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Sam

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  1. Sam
    In the next few days, once the data has been collected, the Government will come out and say that, thanks to its policies, the situation in A&E is improving.
    Despite estimates released recently by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine that soaring waits for A&E beds led to more than 250 needless deaths a week in England alone last year, the Government will point to declining numbers of patients who breached the four-hour target this March.
    The four-hour target means we're meant to see and either discharge or admit patients within four hours of their arriving in A&E.
    But it's a sham, writes Professor Rob Galloway in the Daily Mail. Because, for the past month, the four-hour data has been manipulated, the result of two policies introduced earlier in the month by the Government.
    Read full story
    Source: Daily Mail, 3 April 2024
  2. Sam
    A gran was left lying outside in the cold facing a seven hour wait for an ambulance following a fall before finally being rescued — by firefighters. Betsy Hulme, 83, was left in agony with a broken hip when she tumbled in her back garden in Leek, Staffordshire.
    Son Steve, 60, a former ambulance technician, dialled 999 only to be told it would be several hours until paramedics could get to them due to long handover delays. After a further three hours of Betsy waiting on cold concrete slabs while soaked in rain water, desperate Steve decided to drive to a nearby fire station to ask for help.
    Fire crews then came to rescue to lift gran-of-four Betsy into her son's car who took her to hospital where she remains after undergoing a hip repair operation. Dad-of-two Steve, of Leek, has now branded emergency response times as “absolutely disgusting”.
    He said: "It’s opened my eyes if I’m honest. It’s absolutely disgusting. I’m so grateful and thankful to the fire service - but it really isn’t their job. I can't remember in my time working as an ambulance technician going to someone and saying, 'I’m sorry it’s taken us twelve hours to get here'."
    “It was never anywhere near those ridiculous times when I worked there until 2000 and something has gone drastically wrong since. I can't speak highly enough of the boys and girls who work in the NHS, it's the people above them. Its systemic change that's needed."
    Read full story
    Source: Wales Online, 4 April 2024
  3. Sam
    Black children in the UK are at four times greater risk of complications following emergency appendicitis surgery compared with white children.
    Researchers revealed these alarming disparities in postoperative outcomes recently.
    The study, led by Dr Amaki Sogbodjor, a consultant anaesthetist at Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London, showed that black children faced these greater risks irrespective of their socioeconomic status and health history.
    Appendicitis is one of the most prevalent paediatric surgical emergencies; approximately 10,000 cases are treated annually in the UK.
    However, this marks the first attempt to scrutinise demographic variances in postoperative complication rates related to appendicitis.
    Dr Sogbodjor emphasised the critical need for further investigation into the root causes of these disparities.
    "This apparent health inequality requires urgent further investigation and development of interventions aimed at resolution," she said.
    Read full story
    Source: Surgery, 25 March 2024
  4. Sam
    The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has called on the UK government not to wait until after the upcoming general election to approve an infant immunisation programme against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), so that babies can be protected next winter.
    In June 2023 the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) recommended developing an RSV immunisation programme for infants and for older adults.1 It issued a fuller statement reiterating the advice in September 2023.2 But the government has yet to make a final decision on rolling out an RSV immunisation programme.
    A letter signed by more than 2000 paediatricians and healthcare professionals says that the sooner a full RSV vaccination programme is implemented the more effective it will be and that it “could save child health services reaching breaking point.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: BMJ, 20 March 2024
  5. Sam
    The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has launched a £50m “Challenge” funding call to tackle inequalities in maternity care.
    The funding call aims to establish a research consortium to deliver research and capacity building over five years.
    The call was announced as part of the Department for Health and Social Care’s women’s health priorities for 2024.
    Recent evidence suggests that Black women in the UK are almost three times more likely to die during pregnancy or up to six weeks after pregnancy compared to white women. Asian women are twice as likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after, compared to white women.
    The new consortium is hoped to bring together experts across the UK to help change numbers like these.
    The research aims to focus on inequalities before, during and after pregnancy. According to NIHR, a key aim is to identify specific areas where measurable improvements can be made.
