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Sam

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  1. Sam
    The NHS is "riddled with racism", the chair of the British Medical Association's council has told the BBC.
    Dr Chaand Nagpaul has spoken out in response to a survey by the BMA, shared exclusively with BBC News.
    At least 75% of ethnic minority doctors experienced racism more than once in the last two years, while 17.4% said they regularly faced racism at work, the survey said.
    NHS England said it takes a "zero-tolerance approach" to racism.
    Racism affects patients as well as doctors' wellbeing, by stopping talented people from progressing fairly and affecting doctors' mental health, Dr Nagpaul warned.
    "This is about a moral right for anyone who works for the NHS to be treated fairly," he said.
    Around 40% of the NHS's 123,000 doctors are from minority backgrounds, compared to about 13.8% of the general population. But despite this diversity, doctors told the BBC that there was a toxic "us versus them" culture in NHS trusts across the UK.
    They said they had faced bogus or disproportionate complaints from colleagues, racist comments from superiors, and even physical assault in the workplace. Some said they had tried to lodge complaints which were then ignored or dismissed without investigation.
    One consultant, from a black African background, told the BMA that after reporting previous incidents "no action was taken... I feel uncomfortable and anxious of reprisals".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 2 February 2022
  2. Sam
    Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) could be made available to buy over the counter.
    Health watchdogs are proposing a re-classification of the medication so women would be able to buy it in pharmacies without a prescription, it’s claimed.
    HRT is mainly used to treat menopause symptoms but it is not yet known which version of the medication will be a part of the proposal, the Daily Telegraph reports.
    Symptoms can include hot flushes, reduced sex drive and mood swings and usually pass after a few years.
    More than one million women a year are believed to suffer each year but treatment is currently only available after consultation with a GP or a specialist.
    A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "We understand that for some women menopause symptoms can have a significant impact on their quality of life, and we are committed to improving the care and support they receive.
    "That’s why we’re developing the first ever government-led Women’s Health Strategy, informed by women’s lived experience. Menopause, including improving access to Hormone Replacement Therapy, will be a priority under the Strategy."
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 2 February 2022
  3. Sam
    Death has become “over medicalised” and the public should be encouraged to discuss dying and grief, experts have said.
    There's a call for shift in attitude towards palliative care, with more emphasis on compassion and less on giving medication that may prolong pain.
    According to a new Lancet commission, an overemphasis on aggressive treatments to prolong life, global inequities in palliative care access, and high end-of-life medical costs have led to millions of people suffering unnecessarily at the end of their life.
    The authors also note that the pandemic has made death and dying more prominent in daily life, while health systems have been “overwhelmed” when trying to care for those dying.
    People often died alone, with families unable to say goodbye to loved ones or grieve together, the commission said – the effects of which will “resonate for years to come”.
    The researchers argue that many people, mainly in low- and middle-income countries, have no access to end-of-life care, and particularly to opioids, while those in high-income countries may be overtreated.
    Attitudes towards death and dying should be “rebalanced”, the authors conclude, away from a medicalised approach towards a “compassionate community model”, where families work with health and social care services to care for those dying.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Telegraph, 31 January 2022
  4. Sam
    Trust were tonight told to cease plans for dismissing unvaccinated staff, as the government announced it would consult on dropping its mandatory covid vaccine policy.
    An email to local NHS leaders said: “Today the Secretary of State has announced that [the vaccination as a condition of deployment policy] is being reconsidered. The government’s decision is subject to Parliamentary process and will require further consultation and a vote to be passed into legislation.
    “We are aware that, based on the guidance already issued to the service, you will have begun to prepare for formal meetings with staff on their deployment if they remain unvaccinated. This change in government policy means we request that employers do not serve notice of termination to employees affected by the [vaccination as a condition of deployment] regulations.”
    Previous guidance had required that, after 3 February – the deadline to have a first vaccination in order to have two vaccines by the 1 April legal cut-off – trusts begin formal meetings and issue dismissal warnings to unvaccinated patient-facing staff. 
