Jump to content
  • articles
    9,850
  • comments
    83
  • views
    12,488,285

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

 

Woman died after taking medicine from husband’s ‘identical’ dosette box

A Berkshire woman with cognitive impairment died after taking medicines from her husband’s dosette box rather than her own “for several days,” a coroner has found. 

A report by assistant coroner for Berkshire Katy Thorne found that Sewa Kaur Chaddha died on May 10 2023, five days after she was found collapsed at home in Slough. 

Both she and her husbands were taking “multiple prescribed conditions” as well as “cognitive impairment due to their age” according to the report. 

The coroner wrote: “It was discovered that she had been taking her husband’s medication instead of her own for several days, including diabetes medication. Her blood sugar levels were found to be extremely low.” 

The cause of death was principally attributed to hyponatraemia “caused by the necessary treatment for hypoglycaemia which was in turn caused by the accidental ingestion of hypoglycaemic medication”.

In her report – which was written in July but made public yesterday (October 15) – the coroner said that both Mrs Chaddha and her husband received separate multi-compartment compliance aids (MCAs) from their local pharmacy, which was then a branch of LloydsPharmacy, adding: “The two patients’ dosette boxes were identical to each other except for a small pharmacist’s label with small type with the relevant patient’s name.”

The inquest found both that there was no “well disseminated” guidance for pharmacies around issuing medicines to patients with dementia and that “dosette boxes of different colours or labels with different colours were not routinely given to elderly or cognitively impaired patients living at the same address”.

Read full story

Source: Pharmacy Magazine, 16 October 2024

 

Read more
 

UK women who suffer cardiac arrest in public less likely to get CPR, study finds

Women who go into cardiac arrest in public are less likely than men to receive chest compressions from bystanders as people “worry about touching their breasts”, according to a study.

The research by St John Ambulance said nearly a quarter of the 1,000 Britons surveyed admitted they were less likely to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a woman in public, with a third of men worrying they would be accused of “inappropriate” touching when giving CPR to a woman compared with 13% of females.

The survey suggests the “taboo” surrounding women’s chests creates an “alarming gender disparity” in access to emergency medical care as only 68% of women are likely to receive CPR from bystanders compared with 73% of men.

Previous research has shown that more than 8,200 women in England and Wales could have survived a heart attack if they had been given the same treatment as men, according to an analysis of data from between 2003 and 2013.

Jordan Davison, a community experience manager at St John Ambulance, which teaches first aid and emergency medical services, said: “Our message to people is that it is always better to do something than nothing in these circumstances.

“Regardless of gender, when it comes to CPR, every ‘body’ is the same, the technique is the same, and everyone deserves the best possible chance of survival.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 16 October 2024

Read more

Vulnerable people not at risk from proposed assisted dying law, says MP

The lives of disabled and vulnerable people will not be at risk from a proposed assisted dying law because it will only apply to terminally ill adults, and each case is likely to be ruled on by two doctors and a judge, the MP sponsoring it has said.

Kim Leadbeater said her historic “choice at the end of life” bill will include “stringent” criteria and a cooling-off period in what is likely to be one of the most controversial pieces of legislation to go before parliament in years.

But people who are facing intolerable suffering but are not dying will still be denied medical assistance to end their lives, under the likely terms of the bill to be introduced on Wednesday.

That decision will prompt debate over whether the threshold for medical assistance to die should relate to suffering rather than time left to live.

Some campaigners argue people whose conditions mean they can be trapped and suffering in their bodies long before they meet a narrow definition of terminal illness will be left out.

A major poll has suggested most of the public support an assisted dying law in every constituency of Great Britain apart from Bradford West.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 16 October 2024

Read more

NHS needs better plan around weight loss jabs, warn experts

An urgent review is needed to make sure people in England can get weight loss jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro on the NHS, top experts warn.

It comes a day after the prime minister said such injections could boost Britain's economy by getting obese unemployed people "back into work".