    Relevant charities, patient groups, community groups and the life sciences industry will be involved in the research where appropriate.
    Professor Marian Knight, scientific director for NIHR Infrastructure, said: “I am hugely excited about what this research can achieve – funding truly innovative approaches to tackle maternity inequalities will save women’s and babies’ lives – this is a challenge the NIHR is ideally placed to deliver.”
    Read full story
    Source: FemTech World, 15 March 2024
  6. Sam
    A group of doctors offered a controversial medical technique which allegedly put kidney patients' health at risk.
    At least 20 patients at Queen Alexandra Hospital (QA) in Portsmouth have been using the procedure, which is not recommended in UK guidelines.
    A consultant was wrongly sacked from the hospital in 2018 after objecting to the practice.
    The hospital trust said the safety and care of its patients was its priority.
    Jasna Macanovic, who worked at the QA for 17 years, had raised concerns about the way the trust was allowing some staff to deliver the dialysis technique - known as buttonholing.
    "I don't think they're fit to practise medicine," Dr Macanovic told the BBC.
    When Dr Macanovic examined the records of 15 patients using the buttonholing technique at the QA, she found infection rates four times higher than they experienced using the standard technique.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 15 March 2024
  7. Sam
    An inquest into the death of a baby boy who died two weeks after birth in a Sussex hospital has found there were missed opportunities in the care of his mother.
    Orlando Davis was born by emergency caesarian section at Worthing Hospital, part of University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, on 10 September 2021 following a normal and low risk pregnancy.
    He was born with no heartbeat and his parents were told he had suffered an irreversible brain injury after being starved of oxygen - after his mother Robyn Davis experienced seizures during labour, caused by a rare condition that went "completely unrecognised" by staff.
    Orlando died in Robyn and husband Jonny’s arms on 24 September 2021 at 14 days old due to his catastrophic brain injury.
    His mother had to be put in an induced coma, but has since recovered. But his parents say his death was avoidable.
    Today at the inquest into Orlando's death, senior coroner, Ms Penelope Schofield said a lack of understanding of hyponatremia contributed to neglect of Orlando.
    Mrs Davis had told the inquest: “I can’t explain the sadness, frustration, anger and complete heartbreak I felt and still feel towards the trust for not keeping us safe.
    Mrs Davis continued: “The thing I cannot process is that I have lost my healthy, full-term son. I feel as if my son was taken from me in a circumstance that, in my personal and professional opinion, was completely preventable.
    Read full story
    Source: ITVX, 14 March 2024
     
  8. Sam
    NHS doctor Chris Day has won the right to challenge a tribunal decision which raises questions about information governance in NHS hospital trusts and the use of digital evidence by employment tribunals.

    Day blew the whistle on acute understaffing at a South London intensive care unit linked to two patient deaths in 2013. His decade-long legal campaign has since exposed the lack of statutory whistleblowing protections for nearly 50,000 doctors below consultant level in England.

    An appeal tribunal in February refused Day the right to challenge key aspects of an earlier tribunal ruling that cleared Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (LGT) of deliberately concealing evidence and perverting the course of justice when one of the trust’s directors “deliberately” deleted up to 90,000 emails midway through a tribunal hearing in July 2022.

    Day’s high-profile case nevertheless continues to raise questions about information governance practices in NHS hospital trusts and the degree of scrutiny applied to digital evidence retention and disclosure practices at UK employment tribunals.
    The 2022 tribunal heard that LGT communications director David Cocke had attempted to destroy up to 90,000 emails and other electronic archives that were potentially critical to the case as the hearing progressed.
    However, any remaining documents among the tens of thousands of emails and electronic archives, which NHS trust lawyers told the tribunal had been “permanently” destroyed, are likely still to exist and be recoverable, according to an expert consulted by Computer Weekly.
    Read full story
    Source: Computer Weekly, 19 March 2024
  9. Sam
    The ceiling of an intensive care ward collapsed onto a patient on life support and hours later a falling lift broke a doctor’s leg in a 24-hour snapshot of Britain’s crumbling NHS hospitals last week.
