records to several trusts and most NHS 111 providers.

Multiple government agencies – including the National Crime Agency and GCHQ – are now working to identify the extent of the damage caused by the attackers, while leaders of affected mental health trusts have warned of a “pretty desperate” situation as staff are unable to access vital patient records. 

In a statement issued last night, Advanced said: “With respect to potentially impacted data, our investigation is under way, and when we have more information about potential data access or exfiltration, we will update customers as appropriate.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source HSJ, 11 August 2022

Read more
 

Private providers targeted in NHSE crackdown on poor quality care

NHS England has revealed plans to crack down on poor care being provided by mental health service providers. 

There will be a particular focus on independent units treating NHS patients, as just over a quarter of these providers are failing to meet quality standards. 

Official data shared with HSJ shows that of the 238 independent NHS mental health providers licensed by the Care Quality Commission in England, 174 (73 per cent) are classed as “good” or “outstanding”. The remaining 64 (27 per cent) either “require improvement” or are considered “inadequate”. 

There have been been national concerns about repeated service failures within the sector. Independent units are often used by NHS trusts for out of area placements – a practice it is trying to end – or to cope with the lack of acute mental health beds.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 11 August 2022

Read more

"I've been let down - I shouldn't have stage-4 cancer"

A woman with fast-growing stage-four breast cancer says the NHS has let her down, with delays at every stage of her treatment.

Caroline Boulton, 56, had several appointments for a mammogram, which checks for early signs of cancer, cancelled because of Covid, in March and November 2020.

In late 2021, she found a small lump, went to her GP and was referred urgently to a specialist - but then the delays began.

"They haven't moved quickly enough," Ms Boulton says, who lives in Greater Manchester. "It's been really, really slow."

"Between each appointment, each scan, there's been four-, five-, six-, seven-, eight-week waiting times and delays every time."

The referral letter came through "very quickly" but then she waited three weeks, instead of the recommended two, to see a consultant.

"When I first found the lump, it was only pea-sized," Ms Boulton says. "By the time I got to see the consultant, it was the size of a tangerine."

Her cancer was growing quickly, she was told, but it would be eight weeks before a mastectomy could be scheduled to remove her breast.

"Considering it was fast-growing, that's a huge concern - you're living with that, waiting, knowing it's growing," Ms Boulton says.

When she finally saw an oncologist seven months after finding the lump, had another scan and received the results, the cancer had spread to her liver - and there was no longer any treatment they could offer.

"I've now got stage-four cancer that I shouldn't have - and two years to live."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 10 August 2022

Read more
 

New capital fund to boost beds and A&E capacity

England’s mental health inpatient system is “running very hot” and operating well above recommended occupancy levels, HSJ has been told, as new funding to address the problem is revealed.

The move was announced by NHS England mental health director Claire Murdoch in an exclusive interview with HSJ. 

It comes amid a steep rise in mental health patients waiting more than 12 hours in accident and emergency. Last month, an HSJ investigation revealed 12-hour waits for people in crisis had ballooned by 150% in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels. Problems finding specialist beds have been cited by experts as one of the root causes of A&E breaches.

Ms Murdoch told HSJ the funds would not come from ”within the mental health service budget” and that they would be used to “help address any pressures where we think the answer is more of either beds or other urgent and emergency care which has a capital need.”

NHSE is now working with the 42 integrated care systems to determine where the money can best be used. Ms Murdoch said the money would be spent ”where there is a particular need” and that there was “no blanket approach” to its allocation. 

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 10 August 2022

Read more

Cyber attack: NHS staff unable to access patient notes for three weeks

A cyber attack that has caused a major outage of NHS IT systems is expected to last for more than three weeks, leaving doctors unable to see patients’ notes, The Independent has learned.

Mental health trusts across the country will be left unable to access patient notes for weeks, and possibly months.

Oxford Health Foundation Trust has declared a critical incident over the outage, which is believed to affect dozens of trusts, and has told staff it is putting emergency plans in place.

