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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    Across the UK, 850,000 people are living with dementia - and soon, if predictions are correct, there will be a million.
    Some of them, and their families, share their tips with BBC News for living with the condition, how to talk to people with dementia and how they have learned to adjust to their changing brains.
    Tommy Dunne, who has Alzheimer's disease, says: "If someone said to me, 'How would you communicate with a person with dementia?', I'd say the first thing you want to do is talk to the person, not the dementia. The second thing you want to do is get down to the person's level - if the person is sitting on the couch, don't stand over them and talk down, get down to the person's level, maintain eye contact. Speak in short sentences. Don't ask multiple questions at once - you know like, 'Who, what, why, where and when?' all in the one question - because we can't process that."
    Marion says: "[dementia]... affects my vision and my spatial awareness. I have yellow painted on the doorframes - and that helps me so I know where I am. Everything was painted white before - and if everything is white, for me, I don't know where the door stops and the wall starts. The colour yellow stands out very well."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News. 13 October 2021
    Read our hub interview with dementia leads at Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust on keeping patients with dementia safe.
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    A review of the work of a former locum consultant radiologist in the Northern Trust has identified major discrepancies in 66 images.
    The trust has concluded a review of 13,030 scans and x-rays. The review was launched in June after the General Medical Council raised concerns about the locum consultant radiologist's work.
    The highest level of hospital investigation will be carried out into the cases of 17 patients.
    More than 9,000 patients were contacted as part of the review.
    The review identified six images at level one - a major discrepancy where errors or omissions in reporting could have had an immediate and significant clinical impact for the patients concerned. A further 60 images were level two - a major discrepancy with a probable clinical impact.
    "Most of the images categorised as having Level 1 and Level 2 discrepancies are CT scans but some are MRI scans, chest x-rays and other x-rays," said the trust's medical director, Seamus O'Reilly.
    "That detailed clinical assessment, which has resulted in 69 patients being called back, was to determine whether any clinical harm occurred as a result of the discrepancies found in the lookback review," 
    "I can confirm that following careful consideration, the clinical assessment group has determined that 17 patients should now be part of a Level 3 Serious Adverse Incident (SAI) review."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 13 October 2021
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    The percentage of patients visiting A&E who are seen within four hours has hit a “terrifying” new low in Scotland, latest figures show, with ministers urged to “get a grip” on the growing crisis.
    The figure has been declining since the summer amid high demand, staffing shortages and a lack of patient flow through hospitals.
    In the week to 3 October, just 71.3% of patients were seen within four hours, a five percentage point drop on the previous week, according to a data published by Public Health Scotland. The figure is the lowest since records began in 2015, with the Scottish Government target set at 95%.
    With 25,000 visits to A&E in that week, it means more than 7,000 patients waited longer than four hours. Some 1,782 people waited more than eight hours, while a record 591 patients waited longer than 12 hours.
    Last week, Scotland’s Health Secretary, Humza Yousaf, warned that Scotland’s NHS faces an “incredibly difficult winter” despite announcing a £300 million funding boost.
    But opposition parties have now accused him of “overseeing a scandalous situation” and leaving A&E departments “beyond breaking point”.
    Read full story
    Source: The Scotsman, 12 October 2021
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    One quarter of women under 40 have never checked themselves for breast cancer – believing they are too young, or they don’t think it will affect them, or they are just too busy.
    And half of all women do not regularly check their breasts for signs of cancer.
    The study of 2,000 women found those aged 18 to 39 are the least likely to look for signs of cancer, with a tenth believing they are not old enough to suffer the illness. But a quarter admit they do not have the confidence to inspect themselves, while 1 in 10 put it off in case they find a lump.
    It also emerged women from South Asian backgrounds are the least likely to examine themselves compared to other ethnicities, with 40% admitting to never checking at all. This drops to 27% of black women and just 13% cent of those of other ethnicities.
