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Patient Safety Learning

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  1. Patient Safety Learning
    Many dread being invited for their cervical smear test - but Laurie Hodierne found it exhausting to have to keep asking for appointments, and trying to chase up the result.
    He is one of a number of transgender men who still have a cervix but are no longer registered as female at their GP surgery. Laurie was re-registered as male without requesting it, he says. And this means he could miss out on potentially life-saving cervical smear tests because he is not automatically called up for screenings.
    As a doctor, Laurie worries others who might be less able to navigate the health system will simply give up trying to get their smear test.
    "I understand how the systems work and the language - and despite all of that I find it exhausting," he says. "You keep coming up against a brick wall. It's a healthcare inequality in the sense that you aren't able to get access to the screening programme in the same way."
    NHS patients registered as female are invited to a cervical-cancer screening every three years between the ages of 25 and 50, and then every five years until they are 65.
    But anyone who has a cervix can develop cervical cancer. The disease often has no symptoms in its early stages and can be fatal.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 17 May 2021
  2. Patient Safety Learning
    A man who experiences regular mental health crises says an NHS scheme designed to offer support during emergency episodes has become broken.
    The trust running the service says a crisis team offers immediate support in an emergency, and a 24-hour helpline.
    But when Mark Doody, who has bipolar disorder, cried "down the phone, begging the team for help", he was told to call an ambulance, his wife said.
    The trust said a 999 call could sometimes be the appropriate action.
    Trish Doody cited a "dreadful" deterioration in mental healthcare where the couple lived in Redditch, Worcestershire.
    She said while her husband was able to get support if an emergency happened "between 9am and 5pm", assistance became difficult outside of those hours.
    Mr Doody said his condition meant he experienced a mental health crisis every three months. He has also made suicide attempts.
    Mental healthcare provision in the county had gone downhill over the last 20 years, Mrs Doody said, with her husband adding: "The system is just broken really."
    Healthwatch Worcestershire, which helps hold the NHS to account locally, said it was "exploring" whether there was a problem with the crisis helpline, and was also aware of delays for those seeking one-to-one counselling, which it said the trust was tackling.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 22 March 2022
  3. Patient Safety Learning
    A Dublin teenager has told of his harrowing battle with COVID-19 and is urging other young people to take the disease seriously.
    Jack Edge, 17, from Rathfarnham, had no underlying health conditions when he contracted the virus in April. Five months on and three hospital admissions later, the Leaving Cert student is still suffering from the "destruction" the virus wreaked on his body.
    Jack first displayed symptoms of COVID-19 on 15 April and five days later was admitted to Tallaght University Hospital. Within hours of being hospitalised, he was fighting for his life. Jack had to be put on a ventilator to help him breathe for 12 days. As his condition stabilised, he was transferred to a high dependency unit.
    Jack said: "I couldn't sleep for three days. Every time I closed my eyes, there was just dizziness and loads of colours. "I literally stayed in the bed for 72 hours, just staring at the wall. I had a lot of dark times in the hospital, since I do struggle with anxiety too."
    "But the care I received was absolutely amazing. They came in and talked to me if I needed to talk, as I would often get lonely, as it was mainly just me in an isolation room."
    However, surviving COVID-19 was just the first step for Jack. On 28 May, he was readmitted to hospital in excruciating pain. Doctors told him he may have suffered nerve damage associated with the virus.
    "I’m currently taking 18-20 tablets a day. Tablets for the nerve damage, for pain and for my anxiety. "
    "I basically have to learn to walk again. I do two to two-and-a-half hours of physio every day, depending on how much energy I have. I wake up some days and I get really upset. I still don’t know why this happened to me or how I got it."
    Jack hopes that by sharing his story he can raise awareness of the dangers and debilitating long-term effects of COVID-19 for young people.
    Read full story
    Source: RTE News, 2 October 2020
  4. Patient Safety Learning
    More than 200 families in south-east England will learn today the results of a major inquiry into the maternity care they received from a hospital trust. The investigation into East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust follows dogged campaigning by one determined bereaved grandfather.
    Derek Richford's grandson Harry died at East Kent Hospitals after his life support system was withdrawn.
    Sixty one-year-old Derek had never campaigned for anything in his life. His initial approach was to wait for East Kent Hospitals Trust to investigate the death, as it had promised.