    Huge efforts have been put into encouraging staff to be vaccinated and to preparing for the next steps in recent weeks. However, tens of thousands across England are still believed to have had no vaccine, or to have an “unknown” vaccine status.
    The brief NHSE letter gave no further guidance on whether trusts should continue to press staff to be vaccinated by that date, or continue to have discussions about redeployment.
    Sajid Javid, who introduced the legal requirements last year, told the Commons: “I am announcing that we will launch a consultation on ending [VCOD] in health and all social care settings.
    “Subject to the responses – and the will of this House – the Government will revoke the regulations. I have always been clear that our rules must remain proportionate and balanced – and of course, should we see another dramatic change in the virus, it would be responsible to review this policy again.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 1 February 2022
  5. Sam
    Injured NHS patients have spoken out about the human cost of clinical negligence in a new report published as MPs examine how to cut the health service’s bill for causing harm.
    The House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee is gathering evidence for its inquiry on NHS litigation reform.
    “There is a fixation on the financial cost of clinical negligence, rather than on the human cost and the reasons why injured patients have to make a claim for compensation at all,” said Guy Forster of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) a not-for-profit group which campaigns on behalf of injured patients and their families.
    “There are a lot of voices and opinions in any debate which concerns the NHS and patient safety, but they are almost never the voices and opinions of the patients. This is why APIL has commissioned The Value of Compensation report,” said Mr Forster.
    Patients who took part in the research cite mounting debt; uncertainty about their future health; isolation; abandoned careers; relationship breakdowns; and loss of independence, as some of the many far-reaching side effects of injuries sustained through failures in care.
    “Patients are devastated to have trusted the NHS with their health and then have to live with the pain and suffering of an injury which should have been avoided,” said Mr Forster. “This report provides new insight on how compensation can help rebuild their lives.”
    “None of them relish having to make a claim for compensation. I cannot stress enough that the money is never, ever a ‘windfall’ for an injured patient,” he went on.
    “It is obvious that full and fair compensation is critical for injured patients. It should go without saying that the cost of compensation would be cut if the harm were not caused in the first place. But it is critical that when things go wrong, injured people are cared for properly and have the chance to get back on track.”
    Read press release
    Source: APIL, 12 January 2022
  6. Sam
    A vulnerable woman judged to be at medium risk of self harm was on a mental-health ward that catered for low-risk patients, an inquest heard.
    Zoe Wilson, 22, died on the Larch Ward at Bristol's Callington Road Hospital in June 2019 after being found unconscious in her room at 01.30 BST.
    She had previously told staff that voices were telling her to kill herself, her inquest heard.
    Healthcare assistant Sarah Sharma found her and immediately called for help. Addressing a jury inquest at Avon Coroners' Court, she said that "patients admitted to Larch should have all been low risk". 
    This meant they would "preferably" have hourly observations by staff and be able to take their medication without any issues. Many were ready to be discharged and they were there because something was holding them up, normally housing, she said.
    The experienced healthcare assistant said if the patient's risk increased they should be placed under "one to one" monitoring with a member of staff until they were moved to a more suitable unit.
    The inquest heard earlier that Ms Wilson had been judged to be medium risk and was placed on 30-minute observations on 18 June.
    Her risk level was re-assessed when she handed a belt to staff and informed them voices were telling her to kill herself.
    Ms Sharma told the court that she was on her first overnight shift in two and a half weeks that night, and was informed in a handover that Ms Wilson was at risk of self-harming.
    Having never met Ms Wilson - who had schizophrenia - she queried what kind of self-harm the patient was at risk of but said the nurse performing the handover told her he "didn't know".
    Ms Sharma told the inquest she was unaware of the belt incident or that Ms Wilson had not been sleeping well and had requested medication to calm her down.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 24 January 2022
  7. Sam
    A “very tense” behind-the-scenes row over how quickly hospitals in England can be expected to reduce the massive backlog of surgery has broken out between NHS bosses and ministers.
