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Patient-Safety-Learning

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News posted by Patient-Safety-Learning

  1. Patient-Safety-Learning
    Disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic is being blamed for the first recorded rise in tuberculosis (TB) cases and deaths in Europe for two decades.
    Some 27,300 people died from TB in the World Health Organization’s Europe region in 2021, up from 27,000 deaths the previous year, according to a new surveillance report by WHO and European Union’s disease prevention agency.
    The rate of new cases and relapses in the region is also estimated to have increased by 1.2 per cent compared to 2020, in a reversal analysts said “reflects the impact of disruption to TB services caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.” The report comes days after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reported a 7.3 per cent rise in cases in England in 2021, a year that saw new 4,425 cases.
    Dr Esther Robinson, head of the UKHSA's TB unit, said, "Tuberculosis remains a risk to some of the most vulnerable people in our society and this data highlights that progress towards elimination has stalled."
    Read full story
    Source: Independent, 3 April 2023
  2. Patient-Safety-Learning
    TV presenter Dr Hilary Jones has blasted the Prime Minister over his handling of the NHS, warning it is at risk of collapse.
    Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the GP shared the experiences of “heartbroken” frontline doctors and said if the situation “doesn’t change very quickly, the NHS is finished”.
    Dr Jones referred to a group chat between 13,000 doctors who work on the front line and in primary care, where members are sharing stories that show patients experiencing very long delays in receiving treatment. He described how staff are in tears at the end of their shift “and when they return to the next shift, the same patient is still waiting to be seen after 24 hours”.
    He added: “For Rishi Sunak and the Government to pretend that this is not a crisis when more than a dozen trusts have announced critical incidents is not only delusional, as the BMA say, I would say at the very best it’s ill-informed misjudgment, at the very worst it’s total irresponsibility and incompetence. I have never known anything like this.”
    Read full story
    Source: Independent, 5 January 2023
  3. Patient-Safety-Learning
    Two more NHS maternity units have been downgraded by the care watchdog amid safety concerns. 
    The services at Colchester Hospital and Ipswich Hospital were downgraded from good, to 'requires improvement', finding staff shortages at both hospitals.
    Moreover, it was also found handovers were not sufficient meaning staff were not sharing the proper information about the women and babies.  
    Among the concerns and issues raised, there were problems with team-working, properly recording patient information, and inefficient information systems. 
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 16 June 2021
  4. Patient-Safety-Learning
    The average life expectancy of Americans fell precipitously in 2020 and 2021, the sharpest two-year decline in nearly 100 years and a stark reminder of the toll exacted on the nation by the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
    In 2021, the average American could expect to live until the age of 76, federal health researchers reported on Wednesday. The figure represents a loss of almost three years since 2019, when Americans could expect to live, on average, nearly 79 years.
    The reduction has been particularly steep among Native Americans and Alaska Natives, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported. Average life expectancy in those groups was shortened by four years in 2020 alone.
    “Even small declines in life expectancy of a tenth or two-tenths of a year mean that on a population level, a lot more people are dying prematurely than they really should be,” said Robert Anderson, chief of mortality statistics at the NCHS.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The New York Times (31 August 2022)
  5. Patient-Safety-Learning
    UCLH has been awarded £6.8m to conduct what has been regarded as the largest Long Covid clinical study and will focus on understanding the condition, how to diagnose it, manage it and improve the recovery process. 
    The research will be a collaborative effort and will include 30 researchers, health professionals, patients and industry partners from more than 30 organisations and the project will be known as TIMULATE-ICP (Symptoms, Trajectory, Inequalities and Management: Understanding Long-Covid to Address and Transform Existing Integrated Care Pathways).
    Read full story.
    Source: National Health Executive, 19 July 2021
  6. Patient-Safety-Learning
    No new Ebola infections have been detected in Uganda for 42 days, and so on Wednesday, the World Health Organization and the Ugandan Ministry of Health officially declared that the country’s most recent outbreak of the deadly virus is at an end.
    Since the outbreak was officially recognised on September 20, 164 people have had confirmed or probable Ebola infections; there 55 deaths confirmed by lab testing, with another 22 deaths suspected of being caused by the virus.
    Those who have recovered from the virus will receive ongoing support and will be closely monitored to help scientists understand the long term impacts of the Sudan strain of the virus, for which there are currently no treatment or prevention options.
