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'We try our best as nurses, but it's not enough'

Georgina Day works as an A&E nurse in a London hospital. Every shift, her team of just over 20 starts four nurses short because there are posts it cannot fill.

"It can be worse - if people are sick or agency staff don't turn up. It makes providing good patient care difficult."

She says the demands are huge - her department sees more than 400 patients a day. But the shortages mean patients face delays or have to be given care, such as intravenous antibiotics, in corridors instead of in cubicles.

She says that can make patients angry, recounting the experience of one father shouting at her and saying she didn't care about his sick son.

"I care massively," she says. "When patients are angry it makes me really sad. I want more for them."

Georgina's experience is not unique. A survey by the Royal College of Nursing found six in 10 nurses felt they could not provide the level of care they wanted to.

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Source: BBC News, 2 December 2019

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'We feel bullied' say emergency department staff

In November last year, Unison and RCN raised concerns with NHS Forth Valley chief executive Cathie Cowan amid bullying claims made by emergency department staff at Forth Valley Royal Hospital. 

In light of the reports of bullying, a review was commissioned and leaked details revealed junior doctors were left unsupervised on shifts, nurses and doctors had said they are 'battle-weary', and many senior staff members have resigned their posts. 

Karren Morrison, Unison Forth Valley health branch secretary has said: ‘Last year, concerns were being raised by our members who worked in, or who had previously worked in the ED. Staff talked to us about feeling bullied and intimidated, being frightened to speak up, concerns about the delivery of safe patient care, high staff turnover and other issues.’

Read full story (paywalled).

Source: Nursing Standard, 12 July 2021

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'Vigilante treatments': Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups in the United States have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units.

Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with COVID-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

Some people in groups that formed recently to promote the false cure ivermectin, an anti-parasite treatment, have claimed extracting Covid patients from hospitals is pivotal so that they can self-medicate at home with ivermectin. But as the patients begin to realize that ivermectin by itself is not effective, the groups have begun recommending a series of increasingly hazardous at-home treatments, such as gargling with iodine, and nebulizing and inhaling hydrogen peroxide, calling it part of a “protocol.”

The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave.

Those concerns echo various local reports about growing threats and violence directed toward medical professionals in the US. In Branson, Missouri, a medical center recently introduced panic buttons on employee badges because of a spike in assaults. Violence and threats against medical professionals have recently been reported in Massachusetts, Texas, Georgia and Idaho.

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Source: NBC News, 24 September 2021

 

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'Utterly inhumane' hospitals still ban bedside visitors as Covid cases plunge

Hospitals are still banning patients from having bedside visitors in ‘immoral’ Covid restrictions. 

Last night, MPs, patient groups and campaigners criticised the postcode lottery that means some frail patients are still denied the support of loved ones. 

Nine trusts continue to impose total bans on any visitors for some patients, The Mail on Sunday has found. 

Almost half of trusts maintain policies so strict that they flaunt NHS England’s guidance that patients should be allowed at least two visitors a day. 

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are among those continuing total bans on visiting for some of their patients. 

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) has even been imposing its draconian restrictions on disabled patients who need special help for their care – only allowing visits on three days a week for a maximum of an hour each time. 

Tory MP Alicia Kearns said: ‘It is utterly unforgivable and immoral. There is no scientific evidence for any remaining inhumane restrictions on visiting. Trusts are breaching the rights of families. 

'Visitors save lives, they advocate and calm their loved ones. When will this madness end?’ 

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Source: MailOnline, 1 May 2022

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'Urgent' changes needed for child disability care

The mothers of two teenage boys who died after failures in their care have called on the government to make "urgent improvements" to how children with disabilities are assessed.

Sammy Alban-Stanley, 13, and 14-year-old Oskar Nash both died in 2020. Inquests for both boys recorded they had received inadequate care from local authorities and mental health services.

The calls were made in an open letter to the secretaries of state for health and social care, and education.

Patricia Alban and Natalia Nash asked Sajid Javid and Nadim Zahawi to make fundamental changes to several care areas to prevent future deaths.

The pair said they both experienced problems with support for disabled children and families.

Services lacked understanding of neurological conditions like autism, they said.

The pair also pointed to a lack of access to children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and failure to assess or review the severity of a child's developing needs.

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Source: BBC News, 16 June 2022

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'Urgent action' over children's mental health care

A child was twice given double the "safe" dose of a rapid tranquilizer at a hospital run by a troubled NHS trust.

