Jump to content
  • articles
    9,839
  • comments
    83
  • views
    12,458,773

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

 

Coronavirus death rates more than double in more deprived areas, figures show

Death rates from coronavirus in the most deprived parts of England are more than double than in less deprived areas, according to new figures that show London is the worst-hit part of the country.

The mortality rate for the most deprived areas for March and early April was 55.1 deaths per 100,000 population – compared with 25.3 deaths per 100,000 in the least deprived areas, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The statistics show London has by far the highest mortality rate, with 85.7 deaths per 100,000 persons. This was found to be “statistically significantly higher” than any other region – almost double the next highest rate.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 1 May 2020

Read more
 

Hospital chiefs 'increasingly frustrated' with UK testing failures

Hospital leaders have launched a strident attack on the government’s coronavirus testing strategy, as it became clear that the target of 100,000 daily tests by 30 April would be comprehensively missed.

NHS Providers, which represents foundation trusts in England, rounded on ministers for “a series of frequent tactical announcements” to expand testing criteria, and dismissed the 100,000 target as a “red herring” that distracted from their failures.

Just 33,000 people were tested for COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour period – a record high for a single day – according to official figures. Dominic Raab, the first secretary of state, said that more than 52,000 tests were carried out, but this total is apparently bolstered by 19,000 retests.

Test capacity was now more than 73,000 a day, he said – still considerably below the target set by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, at the start of April.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 30 April 2020

Read more
 

NHS staff coronavirus inquests told not to look at PPE shortages

Inquests into coronavirus deaths among NHS workers should avoid examining systemic failures in provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), coroners have been told, in a move described by Labour as “very worrying”.

The chief coroner for England and Wales, Mark Lucraft QC, has issued guidance that “an inquest would not be a satisfactory means of deciding whether adequate general policies and arrangements were in place for provision of PPE to healthcare workers”.

Lucraft said that “if there were reason to suspect that some human failure contributed to the person being infected with the virus”, an inquest may be required. The coroner “may need to consider whether any failures of precautions in a particular workplace caused the deceased to contract the virus and so contributed to death”.

But he added: “An inquest is not the right forum for addressing concerns about high-level government or public policy.”

Labour warned the advice could limit the scope of investigations into the impact of PPE shortages on frontline staff who have died from COVID-19.

“I am very worried that an impression is being given that coroners will never investigate whether a failure to provide PPE led to the death of a key worker,” said Lord Falconer, the shadow attorney general. “This guidance may have an unduly restricting effect on the width of inquests arising out of Covid-19-related deaths.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 29 April 2020

Read more
 

Coronavirus: Home secretary urged to do more to relax drug rules to help ease end-of-life suffering

The government is under pressure to go further on measures to relax rules on powerful painkillers such as morphine to prevent patients suffering “unnecessary pain and distress in the last days of their lives”.

On Tuesday the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced staff in care homes and hospices would be allowed to “re-use” controlled drugs such as morphine and midazolam, with medication prescribed for one patient used for another where there is an immediate need.

But the Home Office today confirmed to The Independent that it had no plans to extend the rules to the care of patients in their own homes – a restriction experts and charities have warned could leave people suffering at the end of their lives.

The government announced the changes following concerns over the supply of drugs. 

The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) welcomed the changes announced by Mr Hancock, calling them “a significant step forward”, but added: “This only applies to patients living in care home and hospice settings, so there is still work to be done to ensure patients living in their own homes have appropriate access to necessary medication in a timely way.”

Last week the RCGP wrote to home secretary Priti Patel warning that people were suffering unnecessarily due to problems accessing drugs.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 30 April 2020

Read more
 

BAME NHS workers could be given roles reducing risk from coronavirus under new guidance

NHS staff from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds should be “risk-assessed” and possibly moved away from patient-facing roles during the coronavirus crisis, according to official guidance.

A letter from NHS England acknowledges UK data showing these workers are being “disproportionately affected by Covid-19” and urges health trusts to make “appropriate arrangements”.

Public Health England has been asked to look into the issue by the Department of Health, the letter from NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens and chief operating officer Amanda Pritchard said.

“In advance of their report and guidance, on a precautionary basis we recommend employers should risk assess staff at a potentially greater risk and make appropriate arrangements accordingly,” he added.

This could mean BAME health workers being relocated away from patient-facing roles or ensuring they are adequately fitted with personal protective equipment (PPE).

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 30 April 2020

Read more
 

PPE 'designed for women' needed on frontline

There is growing concern that standard personal protective equipment (PPE), which often has a unisex design, doesn't always fit women properly.