    However, one nagging issue that was to become central to Derek's view of the trust, was the hospital's continual refusal to inform the coroner of Harry's death. The family repeatedly requested it, but the trust said it was unnecessary as it knew the cause, namely the removal of the life support system.
    The hospital also recorded Harry's death as "expected" - again because his life support system had been withdrawn. On both points, the family were left confused and increasingly angry.
    In early March 2018, some four months after Harry's death, the family finally received the outcome of the trust's internal investigation - known as the Root Cause Analysis (RCA). The RCA indicated multiple errors had been made in Harry and Sarah's care and treatment, and his death was "potentially avoidable".
    Prior to the meeting, Derek wrote to the Kent coroner's office outlining in general the circumstances of Harry's case, asking if that was the type they would expect to be notified of. The email response from the coroner's office was clear. It said: "Based on the facts you have presented, this death should have been reported to the coroner."
    Despite this, at the meeting with the trust, the lead investigator into Harry's death told the family: "If we have a clear cause of death by and large we do not involve the coroner."
    The family's insistence eventually paid off - five weeks after that meeting, the trust informed the coroner of Harry's death.
    While his son and daughter-in-law started trying to recover from the trauma of losing Harry, Derek turned his attention to investigating East Kent, one of the largest hospital trusts in England.
    "When I started investigating what was going on with Harry, it was very much like peeling back an onion. 'Hang on a minute, that can't be right, that doesn't add up.' Ever since I was a small kid, justice has been so important to me.
    "What I found was that, up to that point, no-one had ever joined the dots. And that's so important. I think this had to happen, someone had to do it. There will be families before us that wish they did it. We will be saving a level of families after us."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 19 October 2022
  5. Patient Safety Learning
    Frontline NHS staff are at risk of dying from Covid-19 after the protective gear requirements for health workers treating those infected were downgraded last week, doctors and nurses have warned.
    Hospital staff caring for the growing number of those seriously ill with the disease also fear that they could pass the infection on to other patients after catching it at work because of poor protection.
    Doctors who are dealing most closely with Covid-19 patients – A&E medics, anaesthetists and specialists in acute medicine and intensive care – are most worried.
    A doctor in an infectious diseases ward of a major UK hospital, who is treating patients with Covid-19, said: “I am terrified. I am seriously considering whether I can keep working as a doctor.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 16 March 2020
  6. Patient Safety Learning
    IT systems in the NHS are so outdated that staff have to log in to up to 15 different systems to do their jobs. Doctors can find themselves using different logins for everything from ordering x-rays and getting lab results to accessing A&E records and rotas.
    The government in England said it was looking to streamline the systems as part of an IT upgrade. Around £40 million is being set aside to help hospitals and clinics introduce single-system logins in the next year.
    Alder Hey in Liverpool is one of a number of hospitals which have already done this, and found it reduced time spent logging in from one minute 45 seconds to just 10 seconds. With almost 5,000 logins per day, it saved over 130 hours of staff time a day, to focus on patient care.
    Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was time to "get the basics right". "It is frankly ridiculous how much time our doctors and nurses waste logging on to multiple systems. Too often outdated technology slows down and frustrates staff."
    British Medical Association leader Dr Chaand Nagpaul said logging on to multiple systems did waste time. But he said on its own this move would not solve all the problems, pointing out that many of the IT systems themselves were "antiquated" and needed upgrading.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 4 January 2020
  7. Patient Safety Learning
    An inquiry into birth trauma has received more than 1,300 submissions from families.
    It is estimated that 30,000 women a year in the UK have suffered negative experiences during the delivery of their babies, while 1 in 20 develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
    The investigation is a cross-party initiative, led by MPs Theo Clarke and Rosie Duffield, in collaboration with the Birth Trauma Association.
    Ms Clarke the Conservative MP for Stafford, triggered the first ever parliamentary debate on the issue in October.
    In an emotional exchange in the House of Commons, she described her own experience following her daughter's birth at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in 2022.
    She bled heavily after suffering a tear and had to undergo two-hour surgery without general anaesthetic, due to an earlier epidural.
    The Birth Trauma Association, which is administering the inquiry, invited the public to submit written accounts of their own experiences.
    Dr Kim Thomas, from the association, said she had received an "overwhelming" number of personal accounts. Some cases date back as far as the 1960s.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 25 February 2024
  8. Patient Safety Learning
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has raised concerns about Torbay Hospital being understaffed and the impact that has had on patient safety.
