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Showing results for tags 'Children and Young People'.
Found 598 results
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News Article
Concerns raised over former surgeon at children's hospital
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Great Ormond Street Hospital has written to the families of all children treated by one of its former surgeons after concerns were raised about his practice. Yaser Jabbar, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, has not had a licence to practise medicine in the UK since 8 January, the medical register shows. Independent experts are now reviewing the concerns raised. The hospital trust said the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) was asked to review its paediatric orthopaedic service following concerns raised by family members and staff. The RCS then raised concerns about Mr Jabbar, which the trust said were being taken "incredibly seriously" and would be reviewed by independent experts from other paediatric hospitals. A spokesman for the trust said: "We are sorry for the worry and uncertainty this may cause the families who are impacted. "We are committed to learning from every single patient that we treat, and to being open and transparent with our families when care falls below the high standards we strive for." The spokesperson said Mr Jabbar, reported to be an expert in limb reconstruction, no longer worked at the hospital. Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 February 2024 -
News Article
Black children suffer ‘more complications’ after appendicitis surgery
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Black children in the UK are four times more likely to experience complications after appendicitis surgery than their white counterparts, a study has found. The study, funded by the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, looked at 2,799 children from 80 hospitals across the UK aged under 16 who had surgery for suspected appendicitis between November 2019 and January 2022. Of these, 185 children (7%) developed postoperative complications within 30 days of the surgery. Three-quarters of these complications were related to the wound, while a quarter were respiratory, urinary or catheter-related or of unknown origin. The study found that black children had a four times greater risk of experiencing complications after the operation, and that this risk was independent of the child’s socioeconomic status and health history. Appendicitis is one of the most common paediatric surgical emergency with 10,000 performed every year. The authors said that this was the first study to look at the demographic differences of postoperative complication rates in regards to appendicitis. The researchers said they could not draw firm conclusions regarding why black children had worse outcomes after this type of emergency surgery, and that this apparent health inequality “requires urgent further investigation and development of interventions aimed at resolution”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 22 February 2024 -
Content Article
The King's Fund: Mental health 360 (21 February 2024)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Mental health
The King's Fund 'Mental health 360' aims to provide a ‘360-degree’ review of mental health care in England. It focuses on nine core areas, bringing together data available at the time of publication with expert insights to help you understand what is happening in relation to mental health and the wider context. The nine core areas covered are: Prevalence Access Workforce Funding and costs Quality and patient experience Acute mental health care for adults Services for children and young people Inequalities Data. -
Content ArticleIn my 15 years focusing on developing drink thickening solutions for dysphagia patients, the intersection of dysphagia management and patient safety has become increasingly apparent. Dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, presents not only as a significant health challenge but also as a critical patient safety issue. The condition's underdiagnosis, particularly in vulnerable populations, heightens the risk of severe complications, including choking, aspiration pneumonia, dehydration and the profound fear of choking that can lead to malnutrition.
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Content ArticleChildren are more than twice as likely as adults to experience a medication error at home. In this interview for the journal Patient Safety, Dr Kathleen Walsh, paediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, discusses why that is the case and provides some tips to keep children—and adults—safe.
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News Article
Under fives betrayed as health declines
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Worsening health among the under fives in the UK needs to be urgently addressed, experts say. The Academy of Medical Sciences highlights what it says are "major health issues" like infant deaths, obesity and tooth decay. It says society is betraying children and the problems are limiting their future and damaging economic prosperity. The report says: The UK is 30th out of 49 rich countries for infant mortality. One in five children falls short of the expected level of development aged two. One in five is overweight or obese by five. Vaccination targets are being missed for diseases such as measles. One in four is affected by tooth decay by five. One in five women struggles with their mental health during or just after pregnancy. Air pollution is linked to worsening asthma. Rising demand for child mental health services. The report calls for a cross-government vision to be developed to tackle the problems and investment in the child health workforce, including health visitors. Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 February 2024 -
Content ArticleThe Academy of Medical Sciences has released a stark report highlighting wide-ranging evidence of declining health among children under five in the UK and calls on policymakers to take urgent action to address the situation.It warns Government that major health issues like infant mortality, obesity and tooth decay are not only damaging the nation’s youngest citizens and their future, but also its economic prosperity, with the cost of inaction estimated to be at least £16 billion a year. In recent years, progress on child health in the UK has stalled. Infant survival rates are worse than in 60% of similar countries and the number of children living in extreme poverty tripled between 2019 and 2022. Demand for children’s mental health services surge and over a fifth of five-year-old children are overweight or obese, with those living in the most deprived areas twice as likely to be obese than in affluent areas. One-in-four is affected by tooth decay. Vaccination rates have plunged below World Health Organization safety thresholds, threatening outbreaks. Issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, increased cost of living and climate change compound widespread inequality and are likely to make early years health in the UK even worse.
