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Showing results for tags 'Children and Young People'.
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Content ArticleIn this debate the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Maria Caulfield MP, responds to an Urgent Question asking for a statement on abuse and deaths in secure mental health units. The Minister discusses the recent findings from investigations into the deaths of Christie Harnett, Nadia Sharif and Emily Moore who were in the care of the Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, reflecting on these in the context of broader concerns highlighted by other recent patient safety scandals concerning NHS mental health services. This is followed by questions from MPs in the chamber and the Minister’s responses.
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Content ArticleRyan Saunders is a little boy who died in 2007 from an undiagnosed streptococcal infection, which led to Toxic Shock Syndrome. According to the Queensland Clinical Excellence Division, when Ryan’s parents were worried he was getting worse, they did not feel their concerns were acted on in time. This blog outlines Ryan's Rule, a process introduced by the Queensland Department of Health to try and prevent similar events happening in future. Ryan's Rule allows patients and their families and carers to escalate serious concerns about their own or a family member's condition.
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Content ArticleThese reports outline the findings of separate investigations into the deaths of three teenage girls who were detained mental health patients in the care of Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV). The reports uncover many systemic failings at West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough, the secure mental health unit for children where Christie Harnett and Nadia Sharif, both 17 years old, died and where Emily Moore, 18, was placed prior to her death in Lanchester Road Hospital, Durham. The girls had been friends and spent time together at West Lane, and all three deaths were self-inflicted. The reports highlight a total of 119 care and service delivery problems at West Lane including ineffective management, reduced staffing, lack of leadership, aggressive handling of disciplinary problems, issues with succession of crisis management and failures to respond to concerns from patients and staff. Although West Lane was closed in 2019, it was reopened in May 2021 under the new name of Acklam Road Hospital. Subsequent Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections and further deaths demonstrate that dangerous cultures and practices are still operating in the Trust's inpatient mental health units. In June, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) announced that they will be bringing criminal charges against TEWV in relation to Christie’s death. This document contains three separate investigation reports relating to Christie Harnett, Nadia Sharif and Emily Moore's individual cases.
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Content ArticleThe Department for Health and Social Care has launched an investigation into allegations made by 22 former patients of mental health units run by private firm The Huntercombe Group. The group ran at least six children’s mental health hospitals between 2012 and 2022. In this Independent article, young women who were subject to humiliating and sometimes abusive treatment talk about their time as inpatients. Some of the experiences they recount are harrowing: "I would get awoken by staff members restraining me out of bed and dragging me down to the de-escalation room to force-feed me." "Patients were left naked in their rooms under anti-ligature blankets because they wouldn’t buy anti-ligature clothing." "I distinctly remember someone saying ‘if you hit me again, I’ll hit you back ten times harder because there are no cameras in here and you can’t cry to [name of nurse] about it’."
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Content ArticleThis webpage provides information about patient rights and responsibilities while under the care of John Hopkin's Children's Center. It includes the following resources and guides: Patient and family handbook Preparation Pain management Your child’s care team Rooms Meals Visitation Patient safety Parent and family journal
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Content ArticleThis study in Health Expectations aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to implementing a parent escalation of care process: Calling for Help (C4H). Guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework, the authors carried out audits, semi-structured interviews and focus groups in an Australian paediatric hospital where a parent escalation of care process was introduced in the previous six months. The authors found that although there was a low level of awareness about C4H in practice, there was in-principle support for the concept. Initial strategies had primarily targeted policy change without taking into account the need for practice and organisational behaviour changes.
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Content ArticleThis document outlines the standard operating procedure (SOP) adopted by University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, relating to parental involvement in escalation of clinical care for acutely ill children. It aims to clarify the process of empowering parents to escalate concerns if they are worried about the clinical condition and care being delivered to their child, or themselves if they are a patient. It also aims to ensure accurate and appropriate information is provided to parents on admission (elective and acute) regarding how they should escalate concerns about the care their child is receiving.
