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Clive Flashman

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News posted by Clive Flashman

  1. Clive Flashman
    Looking to improve practice through learning
    Errors, mishaps and misunderstandings are surprisingly common in medicine and around one in 10 patients suffer avoidable harm, impacting on patients, their families, health care organisations, staff and students. However a research project seeking to improve patient safety across Europe, led by Newcastle-based Northumbria University, has received international acclaim as it looks to improve practice through learning.
    The SLIPPS (Shared Learning from Practice to improve Patient Safety) project is Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, and is led by Professor Alison Steven, a Reader in Health Professions Education at Northumbria University.  Professor Steven has a longstanding interest in the use of education to raise standards of care and ensure patient safety. Considering the rapid spread of Covid 19, she says improving patient safety and standards of care across Europe and beyond, has never been more important.
    Read full article here
  2. Clive Flashman
    To help stop the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the majority of hospitals have stopped or severely restricted visits. This article explains how you can still help a loved one even when you can't see them face to face.
    During the coronavirus crisis, most hospitals and care homes in the UK have stopped visits. If you have a loved one in a healthcare setting, not being able to go to see them will be incredibly difficult. But these temporary measures have not been taken lightly. Restricting visits to hospitals and care homes is important to reduce the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 as much as possible. This way hospital and care home residents, and healthcare staff, can be better protected during the pandemic.
    Read the full article here
  3. Clive Flashman
    Initial survey findings show the long road to recovery for people who have faced COVID at home without going into hospital
    New survey findings from over 1,000 people show that those recovering from mild-moderate COVID are struggling for weeks with symptoms, raising concerns that there is not adequate support for people who have not been in hospital with the illness.
    The ongoing survey is being run by Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, through their post-COVID HUB, which they set up, alongside a helpline and WhatsApp service, to support anyone left with breathing difficulties after COVID.
    Read full article here
  4. Clive Flashman
    The UK's scientists have been trying to trace COVID-19's path through the population ever since the coronavirus arrived on British shores.
    In what is thought to be the largest study of its kind in the world, an app developed by King's College London (KCL) and technology company Zoe, which tracks symptoms of the disease, has been downloaded more than three million times in the UK.
    Not to be confused with the government's contact-tracing app, the COVID-19 Symptom Study app allows users to report daily whether they feel healthy, and record any symptoms. The scientists have been using the data to estimate how the virus may have travelled through the population.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 23 May 2020
  5. Clive Flashman
    "I'm not sure I want to be a nurse anymore," she tells me. "I've seen more people die in the past two months than in the whole six years."
    Some 70% of health workers dealing with COVID-19 in Italy's hardest-hit areas are suffering from burnout, a recent study shows. "This is actually the hardest moment for doctors and nurses," says Serena Barello, the author of the study.
    Read story
    Source: BBC News, 26 May 2020
  7. Clive Flashman
    A new app has been piloted in North East London to help district nurses document chronic wound management more efficiently. The tech has been used in community services and stores a catalogue of photographs to accurately document chronic wounds. 
    District nurses can use the app on a smartphone – making it lightweight, portable and easy to clean. Using two calibration stickers placed either side of the wound, the app can scan it and capture its size and depth to build a 3D image. Nurses can then fill out further characteristics on the software such as colour, pain level, location and smell to give a full picture of the wound’s development.
    Read full story
    Source: Nursing Times,  12 February 2020
  8. Clive Flashman
    London doctors are using artificial intelligence to predict which patients with chest pains are at greatest risk of death. 
    A trial at Barts Heart Centre, in Smithfield, and the Royal Free Hospital, in Hampstead, found that poor blood flow was a “strong predictor” of heart attack, stroke and heart failure. Doctors used computer programmes to analyse images of the heart from more than 1,000 patients and cross-referenced the scans with their health over the next two years. The computers were “taught” to search for indicators of future “adverse cardiovascular outcomes” and are now used in a real-time basis to help doctors identify who is most at risk.