The child was put at "significant risk of harm" at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, said inspectors.

Rating children's services inadequate, they said Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) must halt seeing under 18s for acute mental health needs. The trust, in special measures, was working to "urgently address concerns".

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out a targeted inspection on 24 February prompted by "concerning information" about treatment at the service run by SaTH.

The trust is currently at the centre of the largest ever inquiry into NHS maternity care.

Staff told inspectors they had seen an increase in the number of young people with "significant mental health issues" and learning disabilities over the past year.

But the services, which were rated as "requiring improvement" in November 2019, were deemed "inadequate" in four of five areas tested - for being safe, effective, responsive and well-led.

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Source: BBC News. 19 April 2021

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'Urgent action' needed to protect A&E staff from violence

Accident and emergency staff at Bristol Royal Infirmary do not feel equipped to deal with the violence they face from the public, inspectors have found.

Health watchdog The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the department as "requires improvement" following an inspection in February. It said "urgent action" must be taken to protect staff and patients.

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust said it was working on improvements.

Amanda Williams, CQC's head of hospital inspections, said: "We were... particularly concerned to find high levels of violence and aggression against staff from patients in the department and to learn that staff did not feel adequately trained to deal with this."

"Staff need to be given the appropriate training and support to ensure they feel safe and to enable them to defuse tension and prevent violence from escalating."

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Source: BBC News, 17 March 2021

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'Urgent action' needed on hospital waiting times in Ireland

Urgent action is required to tackle hospital waiting times on both sides of the Irish border, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

A report into the primary healthcare systems of Ireland and Northern Ireland found that both jurisdictions are experiencing similar problems.

These include workforce shortages and increasing expenditure.

On hospital waiting times the problem is worse in Northern Ireland. 

The proportion of people on the waiting list in Northern Ireland for more than one year increased from 20% to 60%. In the Republic of Ireland, during the same period between 2017 and 2021, the figure increased from 12% to 20%.

A key distinction between the healthcare systems is the absence of a universal healthcare system in Ireland, write the authors.

That means in Northern Ireland, all residents are entitled to a wide range of free health care services, while in Ireland, the majority pay to see their GP and for other services.

But despite this key difference, both systems are currently facing similar challenges, including shortages in key areas of the workforce and long waits for a range of healthcare services.

Cross-border collaboration in healthcare across the island is an interesting but contentious issue. At present, according to the ESRI report, that work is relatively limited.

It points to a 2011 report which identified the potential benefits to be gained from increased co-operation in healthcare including collaboration in cystic fibrosis, ear, nose and throat surgery, paediatric cardiac surgery and acute mental health services.

However, this 2022 report concludes that despite some notable exceptions such as the Congenital Heart Disease Network and the North West Cancer Centre at Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry, "collaboration has been relatively limited".

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Source: BBC News, 10 March 2022

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'Unprecedented': Coroner prohibits naming of surgeon in herpes deaths inquest

A surgeon who may have infected two new mothers with herpes has been granted anonymity during the inquests into their deaths in an "unprecedented" ruling.

Coroner Catherine Wood said she made the decision because the surgeon's "apprehension" about being named when he stands as a witness would "likely impede his evidence in court" and affect his health.

Mid Kent and Medway Coroners is investigating the cases of Kimberly Sampson, 29, and Samantha Mulcahy, 32, who both died in 2018 after the same obstetrician conducted their caesareans. They were treated 6 weeks apart in hospitals run by East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust (EKHUT).

On February 26 – the day before the inquest was due to begin and 16 months after it was first announced – EKHUT made a last-minute bid for anonymity covering the surgeon and a midwife also involved in both cases. The trust said they should not be named unless the inquest concluded they had passed on the infection, because of the "reputational damage" they would suffer, and because the surgeon's health was already being impacted by reports.

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Source: Medscape, 9 March 2023

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'Uncoordinated' codeine use caused Ipswich woman's death

A coroner questioned the regulation of online pharmacies after a woman died as a result of her addiction to the painkiller codeine.

Debbie Headspeath, 41, collapsed at home in Ipswich in 2017. The inquest heard she had been prescribed the opiate for back pain by her GP in 2008 and had later bought more online without his knowledge. The inquest found Mrs Headspeath died from pneumonitis caused by acute pancreatitis which in turn was caused by chronic codeine use. An investigation by the coroner's office found she had been prescribed codeine from 16 online companies spending more than £10,000 - on top of her prescriptions from her local NHS surgery.

