A 45-year-old British man has been left with permanent hearing loss after developing COVID-19.
UK doctors say it is the first such case they have seen linked to the pandemic coronavirus. Although rare, sudden hearing loss can follow other viral infections, such as flu.
The ear-nose-and-throat experts told BMJ Case Reports journal steroid drugs could help avoid this damage if given early enough.
The patient, who has asthma, had been admitted to a London hospital with COVID-19 symptoms and transferred to intensive care after struggling to breathe. Tests confirmed he had coronavirus and he was put on a ventilator machine. He also needed various drugs and a blood transfusion before beginning to recover and coming off the ventilator 30 days later.
A week after the breathing tube was removed and he left intensive care, he noticed tinnitus (a ringing or buzzing noise) followed by sudden hearing loss in his left ear. A hearing test suggested the loss was linked to damage to the hearing nerve, the middle ear, or both, rather than inflammation or a blockage to the ear canal.
Doctors could find no explanations for his hearing problem, other than his recent COVID-19 illness.
They gave him steroid tablets as well as injections into the ear, which helped a little, but he has some irreversible hearing loss.
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Source: BBC News, 14 October 2020
Care homes should refuse to take coronavirus patients from hospitals if they cannot prevent the spread of the disease, the care watchdog has told The Independent.
Staff should admit these patients only if care homes are equipped with the right personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention measures, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said.
During the first wave of the pandemic, care homes saw widespread outbreaks of the virus with 16,000 deaths. Homes struggled to access protective clothing for staff and were forced to take 25,000 untested patients discharged from hospitals.
In an in-depth interview, Kate Terroni, the CQC’s chief inspector of social care, said care homes should not be put under pressure during a second wave to take infected patients they could not properly look after.
She said any home that refused to admit patients would have her support.
“Care home providers should only admit a resident when they are confident they can meet their care needs, so where they are confident they’ve got good infection prevention control, they’ve got the right PPE, they’ve got the right workforce."
“We will absolutely support a provider to say they cannot admit someone if those ingredients aren’t in place.”
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Source: The Independent, 12 October 2020,
Hospitals in Liverpool are scaling back non-urgent operations to help them cope with COVID-19 patients despite NHS bosses insisting that normal care continues during the second wave.
NHS trusts elsewhere in north-west England, as well as in the north-east and Midlands, are also preparing to cancel routine surgery such as joint replacements and hernia repairs amid a rapid rise in seriously ill coronavirus patients.
A potential second suspension of non-Covid care is looming despite warnings that this may lead to many thousands dying because their cancer, heart problem or other illness is not diagnosed or treated.
Steve Warburton, the chief executive of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS trust, acknowledged that doing less surgery would be “distressing” for patients affected but said the city’s three main acute hospitals had reached a “critical point”.
It is the first trust in England to make clear it cannot provide normal levels of non-Covid care during the second coronavirus surge, even though NHS England has told all hospitals to do so. The decision is likely to lead to other trusts doing the same.
Warburton said: “We will continue to prioritise surgery based in clinical need with a view to maintaining urgent and cancer surgery where possible.” He promised that the trust would continue to provide outpatient appointments “wherever possible” and keep giving patients diagnostic tests such as CT and MRI scans.
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Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2020
As part of wide-reaching work being carried out to review the methods and processes the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) uses to develop guidance, the organisation has launched a public consultation on proposals for changing how it selects the topics it will develop guidance on.
Covering guidance on medicines, medical devices and diagnostics, the proposals clarify the criteria which would see a device or diagnostic selected for NICE guidance development.
In particular, these include where costs and impacts are expected to be significantly cost-incurring or cost-saving – or there is uncertainty around the likely cost or the impact it would have on the healthcare system.
With regard to medicines, the new proposals would confirm the commitment made in the 2019 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access that pledged NICE would appraise all new active substances and significant licence extensions for existing medicines, except where there was a clear rationale not to do so.