    The dispute has delayed publication of the government’s “elective recovery plan”, which Downing Street had indicated would be part of Boris Johnson’s “Operation Red Meat” political fightback this week.
    No 10, the Treasury and Department of Health and Social Care are pressing NHS England to ensure that hospitals do as many operations as they can, as quickly as possible, in order to tackle the backlog, which now stands at a record 6 million patients.
    They want to impose “stretching and demanding” targets on hospitals, sources with knowledge of the discussions said.
    However, NHS trust bosses say the ongoing impact of treating patients sick with Covid, due to the current Omicron surge, longstanding gaps in their workforce, exhaustion at the frontline and record levels of staff sickness, mean they need time to get back to doing as much surgery as they did before the pandemic.
    The Treasury is said to be frustrated with NHS England and privately believes it is “foot-dragging” over the targets. NHS bosses for their part fear the plan is being driven by “political expediency”, given the growing concern at the sheer number of people facing long delays for care.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 20 January 2022
  8. Sam
    Leading charities have spoken out against the government’s scrapping of COVID-19 measures warning that clinically vulnerable people have been made “collateral damage for political considerations.”
    Those representing thousands of clinically vulnerable people have warned the government’s decisions to scrap COVID-19 restrictions leaves people “marginalised” and warned there was a risk to 5-11 year old vulnerable children who are yet to be vaccinated.
    The removal of COVID-19 restrictions next week will mean masks are no longer mandatory and the government will no longer ask people to work from home. Blood Cancer UK has called for the government to do more to support immunocompromised people such as giving them priority testing.
    Alzheimer's Society has said it is too early to drop basic measures, such as mask wearing, which help protect vulnerable members of society.
    Charlotte Augst, chief executive for the charity National Voices said clinically vulnerable people had now become “collateral damage in political considerations.”
    She said: “The pandemic has obviously been difficult for everyone, but it’s been the most difficult for people who are vulnerable to the virus, and some of these people have never really come out of 22 months of lockdowns.
    “There are obviously infection control measures that are harmful to society and lockdown is one of them - it causes harm. But there are some infection control measures which are not and which enable people to get on with their lives - wearing masks, improving ventilation.
    “Why would we not do this? When we understood that dirty water caused illness, we cleaned up the water. It cannot be a political statement to say we should clean up the air this is just fact-based decision making, but the situation] has now become all about politics.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent. 21 January 2022
  9. Sam
    Hundreds of nurses, paramedics, health and care workers have been disciplined over allegations of sexual assault, including incidents involving child sexual abuse, The Independent can reveal.
    It comes as the government begins a year-long inquiry into the sexual abuse of dead patients by “morgue monster” David Fuller.
    Charities claim the true scale of the issue is likely to be hidden by “vast underreporting” while safeguarding experts say there is no “uniformity” in how NHS trusts handle such cases.
    The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), which regulates just under 300,000 workers including paramedics, occupational therapists, psychologists and physiotherapists, has taken action on 154 occasions following 293 investigations carried out into allegations of sexual assault or abuse since 2012, according to figures obtained by The Independent.
    Fifty-three clinicians were struck off, 20 were cautioned and a further 29 were either suspended, had restrictions placed on their practice or agreed to be removed from registration. More than half of the actions followed allegations of sexual abuse of a child patient.
    Separate data from Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which has more than 700,000 registered nurses and midwives. shows action was taken 113 times in the past four years against nurses and midwives who did not maintain professional boundaries; in more than 80 per cent of those cases, the clinician was struck off.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 21 January 2022
  10. Sam
    A cervical cancer patient has been treated with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI) for the first time in the UK.
    Emma McCormick, 44, was treated at the St Luke's Cancer Centre in Guildford, Surrey.
    The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust treated Ms McCormick, who is from West Sussex, using adaptive radiotherapy.
    The AI technology uses daily CT scans to target the specific areas that need radiotherapy.