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News Article
Parents of sudden-death children 'let down by NHS'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS is failing some parents whose children die unexpectedly, a leading paediatrician has told BBC Panorama. About 50 children's deaths in the UK every year are termed as "sudden unexplained death in childhood" (SUDC). Little is known about what causes them. Gavin and Jodie's two-year-old son Addy died unexpectedly in November 2022. BBC Panorama followed the parents over nine months as they searched for answers to why their son died - and whether it could have been prevented. Even after a forensic post-mortem examination, no-one could work out why the little boy went to sleep and never woke up, so his death was categorised as SUDC. When a child dies unexpectedly, a review is held to gather information about what happened. The NHS is required to assign a key worker to help bereaved parents to navigate this process, and provide emotional support. The role of key worker can be taken by a range of practitioners and is often a specialist nurse. However, even though it is a mandatory requirement, a survey carried out by the Association of Child Death Review Professionals (ACDP) found that more than half of NHS areas in England do not have a specialist nurse to visit parents after an unexpected death. "It makes me really angry," says paediatrician Dr Joanna Garstang, the chair of the ACDP, who runs one of the few teams in England that support parents. "Bereaved families after the sudden death of a child are the most vulnerable people. And if we don't put in early support… we're setting these parents up for a lifetime of misery." Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 February 2024 -
News Article
The NHS is failing our children, says top children’s doctor
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Children are being forgotten by the government as they face “disgraceful” waiting times for NHS treatment, Britain’s top paediatric doctor has warned. Dr Camilla Kingdon said children are being failed because their care is not being treated as a priority, despite considerable progress having been made in reducing waiting times for adults. In her final interview as president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, she also issued a stark warning over the impact of poverty on young people’s health, lamenting the rise in the number of children being treated for severe lung disease due to damp and poor ventilation in inadequate housing. Many parents cannot afford to be at their dying or sick child’s bedside because of financial pressures – an issue that has grown significantly worse in the past five years, she said. She told The Independent: “Children simply need to be made a priority. We cannot afford to be ignoring this problem.” The latest NHS figures show that the backlog for children’s hospital care has risen again, increasing from 387,000 in August to 412,000 in January, despite the adult waiting list having fallen since October. Read full story Source: The Independent, 31 March 2024 -
Content ArticleAs health care specialists, we spend a huge amount of time considering, empathising with, and addressing the needs of the people we want to help. We intimately understand the challenges children and young people face, and how these may impact their health and development long term. Exposed daily to this kind of emotional and physical distress, it can be easy for compassion fatigue to creep in. Our brains work automatically to protect our own mental health, almost desensitising us to the trauma experienced by others. It’s much easier to think of people as statistics, especially when it comes to children and young people. But the more we think in terms of statistics, the more immune to them we become, the more empathy we lose and the less potential there is for an effective, caring health care system that works well for everyone. We need to put the care back into health care.
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Content ArticleThis document from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) sets out how health and care systems should work together to support discharge from all mental health and learning disability and autism inpatient settings for children, young people and adults. It sets out best practice on: how NHS bodies and local authorities should work closely together to support the discharge process and ensure the right support in the community, and provides clarity in relation to responsibilities patient and carer involvement in discharge planning.
