Jump to content
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,271

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Sam

Administrators

 Content Type 

News posted by Sam

  1. Sam
    The laboratory at the centre of the Covid testing fiasco returned just four positive results out of more than 2,400 tests sent to it from one city, the Guardian has learned, raising questions about why it was not discovered sooner.
    The positivity rate of just 0.2% from Sheffield tests sent to the Wolverhampton lab run by Immensa contrasts sharply with the national rate of about 5-8% at the time of the scandal.
    Data released under freedom of information laws by Sheffield city council showed there were four positive results, 2,391 negative and 13 void results processed by the lab from 1 September until it was suspended in mid-October.
    The disclosure also shows the scandal covers local authorities as far away from Wolverhampton as Yorkshire, with the UK Health Security Agency refusing to disclose which areas are affected beyond saying they are mostly in south-west England.
    One expert suggested there should have been about 200 positive results based on prevalence figures from the time. Kit Yates, a senior lecturer in mathematics at Bath University, said the country needed to see a full list of all the walk-in/drive in centres that were affected.
    “It’s all well and good notifying those people who were tested, but because of the nature of this communicable disease, this scandal now reaches well beyond those people,” he said. “The public deserve to know if their area was affected.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 27 October 2021
  2. Sam
    A Liverpool NHS trust has been rated as "requires improvement" by the health service watchdog due to concerns over care and safety.
    The moves comes following inspections at Aintree University Hospital and Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
    Inspectors said Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust required improvement in safety while it was classed as inadequate for leadership.
    The trust said "immediate action" had been taken to address the concerns.
    Ted Baker, chief inspector of hospitals at the Care Quality Commission, said the inspections in June and July highlighted concerns that the trust's leadership team "had a lack of oversight of what was happening on the frontline".
    Mr Baker said "lengthy delays" and "poor monitoring" were putting patients at serious risk of harm, and the trust was rated as requires improvement overall.
    He added: "We were particularly concerned about how long people were waiting to be admitted onto medical wards and by the absence of effective processes to prioritise patients for treatment based on their conditions.
    "There weren't always the right number of staff with the right skills and training to treat people effectively or keep them safe in the trust's emergency departments and on medical wards."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 27 October 2021
  3. Sam
    A nurse from scandal-hit Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital ordered a pregnant woman to take medication she was allergic to.
    Christine Speake, who had worked in the NHS for almost 40 years as a midwife and nurse, has been struck-off the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register after a tribunal heard she told the mother to “just take it” and then tried to cover-up her mistake after the woman suffered a reaction.
    The NMC hearing was told the 11-week pregnant patient and her unborn child could have died after being prescribed the Buscopan by a junior doctor to treat severe nausea and vomiting in January 2019.
    The woman – named only as 'Patient A' – was given the drug by Speake despite her allergy being included in her medical records. Speake was employed as a sister on the gynaecology ward at the Princess Royal Hospital.
    When the mother questioned what she was being given, Speake, who has worked as a midwife and nurse since 1985, snapped "just take it".
    The panel heard Patient A then had a violent reaction and broke out in a rash and started vomiting.
    But Speake, who realised her mistake, then failed to tell her colleagues in a bid to “cover up” what she had done and later resigned, the NMC tribunal heard.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 26 October 2021
  4. Sam
    People are dying at home without the correct nursing support or pain relief because of staff shortages, according to the end-of-life charity Marie Curie.
    One in three nurses, responding to a survey by the charity and Nursing Standard, say a lack of staff is the main challenge providing quality care to dying people.
    More than half of the nurses said they feel the standard of care has deteriorated during the coronavirus pandemic.
    Some 548 nursing staff across acute and community settings in the UK completed the survey in September.
    They raise concerns about the increased number of people dying at home and insufficient numbers of community nurses to support these people and their families.
    One nurse who responded to the survey said: "If more [people] are dying at home then there is a huge pressure on local district nursing teams which struggle with staffing as it is."
    Julie Pearce, chief nurse and executive director of quality and caring services at Marie Curie, said: "The pandemic has accelerated change across many care settings.
    "More people are dying at home and staffing to support this shift isn't there.
