Skip to content

News

Keep up to date with the latest news, research and activity in patient safety.

Coronavirus: NHS England launches tool to aid long-term recovery

NHS England is launching a new service for people with ongoing health problems after having coronavirus.
The government says "tens of thousands" of people have long-term symptoms after catching COVID-19.
"Your Covid Recovery" will be an online portal for people in England to access tutorials, contact healthcare workers and track their progress.
The project will be rolled out in two phases, with the web portal launching later this month.
It will only be accessible via a personal log-in and will be available to virus patients who had to be treated in hospital, as well as to those who managed their illness at home.
Later in the summer, tailored rehabilitation will also be offered to those who qualify, following an assessment.
Each programme will last a maximum of 12 weeks, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
Read full story
Source: BBC News,  5 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning

Hospital ratings often depend more on nice rooms than on health care

A study of 50,000 patients throughout the United States showed that those who were the most satisfied with their care (the top quartile) were 26% more likely to be dead six months later than patients who gave lower ratings to their care.
The study, “The Cost of Satisfaction,” appeared in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The researchers looked at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital data and patient surveys at more than 3,000 US hospitals over three years. The hospitals where fewer patients died had only a 2% point edge in patient satisfaction over the others.
Cristobal Young, associate professor of sociology at Cornell University and lead author of the study, calls it “the halo effect of hospitality.” Young found that what mattered most to patients in ratings were the compassion of nurses and amenities like good food and quiet rooms. It’s why hospital managers are being recruited from the service industry and we’re seeing greeters in the lobby and premium TV channels in rooms, he says.
Patients tend to value what they see and understand, but that can be limited, Young continues. They give hospitals good cleanliness ratings when they observe waste baskets are emptied and sheets are changed. “They can’t see a virus or tell you how clean the room is in ways that matter,” he says.
Read full story
Source: 4 July 2020, Washington Post
Patient Safety Learning

Ian Paterson: Coroner to open inquests into breast surgeon’s victims’ ‘unnatural deaths’

Former patients of rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson may have died of “unnatural deaths” two senior coroners have said.
Senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, Louise Hunt, and area coroner Emma Brown have said they believe there is evidence to suspect victims of Ian Paterson, who was jailed for 17 counts of wounding with intent in 2017, died unnaturally as a result of his actions.
They now plan to open four inquests into the deaths of patients who died from breast cancer after being treated by Paterson.
“Following preliminary investigations, the senior and area Coroner believe there is evidence to have reason to suspect that some of those deaths may be unnatural. In accordance with the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, inquests will now be opened in relation to four former patients of Mr Paterson.”
Deborah Douglas, a victim of Paterson who leads a support group in Solihull, told The Independent: "I have spoken to so many women over the years who have since died. This is what I have always known and fought for.
"Paterson lied about pathology reports and people did develop secondary cancers."
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 4 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning

GMC to restart fitness-to-practise investigations this month

The GMC has set out its plans to restart fitness to practise (FTP) investigations this month.
Existing FTP cases will resume, where this is possible, with flexibility on timescales and on the basis of direct discussion with those involved and ‘careful consideration and agreement’ with responsible officers, the regulator said.
Acknowledging that investigations are ‘difficult’ for all involved’, the GMC said it is of the view that delaying decisions any further could ‘cause additional stress’. It also said investigations would resume with the ‘understanding that many individuals and organisations remain under pressure and any potential impact needs to be proportionate’.
During this period, it will continue to review concerns that are raised to protect patient safety.
Read full story
Source: Pulse, 3 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning

Coronavirus: They avoided hospital but they still aren't getting better

Extreme fatigue, nausea, chest tightness, severe headaches, "brain fog" and limb pains are among the recurring symptoms described by some sufferers of COVID-19 for weeks - and even months - after their diagnosis.
They call themselves "long-haulers" and their symptoms persist long after the 14-day period that's officially said to be the average length of the illness.
There are calls for both health professionals and employers to recognise that some people will take a lot longer than two weeks to recover.
"It's the weirdest thing I've ever experienced," Helen Calder, from Liverpool, told BBC health correspondent Dominic Hughes.
Nearly four months after she and her family caught the virus, she still experiences a relapse roughly every two weeks where she is hit by debilitating fatigue, nausea, headaches and limb pain. Her doctors have diagnosed Post Viral Fatigue and she says any small over-exertion while she is feeling well can set her back for days at a time.
Dr Jake Suett, an intensive-care doctor in Norfolk, who was himself ill for several weeks, wrote an open letter calling on the government to push for more research into long-haul symptoms, and also to raise awareness among not only health professionals but also employers, who may see their staff off work for longer than two weeks.
"These patients may require financial help, and their employers need to have a realistic expectation for the time it will take them to recover," he wrote.
Read full story
Source: 7 July 2020
Read Jake Suett's blog on the hub
Patient Safety Learning

