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Sam

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  1. Sam
    Making maternity wards safer for mothers and babies will need £400m of extra spending every year, hospital leaders have told The Independent.
    They warn that without increased funding, the NHS will not be able to fully implement recommendations made by an inquiry into poor maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust – where dozens of babies died or were left brain damaged in the largest maternity scandal in NHS history.
    Multiple maternity care failings at hospitals across the country in the past 12 months have sparked concerns over the safety of mothers and their babies with MPs on the Commons Health Select Committee launching an investigation into the issue last year.
    Hospital leaders say even just covering existing shortfalls of 3,000 midwives and recruiting 20 per cent more obstetricians, will cost at least £250m a year. To pay for extra anaesthetists, neonatal nurses and other support staff could push the cost to more than £400m.
    Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, told The Independent that ministers faced a choice of either making the extra cash available or forcing the NHS to cut money elsewhere.
    In a letter to MPs on the committee, Mr Hopson urged them to demand extra funding in its forthcoming report on maternity safety in an effort to force ministers to confront the issue.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent,9 February 2021,
  2. Sam
    Elective activity levels were significantly lower in January than were achieved before Christmas, according to provisional NHS data seen by HSJ.
    In the three weeks to 20 December, the NHS was reporting around 110,000 day cases and 18,000 ordinary admissions each week. But during January these totals dropped to around 85,000 day cases and 10,000 ordinary admissions per week. This equates to a reduction of 23% and 44%, respectively.
    Regions that were more severely impacted by the third wave of coronavirus saw steeper reductions as covid pressures forced staff working in routine care services to be redeployed.
    In London and the South East, day case activity reduced by around 40 per cent between the same periods, while ordinary admissions fell by around 57%.
    Data for the Christmas fortnight was discounted, as activity always falls dramatically in this period.
    However, the activity levels in January appear to be significantly higher than those reported in the first wave of coronavirus in the spring.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 10 February 2021
  3. Sam
    Care home staff were without personal protective equipment (PPE) early in the pandemic because the government prioritised the NHS, MPs have said.
    The Commons Public Accounts Committee said care homes received only a fraction of the PPE needed compared with the health service.
    It said social care "was only taken seriously after the high mortality rate in care homes became apparent".
    The government said it worked "tirelessly" to provide PPE.
    The report from the Public Accounts Committee said many healthcare workers were put in an "appalling situation" where they had to care for people with Covid-19 or suspected Covid-19 "without sufficient PPE to protect themselves from infection". It said the social care sector did not receive "anywhere near enough" to meet its needs.
    Health and social care staff suffered PPE shortages, it said, with some forced to reuse single-use items as stocks ran "perilously low".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 10 February 2021
  4. Sam
    A hospital A&E department has been downgraded by regulators amid fears of “significant risk of harm” to patients after inspectors found some were crammed “head to toe” on trolleys during a surge in coronavirus cases.
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told bosses at the Royal Oldham Hospital to urgently improve its A&E service after the November inspection found staff were not following infection rules and patients were at risk of catching the virus.
    The inspection confirms reports, revealed by The Independent last year, that patients in the A&E unit were being forced to wait close together for long periods. Whistleblowers from the trust said the practice was unsafe and the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Katherine Henderson, said it was a “potentially lethal” situation.
    The CQC visited the emergency department on 30 November after it said concerns were raised over the safety of patients.
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 10 February 2021
  5. Sam
    Despite being one of the world's oldest known medical conditions, public fear and misunderstanding about epilepsy persists, making many people reluctant to talk about it. That reluctance leads to lives lived in the shadows, lack of understanding about individual risk, discrimination in workplaces and communities, and a lack of funding for new therapies research. People with epilepsy die prematurely at a higher rate compared to the general population. The most common cause of death from epilepsy is sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, known as SUDEP. For many people living with epilepsy, the misconceptions and discrimination can be more difficult to overcome than the seizures themselves.
    International Epilepsy Day seeks to raise awareness and educate the general public on the true facts about epilepsy and the urgent need for improved treatment, better care, and greater investment in research.
    hub resources
    Safety advice for people with epilepsy RCPCH: Epilepsy passport Antiepileptic drugs: review of safety of use during pregnancy (MHRA)
  6. Sam
    The NHS’ response to the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic saw the number of whistleblowing concerns raised with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) almost double in December, with the strength of local leadership among the most frequent complaints.