    Staff rushed to evacuate the ten-bed unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Harlow, Essex, and the local trust declared a major incident on Thursday morning as engineers carried out urgent safety checks and patients were moved to other wards.
    The next day, a surgeon was in a lift at the Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel, east London, when the lift plummeted four floors. His leg was broken when the lift’s emergency brakes activated. Hospital managers shut down four other lifts pending a safety investigation. The day before, another lift in the hospital had also fallen.
    The incidents signify that “chickens are coming home to roost” after years of underinvestment in NHS facilities, Dame Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Commons public accounts committee, said.
    “It’s a sign of the crumbling infrastructure, not just of our hospitals but of the whole country,” she said. “These are not conditions that patients or hospital staff should have to work in.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 17 March 2024
  10. Sam
    While employment for new clinicians was positive in the last year with 96% of new nurses finding work, the issue is transitioning those clinicians from education into bedside and hospital practice, which is the most pressing safety challenge of 2024, according to the ECRI's annual report on patient safety.
    "[T]here is growing concern about the difficulty of transitioning new clinicians from education to practice — in the face of several factors exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic," an overview of the report states. "Without sufficient preparation, support, and training, new clinicians can experience loss of confidence, burnout, and reduced mindfulness around culture of safety. The combination of these factors may lead to preventable harm."
    The ECRI publishes independent medical device evaluations, annually aggregates scientific literature and patient safety events, concerns reported to or investigated by the organization, and other data sources to create its top 10 report.
    Each topic that landed in this year's top 10 "represents a failure in at least one of these areas; in fact, many overlap and their roots are found in multiple areas," the report notes. 
    Read full story
    Source: Becker Hospital Review, 11 March 2024
  11. Sam
    Bereaved relatives have accused ministers of dragging their feet over an inquiry into the death of almost 2,000 patients across NHS mental health trusts in Essex.
    The inquiry has still not started more than eight months after the announcement that it would be relaunched with beefed-up powers.
    In June last year, the government gave in to pressure from families and the then chair of the inquiry, granting it legal powers to compel witnesses to give evidence. In December, the new terms of reference were sent to ministers, setting out what the inquiry will investigate.
    But the terms of reference have yet to be approved by ministers, leaving relatives frustrated, with another “unnecessary” death reported a few weeks ago.
    Melanie Leahy, whose son, Matthew, died at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford in 2012, said: “I know that this inquiry, the first of its kind nationally, if carried out in a timely and comprehensively investigative manner, it has the power to prevent more deaths, not just in Essex but all over the UK.
    “Why am I and all the other bereaved families and injured individuals still waiting? Worse, why are we being met with such callous and terrifying indifference? Why are our legal team being ignored? We can only conclude that our government simply does not care. If the government continues to drag its feet in this way then they must be held to account for their failings. If there are more deaths during this interminable wait, this government needs to be held responsible.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 12 March 2024
  12. Sam
    Nearly 70 healthcare workers with Long Covid will take their fight to the High Court later to sue the NHS and other employers for compensation.
    The staff, from England and Wales, believe they first caught Covid at work during the pandemic and say they were not properly protected from the virus.
    Many of them say they are left with life-changing disabilities and are likely to lose income as a result.
    The Department of Health said "there are lessons to be learnt" from Covid.
    The group believe they were not provided with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) at work, which includes eye protection, gloves, gowns and aprons.
    In particular, they say they should have had access to high-grade masks, which help block droplets in the air from patient's coughs and sneezes which can contain the Covid virus.
    But the masks they were given tended to be in line with national guidance.
    Rachel Hext, who is 36, has always insisted that she caught Covid in her job as a nurse in a small community hospital in Devon.
    "It's devastating. I live an existence rather than a life. It prevents me doing so much of what I want to do. And it's been four years."
    Her list of long Covid symptoms includes everything from brain fog and extreme fatigue to nerve damage, and deafness in one ear.
    Solicitor Kevin Digby, who represents more than 60 members of the group, describes their case as "very important".
    He says: "It's quite harrowing. These people really have been abandoned, and they are really struggling to fight to get anything.