More than 200 doctors and specialists have now written to the health secretary to say how stretched NHS obesity treatment services face unprecedented demand from patients wanting these drugs.

They warn the injections are only part of what should be a wider package of non-stigmatising care.

They say the government must fix some fundamentals issues in NHS obesity services - chronic underfunding, workforce challenges and unequal access to care.

The letter to Wes Streeting is being sent by the Obesity Health Alliance, external (OHA), which represents health charities and medical royal colleges, and has compiled a report.

It says some patients can wait up to five years for specialist support, and that some services are so overstretched they have closed their waiting lists entirely.

The OHA wants to see equitable access for obesity treatments, including weight loss injections.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 16 October 2024

Read more

Overhauling CQC ratings ‘could bring greater clarity’, ministers told

Changes to the Care Quality Commission’s one-word ratings “could be beneficial”, Penny Dash has concluded in the final version of her review.

Much of its contents, which is highly critical of the CQC, had already been published in an interim version in July, which prompted health secretary Wes Streeting to declare the regulator “not fit for purpose”.

But the final version of the review, which includes seven recommendations, addresses some areas not covered in the scathing interim report, including on the much-debated issue of the CQC’s single-word ratings.

It notes “the government recently announced that Ofsted would end the use of one-word ratings and so it would be reasonable to similarly consider their use in health and social care

The review adds: ”Changes to one-word ratings could be beneficial in allowing greater clarity to be brought to the different key questions of quality, allowing a ‘balanced scorecard’ approach across [the key CQC inspection domains] ‘safe’, ‘effective’, ‘responsive’/’caring’ and ‘well led’.

However, “all this needs to be set against the need for a straightforward narrative that is accessible for users and patients”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 15 October 2024

Read Patient Safety Learning's response to the review:

Read more

Families 'left in lurch' on child autism diagnoses

Hundreds of thousands of children with suspected neurodevelopmental conditions in England, including autism and ADHD, face unacceptably long waits to be diagnosed, the Children's Commissioner, external has warned.

Dame Rachel de Souza's report into the issue said the system has failed to keep up with rising demand, leaving families "in the lurch" and expected to cope by themselves while they wait.

Parents are having to "jump through multiple hoops" to get support, while their children can end up in crisis and robbed of their potential, she said.

The report calls for urgent change to a needs-led, not a diagnosis-led, system of support - something the government insists it is tackling head-on.

Dame Rachel said she was shocked by how many providers had published apology messages and videos about the long waits.

"At such a crucial time developmentally, every day a child waits for support could permanently alter their life course," she warned.

She said, tragically, some children's unmet needs escalate to crisis point, citing the example of a 14-year-old autistic girl who ended up being admitted to hospital multiple times and required police involvement after health, social care and education had "failed to put in place the interventions she needed".

"Children and their families should never have to 'beg' or 'fight' for help," she said. "Yet, sadly, these are the words I hear most often when asking about seeking support for a child's neurodivergence."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 15 October 2024

Read more
 

Unemployed could be given weight-loss jabs to get back to work, says Wes Streeting

New weight-loss jabs could be given to unemployed people to help them get back into work, Wes Streeting has suggested.

The health secretary said “widening waistbands” were placing a burden on the NHS.

The latest generation of weight-loss medicine, such as Ozempic or Zepbound, could be administered to people in order to get them back into employment, and to ease costs to the health service, he added.

The plans announced at the summit will include real-world trials of weight-loss jabs’ impact on worklessness, according to the Telegraph.

The health secretary wrote: “Our widening waistbands are also placing significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11bn a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy.

“Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.”

Dr Dolly van Tulleken, who specialises in obesity policy and is a visiting researcher at the MRC epidemiology unit at the University of Cambridge, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there were “some serious ethical, financial and efficacy considerations with such an approach … Such as looking at people, or measuring people based on their potential economic value, rather than primarily based on their needs and their health needs.”