    Many parts of the NHS, particularly in the South East, were suffering major covid pressures in December, and the regulator received 204 whistleblowing concerns, compared to 105 in the same month in 2019.
    The most common complaints were around staffing levels, infection control and leadership.
    The rise in complaints was revealed by CQC chief inspector of hospitals Ted Baker in an interview with HSJ. Professor Baker also said the pandemic had proved that the NHS’ emergency care system lacked “resilience”.
    Trusts which the regulator has received concerns about in recent months have included Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust, over poor staffing levels and infection controls, University Hospitals Birmingham FT, around staffing levels and leadership concerns, and Mid and South Essex FT, over concerns around the provision of oxygen.
    Professor Baker told HSJ: “One of the really positive things that has happened during the pandemic is an increase in the number of people raising concerns with us. It’s been really helpful for us in assessing the risk in the system."
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 8 February 2021
  7. Sam
    Some NHS dental patients have been asked to pay for private care "if they want any treatment", according to a watchdog. Others are facing waits of up to two years for an NHS appointment, Healthwatch England has warned.
    One patient was in so much pain he decided to extract his own teeth, said its chairman Sir Robert Francis QC.
    The NHS said over 650 urgent dental hubs have been set up so patients can access a dentist.
    Hundreds of people contacted Healthwatch England between October and December last year complaining about dentistry issues.
    A briefing document from the watchdog said that "a lack of NHS dentist appointments" remains the most common issue - with people asked to wait for up to two years.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 8 February 2021
  8. Sam
    A trial of an experimental coronavirus vaccine detected the most sobering signal yet that people who have recovered from infections are not completely protected against a variant that originated in South Africa and is spreading rapidly, preliminary data presented this week suggests.
    The finding, though far from conclusive, has potential implications for how the pandemic will be brought under control, underscoring the critical role of vaccination, including for people who have already recovered from infections. Reaching herd immunity — the threshold when enough people achieve protection and the virus can’t seed new outbreaks — will depend on a mass vaccination campaign that has been constrained by limited supply.
    Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted that it appears a vaccine is better than natural infection in protecting people, calling it “a big, strong plug to get vaccinated” and a reality check for people who may have assumed that because they have already been infected, they are immune.
    Read full story
    Source: The Washington Post, 6 February 2021
  9. Sam
    The government is planning to reverse reforms of the NHS in England introduced under David Cameron in 2012, a leaked document suggests. 
    The changes would aim to tackle bureaucracy and encourage health services from hospitals to GP surgeries and social care to work more closely. The draft policy paper also says the health secretary would take more direct control over NHS England.
    The reforms by Mr Cameron's government in 2012 saw the creation of NHS England - to run the health service - and the scrapping of primary care trusts in favour of GP-led clinical commissioning groups to organise local services.
    Under the latest proposals, set out in a leaked document published by health news website Health Policy Insight, there will be "enhanced powers of direction for the government" to "ensure that decision makers overseeing the health system at a national level are effectively held to account".
    Instead of a system that requires competitive tendering for contracts - sometimes involving private companies, the NHS and local authorities will be left to run services and told to collaborate with each other, says the draft White Paper, designed to set out proposed legislation.
    There will also be more focus on GPs, hospitals and social care services working together to improve patient care.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 6 February 2021
  10. Sam
    The MP leading an investigation into coronavirus fears Long Covid will be one of the biggest issues facing the UK for the next decade, after emerging research revealed most sufferers are still unable to work six months in.
    Layla Moran branded the scale of the problem ‘enormous’, as various experts warned that even healthy young adults have been left struggling to function for months on end.
    With hundreds of thousands of Brits now believed to have Long Covid, medics fear its impact on the world of work could herald another ‘massive economic crisis’. Workers in their 20s and 30s have told of a host of debilitating symptoms keeping them out of the office for much of last year and making simple tasks like walking to the toilet seem ‘like climbing a mountain’.  
    Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Ms Moran – who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on coronavirus – said: "The scale of this, in terms of the future prosperity of our country, is enormous. It is going to be, I think, one of the main issues that we are going to deal with not just in ten years but beyond."
    Read full story
    Source: Metro, 4 February 2021
  11. Sam
    A hospital trust has admitted that ‘medically fit’ patients caught covid on its wards while waiting to be discharged, with some of the cases under investigation.
