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Showing results for tags 'Consent'.
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News Article
Australia: brain surgeon defends slapping patient after surgery
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The high-profile Australian neurosurgeon Charlie Teo admits making an error by going “too far” and damaging a patient, but maintains she was told of the risks. The doctor on Monday appeared at a medical disciplinary hearing to explain how two women patients ended up with catastrophic brain injuries. Teo also defended allegations that he acted inappropriately by slapping a patient in an attempt to rouse her after surgery, contrasting it with Will Smith’s notorious slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards last year. “It wakes them up and it wakes them up pretty quickly. And I will continue to do it.” Charlie Teo tells inquiry he ‘did the wrong thing’ in surgery that left patient in vegetative state One of the issues the panel of legal and medical experts is considering is whether the women and their families were adequately informed of the risks of surgery. Both women had terminal brain tumours and had been given from weeks to months to live. They were left in essentially vegetative states after the surgeries and died soon after. “We were told he could give us more time,” one of the husbands said, according to court documents. “There was never any information about not coming out of it". Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 March 2023 -
Content ArticleThis report includes findings from a two-month-long study of data brokers and data on U.S. individuals’ mental health conditions. The report aims to make more transparent the data broker industry and its processes for selling and exchanging mental health data about depressed and anxious individuals. The research is critical as more depressed and anxious individuals utilise personal devices and software-based health-tracking applications (many of which are not protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), often unknowingly putting their sensitive mental health data at risk.
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Content ArticleHysteroscopy is a common and valuable intervention to diagnose and treat gynaecological conditions arising in the uterus. Many women have an acceptable experience of outpatient hysteroscopy, with pain levels tolerable to them and rapid recovery. However, it is important to recognise that hysteroscopy can cause severe pain and be traumatic for women. This is difficult to predict. Therefore, units need to share with women clear, accurate and relevant, written and verbal information. This Good Practice Paper from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has been written for healthcare professionals who are involved in providing outpatient hysteroscopy with the aim of achieving optimal outcomes for women.
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- Womens health
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Content ArticleIn this post, Amber Clour, author of the Diabetes Daily Grind blog, talks about her experience of managing her type 1 diabetes while attending the emergency room for suspected appendicitis. She describes the steps she took to make sure her blood sugar levels were managed safely and with her consent, including communicating clearly with all healthcare professionals, ensuring her continuous glucose monitor (CGM) was not removed and bringing her own supply of glucose tablets to manage hypoglycaemia. Further reading Blog - “I felt lucky to get out alive”: why we must improve hospital safety for people with diabetes
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- Diabetes
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Content ArticleIn this interview with the publisher Bloomsbury, freelance health journalist and founder of the Hysterical Women blog Sarah Graham talks about her book, Rebel Bodies: A guide to the gender health gap revolution. She discusses the recurrent themes she came across in her work as a health journalist which inspired her to set up her blog: women's experiences of gaslighting, dismissal and disbelief by the medical system. Sarah talks about how her book aims to bring together all the stories and ideas she has worked on for the last five or so years and highlight how closely they’re linked. The book also celebrates the resilience, determination, sisterhood and solidarity Sarah has witnessed from patient advocates and campaigners across the sphere of women’s health and trans health. Read Sarah's 2020 blog, Gender bias: A threat to women’s health, on the hub.
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- Womens health
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Content ArticleThis guide by the Patient Information Forum (PIF) provides practical support for translating health information. It offers tips on overcoming key challenges and links to useful resources. It is mainly focused on foreign language translation, but the principles can also be applied to British Sign Language and Braille. Research shows that in the UK, up to a million people cannot speak English well or at all, and these people have a lower proportion of good health than English speakers. Providing culturally appropriate, translated health information can help people manage their own health and take part in shared decision making. Translation is consistently raised as a key challenge by health information producers. Please note, you will need to join PIF to view this content.