    "The data shows a hidden crisis happening behind closed doors and people dying without access to pain relief or the dignity they deserve."
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 27 October 2021
  5. Sam
    Gender bias is leaving many women with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder undiagnosed, leading psychologists are warning.
    The prevailing stereotype ADHD affects only "naughty boys" means at least tens of thousands in the UK, it is estimated, are unaware they have the condition and not receiving the help they need.
    "I used to tell doctors and therapists all the time, 'You've got to make this constant noise in my head stop. I can't think. I can't sleep. I can't get any peace,' but this was always dismissed as anxiety or women's problems," Hester says.
    Diagnosed with depression at 16, she spent much of her 20s unsuccessfully battling to be referred to a psychiatrist.
    And she constantly felt she was not reaching her true potential.
    Hester was finally diagnosed with ADHD in 2015, aged 34, and only, she says, because her husband had discovered he had the condition, a year earlier.
    His diagnosis took 12 months.
    "At no point did anyone say to Chris, 'This sounds like anxiety,' or 'Have some tablets,'" Hester says. "He was taken seriously."
    "Whereas with me, I was on the doctor's radar from the age of 16.
    "Bluntly, it took so long for me to be diagnosed because I'm a woman."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 26 October 2021
  6. Sam
    Tackling inequalities was “often not a main priority” for local health and care systems over the past year, the care regulator for England has said.
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the pandemic had exposed and exacerbated inequalities, and most services demonstrated some understanding of these.
    But it found that tackling inequalities “was often not a main priority for systems, or strategies to identify and tackle health inequalities were not yet well established”. Issues included poor accessibility of information in different languages for some people, varying service provision and access, and a lack of understanding of how people’s individual characteristics affected the care they needed.
    The regulator said an example of this was the specific needs of people with a learning disability from black and minority ethnic groups. It also flagged that an increase in remote or digital care could be a barrier to people who cannot access technology or do not feel comfortable doing so.
    The report found inequalities had also been exposed by the coronavirus vaccine rollout, with take-up lower in all minority ethnic groups compared with in the white population, and variances according to levels of deprivation.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 22 October 2021
  7. Sam
    Failings by NHS 111 contributed to the death of an autistic teenager, a coroner has ruled.
    Hannah Royle, 16, suffered a cardiac arrest as she was driven to hospital by her parents after a 111 algorithm failed to notice she was seriously ill.
    A coroner said her death had exposed a risk people were being misled about the capability of the system and its staff.
    An NHS spokesperson said it would act on the findings and learnings "where necessary".
    Hannah's father Jeff Royle said he regretted dialling 111 and wished he had taken his daughter straight to hospital.
    "I feel so dreadful, that I have let her down and she has been let down by the NHS," he said.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 20 October 2021
  8. Sam
    The government’s failure to quickly roll out third doses of the Covid vaccine to clinically vulnerable people and those with weakened immune systems is endangering thousands of lives, patient groups and experts have warned.
    Immunocompromised individuals currently account for one in 20 Covid patients being admitted to intensive care, according to a new analysis by Blood Cancer UK.
    These people are less able to mount an immune response after two doses, so are therefore being offered a third to keep them protected. This is separate from the ongoing booster programme, applicable to all over-50s and health care workers.
    However, a recent Blood Cancer UK survey suggested that less than half of people with blood cancer, who make up about 230,000 of the 500,000 immunocompromised people in the UK, had been invited to receive their third dose by the second week of October.
    Other clinically vulnerable people have reported struggling to book an appointment via their GP practices after being told by NHS England to come forward for a third vaccine dose.
    With the situation in Britain reaching a “tipping point”, charities and scientists are fearful the number of immunocompromised in intensive care could further worsen in the weeks to come if they remain unable to access booster jabs.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 21 October 2021
  9. Sam
    Clinical trials run in the UK will be automatically registered from 2022, the country’s Health Research Authority has announced.
    The new system seeks to ensure that every single clinical trial with be listed on a trial registry from the outset. UK researchers have been formally required to register trials since 2013, but that rule was never enforced, and many trials remained unregistered.