    The Ugandan government has also set a goal of finally identifying the animal reservoir for Ebola.
    Read full story
    Source: CNN, 11 January 2023
  7. Patient-Safety-Learning
    Plasma from blood donations in England will be used to make a life-saving drug whilst also helping to secure NHS plasma stocks to make the antibody-based medicines, called immunoglobulins. The service will begin roll-out in the coming months, with other parts of the UK potentially following suit. 
    Gerry Gogarty, from NHS Blood and Transplant, welcomed the decision, calling it a huge step forward. "By recovering plasma from blood donations, we can improve long-term supplies of immunoglobulin medicine, and each generous blood donation will go even further in helping to save the lives."
    Read full story.
    Source: BBC News, 17 August 2021
  8. Patient-Safety-Learning
    Top young cancer researchers are leaving the UK in a “brain drain” fuelled by the continuing failure to reach an agreement over the EU’s study programme, scientists warn.
    The two-and-a-half-year delay in joining the £85bn Horizon Europe scheme, the largest collaborative research programme in the world, has “damaged the UK’s reputation” and made it more difficult to attract and retain the brightest researchers into the nation’s labs.
    Cancer Research UK (CRUK) surveyed 84 cancer specialists about Horizon Europe and found that three-quarters of respondents favoured association with the programme compared with only 11% who wanted the UK to go it alone with the government’s plan B, known as Pioneer.
    Prof Julian Downward, head of the Oncogene Biology Lab at the Francis Crick Institute in London, said: “We need Horizon Europe very badly. The current situation is damaging UK science every day. We are losing top junior faculty regularly who decide to move to EU countries so they can take up European Research Council grants.”
    Read full story
    Source: Guardian, 25 August 2023
  9. Patient-Safety-Learning
    Up to 100 nurses are to be recruited from Nepal to work in the NHS, despite global restrictions on employing health workers because of staff shortages in the country.
    The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Government of Nepal have signed a new government-to-government agreement regarding the recruitment of Nepali health professionals to the UK.
    The move comes after the new health and social care secretary Steve Barclay announced plans to “significantly increase” overseas recruitment of health workers to help mitigate staff shortages in the UK. A 15-month pilot phase will initially see up to 100 nurses recruited from Nepal to work at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
    Read full story
    Source: Nursing Times (23 August 2022)
  10. Patient-Safety-Learning
    The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has warned there may be a risk to pregnant women when next weeks restrictions relax. 
    Experts are warning that infection rates among pregnant women may increase once the restrictions are lifted and encourage them to protect themselves and their families as women who are pregnant are more likely to become severely ill with Covid-19.
    RCN chief executive Gill Walton, has said: "Along with mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing, vaccination is a vital tool in the fight to protect yourself against this virus.
    Read full story.
    Source: BBC News, 15 July 2021
  11. Patient-Safety-Learning
    A 15-year-old child was prescribed dangerous levels of hormones by an unregulated online clinic without speaking to a doctor, a court ruling has revealed.
    Now 16, the teenager, known as J, was born female but identifies as a boy and has an autism diagnosis.
    J got a prescription for testosterone and puberty blockers from Singapore-registered GenderGP in late 2022. He had previously been unable to get the treatment through the NHS.
    Judge Sir Andrew McFarlane said: "There must be very significant concern about the prospect of a young person such as J accessing cross-hormone treatment from any off-shore, online, unregulated private clinic."
    The judgement highlights the lack of NHS gender services for children and young people in England and Wales, after the closure of the Tavistock Gender Identity and Development Service (Gids) in April. Gids, rated as "inadequate" by inspectors in 2021, was the only specialist gender clinic for children and young people in the two countries. The judgement says that, as a result: "There is no relevant NHS service available for J."
    Although the prescription was from a private doctor, J was given injections of testosterone by his local NHS GP every six weeks between January and August 2023. 
    An expert witness in the case, Australia-based consultant paediatric endocrinologist Dr Jacqueline Hewitt, was critical of the lack of physical and psychological checks carried out by GenderGP on J. Dr Hewitt also raised concerns about the size of the doses of testosterone given to J, describing the level of the hormone in his blood during his treatment as "dangerously high".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 2 May 2024
  12. Patient-Safety-Learning
    New rules for care home staff are set to come into force on November 11, 2021, requiring all staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19, unless they are exempt.
