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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    Greenpeace and obstetricians have questioned a scientific report warning pregnant women to consider alternatives to nitrous oxide as pain relief during childbirth because of the environmental impact of its emissions.
    A report in Australasian Anaesthesia notes that while nitrous oxide – known as laughing gas when used as an anaesthetic – is an effective method of pain relief during labour, the gas represents 7% of global emissions, according to the World Meteorological Organization. 
    Using nitrous oxide as pain relief during a four-hour labour creates a carbon footprint equivalent to driving an average car for 1,500km, the report’s authors found, whereas an epidural is equivalent to driving 6km.
    The report explores methods to capture and destroy waste from the nitrous oxide, and suggests that pregnant women consider alternatives, such as epidurals, as well as acupuncture, massaging and hypnobirthing to manage their pain during labour.
    “While it may be innocuous for the pregnant woman and unborn baby, that is certainly not the case for the environment,” the report states, noting its use should ultimately continue in some capacity due to its convenience and safety.
    A Greenpeace spokesperson said that the health sector accounts for about 7% of Australia’s emissions, and that while it was important for all industries to assess their climate impact, the focus should be on the worst polluters such as the energy sector.
    Associate Prof Gino Pecoraro, president of Australia’s National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said that while some pregnant women might be concerned about the environmental impact of their childbirth, alternative pain relief such as epidurals are not available at every hospital, especially outside of capital cities.
    He added that nitrous oxide can be a more attractive pain relief option as it doesn’t restrict walking or movement ability to the extent epidurals do.
    “If you’re in rip-roaring pain during labour, carbon footprint might not be the thing you most want to discuss,” Pecoraro said. 
    Pecoraro said that ultimately it was important to offer as many different options for pain relief during labour as possible, as different methods are effective for different women.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 31 May 2022
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    A struggling A&E told patients they had no beds in the hospital and would face waits of 13 hours, The Independent has learned.
    NHS staff at Harlow A&E, run by Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust, warned patients on Monday: “We’ve got 170 patients in the department, there are 90 patients waiting to be seen at the moment…our current wait time for a doctor is seven and half hours I will estimate by the time I go home in the morning at 8 ‘clock some of you will still be waiting because the waits will get up to 13 hours.
    “There are currently no beds in the trust we’re trying to make space if we can but if people are admitted there’s a chance they’ll stay in A&E overnight."
    “We will do our best to make you comfortable but please don’t expect you will be going direct to a ward because that might not happen.”
    The staff member asked relatives to leave as the department was so busy.
    Speaking with The Independent an emergency department consultant from the Midlands said they were “fed up”.
    He added: “It’s just so unfair on patients and staff. The best ones are burning out and wanting to leave. The only way to survive seems to be to stop caring/trying It’s just so unfair on patients and staff. The best ones are burning out and wanting to leave. The only way to survive seems to be to stop caring/trying.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 8 June 2022
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    A government review of health and care leadership has recommended a single set of ‘core leadership and management standards’ for NHS managers.
    The report by General Sir Gordon Messenger and Dame Linda Pollard calls for “consistent management standards delivered through accredited training”, according to a government statement this morning.
    The full document has yet to be published but the statement summarises the findings and says an “institutional inadequacy” has formed in the way leadership and management is trained and developed in the NHS.
    It says the report has produced seven recommendations, which have all been accepted in full by the health and social care secretary Sajid Javid, who said they must be taken forward “urgently”.
    Among them is a call for a more “effective and consistent” appraisal system to reduce variation in how performance is managed. This is after the review concluded a greater focus was needed on “how people have behaved [and] not just what they have achieved”.
    The recommendations do not include any registration system for NHS managers, despite calls from some over many years for more regulation of the roles, nor appear to include specific reform of the “fit and proper person” test, which has been discredited and under review.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 8 June 2022
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    Two years ago, it seemed that thousands of British women afflicted with crippling pain, ruined sex lives, shattered relationships and wrecked careers would finally get justice and practical redress.
