Coroners have raised multiple concerns that visiting restrictions are having a damaging effect on patient care and wellbeing, also raising the issue that families of vulnerable patients may be unable to pass on information to clinicians which would be relevant to their care.
NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said: “No trust makes the decision to suspend or restrict visiting lightly. Trust leaders understand the importance of allowing visitors, in a safe and manageable way, or finding alternative ways to enable particularly vulnerable patients to stay in touch with their families and carers. They are also aware of the important information that families and carers can provide about patients.”
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Source: HSJ, 16 August 2021
According to reports, Barts Health Trust and most other providers in the north east London health system may run out of blood tube collection products by the end of August. Though, according to notes seen by HSJ, a “mitigation plan with demand management in place this may extend into September”.
After warning colleagues in north east London that the shortage of blood collection tubes made by Becton Dickinson affects “all NEL areas” except acute trust Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust, Diane Jones, chief nurse of the NEL integrated care system has said “NHSE are looking at mitigations, but nothing confirmed as yet, and [they] may take a few weeks to come on stream. The mitigation may get us up to 50 per cent of usual supply in the short term.”
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Source: HSJ, 13 August 2021
Plasma from blood donations in England will be used to make a life-saving drug whilst also helping to secure NHS plasma stocks to make the antibody-based medicines, called immunoglobulins. The service will begin roll-out in the coming months, with other parts of the UK potentially following suit.
Gerry Gogarty, from NHS Blood and Transplant, welcomed the decision, calling it a huge step forward. "By recovering plasma from blood donations, we can improve long-term supplies of immunoglobulin medicine, and each generous blood donation will go even further in helping to save the lives."
Read full story.
Source: BBC News, 17 August 2021
Providers fear 'fragmentation' of specialised services as NHS England begins delegating specialised services budgets to integrated care systems under reform plans.
One leader of a specialist trust told HSJ: “There is a real risk of fragmentation. You can already see some of the conversations around various services around how people want to keep patients within their own ICS. There is the potential there for systems to buck the trend of centralising specialist services. Rather than bringing expertise and quality together, systems looking after budgets will look to set up their own specialist services.”
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Source: HSJ, 17 August 2021
1,500 safety recommendations have been made to NHS trusts a year after hundreds of babies were left brain damaged and dozens of mothers and infants died.
Safety watchdog Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has outlined key themes from 760 investigations of maternity incidents, taking over investigations for NHS trusts in 2018 after concerns were raised over the poor quality of investigation by trusts and a lack of involvement in families.
Sandy Lewis, associate director of maternity said: “The publication of the HSIB maternity programme year review provides crucial details of the work that has been undertaken in the last year. We would like to thank all of those who have worked with us in the past year, sharing their experiences, insights and expertise. Many families have not only told us their stories but have also trusted our investigators to reflect their perspectives and share their experience. Trusts have responded promptly to this insight, this has contributed to improving safer care of mothers, babies and families across the country.”
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Source: The Independent, 16 August 2021
A new study has found night shifts are "significantly associated" with health issues related to the heart, particularly atrial fibrillation, finding that women may be at a greater risk. The research, published in the European Heart Journal also found working night shifts is linked to an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).
“Night shift exposure also increased the risk of CHD (coronary heart disease) but not stroke or HF (heart failure). Whether decreasing night shift work frequency and duration might represent another avenue to improve heart health during working life and beyond warrants further study,” the paper said.
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Source: The Independent, 16 August 2021
With just hours left to go, a health watchdog has paused a final update to ME treatment guidance due to disagreement on some of it's contents. Charities have expressed their anger over this decision as NICE says it needs more discussions with patient groups and professionals so that the advice is supported.
Although it is not yet clear when the guidance will be published, the advice on CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) has been changed as it was only helping with anxiety around the condition rather than the illness itself, with NICE acknowledging the controversy over the best treatment has served only to alienate many people with the condition.
"We were extremely concerned that the final guidelines proposed by NICE may not have taken into consideration the extensive comments we made to the draft version, particularly in relation to treatments we know to have significantly benefited many patients." Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, has said.
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Source: BBC News, 17 August 2021
Vaccinated nurses will now be expected to return to work instead of isolating as new rules are set to relax.
In a letter on the latest rule change from NHS England chief nursing officer Ruth May, chief people officer Prerana Issar, and medical director for primary care Dr Nikita Kanani said “Fully vaccinated staff and students who are identified as a contact of a positive Covid-19 case will no longer be expected to isolate and will be expected to return to work.”
Staff returning to work are required to have been double jabbed, have no Covid-19 symptoms and receive a negative PCR test. This latest change in rules go in line with changes for the wider population.
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Source: Nursing Times, 16 August 2021
This interview with April Kapu, DNP, APRN, ACNP-BC, FAANP, FCCM, FAAN, a critical care nurse, discusses how Nurse Practitioners are changing healthcare, the likelihood of all states granting full practice authority to NPs, and what the American Association of Nurse Practitioner members can expect from her for the next two years.
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Source: American Medical Association, 16 August 2021
According to reports, the number of children being treated by the NHS has soared, with waiting times tripling in a year, and experts warning the pandemic may have set back treatment for young people "by years".
The Royal College of Psychiatrists have also said services are struggling to provide timely treatment due to an "overwhelming" demand.