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Content Article
HypoBaby blog - The beginning… Diagnosis (20 August 2018)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Diabetes
The HypoBaby blog is written by the parents of Noah, a young boy who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a baby. In this post, they describe Noah's diagnosis and why it took so long to work out that it was diabetes causing his symptoms. Noah ended up in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and needed emergency treatment. They highlight the importance of being aware of the symptoms of type 1 diabetes, stating that if they had been aware of the symptoms, he may have been diagnosed sooner. -
Content ArticleThis framework produced by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) aims to improve how healthcare organisations recognise and respond to children at risk of deterioration. A safer system can work in partnership with families and patients, develop a patient safety culture and support ongoing learning. The framework covers: Patient safety culture Partnership with families Recognising deterioration Responding to deterioriation Open and consistent learning Education and training
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Content ArticleThe aim of this study in Australian Critical Care was to develop an evidence-based paediatric early warning system for infants and children, that takes into consideration a variety of paediatric healthcare contexts and addresses barriers to escalation of care. The development process resulted in an agreed uniform ESCALATION system incorporating a whole-system approach to promote critical thinking, situational awareness for the early recognition of paediatric clinical deterioration as well as timely and effective escalation of care. Incorporating family involvement was an important and new component of the system.
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Content ArticleThis guideline describes good patient experience for babies, children and young people, and makes recommendations on how it can be delivered. It aims to make sure that all babies, children and young people using NHS services have the best possible experience of care. It includes recommendations on: overarching principles of care communication and information planning healthcare consent, privacy and confidentiality advocacy and support improving healthcare experience, including healthcare environments accessibility, continuity and coordination
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Content ArticleThis document outlines the Escalation Policy for Leicester Children’s Emergency Department. It identifies five particular factors that lead to difficulty within the department. Acknowledging that these issues can be closely interlinked and may not occur in isolation, it provides practical way to deal with these factors to try and prevent secondary events. Staffing Overcrowding Inflow Outflow Acuity
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Content Article
Blog - Positivity in adversity (24 October 2022)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Patient stories
Matt Eagles was only seven when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Now an adult, Matt uses his experiences of healthcare, to help other patients learn how to better communicate with healthcare professionals. In this blog, he talks about his experiences of living with Parkinson's and the work he does to raise awareness of the condition. -
News ArticleChildren say they were "treated like animals" and left traumatised as part of a decade of “systemic abuse” by a group of mental health hospitals, an investigation by The Independent and Sky News has found. The Department of Health and Social Care has now launched a probe into the allegations of 22 young women who were patients in units run by The Huntercombe Group, which has run at least six children’s mental health hospitals, between 2012 and this year. They say they suffered treatment including the use of “painful” restraints and being held down for hours by male nurses, being stopped from going outside for months and living in wards with blood-stained walls. They also allege they were given so much medication they had become “zombies” and were force-fed. But despite reports to police and regulators dating back seven years, and findings by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that the units were inadequate, the NHS has still handed Huntercombe nearly £190m since 2015-16 to admit children to its mental health beds. Through witness testimony, documents obtained by Freedom of Information request and leaked reports, the investigation has uncovered: The CQC has received more than 700 whistleblowing and safeguarding reports, including “incidents of concern” and several “sexual safety” concerns. NHS England was notified of 195 safeguarding reports between 2020 and 2021. A 2018 internal report at Meadow Lodge hospital in Newton Abbot (now closed) found staff members using sexually inappropriate language in front of patients. 160 reports investigated by Staffordshire police about Huntercombe Staffordshire between 2015 and 2022. Between March 2021 and 2022, the CQC gave permission for 29 patients to be admitted to Maidenhead hospital after it was placed in special measures. Read full story Source: The Independent, 27 October 2022
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News Article
Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust fined for exposing babies to 'serious harm'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A hospital trust has been fined £200,000 for putting four babies at "serious risk"of harm. Staff at Rotherham Hospital failed to spot non-accidental injuries during admissions, Sheffield Magistrates' Court heard. District Judge Naomi Redhouse criticised failures in the hospital's systems and processes. Health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), had earlier highlighted problems with safeguarding training at the trust prior to the babies' admissions between January 2019 and February 2020. The court was told how one eight-day-old baby was brought into the hospital on 23 December 2019 suffering from breathing difficulties and bleeding from the nose and mouth. It was only on the child's fifth visit to hospital - after a GP raised concerns - that a child safety examination took place, revealing rib and leg fractures that were deemed non-accidental. Ms Redhouse also heard how a month-old baby brought in with a mouth injury on 20 January 2019 was on a child protection plan but this was not spotted by the paediatric nurse who examined the baby. This child was twice released from hospital, with no safeguarding concerns, before a scan and other examinations revealed multiple fractures, the court heard. Prosecutor Ryan Donohue said failings had been identified in areas including policy implementation, training, reporting, auditing and governance. Eleanor Sanderson, mitigating for the trust, said: "The trust wishes to express to the court its deep regret for the circumstances which gave rise to these offences and the risk posed to those who required safeguarding." Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 October 2022 -
Content ArticleIn this BMJ feature, journalist Emma Wilkinson looks at how a shortage of health visitors in England is leaving babies and children exposed to safeguarding risks, late diagnosis and other problems. An estimated third of the health visitor workforce has been lost since 2015, and research by the Parent-Infant Foundation suggests that 5000 new health visitors are needed. Families are not getting the minimum recommended number of contacts with health visitors during the first three years of life, and research into the impact of this on children's outcomes is ongoing. Emma speaks to different mothers, including Phillippa Guillou, who had a baby in 2020 and struggled to breastfeed. Philippa felt unsupported and ignored by her local health visiting service, who only saw her once by videocall when her baby was one year old.
