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Patient Safety Learning

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Everything posted by Patient Safety Learning

  1. News Article
    Patients are increasingly avoiding seeing their GP because they find it too difficult to book an appointment, the latest data show. Results from the 2022 GP Patient Survey also show that satisfaction with family doctors in England has dwindled since the previous year. The findings come as the Government and the NHS struggle to retain GPs and boost recruitment to meet rising patient demand and an ageing population. The survey found that overall satisfaction ratings have declined over the past 2 years, although most patients who responded to a questionnaire reported a good overall experience with their GP practice, had confidence and trust in the healthcare professional who saw them, and considered they received good care and treatment. The results also revealed an increase in the barriers patients faced in getting an appointment in the first place, with 55.4% who needed one in the last 12 months saying they had avoided making one – an increase of 13.1% since the last survey. The most common reason given was that they found it too difficult, cited by 26.5% of respondents, and a huge increase on last year's figure of 11.1%. Commenting on the results, Beccy Baird, senior fellow at The King's Fund said: "For many of us, general practice is the front door to the NHS – these results show that patients are finding that door increasingly hard to push open. "GPs are working harder than ever before, yet these findings show a dramatic fall in patients' experience of getting an appointment." She said recruitment of GPs, nurses, and other professionals to meet rising levels of need was proving tough "because in many cases those staff simply don’t exist". Read full story Source: Medscape, 14 July 2022
  2. Content Article
    The GP Patient Survey (GPPS) is an England-wide survey of patients aged 16+. It provides GP practice-level data about patients’ experiences of general practice.
  3. News Article
    Ambulance services are under intense pressure, with record numbers of callouts and the most urgent, category-one, calls last month. BBC Two's Newsnight programme spent from 08:00 to 20:00 on Monday at six hospitals with the longest delays handing patients over from paramedics to accident and emergency staff. This should take 15 minutes or less - but crews often wait many hours and sometimes whole 12-hour shifts, with ambulances queuing outside unable to respond to other emergency calls. At Royal Cornwall, 25 ambulances were queuing by the afternoon, three for at least 10-and-a-half hours, at Derriford, in Plymouth, 20 were queuing up to 11 hours in an overflow car park and the longest wait at Heartlands was more than five hours. "We're right on the fringe of collapse right now," a paramedic who has worked in emergency care for more than a decade said. "People are phoning and being told that they're not going to get an ambulance for six or nine hours. And that's happening routinely - that is happening pretty much every shift." "It would be wrong to say that there are times when I haven't shed a tear... for the people we haven't been able to help because it's been too late," the paramedic said. "They may have died anyway but there are definitely cases that I've been to where we should have been to them sooner and less harm would have come to them." Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 July 2022
  4. News Article
    More men are dying from melanoma skin cancer than women in the UK, Cancer Research UK is warning as the country's heatwave continues. Rates of the cancer, which can develop in sun-damaged skin, have been rising in both men and women in recent years. Late diagnosis may be part of the reason why men are faring worse. Melanoma is treatable if it is diagnosed early - the charity is urging people to take care in the sun and get any unusual skin changes checked. Melanoma death rates have improved for women in the last 10 years, but not for men. Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research, says the figures "drive home the importance of sun safety". "We all need to take steps to protect ourselves from the sun's harmful UV rays. Getting sunburnt just once every two years can triple your risk of skin cancer," she adds. Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 July 2022
  5. News Article
    Being in a productive and supportive work environment is linked to better mental health. However, those experiencing mental health problems are often either excluded from the workplace or not supported appropriately when in work, according to new guidance from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. As many as one in six people of working age are diagnosed with a mental health condition. Mental health problems are a leading cause of absence from work, but ‘good’ work can improve overall wellbeing. This is achieved by improving self-esteem, feeling useful, building a routine, and importantly, avoiding poverty, which adversely impacts health in many ways. ‘Good’ work should offer standard benefits such as job security, an appropriate wage, positive work/life balance, and opportunities for career progression as well as supportive mental health and wellbeing policies. These practices should support employees with existing mental health disorders while minimising the risk of developing issues with mental health and well-being. This includes flexible working policies, use of appropriate reasonable adjustments to help people maintain employment and access to counselling and support services as needed. The Royal College of Psychiatrists is calling for better support for people with mental health problems to find, return to, and remain in good work, and for employers and Government to recognise the valuable contribution these people make to the workforce. Dr Adrian James, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “We all need to do more if the workplace is to consistently play a positive role in a person’s mental health and wellbeing. We know that issues such as insecure work and unemployment can have a disproportionate impact on the wellbeing of people with mental health conditions. “Psychiatrists and occupational therapists can play a key role between employers and patients, ensuring staying in good work is seen as an important outcome of treatment. We must put in place better support for people with mental health problems to find, return to, and remain in good work and for employers and Government to recognise the valuable contribution these people make to the workforce.” Read press release Source: Royal College of Psychiatrists, 14 July 2022
  6. Content Article
    Many people don’t receive enough support both to find and stay in work when experiencing mental health difficulties. The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) have launched a new occupational mental health guidance with recommendations for the government, NHS, and psychiatrists. The guidelines highlight the crucial, positive role that ‘good work’ can have on an individual’s mental health, and how poor experience of work both risks exacerbating pre-existing poor mental health and/or contributing to the emergence of a mental health condition. It provides advice and recommendations to the key organisations and individuals who have a role in ensuring work makes a positive impact on mental health.