    This helps to avoid damage to healthy tissue and limit side-effects, the hospital said.
    Patients are given treatments lasting between 20 and 25 minutes, although Ms McCormick's was slightly longer as she was the first patient, a hospital spokesman said.
    Ms McCormick received five AI-guided treatments per week for five weeks before having a further two weeks of brachytherapy.
    She said: "If it works for me, and they get information from me, it can help somebody else. It definitely worked and did what it was meant to do and so hopefully that helps others."
    Dr Alex Stewart, who treated Ms McCormick, said one of the benefits of the treatment was that it allowed for more precision, meaning there were fewer side-effects for the patients.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 21 January 2022
  11. Sam
    Giving repeated booster doses of existing CovidD-19 vaccines in developed countries is not a sustainable global strategy for tackling the pandemic, the World Health Organization has said.
    Instead, WHO argues that the focus should shift towards producing new vaccines that work better against transmission of emerging variants.
    In a statement, published on 11 January, the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Covid-19 Vaccine Composition said, “A vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable.”
    The expert group, which is assessing the performance of Covid-19 vaccines, said that to deal with emerging variants such as omicron, new vaccines needed to be developed that not only protect people against serious illness but against infection. “Covid-19 vaccines that have high impact on prevention of infection and transmission, in addition to the prevention of severe disease and death, are needed and should be developed,” the group said.
    Vaccines also need to be more effective at protection against infection, “thus lowering community transmission and the need for stringent and broad reaching public health and social measures,” the group said.
    Read full story
    Source: BMJ, 17 January 2022
  12. Sam
    Swedish expert has praised Scotland for leading work in improving patient safety, with a decade-long programme which is now expanding into social care.
    Dr Pelle Gustafson (below), chief medical officer, of Swedish patient insurer Löf, said he was “particularly impressed” by the work in Scotland over the past 10 years during a meeting of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee.
    The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), which has been in existence for around 13 years, was set up to make patient safety a priority in NHS Scotland, drawing on lessons from the airline industry such as introducing checklists.
    Gustafson was asked by Tory MP Dr Luke Evans which country he would hold at the “very top of the pillar” for preventative work during an evidence session on NHS litigation reform last week.
    He responded: “If you take all preventive work as regards patient safety, I would say that I am personally very impressed by Scotland.
    “In Scotland, you have a long-standing tradition of working. You have development in the right direction.
    “You have a system that is fairly equal all over the place and you also have improvement activities going on. I am very impressed by Scotland.”
    He added: “I am particularly impressed by the Scottish work over the last 10 years. There are a lot of things that we, in the Nordic countries, can learn from Scotland too.”
    Read full story
    Source: The National, 16 January 2022
     
     
     
     
  13. Sam
    There are serious concerns over the standards of specialist care being provided to patients with the most complex mental health needs, a BBC investigation has found.
    Patients sent by the NHS to stay in mental health rehabilitation units say they have been placed in unsafe environments, often far from home, with untrained staff.
    Experts say not enough is being done to regulate the sector, which costs the NHS half a billion pounds a year.
    Lissa had spent years struggling with her mental health, having experienced traumatic life events. She was diagnosed with mixed personality disorder, depression and high-functioning Asperger's. So when the NHS sent her to a unit in Coventry run by Cygnet Health Care for a specialist talking therapy, she agreed.
    The hospital, however, was in special measures. There had been two deaths in the previous 20 months. In both cases there was found to be a failure to follow the patient's care plan and carry out observations correctly. Lissa says staff failed to treat her with dignity and respect.
    The system in England is regulated by the Care Quality Commission, (CQC). Some rehabilitation wards haven't been inspected for four or more years.
    John Chacksfield, who was a CQC inspector until late 2020, says greater scrutiny is needed.