    Bedfordshire Hospitals FT board papers said that a “number” of medically fit patients “acquired [covid] infection while awaiting appropriate and safe discharge”.
    Trusts nationwide have struggled to discharge patients as quickly as they wanted, the reasons including a Department of Health and Social Care mandate to only allow designated care homes to accept covid patients; the resumption of NHS Continuing Healthcare tests; shortages of community beds; and capacity in the care sector.
    The trust, formed in April by the merger of Luton and Dunstable University Hospital FT and Bedford Hospital FT, said a “significant proportion of [its covid] cases [were] due to acquisition in the hospital”.
    It continued: “A significant additional factor was the length of stay for many patients who were medically fit for discharge but were unable to return to their place of residence. Case reviews have shown that a number of these patients acquired infection while waiting appropriate and safe discharge.”
    The board papers said its covid serious incident reviews covered “some deaths on both sites… and the majority [were] patients with very severe co-morbidity”. It said six out of 15 serious incidents being investigated at its Bedford hospital site were “of potentially avoidable nosocomial covid infection (hospital acquired)”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 4 Februrary 2021
  12. Sam
    Press release 3 February 2021
    The charity Patient Safety Learning and patient group Long Covid Support are calling for the creation of a dedicated Minister for Long Covid to take a coordinated, multi-stakeholder approach to this issue.[1]
    Long Covid patients are people with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 who continue to struggle with prolonged, debilitating and sometimes severe symptoms months later.[2] Statistics indicate that there are currently hundreds of thousands of people living with Long Covid in the UK, with at least one in 10 people still experiencing symptoms 12 weeks after initial infection.[3]
    While there has been some progress to put in place support for people with Long Covid, there remains a complex spectrum of issues that need to be addressed. These are summarised in a blog, published by Patient Safety Learning and Long Covid Support today, calling for the UK Government to make urgent and significant improvements in their response to Long Covid.[4]
    Claire Hastie of the Long Covid Support, said:
    “Almost one year on from when many first fell ill, people with Long Covid are simply not getting the help they need. There is an urgent need to increase the pace and scale of the response to help the hundreds of thousands of people affected (including children). This needs to be driven by a dedicated minister with the power to affect change.”
    Helen Hughes, Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning, said:
    “People living with Long Covid have too often been left ‘joining the dots’ trying to understand how they can access safe, quality treatment and support and what they can do to improve their health. Clinical advice and access to further investigations has been inconsistent, leaving many feeling abandoned, confused and understandably concerned for their future health outcomes.
    Long Covid not only impacts people’s physical and mental health, but also their ability to work and their economic circumstances. We believe the appointment of a Minister for Long Covid would help to provide leadership, accountability and a coordinated response to these challenges.”
    Notes to editors:
    [1] Patient Safety Learning is a charity and independent voice for improving patient safety. We harness the knowledge, insights, enthusiasm and commitment of health and social care organisations, professionals and patients for system-wide change and the reduction of avoidable harm.
    [2] The symptoms for those with Long Covid vary greatly but many are experiencing rashes, shortness of breath, neurological and gastrointestinal problems, abnormal temperatures, cardiac symptoms and extreme fatigue.
    [3] Office for National Statistics, The prevalence of Long Covid symptoms and Covid-19 complications, 16 December 2020. https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/theprevalenceoflongcovidsymptomsandcovid19complications
    [4] Patient Safety Learning and Long Covid Support, Long Covid Minister needed to respond to the growing crisis, 3 February 2020. https://www.patientsafetylearning.org/blog/long-covid-minister-needed-to-respond-to-growing-crisis
  13. Sam
    Only a third of local authorities that are rolling out lateral flow testing have made the test’s limitations clear to the public—including that it does not pick up all cases and that people testing negative could still be infected, an investigation by The BMJ has found.
    A search of the websites of the 114 local authorities rolling out lateral flow testing found that 81 provided information for the public on rapid COVID-19 testing. Of these, nearly half (47%; 38) did not explain the limitations of the tests or make it clear that people needed to continue following the restrictions or safety measures even if they tested negative, as they could still be infected.
    Although 53% (43) did advise people to continue to follow the current measures after a negative result, only 32% (26) were clear about the test’s limitations or its potential for false negatives. The advice the websites gave to the public about a negative test result ranged from “A single negative test is not a passport to carrying on your daily life ‘virus-free’... don’t let a negative COVID-19 test give you a false sense of security” to “It is good news that you don’t have the coronavirus.”