    Of the South Asian women polled who don’t check themselves for signs of breast cancer, more than a third said they forget or don’t know what they are looking for. While more than 1 in 20 (7%) don’t feel comfortable checking themselves due to cultural reasons.
    Barriers to going to the doctor when noticing a lump or change in breasts vary – from not wanting to waste their doctor’s time, the fear of not being taken seriously, concerns that a female doctor won’t be available, and not wanting to know what caused the change.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 11 October 2021
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    Britain’s early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history, with ministers and scientists taking a “fatalistic” approach that exacerbated the death toll, a landmark inquiry has found.
    “Groupthink”, evidence of British exceptionalism and a deliberately “slow and gradualist” approach meant the UK fared “significantly worse” than other countries, according to the 151-page “Coronavirus: lessons learned to date” report led by two former Conservative ministers.
    The crisis exposed “major deficiencies in the machinery of government”, with public bodies unable to share vital information and scientific advice impaired by a lack of transparency, input from international experts and meaningful challenge.
    Despite being one of the first countries to develop a test for Covid in January 2020, the UK “squandered” its lead and “converted it into one of permanent crisis”. The consequences were profound, the report says. “For a country with a world-class expertise in data analysis, to face the biggest health crisis in 100 years with virtually no data to analyse was an almost unimaginable setback.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2021
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    A public inquiry into allegations of abuse of patients at Muckamore Abbey Hospital is under way.
    The hospital is run by the Belfast Health Trust and provides facilities for adults with special needs.
    With the terms of reference agreed, the inquiry panel will begin trying to establish what happened between residents and some members of staff, and also examine management's role.
    Seven people are facing prosecution. There have been more than 20 arrests.
    It was announced in June 2021 that the inquiry will be chaired by Tom Kark QC, who played a key role in the 2010 inquiry into avoidable deaths at Stafford Hospital in England.
    Speaking on Monday, Mr Kark said it was a "significant date for all those patients and families who have been affected by the issues under examination by the inquiry, many of whom have campaigned very hard to ensure this inquiry takes place".
    "I want to reassure you that a thorough and impartial investigation will be carried out by the Muckamore Abbey Hospital Inquiry," he added.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 12 October 2021
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    A cabinet minister has refused to apologise for the government’s handing of the COVID-19 pandemic despite a new report finding that errors cost “thousands of lives”.
    Cabinet Office minister Stephen Barclay defended the government’s decision making to Sky News, saying: “We followed, throughout, the scientific advice. We got the vaccine deployed extremely quickly, we protected our NHS from the surge of cases.”
    His comments come as family members who lost loved ones to COVID-19 described the MPs’ report as “laughable” for failing to take evidence from the bereaved.
    The COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group criticised the parliamentary report as being “more interested in political arguments about whether you can bring laptops to Cobra meetings that it is in the experiences of those who tragically lost” family members to COVID-19.
    When asked, for a second time, if he would apologise by presenter Kay Burley, Stephen Barclay replied: “Well no, we followed the scientific advice, we protected the NHS, we took the decisions based on the evidence before us.”
    He made these comments despite the report finding that the delayed decision to lock down in spring last year was one of the “most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 12 October 2021
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    An inquiry into allegations of abuse at Muckamore Abbey Hospital officially begins on Monday.
    The Co Antrim facility treats patients with severe learning difficulties and mental health problems.
    Allegations of abuse at Muckamore Abbey Hospital - which is run by the Belfast Trust and located on the outskirts of Antrim - first came to light in 2017.
    Police said they reviewed thousands of hours of CCTV footage as part of a major investigation.
    At present seven people are to be prosecuted and more than 20 have been arrested for a range of offences, including alleged ill-treatment and wilful neglect.
    The core objectives of the inquiry are "to examine the issue of abuse of patients at Muckamore Abbey Hospital (MAH), to determine why the abuse happened and the range of circumstances that allowed it to happen and ensure that such abuse does not occur again at MAH or any other institution providing similar services in Northern Ireland".