Similarly, all new or significantly modified interventional procedures that would protect patient safety will be selected if they are available to the NHS or independent sector, or set to be used outside of formal research.
This proposed approach would move away from the 15 criteria currently used to select topics for evaluation by NICE’s Centre for Health Technology Evaluation and provide a clearer and simpler process.
Helen Knight, Programme Director for Technology Appraisals and Highly Specialised Technologies at NICE, said: “Topic selection plays an important role in the development of NICE guidance and is designed to ensure that the guidance we produce is on topics that support healthcare professionals and others to provide care of the best possible quality.
“These proposals will ensure we can continue to meet these ambitions at a time of unprecedented change in the healthcare system.”
The consultation on the proposals runs until 19 November. This will be followed by a separate public consultation on the case for change to its processes in February and March 2021.
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Source: NHE, 12 October 2020
An urgent investigation into blanket orders not to resuscitate care home residents has been launched amid fears some elderly people may still be affected by the “unacceptable” practice.
After COVID-19 cases rose slightly in care homes in England in the last week, with 116 residences handling at least one infection, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it was developing the scope of its investigation “at pace” and it would cover care homes, primary care and hospitals.
In March and April, there were reports that some GPs had applied “do not attempt resuscitation” (DNAR) notices to groups of care home residents that meant people would not be taken to hospital for potentially life-saving care. This was being done without their consent or with little information to allow them to make informed decisions, the CQC said. Cases emerged in care homes in Wales and East Sussex.
Care homes said the blanket use of the orders did not appear to be as prevalent ahead of a possible second wave of infections and families were reporting fewer concerns, although that could be because visiting restrictions meant they had less access to the homes and were getting less information.
There are also concerns that steps may not have been taken to review DNAR forms added to care home residents’ medical files, and so they could remain in place, without proper consent.
The CQC review will examine the use of “do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation” (DNACPR) notices, which only restrict chest compressions and shocks to the heart.
Dr Rachel Clarke, a palliative care expert in Oxford, has described the CPR process as “muscular, aggressive, traumatic” and said it often resulted in broken ribs and intubation. The review will also investigate the use of broader do not resuscitate and other anticipatory care orders.
“We heard from our members about some pretty horrific examples of [blanket notices] early in the pandemic, but it does not appear to be happening now,” said Vic Rayner, the executive director of the National Care Forum, which represents independent care homes. “DNAR notices should not be applied across settings and must be only used as part of individual care plans.”
It will also investigate the use of broader do not resuscitate and other anticipatory care orders.
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Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2020
The social restrictions imposed upon our lives because of coronavirus have taken a toll on our emotions, finances, and our waistlines, but there may yet be a silver-lining: a reduction in cases of other infectious diseases. From the common cold to chickenpox, there has been a substantial drop in the number of infections being reported to GPs, despite children returning to school – and that looks set to continue as winter approaches and lockdown restrictions tighten across the country.
According to the latest GP surveillance data for England there were 1.5 cases of common cold for every 100,000 people during the week ending 6 October – compared to 92.5 cases reported during the same week last year. The rate of other non-Covid respiratory illnesses was also lower, at 131 for every 100,000 people, compared to 303 last year. Influenza-like illness is also down, at 131 cases for every 100,000 people, versus 303 cases in 2019.
Although there has been in increase since the start of the school term, for all of these illnesses, infection rates remain below expected seasonal levels for this time of year, the report by the Royal College of General Practitioners’ research and surveillance centre said. Equivalent data was not immediately accessible for Wales and Scotland.
GP consultations for other infectious diseases like strep throat, tonsillitis and impetigo, as well as infectious intestinal diseases like norovirus are also well below the five-year average – and have been since late March – the report suggests.
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Source: The Guardian, 9 October 2020
GP surgeries are waiting up to a month for supplies of this winter’s flu vaccine amid unprecedented numbers of patients seeking jabs ahead of the second wave of COVID-19, family doctors have said.