Dr Agnes Ayton, the chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Faculty of Eating Disorders Psychiatry, said: “The pandemic has had a huge impact on children and young people with disruption to their schooling, social lives and home lives. Many young people have not received support early enough, causing their eating disorders to become much worse and harder to treat. Delays to treatment can put lives at risk. Services are struggling with soaring demand, fewer beds because of social distancing and an ongoing shortage of specialist doctors.”
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Source: The Independent, 19 August 2021
After three Covid-19 patients died at the make-shift Nightingale Hospital in London following a breathing tube mix-up, NHS trusts in England could be issued tougher ventilation guidance. In each of the cases, filters which prevent the build-up of fluid were not attached to the machines, resulting in dangerous blockages, but it has not yet been determined if these incidents contributed to their deaths.
Coroner Nadia Persaud has said the way the machines vary from model to model can be "confusing" and may lead to future deaths, also ruling that the classification and colour coding was "worthy of review, simplification, and standardisation".
The original coroners report, carrying advice from an independent expert said "In my opinion, the non-standardised colour coding used by manufacturers of these filters, the number of different types of filters with different names, the variable optimal position of the filters, and whether a wet or a dry breathing system is being used, results in an extremely confusing situation. One of the leading manufacturers of these filters produces HMEs that are blue, which is the same colour as the non-HME filters supplied by another company. In my experience, few doctors and nurses working in ICU are knowledgeable about all these different filters and which ones should be used for any given breathing system."
Inquests into the deaths are scheduled for October.
Read full story.
Source: The Daily Mail, 17 August 2021
According to public health reports, there has been a sharp rise in drug overdoses, particularly heroin, over the past 10-14 days with the synthetic opioid isotonitazene implicated in some cases. In several areas of the country including five London boroughs, Hampshire, Essex, West Sussex, Dorset and Thames Valley, there has been 46 poisonings, resulting in 16 deaths, although currently, investigations are still ongoing.
In a National Patient Safety alert issued on 18 August 2021, Public Health England (PHE) have instructed all NHS organisations to ensure staff are made aware of the risk of severe toxicity resulting from the synthetic opioid, and that all organisations that treat emergency cases should ensure staff are able to treat suspected cases “using naloxone and appropriate supportive care”.
Roz Gittins, director of pharmacy at the charity Humankind, said "People also need to know where they can get hold of naloxone, as well as being reminded to carry it with them and to let people know where they keep it. If advice and support is required then the local substance misuse service should be contacted for specialist support. We hope that the current consultation to widen naloxone provision will be successful and that improved funding will lead to naloxone being distributed more widely to help reduce the risk of accidental opioid overdoses."
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Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal, 18 August 2021
Selena Brash, a clinical team lead with the East Hampshire school nursing team, has spoken out about the controversial plans to cut back public health nursing services in Hampshire.
Ms Brash, in response to the Hampshire County Council plans to save £6.8m from its public health budget, started a petition earlier in the summer calling for increased funding “to protect the provision of school nurses”, warning that cuts to to public health school nursing services would “result in a detrimental effect on children and young people’s health and wellbeing, with lifelong consequences”.
“If the cuts go ahead, then this could set a precedent for other local authorities to follow suit, meaning there would be a massive impact on the health and wellbeing of our young people and future generations,” Ms Brash told Nursing Times.
Read full story.
Source: Nursing Times
According to recent reports, the number of patients on waiting lists for non-urgent hospital treatment in Wales has again hit record levels. Data has revealed there were 624,909 people waiting in June, and those waiting the longest, more than nine months, rose again to 233,210.
A Welsh government spokesperson said: "Waiting times for treatment continue to grow. However, it is encouraging to see progress being made with the number of patients waiting over 52 weeks falling for the third month in a row. We also saw the largest number of specialist consultations completed and treatments started in any month since the start of the pandemic."
A&E time performance has been at its worst on record, with 94,176 attendances to emergency units over the month. Health spokesman Russell George said: "To record the worst ever A&E waiting times and the longest NHS treatment waiting list in the same month shows a complete lack of leadership."
Read full story.
Source: BBC News, 19 August 2021
Related Reading
Patient Safety Learning blog: Tackling the care and treatment backlog safely (19 August 2021)
In a positive step towards the future of pathology, NHS Digital has received approval from the Data Alliance Partnership Board (DAPB) for a new set of pathology information standards, and as part of NHS England CCIO7 workstreams, NHS Digital are delivering the ability to share pathology results across health and care.
This move will enable clinicians to share and access critical information about pathology tests and results and receive the right information when they need it, which will help support improved clinical decision making and patient safety.
Read full story.
Source: Wired Gov, 19 August 2021
According to new data, those who have been vaccinated against Covid-19, can still harbour virus levels as high as unvaccinated people if infected with the Delta variant. This new data suggests that hitting the threshold for herd immunity remains unlikely. However, it evidence does show vaccination still offers protection against hospitals and infection.
“We don’t yet know how much transmission can happen from people who get Covid-19 after being vaccinated – for example, they may have high levels of virus for shorter periods of time, but the fact that they can have high levels of virus suggests that people who aren’t yet vaccinated may not be as protected from the Delta variant as we hoped.” said Sarah Walker, a professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at the University of Oxford.
Read full story.
Source: The Guardian, 19 August 2021
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