    Read full story
    Source: Belfast Telegraph, 11 October 2021
  9. Patient Safety Learning
    Pharmacists will be allowed to write prescriptions under plans reportedly being considered by England's Health Secretary Sajid Javid.
    Mr Javid last month vowed the Government will "do a lot more" to ensure GPs see more patients face-to-face following complaints from the public.
    The proposals would see more prescriptions provided through pharmacies and hospitals for routine illnesses to allow doctors more time to see patients in person, according to The Sunday Times.
    GPs will also reportedly be able to pass off bureaucratic processes such as providing supporting medical evidence to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) over a patient's fitness to drive.
    The plans are expected to include sanctions for doctors who do not increase the number of face-to-face appointments with patients, the paper added.
    Read full story
    Source: 11 October 2021, Medscape
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    Ministers are being warned of a mounting workforce crisis in England’s hospitals as they struggle to recruit staff for tens of thousands of nursing vacancies, with one in five nursing posts on some wards now unfilled.
    Hospital leaders say the nursing shortfall has been worsened by a collapse in the numbers of recruits from Europe, including Spain and Italy.
    The most recent NHS figures reveal there are about 39,000 vacancies for registered nurses in England, with one in 10 nursing posts unfilled on acute wards in London and one in five nursing posts empty on mental health wards in the south-east.
    Thousands of nursing shifts each week cannot be filled because of staff shortages, according to hospital safe staffing reports seen by the Observer.
    Patricia Marquis, England director for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: “There just aren’t enough staff to deliver the care that is needed, and we now have a nursing workforce crisis. We should never have got into a position where we were so dependent on international nurses. We are on a knife-edge.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 9 October 2021
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    Unvaccinated pregnant women accounted for nearly a fifth of the most severely ill coronavirus patients in England in recent months, according to health officials.
    Between July and September, 17% of COVID-19 patients who required a special lung bypass machine while in intensive care were mothers-to-be who had not received their first vaccine dose, NHS England said.
    Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used when a patient’s lungs are so damaged by Covid-19 that a ventilator cannot maintain oxygen levels.
    While just six per cent of the women aged 16 to 49 who needed ECMO at the start of the pandemic were pregnant, nearly a third of women among that age group who required the lung bypass in recent months were unvaccinated mothers-to-be.
    The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) called the statistics a “damning indictment of the lack of attention given to this vulnerable group as restrictions have eased”.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 11 October 2021
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    England’s richest people are living for a decade longer than the poorest, and the life expectancy gap between them has widened to “a growing chasm”, research has revealed.
    The difference in expected lifespan between some of the wealthiest and poorest areas has more than doubled since the early 2000s, an analysis of official data by the King’s Fund shows.
    “There is a growing chasm in health inequalities revealed by the data,” said Veena Raleigh, a fellow at the thinktank who specialises in the stark differentials in rich and poor people’s health.
    “Our analysis shows that life expectancy has continued to increase in wealthier areas but has virtually stagnated in deprived areas in the north with the result that the gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest parts of the country has grown by almost two-and-a-half years over the last two decades.”
    The analysis underlines the scale of the challenge facing the health secretary, Sajid Javid, who in a recent keynote speech in Blackpool on “levelling-up” in health, pledged to tackle “the disease of disparity” – dramatic differences in outcomes based on geography, ethnicity and income.R

    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2021
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    Plans to force the NHS to share confidential data with police across England are “very problematic” and could see patients giving false information to GPs, the government’s data watchdog has warned.
    In her first interview, Dr Nicola Byrne, the national data guardian for England told The Independent she has serious concerns over Home Office plans to impose a responsibility on the NHS to share patient data with police which she said “sets aside” the duty of confidentiality for clinicians.
    She also warned that emergency powers brought in to allow the sharing of data to help tackle the spread of Covid-19 could not run on indefinitely after they were extended to March 2022.
