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160,000 risk harm each year from ambulance handover delays

 

Ambulance handover delays could harm 160,000 patients a year, 12,000 of them severely, according to a structured clinical review of cases by service bosses earlier this year.

The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives examined a sample of 470 cases where handover to A&E was delayed for an hour or more on 4 January this year. The review, whose findings were shared with HSJ, involved every mainland ambulance service in England.

It found that 85% of those who waited more than an hour suffered potential harm, with nine per cent potentially severely harmed. 

Extrapolated across an entire year, using levels of delays up to September 2021, this suggests 160,000 patients are potentially harmed annually. Patients who waited the longest for handover were at greatest risk of some level of harm, and the risk of severe harm more than tripled for those waiting more than four hours compared with those waiting for 60 to 90 minutes.

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Source: HSJ, 14 November 2021

 

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Staffing agencies triple rates as care homes and NHS fight over nurses

Nursing shortages are allowing “profiteering” staffing agencies to triple their rates, care leaders have warned, raising the risk of vulnerable patients being forced to move care homes and increasing the burden on the NHS.

The crisis is forcing some nursing homes to become standard residential care homes without support for people with chronic diseases.

The shortage also makes it harder for NHS hospitals to discharge patients. Some hospitals have redeployed their own staff into nursing homes to free beds in hospitals. In other places, NHS trusts are competing for staff with care providers.

Geoff Butcher, director of Blackadder Corporation, which runs six homes in the West Midlands, said that he paid nurses about £19.50 an hour, slightly higher than the NHS rate of £16.52. “Two of our nurses resigned recently and they’ve gone to an agency for £35 an hour,” he said. “And that agency then came to us and said we can have these staff back at £52 an hour. They want £95 an hour for those nurses on a bank holiday nightshift. It’s utterly unaffordable.

“Because the NHS can’t recruit they are having to use these agencies as well. So the NHS is bidding against us, therefore they’re pushing the rates up, and the whole thing has gone into a completely crazy spiral. The agencies are just grossly profiteering out of it."

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Source: The Guardian, 14 November 2021

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Loophole in the law leaves patients at risk of abuse and sexual assault

A loophole in the law is leaving vulnerable patients at risk of abuse and sexual assault by unregulated private ambulance staff, The Independent has revealed.

While many private ambulance providers are regulated, a small number, such as those providing services at events, those providing first aid, and those who are subcontracted, fall outside the reach of the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

This is due to a loophole in the legislation, which means that organisations providing healthcare at events are not required to be CQC registered.

The Independent has learned that around 10,000 patients a day are seen by ambulance workers who are unregulated and not part of any registered professional body.

Alan Howson, chief executive of the Independent Ambulance Association, said he was concerned about healthcare providers that “operate outside of the scope” of the care watchdog and in “plain sight and unchecked”, leaving patients at risk from staff who might “seek to misuse their power”.

His concerns were in response to an internal report by the CQC, completed last year, which identified specific risks around sexual harm in relation to private providers, as well as “inconsistency” in providers’ recording of incidents.

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Source: The Independent, 14 November 2021

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New patient safety chief revealed

A management coach and adviser to the Care Quality Commission has been appointed as the new ‘national guardian’ for the ’freedom to speak up’ programme.

Jayne Chidgey-Clark will take up her new role on 1 December. The national guardian’s office leads, trains and supports the network of over 700 freedom to speak up guardians in England, as well as providing “challenge and learning to the healthcare system”.

Ms Chidgey-Clark, a registered nurse, has served as a specialist adviser to the CQC since 2017. She has run her own coaching, consultancy and interim management business since 2009. She was a clincial adviser to NHS England’s new care models programme for three years until 2018 and the director of the end of life care modernisation project at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust between 2008 and 2011.

Her appointment comes after Henrietta Hughes announced in June she was stepping down from the role after five years.