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News Article
Department of Education updates National Framework for Children’s Social Care
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Department of Education has recently provided an update to the national framework for Children’s Social Care. The key point to be aware of is the increased focus on sharing responsibility and strengthening multi-agency working to safeguard children. This change is likely to impact a wide variety of stakeholders involved in children’s care, including NHS Trusts, ICBs, education partners, local authorities, voluntary, charitable and community sectors and the police. The focus continues to be on a child-centred approach with the intention of keeping children within the care of their families wherever possible; this collaborative working may include working with parents, carers or other family but the wishes and feelings of the child alongside what is in the child’s best interests remain paramount. Joined up working is to be viewed as the norm. For health professionals, you will be expected to have lead roles for children with health needs, such as children who are identified as having special educational needs or disabilities. Read full story Source: Bevan Brittan, 23 January 2024 -
News ArticleA midwife in New York who reportedly gave 1,500 children homeopathic pellets rather than the vaccinations required by the state has been fined $300,000 by the state's health department. The midwife was identified as Jeanette Breen, who operates the Long Island-based Baldwin Midwifery. Ms Breen reportedly gave the pellets as an alternative to required vaccinations and then proceeded to falsify the children's immunisation records, according to the New York Department of Health. The midwife reportedly began giving the pellets during the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically during the 2019-2020 school year. The majority of the affected children live in Long Island, according to the Associated Press. The health department said that the false records have since been voided, and that the families will have to ensure their students are up-to-date with their shots before they can return to school. “Misrepresenting or falsifying vaccine records puts lives in jeopardy and undermines the system that exists to protect public health,” State Health Commissioner James McDonald said in a statement. Read full story Source: The Independent, 24 January 2024
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Content ArticleThis report outlines the results of a survey carried out by The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV)—the largest UK survey of frontline health visitors working with families with babies and young children across the UK. Poverty was the cause of greatest concern to health visitors, with 93% reporting an increase in the number of families affected by poverty in the last 12 months. Other key findings included: 89% of health visitors reported an increase in the use of food banks 78% an increase in perinatal mental illness 69% an increase in domestic abuse 63% an increase in homelessness and asylum seekers 50% an increase in families skipping meals as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
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Content ArticleRacial and ethnic disparities in health are substantial and persistent in the USA. They occur from the earliest years of life, are perpetuated by societal structures and systems, and profoundly affect children’s health throughout their lives. This series of articles in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health summarises evidence on racial and ethnic inequities in the quality of paediatric care, outlines priorities for future research to better understand and address these inequities and discusses policy solutions to advance child health equity in the USA. Racial and ethnic inequities in the quality of paediatric care in the USA: a review of quantitative evidence Policy solutions to eliminate racial and ethnic child health disparities in the USA
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Content Article
As part of the Lancet's Child and Adolescent Health Spotlight, the journal called for young people around the world aged 18–25 years to lend their perspectives and lived experiences on the two key spotlight asks: That children must be immediately prioritised in health and social policies; children and young people deserve attention in their own right, and not only because they are an indispensable foundation for a sustainable future. That governments and health providers should prioritise health equity for children and young people, within and between countries. The Lancet received 104 submissions in Chinese, English, Portuguese and Spanish, many of which have been published as essays in Lancet publications. This article in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health summarises the key themes that were raised in the submissions received, including: the need for honest conversations with trusted adults about less talked-about areas including sex and death. the mental health impacts of attacks on transgender young people. the issues associated with living with a chronic illness as a young person. the importance of non-tokenistic youth engagement in research. -
News Article
National call for action as measles cases surge across UK
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A “national call to action” has been made by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) after a worrying surge in the spread of measles in London and the West Midlands. Professor Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the health board, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that people have “forgotten what measles is like”, and that children can be unwell for a week or two with symptoms including a nasty rash, high fever and ear infections. She added that the virus is highly infectious, with health officials warning that serious complications can arise that include hospitalisations and death. This comes as official figures show uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is at its lowest point in more than a decade. Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 January 2024 -
News Article
Long Covid: NHS legal action launched by family of girl
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The mother of an 11-year-old Aberdeenshire girl with Long Covid has launched a legal action against their health board, in what lawyers claim is the first case of its kind in Scotland. Helen Goss, from Westhill, is seeking damages from NHS Grampian on behalf of her daughter, Anna Hendy. The action claims the health board is responsible for "multiple failings" in Anna's treatment and care. The claim alleges failings were avoidable, that they caused Anna "injury and damage", and led to her condition worsening. Anna became unwell after contracting Covid in 2020. The action alleges a number of failings by the health board. These include claims that requests for Anna to be referred to the specialist paediatric services of immunology and neurology were refused. It also claims no further help was offered after Anna was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Paediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS). And it says these failings "could have been avoided had NHS Grampian followed contemporary guidance on diagnosis and treatment". Read full story Source: BBC, 19 January 2024 -