    A government-commissioned report, following a campaign backed by Good Health, recognised that the plastic mesh tape surgeons had used to treat their incontinence and prolapse had caused some women catastrophic harm.
    How many women’s lives have been ruined by this mesh is unknown, but Baroness Cumberlege, who led the official review, estimated it to be ‘tens of thousands’.
    The use of the mesh for stress urinary incontinence was paused in July 2018 as recommended by the inquiry’s preliminary report — then the concluding report, in July 2020, said that this pause should continue until strict requirements on safety and recompense are met.
    These include the establishment of specialist centres to remove mesh from afflicted women, and financial compensation from government and mesh manufacturers for women affected, as well as the setting up of a database of victims to ascertain the numbers involved and their injuries.
    The final report also urged that the watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which had approved the use of mesh tape in the 1990s, should be reformed to improve its vigilance on such problems.
    Matt Hancock, then Health Secretary, apologised for the women’s pain. ‘We are going to look carefully at the recommendations,’ he told reporters in July 2020. ‘We need to take action.’
    But words can be cheap: a Good Health investigation has found none of the recommendations has been implemented properly and the use of mesh in women is continuing.
    Read full story
    Source: MailOnline, 6 June 2022
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    Patient safety campaigners have said ‘too many women’ are still not being offered a general anaesthetic for a diagnostic test because of staff shortages, leaving them in severe pain.
    A survey by the Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopies found around 240 women – which equates to 80 per cent of respondents – who had a hysteroscopy since the start of 2021 said they were not told they could have a general anaesthetic prior to the procedure.
    This suggests the situation has only improved marginally since 2019, when the campaign group first started collecting data. A spokeswoman from the campaign group called the pain being endured by women “barbaric” and said staffing shortages need to be addressed.
    Guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said all pain relief options, including general anaesthetic, should be discussed.
    Helen Hughes, chief executive of Patient Safety Learning, said: “We are hearing from too many women that they are not being given the full information about the procedure. It damages their trust and makes them worry about accessing future services.”
    She said: “It’s distressing that despite what we know, [the guidance] is not being implemented properly. Informed consent is essential for patient safety as well as a legal requirement.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 7 June 2022
    What is your experience of having a hysteroscopy? Share your experiences on the hub in our community forum.
    Further reading:
    House of Commons Debate - NHS Hysteroscopy Treatment Through the hysteroscope: Reflections of a gynaecologist Minister acknowledges patients’ concerns about painful hysteroscopies; but will action be taken? Improving hysteroscopy safety: Patient Safety Learning blog Outpatient hysteroscopy: RCOG patient leaflet
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    The U.S. is facing high levels of burnout among health care workers, which could lead to serious shortcomings in patient care, a new report from the U.S. Surgeon General has found.
    Burnout among health care workers was a serious problem even before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the stress caused by the ongoing pandemic has made things much worse, said Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.
    “The pandemic has accelerated the mental health and burnout crisis that is now affecting not only health workers, but the communities they serve,” Murthy said.
    “Already, Americans are feeling the impact of staffing shortages across the health system in hospitals, primary care clinics, and public health departments. As the burnout and mental health crisis among health workers worsens, this will affect the public’s ability to get routine preventive care, emergency care, and medical procedures. It will make it harder for our nation to ensure we are ready for the next public health emergency. Health disparities will worsen as those who have always been marginalized suffer more in a world where care is scarce. Costs will continue to rise.”
    The report calls for several steps to address the burdens on health care workers. These include:
    Protecting the health, safety, and well-being of all health workers by ensuring they have proper equipment, training, and are protected against workplace violence. Eliminating punitive policies for seeking mental health and substance abuse care. Reducing administrative and documentation burdens and improving health information technology and payment models. Prioritising health worker well-being on an organizational level—this includes providing competitive wages, paid sick and family leave, rest breaks, educational debt support, and other steps to ease the burden on health workers. Read full story
    Source: BenefitsPro, 6 June 2022
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    A GP surgery that provides treatment to about 5,600 patients has been placed in special measures by a regulator.
