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Essex Strep A: District nurses 'most likely cause' of outbreak

The "most likely cause" of a bacterial outbreak that has seen 15 people die was district nursing teams, a document obtained by the BBC has revealed. 

At least 33 people in Essex have been infected by the strain of invasive Group A Streptococcus (iGAS) bacterium. Of 32 cases initially found in the area 29 had previously been visited by Provide nurses, files obtained showed. Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said an investigation into the cause was continuing.

Provide said it had "robust infection prevention policies" and that the cause of the infection may never be known.

The BBC submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act to Public Health England (PHE) and the CCG, which oversaw health spending in the area, for documents relating to the outbreak.

A PHE briefing note received through the request said: "The most likely hypothesis as to cause of the outbreak is contact with, and spread via, district nursing services in the area."

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Source: BBC News, 19 October 2019

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Lack of social distancing in NHS staff social areas alarms national chiefs

National leaders have said healthcare workers must do better on social distancing amid growing evidence that staff-to-staff transmission is the significant factor in the spread of coronavirus throughout hospitals.

NHS England national clinical director for trauma Dr Chris Moran, said: “I’ve witnessed and I’m sure you’ve all witnessed that actually healthcare workers are not necessarily been the best at managing social distancing. We know when directly managing patients that it [social distancing] is impossible, that’s what PPE is for to protect both sides of the equation. But I think in the staff-only areas we could do quite a lot better in some of the places that I’ve visited.”

National director for acute care Keith Willett added: “The evidence we’ve seen coming through suggests the infection risks from staff to patients or patients to staff seems very low but the risks to staff of infection, COVID-19 infection, within hospitals is much, much, much higher between staff and staff, and patients and patients.”

The warning comes after NHS England’s patient safety director Dr Aidan Fowler said he was concerned about the rates of "nosocomial spread within our hospitals”.

Following national guidance designed to facilitate an increase in elective operations and other routine work, NHS trusts have been asked to set up “covid free” green zones and blue zones with a higher COVID-19 risk.

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Source: HSJ, 21 May 2020

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Covid inquiry must look at NHS 111 ‘mishandling’, bereaved families say

The inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic should look at the “mishandling” of the NHS 111 service, families bereaved during the crisis have said.

In a scathing report, the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said the service was inappropriately used to “alleviate the burden on the NHS” with “horrific” consequences.

The report, based on a survey of families, said many believed that the service “failed to recognise how seriously ill their relatives were and direct them to appropriate care”.

They argue that the service was also quickly “swamped” during the first wave despite the addition of 700 new call handlers, many of who were making life or death decisions with just 10 weeks training.

The phone line is one of a number of areas the groups want the government’s inquiry to cover. Other areas include No 10’s level of pandemic preparedness, particularly PPE shortages, as well as an investigation into the disproportionate impact on ethnic minority groups and those with disabilities.

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Source: The Independent, 30 November 2021

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Up to 50,000 nurses could quit UK over immigration plans, survey suggests

Up to 50,000 nurses could quit the UK over the government’s immigration proposals, plunging the NHS into its biggest ever workforce crisis, research suggests.

Keir Starmer has vowed to curb net migration, with plans to force migrants to wait as long as 10 years to apply to settle in the UK instead of automatically gaining settled status after five years.

The measures, which also include plans to raise foreign workers’ skills requirements to degree level and raise the standards of English language required for all types of visa, including dependents, are seen as an attempt to combat the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. A public consultation on the plans is expected imminently, sources said.

A survey conducted by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), seen by the Guardian, found the plans have sparked profound distress among foreign NHS and social care staff.

There are more than 200,000 internationally educated nursing staff, about 25% of the UK’s total workforce of 794,000. The government’s proposed changes to indefinite leave to remain (ILR) have triggered alarm, with many now considering leaving the UK for good, the survey suggests.

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Source: The Guardian (20 November 2025)

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Jeremy Hunt launches charity to monitor patient safety

Former health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has set up a patient safety charity which will establish data he can use to report on levels of avoidable harm in healthcare.

The charity, Patient Safety Watch, will commission research from leading universities on the scale of patient harm, with the aim to create an agreed methodology that will allow trends in the level of harm in healthcare to be tracked over time.