The Department of Health said the kit is designed to protect "both genders". However, healthcare workers are saying that even the smallest sizes are too big for some women - who make up 77% of the NHS workforce, according to NHS Digital figures from 2018.

If it is too big it can be less effective in providing a complete barrier to the virus.

"PPE is designed to be unisex and offer protection for both genders, although some products are available in different sizes to enable fit to both small and larger frames," said the Department of Health, in a statement.

But the Royal College of Nursing has described "one-size-fits-all" personal protective equipment as "problematic" and "restrictive" when it can be worn for up to 12 hours during shifts. PPE includes gloves, masks, gowns and face shields.

"Nurses can find it very difficult to treat patients if this equipment is so uncomfortable it makes them hot and unwell," said Rose Gallagher, professional lead for infection prevention and control.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 29 April 2020

Read more
 

Coronavirus 'as deadly as Ebola in hospital'

People needing hospital treatment for coronavirus are as likely to die as those with Ebola, claim UK researchers. The warning comes as the largest study in Europe showed at least a third of hospital patients with COVID-19 die.

The disease is mild for most and can be treated at home, but scientists said people needed to realise how dangerous the infection could be. Obesity, ageing and being male greatly increase the risk of death, according to the data from 166 British hospitals.

Medical details on nearly 17,000 coronavirus patients in England, Wales and Scotland have been analysed and it shows that 49% survived and were discharged, 33% have died and 17% were still being treated.

"Some people persist in believing that Covid-19 is no worse than a bad dose of flu - they are gravely mistaken," said Calum Semple, the Chief Investigator on the trial, and a Professor in Child Health and Outbreak Medicine at the University of Liverpool.

"The crude case fatality rate for people who are admitted to hospital with severe Covid-19 is 35% to 40%, which is similar to that for people admitted to hospital with Ebola. People need to hear this and get it into their heads... this is an incredibly dangerous disease."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 29 April 2020

Read more
 

Coronavirus: What is the hidden health cost?

The rising death toll from coronavirus is never far from the headlines, but hidden behind the daily figures is what public health experts refer to as the "parallel epidemic". This is the wider impact on people's health that is the result of dealing with a pandemic.

UK chief medical adviser Prof Chris Witty has been referring to this with increasing frequency during the daily briefings, speaking about the "indirect" costs of coronavirus.

But what is it, and how significant could it be?

Routine treatments, such as hip and knee replacements, were cancelled across the UK. This alone will have a significant impact on people's lives, though it is unlikely to kill anyone. However, the pandemic has also had a knock-on effect on emergency care. Data collected by Public Health England from a sample of A&E departments in England shows attendances have halved since the pandemic started. The trend has prompted NHS leaders to urge patients to come forward for treatment.

Cancer screening has been suspended in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and drastically cut back in England. But it is not only an issue for cancer patients, people with chronic conditions like diabetes or kidney disease may face trying to manage their conditions remotely without the regular face-to-face contact they would have with health professionals. 

The pandemic is also the 'perfect storm' for mental health.

The full impact could take years to unravel.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 29 April 2020

 

Read more
 

NHS 111 gets new queuing system to handle coronavirus surge

An overflow system has been added to NHS 111 to help deal with the “huge increase” in calls during the coronavirus pandemic.

People displaying coronavirus symptoms who are contacting 111 either via telephone or online are now being diverted to the overspill system, freeing up space for non-covid related enquiries.

The tool has been developed by software company Advanced — alongside NHSX, NHS England and NHS Improvement — for its patient management system Adastra, which is used by 80% of NHS 111 providers in England.

The overspill add on, which started being rolled out earlier this month, can be accessed by clinicians who are working from home, including those who have been redeployed in the NHS, as well as those in 111 call centres. 

Ric Thompson, managing director of health and care at Advanced, said the new queuing extension was developed to handle the “huge increase in the number of calls to 111 but also the need to bring back many thousands of retired clinicians”.

Read full story

Source: HSJ, 29 April 2020

Read more
 

Intensive care capacity must be permanently doubled, says Nightingale chief

Intensive care capacity in London must be doubled on a permanent basis following the coronavirus pandemic, according to the chief executive of the city’s temporary Nightingale hospital.

Speaking to an online webinar hosted by the Royal Society of Medicine, Professor Charles Knight said London had around 800 critical care beds under normal operations but “there’s a clear plan to double intensive care unit capacity on a permanent basis”.

He added: “We must have a system of healthcare in this country that means, if this ever happened again, that we wouldn’t have to do this, that we wouldn’t have to build an intensive care unit in a conference centre because we had enough capacity under usual operating so that we could cope with surge.”