She went on: “It’s incredibly important that people in the UK access healthcare based on their health need rather than their potential economic value.”

But despite scepticism, Van Tulleken said Streeting was on “the side of the population”, adding: “We know from across so much research … how popular these interventions are. People want the government to act. They want to live in a healthy environment; he is absolutely on the side of public.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2024

Read more

NHS patient-safety system to be overhauled

The way patient safety is regulated and monitored is to be completely overhauled in England, the health secretary has announced.

Wes Streeting said the current system was "overly complex", as he set out a review of six key organisations.

It comes as further changes to the way the Care Quality Commission, the regulator of NHS services, operates have been unveiled.

The regulator, which inspects 90,000 different services across health and care, has been told to focus much more on key services such as hospitals, GPs and social care, after an interim report, in July, warned it was failing.

Streeting said: "Patient safety is the bedrock of a healthy NHS and social-care system.

"That's why we are taking steps to reform the CQC, to root out poor performance and ensure patients can have confidence in its ratings once again.

"The government will never turn a blind eye to failure.

"An overly complex system of healthcare regulation and oversight is no good for patients.

"We will overhaul the system to make it effective and efficient to protect patient safety."

The latest announcement coincides with the publication of the final report into the CQC review, led by Dr Penny Dash.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 15 October 2024

Read more

CQC ordered to pause ICS inspections

The Care Quality Commission has been ordered to “formally” halt its plans for integrated care system inspections, following the latest criticisms of the organisation.

A major review of the regulator, led by integrated care board chair Penny Dash, is due to be published today. It will identify “serious internal failings,” which are “hampering [the CQC’s] ability to identify poor performance”, according to a pre-released government statement.

It said the health and social care secretary Wes Streeting had accepted a recommendation that the CQC “formally pauses the implementation of its assessments of [ICSs]… as it works to restore public confidence in health and care regulation” to allow it “to focus on getting the basics right”.

The regulator said: ”In agreement with the DHSC, CQC has paused its assessments of integrated care systems for six months.”

ICS inspections were introduced under the Health and Care Act 2022, but the previous government never signed off on the CQC’s approach to running them or decided whether ICSs should be given clear single-word ratings, meaning only a small number of pilots have taken place.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which has been opposing CQC ICS inspections for some time, said: “Given the stark findings, we believe the decision to pause ICS inspections is the right one.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 15 October 2024

Read more

AI medical advice on drugs could lead to death in one in five cases

Dr AI could be providing 'potentially harmful' medication advice, a concerning study has suggested. 

German researchers found more than a fifth of AI powered chatbot answers to common prescription drug questions could 'lead to death or severe harm'. 

Experts urged patients not to rely on such search engines to give them accurate and safe information. 

Medics were also warned against recommending the tools until more 'precise and reliable' alternatives are made available. 

In the study, the scientists from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, pinpointed the 10 most frequently asked patient questions for the 50 most prescribed drugs in the US.

These included adverse drug reactions, instructions for use and contraindications — reasons why the medication should not be taken. 

Using Bing copilot — a search engine with AI-powered chatbot features developed by Microsoft — researchers assessed all 500 responses, against answers given by clinical pharmacists and doctors with expertise in pharmacology. 

Responses were also compared against a peer-reviewed up-to-date drugs information website. 

They found chatbot statements didn’t match the reference data in over a quarter (26%) of all cases and were fully inconsistent in just over 3%. 

But further analysis of 20 answers also revealed four in ten (42%) were considered to lead to moderate or mild harm and 22%, death or severe harm. 

Read full story

Source: Mail Online, 11 October 2024

Read more
 

Man says he has been 'left to rot' after Covid vaccine

On 15 December 2021 Larry Lowe’s life changed. He was 54, rarely ill, fit, healthy and running 10km most days – until he got the Pfizer Covid booster.

Within days he developed numbness in the right side of his face and started experiencing pain.