The Royal College of GPs (RCPG) has written to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, seeking assurances that they will have enough doses of the vaccine to cope with demand. The struggle to get jabs has prompted fears that vulnerable groups, including elderly people and those with underlying conditions, will go unprotected.
“We have heard anecdotally that some surgeries are waiting up to a month for replenished supplies of vaccine, which raises concerns that there are significant distribution problems,” Prof Martin Marshall, the RCGP’s chair and a family doctor in London, said in the letter.
One GP in Nottingham said there had been “a huge uptake compared to previous years, well over what we anticipated” at their surgery among groups eligible for the free jab, “so supplies ran out quickly”.
“The next delivery is several weeks away and there are patients in at-risk groups who are having to wait. We have a patient aged 70 with heart disease who wants the vaccine but we currently have none to give her until the next delivery in mid to late October,” the GP said.
Shortages mean that people aged 50 to 64, who are being offered a jab for the first time on the NHS, may have to wait until those with a greater medical need have been immunised first.
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Source: The Guardian, 4 October 2020
The announcement on Friday by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that it will bring criminal charges against an NHS trust for failing to provide safe care to a patient is a hugely significant milestone in efforts to bring about greater accountability and safer care in the health service.
The CQC has had the power to bring such prosecutions against hospitals since April 2015 when it was given a suite of new legal powers to hold hospitals to account on the care they give to their patients.
Bringing in the new laws, the so-called fundamental standards of care, was one of the most significant actions taken after the care disaster at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, where hundreds of patients suffered shocking neglect, with some dying as a result.
Prosecuting East Kent Hospitals University Trust over the tragic 2017 death of baby Harry Richford is a big step for the CQC and a consequence of the long-forgotten battles of many patients and families in Stafford who were told they were wrong in their complaints against the hospital.
It will almost certainly lead to more calls for criminal charges against hospitals from families who have been failed.
There are countless examples of NHS trusts not acting on safety warnings and patients coming to harm as a result. Just this week an inquest into the case of baby Wynter Andrews at Nottingham University Trust revealed fears over safety had been highlighted to the trust board 10 months before her death.
At Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust there are hundreds of families asking the same questions as more evidence emerges of long-standing failures to learn from its mistakes.
CQC's chief executive, Ian Trenholm, has provoked anger among NHS leaders and clinicians when he advocated taking a tougher line when trusts break the law. But it is unlikely the CQC will launch a slew of prosecutions. It has said it will bring cases only where it sees patterns of behaviour and systemic failings. That is the correct approach as healthcare is complex and single errors will sadly happen despite everyone doing their best.
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Source: The Independent, 10 October 2020
A number of patients in a cancer ward have died in hospital after a coronavirus outbreak and more have tested positive for the virus.
NHS Lothian have not confirmed how many died but said it was fewer than five and a ‘very small number’ of patients.
The health board is investigating the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh which has had to put measures in place to further contain the outbreak. Another six patients have tested positive for the virus so the hospital has closed the oncology ward to new patients being admitted. The hospital has also asked patients, who would usually be allowed to go home over the weekend and return to hospital on Monday, to stay in hospital the whole week.
Dr Donald Inverarity, consultant microbiologist at NHS Lothian, said: ‘Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased and I would like to express our sincere condolences."
"A multidisciplinary Incident Management Team was immediately established and all necessary infection control measures are in place. The situation will continue to be reviewed and monitored very closely."
The health board’s Health Protection Team and the nationwide Test and Protect teams are carrying out contact tracing of visitors and outpatients where necessary. Routine coronavirus screening of staff and patients is also taking place as part of an enhanced regime.
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Source: Metro, 10 October 2020
One of the largest studies of its kind suggests that most pregnant women who become infected with the coronavirus will have mild cases but suffer prolonged symptoms that may linger for two months or longer in some cases.
The study, published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that most women who participated had mild cases of COVID-19 — a finding consistent with previous studies. Among the nearly 600 women followed, only 5% were hospitalised and 2% were admitted to intensive care units.
