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Patient Safety Learning

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Everything posted by Patient Safety Learning

  1. News Article
    Two years ago the first wave of the covid pandemic reached its peak. The NHS had reacted with impressive speed to prepare for an influx of patients with an infectious disease that few knew much about, had no cure for, and for which there was no known vaccine. However, now the NHS goes into the Easter break in a more fragile state than in any previous winter since, at least, the 1990s. This is not just the direct result of covid hospitalisation, of course – although the distracting narrative of ‘with rather than because of covid’ has obscured how hugely damaging any kind of infectious disease that is as widespread in the community as covid is now can be to effective hospital care. For someone who has just undergone an operation, for example, the greatest threat is not from catching covid itself, but from the impact the virus may have on how quickly their wound may heal. Perhaps covid’s greatest continuing impact is on growing staff absences and the pernicious impact it is having on the long-term health of those who had the disease – even in some cases where it has been relatively mild. For the tens of thousands who have been hospitalised with covid, the consequences for their long-term health look more serious every day. Much of this new workload is ending up at the doors of primary and community care – and displacing other needs and services just when they are most required after two years of coping with the pandemic. There is usually one thing you can confidently say about the NHS, which is that in any crisis it will make sure the life-saving decisions are made on time. However, in the South West, and probably other regions too, that is not happening. People are dying because the NHS cannot – despite its best efforts – save them. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 April 2022
  2. Content Article
    V60 and V60 Plus devices are designed for in-hospital use. They can be used to provide average volume assured pressure support (AVAPS), pressure-controlled ventilation (PCV), continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), and positive pressure ventilation (PPV) treatment to patients in critical care and high dependency unit (HDU) settings. The safety concern identified relates to a number of electrical faults in the devices, which can result in an unexpected shutdown, leading to loss of ventilation. There are two ways in which this shutdown can occur: The first will sound a warning to alert the user that the machine is shutting down. This will let the user know they need to switch to an alternative source of ventilation. There is a risk that the patient will be unventilated while this second source of ventilation is prepared. The second failure mode will cause the device to shut down with no warning alarm. If a ventilator fails in use and does not alarm, the patient will be unventilated until the clinician becomes aware and responds. If unnoticed by healthcare professionals, ventilation failure can have a severe health impact on patients. This can include hypoxia, which can result in long-term cognitive impairment to the patient. There is also a risk of death if a patient is without ventilation for a sustained period of time Philips has no permanent solution to correct this issue and as such we are issuing this alert to help hospitals manage the risk.
  3. Content Article
    For many people, improving their health and wellbeing requires a holistic approach and support by professionals who can help them focus on what matters to them to live well. Social prescribing supports people to understand their needs and connects them to local community (non-clinical) often voluntary services which can provide the help they need.
  4. Content Article
    The world’s third biggest economy seems to have emerged from the pandemic comparatively unscathed. Priyanka Borpujari speaks to health workers who survived the frontlines about how, and at what cost.
  5. Content Article
    Now that the national plan to tackle the elective backlog is public, thoughts will be turning to how to achieve the challenging task ahead. A week before the plan was published, the King's Fund held a roundtable, supported by Novartis, with local health care leaders to discuss just that. The overwhelming theme from this discussion was that effective communication within local systems will be essential to success. The national strategy has set out the ambition, but ultimately solutions will be implemented locally. Five relationships stood out as being vital. Local areas and their neighbours. Primary and secondary care. Leaders and their workforce. NHS and patients. Local systems and their data.