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News Article
RSV, other viruses making it hard to find a bed in children’s hospitals
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
Children’s hospitals are under strain in the United States as they care for unusually high numbers of kids infected with RSV and other respiratory viruses. Respiratory syncytial virus, a common cause of cold-like illness in young children known as RSV, started surging in late summer, months before its typical season from November to early spring. This month, the United States has been recording about 5,000 cases per week, according to federal data, which is on par with last year but far higher than October 2020, when more coronavirus restrictions were in effect and very few people were getting RSV. Jesse Hackell, a doctor who chairs the committee on practice and ambulatory medicine for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said, "It’s very hard to find a bed in a children’s hospital — specifically an intensive care unit bed for a kid with bad pneumonia or bad RSV because they are so full.” Read full story Source: The Washington Post, 21 October 2022 -
News Article
Cough syrup banned in Indonesia after spate of child deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Indonesia has temporarily banned all syrup-based and liquid cough medicines after the death of nearly 100 children from acute kidney failure since the start of this year. Most of those affected are said to be below the age of six. Muhammad Syahril Mansyur, the country’s health ministry spokesman, said: “Until today, we have received 206 reported cases from 20 provinces with 99 deaths.” He added: “As a precaution, the ministry has asked all health workers in health facilities not to prescribe liquid medicine or syrup temporarily … we also asked drug stores to temporarily stop non-prescription liquid medicine or syrup sales until the investigation is completed.” The ban, announced by the health ministry on Wednesday, applies to prescription and over-the-counter medicines. It comes after nearly 70 children died of acute kidney failure this year in the Gambia, linked to four brands of paracetamol cough syrup manufactured by India’s Maiden Pharmaceuticals. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 20 October 2022 -
News Article
Warning for parents after rise in hospitalisations for flu in children under 5
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Parents are being told to urgently bring their children forward for flu vaccinations as new data reveals the rate of hospitalisation and ICU admission for people with the virus is rising fastest among those under five years old. New figures published in the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) National flu and Covid-19 surveillance report show that cases of flu have climbed quickly in the past week, indicating that the season has begun earlier than normal. According to the UKHSA, vaccination for flu is currently behind last season for pre-schoolers (12.1% from 17.4% in all two-year-olds and 12.8% from 18.6% in all three-year-olds). It has also fallen behind in pregnant women (12.4% from 15.7%) and under 65s in a clinical risk group (18.2% from 20.7%). Dr Mary Ramsay, director of public health programmes at the UK Health Security Agency, said: “Our latest data shows early signs of the anticipated threat we expected to face from flu this season. “We’re urging parents in particular not to be caught out as rates of hospitalisations and ICU admissions are currently rising fastest in children under 5. “This will be a concern for many parents and carers of young children, and we urge them to take up the offer of vaccination for eligible children as soon as possible.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 October 2022 -
News Article
Eating disorders: Toolkit to help schools cope developed
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Mental health professionals have unveiled a "toolkit" to help school nurses support pupils with eating disorders. Bath-based campaigner Hope Virgo developed the strategy with the School and Public Health Nurses Association (Saphna) after a rise in cases. The toolkit aims to equip school nurses with techniques to discuss eating disorders, and also "what not to say". Ms Virgo has called on the government to deal with the backlog those waiting for treatment, which totalled 1,946 at the beginning of March, data from eating disorder charity Beat shows. Sharon White, Saphna's chair, said the organisation had been promoting the toolkit among its members. "We can't solve the huge waiting lists and reduced services, but what we can do is inform ourselves better," she said. The toolkit provides "the hints, the tips, the language, the stock phrases, and importantly, what not to say", Ms White added. The Department of Health and Social Care has been supportive of the scheme, Ms White said, adding it may adopt it as part of its own guidance in future. Read full story Source: BBC News, 17 October 2022 Read a recent blog Hope Virgo wrote for the hub: People with eating disorders should not face stigma in the health system and barriers to accessing support in 2022 -