Ms Chidgey-Clark, who is the third appointee to the position, said: “I feel excited and privileged to have been appointed as the new National Guardian for the NHS. I am passionate about, and committed to, making a real difference in people’s lives through the planning and delivery of the highest quality, effective care with excellent outcomes for people who use our health services, and their families.”

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Source: HSJ, 11 November 2021

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NHS patients dying in back of ambulances stuck outside A&E, report says

People are dying in the back of ambulances and up to 160,000 more a year are coming to harm because they are stuck outside hospitals unable to be offloaded to A&E, a bombshell report has revealed.

Patients are also dying soon after finally getting admitted to hospital after spending long periods in the back of an ambulance, while others still in their own homes are not being saved because paramedics are trapped at A&E and unable to answer 999 calls, said the report by NHS ambulance service bosses in England.

In addition, about 12,000 of the 160,000 are suffering “severe harm” such as a permanent setback to their health. These include people with life-threatening health emergencies such as chest pains, sepsis, heart problems, epilepsy and COVID-19 because growing numbers of paramedics are having to wait increasingly long times to hand over a patient to A&E staff.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats said the “staggering” extent of damage to patients’ health underlined the risks posed by the deepening crisis facing NHS ambulance services.

The report, seen by the Guardian, has been drawn up by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) and is based on official NHS figures, which until now were secret. AACE represents the chief executives of England’s 10 regional ambulance services, all of which have had to declare an alert in recent months after being faced with unprecedented demands for help.

It concludes that: “When very sick patients arrive at hospital and then have to wait an excessive time for handover to emergency department clinicians to receive assessment and definitive care, it is entirely predictable and almost inevitable that some level of harm will arise.

“This may take the form of a deteriorating medical or physical condition, or distress and anxiety, potentially affecting the outcome for patients and definitely creating a poor patient experience.”

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Source: The Guardian, 14 November 2021

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Nursing leaders point to ‘untenable’ health and care conditions in England

Nursing leaders have highlighted 10 pressures on health and social care services which they say have created “unsustainable, untenable” conditions.

A report from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said members working across health and social care in England dispute statements that the current situation in health and care is sustainable.

NHS hospital waiting times is listed as one of the 10 indicators with the report referring to this issue as “clearly a symptom of an unsustainable system”.

The report, 10 Unsustainable Pressures on the Health and Care System in England, refers to “corridor care” – time spent on trolleys in hospital corridors before being admitted to a hospital bed.

“We are clear that delivery of care within inadequate environments such as that frequently referred to as ‘corridor care’ or ‘corridor nursing’ is fundamentally unsafe and must not be normalised,” the report says.

The 10 pressures also include high COVID-19 infection rates, NHS nursing workforce vacancy rate, social care workforce vacancies and NHS elective/community waiting times.

The report says: “Action needs to be taken to retain as many nursing staff as possible in light of serious staffing vacancies, as well as high levels of exhaustion and burnout.

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Source: The Guardian, 15 November 2021

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Blood pressure drugs could prevent type 2 diabetes, study finds

Blood pressure drugs could prevent millions of people worldwide from developing type 2 diabetes, a large study suggests.

Lowering high blood pressure is an effective way to slash the risk of the disease in the future, according to the research published in the Lancet.

Doctors already prescribe cheap blood pressure drugs to reduce the chances of a life-threatening heart attack or stroke. However, until now, the question of whether these drugs could also help fend off the threat of type 2 diabetes had been unanswered.

Now researchers have found the protective effects of the drugs are much wider than previously thought. The study shows they may directly reduce someone’s risk of type 2 diabetes, a condition that an estimated 13.6 million people in the UK are at high risk of developing.

Currently, health experts say being a healthy weight and adopting a healthy lifestyle is the best way to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Researchers say existing drugs – particularly ACE inhibitors and ARBs – should now be considered for some patients who are at higher risk of the disease.

Prof Kazem Rahimi, lead researcher of the study at the University of Oxford and a consultant cardiologist, said: “Our research provides clear evidence that giving ACE inhibitors or ARBs, which are widely available and affordable worldwide, to patients at high risk could curb the growing burden of type 2 diabetes.”