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- Health inequalities
- Health Disparities
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News ArticleThe Care Quality Commission (CQC) has issued two fixed penalty notices to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust totalling £8,000 for failing to seek consent to care and treatment of someone in their care. A 55-year-old gentleman who had diagnoses of epilepsy and autism was admitted to Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham on six occasions between 12 May 2019 and 6 October 2019. He had also been deaf since birth and communicated via British Sign Language (BSL) and lip reading. These fixed penalty notices relate to the trust’s care and treatment of the patient at Good Hope Hospital in relation to three medical procedures, which occurred in September, October and November 2019. CQC found that on these three occasions, the trust did not comply with Regulation 11 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, requiring registered persons to obtain the consent of the relevant person when providing care and treatment to them. Regulation 11 also states if someone is 16 or over and is unable to give consent because they lack capacity, the registered person must act in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The three procedures where CQC found consent failures, were feeding tubes, aimed at providing nutritional support to the patient, who was struggling with food. Read full story Source: CQC, 7 October 2022
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- Organisation / service factors
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News ArticleHealth professionals should not let fears about sharing personal data “stand in the way” of reporting patients at risk of ”being groomed into terrorist activity”, new government guidance has stressed. New guidance has been developed in response to concerns raised by clinicians about information sharing without consent for the purposes of the anti-terror Prevent and Channel programmes. It stresses that “fears about sharing personal data should not be allowed to stand in the way of the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and adults at risk of abuse or exploitation”. However, despite the need for clarity it describes how the decision for making a referral without someone’s informed consent should be subject to a “case-by-case” basis assessment, which considers whether the informed consent of the individual can be obtained, and if the proposed data sharing is legitimate, necessary, proportionate and lawful. It said: “This assessment should be based on your professional opinion that there is tangible public interest or best interest considerations involved.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 29 September 2022
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Content ArticleThis book published by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) looks at risk communication—the communication approach used for situations when people need good information to make sound choices. It is distinguished from public affairs (or public relations) communication by its commitment to accuracy and its avoidance of spin. Effective risk communication between healthcare professionals and patients is important to ensure patient safety, and in various chapters of the book, the authors look at how to maximise effective communication in healthcare scenarios.
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- Patient engagement
- Communication
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Content ArticleA doula, according to Doula UK (2022), provides ‘support in pregnancy, birth and in the postnatal period by providing information, advocacy, and practical and emotional support to the whole family’. This blog by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) maternity team outlines why HSIB decided to investigate the role of doulas in maternity safety and the results of their investigation. It highlights discrepancies in doula training and several cases where doulas stepped outside of the boundaries of their role. HSIB argues that there is a need for further work to understand how families view the role of doulas during pregnancy and birth.
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Content ArticleThis report outlines the results of the Patient Information Forum's (PIF's) 2022 survey and sets out progress made in the crucial areas of health and digital literacy since the Covid-19 pandemic.
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- Health inequalities
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Content ArticleThis webinar hosted by the Patients Association looked at the benefits to patients of accessing their GP health records online, and answered questions from patients about how to access this information.
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- Data
- Electronic Health Record
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Content ArticleIn this article, Bevan Brittan Trainee Solicitor Angus Kirkwood draws on his past experience working as a physiotherapist whilst discussing the topic of informed consent in medical practice. Informed consent is a key issue in medical practice. In this article, he briefly consider the law around informed consent and reflects on his previous experience working as a physiotherapist for 7 years to explore the challenges in clinical practice. Angus concludes by providing some practical advice designed to assist practitioners with meeting their legal duties.
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Content ArticleConsent to treatment such as operations and diagnostic procedures can only be truly informed if the patient understands the risks, benefits and alternatives. They also need to have considered what will happen if they choose not to have any treatment at all. A failure to obtain informed consent is not only unlawful, but can contribute to lasting physical and psychological harm. In this blog, hub Topic Leader Julie Smith looks at the different areas to consider when creating written information that is genuinely useful to the patient. Julie’s advice also helps readers understand how they can provide information that is medico-legally sound.