    It carried out an unannounced focused inspection of medical care services at Torbay Hospital in December, after receiving information of concern about the service. 
    Cath Campbell, CQC’s head of hospital inspection, said: “When we inspected medical care services at Torbay Hospital, we were mindful of the pressures that the COVID-19 pandemic had had on the trust, and aware that staff were working extremely hard during this time. However, we were concerned to find some of the wards didn’t have enough staff to meet the needs of patients, especially those on a dedicated COVID-19 ward, and the trust wasn’t able to provide us with evidence that there were enough staff on the ward to monitor patients to keep them safe.!
    “In addition, staff didn’t always complete risk assessments for each patient to remove or minimise risks to people’s safety. Staff also did not always identify patients at risk of deterioration and act quickly to keep them safe."
    The Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust says it has taken the CQC’s findings very seriously and made immediate improvements, which the CQC have recognised. 
    Read full story
    Source: Torbay Weekly, 4 March 2022
  10. Patient Safety Learning
    Bereavement support charities are calling for more funding in light of what they call the "terrible toll of 100,000 deaths from Covid-19".
    They say many families have been unable to be with loved ones as they died or gather to support one another. They argue there has been "huge demand" for counselling and guidance but some providers lack sufficient resources.
    The government says it is committed to ensuring those who are grieving have access to the support they need. In a letter to the Health Secretary Matt Hancock, and mental health minister, Nadine Dorries, charities call for some of the £500 million funding allocated to mental health in England in the November spending review to be used to support the bereaved.
    The request has come from the National Bereavement Alliance, which represents a range of charities. Members include CRUSE Bereavement Care, Support after Suicide Partnership and AtALoss.
    The letter quotes academic research suggesting more than 80% of bereaved people since the start of the pandemic have had limited contact with family and friends and two-thirds have experienced social isolation or loneliness.
    They say there are long waiting lists for support but some services providing advice and guidance are not adequately funded.
    The alliance argues deaths have been heavily felt in disadvantaged and deprived communities where there is a greater need for assistance.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 27 January 2021
  11. Patient Safety Learning
    Calls are being made to improve NHS interpreting services, with staff resorting to online translation tools to deliver serious news to non-English speaking patients.
    The National Register of Public Service Interpreters said "poorly managed" language services are "leading to abuse, misdiagnosis and in the worst cases, deaths of patients".
    The BBC's File on 4 programme has found interpreting problems were a contributing factor in at least 80 babies dying or suffering serious brain injuries in England between 2018 and 2022.
    NHS England says it is conducting a review to identify if and how it can support improvements in the commissioning and delivery of services.
    Rana Abdelkarim and her husband Modar Mohammednour arrived in England after fleeing conflict in Sudan, both speaking little English.
    It was supposed to be a fresh start but they soon suffered a devastating experience after Ms Abdelkarim was called to attend a maternity unit for what she thought was a check-up.
    In fact, she was going to be induced, something Mr Mohammednour said he was completely unaware of.
    "I heard this 'induce', but I don't know what it means. I don't understand exactly," he said.
    His wife suffered a catastrophic bleed which doctors were unable to stem and she died after giving birth to her daughter at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in March 2021.
    He said better interpreting services would have helped him and his wife understand what was happening.
    "It would have helped me and her to take the right decision for how she's going to deliver the baby and she can know what is going to happen to her," he added.
    The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) found there were delays in calling for specialist help, there was no effective communication with Ms Abdelkarim, and the incident had traumatised staff.
    Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has apologised and said it had acted on the coroner's recommendations to ensure lessons have been learned to prevent similar tragedies.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 21 November 2023
  12. Patient Safety Learning
    Commissioners have begun a ‘serious incident review’ across their integrated care system after early indications showed patients may have suffered harm due to long waits for cancer treatment.
    The review has been launched by Somerset Integrated Care Board into dermatology services after an initial review found five of 50 patients had seen their skin lesions increase in size since being referred to hospital by their GPs.
    ICB board papers stated “potential patient harm has been identified” for those patients, who were on the two-week wait pathway to be seen by a specialist following a referral by their GP.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 3 February 2023
  13. Patient Safety Learning
    People living with an eating disorder and their families should be offered greater support, according to a aScottish government review of services.