It would also mean the NHS would no longer be in a position “where lots of patients, as we all know, get cancelled every year for lack of an ITU bed,” he said.

Read full story

Source: HSJ, 28 April 2020

Read more
 

Almost 18,000 more people could die of cancer due to coronavirus, study shows

The coronavirus pandemic could lead to almost 18,000 more deaths from cancer in England over the next year and there could also be a 20% spike in fatalities of newly diagnosed cancer patients, according to research by University College London (UCL) and DATA-CAN, the Health Data Research Hub for Cancer.

The figures stem from real-time hospital data for urgent cancer referrals and chemotherapy attendances, which have experienced a 76% and 60% fall, respectively.

Professor Peter Johnson, the NHS Clinical Director for Cancer, has urged people to not hesitate in seeking help or being checked after worrying research showed nearly half of the public have concerns about seeking help.

Moreover, the poll by Portland revealed 1 in 10 people would not contact their GP even if they discovered a lump or a new mole that remained for a week or more.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 28 April 2020

Read more
 

Patient records can be shared across practices and with 111 after NHS relaxes rules

GPs will now be able to access records for patients registered at other practices during the coronavirus epidemic in a major relaxation of current rules.

The move will allow appointments to be shared across practices, and NHS 111 staff will also have access to records to let them book direct appointments for patients at any GP practice or specialist centre.

The change in policy has been initiated by NHS Digital and NHSX to enable swift and secure sharing of patient records across primary care during the covid-19 pandemic. It means that the GP Connect1 system, currently used by some practices to share records on a voluntary basis, will be switched on at all practices until the pandemic is over.

In addition, extra information including significant medical history, reason for medication, and immunisations will be added to patients’ summary care records and made available to a wider group of healthcare professionals. Usually, individuals must opt in but following the changes only people who have opted out will be excluded.

Read full story

Source: The BMJ, 27 April 2020

Read more
 

‘Restoration’ of non-covid NHS services gets under way

The government has announced that the “restoration of other NHS services” will start today on a “hospital-by-hospital” basis.

Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock in his daily ministerial coronavirus briefing announced the resumption of healthcare which has been suspended due to coronavirus will begin today. He said the initial focus would be on the most urgent services, citing cancer and mental health as examples.

They will be reintroduced on a locally decided basis, depending on the level the virus is currently impacting different areas and trusts, which varies widely, and how easily they can reintroduce the work, he said.

Mr Hancock, asked about the plan by HSJ during the briefing, indicated that a large-scale return would be enabled because the government is setting out to avoid a so-called second peak of the virus spreading, so the NHS will not need to keep tens of thousands of extra beds free in readiness. Experts and governments around the globe are concerned about the prospect of further peaks of the virus spread as they move to release distancing measures. 

Further NHS England guidance on the plan is expected later this week. 

Read full story

Source: HSJ, 27 April 2020

Read more
 

England campaign targets seriously ill patients avoiding hospitals

A government campaign has been launched to encourage people who are seriously ill with non-coronavirus conditions such as heart attacks to seek help amid concerns some are avoiding hospitals.

The campaign, which will be rolled out this week, aims to encourage people to use vital services – such as cancer screening and care, maternity appointments and mental health support – as they usually would.

The NHS chief executive, Sir Simon Stevens, said delays in getting treatment posed a long-term risk to people’s health.

He stressed that the NHS was still there for patients without coronavirus who needed urgent and emergency services for stroke, heart attack, and other often fatal conditions.

Read full story

Source: 25 April 2020, 

Read more
 

Hospitals hit by drug shortages for coronavirus victims in intensive care wards

Intensive care units across the country are running out of essentials, including anaesthetics and drugs for anxiety and blood pressure, after a “tripling of demand” sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Six senior NHS doctors working on the front line, and drugs industry sources, say that the health service is running out of at least eight crucial drugs. Hospitals in London, Birmingham and the northwest of England have been especially badly hit.

Doctors said they were being forced to use alternatives to their “drug of choice”, affecting the quality of care being provided to COVID-19 patients. They also warned that some second-choice drugs might be triggering dangerous side effects such as minor heart attacks.

Ron Daniels, an intensive care consultant in the West Midlands, said the shortages had become “acute” already. “We don’t know what we’re going to run out of next week,” he said. “Safety isn’t so much the issue — it’s quality. It may be that we’re subjecting people to longer periods of ventilation than we would normally because the drugs take longer to wear off.”

Daniels added that some of the “second-line drugs” being used might be challenging to a patient’s heart: “We might be causing small heart attacks or subclinical heart attacks.”