Mr Hunt said he wanted to fill a gap in hard data on safety issues: "The bit of the jigsaw that is missing is the hard data on the number of avoidable deaths, avoidable harm, is it going up is it going down, and taking a view across the whole system," he said.

"We intend the remit of the charity to be a narrow one which is about establishing credible data around patient safety issues".

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Source: HSJ, 9 October 2019

Patient Safety Learning's response:

We welcome today's announcement by Jeremy Hunt MP that he is setting up a new charity, Patient Safety Watch. At Patient Safety Learning we are committed to providing an independent voice for improving patient safety and collaborating with healthcare organisations, charities and patients to drive system-wide change. 

In our report, A Blueprint for Action, we set out the six foundations of safe care for patients and the practical actions needed to deliver these. Improved data and insight is one of these foundations and has a key role to play in helping to raise patient safety standards across health and social care. Highlighting examples of good practice and shortfalls in patient safety performance is needed not to blame, but to learn and improve. Patient Safety Watch's proposed focus on improving research and reporting into levels of patient safety incidents and avoidable harm in the NHS can play an important role in making the case for improvement and change. We look forward to working with Patient Safety Watch and on the actions needed to make the patient-safe future a reality.  

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Woman dies after being set on fire during surgery in Romania

A woman has died after being set on fire during surgery in Romania, the country’s health ministry has said, in a case that has cast a spotlight on the ailing Romanian health system.

The patient, who had pancreatic cancer, died on Sunday after suffering burns to 40% of her body when surgeons used an electric scalpel despite her being treated with an alcohol-based disinfectant.

Contact with the flammable disinfectant caused combustion and the patient “ignited like a torch”, Emanuel Ungureanu, a Romanian politician, said.

A nurse threw a bucket of water on the 66-year-old woman to prevent the fire from spreading. The health ministry said it would investigate the “unfortunate incident”, which took place on 22 December.

“The surgeons should have been aware that it is prohibited to use an alcohol-based disinfectant during surgical procedures performed with an electric scalpel,” the Deputy Minister, Horatiu Moldovan, said.

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Source: The Guardian, 30 December 2019

the hub has a number of posts on preventing surgical fires:

 

 

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NHS faces huge clinical negligence legal fees bill

The NHS in England faces paying out £4.3 billion in legal fees to settle outstanding claims of clinical negligence, the BBC has learned through a Freedom of Information request. Each year the NHS receives more than 10,000 new claims for compensation. 

The Department of Health has pledged to tackle "the unsustainable rise in the cost of clinical negligence".

Estimates published last year put the total cost of outstanding compensation claims at £83 billion. NHS England's total budget in 2018-19 was £129 billion.

The Association of Personal Injuries Lawyers (APIL) believes the cost is driven by failures in patient safety.

Doctors represented by the Medical Defence Union (MDU), which supports doctors at risk of litigation, are calling for "a fundamental" reform of the current system.

Suzanne White, from APIL, said people came to her on a daily basis with no intention of suing the NHS. But she said they often found it difficult to get answers from the medical authorities - and were left with no other option but to sue.

"What they want to do is find out what went wrong, why they have received these injuries ... and to make sure it doesn't happen to other patients."

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Source: BBC News, 21 January 2020

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Late diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy 'putting women at risk'

Women are at risk of serious harm and death because hospitals are not always diagnosing ectopic pregnancies quickly enough, an investigation reveals.

About 12,000 women a year in the UK suffer an ectopic pregnancy – when a fertilised egg grows outside the womb – putting them at risk if a fallopian tube containing the foetus ruptures and causes potentially fatal heavy bleeding.

An investigation by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB)  has found flaws in the treatment women receive. It has highlighted late diagnosis and consequent delay in treatment as a major concern, especially as a result of the condition being mistaken for a urinary tract infection.

NHS patient safety data shows that 30 ectopic pregnancies were missed and led to “serious harm” between April 2017 and August 2018.

As well as the risk to life, an ectopic pregnancy can also damage a woman’s chances of conceiving again and have serious psychological effects.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 March 2020

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Kent and Medway: Review into patient harm after DMC 'failure'

At least 18 serious cases are being investigated by NHS bosses after GP and dermatology services were stripped from private medical company.

The Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) confirmed on Monday an independent review was taking place. It will see if delays to treatment for thousands of patients using DMC Healthcare services "caused harm".

The NHS removed contracts worth £4.1m a year from the private firm in July.

DMC was responsible for nearly 60,000 patients at nine surgeries in Medway, and skin condition services in other parts of Kent, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

In north Kent, there were 1,855 patients needing urgent treatment and a further 7,500 on the dermatology service waiting list. Of those, 700 had been waiting more than a year.

Nikki Teesdale, from Kent and Medway's CCG, said it was "too early" to reach definitive conclusions around the 18 serious cases. Speaking to Kent and Medway's joint health scrutiny committee on Monday she said of the 18, five had been waiting "significant periods of time" for cancer services.

"Until we have got those patients through those treatment programmes, we are not able to determine what the level of harm has been," she added.

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Source: BBC News, 29 September 2020

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NHS denies elderly people were refused care during early Covid

NHS bosses have denied claims that thousands of frail elderly people were denied potentially life-saving care at the peak of the pandemic in order to stop the health service being overrun.

NHS England took the unusual step on Sunday of issuing a 12-page rebuttal to allegations in the Sunday Times that patients deemed unlikely to survive were “written off” by being refused intensive care.

Prof Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said: “These untrue claims will be deeply offensive to NHS doctors, nurses, therapists and paramedics, who have together cared for more than 110,000 severely ill hospitalised Covid-19 patients during the first wave of the pandemic, as they continue to do today."

“The Sunday Times’ assertions are simply not borne out by the facts. It was older patients who disproportionately received NHS care. Over two-thirds of our COVID-19 inpatients were aged over 65. “The NHS repeatedly instructed staff that no patient who could benefit from treatment should be denied it and, thanks to people following government guidance, even at the height of the pandemic there was no shortage of ventilators and intensive care.”

The newspaper claimed the high coronavirus infection rate in the UK before lockdown began on 23 March and the NHS’s limited supply of mechanical ventilators going into the pandemic meant that “the government, the NHS and many doctors were forced into taking controversial decisions – choosing which lives to save, which patients to treat and who to prioritise – in order to protect hospitals”.

The Sunday Times said its claims were the result of a three-month investigation that involved speaking to more than 50 sources in the NHS and the government about the health service’s response to the pandemic.

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Source: The Guardian, 25 October 2020

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UK’s Covid vaccines cut hospital admissions by around 90%, study shows

The COVID-19 vaccines deployed in the UK substantially reduce the risk of hospital admission, real-world data from Scotland has shown.

Four weeks after receiving a first dose, both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs cut hospitalisation with the disease by up to 85 and 94%, respectively.

Among those aged 80 years and over – one of the most vulnerable groups – the two vaccines were associated with a combined 81% reduction in hospitalisation risk.

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Strathclyde, and Public Health Scotland gathered vaccine data between 8 December and 15 February, during which 1.14 million doses were administered among the Scottish population.

Researchers analysed data for every week during the study – including GP records on vaccination, hospital admissions, death registrations and laboratory test results – and compared the outcomes of those who had received their first jab with those who had not.

Lead researcher Professor Aziz Sheikh said: "These results are very encouraging and have given us great reasons to be optimistic for the future. We now have national evidence – across an entire country – that vaccination provides protection against Covid-19 hospitalisations."

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Source: The Independent, 22 February 2021

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Oxygen shortages endangering half a million Covid patients every day in poorest countries, research shows

Shortages of oxygen are endangering the lives of more than half a million COVID-19 patients every day in the world’s poorest nations, new research has shown.

Despite being vital for the effective treatment of people admitted to hospital with coronavirus, sustained access to oxygen has proven difficult in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to cost, infrastructure and logistical barriers.

According to Unitaid, a global health agency, more than half a million people in LMICs currently need 1.1 million cylinders of oxygen per day, with 25 countries currently reporting surges in demand, the majority in Africa.

Supplies of oxygen were already constrained prior to COVID-19 and have been exacerbated by the pandemic, Unitaid says.

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Source: The Independent, 25 February 2021

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Updated PPE guidance puts NHS staff at risk of infection, say medics

NHS staff face unacceptable health risks as a result of “retrograde” changes to the government’s guidance on preventing spread of Covid-19, doctors’ leaders have warned.