Despite the mildness of their cases, 25% of the participants continued to experience symptoms eight weeks after becoming sick. The median length of symptoms was 37 days. Although pregnancy is known to cause major changes to the immune system, the length of time for continuing symptoms was surprising, said co-principal investigator Vanessa Jacoby, vice chair of research in the obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences department at the University of California at San Francisco.
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Source: The Washington Post, 10 October 2020
Women are being disproportionately affected by a rise in mental health problems caused by increasing workloads as people do their jobs from home amid the pandemic.
The length of the working day has increased steadily, resulting in a 49% rise in mental distress reported by employees when compared with 2017-19. Women are bearing the brunt of problems as they juggle work and childcare, according to a report by the 4 Day Week campaign and thinktanks Compass and Autonomy.
The report, Burnout Britain, cshows that women are 43% more likely to have increased their hours beyond a standard working week than men, and for those with children, this was even more clearly associated with mental health problems: 86% of women who are carrying out a standard working week alongside childcare, which is more than or equivalent to the UK average, experienced problems in April this year.
The report warns that “as well as an impending recession and mass unemployment, we are heading into an unprecedented mental health crisis”.
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Source: The Guardian, 9 October 2020
One of the earliest signs that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people were being disproportionately harmed by the coronavirus pandemic came when the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNAR) published research in early April showing that 35% of almost 2,000 Covid patients in intensive care units in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were non-white.
A lot has happened in the intervening six months with numerous reports, including by the Office for National Statistics and Public Health England (PHE), confirming the increased risk to ethnic minorities and recommendations published on how to mitigate that risk. However, as the second wave intensifies, the demographics of those most seriously affected remain remarkably similar.
ICNARC figures show that the non-white proportion of the 10,877 Covid patients admitted to intensive care up to 31 August was 33.9% in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This rises to 38.3% of patients admitted since 1 September, albeit of a much smaller cohort (527 intensive care admissions).
The government mantra “we’re all in this together” proved to be little more than an empty rallying cry early in the pandemic and the ICNARC figures show it remains the case that people in the most deprived socioeconomic groups make up a greater proportion of patients in critical care.
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Source: The Guardian, 9 October 2020
Young people's risk of becoming ill with COVID-19 is tiny - but could the long-term mental health impact of virus restrictions be far more damaging?
A growing number of psychologists, psychiatrists and child health experts believe the needs of the young are being ignored in this pandemic.
Prof Ellen Townsend, an expert in child and adolescent self-harm and suicide from Nottingham University, says the way students are being treated "is massively damaging for their mental health".
"It doesn't make sense to lock up young people," she says. "We have to move past this one disease - a more nuanced approach is needed."
She is not alone - a group of UK academics who work with children and adolescents have set up an online noticeboard collecting scientific evidence that these age groups are being forgotten by policy-makers.
Problems such as self-harm and anxiety were already on the rise before lockdown, particularly among teenagers, with one in eight children and young people estimated to have a mental health condition. There is a lack of hard evidence, but research suggests growing feelings of loneliness and social isolation during the pandemic have had a negative impact.
A study in The Lancet Psychiatry found children's mental health deteriorated most during that period compared with other age groups.
More worrying was the "massive drop-off" in troubled children and teenagers being sent to specialist psychiatrists over several months - from 40 a day to four a day, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Although services stayed open during lockdown, either the message didn't get through or people were too frightened to make contact. The fear is that these young people could now become more seriously ill without the help they need. Eating disorders, which have a high death rate, are a particular concern.
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Source: BBC News, 10 October 2020
An anaesthetist who had been drinking before an emergency caesarean that led to the death of a British woman should serve the maximum three years in jail if convicted and should be banned from working as a doctor, a French prosecutor has demanded.
Helga Wauters is on trial in Pau, south-west France, for the manslaughter of Xynthia Hawke in 2014. She is accused of starving Hawke of oxygen for up to an hour after pushing a ventilation tube into the wrong passageway.