  7. News Article
    Women working in healthcare earn on average 24% less than their male peers and face a larger gender pay gap than in other economic sectors, a joint report by the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization has found. The analysis, which looked at data from 54 countries across all geographic and income regions, found a raw gender pay gap of around 20%, which jumped to 24% when factors such as age, education, and working time were considered. Gender pay gaps also tended to be wider in higher pay categories, where men were over-represented, while women were over-represented in the lower pay categories. The authors said the findings highlighted that women, who accounted for 67% of the global health and care workforce in 2020, were underpaid and undervalued. Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 13 July 2022
  8. News Article
    A health minister incorrectly told the Commons yesterday “we have procured a contract” for surge support for ambulance services, despite the contract not having been awarded yet, HSJ has learned. There are also doubts about two other points made by health minister Maria Caulfield in Parliament yesterday in a debate about the current high pressure on ambulance services. She said: “We have procured a contract with a total value of £30m for an auxiliary ambulance service, which will provide national surge capacity if needed to support the ambulance response during periods of increased pressure. That capacity is there, should we need it.” However, NHS England, which advertised the contract in May, confirmed to HSJ today that it “is yet to be awarded”. Ms Caulfield was responding to an urgent question from Labour shadow health and social care secretary Wes Streeting about pressure on ambulance services and the heatwave. HSJ reported on Tuesday that all 10 major ambulance services in England were on the highest level of alert. Read full story (paywalled) Source: 14 July 2022
  9. Content Article
    COVID-19 is more likely to lead to Long COVID among persons of working age. In this paper, Darja Reuschke  and Donald Houston outline the first estimates of the impact of Long Covid on employment in the UK. Using estimates of cumulative prevalence of Long Covid, activity-limiting Long COVID in the working-age population and of economic inactivity and job loss resulting from Long COVID, they provide evidence of the profound impact of Long COVID on national labour supply. Since the start of the pandemic, cumulatively 2.9 million people of working age (7% of the total) in the UK have had, or still have, Long ovid. This figure will continue to rise due to very high infection rates in the Omicron wave. Since the beginning of the pandemic, economic inactivity due to long-term sickness has risen by 120,900 among the working-age population, fuelling the UK’s current labour shortage. An estimated 80,000 people have left employment due to Long COVID. The authors argue that governments need to tackle the twin challenges to public health and labour supply and provide employment protection and financial support for individuals and firms affected by Long COVID.
  10. Content Article
    An analysis of data from nearly 154 000 US veterans with SARS-CoV-2 infection provides a grim preliminary answer to the question: What are COVID-19’s long-term cardiovascular outcomes? The study, published in Nature Medicine by researchers at the Veterans Affairs (VA) St Louis Health Care System, found that in the year after recovering from the illness’s acute phase, patients had increased risks of an array of cardiovascular problems, including abnormal heart rhythms, heart muscle inflammation, blood clots, strokes, myocardial infarction, and heart failure. What’s more, the heightened risks were evident even among those who weren’t hospitalised with acute COVID-19.