One NHS trust chief said the situation could possibly last for “months” with several mental health trusts, and there was concern among leaders that the problem is not being prioritised.

In an email to staff, Oxford Health Foundation Trust chief executive Nick Broughton, said: “The cyber attack targeted systems used to refer patients for care, including ambulances being dispatched, out-of-hours appointment bookings, triage, out-of-hours care, emergency prescriptions and safety alerts. It also targeted the finance system used by the Trust."

The NHS director said: “The whole thing is down. It’s really alarming…we’re carrying a lot of risk as a result of it because you can’t get records and details of assessments, prescribing, key observations, medical mental health act observations. You can’t see any of it…Staff are going to have to write everything down and input it later.”

They added: “There is increased risk to patients. We’re finding hard to discharge people, for example to housing providers, because we can’t access records.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 11 August 2022

Read more

Urgent polio boosters for London children

All children aged one to nine and living in Greater London will be offered a polio vaccine after the virus was detected in sewage.

The virus, which can cause paralysis, has been found 116 times in London's wastewater since February.

The urgent immunisation campaign will see nearly a million children offered the vaccine - including those already up to date with their jabs.

Parents and carers will be contacted by their GP within the next month.

Polio is seen as a disease of the past in the UK after the whole of Europe was declared polio-free in 2003.

Dr Vanessa Saliba, a consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA, said: "All children aged one to nine years in London need to have a dose of polio vaccine now - whether it's an extra booster dose or just to catch up with their routine vaccinations."

She said the risk for the majority of the population who are vaccinated remains "low" but said it was "vital" parents ensure their children are fully vaccinated.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 10 August 2022

Read more
 

USA: The GOP blocked an insulin price cap - what it means for diabetics

The Senate passed a sweeping budget package Sunday intended to bring financial relief to Americans, but not before Republican senators voted to strip a proposal that would have capped the price of insulin at $35 per month for many patients.

A proposal that limits the monthly cost of insulin to $35 for Medicare patients was left untouched. But using a parliamentary rule, GOP lawmakers were able to jettison the part of the proposal that would apply to privately insured patients.

Lowering the price of drugs such as insulin, which is used by diabetics to manage their blood sugar levels, is broadly popular with voters, polling shows. Senate Democrats denounced Republicans for voting against relief for Americans struggling to pay for the lifesaving drug.

More than 30 million Americans have diabetes, and about 7 million require insulin daily to manage their blood sugar levels.

The insulin price cap, part of a larger package of proposals to cut prescription drug and other health-care costs, was intended to limit out-of-pocket monthly insulin costs to $35 for most Americans who use insulin.

More than 1 in 5 insulin users on private medical insurance pay more than $35 per month for the medicine, according to a recent analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The same analysis found that the median monthly savings for those people would range from $19 to $27, depending on their type of insurance market.

A Yale University study found insulin is an “extreme financial burden” for more than 14% of Americans who use it. These people are spending more than 40% of their income after food and housing costs on the medicine.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Washington Post, 8 August 2022

Read more

Obese patients ‘being weight-shamed by doctors and nurses’

Doctors and nurses often “weight-shame” people who are overweight or obese, leaving them feeling anxious, depressed and wrongly blaming themselves for their condition, research has found.

Such behaviour, although usually the result of “unconscious weight bias”, leads to people not attending medical appointments, feeling humiliated and being more likely to put on weight.

Dr Anastasia Kalea and colleagues at University College London analysed 25 previous studies about “weight stigma”, undertaken in different countries, involving 3,554 health professionals. They found “extensive evidence [of] strong weight bias” among a wide range of health staff, including doctors, nurses, dieticians, psychologists and even obesity specialists.

Their analysis found that a number of health professionals “believe their patients are lazy, lack self-control, overindulge, are hostile, dishonest, have poor hygiene and do not follow guidance”, said Kalea, an associate professor in UCL’s division of medicine.