"I had lost all the feeling in my face, teeth, nose, tongue, eye, that whole side of my head," he said.

These symptoms have spread through his body and intensified over the years, with doctors across the UK saying the vaccine is to blame.

Pfizer said patient safety was paramount and it took reports of adverse reactions very seriously.

It said hundreds of millions of doses had been administered globally "and the benefit-risk profile of the vaccine remains positive for all authorised indications and age groups".

Mr Lowe said that while he was not opposed to vaccines, his life had been destroyed.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 14 October 2024

Related reading on the hub:

Read more

Europe’s medical schools to give more training on diseases linked to climate crisis

Mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria will become a bigger part of the curriculum at medical schools across Europe in the face of the climate crisis.

Future doctors will also have more training on how to recognise and treat heatstroke, and be expected to take the climate impact of treatments such as inhalers for asthma into account, medical school leaders said, announcing the formation of the European Network on Climate & Health Education (Enche).

Led by the University of Glasgow, 25 medical schools from countries including the UK, Belgium and France will integrate lessons on climate into their education of more than 10,000 students.

Glasgow University’s Dr Camille Huser, co-chair of the network, said: “The doctors of the future will see a different array of presentations and diseases that they are not seeing now. They need to be aware of that so they can recognise them.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 14 October 2024

Read more

NHSE’s defunding of older people’s programme ‘a source of national shame’

NHS England cut £390m (70 per cent) from its planned budget for improving community care for older people in the past two years, according to information obtained by HSJ.

NHSE originally announced back in 2019 that it would spend £647m between 2020 and 2024 on a big expansion of community-based services for older and frail people. This included faster access to rehab care on discharge, personalised care and support at home, and urgent crisis response.

Funding for the Ageing Well programme, under the NHS long-term plan, was set to be targeted by NHSE for local providers to hire staff and create infrastructure. Its LTP allocations were back-loaded, with £204m in 2022-23 and £343m in 2023-24.

But now, figures released to HSJ under the Freedom of Information Act show the final amounts allocated in those two years were just £77m and £79m respectively — a cut across the two years of £391m (72%).

Geriatrician Professor Martin Vernon, who developed the long-term plan proposals as NHSE national clinical director from 2016 to 2019, told HSJ they should “have assumed even greater priority” after covid; and would have put the NHS “in a much better place”.

But he said: “The fact that these plans were largely defunded and badly implemented must now be a source of national shame. The opportunities have been largely squandered and rather than world-leading on ageing health we are now in many ways trailing…

“This regrettable situation must be rescued urgently with renewed commitment, the right national leadership and laser-sharp focus, to avoid yet more people facing a truly dismal future as they get older.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 14 October 2024

Read more

New regulatory office will support healthcare AI innovations

Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle has announced the launch of a regulatory office, which will support the healthcare sector to deploy AI innovations safely.

The Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) aims to reduce the burden of red tape for businesses hoping to bring new products and services to the market, so they can reach the public faster and help boost the economy.

A press release, published by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on 8 October 2024, says that the RIO will “support regulators to update regulation, speeding up approvals, and ensuring different regulatory bodies work together smoothly”.

It adds that the RIO will initially support four areas of technology: AI and digital in healthcare, connected and autonomous technology, engineering biology and space.

The RIO will work with the Department of Health and Social Care to help safely deploy AI innovations, such as AI training software for surgeons.

In a statement, Kyle, said: “From breakthroughs that could help doctors diagnose illnesses earlier to satellite navigation for more accurate weather forecasting and getting emergency supplies to where they are needed, quickly and effectively, RIO will make sure UK companies are at the forefront of the next generation of technologies.”

Applications are being welcomed for the RIO’s first chair, who DSIT says will be appointed to “lead the charge in backing business and safe innovation, and work with regulators and partners to shape a regulatory environment that is fit for the future”.

Read full story

Source: Digital Health, 8 October 2024

Read more

Practices urged to record patient safety incidents in national systems

GP practices are being asked to sign up to national systems that allow them to record patient incidents in a bid to improve patient safety within primary care.