    "Now, they can take it to court and hope that they can get some compensation for the injuries that they've suffered."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 6 March 2024
    Related reading on the hub:
    Healthcare workers with Long Covid: Group litigation – a blog from David Osborn The pandemic – questions around Government governance: a blog from David Osborn  
  13. Sam
    Scrapping the new Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will leave thousands of New Zealanders exposed to ongoing harm from dodgy medical devices, warn patient safety advocates and legal experts.
    The act, which was due to come into force in 2026, would have modernised the regulation of medicines and natural health products, and made medical devices, as well as cell, gene and tissue therapies, subject to a similar regulatory regime as drugs.
    The industry has backed the move, saying the new law was heavy-handed and would stop people getting access to the latest lifesaving technological advances.
    However, Auckland woman Carmel Berry — who was left in constant knife-like pain from plastic mesh implanted during surgery — said she was “living proof” of the old system’s failures.
    It took more than 10 years of lobbying by her and the other founders of Mesh Down Under to get authorities to take action — a decade in which hundreds of other people were injured.
    She is horrified that the TPA, signed into law in only July, is on the chopping block.
    Beginning work to repeal it was No 47 out of 49 points on the Government’s to-do list for its first 100 days.
    “I’m horrified. After so many years of developing and rewriting the act and getting it through ... shame on them.”
    Read full story
    Source: New Zealand Herald,  18 February 2024
  14. Sam
    It is still unclear how unauthorised metal parts came to be implanted in a number of the 19 children with spina bifida who suffered significant complications after spinal surgery.
    But it has emerged that one child died and 18 others suffered a range of complications after surgery at Temple Street Children’s Hospital – with several needing further surgery, including the removal of metal parts which were not authorised for use.
    Parents of the children undergoing complex surgery were left distraught by the disclosures that emerged yesterday, after campaigning for years while the young patients in need of operations deteriorated on waiting lists.
    Gerry Maguire, of Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Ireland, said “absolute horror is being visited on parents and their advocates”.
    He condemned as disturbing the information which is “being drip-fed to his group and “more alarmingly the families concerned”. One mother expressed concern about further delays in surgery and said children are too complex to be taken for care abroad.
    Read full story
    Source: Irish Independent, 19 September 2023
  15. Sam
    “I’ve seen patients take swings at doctors because they’re not happy with the time it’s taken or the doctor’s diagnosis. I’ve seen fire extinguishers set off and thrown at people, computers lifted and thrown across the emergency department and people run out of cubicles and punch other patients – people they don’t know – for no reason.”
    Roger Webb, a security supervisor at the Queen’s Medical Centre hospital in Nottingham, is recalling some of the more unsavoury incidents he has witnessed in the course of his work.
    “I’ve been struck in the groin, had scratches all over my arms where people have dug their nails in. I’ve been bitten and I’ve been spat at while trying to deal with situations. The spitting is the most depressing of those, though, because it’s so contemptuous and so horrible. And legally it’s assault.”
    Like staff across the NHS, those at the QMC have seen a rise in abusive, threatening and intimidatory behaviour by patients and their relatives in recent years. In 2021-22, Nottingham University hospitals (NUH), the NHS trust that runs the QMC and its sister City hospital, recorded 1,237 incidents of aggression, violence and harassment. But it had many more – 1,806 – during the following year, 2022-23.
    Last year brought another increase. In the six months between April to September alone, NUH recorded another 1,167 incidents, leaving 2023-24 likely to be the worst ever on record.
    Staff have been hit, spat at, threatened, verbally abused and racially abused during this roll call of unpleasant incidents. Racially aggravated harassment has increased notably.
    Some of the incidents have led to perpetrators being charged and convicted. Worryingly, in a growing number of cases, the patient has been responsible for several incidents while receiving one single episode of care.
    Care delays are the main trigger for abuse at the QMC. But such incidents also arise when staff are treating drunks, rival gangs, people who are high on drugs and those with mental health problems.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 25 February 2024
  16. Sam
    An unprecedented number of women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy, the BBC has been told.
    Abortion provider MSI says it knows of up to 60 criminal inquiries in England and Wales since 2018, compared with almost zero before.