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Source: The Guardian, 11 November 2021

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Pakistani and Bangladeshi people above the age of 30 experience the worst health out of any ethnicity in UK

Pakistanis and Bangladeshis over the age of 30 experience the same level of poor health as their white counterparts that are 20 years older.

Those from the subcontinent face stark ethnic health inequalities across the population, according to a new study.

It means the group has the worst health out of any ethnicity.

London-based Aideen Young, Senior Evidence Manager at the Centre for Ageing Better, has called on the Government to do more to address these inequalities.

She said: “This study reveals really shocking health inequalities between different ethnic groups, with some groups experiencing the rates of poor health that White people typically see at much older ages.

“It’s also depressing to see that these inequalities haven’t changed for the last 25 years. In the wake of the pandemic, we risk seeing them widen – so it’s vital that government makes tackling health inequality a priority in the recovery.

“To properly address the problem we need much better data, which is why we are calling for ethnicity data reporting to be mandatory for all official data monitoring.

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Source: My London, 11 November 2021

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Shake-up of children’s cancer care after decade long arguments and cover-up claims

London’s fragmented children’s cancer services will finally be reformed following a decade of delays and allegations of cover-up by senior officials.

NHS England has said it will adopt recommendations that will see the capital’s services brought up to standards already common across the rest of the country, with children’s cancer centres needing to be based in hospitals with full paediatric intensive care units.

The changes will be imposed “with no exceptions or special arrangements permitted,” it said in a letter yesterday.

This means the Royal Marsden’s children’s service at its base in Sutton, south London, will have to move to a new hospital. Currently sick children who deteriorate at the Marsden’s site have to be rushed by ambulance to St George’s Hospital 40 minutes away.

More than 330 children were transferred from the Marsden to other hospitals between 2000 and 2015 and in one year 22 children were transferred for intensive care a total of 31 times, with some experiencing at least three transfers individually.

The changes will also affect cancer care at University College London Hospital which links with Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.

The world-renowned Royal Marsden trust, whose chief executive Dame Cally Palmer is also NHS England’s national cancer director, was at the centre of a cover-up scandal before the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019, the Health Service Journal revealed a major report, commissioned by NHS bosses in London following the deaths of several children, had been “buried” by NHS England.

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Source: The Independent, 12 November 2021

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Alder Hey NHS Trust must pay boy £27m over brain injuries

A boy who suffered "catastrophic brain injuries" when doctors failed to see he had a virus and sent him home after he had a seizure has been awarded £27m.

The boy, who cannot be identified but is now 13, suffered seizures as a toddler more than a decade ago.

Details of the settlement between the boy's father and Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust were published in a written ruling.

High Court judge Mr Justice Fordham said it was a "sensible settlement".

Trust bosses admitted "breach of duty" and "causation of loss and damage", the judge said.

The judgment, from the hearing in Manchester, said the boy had suffered a seizure at 17 months old on 19 September 2009 and was taken to Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

He suffered a second seizure in the accident and emergency department which was seen by medical staff. The boy was sent home and, despite going back to hospital, was not diagnosed with a virus until 24 September.

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Source: BBC News, 12 November 2021

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GPs dispute Javid’s claim lack of appointments is overloading A&Es

Family doctors have reopened their bitter dispute with the government by accusing Sajid Javid of misleading MPs and the public by blaming overloaded A&Es on a lack of GP appointments.

The Royal College of GPs has told the health secretary in a strongly worded letter that there is no basis for the claim, which he made to MPs last week and which was widely covered by the media.

In it Prof Martin Marshall, the college’s chair, said that its 54,000 members “are dismayed and disappointed at the media coverage of your evidence session, which suggested that the lack of face-to-face GP appointments was placing additional strain on accident and emergency departments”.

He disputed Javid’s claim that there is evidence which links the issues.

