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News ArticleMany people in Britain are likely to suffer from physical and mental problems for several years after the COVID-19 epidemic has subsided. That is the grim message from doctors and psychologists who last week warned that even after lockdown measures had been lifted thousands of individuals would still be suffering. Some of these problems will be due directly to the impact that the virus has had on those it has infected, especially those who went through life-saving interventions in intensive care units (ICUs) in hospital. In addition there will be a considerable impact on vulnerable people affected by the lockdown and isolation. Read full Source: The Observer, 2 May 2020
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News ArticleIn recent weeks, there has been sustained public and media interest in the death from COVID-19 of health and social care workers. Both mainstream and social media outlets have been reporting on these deaths individually or collectively, but there has been no formal analysis of this data. The deaths of 119 NHS staff have now been analysed by three leading clinicians and the results are been published by HSJ. HSJ highlights three key findings from the analysis: 1. The disproportionately high rate of BAME individuals among those who have died; 2. The absence of those members of staff considered at high risk of viral exposure and transmission; and 3. The overall rate of fatalities compared to the population. Read full story Source: HSJ, 22 April 2020
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News ArticleDelays in diagnosing and treating people with cancer could lead to more years of lost life than with COVID-19, according to a leading cancer expert. A drop-off in screening and referrals means roughly 2,700 fewer people are being diagnosed every week, Cancer Research UK says. Cancer screening has paused in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with few invitations sent out in England. People are still advised to contact their GP with worrying symptoms. But Richard Sullivan, professor of cancer and global health at King's College London, said there was more fear of Covid-19 than of having cancer at the moment. With GPs more difficult to contact than normal, this was resulting in a "dramatic drop-off" in referrals to specialists, he said. "Most modellers in the UK estimate excess of deaths is going to be way greater than we are going to see with Covid-19," he said. Read full story Source: 22 April 2020, BBC News
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News ArticleThe next few months will be full of grim updates about the spread of the new coronavirus, but they will also be full of homecomings. Patients hospitalised with severe COVID-19, some having spent weeks breathing with the help of a mechanical ventilator, will set about resuming their lives. Many will likely deal with lingering effects of the virus — and of the emergency treatments that allowed them to survive it. “The issue we’re all going to be faced with the most in the coming months is how we’re going to help these people recover,” says Lauren Ferrante, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the Yale School of Medicine. Hospital practices that keep patients as lucid and mobile as possible, even in the throes of their illness, could improve their long-term odds. But many intensive care unit doctors say the pandemic’s strain on hospitals and the infectious nature of the virus are making it hard to stick to some of those practices. Read full story Source: Science, 8 April 2020
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News ArticleNHS staff still do not have the protective equipment they need to treat coronavirus patients, medics have said. The British Medical Association (BMA) said doctors were putting their lives at risk by working without adequate protection. It comes as the health secretary said 19 NHS workers had died with coronavirus since the outbreak began. Read full story Source: BBC News, 11 April 2020
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News ArticleDoctors seeing patients with blood oxygen levels so low they are surprised they are conscious – yet they are sitting up and talking. British and American intensive care doctors at the front line of the coronavirus crisis are starting to question the aggressive use of ventilators for the treatment of patients. In many cases, they say the machines – which are highly invasive and require the patient to be rendered unconscious – are being used too early and may cause more harm than good. Instead they are finding that less invasive forms of oxygen treatment through face masks or nasal cannulas work better for patients, even those with very low blood oxygen readings. Dr Ron Daniels, a consultant in critical care at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, on Thursday confirmed reports from US medics that he and other NHS doctors were revising their view of when ventilators should be used. Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 9 April 2020
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News ArticleShortages are dogging the fight against the coronavirus. At Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) it's still only possible to test six staff for the virus per day, consultants have been making their own personal protective equipment, and there's an urgent need to save oxygen. Searching for ways round the problem, Dr Tom has been working with Leeds University on a 3D-printed valve that could be attached to the hospital's ventilators to reduce the amount of oxygen they use. But he also began looking at CPAP machines used to treat sleep apnoea at home. These maintain air at a continuous pressure, inside a mask, to keep the user's airways open - they have to be repurposed to provide oxygen for use in the hospital, but they use much less of it than standard hospital ventilators. They said, 'Yes we've got 2,000, how many do you want?''' he says. "And so our plan is to start with 100 and to see whether, if we use these early enough during a patient's stay, we can prevent people deteriorating and needing to go on to the more complex ventilators, and needing to come to the intensive care unit." We've been testing them over the weekend, and there's evidence from China and from the US that they seem effective. They just help inflate your lungs and that seems to be beneficial. They are also very simple, which means that there's no need for a huge amount of training. Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 April 2020
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News ArticleHundreds of people are dying in care homes from confirmed or suspected coronavirus without yet being officially counted, the Guardian has learned. More than 120 residents of the UK’s largest charitable provider of care homes are thought to have died from the virus in the last three weeks, while another network of care homes is reported to have recorded 88 deaths. Care England, the industry body, estimated that the death toll is likely to be close to 1,000, despite the only available official figure for care home fatalities being dramatically lower. The gulf in the figures has prompted warnings that ministers are underestimating the impact of Covid-19 on society’s most frail, and are failing to sufficiently help besieged care homes and workers. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 7 April 2020
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News ArticleThe health service has been promised “whatever it needs” to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, but government spending choices reveal possible long-term changes to funding and policy. Having initially promised the health service “whatever it needs, whatever it costs” on 11th March, the government made this official when Matt Hancock issued a ministerial direction allowing the Department of Health to “spend in excess of formal Departmental Expenditure Limits”—effectively providing a blank cheque. But while the government’s actions are designed for the immediate crisis, they may be difficult to reverse once the peak of coronavirus has passed. Indeed, they could yet change how the health service operates on a permanent basis. Read full story Source: Prospect, 7 April 2020
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News ArticleNational NHS leaders are to take action over growing fears that the “unintended consequences” of focusing so heavily on tackling covid-19 could do more harm than the virus, HSJ has learned. NHS England analysts have been tasked with the challenging task of identifying patients who may not have the virus but may be at risk of significant harm or death because they are missing vital appointments or not attending emergency departments, with both the service and public so focused on covid-19. A senior NHS source familiar with the programme told HSJ: “There could be some very serious unintended consequences [to all the resource going into fighting coronavirus]. While there will be a lot of covid-19 fatalities, we could end up losing more ‘years of life’ because of fatalities relating to non-covid-19 health complications. “What we don’t want to do is take our eye off the ball in terms of all the core business and all the other healthcare issues the NHS normally attends to." “People will be developing symptoms of serious but treatable diseases, babies will be born which need immunising, and people will be developing breast lumps and need mammograms.” HSJ understands system leaders are hopeful that in the coming days they will be able to assess the scale of the problem, and the key patient groups, and then begin planning the right interventions and communications programme to tackle it. Read full story Source: HSJ, 5 April 2020
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Content ArticleThis report will set-out our family engagement process. It will also summarise the feedback received to date from the families who have been involved in HSIB investigations. The purpose is to for HSIB to share their family engagement process with other healthcare organisations involved in patient safety investigations and raise awareness of the value of an effective family engagement process in such investigations. The report will: Describe HSIB’s approach to family engagement in our investigations and what has informed our practice. Describe what has worked well in our approach to family engagement. Summarise what families and staff tell us about our approach. Explain what we have learned and plans for future work.