NHS England has proposed a number of measures to promote a safety culture as well as provide more data and insight into incidents as part of its first primary care patient safety strategy launched at the end of September.

It has warned that incident recording systems in primary care are not as well developed as in secondary care, therefore the 20,000 to 30,000 ‘incidents of avoidable significant harm identified in general practice in England per year’ may be an underrepresentation.

And it has highlighted that a single ‘significant harm episode in primary care’ is estimated to cost the NHS £5,000, a total of more than a £100m a year.

The commissioner is urging practices and other GP organisations to connect to national systems of patient safety information, including the Learn from Patient Safety Events service (LFPSE) or Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) for recording and analysing incidents.

This will "enable learning that supports local and national patient safety improvement", it said. And it helps nurture a culture that focuses on "the role of systems, not individuals, when things go wrong".

Read full story

Source: Management in Practice, 11 October 2024

Read more

USA: Florida hospitals reopening after hurricanes as plans proved largely effective

Hospitals across Florida are coming back online after evacuating patients, closing facilities and canceling surgeries ahead of Hurricane Milton.

The category 3 hurricane made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, on Wednesday evening and was expected to be one of the most powerful in Florida’s history. At least 10 storm-related deaths have been reported and the death toll is still expected to rise.

However, even amid widespread destruction from storm surge, tornadoes, hurricane force winds and torrential rain, officials said the worst-case scenario was averted because the storm weakened as it arrived.

Deaths expected to rise as Florida begins to assess Hurricane Milton destruction

“Preparing for Hurricane Milton was an incredible effort by the entire team and a true test of our resources,” said John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa general hospital, in a statement. Tampa general is the region’s only high-level trauma center. It stayed open through the storm.

“But it ensured we could continue to provide exceptional care for our patients in a high-quality, safe and uninterrupted environment before, during and after the storm,” said Couris.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2024

Read more
 

Lucy Letby: police and CPS handling of case raises new concerns about convictions

When the public inquiry into the crimes of the former nurse Lucy Letby opened in Liverpool last month its chair, Lady Justice Thirlwall, dismissed concerns about the safety of the convictions as “noise”. The judge cautioned that questions being raised were increasing the distress of parents whose children had died or been harmed.

Letby was found guilty across two trials of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester hospital (COCH) in 2015 and 2016. Thirlwall pointed out that in May this year, the court of appeal refused Letby permission to appeal, and she said it was not the role of her inquiry to review the convictions.

Yet questions about the case, and the number of experts raising them, have continued to mount. Letby is being represented by a new barrister, Mark McDonald, and a number of specialists including leading neonatologists – doctors who specialise in treating premature babies – are voluntarily working with him on an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Having examined the detail, these experts consider there are more plausible alternative causes of the babies’ deaths and collapses than those for which Letby was convicted.

The Guardian looks at the key concerns about the case.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2024

Read more
 

Man's suicide could have been prevented

A man who took his own life might have been saved if mental health crisis referrals were improved, a coroner said.

Nigel Hammond died in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, on 14 March, three days after falling at his Suffolk home.

In a Prevention of Future Deaths Report, external, senior coroner for Suffolk Nigel Parsley said a mental health support team could have got him help sooner, had they not needed to go through a GP first.

In his report, following an inquest this week, Mr Parsley said Mr Hammond had become "seriously mentally unwell" in 2018 and was admitted to a mental health unit for three months.

He had found the admission very traumatic and was "terrified" of the thought of being admitted again. Instead he continued to receive "exemplary" mental health care at home.

On 8 March 2024, his mental health declined again and he was taken to his GP.

The following day he tried to end his own life but was prevented by family intervention, the report said.

His family immediately contacted the on-duty authorised mental health professional (AMHP) from the Suffolk County Council-managed emergency duty service team.