    She also told The Independent she had raised concerns with the government over clauses in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which is going through the House of Lords later this month. The legislation could impose NHS bodies to disclose private patient data to police to prevent serious violence and crucially sets aside a duty of confidentiality on clinicians collecting information when providing care.
    Dr Byrne said doing so could “erode trust and confidence, and deter people from sharing information and even from presenting for clinical care”.
    She added that it was not clear what exact information would be covered by the bill: “The case isn’t made why as to why that is necessary. These things need to be debated openly and in public.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 10 October 2021
  14. Patient Safety Learning
    The World Health Organization’s (WHO) new Mental Health Atlas paints a disappointing picture of a worldwide failure to provide people with the mental health services they need, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting a growing need for mental health support.
    The latest edition of the Atlas, which includes data from 171 countries, provides a clear indication that the increased attention given to mental health in recent years has yet to result in a scale-up of quality mental services that is aligned with needs. 
    Issued every three years, the Atlas is a compilation of data provided by countries around the world on mental health policies, legislation, financing, human resources, availability and utilization of services and data collection systems. It is also the mechanism for monitoring progress towards meeting the targets in WHO’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan.
    “It is extremely concerning that, despite the evident and increasing need for mental health services, which has become even more acute during the COVID-19 pandemic, good intentions are not being met with investment,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. “We must heed and act on this wake-up call and dramatically accelerate the scale-up of investment in mental health, because there is no health without mental health.”
    Read full story
    Source: WHO, 8 October 2021
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    Between April 2020 and March 2021 there were approximately 185,000 ambulance handovers to emergency departments throughout Wales. However, less than half of them (79,500) occurred within the target time of 15 minutes.
    During that period there were also 32,699 incidents recorded where handover delays were in excess of 60 minutes, with almost half (16,405) involving patients over the age of 65 who are more likely to be vulnerable and at risk of unnecessary harm.
    Data published by the Welsh Government highlighted that in December 2020 alone, a total of 11,542 hours were lost by the ambulance service due to handover delays. This figure has been rising sharply and has now reached pre-pandemic levels once again.
    Inspectors said these delays have consistently led to multiple ambulances waiting outside A&E departments for excessive amounts of time, unable to respond to emergencies within their communities.
    "These delays have serious implications on the ability of the service to provide timely responses to patients requiring urgent and life-threatening care," the report stated.
    Read full story
    Source: Wales Online, 7 October 2021
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    The costs of clinical negligence cases have been falling for the past two years, according to the last two NHS Resolution annual reports, and we need an open debate about the true facts regarding this litigation.
    Specialist lawyers and their experience of dealing with an array of claims have something valuable to add to the debate around the failures of patient-safety learning across the whole of the health service.
    The problem is that claims are not seen for the learning opportunities that they present. In addition, assessment of lessons regarding safety is disjointed across the NHS into numerous separate trusts.
    That is why specialist claimant legal firms in this field have come together to use their experience of litigation to propose a beneficial scheme.
    Fixation on costs could backfire as specialist law firms may leave the field, says Paul Rumley, chairman of the Society of Clinical Injury Lawyers and a partner at the law firm Royds Withy King. "It is better for the government and MPs to look at our scheme and continue with the success of current collaboration, while assessing wider structural reform of the NHS to deliver more co-ordinated lessons around patient safety."
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 7 October 2021
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    One in 10 posts for consultant psychiatrists in England are vacant with growing waiting times for people needing mental health treatment, experts have warned.
    A census of the current situations across England by the Royal College of Psychiatrists has found there is just one psychiatrist for every 12,567 people in England.
    Health service bosses at NHS England have acknowledged there are an estimated 1.5 million people who are waiting for mental health support amid fears the situation will worsen as the effects of the Covid pandemic become clear. This is on top of the 5.6 million patients waiting for routine operations and treatments for physical illness.
    The Royal College said there was a shortage of 568 empty consultant posts in the NHS out of a total of 5,367 which it said meant patients would have to wait longer for treatment. In total there are 4,500 full time consultants working in the NHS.
