Jump to content

Search the hub

Showing results for tags 'Care assessment'.


More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Start to type the tag you want to use, then select from the list.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • All
    • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Culture
    • Improving patient safety
    • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Leadership for patient safety
    • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Patient engagement
    • Patient safety in health and care
    • Patient Safety Learning
    • Professionalising patient safety
    • Research, data and insight
    • Miscellaneous

Categories

  • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Commissioning and funding patient safety
    • Digital health and care service provision
    • Health records and plans
    • Innovation programmes in health and care
    • Climate change/sustainability
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Blogs
    • Data, research and statistics
    • Frontline insights during the pandemic
    • Good practice and useful resources
    • Guidance
    • Mental health
    • Exit strategies
    • Patient recovery
    • Questions around Government governance
  • Culture
    • Bullying and fear
    • Good practice
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Safety culture programmes
    • Second victim
    • Speak Up Guardians
    • Staff safety
    • Whistle blowing
  • Improving patient safety
    • Clinical governance and audits
    • Design for safety
    • Disasters averted/near misses
    • Equipment and facilities
    • Error traps
    • Health inequalities
    • Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
    • Improving systems of care
    • Implementation of improvements
    • International development and humanitarian
    • Safety stories
    • Stories from the front line
    • Workforce and resources
  • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Investigations and complaints
    • Risk management and legal issues
  • Leadership for patient safety
    • Business case for patient safety
    • Boards
    • Clinical leadership
    • Exec teams
    • Inquiries
    • International reports
    • National/Governmental
    • Patient Safety Commissioner
    • Quality and safety reports
    • Techniques
    • Other
  • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Government and ALB direction and guidance
    • International patient safety
    • Regulators and their regulations
  • Patient engagement
    • Consent and privacy
    • Harmed care patient pathways/post-incident pathways
    • How to engage for patient safety
    • Keeping patients safe
    • Patient-centred care
    • Patient Safety Partners
    • Patient stories
  • Patient safety in health and care
    • Care settings
    • Conditions
    • Diagnosis
    • High risk areas
    • Learning disabilities
    • Medication
    • Mental health
    • Men's health
    • Patient management
    • Social care
    • Transitions of care
    • Women's health
  • Patient Safety Learning
    • Patient Safety Learning campaigns
    • Patient Safety Learning documents
    • 2-minute Tuesdays
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2018
    • Patient Safety Learning Awards 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Interviews
    • Patient Safety Learning webinars
  • Professionalising patient safety
    • Accreditation for patient safety
    • Competency framework
    • Medical students
    • Patient safety standards
    • Training & education
  • Research, data and insight
    • Data and insight
    • Research
  • Miscellaneous

News

  • News

Categories

  • Files

Calendars

  • Community Calendar

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start
    End

Last updated

  • Start
    End

Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


First name


Last name


Country


Join a private group (if appropriate)