He wrote: “You told the [health and social care select] committee you had seen data which showed that more patients were presenting at A&E departments because they were unable to access primary care. I am not aware of any evidence to suggest that this is happening and would welcome sight of any data you have.”

Tensions are simmering between GPs and the government since Javid’s edict last month that GPs in England must see any patient who wants an in-person appointment.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 November 2021

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Black women four times more likely to die in childbirth

Black women are more than four times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than white women in the UK, a review of 2017-2019 deaths shows.

The MBRRACE-UK report found women from Asian backgrounds are almost twice as likely to die as white women.

Some 495 individuals died during pregnancy or up to a year after birth, out of 2,173,810 having a child.

The charity Birthrights is concerned that overall "this bleak picture has not changed in over a decade".

University of Oxford researchers say for the vast majority of people, pregnancy remains very safe in the UK. But despite slight decreases in the maternal death rate in recent years, there have been no significant improvements to these rates since the 2010 to 2012 period.

Their current report shows heart disease, epilepsy and stroke continue to be the most common causes of death. And they say in some 37% of cases, improvements in care may have made a difference to the outcome.

Lead researcher, Prof Marian Knight, said: "Pregnant women get inequitable care for several reasons.

"Healthcare professionals often attribute their symptoms to pregnancy alone and they do not always end up getting the treatment they need because people can be incorrectly concerned about giving them medication.

"On top of that is the unconscious bias that black and Asian women can experience. It all adds up.

"We know from other studies that the disparity in death rates cannot be fully explained by socio-economic factors and other medical conditions for example. We need to look for other reasons."

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Source: BBC News, 11 November 2021

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Alarm over ‘serious’ delays in diagnosing childhood cancer in England

Health experts have raised the alarm over “serious” delays in diagnosing children and young people with cancer, as a study reveals the number found to have the disease during the pandemic fell by almost a fifth.

The University of Oxford found a “substantial reduction in childhood, teenage and young adult cancer detection” in England last year. The research, being presented on Friday at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) festival, showed a 17% drop in cases diagnosed in the under-25s last year compared with previous years.

The impact of Covid on adults with cancer is well known. However, previously little has been known about the toll on younger patients.

As well as the fall in the overall numbers of children diagnosed with cancer, researchers found that even those whose cancer was spotted last year were more likely to have been diagnosed only after being admitted to intensive care. That suggests long delays in accessing care may have made them much sicker, experts say.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 November 2021

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NHS is at breaking point and putting patients at high risk, bosses warn

Patient safety in the NHS in England is being put at “unacceptably high” risk, with severe staff shortages leaving hospitals, GP surgeries and A&E units struggling to cope with soaring demand, health chiefs have warned.

The health service has hit “breaking point”, the leaders say, with record numbers of patients seeking care.

Nine in 10 NHS chief executives, chairs and directors have reported this week that the pressures on their organisation have become unsustainable. The same proportion is sounding “alarm bells” over staffing, with the lack of doctors, nurses and other health workers putting lives of patients at risk.

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has come under fire for recently claiming, at a No 10 press conference, that he did not believe the pressure on the NHS was unsustainable.

But the survey of 451 NHS leaders in England finds the health service already at “tipping point”. The results of the poll, conducted by the NHS Confederation, which represents the healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, show that 88% of the leaders think the demands on their organisation are unsustainable, and 87% believe a lack of staffing in the NHS as a whole is putting patient safety and care at risk.

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “Almost every healthcare leader we’ve spoken to is warning that the NHS is under unsustainable pressure, and they are worried the situation will worsen, as we head into deep midwinter, unless action is taken. They are also sounding alarm bells over risks to patient safety if their services become overwhelmed, on top of a severe workforce crisis."

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Source: The Guardian, 10 November 2021

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Lives at risk from 'unacceptable' ambulance waits

Lives are at risk because patients are facing unacceptably long waits for a 999 response, paramedics across the UK have told a BBC investigation.

Average waits for emergency callouts for problems such as heart attacks and strokes are taking more than twice as long as they should in England. Targets are being missed in the rest of UK too, with some seriously-ill waiting up to nine hours for an ambulance.