Ravi Mahajan, president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, said work was being carried out to “preserve” key drugs for those most in need.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 26 April 2020

Read more
 

Millions of patients 'avoiding calls to GP' during COVID-19 pandemic

Four in ten people are not seeking help from their GP because they are afraid to be a burden on the NHS during the pandemic, polling by NHS England reveals.

The findings – from a survey of 1,000 people – are the latest in a wave of evidence that fewer people are seeking care for illnesses other than those related to coronavirus during the pandemic.

GP online reported on 20 April that data collected by the RCGP showed a 25% reduction in routine clinical activity in general practice, and figures from Public Health England (PHE) and the British Heart Foundation show that A&E attendances overall and patients going to hospital for heart attacks are down 50%.

Warnings that patients' reluctance to come forward could put them at risk come as leading charities warned that suspension of some routine GP services during the pandemic could also lead to a 'future crisis' if control of conditions such as asthma and COPD deteriorate.

Professor Carrie MacEwen, chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said: 'We are very concerned that patients may not be accessing the NHS for care because they either don’t want to be a burden or because they are fearful about catching the virus.

'Everyone should know that the NHS is still open for business and it is vitally important that if people have serious conditions or concerns they seek help. This campaign is an important step in ensuring that people are encouraged to get the care they need when they need it.'

Read full story

Source: GP online, 25 April 2020

Read more
 

Has the government broken the law by putting NHS staff in harm's way?

We don’t yet know the number of NHS staff who have lost their lives in the battle against COVID-19. On Wednesday, Dominic Raab put the figure at 69, but the true figure is considered to be far greater. 

These deaths are not “natural” casualties of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, they may be the result of a failure in the government’s duty to care for NHS staff, which is why it is vital it is properly investigated under the law.

Since the pandemic reached the UK, we have heard countless reports of doctors and nurses raising the alarm over the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) when treating COVID-19 patients.

How many of these deaths could have been prevented had sufficient PPE been provided to NHS workers? And if there is a lack of PPE, how did this happen? The health secretary, Matt Hancock, says the biggest challenge is “one of distribution rather than one of supply”. Should more have been done to meet this challenge, and if so what? Does the government have a legal duty to do more to protect the lives of healthcare workers?

There must be investigations into the individual deaths of NHS workers, out of respect to them, and also so that future deaths can be prevented. The evidence appears to be that the government has failed to protect them from risk to their lives, and if that is the case then an investigation will be required by law.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 25 April 2020

Read more
 

UK doctor invents digital flashcards to help COVID-19 patients understand staff

A coronavirus patient’s terrifying hospital experience inspired an NHS doctor to create a flashcard system to improve communication with medical staff wearing face masks.

Anaesthetist Rachael Grimaldi founded CARDMEDIC while on maternity leave after reading about a COVID-19 patient who was unable to understand healthcare workers through their personal protective equipment (PPE).

Her system enables medical staff to ask critically ill or deaf coronavirus patients important questions and share vital information on digital flashcards displayed on a phone, tablet or computer.

The idea went from concept to launch on 1 April in just 72 hours and is now being used by NHS trusts and hospitals in 50 countries across the world.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 25 April 2020

Read the 'Story behind CARDMEDIC', written by Rachael for the hub

Read more
 

National alert as ‘coronavirus-related condition may be emerging in children’

A serious coronavirus-related syndrome may be emerging in the UK, according to an “urgent alert” issued to doctors, following a rise in cases in the last two to three weeks, HSJ has learned.

An alert to GPs and seen by HSJ says that in the “last three weeks, there has been an apparent rise in the number of children of all ages presenting with a multisystem inflammatory state requiring intensive care across London and also in other regions of the UK”.

It adds: “There is a growing concern that a [covid-19] related inflammatory syndrome is emerging in children in the UK, or that there may be another, as yet unidentified, infectious pathogen associated with these cases.”

Little is known so far about the issue, nor how widespread it has been, but the absolute number of children affected is thought to be very small, according to paediatrics sources. The syndrome has the characteristics of serious COVID-19, but there have otherwise been relatively few cases of serious effects or deaths from coronavirus in children. Some of the children have tested positive for COVID-19, and some appear to have had the virus in the past, but some have not.

Read full story

Source: HSJ, 27 April 2020

Do you work in paediatrics? Have you seen similar trends emerging? What are your thoughts on the concerns raised? Join the conversation in the hub community area: 

 

Read more
 

Missed vaccinations could lead to other fatal outbreaks, doctors warn

Senior doctors fear that thousands of routine vaccination appointments may be missed or delayed because of the coronavirus lockdown, raising the risk of sudden and potentially fatal outbreaks of other diseases when restrictions on movement are finally eased.

