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Sam

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  1. Sam
    Challenging the NHS’ workplace culture is key to improving patient safety says NHS Resolution in their latest guidance: Being fair: supporting a just and learning culture for staff and patients following incidents in the NHS. The paper draws on NHS Resolution’s unique dataset to explore best practice in response to incidents resulting from claims from across the system. The guidance aims to help the NHS to create an environment to better support staff when things go wrong and to encourage learning from incidents.
     
     
  2. Sam
    Patients will be able to anonymously log concerns about their NHS treatment, via a phone app, as part of efforts to boost safety. The new strategy will see the creation of a centralised portal, allowing patients, their families and staff to record problems with medical devices, errors in medicines administration, or difficulties in spotting a patient’s condition deteriorating. Officials said that swift recording of such information would enable them to alert the rest of the NHS more quickly to risks of serious harm, and prevent tragedies being repeated.
    Full story
    Source: The Telegraph, 29 June 2019
  3. Sam
    Hospitals throughout the NHS are in such a poor state of repair that patient safety and care is being put at risk, according to an investigation by the Labour Party. A freedom of information requests sent to every hospital trust in England highlighted problems such as sewage and water leaking on to hospital wards, broken lifts and ceilings collapsing. The incidents have affected patient care, often leading to the cancellation of appointments and leaving people waiting longer for vital treatment. It is speculated that these issues are not just confined to secondary care.
    Read full story
    Source: Nursing Notes, 5 July 2019
  4. Sam
    Following the publication of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy this week, which argues that new technologies have the potential to transform improvements in keeping patients from harm, Sarah Scobie, Nuffield Trust's Deputy Director of Research, takes a closer look at what the possibilities are.
    Read blog post
    Source: Nuffield Trust, 2 July 2019
  5. Sam
    Patients' lives are being put at risk because of delays giving them treatment for sepsis, experts are warning. Hospitals are meant to put patients on an antibiotic drip within an hour when sepsis is suspected, but research by BBC News suggests a quarter of patients in England wait longer. However, NHS England said there were signs performance was improving and that hospitals were getting better at spotting those at risk sooner. 
    Dr Ron Daniels, of the UK Sepsis Trust, said the "concerning" figures showed patients were being put at risk. In some hospitals, over half of patients face delays. Dr Daniels said the one-hour window was "essential to increase the chances of surviving". "There is no reason really why it should take longer," he added.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 4 July 2019
  6. Sam
    NHS Improvement and NHS England have published their NHS Patient Safety Strategy. The publication out today describes how the NHS will continuously improve patient safety, building on the foundations of a safer culture and safer systems. The strategy sets out what the NHS will do to achieve its vision to continuously improve patient safety. 
     
  7. Sam
    The culture of working without breaks is dangerous to doctors’ and patients’ wellbeing and only a cultural shift can change things, argues Heidi Edmundson. 
    Heidi, Consultant for Emergency Medicine at Whittington Health NHS Trust, discusses in BMJ Opinion how it has become impossible to ignore the huge cost of burnout to both individual doctors and the medical workforce. Breaks are no longer being viewed as a luxury, but as an integral part of physician wellbeing, patient safety, and workforce sustainability. However exceptional reporting and the costs associated with recruitment and retention issues mean that they are becoming a financial issue as well. Heidi ran her own departmental “public health” campaign entitled “take a break” to see if she could change this culture. 
    "I started this project with a desire to try and change culture and I have come to realize that changing the culture around taking breaks is really just the tip of the iceberg. What we really need is a huge cultural shift in our attitudes and behaviours towards staff wellness. This will require imagination, innovation, and investment at all levels."
    Read full story
    Source: BMJ Opinion, 28 June 2019
  8. Sam
    Royal College of Nursing (RCN) member Tara Matare has won the coveted title of RCN Nurse of the Year 2019. She scooped the leadership category at the RCNi Nurse Awards before being crowned the overall winner. Tara has tackled short staffing, improved workplace culture and enhanced patient care at her ophthalmology unit at Whipps Cross Hospital in London. Over a 14-year mission to overhaul the unit, there have been a steady stream of challenges, including fighting ophthalmology’s corner to ensure it wasn’t overlooked in favour of higher-profile inpatient services and tackling an ingrained culture of bullying.  
