Jump to content
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,267

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Sam

Administrators

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Sam

  1. Content Article
    The National Guardian’s Office (NGO) has been operational for four years. Following feedback on its performance, the NGO sets out how they are going to respond to this feedback in the coming year.
  2. News Article
    Many people in Britain are likely to suffer from physical and mental problems for several years after the COVID-19 epidemic has subsided. That is the grim message from doctors and psychologists who last week warned that even after lockdown measures had been lifted thousands of individuals would still be suffering. Some of these problems will be due directly to the impact that the virus has had on those it has infected, especially those who went through life-saving interventions in intensive care units (ICUs) in hospital. In addition there will be a considerable impact on vulnerable people affected by the lockdown and isolation. Read full Source: The Observer, 2 May 2020
  3. News Article
    In recent weeks, there has been sustained public and media interest in the death from COVID-19 of health and social care workers. Both mainstream and social media outlets have been reporting on these deaths individually or collectively, but there has been no formal analysis of this data. The deaths of 119 NHS staff have now been analysed by three leading clinicians and the results are been published by HSJ. HSJ highlights three key findings from the analysis: 1. The disproportionately high rate of BAME individuals among those who have died; 2. The absence of those members of staff considered at high risk of viral exposure and transmission; and 3. The overall rate of fatalities compared to the population. Read full story Source: HSJ, 22 April 2020
  4. News Article
    Delays in diagnosing and treating people with cancer could lead to more years of lost life than with COVID-19, according to a leading cancer expert. A drop-off in screening and referrals means roughly 2,700 fewer people are being diagnosed every week, Cancer Research UK says. Cancer screening has paused in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with few invitations sent out in England. People are still advised to contact their GP with worrying symptoms. But Richard Sullivan, professor of cancer and global health at King's College London, said there was more fear of Covid-19 than of having cancer at the moment. With GPs more difficult to contact than normal, this was resulting in a "dramatic drop-off" in referrals to specialists, he said. "Most modellers in the UK estimate excess of deaths is going to be way greater than we are going to see with Covid-19," he said. Read full story Source: 22 April 2020, BBC News
  5. News Article
    The next few months will be full of grim updates about the spread of the new coronavirus, but they will also be full of homecomings. Patients hospitalised with severe COVID-19, some having spent weeks breathing with the help of a mechanical ventilator, will set about resuming their lives. Many will likely deal with lingering effects of the virus — and of the emergency treatments that allowed them to survive it. “The issue we’re all going to be faced with the most in the coming months is how we’re going to help these people recover,” says Lauren Ferrante, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the Yale School of Medicine. Hospital practices that keep patients as lucid and mobile as possible, even in the throes of their illness, could improve their long-term odds. But many intensive care unit doctors say the pandemic’s strain on hospitals and the infectious nature of the virus are making it hard to stick to some of those practices. Read full story Source: Science, 8 April 2020
  6. News Article
    NHS staff still do not have the protective equipment they need to treat coronavirus patients, medics have said. The British Medical Association (BMA) said doctors were putting their lives at risk by working without adequate protection. It comes as the health secretary said 19 NHS workers had died with coronavirus since the outbreak began. Read full story Source: BBC News, 11 April 2020
  7. News Article
    Doctors seeing patients with blood oxygen levels so low they are surprised they are conscious – yet they are sitting up and talking. British and American intensive care doctors at the front line of the coronavirus crisis are starting to question the aggressive use of ventilators for the treatment of patients. In many cases, they say the machines – which are highly invasive and require the patient to be rendered unconscious – are being used too early and may cause more harm than good. Instead they are finding that less invasive forms of oxygen treatment through face masks or nasal cannulas work better for patients, even those with very low blood oxygen readings. Dr Ron Daniels, a consultant in critical care at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, on Thursday confirmed reports from US medics that he and other NHS doctors were revising their view of when ventilators should be used. Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 9 April 2020
  8. News Article
    Shortages are dogging the fight against the coronavirus. At Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) it's still only possible to test six staff for the virus per day, consultants have been making their own personal protective equipment, and there's an urgent need to save oxygen. Searching for ways round the problem, Dr Tom has been working with Leeds University on a 3D-printed valve that could be attached to the hospital's ventilators to reduce the amount of oxygen they use. But he also began looking at CPAP machines used to treat sleep apnoea at home. These maintain air at a continuous pressure, inside a mask, to keep the user's airways open - they have to be repurposed to provide oxygen for use in the hospital, but they use much less of it than standard hospital ventilators. They said, 'Yes we've got 2,000, how many do you want?''' he says. "And so our plan is to start with 100 and to see whether, if we use these early enough during a patient's stay, we can prevent people deteriorating and needing to go on to the more complex ventilators, and needing to come to the intensive care unit." We've been testing them over the weekend, and there's evidence from China and from the US that they seem effective. They just help inflate your lungs and that seems to be beneficial. They are also very simple, which means that there's no need for a huge amount of training. Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 April 2020