About me


Organisation


Role

Found 54 results
  1. News Article
    An ambulance service says it has sped up clinical review of lower-priority calls, after a coroner said the new triage process — introduced in response to recent waiting time pressures — ‘will lead to further deaths’. The coroner raised concerns with West Midlands Ambulance Service after a type 1 diabetic patient died following a long delay in deciding whether to send an ambulance. Following a pilot in July 2021, all category 3 and 4 incidents at WMAS, except for a predefined list of exceptions, are sent directly to the trust’s “clinical validation team” to triage patients, with the aim of reducing the need for ambulance call-outs. It is thought a similar approach has been introduced across England since covid, as there have been huge pressures on ambulance capacity. But coroner Emma Serrano has raised concerns about the process in a prevention of future deaths report published this week. The inquest was told that Ms Finch waited 10 hours for her call to be “clinically assessed” and an ambulance call-out approved as the validation team was “under-staffed”. The PFD report also said that there was “no time limit” for assessments to take place, and no prioritisation system. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 14 June 2023
  2. Content Article
    On the 9 October 2021 an investigation was carried out into the death of Ms Sandra Diane Finch, a 44 year old woman who had a history of Type 1 diabetes mellitus. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 3 May 2023. The conclusion of the inquest was a narrative conclusion of ketoacidosis due to insulin depravation contributed to by neglect.  The cause of death was: 1a) Ketoacidosis 1b) Uncontrolled Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus 1c) Insulin depravation.
  3. News Article
    Delayed health checks among people with diabetes may have contributed to 7,000 more deaths than usual in England last year, a charity report suggests. The routine checks help cut the risk of serious complications like amputations and heart attacks. Diabetes UK says too many people are still being "left to go it alone" when managing their challenging condition. There are more than five million people in the UK living with diabetes, but around 1.9 million missed out on routine vital checks in 2021-22, Diabetes UK says. Disruption to care during the pandemic is likely to be a factor in the current backlog, which may be leading to higher numbers of deaths than usual in people with diabetes, it says. Between January and March 2023, for example, there were 1,461 excess deaths involving diabetes - three times higher than during the same period last year. "Urgent action is needed to reverse this trend and support everyone living with diabetes to live well with the condition," the report says. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 May 2023
  4. Content Article
    Missed checks, disrupted care and health inequalities have been revealed in a new report from Diabetes UK looking at the state of diabetes care in England. The report reveals that less than half (47%) of people living with diabetes in England received all eight of their required checks in 2021-22, meaning 1.9 million people did not receive the care they need.  It is calling for urgent action to address the routine diabetes care backlog and prevent avoidable deaths of people living with diabetes. 
  5. News Article
    Patients contacting NHS 111 in England are having to wait so long for medical help that they are abandoning millions of calls, with 3.6m ditched in the past 12 months, official figures reveal. The national helpline service is supposed to make it quicker and easier for patients to get the right advice or treatment they need, either for their physical or mental health. It is billed as being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, analysis by the House of Commons Library, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, shows callers are waiting so long to speak to someone that nearly one in five give up. In 2022, 3,682,516 calls to NHS 111 were abandoned. MPs said the “dire” figures exposed how the NHS had reached “breaking point” after years of “neglect and underfunding” by the government. The data suggests that, on average, more than 10,000 callers hang up every day without receiving medical advice or treatment. As well as being distressing for those who are unwell, abandoned NHS 111 calls pose a risk to patient safety. The problem also increases pressure on other urgent care services as people seek care elsewhere. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 10 April 2023
  6. News Article
    NHS England is in talks about changing a pathway for women with breast problems after performance against the two-week target for them to be seen plummeted. HSJ understands discussions are ongoing between NHS England and the Association of Breast Surgery about changing the symptomatic breast pathway for some patients. This has been prompted by concerns that one stop breast clinics – which take those referred both via the symptomatic route and the standard two-week pathway for suspected cancer – are being flooded with very low risk patients, potentially meaning those at higher risk of cancer wait longer for tests and diagnosis. The symptomatic pathway, which is for patients where cancer is not initially suspected by their GP, was introduced in 2010 because only about half of diagnosed breast cancers were being referred on the normal two-week pathway. The national target is for 93% of patients to be seen within two weeks. However, since 2018-19, national performance against this has reduced from 85.8% to 64.1% last year. There are concerns the pathway has led to too many patients being referred for diagnostic procedures which are inappropriate for their symptoms, preventing those who are more in need of such tests from accessing them in a timely manner. Association of Breast Surgery president Chris Holcombe said: “GPs tend to be quite cautious and send most people along even if the risk is quite small. We will get patients who are 25 and, to be honest, before they come to clinic, I could tell you with 99 per cent certainty they won’t have cancer. But they are worried as anything.” Alternatives to the symptomatic breast pathway which could reduce pressure on one stop clinics and also offer patients a better service are now being evaluated, he said. “There are appropriate ways to see these patients other than in a very high resource clinic,” he added. “But they still need to be seen and seen quickly otherwise they will just bounce back into the one stop clinic.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 10 October 2022