    The clinicians and psychologists who led the review said that seven of Scotland's health boards had been an 86% increase in referrals for eating disorders over the last year. Figures also showed a 220% jump in paediatric admissions at two regional adolescent in-patient units.
    Their report made 15 recommendations including self-help packages, peer support networks and emotional and practical support for families and carers as well.
    Christine Reid's daughter Madeline Wallace died from anorexia in January 2018.
    The 18-year-old from Peterborough had been studying medicine at Edinburgh University when she became gravely unwell. An inquest into her death found that she "rapidly lost weight" during her first weeks as a student.
    "It was very strange," Ms Reid says. "It was almost like watching someone disintegrating from the inside out. It is a horrible illness."
    "She got this illness and she really didn't want to have it but she couldn't see a way to recover from it," Ms Reid says.
    "She just didn't feel like she got the help she needed."
    An independent review in to Maddy's death made 14 recommendations for changes to eating disorder care at a national and regional level including advice for GPs on anorexia complications.
    "It feels like if lots of different decisions had gone different ways it could have been avoided and that is hard to take," her mother says.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 24 March 2021
  15. Patient Safety Learning
    An inspection at a failing hospital trust has identified "some progress" but its services are still inadequate.
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) in August. The Trust has been in special measures since 2018 and its maternity services are subject of a review following a high rate of baby and maternal deaths.
    The CQC said SaTH still had "significant work to do" to improve its patient care and safety standards.
    Inspectors highlighted particular concerns around risk management at the Trust which it said was "inconsistent" and and urgent and emergency care where patients "did not always receive timely assessment".
    The CQC also reported a shortage of staff working in end-of-life care and midwifery, however maternity staff were said to have "an exceptionally dedicated and caring approach".
    "I recognise the enormous pressure NHS services are under across the country and that usual expectations cannot always be maintained, but it is important they do all they can to mitigate risks to patient safety while facing these pressures," chief inspector of hospitals, Ted Baker, said.
    "While the trust continues to have significant work to do to provide care that meets standards people have a right to expect, it is providing more effective care overall.
    "However, its risk management remains inconsistent and we are not assured it is doing all it can to ensure people's safety."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 18 November 2021
     
  16. Patient Safety Learning
    Imtiaz Fazil has been pregnant 24 times, but she only has two living children.
    She first fell pregnant in 1999 and, over the subsequent 23 years, has had 17 miscarriages and five babies die before their first birthdays due to a rare genetic condition.
    The 49-year-old, from Levenshulme in Manchester, told BBC North West Tonight her losses were not easy to talk about, but she was determined to do so, in part because such things remained a taboo subject among South Asian groups.
    She said she wanted to change that and break down the stigma surrounding baby loss.
    She said her own family "don't talk to me very much about the things" as they think "I might get hurt [by] bringing up memories".
    "It's too much sadness; that's why nobody approaches these sort of things," she said.
    Sarina Kaur Dosanjh and her husband Vik also have the hope of breaking the silence surrounding baby loss.
    The 29-year-olds, from Walsall in the West Midlands, have set up the Himmat Collective, a charity which offers a virtual space for South Asian women and men to share their experiences.
    The couple, who have had two miscarriages in the past two years, said the heartache was still not something that people easily speak about.
    "I think it's hidden," Sarina said.
    "It's really brushed under the carpet."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 13 October 2022
  17. Patient Safety Learning
    Doctors and health service providers welcomed publication of an NHS strategy for managing demand ahead of another busy winter for health and social care, but said it failed to address underlying problems with the system.
    In a letter to the heads of NHS trusts and integrated care boards, NHS England chiefs said they had begun planning for capacity and operational resilience in urgent and emergency care ahead of "significant challenges" during the coming months.
    The British Medical Association (BMA) said the strategy was a "step in the right direction", but "lacks detail", while the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) said it amounted to little more than "a crisis mitigation plan".
    The package of measures included creating the equivalent of 7000 extra general and acute beds through a mix of new physical beds, scaling up 'virtual' beds, and "improvements in discharge and flow". The letter acknowledged that there was "a significant number of patients spending longer in hospital than they need to" and that whilst "the provision of social care falls outside of the NHS’s remit, the health service must ensure patients not requiring onwards care are discharged as soon as they are ready and can access services they may need following a hospital stay."