    London Street Surgery, in Reading, Berkshire, was found to have "significant backlogs of test results and care-related tasks".
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found there was "poor identification of risks to patients" during an inspection in April.
    The surgery has been approached for comment.
    The regulator rated the surgery's safety and leadership as inadequate, and said it had insufficient processes to ensure services' safety and effectiveness.
    Repeat prescriptions and medicines were "not managed safely", which could have posed risks to patients, and there were "risks associated" with the storage of blank prescriptions, it found.
    Staff training was "not monitored appropriately" and inspectors found patients with learning disabilities were not provided with health checks to make sure their wellbeing was properly monitored.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 7 June 2022
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    Patients in England can get early access to more cutting-edge medicines through a new fund.
    The Innovative Medicines Fund (IMF) works like the existing Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), fast-tracking promising treatments, even if they are expensive and have not yet been approved for routine NHS use.
    It will cover potentially life-saving drugs for rare and genetic diseases. The government has allocated up to £680m a year to be shared by the funds.
    The IMF, like the CDF, will mean a newly approved medicine could be prescribed immediately, before final recommendations on it are drawn up by the advisory body that weighs the cost versus benefit of drugs used by the NHS - an organisation called NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence).
    Patients would be able to access the treatment while data is collected for NICE to determine whether the medicine is affordable and effective enough to offer more widely.
    A similar fund for innovative treatments - the New Medicines Fund - already exists in Scotland. Wales has a New Treatments Fund that helps pay for high-cost drugs which have been recommended as cost-effective by NICE.
    Experts hope funds like these will improve the lives of many who might otherwise miss out.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 7 June 2022
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    Patients with long Covid are facing a postcode lottery across the UK when it comes to getting care, nurses say.
    The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said treatment varied hugely with some services treating it as a physical condition, but others as psychological.
    The union also highlighted long waits in parts of England, which has a network of specialist clinics. It warned that patients in Scotland and Wales may be missing out because of a lack of dedicated clinics.
    Speaking at the RCN's conference in Glasgow, nurses said they had seen first-hand how debilitating the symptoms could be.
    Nearly half of patients referred to specialist services are aged 35 to 54.
    Jo Strucke, a mental health nurse who works in a specialist service in Yorkshire, said: "Some of our patients have really complex physical health problems and their lives have been transformed.
    "They may be unable to work, socialise and do things they previously enjoyed."
    Helen Donovan, the RCN's public health lead, added: "As nursing staff we see first-hand how life-limiting long Covid can be."
    But she said: "There aren't enough specialist services to meet growing demand and the help patients get varies hugely across the country."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 7 June 2022
     
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    A public inquiry has opened into allegations of extensive and repeated abuse of patients at Muckamore Abbey, a hospital for vulnerable adults in Northern Ireland.
    The inquiry’s chair, Tom Kark, said at the first hearing on Monday that the allegations of abuse and neglect at the psychiatric facility outside Belfast, in County Antrim, brought the medical, nursing and care professions into disrepute.
    “Many of the parents and relatives and carers who trusted the hospital have been let down and they are understandably furious and some feel guilty,” he said. Kark, a QC, said a civilised society had a duty to care for people with learning disabilities and mental illness.
    Police have arrested 34 people and more than 70 staff have been suspended as a precaution since the alleged abuse came to light in 2017. The police investigation will proceed in parallel to the inquiry. Detectives have viewed about 300,000 hours of CCTV footage from the hospital.
    Relatives of patients hope the inquiry will shed light on accounts of mental and physical abuse and neglect at what used to be considered one of the best facilities of its kind in Northern Ireland. The hospital currently has about 60 patients, down from about 1,500 in the 1980s.