Mr Parsley said he was "concerned" the AMHP had not been able to directly refer Mr Hammond to the crisis team, which would have provided additional support, advice and potentially additional treatment, "in all likelihood preventing his death".

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 11 October 2024

Read more
 

Disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson refuses to attend inquest

The jailed former breast surgeon Ian Paterson has refused to give evidence at an inquest into the deaths of 62 of his former patients, in a move labelled “unacceptable” and “atrocious” by families of the deceased.

Paterson had been due to speak at the judge-led inquest at Birmingham and Solihull coroner’s court, which is investigating whether 62 of Paterson’s former patients “died an unnatural death as a result of his actions”.

Paterson, 66, was served a notice in September requiring him to give evidence on Thursday via video link from prison, where he is serving a 20-year sentence for 17 counts of wounding, but lawyers representing him said he had declined to attend.

In an application made at 11pm on Wednesday, they cited health reasons, which were not detailed in open court, as well as a “lack of legal representation” and “inadequate facilities to prepare” as the reasons why Paterson could not engage in the inquest process.

Judge Foster, leading the inquest, said it would “be greatly enhanced and improved if Paterson participated” and it was the first opportunity, apart from his criminal trial, for him to answer questions about his practice under oath.

Stephen Baker, whose wife, Christine, died in 2015, said: “We’ve been put through hell by this individual, and now they’re extending this hell with the constant delays Ian Paterson is creating. I think it’s unacceptable to put [the families of the deceased] through the increased stress of an inquest delay.”

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2024

Read more

Covid inquiry told of trust do-not-resuscitate rule

At least one NHS trust put in place a blanket "do-not-resuscitate" order for sick patients in the pandemic, the Covid inquiry has heard.

It would mean individuals were considered ineligible for potentially lifesaving CPR, solely on the basis of age or disability, without being individually assessed.

Former Resuscitation Council UK president Prof Jonathan Wyllie said he knew of one trust implementing the policy, although he had not seen a document setting it out.

Groups representing the families of people who died from Covid said they were “horrified but not surprised”.

Under NHS guidance, a Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNCPR) order can be added to someone's medical notes after consultation with the patient or their family members.

It means medical staff will not attempt chest compressions or defibrillation, where an electric shock is applied to restore normal heart rhythm, if the patient's heart or breathing stops.

Groups representing bereaved families believe some hospital departments became so overwhelmed in the pandemic that blanket DNACPR rules were applied, based solely on age, disability or medical condition.

At the time, the charity Mencap said some people with learning disabilities had reported being told they would not be resuscitated if taken ill with Covid.

NHS England says a blanket DNACPR rule for every person with a specific medical condition or over a certain age would be unlawful.

It wrote to NHS trusts a number of times during the pandemic, external, to remind clinicians the orders should only ever be applied with the "appropriate consent".

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 10 October 2024

Read more
 

Police identify 24 suspects over hospital drug deaths

Detectives investigating hundreds of deaths at a hospital have identified 24 suspects.

An independent panel previously found 456 patients died after being given opiates inappropriately at Gosport War Memorial Hospital between 1987 and 2001.

Families of those who died have been informed a new criminal investigation, led by Kent Police, has begun sharing files with the Crown Prosecution Service for charging consideration.

Operation Magenta, which follows three previous investigations by Hampshire Constabulary that resulted in no prosecutions, said 21 people were being investigated for alleged gross negligence manslaughter and three for alleged health and safety offences.

Kent Police Deputy Chief Constable Neil Jerome said the investigation was "one of the largest and most complex of its nature in the history of UK policing".

"It will be the CPS’ decision as to whether or not any criminal charges are brought in relation to these cases," he added.

Representing some of the families affected, Emma Jones, from Leigh Day Solicitors, said the news was "small comfort" to her clients - who she praised for showing "immense patience and fortitude" while the investigation has been carried out.