    Read full story
    Source: Royal College of Nursing, 4 July 2019
  9. Sam
    The Social Partnership Forum (SPF)’s collective call to action tasks employers and trade unions in all NHS organisations to work in partnership to create positive workplace cultures and tackle bullying. To support this work, the SPF is publicising the views of NHS leaders and experts on this topic and signposting information, tools and resources and case studies which can help partnership initiatives.
    Creating positive workplace cultures and tackling bullying in the NHS - a collective call to action
  10. Sam
    NHSX has just completed a major review of NHS tech spending. They have agreed to reducing the burden on clinicians and staff, so they can focus on patients; giving people the tools to access information and services directly; ensuring clinical information can be safely accessed, wherever it is needed; aiding the improvement of patient safety across the NHS; and improving NHS productivity with digital technology.
    Read full story
  11. Sam
    Traditionally, as a group, surgeons are not well known for their bedside manner. While poor manners aren't commonly accepted in most professional circles, representations of surgeons in popular culture often link technical prowess with rude behavior, and some surgeons have even argued that insensitivity can be helpful in such an emotionally strenuous profession. However, a study published in JAMA Surgery challenges these ideas. The study, which looked at interactions between surgeons and their teams, found that patients of surgeons who behaved unprofessionally around their colleagues tended to have more complications after surgery. Surgeons who model unprofessional behavior can undermine the performance of their teams, the authors write, potentially threatening patients' safety.
    Read full story
    Source: NPR, 19 June 2019
  12. Sam
    Doctors in Northern Ireland feel increasingly "vulnerable" to criminal proceedings in the workplace, forcing them to consider abandoning the profession, senior medic, Dr Tom Black, warns. Dr Black, chairperson of the British Medical Association Northern Ireland, says that consultants in Northern Ireland are operating in a "hostile working culture" as a result of the situation. He explains that medics are increasingly fearful of the professional repercussions if they make a medical error amid pressured case loads: "Doctors feel vulnerable to criminal and regulatory proceedings, and this creates a hostile training environment for our medical students, young doctors... This blame and sanction culture creates disrespect and mistrust. This has a price - it encourages risk avoidance behaviours in professionals, inefficient and ineffective management, increased cost for the system and deteriorating services for patients."
    Read full story
    Source: Belfast Telegraph, 25 June 2019
  13. Sam
    After many months of development and several user workshops, we are delighted and proud to present the hub at Patient Safety Congress 2019.
    the hub is one of the actions proposed by Patient Safety Learning's A Blueprint for Action. The report identifies six foundations of safe care: shared learning, leadership, professionalising patient safety, patient engagement, data and insight, and culture, and proposes a range of actions to address these foundations. the hub is Patient Safety Learning's share online learning platform, which encourages and facilitates knowledge sharing, collaboration and conversation in patient safety across the whole of health and social care. It is a platform for health and social professionals, patients and their families to share and learn from one another.
    the hub is free for everyone to use. Have a browse and you will find the latest news, research, resources and events in patient safety, and lively conversations and debates. Members can share content, comment on posts and start conversations in our communities. Please use the hub, share content and let us know what you think and how we can continue to develop it.
    We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed this far in the development of the hub. Your thoughts, ideas and critique have been invaluable. the hub is still in development and we continue to seek out user testing and feedback. Please contact us at feedback@pslhub.org with your ideas or if you would like to be a part of our user testing group.  
  14. Sam
    Hospitals are having to cancel operations and cancer scans are going unread for weeks because consultant doctors have suddenly begun working to rule in a standoff over NHS pensions. Doctors say the dispute is escalating so quickly that it will send NHS services “into meltdown” and is so serious that it poses “an existential threat” to the health service’s survival.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 8 July 2019
  15. Sam
    More than 1 in 10 school entry-age children in England are at risk of measles because they have not had their vaccine jabs, data reveals.
    Coverage for the two doses of MMR that helps protect five-year-olds against measles, mumps and rubella is currently at 85.5%.
    That is the lowest for a decade, and well below the 95% target recommended to stop a resurgence of measles.
    Measles is highly contagious, more than Covid, and can cause serious illness. Nine in every 10 people can catch it if they are unjabbed and exposed.
    As well as a distinctive rash, measles can lead to severe complications, such as pneumonia and brain inflammation, and sometimes can be fatal.
    Vaccination can remove almost all of these risks.