    Trial registration is a key pillar of clinical trial transparency. It helps scientists to gain an overview of who is currently researching which treatments, preventing needless duplication of medical research efforts . In addition, because investigators have to specify in advance what exactly they will be measuring, trial registration supports research integrity by discouraging post hoc statistical shenanigans and evidence distortion.
    While there are various rules and regulations around trial registration, no other country currently enforces these nationwide.
    The new trial registration system forms part of the wider UK national Make it Public strategy, which aims to ensure that every single clinical trial run in the UK is registered and makes its results public.
    The strategy was developed in the wake of a 2018-2019 parliamentary enquiry into clinical trial transparency.
    Read full story
    Source: TranspariMED, 20 October 2021
  10. Sam
    The government is being “wilfully negligent” by not introducing measures to suppress the recent rise in coronavirus cases, the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) has said.
    Dr Chaand Nagpaul made the comments after the health secretary ignored NHS leaders’ pleas for the implementation of ‘Plan B’, which could see the return of mandatory mask wearing in indoor spaces and the need to work from home where possible.
    Speaking at a No 10 press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Sajid Javid said the current pressure on the NHS was not “unsustainable”, noting that the contingency plan would only be introduced if hospitals were at risk of being “overwhelmed”.
    However, Dr Nagpaul disagreed with the minister’s assessment, suggesting that the NHS was already reaching breaking point and that the government should follow through on its promise to protect the health service.
    “By the health secretary’s own admission we could soon see 100,000 cases a day and we now have the same number of weekly Covid deaths as we had during March, when the country was in lockdown,” he said.
    Dr Nagpaul described the government’s decision not to take further preventative action as “wilfully negligent”, branding the current rate of coronavirus infections and deaths as “unacceptable”.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 21 October 2021
  11. Sam
    An innovative type of medicine - called gene silencing - is set to be used on the NHS for people who live in crippling pain.
    The drug treats acute intermittent porphyria, which runs in families and can leave people unable to work or have a normal life. Clinical trials have shown severe symptoms were cut by 74% with the drug.
    While porphyria is rare, experts say the field of gene silencing has the potential to revolutionise medicine.
    Sisters Liz Gill and Sue Burrell have both had their lives turned around by gene silencing. Before treatment, Liz remembers the trauma of living in "total pain" and, at its worst, she spent two years paralysed in hospital. Younger sister Sue says she "lost it all overnight" when she was suddenly in and out of hospital.
    Both became used to taking potent opioid painkillers on a daily basis. But even morphine could not block the pain during a severe attack that needed hospital treatment.
    Gene silencing gets to the root-cause of the sisters' disease rather than just managing their symptoms. Their porphyria leads to a build-up of toxic proteins in the body, that cause the physical pain. Gene silencing "mutes" a set of genetic instructions to block that protein production.
    Both had been taking the therapy as part of a clinical trial and are still getting monthly injections.
    The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which approves drugs for use in England, said the therapy "would improve people's quality of life" and was "value for money".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 21 October 2021
  12. Sam
    Almost three out of five GPs reported managing patient expectations about vaccinations to be one of the most challenging issues of the pandemic, with multiple changes to vaccine eligibility requirements leaving many people confused and overwhelmed, the president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Karen Price, said.
    In her foreword to the college’s Health of the Nation report, published on Thursday, Price said: “Unfortunately, some of these patients took their frustrations out on general practice staff”.
    “Differing eligibility requirements across jurisdictions added to the strain.”
    Schools should stay open as greatest risk of Covid transmission is in households, research finds
    The report is published annually and provides an insight into the state of general practice in Australia. It includes the findings of a survey of 1,386 GPs between April and May, of which 70% were in major cities, 20% inner-regional, 8% outer‐regional, and 2% remote and very remote.
    Read full story
    Source: Guardian, 21 October 2021
  13. Sam
    On Tuesday, there were 356 COVID-19 patients being treated in intensive care wards throughout Australia. Of those, 25 were fully vaccinated.
    While the data points to the extraordinary efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing people from becoming severely unwell, being hospitalised and dying, it does raise the question: why do a small number of people become seriously ill and, in rare cases, die, despite being fully vaccinated?