  9. News Article
    Hundreds of people are dying in care homes from confirmed or suspected coronavirus without yet being officially counted, the Guardian has learned. More than 120 residents of the UK’s largest charitable provider of care homes are thought to have died from the virus in the last three weeks, while another network of care homes is reported to have recorded 88 deaths. Care England, the industry body, estimated that the death toll is likely to be close to 1,000, despite the only available official figure for care home fatalities being dramatically lower. The gulf in the figures has prompted warnings that ministers are underestimating the impact of Covid-19 on society’s most frail, and are failing to sufficiently help besieged care homes and workers. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 7 April 2020
  10. News Article
    The health service has been promised “whatever it needs” to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, but government spending choices reveal possible long-term changes to funding and policy. Having initially promised the health service “whatever it needs, whatever it costs” on 11th March, the government made this official when Matt Hancock issued a ministerial direction allowing the Department of Health to “spend in excess of formal Departmental Expenditure Limits”—effectively providing a blank cheque. But while the government’s actions are designed for the immediate crisis, they may be difficult to reverse once the peak of coronavirus has passed. Indeed, they could yet change how the health service operates on a permanent basis. Read full story Source: Prospect, 7 April 2020
  11. Content Article
    Acute and chronic pain place a huge burden on our society. Approximately 10% of the population in Western countries report suffering from chronic pain, and both chronic and acute pain are responsible for high absenteeism in the workplace. It is therefore crucial that we have effective ways of treating pain. Unfortunately though, we have no objective measures of pain - no blood tests, no urine dipsticks. We have to rely on what the patient tells us. So how then do we know what are and what are not effective pain treatments? It is here that the principles of evidence-based medicine have been of great value - helping us to understand the most effective forms of pain treatment. Bandolier's Little Book of Pain is a unique portable guide to evidence-based pain treatments. For each possible treatment, the book provides the evidence supporting the efficacy of the treatment, along with a clinical bottom line, for those requiring immediate information. Written by world leaders in the field of evidenced-based pain treatments, the book will be indispensable for the multi-disciplinary professionals managing acute and chronic pain in primary and secondary care.
  12. Content Article
    In this blog, Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan discuss resilience, the importance of recovery and how we can build resilience.
  13. Content Article
    Disagreements are an inevitable, normal, and healthy part of relating to other people. There is no such thing as a conflict-free work environment. Amy Gallo explains why disagreements — when managed well — have lots of positive outcomes.
  14. News Article
    National NHS leaders are to take action over growing fears that the “unintended consequences” of focusing so heavily on tackling covid-19 could do more harm than the virus, HSJ has learned. NHS England analysts have been tasked with the challenging task of identifying patients who may not have the virus but may be at risk of significant harm or death because they are missing vital appointments or not attending emergency departments, with both the service and public so focused on covid-19. A senior NHS source familiar with the programme told HSJ: “There could be some very serious unintended consequences [to all the resource going into fighting coronavirus]. While there will be a lot of covid-19 fatalities, we could end up losing more ‘years of life’ because of fatalities relating to non-covid-19 health complications. “What we don’t want to do is take our eye off the ball in terms of all the core business and all the other healthcare issues the NHS normally attends to." “People will be developing symptoms of serious but treatable diseases, babies will be born which need immunising, and people will be developing breast lumps and need mammograms.” HSJ understands system leaders are hopeful that in the coming days they will be able to assess the scale of the problem, and the key patient groups, and then begin planning the right interventions and communications programme to tackle it. Read full story Source: HSJ, 5 April 2020
  15. Content Article
    This national learning report from the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) will highlight the themes emerging from their contact with families during their patient safety investigations. It is due to be published in spring 2020. HSIB's national learning reports describe common themes and findings that come out of their national investigation programme and their maternity investigation programme. The information in these reports is used to inform future HSIB investigations or programmes of work.
  16. Content Article
    The four chief nursing officers of the UK asked all nurses who have retired from nursing in the last three years to consider re-joining the register held by the Nursing and Midwifery Council and come back into practice to help health and care services to support patients with COVID-19. In this article in the Independent, Elaine Maxwell explains why she is stepping up having left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register twelve months ago and not having worked clinically for 10 years.
  17. Content Article
    The way we treat cancer over the next few months will change enormously. Oncologists, will have to find a tenuous balance between under-treating people with cancer, resulting in more deaths from the disease in the medium to long term, and increasing deaths from Covid-19 in a vulnerable patient population. Lucy Gossage, an oncologist, discusses in the Guardian the difficult decisions that will need to be made.