    "Sometimes the private sector provides really excellent service, but there are certain units that really do need regular inspections just to make sure staff are being trained enough, or are having enough clinical supervision. It does worry me," he says.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 18 January 2022
  14. Sam
    One in four doctors in the NHS are so tired that their ability to treat patients has become impaired, according to the first survey to reveal the impact of sleep deprivation on medics during the coronavirus pandemic.
    Growing workloads, longer hours and widespread staff shortages are causing extreme tiredness among medics, leading to memory problems and difficulty concentrating, according to the report by the Medical Defence Union (MDU), which provides legal support to about 200,000 doctors, nurses, dentists and other healthcare workers.
    The survey of more than 500 doctors across the UK, carried out within the past month and seen by the Guardian, uncovered almost 40 near misses as a direct result of exhaustion. In at least seven cases, patients actually sustained harm.
    Despite encouraging signs the Omicron wave may be fading, doctors admitted the constant pressure of the past 22 months spent fighting coronavirus on the frontline was taking a toll on their technical skills and even their ability to make what should be straightforward medical decisions. Medics admitted for the first time sleep deprivation was causing real harm to patients in the NHS.
    Almost six in 10 doctors (59%) reported their sleep patterns had worsened during the pandemic. More than a quarter (26%) of medics admitted being so tired that their ability to treat patients was “impaired”. Of these, one in six (18%) said a patient was harmed or a near miss occurred as a result.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 17 January 2022
    Read MDU press release
  15. Sam
    The number of Covid patients in hospitals in England and Scotland has continued to rise this week, as NHS England reached a deal with private hospitals to free up beds amid the outbreak of Omicron cases.
    Meanwhile, Covid staff absences in England rose to their highest level since the introduction of the vaccine. The number of NHS workers in England off sick because of Covid was up by 41% in the week to 2 January, according to the latest figures.
    Five health workers describe some of the challenges they are facing, including understaffing, waiting times and bed-blocking.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 14 January 2022
  16. Sam
    NHS organisations have been told to prepare for redeploying or dismissing thousands of unvaccinated staff without an exit payment, and to raise the alarm about services which may be rendered unsafe.
    NHS England today issued guidance on ‘phase two’ of the government’s “vaccination as a condition of deployment”, which requires all patient-facing staff to have had two covid vaccinations by 1 April. 
    Tens of thousands of staff are believed to still be unvaccinated, and the cut off for having a first dose is 3 February.
    The guidance said efforts should be made to adjust roles or redeploy staff, but added: “From 4 February 2022, staff who remain unvaccinated (excluding those who are exempt) should be invited to a formal meeting chaired by an appropriate manager, in which they are notified that a potential outcome of the meeting may be dismissal.”
    It continued: “Whilst organisations are encouraged to explore deployment, the general principles which apply in a redundancy exercise are not applicable here, and it is important that managers are aware of this.”
    Employers will “not be concerned with finding ‘suitable alternative employment’ and there will be no redundancy entitlements, including payments, whether statutory or contractual, triggered by this process”.
    Trusts also do not have to “collectively consult” with staff being dismissed — as they would with a restructure — although this is “ultimately a decision for each organisation to take”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 14 January 2022
  17. Sam
    NHS England has encouraged trusts to consider taking legal action against patients who refuse to leave hospital beds when step-down care is made available.
    NHSE guidance sent to trusts late last year, seen by HSJ, advised clinicians that where people “with mental capacity” refuse to vacate a bed because they do not accept NHS-funded short-term care offers, the “local discharge choice policy” should be followed, which could involve legal action.
    The guidance said the process “may include seeking an order for possession of the hospital bed” under civil law, and that “appropriate formal notification of the process must be given to the person and their representatives/carers”.
    These legal powers were open to trusts prior to covid, but the memo from NHSE comes amid increasing pressure on trusts to improve discharge rates, as waits for emergency and elective care continue to soar.
    Helen Hughes, chief executive of Patient Safety Learning, said: “Given the current pressures posed by covid, it is understandable that the NHS is seeking to ensure that the hospital discharge process is as swift and effective as possible.