    Read full story
    Source: Evening Standard, 15 February 2020
  9. Clive Flashman
    Smartphone apps designed to detect the risk of skin cancer are poorly regulated and “frequently cannot be relied upon to produce accurate results”, according to a new analysis. They found the apps may cause harm from failure to identify potentially deadly skin cancers, or from over-investigation of false positive results such as removing a harmless mole unnecessarily.
    Read full story
    Source: Digital Health, 14 February 2020
  10. Clive Flashman
    The Doctors’ Association UK has compiled stories from 602 frontline doctors which expose a startling culture of bullying and overwork in the NHS.
    The stories include:
    a pregnant doctor who fainted after being forced to stand up for 15 hours straight and being denied water. The junior doctor was subsequently shouted at in front of colleagues and patients on regaining consciousness and told it was her choice to be pregnant and that ‘no allowances would be made’. a doctor who told us that a junior doctor hung themselves in a cupboard whilst on shift and was not found for 3 days as no-one had looked for them. His junior doctor colleagues were not allowed to talk about his suicide and it was all ‘hushed up’. a doctor who was denied a change of clothes into scrubs after having a miscarriage at work despite her trousers being soaked in blood. Full press release  
  11. Clive Flashman
    There is always a lot happening with patient safety in the NHS (National Health Service) in England. Sadly, all too often patient safety crises events occur. The NHS is also no sloth when it comes to the production of patient safety policies, reports, and publications. These generally provide excellent information and are very well researched and produced. Unfortunately, some of these can be seen to falter at the NHS local hospital implementation stage and some reports get parked or forgotten. This is evident from the failure of the NHS to develop an ingrained patient safety culture over the years. Some patient safety progress has been made, but not enough when the history of NHS policy making in the area is analysed.
    Lessons going unlearnt from previous patient safety event crises is also an acute problem. Patient safety events seem to repeat themselves with the same attendant issues.
    Read full story
    Source: Harvard Law, 17 February 2020
  12. Clive Flashman
    Every pharmacist must report adverse drug reactions using the yellow card scheme, says chair of the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group, Janice Perkins
    Polypharmacy, when different medications are used by an individual at the same time, is becoming increasingly common because people are living for longer and with multiple different illnesses. One study, published in 2018 by the Oxford University Press, found that over half (54%) of those aged 65 years and above who took part in the study had two or more long-term conditions, for which they could have been taking a range of medicines.
    Read full story
    Source: Community Pharmacy News, 17 February 2020
  13. Clive Flashman
    A senior district nurse who was unfairly dismissed after blowing the whistle over valid safety concerns has told how the ordeal has left her life in "chaos" and she feels forced to quit the profession for good. 
    Linda Fairhall, who had worked at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust for 38 years, has spoken to Nursing Times about her experiences after she successfully challenged her employer's decision to sack her. Between December 2015 to October 2016, Ms Fairhall raised 13 concerns to the trust regarding staff and patient safety. At the time, she was managing a team of around 50 district nurses in her role of clinical care co-ordinator.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: Nursing Times, 17 February 2020
  14. Clive Flashman
    Action must be taken now if the NHS is to avoid an even worse winter crisis next year, the chief inspector of hospitals has warned.
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the use of corridors to treat sick patients in A&E was “becoming normalised”, with departments struggling with a lack of staff, poor leadership and long delays leading to crowding and safety risks. Professor Ted Baker said: “Our inspections are showing that this winter is proving as difficult for emergency departments as was predicted. Managing this remains a challenge but if we do not act now, we can predict that next winter will be a greater challenge still. “We cannot continue this trajectory. A scenario where each winter is worse than the one before has real consequences for both patients and staff.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 18 February 2020
     
     
  15. Clive Flashman
    Staffing shortages remain a pervasive challenge for the NHS, risking patient safety, care standards and the pursuit of innovation. 