    The highest rates of unfilled positions are in the fields of addiction, eating disorders and child and adolescent psychiatry.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 6 October 2021
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    An inquest into the death of a London bus driver at London’s Nightingale Hospital during the first wave of coronavirus has heard evidence about equipment mistakes which may have harmed patients.
    Kishorkumar Patel, aged 58, was one of the first patients to be admitted to the field hospital at London’s Excel Conference Centre in April last year.
    An inquest at East London Coroner’s Court was told doctors and nurses were forced to work “leanly” because of limited staff and ventilators to help patients breathe.
    Mr Patel is one of 10 patients who had the wrong filter used on the ventilator machines which it is thought triggered a cardiac arrest in Mr Patel, a father of six.
    A serious incident report identified 10 patients were affected by the use of the wrong filter, with three said to have been harmed as a result. 
    Read coroner's report
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 6 October 2021
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    Children across much of Africa are to be vaccinated against malaria in a historic moment in the fight against the deadly disease.
    Malaria has been one of the biggest scourges on humanity for millennia and mostly kills babies and infants. Having a vaccine - after more than a century of trying - is among medicine's greatest achievements.
    The vaccine - called RTS,S - was proven effective six years ago.
    Now, after the success of pilot immunisation programmes in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, the World Health Organization says the vaccine should be rolled out across sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high malaria transmission.
    Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said it was "a historic moment".
    "The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control," he said. "[It] could save tens of thousands of young lives each year."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 6 October 2021
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    The abuse of staff at GP surgeries has "no place in the NHS", a healthcare boss has said, following complaints it has risen during the pandemic.
    Dr Joanne Watt, GP chairwoman of the Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said she understood patients' frustrations as surgeries battle with increased demand.
    But she said the reports of abuse were "extremely upsetting and demoralising".
    A receptionist told the BBC she had "never seen this level of abuse".
    Claire, who works at Harborough Field surgery in Rushden and has been employed by the NHS for 34 years, said staff were being verbally abused on a daily basis and it was "becoming the norm and it shouldn't be". "We work within the rules we're given. It's very upsetting, we've been reduced to tears," she said.
    The latest NHS staff survey found one in three staff claimed to have experienced at least one incident of bullying, harassment or abuse from service users, their relatives or other members of the public, in the year to March 2021.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 7 October 2021
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    A third of stillbirths at two south Wales hospitals could have been prevented with better care or treatment, an investigation has concluded.
    It emerged two years ago that more than 60 women suffered the heartbreak of a stillbirth at at the Royal Glamorgan, Llantrisant, and Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil, and that many of these were never reported or investigated.
    An independent panel set up by the Welsh Government to oversee improvements in these maternity units has now concluded that many of these babies could have been saved.
    It looked at whether the care provided to women and their babies between January 2016 and September 2018 fell below the standards expected. The failures were split into different levels of severity, known in the report as "modifiable factors".
    Their investigation looked at 63 stillbirths between January 1, 2016, and September 30, 2018, and discovered that 21 (33%) of them had at least one "major modifiable factor", meaning the stillbirth could potentially have been avoided.
    More than half (59%) of the 63 had at least one "minor modifiable factor" while in three-quarters (76%) of them "wider learning" was required. In only four of the 63 stillbirths the panel found no modifiable factors.
    The panel also discovered that "areas for learning" were identified in 59 of the 63 episodes of care reviewed.
    Read full story
    Source: Wales Online, 5 October 2021
    Read report
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    The government has launched a review of leadership in health and social care. The review will be led by former Vice Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Gordon Messenger, and will report back to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid, in early 2022.
    The Health and Social Care Leadership Review will look to improve processes and strengthen the leadership of health and social care in England. Working with the health and care systems, retired General Sir Gordon Messenger will have a team from DHSC and the NHS to support him led by Dame Linda Pollard, chair of Leeds Teaching Hospital.