  7. News Article
    Patients with suspected skin and breast cancer have experienced the largest increase in waiting times of everyone urgently referred to a cancer specialist, with 1 in 20 patients now facing the longest waits, analysis of NHS England data shows. Almost 10,000 patients referred by a GP to a cancer specialist had to wait for more than 28 days in July – double the supposed maximum 14-day waiting time. Three-quarters of them were suspected of having skin, breast or lower gastrointestinal cancer, a Guardian analysis has revealed. In total, 53,000 people in England waited more than two weeks to see a cancer specialist. That is 22% of all the patients urgently referred for a cancer appointment by their GPs. Minesh Patel, head of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said people were waiting “far too long for diagnosis or vital treatment”. Patients “are worried about the impact of these delays on their prognosis and quality of care”. “The NHS has never worked harder,” said Matt Sample, the policy manager at Cancer Research UK, but patients dealing with long waits “reflects a broader picture of some of the worst waits for tests and treatments on record”. “When just a matter of weeks can be enough for some cancers to progress, this is unacceptable.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 October 2022
  8. News Article
    Multiple failures by the NHS 111 telephone advice service early in the pandemic left Covid patients struggling to get care and led directly to some people dying, an investigation has found. The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) looked into the help that NHS 111 gave people with Covid in the weeks before and after the UK entered its first lockdown on 23 March 2020. It identified a series of weaknesses with the helpline, including misjudgment of how seriously ill some people with Covid were, a failure to tell some people to seek urgent help, and a lack of capacity to deal with a sudden spike in calls. It also raised concerns that the government’s advice to citizens to “stay at home” to protect NHS services deterred people who needed immediate medical attention from seeking it from GPs and hospitals, sometimes with fatal consequences. Mistakes identified by HSIB included that: The CRS algorithm did not allow for the assessment of any life-threatening illness a caller had – such as obesity, cancer or lung disease – to establish whether they should undergo a clinical assessment. When many callers reached the core 111 service, there was no way to divert them as intended to the CRS, which was operationally independent of 111. Although patients who had Covid-19 symptoms as well as underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, were meant to be assessed when they spoke to the core 111 service, some were not. The number of extra calls to 111 in March 2020 meant that only half were answered. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 September 2022
  9. News Article
    A 27-year-old man died from complications linked to diabetes after GPs failed to properly investigate his rapidly deteriorating health. Lugano Mwakosya died on 3 October 2020 from diabetic ketoacidosis, a build-up of toxic acids in the blood arising from low insulin levels, two days before he could see a GP in person. His mother, Petronella Mwasandube, believes his death could have been avoided if doctors at Strensham Road Surgery, in Birmingham, had given “adequate consideration” to Lugano’s diabetic history and offered face-to-face appointments following phone consultations on 31 July and 16 and 30 September. An independent review commissioned by NHS England found two doctors who spoke to Lugano did not take into account his diabetes or “enquire in detail and substantiate the actual cause of the patient’s symptoms”. The review raised concern over the “quality and brevity” of the phone assessments and said the surgery should have offered Lugano an in-person appointment sooner. Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 August 2022
  10. News Article
    A quadriplegic man was told his care funding would be revoked, after NHS officials deemed him not disabled enough to qualify for support. Simon Shaw, 54, has received 24-hour care since he was left paralysed from the neck down after a car accident in 1984. He relies on carers at night to help him with everything from turning in bed to having a drink of water. They also intervene with medical aid if he develops life-threatening complications related to his paralysis, which could happen at any time, without warning. But a recent NHS assessment controversially ruled Shaw’s health needs were not severe enough to warrant full-time medical care. Local health authority officials told him he did not meet eligibility criteria and his NHS funding would be stopped from 20 June. Shaw, from Clapham, south London, said that meant there was no money for his night-time care and he would be left unsupported from 8pm to 8am for the first time in nearly four decades. “It’s frightening, to be honest,” Shaw said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when they take my care away. “I don’t cease to exist after 8pm. I still need to get into bed, have a drink of water and use the toilet – and I can’t do any of it on my own. “There are a lot of things that can go wrong with my health and when they do, they usually need urgent attention. If there’s no one there, to be frank… it could mean death.” Mandy Jamieson, a caseworker for the Spinal Injuries Association, said: “We have noticed an increase in patients with severe disabilities being turned down for funding in recent years, particularly since the introduction of assessments via video call since the pandemic. “But I feel particularly in Simon’s case the decision that has been made is wrong. He has so many health needs that I find it incredible that they turned him down.