She added: “Sadly, healthcare, including general practice, is one of the most common settings for weight stigmatisation and we know this acts as a barrier to the services and treatments that can help people manage weight.

“An example is a GP that will unconsciously show that they do not believe that the patient complies with their eat less/exercise more regime they were asked to follow as they are not losing weight."

“The result is that patients are not coming back or they delay their follow-up appointments, they avoid healthcare prevention services or cancel appointments due to concerns of being stigmatised due to their weight.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 10 August 2022

Read more

Half of UK adults ‘don’t contact GP within six months of finding cancer symptom’

Half of UK adults with a possible cancer symptom do not contact their GP within six months, despite spotting changes to their body, research suggests.

A YouGov poll of 2,468 people for Cancer Research UK found that just 48% of those who had experienced a red flag symptom – including coughing up blood, unexplained weight loss and a new or unusual lump – contacted their GP within half a year.

Not telling a doctor about unusual health changes or possible cancer symptoms reduces the chances of an early cancer diagnosis, leading to potentially devastating outcomes.

Cancer Research UK’s chief executive Michelle Mitchell said: “Spotting cancer early is vital if more people are to survive, and the first step in that process is getting help for a possible cancer symptom.

“It’s really worrying to see such a large gap in accessing services between the UK’s most and least deprived groups.

“Earlier this year, the Government announced among its top priorities were improving early diagnosis of cancer and tackling health disparities.

“Cancer must remain a top priority and with the upcoming Health Disparities White Paper and 10-Year Plan for England, the new Health and Social Care Secretary has a huge opportunity to transform cancer survival with a clear and strong plan that works for all.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 10 August 2022

Read more

Just four out of 1,100 lone worker alarms being used by trust workforce

A trust which rented 1,100 lone worker alarms has found just four were in use after a year.

Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust rented the system for five years, with the contract starting in early 2021. But a year later only 51 of the units were assigned to a user, and just four were being used.

Most of the users had not completed their training and 19 had not even logged into the system to set up a profile, according to an annual health and safety report covering 2021-22.

The health and safety report said: “Unfortunately the system has yet to demonstrate value for money as the uptake within services across the trust is very poor, despite the extensive work by the health and safety team to encourage uptake.” This had included demonstrating the system at multiple meetings and trying to raise awareness.

A spokesperson from Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust said: “The lone worker system is one of the ways we ensure the safety of our staff who work alone. It has taken time to embed the new system due to the changes in working practices during the pandemic. However, in recent months we have seen the number of staff actively using the system increasing."

“There is more we are doing to ensure wider take-up and implementation, through a programme of engagement and training.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 9 August 2022

Read more

Birmingham: 'Action not reports' needed on healthcare racism

Action rather than reports is needed to tackle healthcare inequalities faced by black people in Birmingham, a charity says.

It follows a report which found people from black communities continued to face racism and discrimination when accessing treatment.

The city's director of public health said he was "horrified" by the finding. Dr Justin Varney said the system must be adapted to meet the needs of all.

Charity The First Class Foundation wants to see implementation of changes and says among the healthcare problems in need of tackling are "microaggressions" faced by communities.

The publication of the Birmingham and Lewisham African Health Inequalities Review followed an 18-month study commissioned by the areas' local authorities.

It found disadvantages among the communities in housing, pollution and availability of green space had "all contributed to worse health".

The report additionally highlighted how the communities were "exposed to structural racism and discrimination which leads to... chronic stress and trauma".

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 10 August 2022

Read more

Doctors declare ‘lack of confidence’ in trust board

The medical body at Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust has written to the trust’s chair saying that it is unable to provide safe care and expressing a lack of confidence in the board.

The letter, which has been seen by HSJ, is signed by 140 of doctors at the mental health provider. It claims the trust’s “clinical services are unable to provide good basic care and are unsafe”.