  11. News Article
    A jury ordered Becton, Dickinson and Co to pay $255,000 to a man who sued the company, alleging he had been injured by its hernia repair surgical mesh, according to a court filing. The verdict in Columbus, Ohio federal court comes in the second bellwether trial in a multidistrict litigation over the company's hernia mesh products, which were sold by C.R. Bard Inc before its 2017 acquisition by Becton Dickinson. The first bellwether trial last year ended with a verdict in favour of the company. More than 16,000 cases have been consolidated before Chief U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus in Columbus, in the third-largest pending MDL nationwide. Plaintiffs claim that the mesh products caused infections, pain, inflammation and other problems. The verdict came in a case brought by Antonio Milanesi, who had Bard's Ventralex mesh implanted during a hernia repair in 2007, and his wife, Alicia Morz De Milanesi. They claimed that Milanesi developed an infection and bowel abscess because of the mesh, requiring a second surgery in 2017. Like other plaintiffs in the MDL, the Milanesis say the mesh products are defectively designed because their polypropylene material degrades when in implanted in human tissue. Read full story Source: Reuters, 16 April 2022
  12. Content Article
    In two videos, Mark Fewster, Head of Product and Innovation at Radar Healthcare, talks to Marcos Manhaes, NHS Improvement, and Paul Ewers, Milton Keynes University Hospitals NHS Trust, about the journey from the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) to Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) and the future benefits the NHS could see.
  13. Content Article
    “A real nightmare, vindictive, arrogant, a bully, hostile to the NHS and all its works, a micro-manager of the wrong things, views NHS management as bloated and profligate.” As this amalgam of quotes from senior NHS leaders makes clear, never has a politician arrived in the post of health secretary (or health and social care secretary) trailing a worse reputation than Steve Barclay.
  14. Content Article
    This consensus statement is founded on the policies articulated in numerous global and regional resolutions and decisions on patient safety adopted by governing bodies of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organisations. It is based on the proceedings of the WHO Policy Makers’ Forum, highlighting the central and specific role of policy-makers and healthcare leaders in implementation of the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 at all levels in all countries. Approximately 310 participants from around 90 countries across the world – including senior policy-makers, healthcare leaders, patient safety experts at national, subnational, regional, organisational and healthcare facility levels, patient safety advocates, and representatives of key international organisations – met (virtually) on 23–24 February 2022 to participate in the Policy Makers’ Forum organised by the Patient Safety Flagship unit, WHO headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland.
  15. Event
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    Middle East’s leading patient safety event focused on improving patient care. With the aim to change the face of patient care, Patient Safety 2022 is back with a robust list of products and exhibitors that will bring exceptional innovations to the table. Register
  16. News Article
    More than a quarter of nursing staff in hospitals across the UK say patient care is being compromised due to treatment taking place in the wrong setting. Investment in the nursing workforce is needed now, the Royal College of Nursing insists, as survey findings show clinical care is taking place in settings such as hospital corridors and waiting rooms rather than on wards. The poll of more than 20,000 nursing and midwifery staff found the situation is worst in emergency care settings where nearly two-thirds of respondents reported the problem. Elsewhere, more than a quarter of nursing staff who responded say patients are being treated in the wrong setting, meaning their care is being compromised and even made unsafe. Staff shortages are a key factor, and across health and social care settings this is causing delays to patients being discharged into the community. This leaves hospitals full, with emergency care staff having to provide care in inappropriate settings. One specific issue identified by respondents was extra beds being added to wards, making carrying out care more difficult, and leading to a lack of privacy for patients and their families. A nurse who works on an NHS adult acute ward in Scotland said patients and their relatives had complained about an extra bed being squeezed into a four-bedded bay, meaning they had no buzzer, no curtains and were not two-metre distanced. She added: “I feel incredibly frustrated and embarrassed. It is totally inappropriate for ward rounds, nursing procedures, COVID precautions and an extra stress on staff.” Read full story Source: Royal College of Nursing, 14 July 2022
  17. News Article
    NHS England’s director of community health has said a new strategy for rehabilitation care is needed, because present coverage is sometimes ‘bizarre’, with other services ‘masquerading’ as rehab. Matthew Winn, who is also Cambridgeshire Community Services Trust CEO and senior responsible officer of the “ageing well” programme in the NHS long-term plan, made the comments in a webinar for local senior clinicians and managers in the sector. He said there was an intention to roll out a national “intermediate care strategy”, describing it as “the essence” of providing rehabilitation and helping hospital patients to “optimise, to recover, to rehab through a skilled multiprofessional team”. They would leave hospital in a “timely pathway” and not need as much social care support afterwards. It comes amid huge pressure to speed up hospital discharge, which often relies on rehab services. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 14 July 2022