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 19 June 2022
  11. News Article
    An 80-year-old woman with coeliac disease died within days of being fed Weetabix in hospital, an inquest has heard. Hazel Pearson, from Connah’s Quay in Flintshire, was being treated at Wrexham Maelor hospital and died four days later on 30 November from aspiration pneumonia. Although her condition was recorded on her admission documents, there was no sign beside her bed to alert healthcare assistants to her dietary requirements. Coeliac disease is a condition where the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues after consuming gluten, a type of protein found in wheat, rye and barley, causing damage to the small intestine. The hospital’s action plan to avoid similar fatal incidents lacked detail and had “narrow vision”, the coroner said. The hospital’s matron, Jackie Evans, told the inquest that changes, including placing signs above the beds of patients with special dietary requirements, had been implemented since Pearson’s death. But Sutherland raised concerns that the hospital had yet to carry out a formal investigation into what went wrong. She said: “The action plan lacks detail. What has happened locally is commendable, but it lacks detail and it has narrow vision.” She added that the plan that had been put in place was “amateurish with no strategic vision”. The assistant coroner said she would be unable to make a decision on a prevention of future deaths report until the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) provided a witness to answer further questions about changes. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 17 June 2022
  12. News Article
    A lack of diabetes checks following the first Covid lockdown may have killed more than 3,000 people, a major NHS study suggests. Those with the condition are supposed to undergo regular checks to detect cardiac problems, infections and other changes that could prove deadly. But researchers said a move to remote forms of healthcare delivery and a reduction in routine care meant some of the most crucial physical examinations did not take place during the 12 months following the first lockdown. Experts said the findings showed patients had suffered “absolutely devastating” consequences and were being “pushed to the back of the queue”. The study, led by Prof Jonathan Valabhji, the national clinical director for diabetes and obesity, links the rise in deaths to a fall in care the previous year. It showed that, during 2020/21, just 26.5% of diabetes patients received their full set of checks, compared with 48.1% the year before. Those who got all their checks in 2019-20 but did not receive them the following year had mortality rates 66% higher than those who did not miss out, the study, published in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, found. The study shows that foot checks, which rely on physical appointments, saw the sharpest drop, falling by more than 37%. “The care process with the greatest reduction was the one that requires the most in-person contact – foot surveillance – possibly reflecting issues around social distancing, lockdown measures, and the move to remote forms of healthcare delivery,” the study found. Those in the poorest areas were most likely to miss out. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 30 May 2022
  13. Content Article
    The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, part of the UK Government Department of Health and Social Care, highlighted an emerging signal of increased non-COVID-19-related deaths in England between July and October, 2021, with a potentially disproportionate higher increase in people with diabetes. Valabhji et al. aimed to substantiate and quantify this apparent excess mortality, and to investigate the association between diabetes routine care delivery and non-COVID-19-related-mortality in people with diabetes before and after the onset of the pandemic. They examined whether completion of eight diabetes care processes in each of the two years before the index mortality year was associated with non-COVID-19-related death. Results of the study show an increased risk of mortality in those who did not receive all eight care processes in one or both of the previous two years. These results provide evidence that the increased rate of non-COVID-19-related mortality in people with diabetes in England observed between 3 July and 15 October 2021 is associated with a reduction in completion of routine diabetes care processes following the pandemic onset in 2020.
  14. News Article