    “Without pre-determining any issues, it’s quite obvious that bad practices were allowed to persist at the hospital to the terrible detriment to a number of patients,” Kark told the inquiry.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 6 June 2022
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    A woman who suffered six miscarriages lost her seventh baby after doctors delayed her caesarean section, a report has found.
    Chyril Hutchinson was admitted to hospital in February 2021 with high blood pressure when she was 37 weeks pregnant with her daughter Ceniyah Cienna Carter, and was told by doctors at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust she would need a caesarean.
    But the procedure was delayed as a result of staffing pressures and because Ms Hutchinson’s blood pressure stabilised. She was then told she would have to wait another two weeks for it to be carried out.
    Given her previous miscarriages, Ms Hutchinson said she pleaded for her baby to be delivered earlier, but her concerns were “dismissed” and she was sent home. Days later, a scan revealed that her baby had died.
    A trust investigation into Ms Hutchinson’s care found that staff had failed to properly monitor the growth of her baby, which could have indicated the need for an earlier delivery.
    The internal report, seen by The Independent, also revealed that on the day Ms Hutchinson was told she should have a casaerean, the hospital was six midwives short and the department was busy - a situation the trust said “places additional pressures and possible overload on medical staff”.
    However, the report concluded that staffing levels did not affect Ms Hutchinson’s care, and it did not state whether the wider failings had led directly to her child being stillborn.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 5 June 2022
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    When a couple decides to try to have a child by in vitro fertilisation, it’s often accompanied by anticipation, anxiety and worry about whether the egg and sperm will unite and produce a healthy baby.
    So when the procedure to retrieve eggs from a woman’s ovary turns out to be physically painful, it can create long-term emotional pain as well, according to a lawsuit and two women who underwent the procedure at the Yale University Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Clinic.
    They are among dozens of women and spouses who are suing Yale University, claiming the staff at the clinic should have known that, instead of receiving fentanyl to relieve pain during the procedure, they instead were being injected with saline — salt water.
    “The result was that dozens, perhaps hundreds, of women underwent the most painful fertility surgeries and procedures offered at the REI Clinic with little or no analgesia,” the lawsuit states.
    Angela Cortese, 33, of Vernon, who first had her eggs retrieved on Dec. 3, 2019, said the pain was “excruciating” as a nurse wiped tears from her eyes and Cortese tried “not to flinch every time they’re using this giant needle to retrieve the follicles.”
    “I want to say it was probably around 45 minutes that I was very much aware of what exactly was happening and feeling every pinch and prod,” she said. “And it doesn’t feel like somebody’s just pinching you. It feels like somebody’s stabbing you through your vagina. It was horrific.”
    Read full story
    Source: ctpost, 31 May 2022
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    One million checks for cancer, heart and lung disease have been carried out at new diagnostic clinics in football stadiums and shopping centres, the NHS has reported.
    In the past year, 92 “one-stop shop” centres offering scans, x-rays and blood tests have been opened in an effort to tackle the Covid care backlog after NHS waiting lists in England soared to a record 6.4 million patients.
    The NHS said it will open a further 70 centres, which will operate seven days a week and allow patients to get symptoms checked “on their doorstep” following GP referrals.
    The centres are staffed by nurses and radiographers who can carry out a range of diagnostic tests, including cancer scans.
    This means patients can get multiple tests in one visit, rather than having to make several different trips to a hospital.
    Professor Charles Swanton, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK, said the rapid diagnostic clinics were improving access to lifesaving treatment.
    Speaking at the world’s largest cancer conference in Chicago, he said: “Individuals with red-flag cancer symptoms — blood in the stool, persistent cough — can bypass the bureaucratic and lengthy standard approaches to getting investigated in hospital.”
    However, Swanton warned that without action to address the “chronic shortage” of 110,000 NHS staff, the new centres risked “robbing Peter to pay Paul” by taking doctors and nurses away from hospitals.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 6 June 2022
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    Regulators have raised serious concerns over trainee doctors within the maternity department at one of the largest trusts in the country.