There are numerous investigations ongoing into deaths linked to delays.

The problems have forced all ambulance services to be put on their highest levels of alert - meaning patients who can make their own way to hospital are told to do so. A number of services have also brought in the military to support crews. 

The BBC has received reports of numerous serious incidents across the UK.

Margaret Root, 82, waited nearly six hours for an ambulance to come following a stroke, and she then waited for another three hours outside hospital. When she was finally admitted, her family was told it was too late to give her the drugs needed to reverse the effects of the stroke.

Her granddaughter Christina White-Smith said her grandmother had been "hugely let down".

She said she did not blame the staff because they were "amazing" when they got to her grandmother, but said she is angry the NHS is not getting the help it needs.

"I don't think people are aware of the severity of the situation."

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Source: BBC News, 11 November 2021

 

 

 
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England has highest death rates of older patients in western world, study finds

England has the highest death rates of frail and older hospitalised patients in the western world, a landmark global study has found.

Harvard University, the London School of Economics (LSE) and the thinktank Health Foundation, all part of the International Collaborative on Costs, Outcomes and Needs in Care (Icconic), a global network of healthcare researchers, used thousands of official medical records to compare the cost and quality of care in 10 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

Patient deaths are commonly used measures of performance in healthcare systems but until now there have been few sources of comparable death rates across countries.

In order to assess outcomes in frail and older patients, researchers focused on two groups that represent priority areas for the NHS and other healthcare systems: those in hospital with a hip fracture and those admitted with heart failure who have diabetes.

On both measures, England had higher mortality rates than all the other countries, which included the US, Germany, France, Sweden and Spain.

Dr Jennifer Dixon, the chief executive of the Health Foundation, said: “The findings of the Icconic study warrant urgent further investigation, particularly the finding of higher mortality among patients with hip fracture in the year after their admission for emergency treatment."

“That patients in England with hip fracture spend far longer in hospital after surgery than they would in other countries also highlights an opportunity to improve efficiency by reducing the avoidable use of hospital care. Less avoidably long stays would mean existing capacity could be better used to address the backlogs in hospital care as a result of the pandemic. This could contribute to both better outcomes for patients and, as hip fracture is the most common reason for emergency surgery, significantly improved productivity for hospitals across the country.”

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Source: The Guardian, 10 November 2021

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Epilepsy mortality in Scotland 'not reducing' as study finds hundreds of avoidable deaths

Campaigners have called for a change in how epilepsy services are delivered after "alarming" new research revealed that nearly 80% cent of deaths in young adults could have been avoided.

It comes as researchers behind the first ever national review into deaths linked to the condition warned that "little has improved in epilepsy care" despite previous findings of premature mortality.

They describe the situation as a "major public health problem in Scotland", adding that deaths "are not reducing, people are dying young, and many deaths are potentially avoidable”.

In particular, the Edinburgh University team found that adults aged 16 to 24 were five times more likely to die compared to the general population, a problem they said may be linked to the "vulnerable period of transition from paediatric to adult care".

Overall, for adults with epilepsy aged 16 to 54, the mortality rate was more than double that for the age group as a whole, with as many as 76% of these deaths potentially preventable and the majority occurring among patients from the most deprived areas.

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Source: The Herald, 11 November 2021

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Thousands missed from breast implant registry

Thousands of women are being missed off the breast implant registry, new figures suggest.

Data from NHS Digital, which manages the register, implies that around 8500 women across England and Scotland have not been added to the register after they were fitted with an implant last year.

The register was recommended as a result of the breast implant scandal which saw some women fitted with faulty implants. 

It records the details of every person who has breast implant surgery in case of a product recall or another safety concern.

But the latest figures suggest that many are being missed off the register and NHS Digital has asked women undergoing such treatment to ensure their surgeon has registered their details.

The figures show that operations on 10,500 people were recorded in 2020. But officials have estimated this represents around 55% of the total number of cases. This means that approximately 8485 people were not added.