    Read full story
    Source: Medscape, 15 August 2022
  18. Patient Safety Learning
    If there is a public inquiry over the handling of the coronavirus, the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) to front-line staff could be a major theme.
    The government has been put under major pressure by staff over the past four days because of delays to the delivery of vital equipment. This left them at risk as they dealt with a flood of covid-19 cases described as “all-consuming” by one hospital chief executive (while another major trust declared a critical incident).
    The last two weeks have prompted a mammoth effort from local and national procurement teams to make sure clinicians have the PPE they need.
    But, sadly, the bigger picture was what the Health Care Supply Association called a “system” failure (although it did not blame staff).
    Numerous trusts, some of them very large, have turned to alternative suppliers to source this vital kit, in some cases spending hundreds of thousands of pounds. The situation has apparently been so dire in recent days that, over the weekend, the HCSA asked DIY shops to donate their PPE to local trusts.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 24 March 2020
  19. Patient Safety Learning
    A woman who died after waiting almost two hours for an ambulance was let down by "systemic" failings with a computer call-handling system, a coroner said.
    Daisy Filby, 90, was one of three people who died after delays in receiving care from the South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb). Coroner Alan Craze said a human would have "realised what was going on" and prioritised the calls differently. 
    Mrs Filby, from Seaford, died in June 2017 as a result of an "accident contributed to by neglect," Mr Craze concluded at the Hasting's Coroner's Court inquest. "If an ambulance or anybody with or without medical knowledge had been able to reach this poor lady before her death, the situation would have been different," he added.
    Mr Craze said: "The problem is not the actions of any one individual in Secamb Trust. The problem is ultimately systemic and at the heart of the call-taking and decision-making system."
    A spokesman for the ambulance service said: "We are very sorry for the service they received. We have listened very closely to the coroner throughout and we are committed to making further improvements where necessary."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 18 September 2019
  20. Patient Safety Learning
    The postponement of tens of thousands of hospital procedures is putting the lives of people with long-term heart conditions at risk, according to the British Heart Foundation.
    The coronavirus pandemic has created a backlog which would only get larger as patients waited for care, it said.
    People with heart disease are at increased risk of serious illness with COVID-19, and some are shielding.
    The BHF estimates that 28,000 procedures have been delayed in England since the outbreak of coronavirus in the UK. These are planned hospital procedures, including the implanting of pacemakers or stents, widening blocked arteries to the heart, and tests to diagnose heart problems.
    People now waiting for new appointments would already have been waiting for treatment when the lockdown started, the charity said, as it urged the NHS to support people with heart conditions "in a safe way".
    Read full story
    Source: 5 June 2020
  21. Patient Safety Learning
    Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been confronted by an angry father at a hospital who told him his baby daughter had nearly died because the ward on which she was treated was “not safe for children” after years of austerity.
    In an encounter caught on camera, Omar Salem said the care given to his seven-day-old daughter at Whipps Cross university hospital, in north-east London, was “not acceptable”. He told the prime minister: “There are not enough people on this ward, there are not enough doctors, there’s not enough nurses, it’s not well organised enough.”
    Salem told Boris Johnson: “My daughter nearly died yesterday. And I came here, the A&E guys were great but we then came down to this ward here and it took two hours and that is just not acceptable. This ward is not safe for children."
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 18 Setpember 2019
  22. Patient Safety Learning
    A shortage of specific types of hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) has left women struggling with untreated symptoms of the menopause. Demand for prescriptions has more than doubled since 2017 - partly because of work by campaigners to extend access - but supply of some products has not kept up.
    Yasmin Darling's experience of the menopause was sudden and profound. Two years ago, she had two operations to reduce her risk of inherited cancer which plunged her into an early menopause.
    "It's really hard to navigate medical menopause 10 years early," the 45-year-old says.
    "When you don't have the product you need, it makes it much more difficult to navigate."
    Because of Covid, Yasmin has never been seen by a specialist at a menopause clinic, so she is managing as best she can on her own. 
    Claire Lopez, 59, spent three weeks trying to obtain her usual HRT patches from different local chemists but they were out of stock. Without them, her body becomes "very stiff", leading to slipped discs and severe back pain.
    "I have severe anxiety if I do not have these patches, so the total lack of coordination between GPs and pharmacists was extremely frustrating," Claire says.
    In the end, she had to arrange a private prescription through a local clinic, in the Midlands, costing £50.