    The parents of a girl who died after failings by NHS 111 said they were horrified to learn coroners had already warned about similar shortcomings. Hannah Royle, 16, died in 2020 after the NHS phone service failed to realise she was seriously ill. BBC News found concerns had been raised about the call centre triage software in 2019 after three children died. The NHS said it had learnt lessons from each case, but said it had not established a link between the deaths. Hannah, who was autistic, had a cardiac arrest as she was driven to East Surrey Hospital by her parents. She had suffered a twisted stomach, but call handlers believed she had gastroenteritis. A coroner's report said NHS 111 staff failed to consider her "disabilities and inability to verbalise" when using the triage software. Known as NHS Pathways, the algorithm relies on answers being given over the phone to a set series of questions. The system guides call handlers, who are not medically qualified, to direct patients to other parts of the NHS for further assessment and treatment. In 2019, three coroners issued reports "to prevent future deaths" after serious abdominal illness in Myla Deviren, Sebastian Hibberd, Alexander Davidson and were missed by NHS 111. In all cases, coroners raised concerns about the ability of children to understand call handlers' questions or articulate their symptoms. Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 May 2022
  15. News Article
    Tens of thousands of emergency calls are taking more than two minutes to be answered in England amid a crisis in the ambulance service, The Independent has learned. More than 37,000 emergency calls took more than two minutes to answer in April 2022 – 24 times the 1,500 that took that long in April 2021, according to a leaked staff message. April’s figures were slightly down compared to March, The Independent understands, when 44,000 calls took more than two minutes to answer. The deterioration in 999 calls being answered within the 60-second goal comes as ambulance services across the UK have been placed under huge pressures. The latest NHS data showed long delays in response times for ambulance services with stroke or suspected heart attack patients waiting more than 50 minutes on average. Response times are being driven by ambulances being held up outside of A&Es because emergency departments are unable to take patients. In March, there were likely to have been more than 4,000 instances of severe harm caused to patients as a result of ambulances being delayed by more than 60 minutes. Martin Flaherty, managing director of AACE said: “It is no secret that UK ambulance services and their staff are under intense pressure, which is further evidence of the need to secure more funding for ambulance services as soon as possible, continue to find more ways to protect and care for our staff, prevent the depletion of our workforce and above all, eradicate hospital handover delays. “AACE believes that whilst reasons such as overall demand and increasing acuity of patients are certainly contributory factors, the most significant problem causing these pressures remains hospital handover delays. These have increased exponentially and the numbers of hours lost to ambulance services is now unprecedented. For example, in some regions in March, ambulance trusts were losing up to one third of all the ambulance hours they were capable of producing due to hospital handover delays.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 May 2022
  16. News Article
    A woman whose baby died after sustaining severe brain damage during labour was not seen by an obstetrician during her pregnancy, an inquest heard. It meant his mother Eileen McCarthy was unable to discuss her birthing options. Walter German was starved of oxygen during a long labour at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. Lawyers at Fieldfisher are pursuing a civil negligence case, claiming a C-section should have been offered due to a previous third-degree tear. Walter was born in December 2020. His life-support was turned off after nine days, as his injuries were unrecoverable. Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Sarah Clarke said Walter died as a result of his brain being starved of oxygen, likely due in part to an umbilical cord obstruction. She said: "Walter's mother was not seen by an obstetrician during her pregnancy and this led to her being unable to discuss birth options regarding delivery given her previous third degree tear. "Walter's mother was in the advanced stages of labour for a prolonged period of time with an indication for an earlier obstetric review being apparent." Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 May 2022
  17. News Article
    A father whose son took his own life in July 2020 is calling for an "urgent overhaul" of the way some counsellors and therapists assess suicide risk. His son Tom had died a day after being judged "low risk", in a final counselling session, Philip Pirie said. A group of charities has written to the health secretary, saying the use of a checklist-type questionnaire to predict suicide risk is "fundamentally flawed". The government says it is now drawing up a new suicide-prevention strategy. According to the latest official data, 6,211 people in the UK killed themselves in 2020. It is the most common cause of death in 20-34-year-olds. And of the 17 people each day, on average, who kill themselves, five are in touch with mental health services and four of those five are assessed as "low" or "no risk", campaigners say. Tom Pirie, a young teacher from Fulham, west London, had been receiving help for mental-health issues. He had repeatedly told counsellors about his suicidal thoughts - but the day before he had killed himself, a psychotherapist had judged him low risk, his father said. Tom's assessment had been based on "inadequate" questionnaires widely used despite guidelines saying they should not be to predict suicidal behaviour, Philip said. The checklists, which differ depending on the clinicians and NHS trusts involved, typically ask patients questions about their mental health, such as "Do you have suicidal thoughts?" or "Do you have suicidal intentions?" At the end of the session, a score can be generated - placing the individual at low, medium or high risk of suicide, or rating the danger on a scale between 1 and 10. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 April 2022