Significant criticism is reserved for the trust’s senior management, with the letter stating “there is a general dysfunction with perpetual changes of key staff in executive posts and ever increasing layers of management” and that “major decisions are frequently made by a handful of people at an executive level without clinical consultation”.

The letter continues: “Doctors are by and large used as clinical workhorses. Many carrying huge workloads and holding unacceptable clinical risks”.

The letter, first revealed by BBC Look East, asks for an urgent meeting with the chair and states that the medical body “lacks confidence in the executive board to resolve the plight of NSFT”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 10 August 2022

Read more

US doctor issues warning of many undiagnosed polio cases

A health official in New York State has told the BBC there could be hundreds or even thousands of undiagnosed cases of polio there.

It follows an announcement last month that an unvaccinated man had been paralysed by the virus in Rockland County, New York. His case has been linked genetically to traces of polio virus found in sewage in London and Jerusalem.

Developed countries have been warned to boost vaccination rates.

Dr Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, health commissioner for Rockland County, said she was worried about polio circulating in her state undetected.

"There isn't just one case of polio if you see a paralytic case. The incidence of paralytic polio is less than 1%," she said.

"Most cases are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and those symptoms are often missed. So there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of cases that have occurred in order for us to see a paralytic case."

"This is a very serious issue for our global world - it's not just about New York. We all need to make sure all our populations are properly vaccinated," she said.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 9 August 2022

Read more

Virtual outpatient drive at heart of effort to end 78-week waits, says Mackey

Patients at trusts with long waiting lists should no longer think ‘they have to go to their local hospital’ for outpatient appointments, but should instead be offered virtual consultations elsewhere in the country where there is greater capacity, Sir Jim Mackey has told HSJ.

The NHS England elective chief said recent efforts to abolish two-year waiters by July had meant a “very big” surgical focus. However, the next phase of the elective recovery plan would see a major shift of emphasis onto reducing the wait for outpatient appointments.

Sir Jim said: “Providers have been split into tiers again with tier one having national oversight and tier two, regional oversight. Behind that we will be pairing up organisations so that organisations with capacity can help those with the biggest challenges from a virtual outpatient perspective.

He added: “There still is a lot to work through [on virtual outpatients], we’re going to be testing the concept… We need to work through how all the wiring and plumbing needs to work. For example, what happens if the patient needs a diagnostic locally, having seen a clinician virtually in another part of the country?

“It would be great also to try and stimulate more of a consumer drive on this – encouraging patients to ask about virtual outpatients when the waits locally may be too long, so they don’t just think they have to go to their local hospital. I think this could really help shift the model if we can get it right.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 9 August 2022

 

Read more

Hospital asking nurses to clean wards ‘risky’ and shows ‘little respect’ for staff

Specialist nurses at an NHS hospital have been told they may be taken off clinical shifts to help clean wards, it has emerged.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has said it asked nursing staff to help clean wards as the hospital faced the “most challenging circumstances” it has ever faced.

Clinical specialist nurses, who are advanced nurses and can usually have hundreds of patients under their care, were among those asked to spend entire shifts helping other wards “cleaning”, “tidying” and “decluttering”.

The news has prompted criticism from unions, however, multiple nurses have reported that the requests happen “often” during winter.

Alison Leary professor of healthcare and workforce at South Bank University warned that asking specialist nurses to drop their work was “very risky”.

She said: “This problem keeps cropping up-as soon as there is pressure on wards they are expected to abandon their patients. It usually happens in winter and so it’s concerning that it has now started to happen in summer.

“This also shows very little respect for nursing generally and will not help retention. Trusts need to plan workforces accordingly and should ensure they have the right amount of cleaning, administrative and housekeeping staff-all staff groups which contribute to patient safety and care quality."

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 8 August 2022

Read more

© 2026 Patient Safety Learning. All rights reserved.

Patient Safety Learning is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission Registration number 1180689.

×
  • 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.