  18. Content Article
    Dr Gordon Caldwell, a consultant physician, questions whether he should be ventilated if gets the coronavirus. Gordon is a 64 year old in good health. But in his blog he asks us to consider whether this would be a wise action and whether more harm than good would come from ventilating him. The process of ventilation may be the most important and dangerous fomite for the current generation of healthcare staff, but by jumping to “do it all” and “have a go” we may be shooting the human race in the foot; however well intentioned the motivation. Read Gordon's full blog in the attachment below.
  19. News Article
    The NHS must ensure that doctors have proper protective equipment, Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, has urged. NHS chiefs say that there are no problems with national stock levels of items including masks, gowns and gloves and that local supply issues should have been resolved over the weekend. However, hospital staff say that they are still experiencing shortages, with nurses going to DIY shops to stock up or even refusing to work without the right equipment. One London doctor said: “Every time the government is asked they say the equipment is there, and it is just not true.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 23 March 2020
  20. Community Post
    hub member Phil has added a blog on the implications of retired staff rejoining their registers and returning to frontline care, and how short shifts may benefit us all. What do you think?
  21. Content Article
    Bjonda Haliti shares her experience on Thread reader on her experience to help bring awareness to her age group and to relieve any stress/anxiety some may have due to the pandemic. 
  22. Content Article
    Chronically Awesome is a brand new charity supporting people of working age who live with chronic illness. As coronavirus has shown, all too little awareness and support exists for people who suffer with incurable illnesses that are often invisible. Chronically Awesome are building programmes to support people through things like exercise videos, mental health support, employment advice and more, all online to make it as accessible as possible to everyone. Chronically Awesome have created posters for people to use to show they are self-isolating and are sharing them with us via the link below. They are free to download, although they ask you to consider making a donation to their work via Paypal using the email address hello@chronicallyawesome.org.uk. Instagram @chronically.awesome Facebook at chronicallyawesometribe
  23. News Article
    Southampton researchers are trialling an inhaled drug that could prevent worsening of COVID19 in those most at risk. The trial, led by Tom Wilkinson, Professor of Respiratory Medicince in the Faculty of Medicine and a consultant in respiratory medicine at University Hospital Southampton, will involve 100 patients at Southampton and up to ten other NHS hospitals taking part. Those patients will receive the best current COVID19 care, whilst inhaling either a placebo or SNG001, a special formulation of the naturally occurring antiviral protein interferon beta 1a (IFN-β), for 14 days. The trial will be undertaken with Synairgen, a drug development company founded by University of Southampton Professors Stephen Holgate, Donna Davies and Ratko Djukanovic. Professor Wilkinson said, “COVID19 cis presenting a major challenge to vulnerable patients, the health service and wider society whilst a vaccine will be key, that could some time away. Right now we need effective frontline treatments to give doctors the tools to treat the most vulnerable and to help patients recover quickly as the pressure on health systems mounts." Read full story Source: University of Southampton, 18 March 2020
  24. News Article
    NHS staff say they are being put at risk during the coronavirus outbreak because of a lack of protective gear. One doctor told the BBC that frontline healthcare workers felt like "cannon fodder" as they do not have access to equipment such as face masks. Health workers also expressed concerns that not enough of them were being tested for the virus. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK had "stockpiles" of personal protective equipment (PPE). But Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, from lobbying group the Doctors' Association, said she had heard from doctors who had not got access to PPE - or it had expired or run out. "All these doctors are worried that that's increasing their likelihood of contracting the virus and then ultimately spreading it to patients," she said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 18 March 2020
  25. News Article
    Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced plans to test more people for coronavirus. At the moment only people in hospital are being routinely tested, so if you have symptoms and you are not sure if you have the virus, you may well never know. As of 18 March, 56,221 people in the UK had been tested for coronavirus. The number of tests has been rising from just over 1,000 a day at the end of February, when testing began, to more than 6,000 per day by mid-March. The government plans to increase this to 10,000 a day initially, with a goal of reaching 25,000 tests a day. But it has been criticised by some experts for not testing widely enough, and people have been complaining online about not having access to tests despite having symptoms. Public Health England says it will do some surveillance testing on a local level if clusters of cases are identified, using a network of 100 designated GP surgeries. This is to try to get a sense of how many milder cases there are in the community that do not result in hospitalisation. But the UK is not currently doing any mass surveillance testing or actively tracing people who have come into contact with known cases The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he had a "simple message" for all countries: "Test, test, test." He added: "We cannot stop this pandemic if we do not know who is infected." The UK's chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance told a group of MPs that "we simply don't have mass testing available for the population now", and that "when you only have capacity to do a certain number of tests" you have to prioritise the most vulnerable groups. Read full story Source: BBC News, 19 March 2020
×
×
  • Create New...