    “However, hospital discharges are complex processes and can potentially result in avoidable harm if patients are discharged before they are clinically ready. It only takes one element of this complex process failing to put a patient’s safety at risk.
    “We would be particularly concerned if patients and their carers were put under pressure to accept potentially unsafe discharge options due to the threat of possible legal action by an NHS trust.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 14 January 2022
  18. Sam
    A nurse who was struck off for refusing to admit a woman to a mental health unit before she killed herself said 'leave her, she will faint before she dies' before he kicked her out of the facility.
    Paddy McKee allegedly made the comment as Sally Mays, 22 - who had mental health issues - tried to strangle herself when she was refused admission.
    Ms Mays killed herself at home in Hull in July 2014 after being refused a place at Miranda House in Hull by McKee and another nurse.
    Despite her being a suicide risk, they would not give her a place at the hospital after a 14-minute assessment.
    Her parents Angela and Andy have fought for several years for improvements to be made and lessons to be learnt from her death.
    McKee was this month struck off following a Fitness to Practice hearing conducted by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The report by the NMC was this week published and condemned McKee, saying 'he treated her in a way that lacked basic kindness and compassion'.
    The NMC found his actions to refuse Ms Mays' admission had contributed to her death.
    Read full story
    Source: Mail Online, 12 January 2022
  19. Sam
    Hospitals across Kent, Sussex and Surrey are being asked to discharge hundreds of patients who are well enough to leave by Friday.
    The head of NHS South East, Anne Eden, said the beds are needed to deal with an expected surge in admissions of people ill with the Omicron variant.
    The NHS nationally has agreed to a reduction of 30% of such patients based on the baseline figure of 13 December.
    South East hospitals are being asked to make a 50% reduction by 31 January.
    In a letter seen by the BBC, Ms Eden said: "This is in order to create the headroom to manage any further Covid pressures, with current modelling indicating a peak in Covid activity in mid-January."
    She wrote: "It is now critical that we redouble our efforts to discharge those patients who no longer require bedded care, to create capacity, improve flow and reduce the pressure on staff."
    Ms Eden said staff absences and the need to maintain delivery of critical care for patients mean the NHS "must continue to focus on creating the necessary capacity to meet demand".
    "Failure to do this will significantly increase the risk of a further rise in patient harm," she said.
    She said hospitals must work with partners, including social care providers, to achieve the reduction in the number of patients in hospital who were well enough to be discharged.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 January 2022
  20. Sam
    A health minister has asked NHS England to look into a stricken ambulance trust that is asking patients to get a lift to A&E.
    The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said staff should “consider asking the patient to be transported by friends or family.” See previous news story.
    NEAS medical director Dr Mathew Beattie said the service had “no option than to try to work differently” amid Covid staff shortages.
    However, Health Minister Gillian Keegan said she would ask NHS England to look into the situation.
    She told Sky News: "That is not what we have put in place at all. We have more ambulance crews in operation than we have ever had."
    “We also gave £55 million extra just for this period to cover staff and make sure we had increases in staff and staffing levels.
    "I've actually asked NHS England to look at that particular case because that doesn't sound to me like that's an acceptable approach.
    “People should be able to get an ambulance if they have a heart attack and that's why we've put that extra funding in place, and why we've been building up our ambulance service over the last couple of years."
    Read full story
    Source: Mirror, 5 January 2022
  21. Sam
    Lessons learnt in relation to increasing uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among ethnic minority groups should now be applied to the booster programme, a government progress report recommends.
    This includes continuing to use respected local voices to build trust and to help tackle misinformation, the report from the government’s Race Disparity Unit says. Such approaches should also be carried over to the winter flu and childhood immunisation programmes and be applied to the work to tackle longer standing health disparities.
    In June 2020 the minister for equalities was asked to look at why COVID-19 was having a disproportionate impact on ethnic minority groups and to consider how the government response to this could be improved. This latest report is the final one of four.