    An intensive care unit staff specialist at Nepean hospital in Sydney, Dr Nhi Nguyen, said those who are fully vaccinated and die tend to have significant underlying health conditions. Being treated in intensive care, where people may be on a ventilator and unable to move, added to any existing frailty, especially in elderly people, she said.
    “If we think about intensive care patients in general, whether they are there due to COVID-19, pneumonia or any other infection, we know that those who have underlying disorders, those who are frail, and those with co-morbidities will have a higher risk of dying from whatever the cause of being in intensive care is,” she said.
    “Being fully vaccinated against Covid protects you from getting severe disease, yes, but it doesn’t completely protect you from getting Covid. So if you are someone with chronic health conditions, what might be a mild disease or mild infection in a young person or a person who is in good health, will have a greater impact on you.”
    She said this was why the Australian Technical Advisory Group for Immunisation (Atagi) had recommended boosters for those people who are severely immunocompromised. On Wednesday the government said it intended booster shots to be rolled out to the aged care sector within weeks, and to be available to the whole population by the end of the year.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 20 October 2021
  14. Sam
    Scotland's booster jag rollout has hit a major snag after some of the country's most vulnerable people were given half their third vaccine.
    In total, 140 people who were given their extra dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in the Gorebridge vaccine centre in Midlothian were affected by the error.
    Health authorities have maintained there is no risk to individuals due to the error and that half a dose will provide sufficient protection.
    The individuals affected were all immunosuppressed, the Midlothian Health and Social Care Partnership said, meaning they are more vulnerable to infection and at higher risk from serious complications caused by COVID-19.
    The Midlothian Health and Social Care Partnership apologised for the mistake and any anxiety caused.
    Read full story
    Source: The Scotsman, 19 October 2021
  15. Sam
    Cases of psychosis have risen significantly in England during the pandemic, according to new NHS data.
    The number of people referred to mental health services for their first suspected episode of psychosis increased by 75% between April 2019 and April 2021, figures showed.
    The data, which has been analysed by the charity Rethink Mental Illness, showed that much of the increase in referrals has happened over the last year, after the first national lockdown.
    The charity, Rethink Mental Illness, said that the data offers some of the first concrete evidence of the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the population.
    It is calling on the government to invest more in early intervention for psychosis to halt the further deterioration in people’s conditions.
    The NHS defines psychosis as “when people lose some contact with reality”. This could involve seeing or hearing things that other people cannot see or believing things that are not actually true.
    People experiencing symptoms of psychosis need to seek medical help very quickly and charity Rethink Mental Illness is campaigning to get people faster access to vital treatment.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 18 October 2021
  16. Sam
    Police forces will be able to “strong-arm” NHS bodies into handing over confidential patient data under planned laws that have sparked fury from doctors’ groups and the UK’s medical watchdog.
    Ministers are planning new powers for police forces that would “set aside” the existing duty of confidentiality that applies to patient data held by the NHS and will instead require NHS organisations to hand over data police say they need to prevent serious violence.
    Last week, England’s national data guardian, Dr Nicola Byrne, told The Independent she had serious concerns about the impact of the legislation going through parliament, and warned that the case for introducing the sweeping powers had not been made.
    Now the UK’s medical watchdog, the General Medical Council (GMC), has also criticised the new law, proposals for which are contained in the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill, warning it fails to protect patients’ sensitive information and could disproportionately hit some groups and worsen inequalities.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 18 October 2021
  17. Sam
    Some acute trusts have failed to report large numbers of hospital-acquired covid infections as patient safety incidents, despite NHS England describing this as ‘fundamental’. 
    HSJ examined the numbers of “infection control” patient safety incidents reported to the national reporting and learning system in 2020-21, and compared this to separate NHS England data on covid infections most likely to have been acquired in hospital.
    The number of incidents reported to the NRLS in the 12-month period should in theory be higher, as it covers all types of hospital-acquired infections, while the NHSE data only covered covid infections in the last seven months of the year. 
    This appears to hold true nationally, with almost 59,000 incidents reported to the NRLS, compared to around 36,000 likely hospital-acquired covid infections suggested by the NHSE data. But for around a third of trusts, the incident numbers reported to the NRLS were smaller, with some appearing to report very low numbers.