The BMA said on 16 March it was concerned over updated guidance issued by the UK Health Security Agency covering use of personal protective equipment. It said the guidance failed to properly acknowledge that SARS-CoV-2 infection can spread in the air during the routine care of patients as they cough or sneeze and not just when specific processes known as aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) are being undertaken.

“This is a retrograde step as it once again means that healthcare workers will not be routinely provided the right level of protective masks and equipment they need to be safe at work when looking after covid patients,” said Chaand Nagpaul, the BMA’s chair of council.

The BMA said it was crucial that any staff looking after patients with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, or in other situations where a local risk assessment required it, had access to respiratory protective equipment such as filtering face piece (FFP3) masks.

Nagpaul said, “All healthcare workers who are caring for Covid-19 patients are putting themselves at risk, each and every day, and the very least the government should do is to provide surety that staff will be given the best protection possible.”

Respirators such as FFP3 masks are designed to protect the wearer from ingress of contaminated air and are fitted to ensure no gaps. They offer higher protection than surgical masks, which block the outward escape of droplets from the wearer.

The BMA’s concern follows a supposed clarification of the main messages regarding airborne transmission in the latest infection and prevention and control guidance issued on 15 March 2022.

The guidance said that respiratory protective equipment (FFP3 masks) are recommended when caring for patients with a suspected or confirmed infection spread “predominantly” by the airborne route (during the infectious period).

The word “predominantly” has been added to the previous guidance update, which was issued on 17 January 2022, and is the crux of doctors’ concern, one leading scientist said.

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Source: BMJ, 18 March 2022

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Therese Coffey could abolish four hour A&E wait targets under ‘emergency’ NHS plan

Therese Coffey is considering abolishing four-hour A&E waiting time targets as part of her “emergency plan” to tackle the NHS.

The new health secretary is understood to be looking at a range of measures to address the growing crisis in the NHS, understood to be announced next Thursday.

But a source close to the discussions told The Independent getting rid of the four-hour waits – first suggested in March 2019 – would have to be given the green light by the new prime minister Liz Truss.

The announcement will focus on the health secretary’s “ABCD” priorities – standing for “ambulances, backlog, care, dentists and doctors” – with improvements to mental health services as an addition.

Policies also being looked at include more call handers for ambulances, more diagnostic community centres, speeding up the hospital building programme, reducing “bureaucratic” burdens on GPs, improving direct access to counselling services for patients and “robust” management of the national dentists’ contract.

There is concern among those involved that the move would see the four-hour wait replaced by a new target, which could be as difficult as the current target to achieve.

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Source: The Independent, 18 September 2022

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Wrexham Maelor Hospital patients 'waiting on trolleys for hours'

Inspectors have demanded action over patients facing long waits on trolleys at Wrexham Maelor Hospital's A&E unit.

Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) said officials found some people waiting eight hours during an unannounced visit in August. It wants Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) to make rapid improvements.

In a statement, it said some of HIW's recommendations had already been addressed.

In its report, HIW acknowledged efforts made by emergency department staff to look after those in need, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

"It was identified that patients who were waiting on trolleys in the corridor were not receiving appropriate and timely care," said HIW. "We had to alert the nurse responsible for the patients in the emergency department corridor to a patient who was experiencing increased chest pain."

"During the inspection, we found that there were no pressure relieving mattresses available for any patients who were waiting on trolleys within the emergency department."

"We considered the above practices to be unsafe and increased the risk of harm to patients."

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Source: BBC News, 9 November 2019

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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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Revealed: Dozens of hospitals ignoring NHS safety warnings

Dozens of hospital trusts have failed to act on alerts warning that patients could be harmed on its wards, The Independent newspaper has revealed.

Almost 50 NHS hospitals have missed key deadlines to make changes to keep patients safe – and now could face legal action. One hospital, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Foundation Trust, has an alert that is more than five years past its deadline date and has still not been resolved.

Now the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned it will be inspecting hospitals for their compliance with safety alerts and could take action against hospitals ignoring the deadlines.

National bodies issue safety alerts to hospitals after patient deaths and serious incidents where a solution has been identified and action needs to be taken. Despite the system operating for almost 20 years, the NHS continues to see patient deaths and injuries from known and avoidable mistakes.