GPs and accident and emergency departments have witnessed unprecedented falls in the numbers of people seeking medical care in recent weeks, prompting concerns that vital routine immunisations for infections such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough are falling by the wayside.

“We are very concerned. There are no data yet because we have only been in lockdown for a month, but there are plenty of anecdotes from practice nurses and others saying they have noticed a decline in vaccine uptake,” said Helen Bedford, a professor of children’s health at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s health promotion committee.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 26 April 2020

Read more
 

Coronavirus: Care home staff struggling to get tests

Care homes looking after thousands of vulnerable residents have said none of their staff has been tested for coronavirus. Out of 210 care providers spoken to by the BBC, 159 said none of their workers had had a test.

BBC England spoke to care homes and companies across the country, who between them employ nearly 18,000 staff and have almost 13,000 residents. Many said they had seen no testing at all, while others have spoken of struggles to access official test centres after reporting online that they have symptoms. Some have told how staff face long journeys to test centres, with one reporting a three-hour round trip.

On Sunday it was announced that the military will begin testing essential workers in mobile units operating at sites in "hard to reach" areas, including care homes.

Anna Knight runs Harbour House Care Home on the Dorset coast and said getting enough personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing for coronavirus were her biggest challenges.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 26 April 2020

Read more
 

Shop staff and transport workers must be given masks, say doctors

Shop workers and other essential staff should be provided with face masks to control the spread of coronavirus, according to the British Medical Association (BMA).

The doctors’ union is also calling on the government to ask all members of the public to cover their mouths and noses while outside their homes.

“Common sense tells you that a barrier between people must offer a level of protection, however small,” said Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chairman.

“The government must pursue all avenues of reducing the spread of infection.

“This includes asking the public to wear face coverings to cover mouths and noses when people leave home for essential reasons.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 26 April 2020

Read more
 

GP calls for action after 125 of her care home patients die of COVID-19

“I am really angry about this,” said Dr Anna Down, scanning her computer for figures to show how coronavirus has ravaged her patients living in nursing homes.

“One home had 23 deaths, another lost 19, and another 13,” the Ealing GP said. “In two units 50% of residents died in the space of 10 days.”

Down is the clinical lead at a practice with 1,000 residents on its books in 15 privately run nursing homes in the area of west London hit harder than anywhere in Britain by COVID-19 deaths in the first weeks of the outbreak. In a normal month, she might expect to lose around 28 people. In the last month she has lost 125.

Down has a warning to the rest of the country informed by her practice’s experience: reform how social care handles Covid-19 or face rising deaths and a second devastating wave of infection.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 22 April 2020

Read more
 

Hospital chiefs keen to restart operations as covid peak passes

Several acute trust chief executives have told HSJ they are keen to resume more planned operations, as the peak of new coronavirus cases has passed and many hospital beds remain empty.

Some trust leaders said they believed routine elective surgery could be restarted as early as next week. There is also tension between NHS hospitals — some of which are keen to resume their own planned care, especially the more urgent operations — and a desire to use private hospitals, which have been booked out by NHS England.

The government said yesterday the number of people in hospitals with COVID-19 has fallen by 10% over the last week. Around 42% of acute beds are now unoccupied, according to figures seen by HSJ. The peak of new infection cases in hospitals was at about 3,000 on 1 April — the number is now about half that figure.

However, there will be fears nationally about the NHS seeking to return to normal and being caught out by ongoing COVID-19 pressures, or by a second peak of infections. 

Read full story

Source: HSJ, 24 April 2020

Read more
 

Coronavirus: Eyes could be contagious for weeks, study finds

The coronavirus can linger in patients’ eyes for several weeks and could act as a way of spreading the COVID-19 disease, according new study from Italy.

Scientists at Italy’s National Institute for Infectious Diseases hospital in Rome studied the symptoms of an unnamed 65-year-old woman who developed the virus after travelling from the Chinese city of from Wuhan.

When the woman developed conjunctivitis – an eye infection causing redness and itchiness – doctors decided to take regular swabs from her eye. They discovered the virus remained present in “ocular samples” up to 21 days after she was admitted to hospital.

The team said the findings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, indicated that eye fluids from coronavirus patients “may be a potential source of infection”.

The study authors said: “These findings highlight the importance of control measures, such as avoiding touching the nose, mouth, and eyes and frequent hand washing.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 24 April 2020

 

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.