  6. News Article
    A nurse with no qualifications gave a care home resident a fatal dose of the wrong drug, leading to her death before she then tried to cover up her mistake. Katherine Hutchinson gave Fiona Jayne Thorne a fatal overdose of a powerful anti-psychotic drug, which was meant for another patient, an inquest heard. She then tried to cover up her errors which contributed to the death of the 36-year-old with learning difficulties, Derbyshire Live reported . Ms Hutchinson had, at the time, been the nurse in charge at Whitwell Park Care Home, in Whitwell, Derbyshire despite not having any qualifications. She gave Miss Thorne clozapine, which had been intended for another resident, on October 6, 2010. Instead of owning up to what she did, Ms Hutchinson then tried to cover up her mistake by taking Miss Thorne to bed and leaving her there until she was discovered, Senior Coroner Dr Robert Hunter said. Miss Thorne was "found by the care support worker around midnight, when undertaking routine checks on residents”, the inquest heard. And then Ms Hutchinson’s mistake was only discovered after an audit was carried out of the medication trolley and a dosage of clozapine was found. Read full story Source: Mirror, 8 April 2022
  7. News Article
    Emma Moore felt cornered. At a community health clinic in Portland, Oregon, USA, the 29-year-old nurse practitioner said she felt overwhelmed and undertrained. Coronavirus patients flooded the clinic for two years, and Moore struggled to keep up. Then the stakes became clear. On 25 March, about 2,400 miles away in a Tennessee courtroom, former nurse RaDonda Vaught was convicted of two felonies and facing eight years in prison for a fatal medication mistake. Like many nurses, Moore wondered if that could be her. She'd made medication errors before, although none so grievous. But what about the next one? In the pressure cooker of pandemic-era health care, another mistake felt inevitable. Four days after Vaught's verdict, Moore quit. She said Vaught's verdict contributed to her decision. "It's not worth the possibility or the likelihood that this will happen," Moore said, "if I'm in a situation where I'm set up to fail." In the wake of Vaught's trial ― an extremely rare case of a health care worker being criminally prosecuted for a medical error ― nurses and nursing organizations have condemned the verdict through tens of thousands of social media posts, shares, comments, and videos. They warn that the fallout will ripple through their profession, demoralizing and depleting the ranks of nurses already stretched thin by the pandemic. Ultimately, they say, it will worsen health care for all. Read full story Source: Kaiser Health News, 5 April 2022
  8. News Article
    The healthcare regulator has been branded “not fit for purpose” after dismissing warnings of the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history, The Telegraph can reveal. Letters seen by this newspaper show that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) told grieving parents it would not support an independent inquiry into baby deaths, just months before such an investigation was ordered. Rhiannon Davies wrote to the watchdog in Dec 2016, alerting the regulator to 19 avoidable deaths of mothers and babies at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, as well as a string of cases where lives were put at risk. However, the head of the CQC at the time assured Ms Davies that the culture was “changing for the positive”, rebuffing her calls for an independent inquiry. Ms Davies had provided the watchdog with details of a string of deaths, which she and fellow bereaved parents had found from publicly available information. The information was contained in a letter to Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary at the time, and shared with the regulator, setting out why families believed an inquiry was required. On Tuesday night, Ms Davies said that the refusal of the CQC to back an investigation, and the false assurances given by its most senior figure, showed how it “never scratched beneath the surface” despite death after death. Ms Davies said that she had “absolutely no faith” in its current ability to regulate and spot future scandals, saying it had “pushed back” every effort made by families to expose the failings at Shrewsbury. “They are not fit for purpose because we cannot trust them to be doing their job properly,” she told The Telegraph. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 5 April 2022
  9. News Article
    Dozens of families have written to the government expressing concern over a review into failing maternity units in Nottingham. A probe into Nottingham University Hospitals Trust is under way after dozens of babies died or were injured. But families say the review is "moving with the viscosity of treacle". They have called for Donna Ockenden, who led the inquiry into the UK's biggest maternity scandal, to take charge of a review. In a letter to Health Secretary Sajid Javid, a group of 100 people raised concerns with the current thematic review, which has been commissioned by the local clinical commissioning group (CCG) and NHS England, and NHS Improvement. According to the CCG, the review will look at themes and trends and put in "place detailed and measurable actions so improvements can be made fast". But families have questioned the independence of the review and the experience of the team to handle a probe of this magnitude. It is chaired by Cathy Purt, a long-time NHS manager who the families believe has no experience of running complex inquiries or maternity services. The letter states: "If families are to be safeguarded, real intervention is required." Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 April 2022
  10. News Article
    Tens of thousands of women in the UK may be experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after miscarriages each year, a leading researcher warns. Prof Tom Bourne estimates the number affected could run to 45,000 annually. But he says most are not given prompt psychological support that could help prevent PTSD developing. The Miscarriage Association says there is an urgent need for better access to talking and other psychological therapies for those affected. At present, most women have to ask for help themselves rather than support being in place. Prof Bourne believes there needs to be more research into other ways of helping people experiencing loss. His team is trying out a variety of new approaches - including virtual reality - to help address the issue. One idea his team is experimenting with is offering women virtual reality headsets during miscarriage procedures. It builds on previous work that shows VR headsets can help reduce pain during some medical procedures. Researcher Dr Nina Parker says the aim is "to transport them to sort of a more calm, virtual reality world for distraction from the pain and anxiety during the procedure". She adds: "There is nothing that we are ever going to be able to do that takes away from the loss and the trauma of losing pregnancy and having a miscarriage. "But if we can do everything that we can to minimise any additional trauma we might be adding to in the interactions that are had within the hospital, then we are obligated to do that." Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 April 2022