    There are now 106,000 vacancies across the NHS in England, with over 44,000 vacancies in nursing. Overseas staff are a crucial way of filling those vacancies, but the message to potential workers is confused to say the least.
    Read full story
    Source: Health Europa, 14 February 2020
  17. Clive Flashman
    PRESS RELEASE - 1 July 2019
    Patient Safety Learning identifies that reduced performance in two aspects of patient experience may increase the safety risks patients face as in-patients.
    The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) recently published 2018 annual in-patient survey shows that improvement in two areas of patient experience has stalled while a range of issues that matter to patients have worsened. The charity, Patient Safety Learning, has identified that deteriorating performance in two of these issues is likely to make patient safety risks worse.
    Fewer patients informed properly when discharged home
    The CQC’s sixteenth annual survey of people who stayed as an in-patient in hospital was published on 20 June 2019. It shows that most people had confidence in the doctors and nurses treating them, and felt that staff answered their questions clearly.
    However, the survey reports that 40% of patients were discharged from hospital without written information about how to look after themselves following treatment. This is up 2% from 2017. Of patients who had been given medication to take home, 44% were not told of possible side effects for which they should watch.
    Fewer patients report being involved in their own care
    Only 54% of patients report that they are involved as much as they want to be in decisions about their care and treatment, down from 56% in 2017. The number of patients reporting that their views had been sought on the quality of care they received was down by a quarter compared with 2017, from 20% to 15%.
    An increasing challenge to safety
    Giving patients written information about how to look after themselves on discharge is clearly a patient safety issue. If this practice is reducing, then the inherent risk to patients must be increasing.
    Patient Safety Learning’s recent report, A Blueprint for Action, cited a wide range of evidence that communication with patients – listening to them and acting on what is heard – has a demonstrable effect on improving patient safety. The evidence from the CQC survey indicates, however, that such practice is reducing, not increasing, with corresponding implications for patient safety.
    Patient Safety Learning Chief Executive, Helen Hughes, said, “Effective communication and engagement with patients is essential for safe care. The CQC’s survey is a valuable tool for assessing this. It is concerning that their report evidences that communication with patients is reducing in ways that have the potential to increase the risk to patient safety. Patient safety is a core part of the purpose of healthcare and action is needed to share good practice across the wider health system.”   /ENDS
    Note to editors
    Patient Safety Learning is a charity. We help transform safety in health and social care, creating a world where patients are free from harm.
    We identify the critical factors that affect patient safety and analyse the systemic reasons they fail. We use what we learn to envision safer care. We recommend how to get there. Then we act to help make it happen. 
    Patient Safety Learning’s latest report, A Blueprint for Action, can be downloaded here: www.patientsafetylearning.org/resources/blueprint.
    For more information, contact
    Margot Knight, Marketing and Communications Manager, Patient Safety Learning
    E: margot@patientsafetylearning.org
    Or
    Helen Hughes, Chief Executive, Patient Safety Learning
    T: +44 (0) 7793 550855
    E: helen@patientsafetylearning.org
    Patient Safety Learning
    SB 220
    China Works
    100 Black Prince Road
    London SE1 7SJ
    www.patientsafetylearning.org
  18. Clive Flashman
    The Nursing Times has just broken a story about the importance of safe nurse staffing levels, which has been underlined in an international white paper that calls on countries around the world to take action to ensure they have enough nurses.

    The paper – launched at the International Council of Nurses’ annual conference – states evidence for a clear link between nurse staffing levels, patient safety and the quality of care is now “overwhelming and compelling”.
  19. Clive Flashman
    Findings from the Care Quality Commission's (CQC’s) latest annual survey of people who stayed as an inpatient in hospital show that most people had confidence in the doctors and nurses treating them and felt that staff answered their questions clearly. However, just over a third (40%) of patients surveyed left hospital without written information telling them how to look after themselves after discharge (up from 38% in 2017), and of those who were given medication to take home, 44% were not told about the possible side effects to watch out for. 
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