    Helen Hughes, chief executive of patient safety charity Patient Safety Learning, said: “The scale of the under-reporting set out in these findings is particularly concerning.”
    “As this data informs assessment of performance at both organisational and national levels, it is possible that this could create a false assurance about the extent of harm in this period,” Ms Hughes said.
    “Where organisations are now retrospectively completing serious incident reports, there are obvious questions as to whether key insights will have been lost as memories of incidents fade over time and their causes.”
    “However, they rely on the capacity and commitment of staff behind them. The pandemic has placed an enormous strain on the health service and we have heard from staff the time constraints this has put on them to report patient safety incidents,” she added. 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 15 October 2021
  18. Sam
    A new study by Staffordshire University shows that people who understand their ‘heart age’ are more likely to make healthy lifestyle changes.
    50 preventable deaths from heart attack or stroke happen every day and Public Health England’s online Heart Age Test (HAT) allows users to compare their real age to the predicted age of their heart.
    The tool aims to provide early warning signs of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, encouraging members of the public to reduce their heart age through diet and exercise and to take up the offer of an NHS Health Check.
    CHAD Research Associate Dr Victoria Riley, who led the study, said: “Deaths from heart attack or stroke are often preventable and so addressing health issues early is incredibly important. Our findings show that pre-screening tests, such as the HAT, can encourage individuals to evaluate their lifestyle choices and increase their intentions to change behaviour.”
    Read full story
    Source: Brigher Side of News, 10 October 2021
  19. Sam
    Dr Katherine Henderson, a senior A&E consultant in London and President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, says physical and verbal attacks have increased in recent months.
    Speaking to the Guardian, she says: “It is a sad reality that in recent months there has been a rise in abuse directed towards healthcare workers, but this abuse is not something new to frontline staff or emergency departments. It was bad before the pandemic, but there’s a changed atmosphere now.
    “During the pandemic people were being very positive about healthcare workers. But now the public are frustrated that services aren’t getting back to normal. Maybe people who weren’t the source of abuse before are now being the source of abuse. Abuse may be physical or verbal, it may be through social media, or it may be racial or misogynistic.
    “People are being angry – very angry – with us. They are angry about long waits, about having to stand outside emergency departments in queues, about delays in ambulances coming, including to take their relative home from hospital. The public haven’t really caught up with how struggling the whole NHS is."
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2021
  20. Sam
    An adoptive mother is calling for the NHS to improve its diagnosis for children exposed to alcohol in the womb, so their families can be helped.
    Amanda Boorman's two sons have Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) but they were not diagnosed correctly. She said: "This is a brain and body condition that is lifelong so really the professionals need to step up."
    Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) covers the various health and mental issues which can affect children.
    A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said: "We are committed to reducing future cases of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and we have asked NICE [National Institute for Healthcare Excellence] to produce a Quality Standard in England for FASD to help the health and care system improve diagnosis and care of those affected.
    "We have also published England's first Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Health Needs Assessment to improve the lives of families living with it and increase understanding amongst clinicians and policy makers."
    Mrs Boorman, from Brent Knoll in Somerset, said: "There's no way an adoptive parent should ever have to go to a chief executive of a hospital and say 'what is your strategy for diagnosing FASD?' What needs to happen is that clinical commissioning groups, the boards of those, chief executives in hospitals, directors of children's services, social care and education need to be much more proactive."
    "What we've seen is reactive or just not really knowing - it's complete ignorance."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News. 7 October 2021
     
  21. Sam
    One of the largest hospital trusts in England has been downgraded by the care watchdog amid safety fears and criticism that bosses did not act on staff concerns.
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it found bedpans covered in faeces, urine and hair during 10 visits to wards at University Hospitals Birmingham Trust in June.
    Staff in A&E told inspectors they were put under pressure to nurse patients in corridors. At one stage 20 ambulances were queuing outside Heartlands Hospital with patients waiting outside.
    The CQC said staff felt “disconnected from leaders” who didn’t show an understanding of the pressures they were under.