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Content ArticleSex and gender bias in health and social care results in poor outcomes for patients and has a negative impact on safety during care and treatment. For the last two International Women’s Days, Patient Safety Learning has highlighted patient safety concerns on this topic, considering the broader risk to safety posed by this bias and the impact on outcomes and safety of women being historically underrepresented in clinical trials and medication research.[1] [2] The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity. In support of this aim, there are seven different missions which have been identified to help forge a gender-equal world, including one focused specifically on health: “To assist women to be in a position of power to make informed decisions about their health”[3] This year we will focus on this mission, considering the relationship between women’s health, informed consent and patient safety. We will first set out what we mean by informed consent, before discussing how failures in consent can have a negative impact on women’s health. Then we will consider the UK Women’s Health Strategy in relation to these issues, and discuss what is needed to improve patient safety.
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- Womens health
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Content ArticleCo-produced by young people and researchers from the University of Bristol and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, ‘EDUCATE’ will help teach students about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and provide reassurance about receiving the vaccine, which is usually offered to teenagers at school as part of the national vaccination programme.
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- Vaccination
- Cancer
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Content ArticleRisk assessment during the maternity pathway relies on healthcare professionals recognising a change in a pregnant woman/person’s circumstances that may increase the level of risk. Risk assessments are undertaken during the numerous contacts pregnant women/people have with a team of healthcare professionals throughout the maternity pathway. This thematic review draws on findings from the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch's (HSIB's) maternity investigation programme to identify key issues associated with assessing risk during pregnancy, labour and birth (known as the ‘maternity pathway’). It examined all reports undertaken by the HSIB maternity investigation programme from April 2019 to January 2022, with the aim of identifying key learnings about risk assessment. A total of 208 reports that had made findings and recommendations to NHS trusts about risk assessment during the maternity pathway were included. The review identified an overarching theme around the need to facilitate and support individualised risk assessments for pregnant women/people to improve maternity safety. Within this, seven specific ‘risk assessment themes’ within the maternity care pathway were identified as commonly appearing in HSIB reports. These seven themes require a focus from the healthcare system to help mitigate risks and enable NHS trusts and clinicians to deliver safe and effective maternity care to pregnant women/people.
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- Maternity
- Risk assessment
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Content ArticleThis ethnographic qualitative study in the BMJ aimed to describe how patients are engaged with cancer decisions in the context of multidisciplinary teams (MDT) and how MDT recommendations are carried out in the context of a shared decision. The study was carried out at four head and neck cancer centres in the north of England. The authors found that the current model of MDT decision-making does not support shared decision-making, and may actively undermine it. They recommend the development of a model that allows the individual patient more input into MDT discussions, and where decisions are made on potential treatment options rather than providing a single recommendation for discussion with the patient. Deeper consideration should be given to how the MDT incorporates the patient perspective and/or delivers its discussion of options to the patient.
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- Decision making
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Content ArticleHysteroscopy is a procedure used as a diagnostic tool to identify the cause of common issues such as abnormal bleeding, unexplained pain or unusually heavy periods. It involves a long, thin tube being passed through the vagina and cervix, into the womb, often with little or no anaesthesia. Studies indicate that some women do not find hysteroscopy procedures painful. However, it is now widely recognised that many women experience severely painful and traumatic hysteroscopies.[1-5] At Patient Safety Learning, we have worked with patients, campaigners, clinicians and researchers to understand the barriers to safe care and call for improvements.[6] We believe that no woman should have to endure extreme pain or trauma when accessing essential healthcare. In this blog we will: outline the key safety concerns around hysteroscopy procedures summarise recent national discussions highlighting these concerns reflect on the new national guidance outline six calls for action.
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- Womens health
- Obstetrics and gynaecology/ Maternity
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Content ArticleThe OptiBreech project is a research study exploring the feasibility of evaluating a new care pathway for women with a breech pregnancy. About 1 in 25 babies are born bottom-down (breech) after 37 weeks of pregnancy. Women who wish to plan a vaginal breech birth have asked for more reliable support from an experienced professional. This aligns with national policy to enable maternal choice. In this video, Dr Shawn Walker explains why the combination of meconium and tachycardia, particularly in the first stage of labour, indicates increased risk in breech births.