  11. News Article
    Health leaders ‘pay lip service’ to engaging with patients and "do not look like or live the lives of the people they are making decisions about", an NHS England director has said. Olivia Butterworth, NHSE’s deputy director of people and communities, told a public event hosted by the New Local think tank there is a “whole load of work” going on around reforming patient-reported outcome measures. But she said that “none” of this work “starts with conversations with people about what do they value and what they want to measure.” Asked whether NHS England’s top leadership is “paying lip service” to patient engagement, Ms Butterworth said: “I think often everybody pays lip service to it. We all use the right words. But whether it’s local government, whether it’s the NHS we know the words to use, but do we really live that in our actions in the way that we really like to change things? “Or do we just blame the system for being too complex and it is the system that won’t let us, without recognising that we are the system, we make the system, we run the system, the system is people.” Elsewhere in the session, Ms Butterworth said that “our decision makers do not look like or live the lives of the people they are making decisions about.” She added that health services need to “join up around people” and that integrated care systems and partnerships offer the opportunity to “cut the crap of the organisational boundaries that stopped us doing things”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 April 2022
  12. News Article
    A nurse has been suspended for three months by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) after forcing medication into a person with dementia's mouth. An NMC Fitness to Practise (FtP) panel found Reni Kirilova had forced medicine into the patient’s mouth, held her mouth closed and shouted ‘take your tablets’ while working at the Chocolate Quarter Care Home in Bristol, run by the St Monica Trust. Patient was reportedly distressed, waving her hands and shouting The incident occurred on 30 May 2019, seven days after Ms Kirilova began working at the care home on 23 May. She was suspended on 7 June pending a police investigation and she resigned the same day. One witness told the NMC hearing that they saw the nurse’s fingers go over the patient’s mouth for around 30 seconds while the patient was ‘flapping her hands’ and ‘trying to spit them out’. They added the patient was distressed and was ‘waving her hands everywhere’ and shouting ‘no, no, no’. Ms Kirilova denied the allegations and said that she had given the patient some water and then tilted the patient’s chin to help her swallow. The panel found that the allegation she held her hand over the patient’s mouth was not true but that she had held it closed in some way, after three witnesses corroborated this. The panel said they were not satisfied that she had considered how she would cope with stressful situations in the future and there was a risk it could happen again. Read full story Source: Nursing Standard, 7 April 2022
  13. News Article
    Long waiting times at Devon’s acute hospitals have forced commissioners to offer patients treatment 200 miles away in London in a bid to reduce the elective backlog. Devon Clinical Commissioning Group has secured extra capacity for patients requiring complex orthopaedic surgery under a new deal with the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre, located at Epsom General Hospital. The NHS-run orthopaedic centre is around 170 miles from Exeter in east Devon and 210 miles from Plymouth in west Devon. Many patients have declined to go, despite the CCG offering to cover their travel costs. It is the longest publicly reported distance patients are being sent for elective treatment in the NHS, with patients usually referred to neighbouring hospitals or integrated care systems if there is no capacity at their local provider. Nearly 1,500 patients in the Devon ICS have waited longer than two years for treatment. The latest national data for England showed nearly 23,000 patients had been waiting longer than two years in January. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 April 2022
  14. Content Article
    In August 2021, University Hospitals North Midlands Trust (UHNM) commissioned brap and Roger Kline to conduct a review of bullying and harassing behaviours across the Trust. The purpose of the review was to understand: the nature of bullying/harassment within the Trust (what types of behaviour are staff being subject to?) the basis of bullying/harassment (is poor treatment linked to people’s protected characteristics or other aspects of identity (such as language spoken) the scope of bullying behaviour (how frequently are staff subject to bullying behaviours and are they concentrated in particular sites, job roles, or bands? Are staff subject to bullying from patients/visitors or primarily from colleagues?) the response to any unprofessional behaviours (do people feel confident reporting or challenging poor behaviour? If not, why?) the conditions that allow bullying behaviours to continue (what aspects of organisational culture may be contributing to the persistence of bullying? Are stress, workloads, or poor management practice roots causes?) The review was prompted by anecdotal claims of inappropriate behaviour within some parts of the Trust. (The Trust has a range of mechanisms to monitor levels of bullying and harassment, including national and local surveys, reports from the Freedom to Speak Up Guardians, Dignity at Work reports, and staff listening events.) In addition, a survey conducted by BAPIO/LNC raised concerns about the treatment of doctors and how this intersected with issues around race. As such, this review sought to explore whether the treatment of Black and minority ethnic (BME) people was different to that of White British staff. 