The Suffolk Coroner, Nigel Parsley, said he would ask the government to look at closing "regulatory gaps" in the system. He said Mrs Headspeath had been able to "manipulate" the system and he delivered a narrative conclusion that she died as a result of the "uncoordinated availability of codeine from multiple suppliers". The coroner said he would prepare a full prevention of future deaths report for the family and Department of Health.

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Source: BBC News, 12 November 2019

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'Unacceptable' drop in care at Kettering home with 12 COVID-19 deaths

A dramatic collapse in standards at a care home where a dozen people died from COVID-19 has been revealed by inspectors who discovered hungry and thirsty residents living with infected wounds in filthy conditions.

Infection control was inadequate, residents with dementia were left only partially dressed and one family complained of finding their loved one smeared in dried faeces at Temple Court care home in Kettering, which is operated by Amicura, a branch of Minster Care which runs more than 70 homes in the UK.

Amicura said the home had been “completely overwhelmed” by COVID-19 infections which it said arrived with 15 patients discharged from hospitals in the second half of March.

They were overrun,” one relative told the inspectors. “They were short-staffed and then with the influx of people, they couldn’t cope.”

Residents’ wounds had become necrotic and infected, requiring hospital treatment and several people had experienced falls, some of which resulted in injuries needing hospital treatment, the inspectors found.

The conditions discovered by the Care Quality Commission on 12-13 May were so poor that surviving residents were moved out immediately. The CQC report into the service, published on Friday, found multiple breaches of the health and social care act. Northamptonshire police have launched an investigation to identify whether any offences may have been committed.

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Source: The Guardian, 26 June 2020

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'Unacceptable' delays in diagnosing secondary breast cancer

One in four patients with secondary breast cancer had to visit their GP three or more times before they got a diagnosis, a survey suggests.

The breast cancer charity, Breast Cancer Now, said there should be more awareness that the disease can spread to other parts of the body. In the UK, 35,000 people are living with the incurable form of the disease.

GPs said they were doing their best for patients but symptoms could be difficult to spot.

Breast Cancer Now said it was "unacceptable" that some people whose cancer had spread were not getting early access to treatments which could alleviate symptoms and improve their quality of life.

Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, from the Royal College of GPs, called for GPs to have better access to the right diagnostic tools and training to use them.

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Source: BBC News, 11 October 2019

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'Tipping point' warning as strike-hit appointments near million mark

As junior doctors begin a four-day strike today with a two-day strike by consultants a fortnight later, Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said:

"Trust leaders are very worried about six more days of severe disruption across the NHS this month.

"We could be close to a tipping point. Trusts and staff are pulling out all the stops to reduce waiting times for patients but with no end to strikes in sight the sheer volume of planned treatment being put back due to industrial action will make it almost impossible for trusts to cut waiting lists as much as the government wants.

"Waiting lists are now at a record high of 7.57 million, the pressure on urgent and emergency care services is relentless and an already stretched NHS is gearing up for another high-demand winter as pressure on tight budgets mounts.

"A string of strikes – which have led to more than 835,000 routine treatments and appointments being put back since December – is estimated to have cost the NHS around £1bn already including lost income and hiring expensive staff cover.

"The number of rescheduled appointments could be close to 1 million after this month's strikes and consultants have called another two-day strike in September. There will be a long-lasting effect on patients who have had treatment delayed and on already low staff morale.

"Concerns are mounting too over how patient safety will be maintained during August's strikes as many NHS services will be even more stretched as many staff are on much-needed summer holidays and cover is harder to secure.

"It's vital that the government and unions find a breakthrough urgently. Trust leaders understand the strength of feeling among striking staff and why they're taking action. Everyone in the NHS wants to concentrate on treating more patients more quickly rather than spend days making plans to cope with strikes.

"People can still rely on the NHS during strikes, calling 999 in an emergency. For less urgent cases people should use 111 online for help and advice."

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'Ticking time bomb' – here's how many NHS staff actually want to quit

More than three quarters of NHS workers are seriously considering leaving their jobs amid the ongoing strain on the health service.

According to research from the worker-led network Organise – which surveyed 2,546 NHS staff in March – 78.5% are thinking about packing it all in.