    On 10 January England’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, launched the drive for local authorities to test asymptomatic people who cannot work from home, to try to halt the spread of the virus. But many public health experts are concerned about false reassurance from mass testing.
    Read full story
    Source: BMJ, 26 January 2021
  14. Sam
    Nearly 500 women had to have their cervical smear tests redone after it emerged the nurse who carried them out was not qualified.
    'Dishonest' Alison Watts failed to tell her bosses at an NHS surgery that she failed her course and continued screening women for almost two and a half years.
    When it was discovered Watts had not passed the qualification, 461 women had to be recalled to have the cervix test again so they could have 'quality assured' tests.
    Now Watts has been struck off for the shocking breach of trust, with a tribunal ruling that she put patients at 'significant risk of harm'.
    A Nursing and Midwifery Council [NMC] report said: 'This was not a single instance of misconduct but involved 461 patients over a two year period. There is evidence of sustained dishonesty and deep-seated attitudinal issues.'
    Read full story
    Source: Daily Mail, 26 January 2021
  15. Sam
    New advice on how to treat coronavirus has been issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as it also begins a wide-reaching study into the effects of so-called "long COVID".
    For COVID-19 patients at home, WHO is now suggesting the use of a pulse oximetry machine to measure oxygen levels in the blood - but warns that this should only be done after full patient education and with medical follow-up support if necessary.
    For hospitalised patients, WHO is recommending the use of low-dose anticoagulants to prevent clots forming in blood vessels, known as thrombosis.
    And for sufferers who are already using supplemental oxygen, the organisation is officially endorsing the positioning of patients on their stomachs to increase oxygen flow. This is known as "awake prone positioning".
    The new guidelines also include a recommendation that healthcare professionals favour "clinical judgement over models" in making decisions for individual patients.
    Read full story
    Source: Sky News, 26 January 2021
  16. Sam
    A trust has warned it may reach a ‘tipping point’ where it is ‘impossible’ to separate covid positive and negative patients.
    Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust also revealed in papers published ahead of its Thursday board meeting that it planned to distribute a “duty of candour” leaflet for patients, warning them of the risk of contracting covid in hospital.
    The papers noted covid patients at the trust increased from 80 pre-Christmas to 230 by January, filling half its beds. HSJ’s figures suggest covid patients at the trust continued to rise until around 14 January before dropping back slightly. 
    The report from the trust’s safety and quality committee — which met on 7 January — said: “It is becoming more difficult to separate the covid+ and covid- patients. In an increasing number of instances, patients are admitted to cold areas for non-covid treatment and without symptoms but then test positive. These patients then need to be admitted to hot areas and any contacts (including patients from the same bay) isolated.
    “At some point a tipping point could be reached where it may be impossible to retain hot and cold areas.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 27 January 2021
  17. Sam
    In honor and recognition of the 20th anniversary of Lewis Blackman’s death on 6 November 2000, an award has been established with the goal of recognising outstanding leadership in patient safety by students pursuing a health profession and residents in training. Lewis Blackman was an outstanding student himself and because his mother, Helen Haskell, has dedicated her life to improving patient safety, especially through education, the Lewis Blackman Leadership Award has been created.
    The Lewis Blackman Leadership Award will be awarded to an active health professional student or resident who has demonstrated exemplary leadership skills in patient safety in ways that will contribute to the vision of ZERO preventable patient deaths.
    The purpose of the Lewis Blackman Leadership Award is to acknowledge the work being done by our future leaders, encouraging them to pursue a career in healthcare grounded in patient safety.
    Eligibility criteria for nominations
    Any student or resident, domestic or international, currently working toward an advanced degree or board certification in healthcare or a healthcare-related field, including but not limited to: MD/DO, DPT, PharmD, MHA/DHA, MPH/DPH, MSN/DNP, and PhD. Self-nominations are welcome.
    Application Dates:
    Take nominations: December 15 – January 31st
    Judging period: January 31st – February 15th 
    Announcement of Winner: March 1st 
    Further information
  18. Sam
    Guidance from NHS England that doctors may lawfully use video assessments during the pandemic to decide whether patients should be detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act was wrong, two High Court judges have ruled.