Orlane Yaouang, prosecuting, described the scene in the operating theatre when Hawke turned blue as “carnage” and spoke of the “surreal situation” in which the panicked hospital staff called the emergency services.
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Source: The Guardian, 9 October 2020
Famous faces, including TV chefs Gordon Ramsay, Nadiya Hussein, and actress Emma Thompson are backing a major new campaign urging anyone concerned about cancer to get checked and to keep routine appointments, as new research found that even now, nearly half (48%) of the public would delay or not seek medical help at all.
A fifth (22%) would not want to be a burden on the health service while a similar number said that fear of getting coronavirus or passing it onto others was a major reason for not getting help.
More than four in ten people would leave it longer to get health advice than they normally would have before the coronavirus outbreak, however delaying can have serious consequences for some cancers.
NHS staff have pulled out all the stops to keep cancer services going throughout the pandemic, with almost one million people referred for checks or starting treatment since the virus took hold.
The NHS’s Help Us Help You access campaign will use TV adverts, billboards and social media to urge people to speak to their GP if they are worried about a symptom that could be cancer, and also remind pregnant women to attend check-ups and seek advice if they are worried about their baby.
People with mental health issues are also been encouraged to access NHS support.
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Source: NHS England, 9 October 2020
Today is World Mental Health Day and the World Health Organization will, for the first time ever, host a global online advocacy event on mental health.
At this event—the Big Event for Mental Health—world leaders, mental health experts and celebrity guests will join WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to tell the world what we can all do to improve our mental health and how we can help make sure that quality mental health care is available to everyone who needs it.
Tune in from one of WHO’s social media channels:
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok and Twitch channels
Start time: 10:00 New York, 16:00 Geneva, 19:30 New Delhi
The Event will last approximately 2 hours 30 minutes.
More information
Seeking help for mental health is never easy but for some members of London's Punjabi community, the shame and stigma associated means they have struggled more than most.
Anyone having "problems of the mind" is often considered a burden upon the family says Dr Rakish Rana, founder of the Clear Coach, who added that a lack of education on mental health means it is considered a taboo subject.
"To support those with mental health issues, there needs to be more awareness in the South Asian community, whether that's through religious or community leaders, schools and families," he said.
"As with all cases of mental health, it needs to be openly discussed and normalised."
Shuranjeet Singh, the founder of Taraki, a not-for-profit mental health organisation, said its research carried out into the Punjabi community found more than half of respondents reported a decline in their mental health as a result of Covid-19.
"I can see stigma slowly reducing and I hope that community-focused solutions are well researched and funded, because no community is truly 'hard to reach'."
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Source: BBC News, 3 October 2020
Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people living in coronavirus hotspots could be told to "shield" this winter as infections continue to rise.
Ministers are expected to outline a three-tier local lockdown system next week, which may see those most at risk if they catch COVID-19 being told to stay at home for a month.
A decision on shielding has not been finalised and may be delayed because of fears for the mental health of those told to avoid seeing other people.
Around 2.2 million people in England deemed "clinically extremely vulnerable" were asked to shield at the height of the coronavirus pandemic before the scheme was "paused" at the end of July.
Sky News understands that the level of self-isolation required in each area will vary depending on the restrictions in place there.
It is thought the advice will be clinically led, with GPs helping guide what people should do bearing in mind possible negative effects on mental health.
This compares with the more blanket advice on shielding last time around.
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Source: Sky News, 9 October 2020
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has launched the first prosecution of an acute trust for failing to meet fundamental standards of care.
East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust faces two charges relating to the death of Harry Richford and the risks posed to his mother during his birth. Both charges are under regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
The trust is accused of failing to discharge its duty under regulation 12 in that it failed to provide safe care and treatment exposing Harry and his mother Sarah to a significant risk of avoidable harm.
It is only the fourth prosecution of a trust over the “fundamental standards” which were brought in following the Mid Staffordshire care scandal and are meant to be enforced by the CQC. It is also thought to be the first related to the safety of clinical care.