Spain's coronavirus antibodies study adds evidence against herd immunity

Spain's large-scale study on the coronavirus indicates just 5% of its population has developed antibodies, strengthening evidence that a so-called herd immunity to COVID-19 is "unachievable," the medical journal the Lancet reported on Monday.
The findings show that 95% of Spain's population remains susceptible to the virus. Herd immunity is achieved when enough of a population has become infected with a virus or bacteria – or vaccinated against it – to stop its circulation.
The European Center for Disease Control told CNN that Spain's research, on a nationwide representative sample of more than 61,000 participants, appears to be the largest study to date among a dozen serological studies on the coronavirus undertaken by European nations.
"In light of these findings, any proposed approach to achieve herd immunity through natural infection is not only highly unethical, but also unachievable," said the Lancet's commentary authors, Isabella Eckerle, head of the Geneva Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases, and Benjamin Meyer, a virologist at the University of Geneva.
Read full story
Source: CNN, 6 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning

Coronavirus: Unprecedented demand for action on NHS workforce shortages

The NHS will be unable to meet the needs of patients unless significant action is taken to tackle staff shortages, an unprecedented coalition of health leaders has warned.
Medical royal colleges, NHS trade unions and bodies representing senior hospital managers and other health organisations have joined together to warn bosses at NHS England and the government that they must act to ensure the health service workforce is supported in the wake of coronavirus.
The organisations said they were united in the belief that meaningful action on long-standing workforce issues would be the best way to repay the efforts of NHS staff during the virus outbreak – calling for a public commitment to boost numbers, increase flexible working, and improve leadership and support for staff.
Professor Carrie MacEwen, chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which organised the statement, told The Independent: “Continued staff shortages in the NHS will be hugely damaging for patients. It has long been recognised that there is a serious shortage of doctors and nurses and right now we need to keep the staff we have, who have done a brilliant job during the pandemic, as well as increase the size of the workforce."
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 7 July 2020
 
Patient Safety Learning

Patient Safety Learning calls for urgent action to ensure Long COVID patients are heard and supported

PRESS RELEASE
 (London, UK, 6 July 2020) – Thousands of ‘Long COVID’ patients are feeling unheard and unsupported. The charity Patient Safety Learning is giving these patients a voice to ensure urgent action is taken by leaders in health and social care.
 Helen Hughes, Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning, said: “There is growing evidence that there are many patients recovering in the community with long-lasting symptoms who are feeling abandoned, confused and without support. We must take action to better understand the needs of these patients and provide them with safe and effective care.”
 Although Patient Safety Learning welcomes the recent government announcement of an online patient recovery portal and treatment plans, questions remain around whether this will meet the specific health needs of Long COVID patients. “These patients have felt unheard for too long; we must make sure they do not slip through the net,” adds Hughes.
 Long COVID patients are those with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 who continue to struggle with prolonged, debilitating and sometimes severe symptoms months later*.
 It is crucial that Long COVID patients are heard and supported, and that research is undertaken to better understand Long COVID and its long-term effects on physical and mental health. 
 Long COVID patient Barbara Melville told Patient Safety Learning, “the worst part is that I’ve had to fight so hard to get the referrals I need” and another, Dr Jake Suett, said that, after joining the ‘Long Covid Support Group’ on Facebook, he “was suddenly faced with the realisation that there were thousands of us in the same position” and that it confronted him “with the tremendous volume of genuine human suffering that was going unrecorded and unnoticed”.
 Patient Safety Learning is calling for leaders in health and social care to act urgently by funding research into Long COVID and ensuring that patients are given a platform to raise concerns and receive appropriate support.
 The charity has identified the current key issues as being:
 There is a lack of guidance and support for Long COVID patients who have been managing their illness and recovery from home (to date, much of the guidance has been designed specifically for patients who have been acutely unwell and in hospital).
There is a lack of understanding around the effects of Long COVID on patients’ mental health and wellbeing. There is a risk that symptoms of other serious conditions are being overlooked for individuals with Long COVID and, instead, are being attributed simply as after-effects of COVID-19.  Patient Safety Learning’s proposed actions to address the safety issues concerning Long COVID care can be found on our website.
Notes to editors:
*The symptoms for those with Long COVID vary greatly but many are experiencing rashes, shortness of breath, neurological and gastrointestinal problems, abnormal temperatures, cardiac symptoms and extreme fatigue.
Patient Safety Learning is a charity, which helps transform safety in health and social care, creating a world where patients are free from harm. We identify the critical factors that affect patient safety and analyse the systemic reasons they fail. We use what we learn to envision safer care. We recommend how to get there. Then we act to help make it happen. For more information: www.patientsafetylearning.org  Patient Safety Learning’s blog published today on patient safety concerns for Long COVID patients outlining these issues in more detail can be found here.  A blog by Dr Jake Suett published today in which he outlines his experience of suspect Long COVID calls needed can be found here.  An open letter from Dr Jake Suett to MPs to make clear the needs of this group can be found here.
Patient Safety Learning