    The act makes it a legal requirement that doctors must “personally examine” a patient before recommending detention. A code of practice requires “direct personal examination of the patient and their mental state.” But guidance from NHS England just after the start of the first lockdown last March said that “temporary departures from the code of practice may be justified in the interests of minimising risk to patients, staff, and the public.” Revised guidance in May 2020 included a section drafted jointly by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care for England (DHSC) “for use in the pandemic only.” This stated, “It is the opinion of NHS England and NHS Improvement and the DHSC that developments in digital technology are now such that staff may be satisfied, on the basis of video assessments, that they have personally seen or examined a person ‘in a suitable manner.’ ”
    The guidance added, “While NHS England and NHS Improvement and the DHSC are satisfied that the provisions of the Mental Health Act do allow for video assessments to occur, providers should be aware that only courts can provide a definitive interpretation of the law.” It went on, “Even during the COVID-19 pandemic it is always preferable to carry out a Mental Health Act assessment in person. Decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis and processes must ensure that a high quality assessment occurs.”
    Read full story
    Source: BMJ, 25 January 2021
  19. Sam
    Rotating clinicians and keeping ventilation running are among Public Health England’s (PHE) recommendations for how to avoid spreading covid while looking after patients in the back of ambulances outside emergency departments.
    The suggestions are made in unprecedented new guidance issued by PHE amid sky-high rates of very long ambulance handovers outside hospitals.
    This is because emergency departments (EDs) are struggling with attempts to maintain distancing for infection control, along with high occupancy and severe operational pressures elsewhere in hospitals. It has led over the past two months to large numbers of patients being looked after in ambulances for extended times while they wait for space in ED.
    The PHE guidance, added last week to existing covid guidance for ambulance services, says it should only happen in “exceptional circumstances”.
    But it says staff in this situation should adopt infection prevention and control procedures including:
    if more than one clinician is available, rotating them regularly, so allowing them time to change PPE and have a drink;  keeping ventilation systems running which may require the engine to be kept running; ensuring patients and any essential escorts wear surgical masks, as long as patient care is not compromised; minimising the number of people within the patient compartment and avoiding sitting face-to-face with patients; and decontaminating contact surfaces more frequently and during the delay if possible. Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 25 January 2021
  20. Sam
    London’s largest acute trust has been accused of ‘emotional blackmail’ by suggesting junior doctors could do voluntary shifts in its ‘really short staffed’ critical care unit.
    In an email cascaded to all junior doctors at Whipps Cross Hospital, run by Barts Health Trust, hospital medical director Heather Noble said day and night shifts at another trust site, the Royal London Hospital, “really need cover”.
    She said doctors could work overtime through a “voluntary or paid shift”, and that if they made contact, should “state whether or not they want to be paid”.
    Doctors working at the trust who received the email, who wished to remain anonymous, described the email as “tone deaf” and “not the right way to incentivise anyone to do what they want”.
    One medic said: “There has been a lot of anger generated by this correspondence amongst junior doctors. People already working antisocial and demanding rotas are very unhappy about being asked to work more hours for free.”
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 26 January 2021 
  21. Sam
    Men working in low-skilled jobs or care, leisure and service roles are more than three times as likely to die from Covid as professionals, according to new data.
    Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show there were 7,961 coronavirus-related deaths registered among the working-age population (those aged 20 to 64 years) in England and Wales between 9 March and 28 December last year.
    Nearly two-thirds of those deaths were among men (5,128 fatalities).  
    Analysis by the ONS shows men who worked in low-skilled occupations (699 deaths) or care, leisure and other service occupations (258 deaths) had the highest rates of death involving Covid-19, with 66.3 and 64.1 deaths per 100,000 males, respectively.
    Men working in process plants, as security guards or as chefs, had some of the highest COVID-19 death rates.
    Plant workers recorded a rate of 143.2 deaths per 100,000 males, while for security guards and related occupations, the figure stood at 100.7 deaths per 100,000 males.
    Ben Humberstone, ONS head of health analysis and life events, said: “Jobs with regular exposure to Covid-19 and those working in close proximity to others continue to have higher COVID-19 death rates when compared with the rest of the working-age population.”
    However, the figures do not prove that rates of death are caused directly by differences in employment.
    “There are a complex combination of factors that influence the risk of death, from your age and your ethnicity, where you live and who you live with, to pre-existing health conditions,” Mr Humberstone said. 
    Read full story
    Source: The Independent, 25 January 2021
  22. Sam
    New research has suggested there are specific molecular responses found in some COVID-19 patients which could be used to determine their likelihood of suffering from severe or long Covid symptoms, very early on following infection.