  15. Content Article
    Early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that SARS-CoV-2 was not transmitted through the air. That mistake and the prolonged process of correcting it sowed confusion and raises questions about what will happen in the next pandemic. This Nature feature looks at the changing views of how Covid is spread.
  16. Event
    until
    This King's Fund event brings together health and care professionals, community organisations and others to explore the role of communities in health and wellbeing. While the Covid-19 pandemic created significant pressure for existing health and care services, it also provided a springboard for organisations to work more closely with communities to deliver innovative new programmes and projects that had an impact on health and wellbeing outcomes.    Topics: How can communities best connect with health and care services – and vice versa – to have an impact on outcomes?  How can communities build on existing assets to improve health and wellbeing for local people? Successful approaches to involving communities in the co-creation and co-design of services and activities. Improving the health, wellbeing and social welfare of communities through social prescribing and community referral.  Using asset-based community development models to create real change and impact. Register
  17. Event
    Through multidisciplinary lectures from expert speakers and lively panel discussions, this Royal Society of Medicine conference will look at the current cybersecurity threats facing health and care organisations and examine the progress made by healthcare institutions since 2017 in rising to the challenge of cybersecurity. We will focus on the issues facing the NHS today and the steps that NHS organisations should take to protect themselves. Attendees will learn how cybercriminals and hostile nation-states pose a threat to patient safety and trust. Delegates will hear from NHSX, NHS Digital and key organisations that combat cyber threats daily. They will also hear directly from experts in the field about the steps they are taking to help healthcare organisations to address their issues and concerns. During this event, you will: Current cybersecurity threats faced by healthcare organisations from both cybercriminals and hostile nations. Specific risks due to online working, increasing digitalisation and prevalence of connected medical devices and artificial intelligence (e.g. data provenance). Specific risks due to the use of medical and telehealth devices in the home and community. How the NHS is equipped to deal with current and future threats. Tools and approaches to protect organisations and devices from attack. Register
  18. Content Article
    This Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) investigation explores the care of patients who present to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) with questions about their gender identity and are referred to specialised gender dysphoria services. Gender dysphoria is a sense of unease, distress or discomfort that a person may have because of a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity. For example, a child who is registered as male at birth might feel or say that they are a girl, or feel that neither ‘boy’ nor ‘girl’ are the right word to describe how they feel about themselves. Gender dysphoria is not identified as a mental illness by the NHS, but some people may develop mental health problems because of gender dysphoria.
  19. News Article
    Senior medics have reacted in horror to NHS England’s decision to ‘dramatically’ cut the funding of a key long-term plan commitment designed to improve older people’s community services and deliver more care at home. British Geriatrics Society president Jennifer Burns told HSJ the professional body was “horrified” that the budget for the Ageing Well programme for 2022-23 would be £70m instead of the £204m originally promised in the long-term plan for the NHS. “We are dismayed that the promised funding for the Ageing Well programme as set out in the NHS long-term plan is being so dramatically cut at this time,” Dr Burns said. NHSE said: “The NHS is also investing an additional £200m in funding for virtual wards across the country by March 2023, delivering more care to patients safely in the comfort of their own home which will directly benefit older patients.” But Dr Burns said that although virtual wards would go “some way to helping with hospital admissions”, they were “no substitute” for the original commitments. “Older people suffered a devastating toll during the pandemic. Now is the time for systems to ensure the right services are in place and there is sustainable planning for the healthcare needs of an ageing population.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 7 April 2022
  20. News Article
    A patient was left traumatised when his body caught on fire halfway through surgery - leaving his insides scorched. Mark, 52, went to hospital for a routine abscess removal - but woke up to the news that a freak accident in theatre had sparked an horrific blaze. A diathermy machine, used to stop bleeding, caused a swab to catch fire - before flames burnt their way through his exposed flesh, Mark explained. It took over a year for Mark - not his real name - to recover from his dreadful injuries - and the emotional scarring it caused. Between 2008 and 2018, 37 cases were acknowledged by NHS trusts across Britain. But from 2009 to 2019, it has paid out nearly £14 million in compensation settlements and legal fees. Fires such as these are often fuelled by leaking oxygen - and are caused by faulty machinery or sparking equipment. Campaigners are concerned that UK hospitals are lagging behind other countries in recording surgical fires and introducing protocols to reduce both their frequency and severity. Theatre scrub nurse Kathy Nabbie has spent the past five years trying to make colleagues more aware of the threat of surgical fires. In 2017 - after hearing how a woman in Oregon, USA, had suffered severe burns when her face was set alight in surgery - she made a simple safety checklist. Her Fire Risk Assessment tool allowed colleagues to check for the presence of elements that together might cause a fire to break out. But senior staff failed to implement the initiative and - when a surgical fire actually took place three months later - Kathy learned that her laminated checklist had simply been put in a drawer. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “After that they did start using it, but why on earth should it have taken an actual fire to persuade them?” Read full story Source: The Sun, 7 April 2022 Further reading What can we do to improve safety in the theatre? Reflections from theatre nurse Kathy Nabbie How I raised awareness of fires in the operating theatre - Kathy Nabbie
  21. News Article
    NHS chiefs have issued an extraordinary plea for families to help them discharge loved ones even if they are Covid-19 positive as the health service faces a “perfect storm” fuelled by heavy demand, severe staff shortages and soaring Covid cases. Hospitals and ambulance services across England are under “enormous strain”, health leaders have warned, after NHS trusts covering millions of patients declared critical incidents or issued stark warnings to residents. Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, which represents the whole healthcare system, said the situation had become so serious that “all parts” of the health service were now becoming “weighed down”. This will have a “direct knock-on effect” on the ability of staff to tackle the care backlog, she added, as well as the current provision of urgent and emergency care. On Wednesday evening, the crisis became so acute in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight that its chief medical officer urged relatives of patients well enough to be discharged to collect them immediately – even if they were still testing positive for coronavirus. Dr Derek Sandeman, of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System, revealed that almost every hospital in the two counties was full, and said the number of people with Covid-19 being cared for in hospitals across the area was 650 – more than 2.5 times higher than in early January. He added that 2,800 staff working for local NHS organisations were off sick, half of which absences were due to Covid-19. “With staff sickness rates well above average, rising cases of Covid-19 and very high numbers of people needing treatment, we face a perfect storm – but there are some very specific ways in which people can help the frontline NHS and care teams,” said Sandeman. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 6 April 2022
  22. News Article
    Doctors at an acute trust believe their clinical leaders have failed to tackle the ‘big personalities’ accused of being aggressive bullies, a review has found. The probe at University Hospitals of North Midlands Trust was prompted by a survey carried out last year by the British Associations of Physicians of Indian Origin, after concerns were raised by its members. The review was undertaken by Birmingham-based equalities charity Brap, and Roger Kline, a research fellow at Middlesex University Business School. It found the trust was not an outlier in statistical measures of bullying and harassment, but suggested the situation was still worse than leaders would wish. They said: “The most common reason people cited for bullying/harassment they experienced was the personality, attitude, and disposition of their managers and colleagues… it is felt senior clinical leaders have, in the past, failed to tackle these ‘big personalities’. “It is worth noting feedback from interviews suggesting many doctors feel they have endured poor behaviour – talking over people during meetings, criticising work in public, aggressive questioning – for years, and have simply become inured to it. The reviewers found that as a consequence, certain people within the organisation were perceived to be “bullet proof”, and added: “We would suggest the trust needs a big, long-term plan to ‘rehumanise’ the organisation. “The trust’s existing culture has permitted, and continues to permit infringements in behaviour… While this is not condoned by senior leaders in the trust, the lack of a plan to proactively tackle a legacy of overlooking poor behaviours has allowed them to persist.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 6 April 2022
  23. News Article
    Press release: 7 April 2022 Today the charity Patient Safety Learning has published a new report, ‘Mind the implementation gap: The persistence of avoidable harm in the NHS'. The report is an evidence-based summary of the failures over decades to translate learning into action and safety improvement. It highlights that avoidable unsafe care kills and harms thousands of people each year in the UK and costs the NHS billions of pounds for additional treatment, support, and compensatory costs. The report highlights how we fail to learn lessons from incidents of unsafe care and are not taking the action needed to prevent harm recurring. The report focuses on six sources of patient safety insights and recommendations, ranging from inquiry reports into patient safety scandals, such as the recent Ockenden report into maternal and neonatal harm at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital, to the findings of Coroner’s Prevention of Future Deaths reports. It calls on the Government, parliamentarians, and NHS leaders to take action to address the underlying causes of avoidable harm in healthcare and proposes recommendations in each policy area. Patient Safety Learning is calling for system-wide action in healthcare to transform our approach to learning and safety improvement. Helen