Source: Nursing Times, 8 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 1,131 views
News
Keep up to date with the latest news, research and activity in patient safety.
Source: Nursing Times, 8 January 2021
The project will have the following goals:
Develop analytics and reporting tools with a goal of improving patient safety, achieving increased operational efficiency and cost efficiencies Utilize the analytics and reporting tools with a goal of achieving agreed efficiencies and cost reductions Demonstrate the impact of managing clinical supplies and medicine spend together at scale Build a service model for the ICS which can be scaled up and adopted by other hospital groups in the UK Read the full article here
- 0 comments
- 1,225 views
In a letter sent on 9 January to the boards of all trusts in the region, national leaders said they needed to “dilute nursing ratios beyond the current ask of 1:2” to achieve the significant increase in capacity.
In November, all trusts in England were told they could dilute staffing ratios in critical care from the standard one nurse to one patient ratio, to one nurse to two patients. Informal reports from around the country suggest some trusts have already had to move beyond these ratios.
The letter said trusts had already been asked to surge capacity to 150% cent of the normal baseline on 6 January, and were expected to be at 175% today. But it said some units were still not achieving this and the region was “transferring patients to other regions.”
It added: “In addition to this, you need to have well developed plans in place that can be rapidly activated to surge to 200% of baseline, which may need to be enacted in the coming days.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 11 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 819 views
Practices have been offered the payments to cover the workload of postponing hundreds of patients who were set to have their second dose and booking new ones in their place.
NHS sources said the shift has contributed to delays in rolling out the programme. Some GPs have refused to postpone the appointments, with practice managers saying it was "too cruel" to dash the hopes of those who were booked for a second jab.
In December, everyone given a first vaccine by Pfizer was told to come back for their second dose three weeks later. But the strategy was changed 10 days ago in a bid to get a first dose to more of the population more quickly.
Patients are now being told they will have to wait 12 weeks for the second dose, with a reassurance from health officials that the longer gap could strengthen its effectiveness.
By the time the plan was changed, around one million people had already been booked in for their second dose. GPs are now under orders to postpone such appointments and instead give the slots to those awaiting a first dose.
Read full story
Source: The Telegraph, 8 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 1,094 views
Under a new agreement with the EU, both cards will offer equivalent healthcare protection when people are on holiday, studying or travelling for business. This includes emergency treatment as well as treatment needed for a pre-existing condition.
The new GHIC card is free and can be obtained via the official GHIC website.
Current European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) are valid as long as they are in date, and can continue to be used when travelling to the EU.
You don't need to apply for a GHIC until your current EHIC expires. People should apply at least two weeks before they plan to travel to ensure their card arrives on time.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 11 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 2,646 views
Researchers found that patients with COVID-19 were depleted in gut bacteria known to modify a person's immune response, and that this depletion appeared to persist 30 days after the virus had gone.
Gut bacteria — or gut microbiome — help to digest food. But research increasingly shows that gut bacteria also affect our health.
The study, published in the journal Gut, found that the composition of gut microbiome had changed in COVID-19 patients, compared to those who did not have the infection.
It said that gut microbiome could be involved in the "magnitude of COVID-19 severity possibly via modulating host immune responses".
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 12 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 835 views
Sexual health clinics have been forced to shut or run reduced services while staff are transferred to work with Covid patients or have to self-isolate – with the profound disruption leaving many women unable to access their usual methods of contraception.
Many women are struggling to get the most effective long-acting contraceptive choices of a coil or an implant due to these requiring face-to-face appointments which have largely been suspended as consultations are carried out remotely via phone or video call to curb the spread of COVID-19.
British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the UK's largest abortion provider, told The Independent they provided the progestogen-only contraceptive pill to almost 10,000 women undergoing an abortion between May and October last year.
Katherine O’Brien, a spokesperson for the service, said: “Many of these women will have fallen pregnant after struggling to access contraception, so there really is a huge unmet need for contraceptive services which will only worsen as lockdown and Covid continues.
“We routinely hear from women during the pandemic who simply can’t access their regular method of contraception because of clinics closing or staff being deployed elsewhere or staff self-isolating.”
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 9 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 1,017 views
Data from the region’s critical care network shows that as of 11 January, seven of the region’s 19 critical care units were either at 100% of, or had exceeded, what is known as ”maximum safe surge” capacity. This represents the limit of safe care, mostly based on available staffing levels. The units have opened more beds, but they require dilution of normal staffing levels.
Across the East of England, 482 of the region’s current 491 intensive care beds, after the opening of surge capacity, were occupied. This included 390 patients in intensive care with confirmed covid-19, six with suspected covid and 86 non-covid patients.
It gives a regional occupancy rate of 91 per cent against total “safe surge” capacity.
Published government figures show the rapid increase in demand for intensive care in the East of England in the last two weeks — the number of patients with covid in mechanical ventilation beds is more than double what it was just after Christmas.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 11 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 1,523 views
Yesterday, in a written statement to Parliament, the Minister for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health, Nadine Dorries, gave an update on the government’s response to the recommendations of the Cumberlege Review.
In an article in The Times today, Baroness Cumberlege welcomes that the government has now accepted the need for a patient safety commissioner for England and the amendment to the Medicines and Medical Devices Bill, which is being considered in the House of Lords today, which she hopes "will swiftly become law".
However, she also states that "... a full response to the review's is still outstanding 6 months after publication. Action is urgently needed to ensure we help those who have already suffered and reduce the risk of harm to patients in future".
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: The Times, 12 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 886 views
A document leaked to HSJ showed that, at the end of last week, more than 1,000 of London’s cancer surgery patients without an appointment date were defined as P2 (priority two), meaning they needed to be seen within four weeks or risk their condition worsening.