Only a fifth (21.5%) said they had no plan to give up their NHS job any time soon.

And the survey shows this sentiment is shared across a range of professions within the health service – with nurses, healthcare assistants, paramedics, doctors, health visitors and more all struggling with their jobs right now.

This comes after years of public concerns about the longevity of the health service, amid funding cuts, staff shortages and burnout – not to mention the additional strain from the Covid pandemic.

The findings also show that in the last three years:

  • 79% of respondents experienced stress
  • 62% reported anxiety
  • 55% reported burnout.

More than half (55%) of respondents said they needed to take time off from their jobs as a result, with a quarter saying this meant a month or more away from work.

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Source: Huffington Post, 29 March 2023

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'They've been ignored': older people cared for at home face vaccine delays

More than 2.5 million people over the age of 80 have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, NHS England has said. But the vaccine is failing to reach thousands of elderly people who receive care in their own homes, according to a provider, because they are too frail to travel to vaccination centres or fear catching the virus if they do.

The Guardian spoke to three people who have family members over 80 still waiting to be vaccinated.

“How on earth are elderly people expected to negotiate the system if they don’t have any help?” says Amanda Elliott, 59. Her father-in-law, George Elliott, 98, of Polegate, East Sussex, is still waiting to be vaccinated. “It seems very unfair,” she says.

George, who was a glider pilot in the second world war, doesn’t feel entitled to a jab but finds the situation “puzzling”, Amanda says. He has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), finds it very difficult to move and has a carer going into his home twice a day.

Amanda, a support worker at a school in Sutton, says George received a letter inviting him to book his vaccination online and “tried without success”. He then called to book over the phone and was offered an appointment in Brighton, Hastings or Petersfield, to which he would have difficulty travelling.

“I called the booking line on his behalf last week to find out what he should do as he is housebound. I was directed to his GP and his surgery told me they are not carrying out vaccinations and that I shouldn’t have contacted them about this. They were very unhelpful,” Amanda says.

In Kirkcaldy, Fife, 88-year-old Christina McPhee, who is housebound, is still waiting to be vaccinated. “The district nurse has to administer the vaccine to those who can’t leave their homes, but the local GP practice told me last Friday they have none allocated for those in the area,” says her niece Mary.

AdMcPhee has a tracheostomy and has carers and nurses visiting her several times a day, making her “very vulnerable” because she is high risk. Her sister, Mary’s mother, who is 82 and lives with McPhee, was able to get the vaccine because she could travel to the surgery, but there is no news about when McPhee is likely to receive hers.

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Source: The Guardian, 1 February 2021

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'There’s a lot of nasty stuff': the people living with long Covid

Sufferers say they have had little specialist help despite NHS England setting up dedicated clinics.

“It’s not that I feel I have been abandoned, I think that is perfectly obvious,” says Rachel Pope. “If you speak to any long Covid patient, they have been abandoned.”

Until exactly a year ago – 5 March 2020 – Pope was “an incredibly fit woman”. A senior lecturer in European prehistory at the University of Liverpool, her work and lifestyle were very active. But after falling ill to Covid, she spent four months unable to walk, then three more when she could manage little more than “a sort of shuffle”.

She still has a host of symptoms, “but the most debilitating is the fact that I still can’t do more than 2,000 steps in a day. Until a few weeks ago, I was still choking every day. There’s a lot of nasty stuff that [long Covid sufferers] are living with, without treatment.

“It’s not a great situation to be in. I mean, we didn’t die. But this isn’t exactly living either.”

A year into the pandemic, accounts such as Pope’s have become dispiritingly familiar, as the experiences of the many thousands who have struggled for months with long Covid, often alone and unsupported, are emerging.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 March 2021

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'The thought of running out of HRT is terrifying'

A shortage of specific types of hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) has left women struggling with untreated symptoms of the menopause. Demand for prescriptions has more than doubled since 2017 - partly because of work by campaigners to extend access - but supply of some products has not kept up.

Yasmin Darling's experience of the menopause was sudden and profound. Two years ago, she had two operations to reduce her risk of inherited cancer which plunged her into an early menopause.

"It's really hard to navigate medical menopause 10 years early," the 45-year-old says.

"When you don't have the product you need, it makes it much more difficult to navigate."

Because of Covid, Yasmin has never been seen by a specialist at a menopause clinic, so she is managing as best she can on her own. 