Hughes, Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning, said: “Today’s report highlights the all too frequent examples of where healthcare organisations fail to learn lessons from incidents of unsafe care and not taking the action needed to prevent future harm. Time and time again there is a lack of action and coordination in responding to recommendations, an absence of systems to share learning and a lack of commitment to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of safety recommendations.” “This is a shocking conclusion that is an affront to all those patients and families who have been assured that ‘lessons have been learned’ and ‘action will be taken to prevent future avoidable harm to others’. The healthcare system needs to understand and address the barriers for implementing recommendations, not just continually repeat them. Hope is not a strategy.” This report has been published as part of the Safety for All Campaign, which calls for improvements in, and between, patient and healthcare worker safety to prevent safety incidents and deliver better outcomes for all. The campaign is supported by Patient Safety Learning and the Safer Healthcare and Biosafety Network. Notes to editors: Patient Safety Learning is a charity and independent voice for improving patient safety. We harness the knowledge, insights, enthusiasm and commitment of health and social care organisations, professionals and patients for system-wide change and the reduction of avoidable harm. Safer Healthcare and Biosafety Network an independent forum focused on improving healthcare worker and patient safety and has been in existence more than 20 years. It is made up of clinicians, professional associations, trades unions and employers, manufacturers and government agencies with the shared objective to improve occupational health and safety and patient safety in healthcare. COVID-19 pandemic has provided a stark reminder of the vital role healthcare professionals play in providing care to those in our society who need it most and this was recognized in the WHO Patient Safety Day in September 2020: only when healthcare workers are safe can patients be safe. In 2020, the Network launched a campaign called ‘Safety for All’ to improve practice in, and between, patient and healthcare worker safety to prevent safety incidents and deliver better outcomes for all.
  24. News Article
    The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has recently detected higher than usual rates of liver inflammation (hepatitis) in children. Similar cases are being assessed in Scotland. Hepatitis is a condition that affects the liver and may occur for a number of reasons, including several viral infections common in children. However, in the cases under investigation the common viruses that cause hepatitis have not been detected. UKHSA is working swiftly with the NHS and public health colleagues across the UK to investigate the potential cause. In England, there are approximately 60 cases under investigation in children under 10. Dr Meera Chand, Director of Clinical and Emerging Infections, said: "Investigations for a wide range of potential causes are underway, including any possible links to infectious diseases. We are working with partners to raise awareness among healthcare professionals, so that any further children who may be affected can be identified early and the appropriate tests carried out. This will also help us to build a better picture of what may be causing the cases." "We are also reminding parents to be aware of the symptoms of jaundice – including skin with a yellow tinge which is most easily seen in the whites of the eyes – and to contact a healthcare professional if they have concerns." Read full story Source: UK Health Security Agency, 6 April 2022
  25. News Article
    More than a quarter of cancers in Northern Ireland are being diagnosed in hospital emergency departments, according to Cancer Research UK. The study, published in The Lancet Oncology, was supported by NI Cancer Registry at Queen's University Belfast. It looked at 857,068 cases diagnosed between 2012 and 2017 in six countries including Australia, Denmark and the UK. Clare Crossey, 35, from Lurgan was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in February 2018 after being admitted to hospital as an emergency. The 35-year-old mother-of-two, who is a domiciliary care assistant, suddenly became very unwell with symptoms including tiredness and bruising. She told BBC News NI she had contacted her local health centre, where a GP told her she was being overly anxious. Ms Crossey said she had panicked, fearing she may have leukaemia after looking up her symptoms on the internet. "I had a feeling that things weren't right," she said. "The doctor did not agree with my suspicions as they passed me the number of the Samaritans helpline, a prescription for beta blockers and told me to wait a week for blood tests." She said: "I went to Craigavon's A&E, they did blood tests and within hours a consultant broke the news to me that I might have leukaemia." The medical team told her that had she waited any longer to come to the emergency department, she could have died, said Ms Crossley. Barbara Roulston, from Cancer Research UK, said the study confirmed too many people were only being diagnosed with cancer once their health had deteriorated to a point when they needed to go to their emergency department. "We need to reduce the number of cancer diagnoses that are happening in this way," she said. "That means renewed focus on early diagnosis and prevention through things like better awareness of symptoms, better uptake of screening programs and the way to do that is to get funding for the cancer strategy which was published recently. "If we don't, the risk is that we will start to see cancer survival going backwards." Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 April 222
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