    Taken together the reports identified that the main factors behind the higher risk of COVIDd-19 infection for ethnic minority groups include occupation, living in multigenerational households, and living in densely populated urban areas with poor air quality and high levels of deprivations.
    Read full story
    Source: BMJ, 3 December 2021
  22. Sam
    A hospital trust has been told to "immediately improve" its maternity and surgical services.
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) made unannounced inspections in September and October at four of the hospitals run by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.
    Inspectors raised concerns about staff shortages, skills training and risk management.
    At the trust's four maternity services, inspectors found departments "did not have enough staff to keep women and babies safe" and staff were "not up to date" with training.
    Infection prevention measures in surgical services at the Royal Sussex County Hospital were "not consistently applied" and managers were not running services well, inspectors noted.
    The report also said morale was low and often staff "did not have time to report incidents".
    The trust said it has taken "urgent action" to make improvements.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 December 2021
  23. Sam
    NHS bosses have warned the high prevalence of long Covid among staff is adding to rising healthcare pressures, amid growing concern that the new omicron variant could further drive infections and absences in the workforce.
    Some 40,000 (3.26%) of healthcare workers in the UK are estimated to have long Covid, according to the Office for National Statistics. This figure has risen by 5,000 since July.
    Many will be unable to work, though others are continuing to work despite their debilitating symptoms, experts say.
    “Trust leaders have told us they are concerned about the prevalence of long Covid amongst health and care staff,” said Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers.
    “Staff who are unwell need time to recover with support. But this may worsen unavoidable absences and sickness levels in the NHS at a time when pressures on the health service are mounting.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 9 December 2021
  24. Sam
    A trust will not face a second prosecution over the death of a baby seven days after a chaotic birth at one of its hospitals, unless new evidence emerges.
    Kent police had been looking into incidents at the maternity services department of East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust. These incidents include the death of Harry Richford, who was born at Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Hospital in November 2017. A coroner found a string of failures in his care amounted to neglect.
    The trust pleaded guilty to failing to meet fundamental standards of care and was fined £733,000 in a case brought by the Care Quality Commission earlier this year.
    But detective chief superintendent Paul Fotheringham, head of major crime at Kent Police, said: “After careful consideration and following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, we took the decision that a criminal investigation would not be undertaken at this time as there is no realistic prospect of conviction against any individual or organisation based on the evidence currently available."
    In a statement, Harry’s family said: “We are disappointed that Kent Police, in collaboration with the CPS special crime unit in London, have not been able to take forward a charge of corporate manslaughter for Harry at this time. They have assured us that they will keep an open mind on this matter, and any other appropriate charges as and when new evidence is brought before them.
    “We believe that the Kirkup inquiry and investigation may allow them to revisit a raft of charges on behalf of harmed babies in east Kent in due course. Only when senior leaders are properly held to account, will there be lasting change.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 9 December 2021
  25. Sam
    Incidents including a cardiac arrest where an ambulance took more than an hour to arrive and the patient died have prompted trust chiefs to suggest they cannot prevent patient harm under their current funding levels.
    A report to the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said patients suffering harm due to delayed ambulance response times “is a continuing theme due to the unprecedented demand the service is currently experiencing”.
    The report said the trust is trying to secure additional funding from commissioners, which would “reduce the likelihood of a similar incident for other patients in future”.
    NEAS has upheld several recent complaints made by families or patients about the harm being caused by delayed response times, but suggested the levels of demand on the service meant there was nothing it could have done differently.
    In one example, a woman in her 50s died from a cardiac arrest shortly after arrival to hospital after NEAS took 62 minutes to respond to a 999 call. NEAS had designated the woman, who had a history of heart attacks, a category two response – which should aim to arrive within 18 minutes on average.
    "All ambulance trusts have been seeing significant patient harm and the mainstream press have been strangely silent about this."
    "That it has got the stage where patients are routinely dying and being harmed while the resources are available, but tied up waiting outside hospitals, is truly maladministration on a grand scale."
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 9 December 2021
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