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Source: HSJ, 9 October 2020
A key player in the junior doctor disputes with Jeremy Hunt has now joined the former health secretary’s patient safety charity.
Jeeves Wijesuriya, former chair of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee, is among the nine people who will serve on the advisory board of the Patient Safety Watch charity.
Mr Hunt has also announced that Sir Robert Francis, who led the Mid Staffs inquiry; England’s former chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies; former medical director of the NHS, Sir Bruce Keogh; and Dame Marianne Griffiths, chief executive of Western Sussex Hospitals Foundation Trust, will also serve on the advisory board.
Mr Hunt announced Patient Safety Watch last year to establish data to report on levels of patient safety and avoidable harm in healthcare, and commission research from leading universities. He has previously said he will invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in the charity over several years.
He told HSJ: “Patient safety has moved massively up the agenda because of the issue of nosocomial infections that have affected both staff and patients during covid."
“This high powered advisory board will help Patient Safety Watch make measured but decisive interventions so that we get better at learning from what inevitably goes wrong - not just in a pandemic but in normal times as well.”
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Source: HSJ, 8 October 2020
The numbers waiting over a year for hospital treatment have hit a 12-year high in England as hospitals struggle to get services back to normal. Nearly 2m patients have been waiting more than the target time of 18 weeks for routine care with 111,000 left for over a year, NHS England figures show.
The numbers starting cancer treatment and getting urgent checks are also below the levels seen a year ago.
But NHS England said "progress" was being made.
It pointed out more patients were starting to be seen - although there are now warnings service may have to be cut back on again as admissions for Covid continue to rise.
About 500 patients a day are being admitted to hospital with the disease - double the number two weeks ago.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK was in a "perilous" position and the ability of the NHS to see non-Covid patients was under threat.
Health minister Nadine Dorries predicted within 10 days hospitals would be a "critical" point.
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Source: BBC News, 8 October 2020
Inspectors have demanded improvements from a hospital after a report highlighted a number of failings over COVID-19 precautions.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected the emergency department and medical wards at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, on 11 August.
Inspection teams visited a ward where patients showed symptoms and were awaiting test results as well as a ward caring for patients who had COVID-19. A ward for patients without the virus and a fourth ward where there had been an outbreak of COVID-19 were also inspected.
The CQC said it took urgent enforcement action, telling the trust to ensure there was an "effective system to manage the health and safety of people using the hospital".
The report revealed staff did not always wear PPE or face coverings correctly in medical wards. One member of the nursing team was seen to be wearing a mask incorrectly in the ward where there had been an outbreak of the coronavirus.
At least seven members of staff were seen entering and leaving the ward caring for people who were suspected of having COVID-19 without adhering to hand hygiene practices.
Staff did not always remove PPE upon entering a new clinical area of the emergency department. Nor did they always put on or take off their PPE when entering and leaving patient bays.
While equipment was said to have been cleaned on the day, inspectors found this was not always recorded.
The report also detailed that five members of staff were seen in one room that was too small to enable the practised social distancing in that space.
East Kent Hospitals Trust chief executive Susan Acott said: "In August, a CQC inspection team visited the William Harvey Hospital and saw examples of practice which falls short of the high standard we all want to provide for our patients."
"Keeping our patients and staff safe is our priority. We have responded to the CQC with the actions we are taking and we are committed to the care and safety of every patient in our hospitals."
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Source: BBC News, 7 October 2020
For most people, COVID-19 is a brief and mild disease but some are left struggling with symptoms including lasting fatigue, persistent pain and breathlessness for months. The condition known as "long Covid" is having a debilitating effect on people's lives, and stories of being left exhausted after even a short walk are now common.
There is no medical definition or list of symptoms shared by all patients - two people with long Covid can have very different experiences. However, the most common feature is crippling fatigue.
Others symptoms include: breathlessness, a cough that won't go away, joint pain, muscle aches, hearing and eyesight problems, headaches, loss of smell and taste as well as damage to the heart, lungs, kidneys and gut. Mental health problems have been reported including depression, anxiety and struggling to think clearly.