Lee Martin, NHS breast surgeon and chairman of the Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry steering group, said: "We want all patients, past and present, to be aware that the registry exists and ensure they are included by speaking to their surgeons."

"As a surgeon, I know first-hand the importance of patient information being included on the registry, it's crucial in providing good patient care and provides patients with assurance that they will be followed up with if there are issues with their breast implants in the future."

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Source: Medscape, 10 November 2021

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AI skin cancer diagnoses risk being less accurate for dark skin – study

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems being developed to diagnose skin cancer run the risk of being less accurate for people with dark skin, research suggests.

The potential of AI has led to developments in healthcare, with some studies suggesting image recognition technology based on machine learning algorithms can classify skin cancers as successfully as human experts.

NHS trusts have begun exploring AI to help dermatologists triage patients with skin lesions. But researchers say more needs to be done to ensure the technology benefits all patients, after finding that few freely available image databases that could be used to develop or “train” AI systems for skin cancer diagnosis contain information on ethnicity or skin type. Those that do have very few images of people with dark skin.

Dr David Wen, first author of the study from the University of Oxford, said: “You could have a situation where the regulatory authorities say that because this algorithm has only been trained on images in fair-skinned people, you’re only allowed to use it for fair-skinned individuals, and therefore that could lead to certain populations being excluded from algorithms that are approved for clinical use."

“Alternatively, if the regulators are a bit more relaxed and say: ‘OK, you can use it [on all patients]’, the algorithms may not perform as accurately on populations who don’t have that many images involved in training.”

That could bring other problems including risking avoidable surgery, missing treatable cancers and causing unnecessary anxiety, the team said.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 November 2021

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Patient kills herself on Glasgow hospital ward after 'failure in communication'

A woman took her own life on a ward after her move to a mental health hospital was not facilitated.

Anne Clelland was found unconscious in the toilet of her room in Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and later died of a brain injury.

Anne - who had a history of self-harm - was admitted following an overdose. She was due to be moved to a psychiatric hospital three days before her death but this did not take place because of a "failure of communication."

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde pled guilty today to failing to conduct their undertaking in a way that a person would not be exposed to risks to their health and safety.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard Anne was admitted to Ward 5A at the hospital after overdosing on 7 May 2015. A specialist met with Ann on 11 and 12 May with a plan put in place for her to be transferred to Leverndale hospital once she was medically fit.

A psychiatry team was to be contacted at that time for a further review to facilitate the transfer.

Prosecutor Catriona Dow said: “There was no suggestion at this time that despite her ongoing treatment following her suicide attempt, that she was at risk of suicide and required special requirements such as the removal of her possessions and enhanced observations such as constant observations.”

“There appears there was a breakdown in communication regarding the intention of the psychiatrist that Anne would be transferred that evening due to her assessed risk of self-harm.”

Other witnesses recalled a plan for a transfer to Leverndale but it was understood that until a bed was to become available, she would be able to remain at Ward 5A.

Other staff appeared not to have been aware of the assessed risk of self-harm and her transfer to Leverndale that evening.

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Source: Glasgow Live, 8 November 2021

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WHO’s 10 calls for climate action to assure sustained recovery from COVID-19

Countries must set ambitious national climate commitments if they are to sustain a healthy and green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The WHO COP26 Special Report on Climate Change and Health, spells out the global health community’s prescription for climate action based on a growing body of research that establishes the many and inseparable links between climate and health.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the intimate and delicate links between humans, animals and our environment,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The same unsustainable choices that are killing our planet are killing people. WHO calls on all countries to commit to decisive action at COP26 to limit global warming to 1.5°C – not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s in our own interests. WHO’s new report highlights 10 priorities for safeguarding the health of people and the planet that sustains us.”

The WHO report was launched at the same time as an open letter, signed by over two thirds of the global health workforce - 300 organisations representing at least 45 million doctors and health professionals worldwide, calling for national leaders and COP26 country delegations to step up climate action.