    The government has said it is determined to ensure supplies of HRT can meet high demand.
    Minister for Women's Health Maria Caulfield said: "There are over 70 HRT products available in the UK, most of which remain in good supply.
    "However, we are aware of some issues with women being unable to access certain products.
    "We will be appointing a new HRT-supply chairperson and convening an urgent meeting of suppliers to look at ways we can work together to improve supply."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 27 April 2022
  23. Patient Safety Learning
    Sufferers say they have had little specialist help despite NHS England setting up dedicated clinics.
    “It’s not that I feel I have been abandoned, I think that is perfectly obvious,” says Rachel Pope. “If you speak to any long Covid patient, they have been abandoned.”
    Until exactly a year ago – 5 March 2020 – Pope was “an incredibly fit woman”. A senior lecturer in European prehistory at the University of Liverpool, her work and lifestyle were very active. But after falling ill to Covid, she spent four months unable to walk, then three more when she could manage little more than “a sort of shuffle”.
    She still has a host of symptoms, “but the most debilitating is the fact that I still can’t do more than 2,000 steps in a day. Until a few weeks ago, I was still choking every day. There’s a lot of nasty stuff that [long Covid sufferers] are living with, without treatment.
    “It’s not a great situation to be in. I mean, we didn’t die. But this isn’t exactly living either.”
    A year into the pandemic, accounts such as Pope’s have become dispiritingly familiar, as the experiences of the many thousands who have struggled for months with long Covid, often alone and unsupported, are emerging.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 5 March 2021
  24. Patient Safety Learning
    More than 2.5 million people over the age of 80 have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, NHS England has said. But the vaccine is failing to reach thousands of elderly people who receive care in their own homes, according to a provider, because they are too frail to travel to vaccination centres or fear catching the virus if they do.
    The Guardian spoke to three people who have family members over 80 still waiting to be vaccinated.
    “How on earth are elderly people expected to negotiate the system if they don’t have any help?” says Amanda Elliott, 59. Her father-in-law, George Elliott, 98, of Polegate, East Sussex, is still waiting to be vaccinated. “It seems very unfair,” she says.
    George, who was a glider pilot in the second world war, doesn’t feel entitled to a jab but finds the situation “puzzling”, Amanda says. He has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), finds it very difficult to move and has a carer going into his home twice a day.
    Amanda, a support worker at a school in Sutton, says George received a letter inviting him to book his vaccination online and “tried without success”. He then called to book over the phone and was offered an appointment in Brighton, Hastings or Petersfield, to which he would have difficulty travelling.
    “I called the booking line on his behalf last week to find out what he should do as he is housebound. I was directed to his GP and his surgery told me they are not carrying out vaccinations and that I shouldn’t have contacted them about this. They were very unhelpful,” Amanda says.
    In Kirkcaldy, Fife, 88-year-old Christina McPhee, who is housebound, is still waiting to be vaccinated. “The district nurse has to administer the vaccine to those who can’t leave their homes, but the local GP practice told me last Friday they have none allocated for those in the area,” says her niece Mary.
    AdMcPhee has a tracheostomy and has carers and nurses visiting her several times a day, making her “very vulnerable” because she is high risk. Her sister, Mary’s mother, who is 82 and lives with McPhee, was able to get the vaccine because she could travel to the surgery, but there is no news about when McPhee is likely to receive hers.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 1 February 2021
  25. Patient Safety Learning
    More than three quarters of NHS workers are seriously considering leaving their jobs amid the ongoing strain on the health service.
    According to research from the worker-led network Organise – which surveyed 2,546 NHS staff in March – 78.5% are thinking about packing it all in.
    Only a fifth (21.5%) said they had no plan to give up their NHS job any time soon.
    And the survey shows this sentiment is shared across a range of professions within the health service – with nurses, healthcare assistants, paramedics, doctors, health visitors and more all struggling with their jobs right now.
    This comes after years of public concerns about the longevity of the health service, amid funding cuts, staff shortages and burnout – not to mention the additional strain from the Covid pandemic.
    The findings also show that in the last three years:
    79% of respondents experienced stress 62% reported anxiety 55% reported burnout. More than half (55%) of respondents said they needed to take time off from their jobs as a result, with a quarter saying this meant a month or more away from work.
    Read full story
    Source: Huffington Post, 29 March 2023
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