Claire Lopez, 59, spent three weeks trying to obtain her usual HRT patches from different local chemists but they were out of stock. Without them, her body becomes "very stiff", leading to slipped discs and severe back pain.

"I have severe anxiety if I do not have these patches, so the total lack of coordination between GPs and pharmacists was extremely frustrating," Claire says.

In the end, she had to arrange a private prescription through a local clinic, in the Midlands, costing £50.

The government has said it is determined to ensure supplies of HRT can meet high demand.

Minister for Women's Health Maria Caulfield said: "There are over 70 HRT products available in the UK, most of which remain in good supply.

"However, we are aware of some issues with women being unable to access certain products.

"We will be appointing a new HRT-supply chairperson and convening an urgent meeting of suppliers to look at ways we can work together to improve supply."

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Source: BBC News, 27 April 2022

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'The NHS has been destroyed': Boris Johnson confronted by father of sick child

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been confronted by an angry father at a hospital who told him his baby daughter had nearly died because the ward on which she was treated was “not safe for children” after years of austerity.

In an encounter caught on camera, Omar Salem said the care given to his seven-day-old daughter at Whipps Cross university hospital, in north-east London, was “not acceptable”. He told the prime minister: “There are not enough people on this ward, there are not enough doctors, there’s not enough nurses, it’s not well organised enough.”

Salem told Boris Johnson: “My daughter nearly died yesterday. And I came here, the A&E guys were great but we then came down to this ward here and it took two hours and that is just not acceptable. This ward is not safe for children."

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Source: The Guardian, 18 Setpember 2019

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'Tens of thousands' of heart procedures delayed by pandemic

The postponement of tens of thousands of hospital procedures is putting the lives of people with long-term heart conditions at risk, according to the British Heart Foundation.

The coronavirus pandemic has created a backlog which would only get larger as patients waited for care, it said.

People with heart disease are at increased risk of serious illness with COVID-19, and some are shielding.

The BHF estimates that 28,000 procedures have been delayed in England since the outbreak of coronavirus in the UK. These are planned hospital procedures, including the implanting of pacemakers or stents, widening blocked arteries to the heart, and tests to diagnose heart problems.

People now waiting for new appointments would already have been waiting for treatment when the lockdown started, the charity said, as it urged the NHS to support people with heart conditions "in a safe way".

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Source: 5 June 2020

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'Systemic' failings with 999 call-handling service criticised

A woman who died after waiting almost two hours for an ambulance was let down by "systemic" failings with a computer call-handling system, a coroner said.

Daisy Filby, 90, was one of three people who died after delays in receiving care from the South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb). Coroner Alan Craze said a human would have "realised what was going on" and prioritised the calls differently. 

Mrs Filby, from Seaford, died in June 2017 as a result of an "accident contributed to by neglect," Mr Craze concluded at the Hasting's Coroner's Court inquest. "If an ambulance or anybody with or without medical knowledge had been able to reach this poor lady before her death, the situation would have been different," he added.

Mr Craze said: "The problem is not the actions of any one individual in Secamb Trust. The problem is ultimately systemic and at the heart of the call-taking and decision-making system."

A spokesman for the ambulance service said: "We are very sorry for the service they received. We have listened very closely to the coroner throughout and we are committed to making further improvements where necessary."

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Source: BBC News, 18 September 2019

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'System failure' on personal protective equipment

If there is a public inquiry over the handling of the coronavirus, the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) to front-line staff could be a major theme.

The government has been put under major pressure by staff over the past four days because of delays to the delivery of vital equipment. This left them at risk as they dealt with a flood of covid-19 cases described as “all-consuming” by one hospital chief executive (while another major trust declared a critical incident).

The last two weeks have prompted a mammoth effort from local and national procurement teams to make sure clinicians have the PPE they need.

But, sadly, the bigger picture was what the Health Care Supply Association called a “system” failure (although it did not blame staff).

Numerous trusts, some of them very large, have turned to alternative suppliers to source this vital kit, in some cases spending hundreds of thousands of pounds. The situation has apparently been so dire in recent days that, over the weekend, the HCSA asked DIY shops to donate their PPE to local trusts.

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Source: HSJ, 24 March 2020

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'Superbugs' a far greater risk than Covid in Pacific, scientist warns

The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including drug-resistant bacteria, or “superbugs”, pose far greater risks to human health than Covid-19, threatening to put modern medicine “back into the dark ages”, an Australian scientist has warned, ahead of a three-year study into drug-resistant bacteria in Fiji.