Two deaths at “not fit for purpose” unit spark CQC action

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) staged an unannounced inspection after two deaths at a mental health unit which it had condemned as “not fit for purpose.”
Two earlier CQC inspections – in 2017 and 2018 – had also been prompted by deaths on the same unit.
The CQC visited the Abraham Cowley Unit, which is at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey and run by Surrey and Borders Partnership Foundation Trust, on 26 June. Two inpatients died in April and May on an inpatient ward for working age men.
The deaths both involved “ligature harm” and have led to the trust reviewing its ligature minimisation strategy, according to board papers.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 8 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning

Influential MPs demand Government action plan on PPE within two months

The Public Accounts Committee has given the Department of Health and Social Care two months to report back with a plan to ensure personal protective equipment (PPE) provision during a second COVID-19 spike.
The influential group of MPs said they were 'extremely concerned' by PPE shortages faced by NHS and care workers during the first wave of the pandemic in the UK.
According to the DHSC it never ran out of stock of PPE but rather Covid-19 had 'put supply chains and distribution networks under unprecedented strain', posing challenges with ensuring the right equipment was at the right place at the right time.
BMA council chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: 'We may be past the first peak of this virus, but we should be under no illusion that the demand for PPE is over – especially as the NHS begins to manage the huge backlog of demand caused by the pandemic, all under tighter infection control measures.'
In light of the threat of a second wave of Covid-19 doctors and colleagues 'need cast-iron guarantees from Government that the failures of the past months will not be repeated, that there will be enough of the right PPE and that it will be properly tested, quality-controlled and safe to use', Dr Nagpaul added.
Read full story
Source: Pulse, 8 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning

Lives ruined as damage viewed as 'women's problems'

Many lives have been ruined because officials failed to hear the concerns of women given drugs and procedures that caused them or their babies considerable harm, says a review.
More than 700 women and their families shared "harrowing" details about vaginal mesh, Primodos and an epilepsy drug called sodium valproate. Too often worries and complaints were dismissed as "women's problems". It says arrogant attitudes left women traumatised, intimidated and confused.
June Wray, 73 and from Newcastle, experienced chronic pain after having a vaginal mesh procedure in 2009.
"Sometimes the pain is so severe, I feel like I will pass out. But when I told GPs and surgeons, they didn't believe me. They just looked at me like I was mad."
The chairwoman of the highly critical review, Baroness Julia Cumberlege, said the families affected deserved a fulsome apology from the government.
She said: "I have conducted many reviews and inquiries over the years, but I have never encountered anything like this; the intensity of suffering experienced by so many families, and the fact that they have endured it for decades. Much of this suffering was entirely avoidable, caused and compounded by failings in the health system itself."
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 8 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning

Hospitals 'inappropriately' turned down urgent cancer referrals during lockdown, GPs say