    Two doses of the MMR vaccine give 99% protection against measles and rubella and about 88% protection against mumps.
    When a high percentage of the population is protected through vaccination, it becomes harder for the disease to pass between people.
    But since the start of the Covid pandemic, there has been a concerning drop in the number of children receiving these vaccines on time.
    Experts say some parents may not have realised doctors were still offering appointments, or did not want to burden the NHS.
    Coverage of the first dose of the MMR vaccine in two-year-olds has now fallen below 90%. This means that more than one in 10 children under the age of five are not fully protected from measles and are at risk of catching it.
    Among all five-year-olds in England, 93.7% have had one dose and 85.5% have had the recommended two doses.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 1 February 2022
  16. Sam
    Thousands of children are falling through the cracks in youth addiction services owing to Covid, staff shortages and funding cuts, psychiatrists have said, as figures suggest the number able to get help has fallen to the lowest on record.
    Analysis of data from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) found that 11,013 under-18s were in treatment for drug and alcohol dependency in England in 2020-21, which was 3,278 fewer (23% less) than in 2019-20. It was the sharpest annual fall since records began, and means 13,481 fewer children were being treated than at a peak in 2008-09.
    The vast majority of children in treatment (89%, or 9,832) had a problem with cannabis and 41% (4,459) had a problem with alcohol. About 12% (1,333) were struggling with ecstasy use and 9% (976) reported a problem with powder cocaine.
    The Royal College of Psychiatrists, which analysed the data, said the pandemic, together with “drastic” historical funding cuts, was preventing young people from accessing the drug and alcohol treatment they need, potentially condemning them to a life of addiction.
    Dr Emily Finch, the vice-chair of the addictions faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “Children and their families up and down the country are having their lives blighted by drug and alcohol use due to drastic cuts, workforce shortages and the impact of the pandemic.
    “Addiction is a treatable health condition. Intervening early will mean many kids won’t go on to have an addiction in their adulthood, keeping them out of the criminal justice system and helping them to live full lives. It’s now time for the government to act on their promise and deliver the multimillion-pound investment into drug services.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 3 February 2022
  17. Sam
    The Nightingale surge hubs cost more than £10.6 million to set up but have admitted roughly seven patients, it has emerged.
    Eight temporary sites were built at hospitals across the country during the height of the omicron wave, with the capacity to house about 100 patients each. However, it has now been revealed that the hubs cost £10,672,088 to build and only one has admitted a handful of patients.
    Announcing the hubs in December, NHS England said they would be used if “the record number of Covid-19 infections leads to a surge in admissions and outstrips existing capacity”.
    However, as of Jan 30, there were 1,285 daily admissions, an eight per cent decrease on the previous week.
    The chief executive of the William Harvey Hospital, in Ashford, Kent – the location of one of the eight omicron hubs – has expressed concerns that the structure “may adversely impact” other services and never be used.
    The cost of the hubs was revealed in response to a written question submitted by Damian Green, the Conservative MP Mr Green said that the temporary sites were an “insurance policy” and added “it looks like they won’t be needed”. He called on ministers to assess if they could be repurposed to help clear the backlog of patients waiting for treatment.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Telegraph, 2 February 2022
  18. Sam
    Research by Garmin finds 40% of young women say they have been accused of over-exaggerating symptoms of UTIs.     
    While it’s clear that already strained services and a lack of funding contributed to the impact of the pandemic on the healthcare system, health inequality isn’t something that’s unique to Covid-19.
    Instead, it’s often the result of commonly misunderstood, misrepresented and mistreated conditions that disproportionately affect women, such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis and urinary tract infections (UTIs).
    New research from fitness company Garmin, published by The Independent, found that 40% of young women say they have been accused of over-exaggerating symptoms of UTIs or being “overdramatic” about their wellbeing when seeing a doctor. 45% also said they’ve had their UTI symptoms written off as “part of being a woman”.
    According to the Chronic Urinary Tract Infection Campaign (CUTIC), 50% of all women will suffer at least one UTI episode in their lifetime, one third of these by the age of 24. 
    “Statistics show that UTI is the most common infection seen by GPs,” says CUTIC. “In fact, doctors are so familiar with UTIs that they are frequently dismissed as merely a woman’s problem, rooted in the ‘flawed female anatomy’.