  18. News Article
    NHS England’s plan to make the 111 service a ‘primary route’ into emergency departments has fallen ‘far short of aspiration’, with only a small fraction of attendances being booked through it. NHSE began recording the numbers of ED appointments booked via 111 in August 2020, as it aimed to reduce unnecessary attendances and demand on emergency services, via the programme known as “111 First”. Planning guidance for 2021-22 told local systems to “promote the use of NHS 111 as a primary route into all urgent care services”. It added that at least 70% of patients referred to ED by 111 services should receive a booked time slot to attend. Pilots experimented with making it harder for people who had not called 111 to attend A&E, although proposals to direct those people away were rejected. Data published by NHSE shows the number of ED attendances that were booked through 111, but not those referred to ED without a booking. Jacob Lant, head of policy and research at Healthwatch England, said: “Sadly, it’s clear from these figures that implementation across the country is lagging behind where we would have hoped. “Obviously this has to be seen in the context of the massive pressures on A&E departments at the moment as a result of the pandemic, but there is also a need for the NHS to really step up efforts to tell people about this new way of accessing care.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: 25 February 2022
  19. News Article
    Callers to NHS 111 services are twice as likely to be judged as needing an ambulance in some regions as others – and up to eight times more likely to abandon their calls. An HSJ investigation has revealed striking differences in performance between 111 providers. The new integrated urgent care data set, published by NHS England, shows the differences in performance across the country. HSJ analysed data from April to December last year – the first year this data set has been produced. For example, 15.7% of answered calls to North East Ambulance Service Foundation Trust resulted in an “ambulance disposition” while just 7.7% of calls to London Ambulance Service Trust did so. A total of 14.2% of callers to the privately owned Practice Plus Group were judged to require an ambulance. 41.9% of calls were abandoned before being answered by NEAS and 30.6% of those made to the West Midlands Ambulance Service University FT ended the same way. In contrast just 5.2%of callers from Lincolnshire to services provided by Derbyshire Health United abandoned their calls. The “standard” for abandoned calls is just 3%, but the average performance across England was 24.1%. In a statement, the Practice Plus Group said its staff were trained to a high standard on NHS Pathways and it was confident its staff were making appropriate and safe decisions. Over 70 per cent of decisions to instigate a category 3 or 4 ambulance callout were validated in January. As a result ambulances were dispatched in just 20 per cent of those cases, with other patients being directed to alternative pathways. “We are always looking to enhance the service which is why we are running developmental training for our call handlers in more effective probing to reduce the category 2 ambulance disposition numbers and have introduced GoodSam video technology as part of an NHSE pilot which will support clinicians with eyes on with a patient,” the company added. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 18 February 2022
  20. Content Article
    Amid climbing covid case numbers and with scarce resources, Tara Vijayan describes what it has been like in the US to triage treatments that aim to prevent patients being hospitalised with COVID-19
  21. News Article
    GPs should regularly review self-harm patients and offer a specific CBT intervention, according to a consultation on the first new guidance for self-harm to be drawn up in 11 years. The new draft guidance emphasises the importance of referring patients to specialist mental health services, but stresses that, for patients who are treated in primary care, continuity is crucial. If someone who has self-harmed is being treated in primary care, GPs must ensure regular follow-up appointments and reviews of self-harm behaviour, as well as a medicines review, the draft guideline say. They must also provide care for coexisting mental health issues, including referral to mental health services where appropriate, as well as information, social care, voluntary and non-NHS sector support and self-help resources. The guidance says that referring people to mental health services would ‘ensure people are in the most appropriate setting’. However, the committee agreed that ‘if people are being cared for in primary care following an episode of self-harm, there should be continuity of care and regular reviews of factors relating to their self-harm to ensure that the person who has self-harmed feels supported and engaged with services’. The draft guidance, out for consultation until 1 March, also says ambulance staff should suggest self-harming patients see their GP to maximise the chance of engagement with services. It says: ‘When attending a person who has self-harmed but who does not need urgent physical care, ambulance staff and paramedics should discuss with the person (and any relevant services) if it is possible for the person to be assessed or treated by an appropriate alternative service, such as a specialist mental health service or their GP.’ It notes that ‘ambulance staff often felt that the emergency department was not the preferred place that the person who had self-harmed wanted to be taken. They agreed that referral to alternative services could facilitate the person’s engagement with services’. Read full story Source: Pulse, 18 January 2022