    Consultants to the regulator staff were experiencing fatigue and they felt executives at the trust “were no longer interested in staff welfare”.
    In its inspection report, the CQC said staff did not always clean equipment and said labels for when items were last cleaned were being applied incorrectly.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 8 October 2021
  22. Sam
    Continuity of care in general practice reduces use of out-of-hours care, acute hospitalisations and mortality, researchers have shown - as GP leaders warned staff shortages and heavy workload means it is becoming harder to deliver in the UK.
    Long-lasting personal continuity with a GP is 'strongly associated with reduced need for out-of-hours services, acute hospitalisations, and mortality', according to a study by researchers in Norway.
    An association lasting more than 15 years between a patient and a specific GP reduces the probability of any of these factors by 25-30%, the study published in the British Journal of General Practice found.
    The researchers said 'promoting stability among GPs' should be a priority for health authorities, and warned that continuity of care was under pressure.
    The findings come as general practice in the UK faces intense pressure amid a shortage of GPs and intense workload after more than 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Responding to the findings, RCGP chair Professor Martin Marshall said: "Continuity of care is highly valued by patients and GPs and our teams alike. It is what allows us to build relationships with our patients, often over time, and this study builds the strong evidence base of its benefits for patients and the NHS."
    Read full story
    Source: GP Online, 4 October 2021
  23. Sam
    Flu deaths could be the worst for 50 years because of lockdowns and social distancing, health chiefs have warned, as the NHS launches the biggest ever flu vaccination drive.
    More than 35 million people will be offered flu jabs this winter, amid concern that prolonged restrictions on social contact have left Britain with little immunity.
    Officials fear that this winter could see up to 60,000 flu deaths – the worst figure in Britain since the 1968 Hong Kong Flu pandemic – without strong uptake of vaccines.
    There is also concern about the effectiveness of this year’s jabs, because the lack of flu last year made it harder for scientists to sample the virus and predict the dominant strains.
    Health chiefs said the measures introduced over the past 18 months to protect the country against coronavirus would now put the public at greater risk of flu.
    The NHS has already begun the rollout of flu jabs and COVID-19 boosters. Health chiefs will urge everyone eligible to take up their chance, with the launch of a major campaign today to drive take-up.
    Read full story
    Source: The Telegraph, 8 October 2021
  24. Sam
    More than one in ten secondary school pupils and over a third of school staff who had COVID-19 have suffered ongoing symptoms, figures suggest.
    The most common symptom reported by staff and pupils was weakness/tiredness, while staff were more likely to experience shortness of breath than pupils, according to a small study of schools in England.
    The survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that about 35.7% of staff and 12.3% of secondary school pupils with a previously confirmed Covid-19 infection reported experiencing ongoing symptoms more than four weeks from the start of the infection.
    Among those experiencing ongoing symptoms, 15.5% of staff and 9.4% of secondary school pupils said their ability to carry out day-to-day activities had been significantly reduced.
    Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “This survey data reveals the largely hidden long-term effects of Covid on both students and school and college staff.
    Read full story
    Source: Wales Online, 28 September 2021
  25. Sam
    Sajid Javid has said medical device manufacturers should check their products work well for people of all ethnic backgrounds, citing problems that those with dark skin have experienced when using pulse oximeters.
    Several studies have found oximeters are not as good at identifying hypoxia in people with darker skin. The devices have been widely used during the covid pandemic to monitor people at risk of deteriorating at home. They are meant to trigger a response when needed. Official guidance was updated this summer to encourage caution in their use. 
    The health and social care secretary has identified health inequalities as one of his priorities. He gave the issue as an example of racial bias in healthcare when speaking at the Conservative party conference on Tuesday evening.
    He said: “It turned out that pulse oximeters, all of them that exist in the world, were giving often the wrong reading for people with dark skin, because they were designed by companies where basically all they were thinking about were white people. Why is that? Because the companies, their market was white countries with a majority of white people.”
    Mr Javid, who has a British Pakistani background, continued: “They just weren’t thinking whether these things could work on people with a skin colour like mine or just darker skin, and that’s not right.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 6 October 2021
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

 Accept Cookies  Reject Cookies