“Wherever we deliver care, in our hospitals, clinics and communities around the world, we are already responding to the health harms caused by climate change,” the letter from health professionals reads. “We call on the leaders of every country and their representatives at COP26 to avert the impending health catastrophe by limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and to make human health and equity central to all climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.”

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Source: World Health Organization, 11 October 2021

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COVID-19: Pfizer’s paxlovid is 89% effective in patients at risk of serious illness, company reports

Pfizer’s oral antiviral drug paxlovid significantly reduces hospital admissions and deaths among people with COVID-19 who are at high risk of severe illness, when compared with placebo, the company has reported.

The interim analysis of the phase II-III data, outlined in a press release, included 1219 adults who were enrolled by 29 September 2021. It found that, among participants who received treatments within three days of COVID-19 symptoms starting, the risk of covid related hospital admission or death from any cause was 89% lower in the paxlovid group than the placebo group.

Commenting on the announcement, England’s health and social care secretary, Sajid Javid, said, “If approved, this could be another significant weapon in our armoury to fight the virus alongside our vaccines and other treatments, including molnupiravir, which the UK was the first country in the world to approve this week.”

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Source: BMJ, 8 November 2021

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COVID-19: Vaccines to be compulsory for frontline NHS staff in England

Frontline NHS staff in England will have to be fully vaccinated against Covid, the health secretary has announced.

A deadline is expected to be set for 1 April next year to give unvaccinated staff time to get both doses, Sajid Javid told the Commons.

Between 80,000 and 100,000 NHS workers in England were unvaccinated, said Chris Hopson, head of NHS Providers.

Thursday is the deadline for care home workers in England to get vaccinated.

The government's decision follows a consultation which began in September and considered whether both the Covid and flu jabs should be compulsory for frontline NHS and care workers. Mr Javid said the flu vaccine would not be made mandatory.

There will be exemptions for the Covid vaccine requirement for medical reasons, and for those who do not have face-to-face contact with patients in their work, he added.

In a statement to MPs, Mr Javid said: "Having considered the consultation responses, the advice of my officials and NHS leaders including the chief executive of the NHS, I have concluded that all those working in the NHS and social care will have to be vaccinated."

"We must avoid preventable harm and protect patients in the NHS, protect colleagues in the NHS and of course protect the NHS itself."

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Source: BBC News, 9 November 2021

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11,600 people caught Covid in hospital and died

More than 11,000 people who died from Covid probably caught the deadly virus while in hospital for other reasons, it has emerged.

Freedom of information requests to NHS trusts across England has revealed as many as one in eight people who have died in hospital from coronavirus during the pandemic actually arrived free of the virus.

An investigation by the Daily Telegraph has revealed 11,688 people are listed by the NHS as either probably or definitely catching the virus which killed them while in hospital.

Probable cases are those who tested positive at least eight days after admission, while definite cases require the patient to not have tested positive until they had been on the wards for at least 15 days.

The figures emerged as the government was expected to announce it will be mandatory for all NHS staff to be vaccinated against Covid by next spring.

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Source: The Independent, 9 November 2021

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‘It’s going to get worse’: view from inside the NHS as winter approaches

Bed occupancy in England’s hospitals has already reached normal peak winter levels, NHS leaders have warned.

While modelling suggests that the rise in Covid infection levels appears to have stalled for now, the chief executive of NHS Providers has stressed that bed occupancy levels at acute hospitals are already at 94-96%, an “unprecedented” situation not normally seen until the middle of winter.

It comes as long waiting times in England’s emergency departments are becoming normal, with the number of patients waiting for more than 12 hours increasing tenfold since 2019. Meanwhile, the NHS is undergoing a mounting workforce crisis and an enormous backlog of routine treatments that have built up over the pandemic.

Six healthcare workers describe to the The Guardian the pressures they are facing at the moment, highlighting staff shortages, rising wait times and abuse toward NHS workers.

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Source: The Guardian, 8 November 2021

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