  22. News Article
    NHS England is urging health systems to ramp up physical health checks for people with severe mental illnesses to address a widening life expectancy gap caused by covid, according to a letter seen by HSJ. In a letter circulated to integrated care system leads, chairs, mental health and community trust executives on Wednesday, national commissioners warn the impact of the pandemic may widen current gaps in life expectancy for people with SMI and learning disabilities even further, without “decisive and proactive action”. The letter, circulated by national mental health director Claire Murdoch, learning disability and autism director Tom Cahill and inequalities director Bola Owolabi, quotes NHS data suggesting people with SMI are five-and-a-half times more likely to die prematurely and those with learning disabilities three times more likely to die from an avoidable cause of death. It says: ”The health inequalities faced by people living with SMI and people with a learning disability are stark… The impacts of the pandemic will widen this gap further unless we take decisive and proactive action to address inequalities… These checks are a key lever to address the reduced life expectancy for both groups.” It calls on primary care teams, already delivering thousands of covid vaccinations as part of the booster programme, to prioritise annual physical health checks alongside the rollout, “even as we continue with a level 4 national incident” caused by the omicron variant. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 14 January 2022
  23. News Article
    Mothers and babies are being put at risk as vital health checks and support services remain shut months after lockdown was lifted, health professionals and charities have warned. Face-to-face services for new families stopped when lockdown began in March last year and have not come back in many parts of the country. Now experts fear the spread of the Omicron variant and the reintroduction of some restrictions means the reopening will be delayed further. Missing services include drop-in baby-weighing clinics, tongue-tie clinics, face-to-face breastfeeding support and council-run baby classes and playgroups. Experts have accused the government of failing to prioritise the needs of a generation of babies and their parents, with cost-cutting and a shortage of midwives and health visitors blamed for the closures. Health visitor drop-in clinics are “no longer running” in nearly a third of areas, and around 28% of newborn checks are being carried out via phone or video call, according to the No One Wants to See My Baby report by charities the Parent-Infant Foundation, Home-Start UK and Best Beginnings. The Institute of Health Visiting said different interpretations of government guidance meant some areas had brought back full services while others had not, creating a “postcode lottery of support for families”. It questioned official advice that routine checks could continue to be done via video and telephone calls, warning there was no evidence these were “safe or effective”. Executive director Alison Morton said: “Alongside the concerns of parents, there is a growing body of evidence that childhood conditions and disabilities are being missed, and vulnerable babies and young children are being harmed, as they are invisible to services when these assessments are not completed face to face.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 December 2021
  24. News Article
    Doctors' leaders have welcomed plans to allow GPs in England to defer some services to deliver Covid booster jabs instead. Practices can postpone minor surgery and routine health checks for over-75s and new patients until 31 March. All adults in England are expected to be offered boosters by the end of January in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant. A further 75 Omicron cases were confirmed in England on Friday. On Saturday the UK reported a further 42,848 cases of coronavirus and 127 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test while 372,557 booster jabs were administered on Friday. Dr Farah Jameel, the GP committee chair of the British Medical Association, said the new measures would release GPs from "filling out paperwork" and chasing unnecessary and often undeliverable targets. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have been struggling with significant prevailing workforce pressures - backlog pressures, winter pressures, pandemic pressures. "Whilst these changes make a difference and start to create some time, I think every single practice will have to look at just how much time it does release." Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 December 2021
  25. News Article
    The inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic should look at the “mishandling” of the NHS 111 service, families bereaved during the crisis have said. In a scathing report, the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said the service was inappropriately used to “alleviate the burden on the NHS” with “horrific” consequences. The report, based on a survey of families, said many believed that the service “failed to recognise how seriously ill their relatives were and direct them to appropriate care”. They argue that the service was also quickly “swamped” during the first wave despite the addition of 700 new call handlers, many of who were making life or death decisions with just 10 weeks training. The phone line is one of a number of areas the groups want the government’s inquiry to cover. Other areas include No 10’s level of pandemic preparedness, particularly PPE shortages, as well as an investigation into the disproportionate impact on ethnic minority groups and those with disabilities. Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 November 2021
×
×
  • Create New...