    Care homes will also be able to refuse entry to anyone who is unable to prove they have been fully vaccinated, with the Care Quality Commission warning that care homes will be monitored around their implementation of the new rules.
    In a letter to members of the House of Lords it warned: “The sector faces 112,000 vacancies currently, if the 5 per cent, who may eventually choose not to have the vaccine, leave the sector and are added to the current vacancies it will completely destabilise an already fragile sector.”
    Read full story.
    Source: The Independent, 23 August 2021
  13. Patient-Safety-Learning
    Updated Covid vaccines are expected to become available in the US next month as alarm grows over a new variant dubbed Eris.
    Healthcare providers are grappling with a rise in hospitalisations stemming from Covid infections. Eris or EG.5.1, a subvariant of Omicron that originally emerged in late 2021, now accounts for around 17per cent of current COVID cases, according to the CDC.
    Symptoms of the new variant include a runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing and a sore throat. In the week of 30 July to 5 August, the latest period that data is available for, hospitalisations spiked by more than 14per cent, while deaths rose 10per cent compared to the previous week.
    It comes as providers and pharmacies prepare to roll out an updated vaccine designed to combat Omicron — but experts are not very optimistic that the greater majority of Americans will opt to be vaccinated.
    Fewer than 50 million people in the US got the shot last fall, compared to 250 million, or 73 per cent of the country’s population, when the vaccine was first made available in 2021, according to the agency.
    Read full story
    Source: Independent, 16 August 2023
  14. Patient-Safety-Learning
    The Royal College of Nursing has updated their Healthy Workplace toolkit to include the need for nurses to stay hydrated during their shifts and to take their at-work breaks. 
    The toolkit was designed to improve health and wellbeing for nurses working in all areas of healthcare. It also includes pandemic-specific advice and an aim to improve working environments for nursing staff. 
    Read full story.
    Source: Royal College of Nursing, 21 June 2021
  15. Patient-Safety-Learning
    Multiple issues have been found after a review into Veteran Affairs (VA) electronic system revealed outstanding issues. 
    VA Secretary Denis McDonough has said "The mission of EHRM has always been to create a platform that seamlessly delivers the best access and outcomes for our vets and the best experience for our providers". 
    The review found problems in several areas including: patient safety, productivity, governance and management, cost and schedule performance, patient portal experience, testing, data and change management and training. 
    McDonough has said steps are being taken to address each of these issues and that VA is "reimagining our approach to Electronic Health Record Modernization."
    Read full story.
    Source: Healthcare IT News, 19 July 2021
  16. Patient-Safety-Learning
    Vaccinated nurses will now be expected to return to work instead of isolating as new rules are set to relax.
    In a letter on the latest rule change from NHS England chief nursing officer Ruth May, chief people officer Prerana Issar, and medical director for primary care Dr Nikita Kanani said “Fully vaccinated staff and students who are identified as a contact of a positive Covid-19 case will no longer be expected to isolate and will be expected to return to work.”
    Staff returning to work are required to have been double jabbed, have no Covid-19 symptoms and receive a negative PCR test. This latest change in rules go in line with changes for the wider population. 
    Read full story.
    Source: Nursing Times, 16 August 2021
  17. Patient-Safety-Learning
    A year on from the vaginal mesh scandal and ministers have failed to take action. The new health secretary Sajid Javid has been called on to intervene by families, lawyers and campaigners and has been asked to implement recommendations made by the Cumberlege Inquiry. 
    Emma Hardy, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Surgical Mesh Implants has said “Women deserve better than the government’s refusal to implement the Baroness Cumberlege recommendations. The recommendations will not only make life better for those living with mesh complications, but they will also improve patient safety for everyone in the future.”
    Read full story.
    Source: The Independent, 08 July 2021
  18. Patient-Safety-Learning
    According to reports, more than half of patients waiting for a first consultant appointment in Northern Ireland are still waiting longer than a year.
    Health Minister Robin Swann has apologised for the long waiting lists, with the Royal College of Surgeons describing the figures as "devastating". Data has revealed 348,867 people are currently  waiting for a first appointment, with fifty-three percent (184,873) found waiting 52 weeks or more. 
    "It's not where we want them to be - we don't want people waiting that long because it actually increases demand on our health service the longer people are waiting. This is about changing the direction of the underinvestment, not just in the health service but also in our workforce, so it takes time." Said Mr Swann. 