    The NHS’ training regulator said it had concerns over the treatment of trainee doctors within the obstetric and gynaecology department at University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust, while some medics report being in ‘meltdown’.
    Reviewers raised an incident where a consultant had refused to respond to an obstetric emergency in A&E which had been requested by a junior doctor.
    “The panel unanimously agreed that Consultant presence was required without delay,” the report added.
    The latest review follows concerns in November 2020 and June 2021 when patient safety issues were also identified.
    It warned there was a “real risk” trainees would soon become “hesitant and reluctant” to call for consultant support when need.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 5 June 2022
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    About half of all hospital doctors and nurses have had accidents or experienced near misses while driving home after a night shift.
    The risks they pose to themselves and other road users have been calculated as the same as those posed by drivers who are over the legal alcohol limit, delegates at a European medical conference were told last week.
    As a result, health experts have called for doctors and nurses to be allowed to take 20-minute power naps during night shifts. This would make their journeys home safer and would also help to protect patients from mistakes they might make through tiredness when administering drugs or other treatments.
    “When fatigue sets in, we in the medical and nursing team are less empathetic with patients and colleagues, vigilance becomes more variable, and logical reasoning is affected, making it hard for us to calculate, for example, the correct dose of drugs a patient might need,” consultant anaesthetist Nancy Redfern of Newcastle hospital said last week.
    “We find it hard to think flexibly, or to retain new information, which makes it difficult to manage quickly changing emergency situations. Our mood gets worse, so our teamwork suffers. Hence, everything that makes us and our patients safe is affected.”
    Research found that workers who drive home after a 12-hour shift are twice as likely to have a crash as those working eight-hour shifts.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 4 June 2022
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    Most nurses warn that staffing levels on their last shift were not sufficient to meet the needs of patients, with some now quitting their jobs, new research reveals.
    A survey of more than 20,000 frontline staff by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) suggested that only a quarter of shifts had the planned number of registered nurses on duty.
    The RCN said the findings shone a light on the impact of the UK’s nursing staff shortage, warning that nurses were being “driven out” of their profession.
    In her keynote address to the RCN’s annual congress in Glasgow, general secretary Pat Cullen will warn of nurses’ growing concerns over patient safety.
    Four out of five respondents said staffing levels on their last shift were not enough to meet all the needs and dependency of their patients.
    The findings also indicated that only a quarter of shifts had the planned number of registered nurses, a sharp fall from 42% in 2020 and 45% five years ago, said the RCN.
    Ms Cullen will say: “Our new report lays bare the state of health and care services across the UK.
    “It shows the shortages that force you to go even more than the extra mile and that, when the shortages are greatest, you are forced to leave patient care undone.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 6 June 2022
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    Black people are more than a third less likely than white people to be diagnosed with cancer via screening in England, according to the first study of its kind, prompting calls for targeted efforts to improve their levels of uptake.
    Screening programmes save lives by preventing cancer from occurring or spotting it earlier, when treatment is more likely to be effective.
    In England, screening for cervical cancer is offered to women aged 25 to 64, breast cancer screening is offered to women aged 50 to 70, and everyone aged 60 to 74 is offered a bowel cancer screening home test kit every two years.
    The latest research, however, lays bare stark disparities in screening diagnosis rates between different ethnic groups for the first time. The study of more than 240,000 cancer patients over a decade found that 8.61% of patients were diagnosed via screening.
    Broken down by ethnicity, the figure for white people was 8.27%, almost exactly the same as the national average, but among black people it was 5.11%. The findings suggests that black people are 38% less likely to be diagnosed via screening than white people.
    Diagnosis via screening in mixed-race patients was much higher at 9.49%, and higher still in Asian patients at 10.09%, almost double the rate for black patients. The results were published in the British Journal of Cancer.
    Jabeer Butt, the chief executive of the Race Equality Foundation, said the findings should prompt urgent action.
    “Cancer screening saves lives,” he said. “That’s why it is so important that effective outreach and culturally appropriate interventions are prioritised to reduce health inequalities.