    “With little training in UTI management, GPs and urologists rely heavily on discredited laboratory tests which miss up to 60% of infections."
    “The medical training for UTI diagnosis is inadequate and most doctors are not aware of the complexity of this illness. They are trained to accept the test results and look no further,” CUTIC suggests.
    “It is clear from the recent government probe into menopause that women’s health has not been an area of priority. Conditions which primarily affect women are underfunded and under researched – this includes UTIs. Women are frequently patronised and not believed when they describe symptoms relating to UTIs, peri-menopause, menopause and vaginal atrophy. Medical training fails to include proper diagnosis and effective treatment for such conditions. Change is needed now.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Stylist, 2 February 2022
    Have you attempted to access treatment for a urinary tract infection (UTI), or recurrent UTIs? We'd love you to share your experiences with us? Share your experience on the hub.
  19. Sam
    Pfizer and BioNTech said Tuesday that they were seeking emergency-use authorisation for the first coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 5 in the US and have begun submitting data on the safety and efficacy of the first two doses of a planned three-dose regimen.
    The Food and Drug Administration asked the companies to apply for authorization of their vaccine, and in an email, FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Caccomo said the omicron surge had generated new data “impacting the potential benefit-risk profile of a vaccine for the youngest children.”
    In December, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that the immune response generated by the vaccine in children between 2 and 4 years old was not sufficiently robust. But the companies said the vaccine had provoked a strong enough response in children 6 months to 2 years old. A third shot was added to the trial to increase the immune response.
    An earlier vaccine trial in children 5 to 11 years old was also focused on showing that those children had adequate immune responses after vaccination. In addition, there were enough cases of illness in that study population to determine that the vaccine was 91% effective in preventing symptomatic illness.
    The companies said Tuesday that the FDA requested they move forward with an application because of the “urgent public health need in this population,” noting that 1.6 million children under the age of 4 have tested positive for the coronavirus.
    “The need for a safe and effective vaccine for our youngest children is significant, particularly given the rapid spread of the omicron variant, the notable rise in the number of hospitalizations in young children with severe disease, and the possibility that future variants could cause severe disease in those who are unvaccinated,” Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.
    Read full story
    Source: The Washington Post, 1 February 2022
  20. Sam
    An amputee's wife having to "carry him to the toilet" after her husband was sent home from hospital without a care plan was just one of many findings in a report into vascular services at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in north Wales.
    The critical report by the Royal College of Surgeons England makes five urgent recommendations "to address patient safety risks".
    Part one of the report, published last summer, made nine urgent recommendations and raised issues including too many patient transfers to the centralised hub, a lack of vascular beds and frequent delays in transfers.
    The final part of the report, published on 3 February, focussed on the clinical records of 44 patients dating from 2014 - five years before centralisation - to July 2021, two years after the Ysbyty Glan Clwyd hub opened.
    Assessors were "extremely concerned" about the case of a man where a decision was made to "amputate the foot rather than proceed to a below-the-knee amputation as the primary procedure".
    The report adds: "The review team also noted that the patient had been discharged without a care plan and that the patient's wife was having to 'carry him to the toilet'."
    It also highlights an "inappropriate" decision to offer a patient an "unnecessary and futile" amputation when "palliation and conservative therapy should have been considered instead".
    Referring to that case, the report added that the risk from "major amputation was extremely high".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 3 February 2022
  21. Sam
    A grandfather who went into hospital with stomach problems needed both of his legs and his left hand amputating after contracting a life-threatening infection.
    Stephen Hughes, from Edmondstown, had been admitted to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant, in March 2022, with gallstones and aggressive stomach inflammation. This led to pancreatitis corroding a hole in the duodenum which caused a significant bleed into his gut. The 56-year-old's condition deteriorated and he was transferred to the ICU at the University Hospital of Wales as a patient in critical condition.
    Whilst at UHW, his family said that the NHS staff worked tirelessly to stop the internal bleeding he was suffering. His gallbladder was removed on September 8th, 2022, and stents were placed along his arteries. Although these operations were successful, his family claims that Mr Hughes caught sepsis from the feeding tube in his neck on 11 September 2022 whilst recovering.
    Stephen’s body prioritised sending blood to his vital organs which resulted in his outer limbs being deprived of blood and oxygen. Stephen then had to have life-altering operations, which resulted in both of his legs being amputated towards the end of September, and his left hand being amputated at the start of October. He was later discharged on 31 October.