    Some investigations followed natural pregnancy loss, File on 4 found.
    Pregnancy loss is investigated only if credible evidence suggests a crime, the National Police Chiefs' Council says.
    File on 4 has spoken to women who say that they have been "traumatised" and left feeling "suicidal" following criminal investigations lasting years.
    Speaking for the first time, one woman described how she had been placed under investigation after giving birth prematurely, despite maintaining that she had never attempted an abortion.
    Dr Jonathan Lord, medical director at MSI, which is one of the UK's main abortion providers, believes the "unprecedented" number of women now falling under investigation may be linked to the police's increased awareness of the availability of the "pills by post" scheme - introduced in England and Wales during the Covid-19 lockdown. Scotland also introduced a similar programme.
    These "telemedicine" schemes, which allow pregnancies up to 10 weeks to be terminated at home, remain in effect. Campaigners are concerned that it is possible for women to knowingly or unknowingly use the pills after this point.
    MSI's Dr Lord says criminal investigations and prosecutions further "traumatise" women after abortions, and that women deserve "compassion" rather than "punishment".
    "These women are often vulnerable and in desperate situations - they need help, not investigation and punishment," he says.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 20 February 2024
  17. Sam
    An NHS trust has concluded that its former chief executive is not a “fit and proper person” to be on an NHS board, after investigating allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour, HSJ has learned.
    HSJ understands The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt (RJAH) Orthopaedic Hospital Foundation Trust commissioned a specialist external workplace investigation into Mark Brandreth, which considered serious allegations made about his behaviour during his time as trust chief executive between April 2016 and August 2021.
    Mr Brandreth is understood to dispute the allegations as well as the investigation’s findings, and is seeking to challenge RJAH’s handling of the complaints and its process for deciding he did not meet the Fit and Proper Person Test. 
    Sources with knowledge of the situation said almost 30 female RJAH staff members came forward to give information to the investigation, but it focused on 12 employees who were willing to give evidence.
    HSJ has been told that as a result of the investigation, which concluded at the end of last year, the trust’s chair has informed NHSE in writing that it believes Mr Brandreth does not meet the “Fit and Proper Person Test”, implying he should be ruled out of board roles – or roles with equivalent responsibility – at English NHS organisations and adult social care providers.
    However, the trust, in Shropshire, is not planning to publish its ruling and – with no professional regulation in place for health and care managers and/or board members – it is unclear how effective the conclusion will be if it is not made public. A female staff member told HSJ of her concerns that “nothing is being done”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 21 February 2024
  18. Sam
    Disrepair in NHS buildings led to thousands of potentially-harmful incidents last year including critically ill patients being moved when rainfall came through the ceiling.
    Sewage leaks, floods and failing equipment also featured in incident records obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act.
    Health chiefs called on the government to nearly double its capital spending.
    The government said "significant sums" had been invested to modernise the NHS.
    Heath Secretary Victoria Atkins said the government accepted that some hospital buildings "are not as we would wish them to be" but added that it was for NHS chief executives to decide how to spend the money.
    According to NHS data, the care of more than 2,600 acute hospital patients was disrupted last year by estates and infrastructure failure.
    The NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, has published a report setting out what health care leaders want the next government to prioritise.
    It has called on the government to increase capital spending on the health service from £7.7bn to £14.1bn.
    Matthew Taylor, its chief executive, said: "Put simply, a lack of capital funding can leave patients at risk."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 21 February 2024
  19. Sam
    The head of the NHS has today announced the rollout of ‘Martha’s Rule’ in hospitals across England from April, enabling patients and families to seek an urgent review if their condition deteriorates.
    The patient safety initiative is set to be rolled out to at least 100 NHS sites and will give patients and their families round-the-clock access to a rapid review from an independent critical care team if they are worried about their or a loved one’s condition.
    This escalation process will be available 24/7 to patients, families and NHS staff, and will be advertised throughout hospitals, making it quickly and easily accessible.