"They have already waited many years for answers into the deaths of their loved ones and progress in this investigation does not appear to have been fast," she said.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 10 October 2024

Read more

NHS will fail to hit waiting list target as A&Es face winter ‘tripledemic’

The NHS is likely to miss a key target to treat patients waiting more than a year for care, surgeons have warned, as new data shows A&E waits are increasing ahead of winter.

A core target to eliminate the backlog of patients waiting more than 65 weeks for NHS treatment by September is likely to be missed with 45,527 patients still waiting for more than a year and a quarter in August 2024, according to the Royal College of Surgeons.

Overall, some 6.42 million patients were estimated to be waiting for treatment at the end of August - up from 6.39 million in July. The number of treatments waiting to be carried out stood at 7.64 million in August, up from 7.62 million the previous month.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: “These latest figures show the pressure we saw over summer is not letting up with too many patients waiting too long for treatment, following a record September for A&E attendances.”

“We know this is likely to be another incredibly busy winter, with extra demand and the threat of a ‘tripledemic’ of Covid, flu and RSV [Respiratory syncytial virus], and last month we set out our winter plan which included better data reporting and more care in the community like falls services and virtual wards, so we can see patients as quickly as possible in the busy months ahead.”

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 10 October 2024

Read more

Dementia set to become Australia’s leading cause of death

Dementia is on the brink of overtaking heart disease as the leading cause of death in Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which says the 250 deaths between the two conditions are “the closest they have ever been”.

In 2023, which recorded 183,131 deaths nationally, the five leading causes of death were heart disease, dementia (including Alzheimer’s), cerebrovascular disease, lung cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease, ABS data revealed.

Covid fell to the ninth leading cause of death, from third in 2022.

If mortality trends continue to follow expected trajectories, dementia will be the leading cause of death in Australia “in coming years”, the report said.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2024

Read more
 

Coroners warn of risk to lives without urgent reform of NHS adult care

Health secretary Wes Streeting has been urged to speed up reforms to the adult care system in the wake of patient deaths after two coroners warned him of the impact insufficient care beds and service provision are having on the NHS.

Last month, coroners sent two ­prevention of future deaths (PFD) reports to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) after the ­inability to discharge patients at two hospitals was linked to the deaths of others awaiting treatment.

In the first case, a man died “following a grossly excessive ­ambulance delay attributable to a systemic ­failure related to the whole system of health and social care”, according to the PFD report from Guy Davies, ­assistant ­coroner for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

The total ambulance delay of nearly 19 hours was judged by the inquest to be “possibly causative of death”.

The inquest found that when the ambulance reached the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro, there were 11 others queueing to hand over patients to A&E, which was built to house 44 patients but was holding 56.

The lack of available beds was the result of patients who were ready for discharge but forced to remain in the hospital because of “inadequate social care provision, community hospital provision and primary healthcare support”.

Read full story

Source: The Guardian, 6 October 2024

Read more

American Hospital Association opposes HHS interoperability rule: 6 things to know

The American Hospital Association (AHA) has expressed its opposition to parts of a new HHS interoperability rule aiming to facilitate better healthcare data exchange.

The proposed Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Patient Engagement, Information Sharing, and Public Health Interoperability rule to "advance interoperability, improve transparency, and support the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information" was published on 5 August.

In a letter on 4 October, AHA said it supports parts of the rule: aligning CMS application programming interface requirements and recommendations; continuing to develop U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) standards; committing to protect patient data; improving public health data interoperability; rolling out the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA); and revising information blocking request-response criteria.

However, they are concerned that providers would still be held to a higher accountability standard for data sharing, USCDI version deadlines are too aggressive, new encryption requirements are burdensome, and TEFCA's current governance structure may be inadequate."

While the AHA supports prior authorisation application programming interface certifications, the group said payers, like providers, should also have mandatory, rather than voluntary, standards to "ensure that protecting the privacy of patient data is prioritized."

Read full story

Source: Becker's Health IT, 7 October 2024

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.