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News ArticleUp-to-date registers of clinically vulnerable patients must be created to ensure that those who are most at risk during Covid-19 and any future pandemics are protected and can access the support they need, a report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Vulnerable Groups to Pandemics has recommended. The report considered vulnerable people’s experiences during the pandemic and makes 16 recommendations on what the government and the health service can do better to plan and prioritise extremely vulnerable patients during further Covid-19 outbreaks and future pandemics. These tackle the format and content of information and guidance; access to medical services such as mental health support to help people deal with anxiety, fear, and isolation; provision of practical support such as food and finance when isolating; and the need for more research into how medical conditions make people more vulnerable to a threat and vaccines less protective. At the launch of the report representatives of charities and patient groups described how the pandemic had left clinically vulnerable people feeling anxious, afraid, lonely, trapped, and desperate. They also described the “not on the list” scenario many had had to contend with, meaning they could not access priority services such as testing or support to isolate. There were still patients whose doctors recognised that they should be on the list fighting to get their condition recognised, said Susan Walsh, chief executive of Immunodeficiency UK. This means that, under the government’s Living with Covid plans, they will no longer be able to access free testing. Lord Mendelsohn, co-chair of the APPG on Vulnerable Groups to Pandemics, said, “We should be more willing to allow the medical practitioners responsible for these patients to be able to overhaul computerised systems and find ways to make that happen.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 28 February 2022
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Content ArticleUp-to-date registers of clinically vulnerable patients must be created to ensure that those who are most at risk during Covid-19 and any future pandemics are protected and can access the support they need, a report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Vulnerable Groups to Pandemics has recommended. The report considered vulnerable people’s experiences during the pandemic and makes 16 recommendations on what the government and the health service can do better to plan and prioritise extremely vulnerable patients during further Covid-19 outbreaks and future pandemics.
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News ArticleSenior doctors say the government’s “Living with Covid” plan will hamper the ability of the NHS to provide care. Michelle Drage, chief executive of the Londonwide Local Medical Committee, which represents the majority of practices in the city, has said the government’s changes may discourage vulnerable patients to seek care when they need it, while David Nicholl, a neurologist and spokesperson for Doctors’ Association UK, said it could exacerbate health inequalities. It comes as the legal requirement to isolate after testing positive is lifted from Thursday, while free Covid testing ends on 1 April. NHS England sent a letter to all healthcare providers confirming workers would have to continue with current rules and not come into work after testing positive. Staff were told they should continue to carrying out regular testing, and access this through national routes until 31 March, but were not given guidance on testing requirements beyond this. Dr Drage said the changes in isolation and testing rules could put off vulnerable patients. “We may well see people not being able to access the services they need to because they’re afraid to attend,” she said. “Then to make people pay for those tests for what looks like a fiver a pop, when the people that can least afford it and the people who can least afford to take time off... suggests to me we’re increasing the risk of inappropriate transmission.” “It’s a perfect storm that could be brewing that will have a further impact on the ability of patients to be properly cared for… It feels like, yet again, the government gambling with people’s health to sustain the economy.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 February 2022
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Content ArticleWe all knew that this couldn’t go on forever—and who would want it to? But, since the start of the “great reopening” in the middle of 2021, it seems the government has conveniently forgotten about the 1.5 million vulnerable people they were so eager to protect back in early 2020. The shielding programme was paused in April 2021, then quietly dropped a few months later. The Department of Health and Social Care said that the clinically extremely vulnerable should follow the same advice as the rest of the population, but with some additional suggested precautions such as avoiding “enclosed crowded spaces.” And last week, Boris Johnson, UK prime minister, told us that the pandemic is essentially over—all restrictions will end very soon, including the need to self-isolate. Except for the vulnerable, the pandemic isn’t over, writes Ceinwen Giles in this BMJ opinion piece. Life hasn’t returned to normal, and what has been a difficult two years now appears to stretch ever further into the future with no real prospect of “normal” life anytime soon. The government’s message that “vaccinations are the best way to protect yourself” is hollow advice for people, she says.
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News ArticleThe NHS has been accused by a major charity of failing to address the emerging gap in Covid booster vaccine coverage for racialised communities. Blood Cancer UK has told The Independent it has “serious concerns” over what it claims is a “shocking” lack of urgency from the NHS in addressing the gap in booster vaccine doses for immunocompromised people from black and minority ethnic communities. The charity has said NHS England has failed to set out any “concrete” plans since it revealed 84% of immunocompromised people from a white British background had three vaccine doses by mid-December, compared to just 43% of immunocompromised people from a Pakistani background. The news comes after the government announced people over 75 and immunocompromised children would be eligible to receive a fourth Covid vaccine by Spring. According to an analysis published by Open Safely, a team of data scientists at Oxford University, of those who are part of the shielding population, as of the 22 February just 72% of Black people have had their booster does, and 73% of south Asian people. This compares to 89% of white people. NHS England has highlighted a number of actions it is taking to address the situation such as using pop-up sites within communities and providing free transport. Speaking with The Independent chief executive of Blood Cancer UK Gemma Peters, said: “We have serious concerns about how the poor roll-out of third doses for the immunocompromised has left people from some communities much less well-protected than people from a white British background. But while it is deeply troubling that a racial disparity in access to third vaccine doses has been allowed to develop, just as shocking has been NHS England’s apparent lack of urgency in addressing it." Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 February 2022
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News Article
"'I feel less safe without Covid measures"