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- Maternity
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News ArticleHysteroscopy Action says thousands of women are in extreme pain during and following the invasive procedures to treat problems in the womb, with many suffering for days. It says some are left with symptoms of post-traumatic stress and subsequently feel unable to have intimate relationships with partners. Others avoid important examinations such as smear tests. The group has written to Women’s Minister, Maria Caulfield, to raise its concerns. In its letter, it claims women are not always given the choice of intravenous sedation or general anaesthetic to reduce pain because of an NHS drive to cut costs. Some are given local anaesthetic which is often painful and doesn’t work. Others are given no drugs at all and expected to cope with distraction techniques - known as “vocal locals.” Hysteroscopy Action has urged Ms Caulfield to open more theatre space for women to have procedures under general anaesthetic as well as offering women the choice of intravenous sedation. Yet Hysteroscopy Action, which has been in touch with thousands of patients who have undergone such examinations, says women are not made aware of this. Last week RCOG President Dr Edward Morris, said it was “working to improve clinical practice around outpatient hysteroscopy”. He added: “No patient should experience excruciating pain and no doctor should be going ahead with outpatient hysteroscopy without informed consent.” "Hysteroscopy Action has collated more than 3,000 accounts of “brutal pain, fainting and trauma during outpatient hysteroscopy.” Hysteroscopy Action's spokeswoman, Katharine Tylko said: “We are counselling hundreds of patients with PTSD, who for various medical reasons find the procedure extremely painful, some even find it torturous." “This does not happen for other invasive procedures such as colonoscopy. We urge the Women’s Minister to act and are demanding an end to this gender pain-gap.” The letter, which has over 20 signatories, including Helen Hughes, Chief Executive of the Patient Safety Learning charity, Baroness Shaista Gohir, civil rights campaigner, and women’s rights activist, Charlotte Kneer MBE, calls for women to be given informed consent and choice about whether and what type of sedation they want. Read full story Source: Express, 6 November 2022 Read hub members experiences of having a hysteroscopy in the Community thread and Patient Safety Learning's blog on improving hysteroscopy safety.
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- Womens health
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News Article
NHS use of puberty blockers legal challenge begins
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Legal action is being launched against the NHS over the prescribing of drugs to delay puberty. Papers have been lodged at the High Court by a mother and a nurse against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the UK's only gender-identity development service (Gids). Lawyers will argue it is illegal to prescribe the drugs, as children cannot give informed consent to the treatment. The Tavistock said it had a "cautious and considered" approach to treatment. The nurse, Sue Evans, left the Gids more than a decade ago after becoming increasingly concerned teenagers who wanted to transition to a different gender were being given the puberty blockers without adequate assessments and psychological work. Ms Evans said: "I used to feel concerned it was being given to 16-year-olds. But now, the age limit has been lowered and children as young as perhaps 9 or 10 are being asked to give informed consent to a completely experimental treatment for which the long-term consequences are not known." Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 January 2020- Posted
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Content ArticleIn 2015 the Supreme Court judgement in the case of Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board created a significant change to the law in regard to gaining informed, or valid, consent. The case concerned Nadine Montgomery, a pregnant lady of small stature with diabetes who delivered her son vaginally in 2001. Her son experienced a hypoxic insult as a result of shoulder dystocia and consequently suffered cerebral palsy with severe disabilities. She successfully argued that had she been informed of the risk of shoulder dystocia she would have opted to have an elective caesarean section. This is part of NHS Education for Scotland's Advanced Practice Toolkit repository for credible and supportive resources.
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Content ArticleProviding high quality care and treatment for patients coming to the end of their lives is likely to involve making difficult and emotionally challenging decisions. This guidance from the General Medical Council provides a framework to support doctors in meeting the needs of each patient as they come towards the end of their life.
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- End of life care
- Medicine - Palliative
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