Urgent cancer referrals were "inappropriately" rejected by hospitals during the coronavirus lockdown without tests being carried out, GPs have said. 
Cancer Research UK said the findings from a survey of more than 1,000 GPs were "alarming", warning that patients whose lives may be at risk were being left "in limbo".
Family doctors were surveyed in June and asked what had happened to patients they had referred to hospitals for tests in the month to that point because cancer was suspected. 
A quarter of GPs said urgent referrals had been inappropriately turned down by hospitals more often than had been the case before the pandemic.  
Four in 10 said that, when tests were refused, patients had been left without proper checks to see whether their case could safely be left without investigation.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: The Telegraph, 8 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning

Take part in a conception & pregnancy study COVID-19

CAP-COVID are conducting essential research on how the COVID-19 pandemic affects pregnant women and their babies. If you are a pregnant woman at any stage of pregnancy, you can take part in the study. This includes whether you have just had a positive pregnancy test (even if you are unsure what to do about your pregnancy), whether you are in the middle of pregnancy, or you are about to have your baby.
Take part
Patient Safety Learning

Cumberlege inquiry: We must not allow this seminal report to gather dust on a shelf, Jeremy Hunt says

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned ministers not to let the Cumberlege review “gather dust on a shelf”.
The chair of the Commons Health and Social Care Committee told The Independent it was vital action was taken to implement the recommendations.
Mr Hunt, who made patient safety a key focus of his tenure as health secretary, backed the idea of an independent patient safety commissioner that would be outside the NHS and have powers to advocate for patient issues.
Mr Hunt said: “This report should be a powerful wake-up call that our healthcare system is still too closed, defensive and focused on blame rather than learning lessons. It’s truly harrowing to hear of all the women and families who live with permanent anguish because of these medicines and devices, and it has clearly taken too long for their voices to be heard.”
“The NHS is one of the safest health systems in the world, and we’re all rightly in awe of our frontline heroes. But in healthcare getting it right ‘most’ times isn’t good enough because the exceptions wreak lifelong devastation on families. So we must not allow this seminal report to gather dust on a shelf: lessons must be learnt once and for all.”
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 8 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning

Government lukewarm on NHS plan to cut covid death risk

Health leaders have called for the routine recording of ethnicity and faith during the registration of deaths to help fight COVID-19, but the government appears to have rejected the idea.
Leaders at West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership, the second largest integrated care system in England, wrote to registrar general Abi Tierney last month and said the lack of routine collection and analysis of this data “means there is a structural barrier to understanding of inequalities in mortality”.
The Home Office replied and said it is considering “a range of reliable and proportionate ways to collect the necessary information”. But HSJ understands the Home Office has indicated no immediate action will be taken on the issue.
The letter said: “This absence has undoubtedly led to delays in identifying the inequalities of COVID-19 mortality and means that we remain unclear about the disparities in deaths outside of hospital. These delays have risked contributing to further loss of life in our places in recent weeks, as we have not had robust data to enable us to address impacts at sufficient pace as we have been dealing with this crisis.”
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 8 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning

Winter warning as 35,000 respiratory diagnoses delayed due to pandemic

Patients with respiratory disease have been overlooked during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the NHS storing up problems for the winter months, a group of experts including the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has warned.
Analysis by the 34-member Taskforce for Lung Health showed that referrals for lung conditions fell by 70% in April, with two-in-five (39%) of CCGs seeing no appointment bookings for respiratory conditions for the whole of May.
On average, the group calculated a weekly average of 3,399 lung patients missing out on urgent and routine referrals during the COVID-19 lockdown, amounting to a total of at least 34,780 people, based on NHS England data.
This was blamed in part on a general reduction in routine procedures during the pandemic, which will have affected all disease areas, but also the limitations on clinicians including GPs to carry out spirometry due to the risk of COVID-19 infection spread.
But the taskforce - which includes the RCGP and the Primary Care Respiratory Society, as well as the Royal College of Physicians and Asthma UK - is now calling on NHS England to urgently restore services to pre-pandemic levels to tackle the backlog of lung patients requiring support. It said that failure to do so risked causing the premature death of patients who require urgent diagnosis as well as overwhelming the NHS during the winter season, when respiratory symptoms worsen.
Read full story
Source: Pulse, 9 July 2020
Patient Safety Learning
Registered address: Patient Safety Learning, China Works SB203, 100 Black Prince Road Vauxhall, London, SE1 7SJ

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications
Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.