    NHS chief Amanda Pritchard said the programme had the potential to “save many lives in the future” and thanked Martha’s family for their important campaigning and collaboration to help the NHS improve the care of patients experiencing acute deterioration.
    Thirteen-year-old Martha Mills died from sepsis at King’s College Hospital, London, in 2021, due to a failure to escalate her to intensive care and after her family’s concerns about her deteriorating condition were not responded to promptly.
    Extensive campaigning by her parents Merope and Paul, supported by the cross-party think tank Demos, has seen widespread support for a single system that allows patients or their families to trigger an urgent clinical review from a different team in the hospital if the patient’s condition is rapidly worsening and they feel they are not getting the care they need.
    Merope Mills and Paul Laity, Martha’s parents, said: “We are pleased that the implementation of Martha’s Rule will begin in April. We want it to be in place as quickly and as widely as possible, to prevent what happened to our daughter from happening to other patients in hospital.
    “We believe Martha’s Rule will save lives. In cases of deterioration, families and carers by the bedside can be aware of changes busy clinicians can’t; their knowledge should be recognised as a resource. We also look to Martha’s Rule to alter medical culture: to give patients a little more power, to encourage listening on the part of medical professionals, and to normalise the idea that even the grandest of doctors should welcome being challenged. We call on all NHS clinicians to back the initiative: we know that the large majority do listen, are open with patients and never complacent – but Martha’s doctors worked in a different culture, so some situations need to change.
    “Our daughter was quite something: fun and determined, with a vast appetite for life and so many plans and ambitions – we’ll never know what she would have achieved with all her talents. Hers was a preventable death, but Martha’s Rule will mean that she didn’t die completely in vain.”
    Read full story
    Source: NHS England, 21 February 2024
  20. Sam
    A man with Down’s Syndrome and dementia died in hospital after not being fed for nine days.
    The 56-year-old was admitted to Poole hospital with a hip fracture after falling over at a Bournemouth care home, where he had been receiving care.
    On admittance, he was taken to the trauma and orthopaedics ward, where he was listed as ‘nil by mouth’, as he had trouble swallowing.
    Nine days later, he died of pneumonia after a ‘series of errors’ at the hospital.
    Now, the man’s father has been given £22,500 in compensation, after an incident investigation at the hospital.
    Allegations made against the hospital included a failure to feed the patient for nine days, causing "his subsequent severe deterioration and death".
    The hospital failed to adequately monitor and investigate his condition, while failing to provide senior doctors, it was alleged.
    This left unsupervised junior doctors who did not have access to senior staff or any way to escalate their concerns, allegations said.
    This, it was claimed, was not done when the patient was still nil by mouth after nine days, despite the fact he was suffering from pneumonia.
    Read full story
    Source: Yahoo News, 9 February 2024
  21. Sam
    The NHS has been accused of putting patients' lives at risk after it allowed hundreds of staff, including senior consultants and managers, to work thousands of miles from the UK.
    A Mail on Sunday investigation has discovered that NHS staff at every level are working remotely in places as far flung as Australia and Japan.
    Critics last night warned that the 'unacceptable and dangerous' arrangements could threaten patient safety.
    Professor Karol Sikora, a former director of the World Health Organisation cancer programme, said: "Allowing staff to work from abroad is a huge mistake that can only undermine patient safety and the efficacy of treatment."
    At least 335 NHS staff from 33 trusts have been allowed to work abroad in the past two years, according to data from Freedom of Information requests.
    Until last year, Constantine Fragkoulakis, 42, was employed as a consultant radiologist at Sherwood Forest Hospitals Foundation Trust in Nottinghamshire. 
    The trust said its radiologists "routinely interpret images and write reports away from the hospitals where they are based". 
    But Mr Fragkoulakis admitted there had been "a lot of IT issues, so there was no patient care involved or clinical work'. He added: 'Essentially it was just meetings that I did."
    Another consultant radiologist, Branimir Klasic, 50, is being allowed to work two weeks each month in Croatia by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in South Wales. 
    It said recruitment was "increasingly challenging" and that it was "open to exploring ways of working that ensures we can provide the skills and expertise that our patients need". 