  18. News Article
    A cross-party group of MPs and peers have written to the health secretary requesting an “urgent” meeting to discuss “unregulated” and “untested” treatments that are being offered to Long Covid patients in the UK. It comes after The Independent uncovered a wide range of unproven and “dangerous” therapies being touted to patients, few of which have been approved for use in the NHS – or rigorously tested – for alleviating persistent coronavirus symptoms. Patients with Long Covid are also travelling abroad to clinics in Europe to receive treatments such as “blood washing”, often at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds, according to an ITV and BMJ investigation. In a letter to health secretary Steve Barclay, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus expressed concern that patients “desperately” awaiting treatment through the NHS are being exploited by private clinics, and urged the government to launch an investigation into the provision of unproven care. The group wrote: “It has come to the attention of the APPG that a number of unregulated long Covid clinics are operating in the UK, offering untested and unscientific treatments to people living with long Covid. “The evidence our parliamentary group has heard makes it clear that in some parts of the country the current NHS long Covid care pathways are unfit for purpose, with access to NHS long Covid clinics being described as a ‘postcode lottery’.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 July 2022
  19. News Article
    The NHS must be more welcoming to patients who often feel they should not bother doctors, the new patient safety commissioner for England has urged. Dr Henrietta Hughes, who takes up the role this week, said it was vital that patients had time to ask questions, despite pressures on the health service. Clinicians and managers need to put themselves in the shoes of their patients, she said, highlighting “highly inappropriate” interactions between doctors and patients that showed “a total lack of care and respect”. Hughes said it was not a surprise that all the groups affected in the Cumberlege report were women. “That’s something which is a societal problem, and it’s really important that the voices of all patients, including those of women, are listened to and taken really seriously,” she said. “Because otherwise untold harm happens and it can not only extend to the individual patient themselves, but to their families, to their children, to their livelihoods. This role is a real opportunity for championing patients’ voices, and also making sure those who are in charge who are able to make the changes, listen and respond appropriately." Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 14 July 2022
  20. Content Article
    Even before the pandemic struck, there was a shortage of nurses in the UK. In January 2020, a survey by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) found that almost three-quarters of nurses said the staffing level on their last shift was not sufficient to meet the needs of patients safely and effectively. Yet this month NHS England predicted that the government will not meet its manifesto pledge to boost the NHS’s nursing workforce by 50,000 by March 2024. The key reason? NHS workers are quitting in droves, citing burnout, fatigue and pay as factors. Filling these gaps are nurses from overseas. Recently released figures for 2021 and 2022 from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) show that record numbers of nurses trained overseas are coming to work in the UK – almost half of new registrations. The Guardian spoke to four of them about their experience working in the UK.
  21. Content Article
    Report from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives on national ambulance data.
  22. Event
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    Chairman Lord Ribeiro hosts the CORESS Annual Educational Symposium of 2022, with presentations from four guest speakers. CORESS (Confidential Reporting System in Surgery) promote surgical safety by publishing anonymised educational vignettes concerning near misses and adverse incidents. Reports have direct relevance to clinical practice and are compiled for surgeons by the surgical community. This session is for Consultant Surgeons, medics, students with a surgical healthcare background and those in healthcare and insurance sectors with an interest in surgical improvement and patient safety. Register
  23. Content Article
    This Quality Improvement Programme for Surgical Site Infections document was developed as an output of an advisory board meeting, convened by Mölnlycke. The meeting focused on developing a resource to aid healthcare professionals to deliver successful infection prevention programmes in their organisations. 
  24. Content Article
    Our health services face an unprecedented challenge in recovering from the pandemic and coping with ongoing waves of covid. With such demand for healthcare services from the general population and covid cases rising once more, some customers are bound to be angry or unhappy. But, as we recover from the pandemic, our handling of complaints must surely change, writes David Oliver in this BMJ article.
  25. Content Article
    This letter in the BMJ in 2004 from Richard Thomson highlights the difficulty of accurately quantifying patient safety incidents. Thomson writes that data relevant to patient safety should not be presented alone and out of context. He highlights what was the National Patient Safety Agency and the development of a national reporting and learning system to enable healthcare staff to report incidents anonymously.
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