    “We know that awareness of cancer symptoms is lower among minority ethnic groups, particularly black Africans, with higher reported barriers to seeking help. But we also know from previous research on colorectal cancer interventions that speaking to someone who explains the steps of the screening process ahead of time can lead to improvements in screening uptake in minority patients."
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 6 June 2022
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    A retired consultant gastroenterologist has been struck off the UK medical register for “wide ranging failings” in treating young transgender patients and in prescribing testosterone for men.
    Michael Webberley, who was charged with failing to provide good care to 24 patients, acted outside the limits of his expertise, a medical practitioners tribunal concluded.
    Through the private online clinic GenderGP, which he ran with his wife Helen, a GP, Webberley prescribed puberty blockers to a child of nine and cross sex hormones to a teenager who died by suicide a few months later.
    He faced charges over his care of seven transgender patients, and the tribunal found that he had provided treatment that was not clinically indicated or that had been prescribed without adequate tests, assessments, or examinations.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: BMJ, 30 May 2022
     
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    The number of patients stuck in hospitals despite being ‘medically fit’ to leave has continued to increase in recent months, leading to warnings from NHS Confederation that trusts are finding it ‘impossible’ to make progress on reducing the numbers.
    Official statistics for April suggest an average of 12,589 patients per day in NHS hospitals in England – 13% of all occupied beds – did not meet the “criteria to reside”. At 31 trusts, the proportion was 20% or more.
    NHS England has since told local leaders to make reducing the numbers of delayed discharges an operational priority. The issue is a key factor behind the long waits in emergency care, as ward beds are taking longer to become available to accident and emergency patients.
    Rory Deighton, acute lead at NHS Confederation, said targets to reduce delayed discharges “will not be met” unless the government “invests in domiciliary care wages,” amid high numbers of vacancies in the social care sector.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 1 June 2022
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    Many Ukraine refugees who were receiving regular care before leaving the country say they have not continued it since arriving in the UK, prompting warnings they have not been ‘empowered to seek support’.
    Data published by the Office for National Statistics earlier this month on the experiences of visa holders entering the UK under the Ukraine Humanitarian Schemes revealed 74 per cent of those surveyed who had been receiving regular treatment before they left Ukraine said this had stopped since arriving in the UK.
    Meanwhile, 65% of those who were receiving regular prescriptions for medications or drugs while in Ukraine had not accessed these since arriving in the UK.
    Refugee Council policy and research officer Kama Petruczenko warned refugees “are facing many barriers which are not currently being addressed”.
    Ms Petruczenko added: “As the ONS data shows, those who need to speak with health professionals are unable to because of the language barrier and it is very likely that many of the respondents who said they did not need medical assistance, are unable to understand how the UK health system works and are not empowered to seek support.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 1 June 2022
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    The East of England has been revealed as the worst-performing region for long ophthalmology waits, with almost half the waiting list at one acute trust already breaching the 52-week milestone.
    Eleven per cent of the region’s 59,000 ophthalmology patients had already been waiting more than a year for treatment at the end of February, compared to 6 per cent in London, the best performing region.
    West Suffolk Foundation Trust — which is in health and social care secretary Matt Hancock’s local constituency — had by far the biggest problem on this measure of any trust in England, with 42% of the waiting list (660 patients) referred for treatment more than a year ago.
    Papers submitted to West Suffolk FT’s board meeting in April said there were “limited option[s] for independent sector capacity” and patients were reluctant to travel to other hospitals for treatment.
    The trust did not respond when asked to comment.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 13 May 2021
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    Labour is demanding new investment for the NHS as part of the government’s spending review next week, after analysis shows hundreds of thousands of patients are waiting for life-changing operations.
    The party’s shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, will challenge Matt Hancock in Parliament on today over the latest NHS data, which reveal almost 500,000 patients are waiting for surgery on their hips, knees and other bones.