    A spokesperson for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: “As a Health Board we are unable to comment on individual patient cases, however we appreciate how life altering operations are particularly distressing for the individual and also their loved ones.
    Read full story
    Source: Wales Online, 9 September 2023
  22. Sam
    More than a quarter of million people dipped into their savings or took a loan to pay for a private hospital operation or appointment last year — a record high. This year could exceed that.
    And who can blame them? With the NHS waiting list at a staggering 7.6 million and monthly strikes by doctors lengthening waiting times, patients are increasingly prepared to jump the queue and pay hard cash to do so.
    In an effort to cut waits and expand choice for patients, Rishi Sunak is funnelling thousands more NHS patients into the private sector.
    Yet private healthcare is not without risks, many of which are not fully understood. There is a difference between the NHS, which — for all its faults — has been a dependable, free at the point of use health service for more than 75 years, and the sometimes murky world of private doctors and hospital companies who use them.
    Can you trust your private doctor? When you look under the bonnet of private healthcare, beyond the glossy adverts, things can get a little uncertain.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: The Times, 10 September 2023
  23. Sam
    A police investigation into allegations of cover-up and medical negligence over dozens of deaths at the Royal Sussex county hospital (RSCH) in Brighton has been expanded to include more recent cases, amid internal claims about dangerous surgery.
    In June the Guardian revealed that Sussex police were investigating the deaths of about 40 patients in the general surgery and neurosurgery departments at the RSCH.
    The force initially said the investigation, since named Operation Bramber, related to allegations of medical negligence in these departments between 2015 and 2020.
    It has now extended the scope of the investigation to more recent cases, amid internal allegations that the departments continue to be unsafe and fail to properly review serious incidents.
    An insider said the police should review what was considered to be an avoidable death after a procedure in July. The source said some of the surgeons remained a danger to the public. “You would not want your family members touched by these people,” they said.
    They added: “This is not a historic issue, it is ongoing. The same surgeons that were involved in previous problems remain in place.” They cited a woman who lost the power of speech in April after an alleged mistake in surgery to remove a brain tumour led to a stroke, and a man who was left with a brain abscess in May after being operated on despite a heightened risk of infection.
    Read full story
    Source: The Guardian, 13 September 2023
  24. Sam
    Derby and Burton’s maternity services are now among the “most challenged in England”, requiring national involvement to boost improvements. The University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust joins 31 other NHS trusts across England which are now under closer scrutiny aimed at improving the quality of maternity services.
    A report from the trust details that it asked to be added to the national NHS England Maternity Safety Support Programme (MSSP) "voluntarily". Midwifery and obstetric improvement advisors have now been allocated to the trust to spend two days a week on the trust’s sites and also to provide “virtual” assistance.
    A letter to Stephen Posey, the trust’s chief executive, sent by Sascha Wells-Munro, the deputy chief midwifery officer for NHS England, details that the organisation’s addition to the national support programme comes after a number of concerning reports – not just its request. It references the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch report, published in February, which highlighted the cases of seven women and their babies between January 2021 and May 2022, with three mothers and a baby dying and four mothers suffering extreme consequences.
    Read full story
    Source: Derbyshire Live, 13 September 2023
  25. Sam
    Dozens more children than initially thought have come to “severe” harm following failings in audiology care, HSJ can reveal.
    Two more trusts have confirmed that, between them, 30 children suffered severe harm – which is defined as ”permanent or long-term harm” – after the failings.
    Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust said an external investigation had revealed 14 such cases, while Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust found 16 more after going through the same process.
    A total of 36 confirmed or suspected severe harm cases from paediatric audiology failings across six English trusts are now known about. I
    NHS England wrote to all 42 integrated care boards at the end of August, asking them to ensure the “approximately” 130 paediatric hearing services in England were running safely.
    Sir David Sloman, then-chief operating officer, and Dame Sue Hill, chief science officer, said the NHSE “review of these trusts has identified root causes that have led to poor service delivery and outcomes… [which include] lack of clinical governance and oversight, poor reporting of data, poor interpretation of results, poor retention of diagnostic data, and lack of accreditation.”
    The National Deaf Children’s Society called the speed of the NHS’s response “a scandal”.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 19 September 2023
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