Content Article
SAPHNA - Eating disorder toolkit (October 2022)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Eating disorders
This toolkit has been co-produced by the School and Public Health Nurses Association (SAPHNA) with school nursing services, mental health campaigners, eating disorder experts, education colleagues and young people with lived-experience of eating disorders. It is aimed at qualified, trained and skilled nurses who have access to robust supervision. The toolkit is free of charge, but you will need to enter your details in order to receive a PDF copy by email. -
News Article
Sudden unexplained death in childhood: Charity hails new NHS efforts
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS England has "never shown so much support" to stop children dying without explanation, a charity which works to prevent unexplained deaths has said. Sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) is a rare category of death in which the cause remains unknown even after thorough investigation. Currently there is very little awareness or research into its causes. NHS England has said it will now begin a series of measures to change this, a move welcomed by the charity SUDC UK, including: Piloting systems to improve education of health professionals and gather data to help identify modifiable factors which will go on to establish processes to help manage the deterioration of children. Improve information given to families and professionals about SUDC. Separately, data from every child whose death has been put down as SUDC since 2019 will being reviewed by the National Child Mortality Database. Dr Nikki Speed, from the charity SUDC UK, described the plans as revolutionary. "This is such positive historic progress, a landmark moment. Never has the NHS shown such support to stop sudden unexplained death in childhood," she said. "Never has there been such a clear statement to review public information on SUDC, optimise data collection and learn how we could prevent future tragedies. "We finally have confidence that things will progress in our fight to stop SUDC." Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 October 2022 -
Content ArticleThe journalist Merope Mills voices her anger at her daughter Martha's preventable death in this Woman's Hour programme.
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News ArticleThe mother of a bullied 12-year-old girl has said her daughter struggled to get mental health support on the NHS in the months before she killed herself, and accused her school of failing to deal with inappropriate messages circulating among pupils. The mother of Charley-Ann Patterson, Jamie, told a hearing that despite being seen by three medical professionals, Charley-Ann had been unable to get mental health support in the months before her death. In a statement read at an inquest at Northumberland coroner’s court on 12 October, Jamie said her daughter had changed halfway through her first year of secondary school, when she was sent “inappropriate” and “shocking” messages by other pupils. The inquest heard that Jamie first took her daughter to a GP over self-harm concerns in June 2019, but she said she “did not believe that the GP took Charley-Ann’s self-harm seriously, potentially due to her age”. She took Charley-Ann to A&E in May 2020 after a second episode of self-harm, where she was referred to a psychiatric team and given a telephone appointment in which she was told Charley-Ann would be referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), but that “it was likely that she would not be seen for three years”. In an appointment with a nurse she was told that she would be referred to the Northumberland mental health hub for low mood and anxiety, but later learned “that this referral was never made”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2022
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Content Article
Andrew Stroud's daughter Bia has type 1 diabetes, and in this blog, Andrew talks about his family's experiences supporting Bia to manage her diabetes. He describes the huge value of technology in improving diabetes management and reducing the mental burden of the condition on people with diabetes and their parents and carers. However, like all technology, medical devices for diabetes can fail, and Andrew highlights the need to be prepared for this situation to ensure the person with diabetes is safe while they cannot use the devices they rely on every day.