    A Department of Health spokesman said: "We are clear that ways of working, which are agreed between NHS employers and its staff, should never impact on NHS patients or services."
    Read full story
    Source: Daily Mail, 10 February 2024
  22. Sam
    Fewer people with mental illnesses would endure the trauma of being sectioned if advanced choice documents – setting out a treatment plan while they are well – were included in Mental Health Act reforms, a leading psychiatrist has said.
    Advanced choice documents are the only proven way to reduce the number of people detained under the Mental Health Act in England and Wales, which is one of the reforms’ core objectives, said Dr Lade Smith, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
    Research suggests that the use of these documents can reduce compulsory detention rates in psychiatric units, often known as sectioning, by 25%, minimising traumatic experiences for people with bipolar, schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses.
    “It’s high time there was reform of the Mental Health Act because the rates of detention are increasing, especially for marginalised groups, those who are poor or from a minoritised ethnic community, especially black Caribbean … Advanced choice docs were a recommendation of the review, I don’t know why they haven’t gone through,” said Smith.
    Advanced choice documents are especially effective in reducing the significantly higher detention rates for black people with mental illnesses, as they can help patients feel more autonomous and reduce unconscious bias.
    Advanced choice documents are similar to those used in palliative care. Patients work with a healthcare professional when they are well to outline the signs that they are experiencing a manic or psychotic episode, effective treatments, and their personal preferences.
    This could include background information and trigger questions to help healthcare practitioners establish delusional thought patterns; medications and doses which have been effective previously; and requests to be put in hospital for their own safety, or – more unusually – that of others.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 12 February 2024
  23. Sam
    Alzheimer's patients could lose out on two groundbreaking new drugs because the NHS is unprepared, a leading charity has told BBC Panorama.
    Lecanemab and donanemab slow down the early stages of the disease - which is the most common form of dementia.
    But Alzheimer's Research UK says the NHS is not ready to roll out the drugs, which could be licensed this year.
    The treatments would then be subject to an assessment of cost and benefits before they are made available.
    Lecanemab and donanemab represent a step forward because they target one of the causes of Alzheimer's, rather than treating the symptoms.
    However, their effectiveness depends on early diagnosis - and very few people have the specialist scans or investigations which would be needed.
    Questions also remain over potentially harmful side-effects of the drugs and whether the benefit they offer represents value for NHS money.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 12 February 2024
  24. Sam
    Reductions in the number of long ambulance delays have come at a “huge cost” as hospitals are having to take in more emergency patients than they have space for, NHS England’s urgent care director has said.
    Sarah-Jane Marsh told NHS England’s board meeting on Thursday that emergency departments and hospital wards are now taking more “risk” by taking extra patients in a bid to get ambulances back on the road quicker.
    This year, many fewer hours have been lost to ambulance delays, although the total number of delays of more than 60 minutes is approaching the same as last winter. Emergency department waits in November and December were better than last year, although still much worse than pre-covid and a long way below targets. 
    But Ms Marsh said the improvement was a result of hospitals agreeing to take more patients into EDs and acute wards, even when they did not have space or staff to properly care for them.
    She said: “It’s come at a huge cost. Some of the things we have achieved are because we have moved pressures around in the system.
    “We have moved risk out of people’s houses and from the back of ambulances, and in some cases we’ve moved that into emergency departments [and] wards, that have had to take the pressure of taking additional patients.
    “Next year one of our learnings is that we need to have a really big focus on what is happening inside our hospitals [so] we decongest some very crowded areas.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 1 February 2024
  25. Sam
    Treatments for seven conditions such as sore throats and earaches are now available directly from pharmacists, without the need to visit a doctor.
    The Pharmacy First scheme will allow most chemists in England to issue prescriptions to patients without appointments or referrals.
    NHS England says it will free up around 10 million GP appointments a year.
    Pharmacy groups welcome the move but there is concern about funding and recent chemist closures.
    Pharmacists can carry out confidential consultations and advise whether any treatment, including antibiotics, are needed for the list of seven minor ailments.
    Patients needing more specialist or follow-up care will be referred onwards.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 31 January 2024
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