NHS national director for safety Aidan Fowler has reorganised the system to send out fewer and simpler alerts with clear actions hospitals need to take, overseen by a new national committee. Last year the CQC made a recommendation to streamline and standardise safety alerts after it investigated why lessons were not being learnt.

Professor Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of hospitals, said: “CQC fully supports the recent introduction of the new national patient safety alerts and we have committed to looking closely at how NHS trusts are implementing these safety alerts as part of our monitoring and inspection activity.”

He stressed: “Failure to take the actions required under these alerts could lead to CQC taking regulatory action.”

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Source: The Independent, 30 December 2019

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NHS England at loggerheads with Test and Trace over staff testing

The introduction of weekly covid tests for NHS staff in ‘high risk areas’ will mean other groups missing out or waiting longer, well-placed sources have told HSJ.

There is also understood to be a standoff between NHS England and Test and Trace over the regular testing of asymptomatic staff, which was announced for the North of England on Monday.

NHS trust labs don’t have enough capacity to test all their staff; and there is not enough spare in “pillar two” commercial labs to carry out hundreds of thousands of additional tests. National bodies are said to be in disagreement over who should do it.

NHSE believes they should be provided by T&T, and T&T says NHS labs should expand their capacity to carry them out themselves, HSJ has been told.

A senior source involved in the testing programme said there would have to be “trade-offs” for T&T to meet the new NHS demand, with supply having to be cut for others who want tests — mostly the general population, or care home staff.

At present the NHS has agreed to carry out 100,000 daily tests by the end of the month, as part of the T&T’s overall 500,000 target. It has been encouraged to do more by T&T, but any expansions may face shortages of equipment and supplies such as reagents, as well as staff and space.

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Source: HSJ, 13 October 2020

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Dangerous staffing levels in Borders hospitals, says union

A trade union has written to every politician representing the Scottish Borders to highlight "dangerous staffing levels" in local hospitals.

Unison claims serious breaches of safety guidelines are occurring daily due to a lack of nurses, auxiliaries and porters. The letter says staff are unable to take proper rest breaks or log serious incidents in the reporting system.

NHS Borders said patient and staff safety was its number one priority.

Unison said working conditions in the area were regularly in breach of regulations.

Greig Kelbie, the union's regional officer in the Borders, said: "We are getting regular messages from our members to tell us about the pressure they are under - and that they can't cope.

"The care system was under pressure before Covid, but the pandemic has exasperated the situation, particularly at NHS Borders.

"The NHS has been stretched to its limits and it is now at the stage where it is dangerous for patients and staff - we're often told about serious breaches of health and safety, particularly at Borders General Hospital where there are issues with flooring and staff falling.

"We work collaboratively with NHS Borders to do what we can, but we also wanted to make politicians aware of how bad things have become.

"We need our politicians to step up and implement change - we want them to make sure the Health and Care Act is brought to the fore and that it protects our members."

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Source: BBC News, 13 May 2022

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Student paramedics spending hours in ambulances outside A&E instead of attending calls

Student paramedics are missing out on learning how to save lives because they are wasting hours in ambulances outside A&E instead of attending calls, it has been revealed.

The College of Paramedics and ambulance directors say the hold-ups mean trainees are missing vital on-the-job experience, leading to fears over the safety of patients.

Will Boughton, of the College of Paramedics Trustee for Professional Standards, said handover delays had become a problem for trainees’ development and exposure to real-life experience, meaning training had become “unpredictable”.

If steps weren’t taken to increase training opportunities and address wider quality concerns in education, “it is very possible that patient safety may be at risk due to missed experience during practice education”, he warned.

“A student could complete a regular shift and see lots of patients, getting lots of things in their portfolio signed off, or they could be the unlucky ambulance that joins the back of a queue and is then at hospital X for however many hours waiting to release that patient, so and it varies from county to county and service to service,” he said.

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Source: The Independent, 22 June 2022

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Hospital issues ‘full capacity’ alert days before move to smaller building

A major acute site has issued a ‘full capacity’ alert to staff, just days before the services are due to move into a replacement hospital with fewer beds.

In an email seen by HSJ, medical leaders at the Royal Liverpool Hospital alerted staff to extreme pressures on the site, with ambulances being held outside and “no space” in resuscitation areas.