    Last week, NHS England published new data showing more than 1.7 million people were waiting longer than the NHS target of 18-weeks for treatment. The target was last met in February 2016.
    An analysis of NHS England data reveal which specialities have been hardest hit by the growing backlog of operations, which has soared since the first wave of coronavirus caused widespread hospital cancellations earlier this year.
    There were 4.3 million patients on NHS waiting lists for hospital treatments in September. Labour said this included 477,250 waiting for trauma and orthopaedic surgery, with 252,247 patients waiting over 18 weeks.
    The next worst specialty was ophthalmology, which treats eye disorders, with 444,828 patients on waiting lists, 233,425 of whom have waited more than 18 weeks.
    There were six figure waiting lists over 18 weeks for other specialties including gynaecology, urology, general surgery, and ear, nose and throat patients.
    Read full story
    Source: 17 November 2020
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    A major IT incident at an acute trust is disrupting treatment for eye patients after a significant data loss, it has emerged.
    Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals Trust chief executive Richard Beeken revealed to his trust’s board that a data loss incident in December had “impacted on staff and patient care” after disrupting 20 systems across the organisation.
    Recovery of the full data set for patients receiving treatment at the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre is still under way, and some have had operations postponed.
    Despite the incident, ophthalmologists are continuing to see the majority of patients, Mr Beeken said, telling HSJ: “[Numbers affected] are being kept to a minimum through the extraordinary efforts of the clinical team who are putting in extra hours to reassess each patient’s needs.”
    Scanning continues in the majority of cases and the trust is pressing on with recovery work for all historic images and patient contact details, though leaders believe the chances of 100% data recovery are “still slim”.
    No patient data was extracted during the incident and the information commissioner was made aware.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 10 January 2022
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    Healthcare leaders have been warned by nearly 200 doctors that plans to give more work to private hospitals will “drain” money and staff away from NHS services, leaving the most ill patients at risk.
    In a letter, seen by The Independent, almost 200 ophthalmologists urged NHS leaders to rethink plans to contact cataract services to private sector hospitals as it “drains money away from patient care into private pockets as well as poaching staff trained in the NHS.”
    The doctors have called for “urgent action” to stop a new contract from being released which would allow private sector hospitals to take over more cataract services.
    They raised concerns NHS ophthalmology services would fall into the same crisis at NHS dentistry which would have “blinding consequences” for patients.
    One of the lead authors of the letter told The Independent the plans would mean there are not enough NHS staff available to carry out more complex surgeries where patients are at risk of losing their eyesight.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 10 February 2022
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    Hundreds of people who had retinal implants to improve their sight face an uncertain future as the technology they rely on is now obsolete.
    Second Sight stopped making its Argus II bionic eyes several years ago to focus on a brain implant instead. According to IEEE Spectrum it is now hoping to merge with a biopharmaceutical firm which does not make eye implants.
    IEEE Spectrum reports that Second Sight actually discontinued its retinal implants - which effectively take the place of photoreceptors in the eye to create a form of artificial vision - in 2019.
    Patients contacted by IEEE Spectrum voiced concern.
    One, Ross Doerr, said Second Sight failed to contact any of its patients after its financial difficulties in 2020. "Those of us with this implant are figuratively and literally in the dark," he said.
    Another user, Jeroen Perk, had problems when his VPU system broke in November 2020. "I had no vision, no Argus, and no support from Second Sight," he said.
    Elizabeth M Renieris, professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame, in the US, described the development as a cautionary tale.
    She told the BBC: "This is a prime example of our increasing vulnerability in the face of high-tech, smart and connected devices which are proliferating in the healthcare and biomedical sectors."
    "These are not like off-the-shelf products or services that we can actually own or control. Instead we are dependent on software upgrades, proprietary methods and parts, and the commercial drivers and success or failure of for-profit ventures."
    Ethical considerations around such technology should in future include "autonomy, dignity, and accountability", she added.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 17 February 2022

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