“If you thought Covid was bad, you don’t want anti-microbial resistance,” Dr Paul De Barro, biosecurity research director at Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, told The Guardian.

“I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say it’s the biggest human health threat, bar none. Covid is not anywhere near the potential impact of AMR. We would go back into the dark ages of health.”

WHO warns overuse of antibiotics for COVID-19 will cause more deaths

While AMR is an emerging public health threat across the globe, in the Pacific, where the risk of the problem is acute, drug-resistant bacteria could stretch the region’s fragile health systems beyond breaking point.

An article in the BMJ Global Health journal reported there was little official health data – and low levels of public knowledge - around antimicrobial resistance in the Pacific, and that high rates of infectious disease and antibiotic prescription were driving up risks.

“A challenge for Pacific island countries and territories is trying to curtail antimicrobial excess, without jeopardising antimicrobial access for those who need them,” the paper argued.

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Source: The Guardian, 10 September 2020

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'Sticking plaster' NHS winter plan criticised for lacking workforce strategy

Doctors and health service providers welcomed publication of an NHS strategy for managing demand ahead of another busy winter for health and social care, but said it failed to address underlying problems with the system.

In a letter to the heads of NHS trusts and integrated care boards, NHS England chiefs said they had begun planning for capacity and operational resilience in urgent and emergency care ahead of "significant challenges" during the coming months.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said the strategy was a "step in the right direction", but "lacks detail", while the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) said it amounted to little more than "a crisis mitigation plan".

The package of measures included creating the equivalent of 7000 extra general and acute beds through a mix of new physical beds, scaling up 'virtual' beds, and "improvements in discharge and flow". The letter acknowledged that there was "a significant number of patients spending longer in hospital than they need to" and that whilst "the provision of social care falls outside of the NHS’s remit, the health service must ensure patients not requiring onwards care are discharged as soon as they are ready and can access services they may need following a hospital stay."

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Source: Medscape, 15 August 2022

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'Speaking about the 22 babies I lost is seen as taboo'

Imtiaz Fazil has been pregnant 24 times, but she only has two living children.

She first fell pregnant in 1999 and, over the subsequent 23 years, has had 17 miscarriages and five babies die before their first birthdays due to a rare genetic condition.

The 49-year-old, from Levenshulme in Manchester, told BBC North West Tonight her losses were not easy to talk about, but she was determined to do so, in part because such things remained a taboo subject among South Asian groups.

She said she wanted to change that and break down the stigma surrounding baby loss.

She said her own family "don't talk to me very much about the things" as they think "I might get hurt [by] bringing up memories".

"It's too much sadness; that's why nobody approaches these sort of things," she said.

Sarina Kaur Dosanjh and her husband Vik also have the hope of breaking the silence surrounding baby loss.

The 29-year-olds, from Walsall in the West Midlands, have set up the Himmat Collective, a charity which offers a virtual space for South Asian women and men to share their experiences.

The couple, who have had two miscarriages in the past two years, said the heartache was still not something that people easily speak about.

"I think it's hidden," Sarina said.

"It's really brushed under the carpet."

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Source: BBC News, 13 October 2022

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'Some progress' made at failing Shropshire hospital trust

An inspection at a failing hospital trust has identified "some progress" but its services are still inadequate.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) in August. The Trust has been in special measures since 2018 and its maternity services are subject of a review following a high rate of baby and maternal deaths.

The CQC said SaTH still had "significant work to do" to improve its patient care and safety standards.

Inspectors highlighted particular concerns around risk management at the Trust which it said was "inconsistent" and and urgent and emergency care where patients "did not always receive timely assessment".

The CQC also reported a shortage of staff working in end-of-life care and midwifery, however maternity staff were said to have "an exceptionally dedicated and caring approach".

"I recognise the enormous pressure NHS services are under across the country and that usual expectations cannot always be maintained, but it is important they do all they can to mitigate risks to patient safety while facing these pressures," chief inspector of hospitals, Ted Baker, said.

"While the trust continues to have significant work to do to provide care that meets standards people have a right to expect, it is providing more effective care overall.

"However, its risk management remains inconsistent and we are not assured it is doing all it can to ensure people's safety."

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Source: BBC News, 18 November 2021

 

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