The RLH currently has around 685 beds, but at the end of this month the services are due to start transferring to the long-awaited new Royal Liverpool, on an adjacent site.

The new hospital has 640 beds, and several frontline staff have told HSJ this is causing significant concern, with the current services under so much pressure.

One senior source at the trust said there has been a push since 2017 to reduce inpatients beds at the current hospital, to try and match the capacity of the new build, but this hasn’t been achieved.

They added: “Surgeons are concerned that their beds will get filled with medical outliers. The whole issue is all the patients who are waiting for social care. It was supposed to have been sorted by now.”

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Source: HSJ, 13 September 2022

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Blackpool staff still wary of NHS whistleblowing scheme

Staff working at Blackpool hospitals raised 32 concerns with their bosses during the last three months as part of a national NHS whistle-blowing scheme.

Figures presented to the Blackpool Victoria Hospital board show 16 of the complaints related to patient safety, while 14 were in connection with incidents of bullying and harrassment. The overall figure was in line with the average for the hospital trust since the scheme was introduced nationally by the government in 2015, and is down from 37 during the previous three months.

But it was felt staff were still cautious about pointing the finger with anonymity requested in almost every case.

Terri Vaselli, Freedom to Speak Up Guardian for the Trust, said: "Within the nursing teams there are fears they will be ostracised. "It doesn't matter how much I reassure them, the fear factor is still there."

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Source: Blackpool Gazette, 8 November 2019

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The NHS robots performing major surgery

How would you feel about a robot performing major surgery on you?

2019 has seen a boom in the use of cutting edge robotic technology and there is more to come. Evidence suggests robotic surgery can be less invasive and improve recovery time for patients.

That could be good news with ever growing demand on health services. But how do patients feel? BBC News speaks to a patient as he prepares to put his trust in robotic assisted surgery, hoping it would mean he could get back to work more quickly.

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Source: BBC News, 12 December 2019

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Whistleblower nurse calls for new body to tackle bullying in NHS

A nurse who was threatened by colleagues for speaking out about care failings at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust has said bullying remains a “real problem” in the NHS.

Helene Donnelly has told MPs that more than 10 years on from the scandal – commonly known as Mid Staffs – she was still seeing “echoes” of what she experienced happening across the country.

“Although it is in the minority, as we saw at Mid Staffs the results can be absolutely catastrophic”

She called for the development of a national body to improve workplace cultures in the NHS and “stamp out bullying once and for all”.

The inquiry into poor standards of care and deaths at Mid Staffordshire indentified issues around staff behaviour, inadequate staffing levels and skills, and lack of effective leadership and support.

Ms Donnelly told a Health and Social Care Committee hearing today that there were “real negative behaviours” at the trust that created a “real bullying culture of fear and intimidation”.

“There was not a culture that encouraged and enabled staff to speak up and if they did as I did, we were bullied and threatened,” said Ms Donnelly, who now holds the roles of ambassador for cultural change and lead Freedom to Speak Up Guardian at the organisation where she works.

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Source: The Nursing Times

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Children’s intensive care at near full national occupancy amid rising RSV

A senior doctor has warned that paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) are ‘as pressured as I can ever recall’ – despite the absence of cold weather, which typically leads to higher demand levels.

James Fraser, president of the Paediatric Critical Care Society, said national bed occupancy in PICUs has “often been greater than 95 per cent” over recent weeks, while several units have reported 100 per cent occupancy. He said some children have had to be transferred between regions in order to admit them to a bed.

PICUs are often under more pressure during winter, due to seasonal RSV and other viral infections.

But high demand levels have started earlier this year, which has meant severely ill children have occasionally waited longer in local hospitals before being admitted to PICUs, and have sometimes had to be transferred to another site.

Mr Fraser told HSJ: “[PICUs] are really busy, as pressured as I can ever recall them.

“Every winter PICUs are under huge pressure due to seasonal RSV bronchiolitis. This usually happens between November and February. This year we always anticipated it would be a much longer season. It’s putting a lot of pressure on our national bed base.

“What is different is we have been under this pressure earlier in the year with RSV and other viral chest infections. We have been under this pressure for a month. The pressure is both the number of patients and there are a lot of staff off having to self-isolate."

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Source: HSJ, 29 October 2021

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