Long Covid is not just people taking time to recover from a stay in intensive care. Even people with relatively mild infections can be left with lasting and severe health problems.
"We've got no doubt long Covid exists," Prof David Strain, from the University of Exeter, who is already seeing long-Covid patients at his Chronic Fatigue Syndrome clinic, told the BBC.
A study of 143 people in Rome's biggest hospital, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, followed hospital patients after they were discharged. It showed 87% had at least one symptom nearly two months later and more than half still had fatigue.
The Covid Symptom Tracker App - used by around four million people in the UK - found 12% of people still had symptoms after 30 days. Its latest, unpublished data, suggests as many as one in 50 (2%) of all people infected have long-Covid symptoms after 90 days.
The number of people with long-Covid appears to be falling with time. However, the virus emerged only at the end of 2019 before going global earlier this year so there is a lack of long-term data.
"We've asked, deliberately, to follow people for 25 years, I certainly hope only a very small number will have problems going beyond a year, but I could be wrong," said Prof Brightling.
However, there are concerns that even if people appear to recover now, they could face lifelong risks. People who have had chronic fatigue syndrome are more likely to have it again and the concern is that future infections may cause more flare-ups.
"If long Covid follows the same pattern I'd expect some recovery, but if it takes just another coronavirus infection to react then this could be every winter," said Prof Strain.
It is still possible more problems could emerge in the future.
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Source: BBC News, 6 October 2020
Much has been said about the delays to patient care during the first wave of COVID-19, but the full picture has been hard to pin down as statistics come in different forms and are released gradually.
However, one recently-published poll performed by Ipsos Mori, with more than 2,000 UK adults aged between 18-75, revealed two-thirds of people who needed treatment for new or recently changed conditions had their care cancelled or delayed during March and July.
The poll also revealed three-quarters of people missed out on routine treatment in the same timeframe.
It is believed to be the hitherto largest patient-focused survey exploring the impact of the pandemic on non-COVID-19 care during its first peak.
It found that – of the people who needed treatment for a new or changed condition – 23% chose to cancel their treatment while 42% had their treatment cancelled or delayed by their healthcare provider.
Within the group of people requiring care for an ongoing problem, 31% of patients delayed or cancelled their treatment.
Mark Davies, chief medical officer at IBM – which commissioned the poll – told HSJ the number of people with new or recently changed conditions choosing to cancel or delay their care was “really worrying”.
“This survey backs up the anecdotal evidence we hear about people being worried about going into hospital during the pandemic,” he said.
“It is striking that the proportion of this group of patients who did not get treatment is roughly similar to the proportion of patients requiring treatment for an ongoing health problem who cancelled or delayed their care."
He said he would have expected the former group – those with new or changed conditions – to be more anxious to get treated, and warned of a “backlog of unmet need that is only going to emerge in the next few months”.
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Source: HSJ, 6 October 2020
NHS workers are at breaking point after months of upheaval and high pressure during the coronavirus outbreak with hospital leaders warning the health service is facing a “perfect storm” of workforce shortages and a second wave of COVID-19.
In a survey of 140 NHS trust leaders almost all of them said they were worried about their staff suffering burnout ahead of winter.
They also sounded the alarm over concerns there had not been enough investment into social care before this winter.
NHS Providers, which carried out the survey ahead of its annual conference of hospital leaders, warned the first wave of COVID-19 had made a lasting impact on the health service which had yet to fully recover.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said there had been “no let-up in the pressure” during the pandemic, which followed a difficult winter for staff.
“And while the response to the spring surge in COVID-19 cases showed the NHS at its best, the pressures took their toll on staff who gave so much,” he said.
“The worry is that the sustained physical, psychological and emotional pressure on health staff is threatening to push them beyond their limits of endurance.”
Almost all those who responded to the survey, 99 per cent, said they were either extremely or moderately concerned about the current level of burnout across the workforce.
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Source: The Independent, 6 October 2020