    The review comes as the government invests a record £36 billion to put health and social care on a sustainable financial footing and deliver the biggest catch-up programme in NHS history. Any recommendations made as the review progresses will be considered carefully and could be rapidly implemented to make every penny of taxpayer’s money count.
    Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, said:
    "I am determined to make sure the NHS and social care delivers for the people of this country for years to come and leadership is so important to that mission.
    We are committed to providing the resources health and social care needs but that must come with change for the better.
    This review will shine a light on the outstanding leaders in health and social care to drive efficiency and innovation. It will help make sure individuals and families get the care and treatment they need, wherever they are in the country, as we build back better."
    Read full story
    Source: Department of Health and Social Care, 2 October 2021
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    A national tech chief has called for a ‘radical simplification’ of the way in which NHS patients can opt out of having their data shared.
    NHSX chief executive Matthew Gould today said the current system was “overly complicated” with “too many different opt out mechanisms” and it needs to be made “super simple” for the public.
    His comments come as NHSX, NHS Digital and the Department of Health and Social Care are working on the much-delayed and controversial GP data-sharing programme. The scheme was paused indefinitely this summer after backlash from GPs and campaigners.
    Speaking at the Healthcare Excellence Through Technology conference, Mr Gould said the NHS had a “rich history of misfiring” on getting the public’s trust for data-sharing projects, which included the recent furore around the paused General Practice Data for Planning and Research.
    He said: “Where we are at the moment is an overcomplicated overlap of too many different opt out mechanisms and we’re trying to work out how to radically simplify this."
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 28 September 2021
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    Smokers are 60%-80% more likely to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19 and also more likely to die from the disease, data suggests.
    A study, which pooled observational and genetic data on smoking and COVID-19 to strengthen the evidence base, contradicts research published at the start of the pandemic suggesting that smoking might help to protect against the virus. This was later retracted after it was discovered that some of the paper’s authors had financial links to the tobacco industry.
    Dr Ashley Clift at the University of Oxford and colleagues drew on GP health records, COVID-19 test results, hospital admissions data and death certificates to identify associations between smoking and Covid-19 severity from January to August 2020 in 421,469 participants of the UK Biobank study – all of whom had also previously had their genetic makeup analysed.
    Compared with those who had never smoked, current smokers were 80% more likely to be admitted to hospital and significantly more likely to die from Covid-19 if they became infected.
    Clift said: “Our results strongly suggest that smoking is related to your risk of getting severe Covid, and just as smoking affects your risk of heart disease, different cancers, and all those other conditions we know smoking is linked to, it appears that it’s the same for Covid. So now might be as good a time as any to quit cigarettes and quit smoking.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 28 September 2021
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    Logan Giesbrecht left his dream job as an emergency room nurse when the mental health strain of an understaffed department became unbearable, even before the pandemic's fourth wave hit and anti-vaccination protesters began gathering outside hospitals.
    “The biggest frustration, and what I'm taking home from work, was basically doing the job of more than one nurse,” said Giesbrecht, who feared low staffing levels would risk patient safety.
    He quit working at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, Canada, last April.
    Representatives for nurses around the country are calling on the federal government to come up with a national plan to attract and retain nurses during a “crisis” they say needed action long before the uptick in cases from the Delta variant.
    Statistics Canada released data this week from the second quarter of 2021 showing a steep rise in job vacancies for both registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses, which are part of a single category in its analysis.
    Those professions had the largest increase in vacancies of all occupations over a two-year period, up by 10,400 to 22,400 - a hike of nearly 86 per cent, the agency said, adding nearly half of the vacancies had been open for 90 days or more, compared with 24 days across all occupations.
    Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, said it's not uncommon for some registered nursing positions to be vacant for a couple of weeks, as workers switch jobs within a hospital or health region, but having vacancies unfilled for 90 days or longer is unsustainable.
    Read full story
    Source: CP24 News, 24 September 2021

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