Content ArticleThis Lancet article is written by two young people aged 19 and 20 years, based in the UK, who both developed Long Covid more than two years ago. They describe their wide-ranging symptoms and highlight the impact the condition has had on their lives, causing them to miss out on key milestones—such as starting university and learning to drive. They go on to look at the specific challenges facing young people with long-term conditions, arguing that many services that are meant to help young people—health services, schools and higher education facilities—are failing those dealing with a chronic illness or disability. This article is free to view, but you will need to sign up for a free Lancet account
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News ArticleHealth experts have warned “we must act now” as measles cases have soared across the country amid an increase in unvaccinated children. There were 1,603 suspected cases of measles in England and Wales in 2023, new statistics from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show. MMR cases have increased significantly in the last two years - in 2022, there were 735 cases, and just 360 the year before. On Friday, Birmingham Children’s Hospital said it had become inundated with the highest number of children with measles in decades. The hospital treated more than 50 children for the disease in the last month. Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Chair of the UK Health Department's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, warned that unless more children are vaccinated there will be an increase in hospital admissions and even deaths. He told The Independent: “The main reason for this new outbreak is the increase in unvaccinated children in the last few years. “Vaccinations have decreased below 90 per cent and this is dangerous. The vaccine is powerful if we use it, and it will protect our children. “We must act now and the increased cases are a warning that there will be consequences if we don’t. There will be children with severe infections, brain damage and even death.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 January 2024
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Content ArticleMedication is a common cause of preventable medical harm in paediatric inpatients. This study aimed to examine the sociotechnical system surrounding paediatric medicines management and to identify potential gaps in this system and how these might contribute to adverse drug events (ADEs). The authors advocate the following actions as a result of the insights gained about contributing factors to ADEs: processes to involve parents in the care of their children in hospital. development of skill-mix interventions to ensure appropriate expertise is available where it is needed. modified checking procedures to permit staff to use their skills and judgment effectively and efficiently.
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News Article
How NHS strikes put thousands of sick children in peril
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hundreds of children’s appointments – including for lifesaving operations and cancer treatments – have been cancelled on each day that NHS strikes took place over the last year, as hundreds of thousands of youngsters languish on the waiting list for treatment, The Independent can reveal. More than 20,000 paediatric treatments and surgeries were shelved because of the walkouts, while the families of 400 children were told that their lifesaving operations had been cancelled. With junior doctors due to stage the longest strike in NHS history this week – for six days, starting on Wednesday – the problem is set to get worse. Dr Camilla Kingdon, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, warned that long waits for children can be particularly damaging, and can have a lifelong impact as treatment is often time-critical. She said that children are seldom prioritised in national policy-making, and urged the government to put children’s needs “back on the agenda”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 2 January 2024 -
Content ArticleThe National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) has published its latest Thematic Report. Based on data from April 2019 to March 2022, this report includes child deaths where infection may have contributed to the death and those where infection provided a complete and sufficient explanation of death. The Thematic Report covers: variations in incidence of child deaths with infection infection related deaths characteristics of children who died where infection may have contributed or caused the death and where infection provided a complete and sufficient explanation of death details of the infections and their clinical presentations. It also includes learning from Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) completed child death reviews where death was categorised as infection, as well as next steps.
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Content ArticleThe Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network (PICANet) has published the National Paediatric Critical Care Audit State Nation Report 2023. Based on a data collection period from January 2020 to December 2022, it describes paediatric critical care activity which occurred within Level 3 paediatric intensive care units and Specialist Paediatric Critical Care Transport Services in the United Kingdom (UK) and Republic of Ireland (ROI). This report contains key information on referral, transport and admission events collected by the National Paediatric Critical Care Audit to monitor the delivery and quality of care in relation to agreed standards and evaluate clinical outcomes to inform national policy in paediatric critical care. It reports on the following five key metrics relevant to Paediatric Intensive Care services: case ascertainment including timeliness of data submission retrieval mobilisation times emergency readmissions within 48 hours of discharge unplanned extubation in PICU mortality in PICU.
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Content ArticleNHS hierarchies and paternalistic cultures can mean patients’ and families’ concerns are dismissed or undermined—but challenging them can be lifesaving. In this opinion piece for the BMJ, Zosia Kmietowicz shares the story of her son's experience at A&E, when a nurse intervened to question a doctor's treatment plan to ensure he received antibiotics for meningitis. She highlights the need for a system that allows staff to intervene when they are concerned, regardless of their status or position in the system.