    Researchers, supported by NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, had set out to increase our understanding of the relationship between the immune response and COVID-19 symptoms by recruiting individuals who tested positive for the virus into a cohort of the NIHR BioResource.
    Studying 207 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 over a three-month period, taking blood samples and measuring their symptoms, then comparing to samples taken from 45 healthy people, the researchers were able to uncover a number of interesting new findings.
    Their research showed that people with either an asymptomatic or mild case of COVID-19 mounted a robust immune response to the virus soon after getting infected. These individuals produced a greater number of T cells, B cells and antibodies than patients with more severe COVID-19 infections and within the first week of infection - after which these numbers rapidly returned to normal.
    The study also showed there was no evidence in these patients of widespread inflammation which can lead to damage in multiple organs.
    In contrast, people with severe COVID-19 who required hospitalisation showed an impaired immune response, which led to a delayed and weakened attempt to fight the virus and widespread inflammation from the time of symptom onset. In patients requiring admission to hospital, the early immune response was delayed, and profound abnormalities were present in a number of immune cells.

    Read full story
    Source: NHE, 22 January 2021
  23. Sam
    One of the mysteries of COVID-19 is why oxygen levels in the blood can drop to dangerously low levels without the patient noticing.
    It is known as "silent hypoxia" and as a result, patients have been arriving in hospital in far worse health than they realised and, in some cases, too late to treat effectively.
    But a potentially life-saving solution, in the form of a pulse oximeter, allows patients to monitor their oxygen levels at home, and costs about £20.
    They are being rolled out for high-risk Covid patients in the UK, and the doctor leading the scheme thinks everyone should consider buying one.
    A normal oxygen level in the blood is between 95% and 100%.
    "With Covid, we were admitting patients with oxygen levels in the 70s or low-or-middle 80s," said Dr Matt Inada-Kim, a consultant in acute medicine at Hampshire Hospitals.
    He told BBC Radio 4's Inside Health: "It was a really curious and scary presentation and really made us rethink what we were doing."
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 21 January 2021
    See hub resource on the 'Covid Oximetry @home' project
  24. Sam
    The second wave of COVID-19 has put doctors under huge pressure, the Royal College of Physicians has warned, as two thirds of physicians report feeling tired or exhausted.
    A survey of 25 500 members of the college from across the UK, conducted on 2 November, received 1890 responses. It found that two thirds (64%, 931) felt tired or exhausted, 48% (687) felt worried, and just under a third (29%, 424) felt demoralised. Almost a fifth (19%, 280) said they have sought informal mental health support, such as speaking to colleagues or friends, during the pandemic. Just 10% (155) said they had sought formal mental health support from either their employer, GP, or external services.
    College president Andrew Goddard said he was concerned about the mental health of doctors, “There is no way to dress it up—it is pretty awful at the moment in the world of medicine. Hospital admissions are at the highest ever level, staff are exhausted, and although there is light at the end of the tunnel, it seems a long way away.”
    He said that before the pandemic, few physicians would have expected to need formal mental health support during their career.
    After the pandemic, staff will be in desperate need of a break, Goddard said, and will need specific time away if they’re to be at their best. “Doctors have demonstrated remarkable resilience throughout the pandemic, working under the most challenging conditions the NHS has ever faced, but they can’t continue working this way forever,” he said.
    Read full story
    Source: The BMJ, 21 January 2021
  25. Sam
    Just a third of people aged 80 and over have received the covid vaccine in one part of England, compared to four out of five in the area with the highest rate, new NHS England figures have revealed. 
    Gloucestershire delivered at least one dose of the vaccine to 85% of its over 80s population between 8 December and 17 January. Three other STPs — Northamptonshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and Lancashire and South Cumbria — have all delivered at least one dose to at least three-quarters of over 80s in the area.
    By contrast, Suffolk and North East Essex has vaccinated just 36% of its over 80s population. A further seven of England’s 42 STP/Integrated Care Systems had vaccinated under half of their over 80s population.
    The mixture of reasons for the differences are not known — it may be due to supply, delivery issues, the nature of the area, or the size of the over-80s population. NHS England has maintained that the vaccine is being used nearly as quickly as it is available each week, with supply the main constraint. NHSE decides when sites are able to open and when they have supply. 
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 21 January 2021
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