The report seen by HSJ also showed more than 300 P2 patients had their surgery postponed in the past week, a statistic NHS England London has so far refused to disclose.
Hospitals in the capital are facing their highest-ever COVID-19 occupancy rates, with surgical lists at many trusts being cancelled.
Meanwhile, a separate NHSE London document reported in the press this week revealed: “Most NHS Green sites [those cancer surgery sites intended to be covid-free to avoid risk to very frail patients] are now compromised with only a limited number of cases being undertaken in NHS sites this week”.
The papers also said the current plans to increase indepedent sector capacity usage were “insufficient to offset the NHS shortfall”, and noted there was a two week lead-in time to move patients into private hospitals “based on clinical rotas, theatre bookings, [and] patient isolation”.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 12 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 937 views
Researchers at King's College London asked 709 workers at nine intensive care units in England about how they were coping as the first wave eased. Nearly half reported symptoms of severe anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or problem drinking. One in seven had thoughts of self-harming or being "better off dead".
Nursing staff were more likely to report feelings of distress than doctors or other clinical staff in the anonymous web-based survey, which was carried out in June and July last year. Just over half reported good well-being.
Victoria Sullivan, an intensive care nurse at Queen's Hospital in Romford, said she often can't sleep because she's thinking about what is happening at the hospital.
Her worst moment was breaking the news of a death on the phone, she said, adding that the screams from the patient's relatives "will honestly stay with me forever".
"Telling someone over the phone and all you can say is 'I'm really sorry', whilst they're crying their heart out, is quite traumatising," she said. "Although you're saying how sorry you are, in the back of your mind, you're also thinking: 'I've got three other patients I've got to go and see, the infusions need drawing up, and meds need to be given and a nurse needs support'.
"The guilt is just too much."
Lead researcher Prof Neil Greenberg said the findings should be a "wake-up call" for NHS managers. He said: "The severity of symptoms we identified are highly likely to impair some ICU staff's ability to provide high-quality care as well as negatively impacting on their quality of life."
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 13 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 882 views
The report, conducted by medical journal Anaesthesia, found being awake while having a caesarean is far more common than it is with other types of surgery.
Researchers discovered that one in 256 women going through pregnancy-related surgery are aware of what was going on — a far higher proportion than the one in every 19,000 identified in a previous national audit.
If a patient is conscious at some point while under general anaesthetic, they may be able to recall events from the surgery such as pain or the sensation of being trapped, the researchers said.
While the experiences generally only last for a few seconds or minutes, anaesthetists remain highly concerned.
Women also felt tugging, stitching, feelings of dissociation and not being able to breathe - with some suffering long-term psychological damage that often involved characteristics of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 13 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 948 views
The first patient received the treatment at Hull Royal Infirmary on Tuesday afternoon. It involves inhaling a protein called interferon beta which the body produces when it gets a viral infection.
The hope is it will stimulate the immune system, priming cells to be ready to fight off viruses.
Early findings suggested the treatment cut the odds of a COVID-19 patient in hospital developing severe disease - such as requiring ventilation - by almost 80%.
It was developed at Southampton University Hospital and is being produced by the Southampton-based biotech company, Synairgen.
Read full story
Source: BBC News, 13 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 764 views
Patient safety minister Nadine Dorries said a new £500,000 maternity leadership programme would be rolled out later this year aimed at giving senior staff running maternity wards the skills and knowledge they need to boost culture and safety.
Its one step towards improving the working relationships between midwives and obstetricians and follows the damning report by the Ockenden inquiry into decades of poor care at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust.
The report, published last month, highlighted leadership on maternity wards as a key factor in cases at the trust which led to preventable baby deaths and cases of neglect over many years.
Announcing the fund, Nadine Dorries said: “The shocking and tragic findings of the Ockenden Review highlighted the importance of strengthening maternity leadership and oversight as well as fostering more collaborative approaches within maternity and neonatal services.
“I’m pleased to announce a new training programme for NHS maternity leaders, which will empower nurses, midwives and obstetricians to get the best out of their teams, and deliver safe, world-class care to mothers and their babies.”
Read full story
Source: The Independent, 12 January 2021
Government press release
- 0 comments
- 1,120 views
Manchester University Foundation Trust, one of the largest NHS providers, has reported difficulties in accessing capacity at its local Spire, BMI and Ramsay hospitals this month.
It comes as the NHS is facing “unthinkable” pressures from coronavirus patients, with dozens of hospitals on the brink of being overwhelmed.
Throughout most of 2020, the bulk of private providers in England were on a national block contract whereby the NHS could use as much capacity as it needed.
But a new contract, agreed with oversight from the Treasury last month, is now in place between January and April, and only offers trusts a minimum volume of activity which equates to activity provided in October and November.
Pressures on the NHS have since intensified to unprecedented levels, with many areas now in far greater need of the private capacity than they were two months ago.
And there appears to be a misunderstanding or lack of clarity in some areas about the extent to which they can now call on private capacity.
Read full story (paywalled)
Source: HSJ, 13 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 1,246 views
Critics are also concerned that the policy, announced on Sunday 10 January, was being rolled out without sufficient provision for people who test positive, such as putting them in hotels and compensating them financially. Supporters say the tests are a valuable additional tool in public health interventions to identify new cases and suppress further transmission.
Launching the new testing drive, England’s health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, said, “With roughly a third of people who have coronavirus not showing symptoms, targeted asymptomatic testing and subsequent isolation is highly effective in breaking chains of transmission. Rapid, regular testing is led by local authorities who design programmes based on their in-depth knowledge of the local populations, so testing can have the greatest impact.”
Read full story
Source: BMJ, 12 January 2021
- 0 comments
- 882 views