    Read full story.
    Source: BBC News (Northern Ireland), 26 August 2021
  19. Patient-Safety-Learning
    The NHS in Wales could move to a model in which most or all nursing care is outsourced to private companies, if its increasing reliance on agency staff continues, a union report has claimed.
    According to the Royal College of Nursing, the Welsh health service risks moving to a situation where it no longer directly employs staff to provide patient care. NHS Wales spent between £133m and £140m on agency nursing during 2021-22, based on different freedom of information (FOI) requests and official figures, the RCN’s report suggested.
    RCN Wales said, “If this trend continues, Wales will move to a situation where NHS Wales no longer directly employs staff to provide patient care and instead moves to a model in which most or all nursing care is outsourced to private companies.”
    Read more
    Source: Nursing Times, 4 December 2022
  21. Patient-Safety-Learning
    NHS hospitals have been advised to protect all staff wearing PPE during the warmer weather amid concerns the higher temperatures could increase the risk of heat stress. 
    A letter from Public Health England sent across GP surgeries, pharmacies and hospitals, have recommended that staff wearing PPE should be given regular breaks and have a buddy system so that signs of heat stress can be spotted early on. 
    The letter describes how PPE may need to be changed more frequently which may increase demand. 
    Symptoms of heat stress are similar to heat exhaustion and the necessary actions should be taken to help avoid overheating. 
    Read full story.
    Source: The Independent, 10 June 2021
  22. Patient-Safety-Learning
    Groups representing the NHS have warned services may have to be cut unless NHS England receives an extra £10bn in funding next year, which may put patients at risk. 
    The NHS Confederation and NHS Providers said the money was needed to cover pandemic-related costs and reduce the backlog in operations and treatments, but the government said it had already provided additional money to tackle backlogs.
    "We are committed to making sure the NHS has everything it needs to continue providing excellent care to the public as we tackle the backlogs that have built up during the pandemic. This year alone we have already provided a further £29bn to support health and care services, including an extra £1bn to tackle the backlog. This is on top of our historic settlement for the NHS in 2018, which will see its budget rise by £33.9bn by 2023-24." Said a government statement. 
    Read full story.
    Source: BBC News, 02 August 2021
  23. Patient-Safety-Learning
    An ambulance spent 28 hours outside a hospital after an "extraordinary incident" was declared due to delays.
    The Welsh Ambulance Service said 16 ambulances had waited outside the emergency department at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, at one time.
    It said multiple sites across Wales were affected, "specifically" in the Swansea Bay health board area.
    Lee Brooks, director of operations, told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast the situation was "heart-breaking".
    The service said people should only call 999 if their emergency was "life or limb threatening".
    Judith Bryce, assistant director of operations at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said on Sunday the service was experiencing "patient handover delays outside of emergency departments. This is taking its toll on our ability to respond within the community."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 23 October 2023
  24. Patient-Safety-Learning
    Novel strains of the coronavirus are creating new health concerns around the world as fresh descendants of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant now make up 40 per cent of cases in the US.
    The two strains, XBB and XBB.1.5 have seen a surge in cases in countries worldwide. The World Health Organisation has warned the new and “recombinant” Covid variant XBB.1.5 is the “most transmissible yet.” It has been nicknamed 'Kraken' on social media.
    XBB.1.5 has now been found in 25 countries and is a mutated version of Omicron XBB, which was first found in India in August. XBB can get past the body’s immune system and XBB.1.5 is just as able at doing so. It is also better at “binding” to cells, so it can spread with much more ease. Whether or not the so-called Kraken will trigger a new Covid surge in the UK remains to be seen, but reports suggests that a rise in cases may well be seen.
    Read full story
    Source: Independent, 11 January 2023
  25. Patient-Safety-Learning
    The World Health Organisation has said cuts to the UK budget may put millions of lives at risk of dying from "neglected tropical diseases", leaving some of the poorest people in the world exposed. 
    The diseases listed included elephantiasis, trachoma and Guinea Worm. According to the WHO, the UK was able to provide funding to at least 19 countries before the aid cut.
    There are now fears that vital medicine, an estimated at 277 million tablets used to treat tropical diseases would now expire.
    The financial impact of the pandemic, according to the The Foreign Office, meant the aid cuts were necessary. 
    Read full story.
    Source: BBC News, 17 June 2021
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