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Medically vulnerable people say the decision to end Covid restrictions means their freedoms being eroded. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that legal requirements, including the need to self-isolate if you test positive, will end on Thursday. Two clinically vulnerable women in the West say not knowing who is infected means it is now more dangerous for them to leave their homes. "It doesn't feel safe," said Chloe Ball-Hopkins, from Gloucestershire. "My friends and family will continue to try and keep me safe, my partner will keep me safe, they'll continue to test before they meet me," said the 25-year-old from Wotton-under-Edge. Miss Ball-Hopkins has already had her fourth vaccine dose as she is considered extremely clinically vulnerable. She has a rare form of muscular dystrophy called nemaline myopathy which affects her respiratory system, and contracted sepsis in 2019 which undermined her immune system further. Miss Ball-Hopkins said that while the easing of restrictions would feel like freedom to much of the population, it meant the opposite for her. "I'm supposed to go out and live my life normally yet now I won't know if someone next to me in a supermarket is literally breathing Covid down on me, as I'm in a wheelchair. "I was actually probably safer in January when everyone was wearing masks than I will be in a week's time. That makes no sense," she said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 February 2022 -
News Article
Ministers warned getting rid of free Covid tests will lead to £500 ‘caring tax’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Abolishing free Covid tests for those who look after the vulnerable will amount to a “tax on caring” that would cost them more than £500 a year, ministers have been warned. All remaining domestic Covid regulations that restrict public freedoms are ending, with Boris Johnson announing a move away from government intervention to “personal responsibility”. However, the scale of free testing to be retained is still being thrashed out within government. Current data suggests that nearly 4 million people take regular Covid tests, including those who visit and help vulnerable relatives. That number also includes vulnerable people who work in settings that could put them at greater risk, where they have face-to-face contact with others. Research based on the average cost of tests internationally, compiled by the Liberal Democrats, suggests that people who take two tests a week face an average bill of £534 a year. It comes after the government’s own scientific advisers have warned that removing free testing will “increase anxiety” and limit the “social participation outside the home” of those who are clinically vulnerable or who live with someone in that position. “Charging people for the tests they need to safely see vulnerable loved ones is a tax on caring that risks leaving millions of people in lockdown by stealth,” said Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader. “It means vulnerable people will see fewer loved ones and will be able to enjoy less of their lives. It is unfair and unjust. Ministers need to scrap these plans to stop a ‘cost of living with Covid’ crisis. Throughout the pandemic, people have been trying hard to do the right thing and keep others safe. The government should not be making that harder.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 19 February 2022 -
News ArticleToday the Government is expected to announce the end to all Covid restrictions, including ending self-isolation and free testing in the country. However, in an open letter to the UK's Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer, the UK science and medical communities say this is a "HUGE mistake". The open letter expresses concern about the Government plans to end testing, surveillance surveys and legal isolation of Covid-19 cases and asks the Government to clarify the scientific advice underpinning these policy decisions as they do not believe there is a solid scientific basis for the policy. "It is almost certain to increase the circulation of the virus and remove the visibility of emerging variants of concern." "The emergence of new variants and a resultant wave of infections can occur very quickly, potentially within just several weeks. The ability to rapidly detect and characterise new variants and to scale up necessary responses (such as TTI and vaccinations) quickly will be very important. Considerations for future response preparedness and surveillance infrastructure should take this into account." "We believe humanity is in a race against the virus." The letter goes on to say that some form of surveillance must be continued to ensure the situation is well understood and new variants of concern identified. Lack of testing is not only detrimental to controlling the spread of SARSCoV2 and detecting new variants, it also puts people who develop Long Covid at a great disadvantage by not having a confirmation of their infection, which is integral to the diagnosis, support and care they need to receive. For the 1 in 4 people in the UK who are clinically vulnerable, the current approach appears a perilous and politicised pandemic response. The authors of the letter are asking members of the UK science and medical communities to sign the open letter. Read the letter in full and sign here
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News Article
The millions of people stuck in pandemic limbo
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
When the coronavirus pandemic began, Emily Landon thought about her own risk only in rare quiet moments. An infectious-disease doctor at the University of Chicago Medicine, she was cramming months of work into days, preparing her institution for the virus’s arrival in the United States. But Landon had also recently developed rheumatoid arthritis—a disease in which a person’s immune system attacks their own joints—and was taking two drugs that, by suppressing said immune system, made her more vulnerable to pathogens. Normally, she’d be confident about avoiding infections, even in a hospital setting. This felt different. “We didn’t have enough tests, it was probably around us everywhere, and I’m walking around every day with insufficient antibodies and hamstrung T-cells,” she said. Two years later, Covid-19 is still all around us, everywhere, and millions of people like Landon are walking around with a compromised immune system. A significant proportion of them don’t respond to Covid vaccines, so despite being vaccinated, many are still unsure whether they’re actually protected—and some know that they aren’t. Much of the United States dropped COVID restrictions long ago; many more cities and states are now following. That means policies that protected Landon and other immunocompromised people, including mask mandates and vaccination requirements, are disappearing, while accommodations that benefited them, such as flexible working options, are being rolled back. This isn’t a small group. Close to 3% of US adults take immunosuppressive drugs, either to treat cancers or autoimmune disorders or to stop their body from rejecting transplanted organs or stem cells. That makes at least 7 million immunocompromised people. In the past, immunocompromised people lived with their higher risk of infection, but COVID represents a new threat that, for many, has further jeopardised their ability to be part of the world. From the very start of the pandemic, some commentators have floated the idea “that we can protect the vulnerable and everyone else can go on with their lives.” Seth Trueger, who is on immunosuppressants for an autoimmune complication of cancer, said. “How’s that supposed to work?” He is an emergency doctor at Northwestern Medicine; he can neither work from home nor protect himself by avoiding public spaces. “How am I supposed to provide for my family or live my life if there’s a pandemic raging?” he said. Read full story Source: The Atlantic, 16 February 2022 Further reading Read further Covid-19 blogs and stories from staff on the frontline -
Content ArticleThe British Association of Perinatal Medicine is inviting parents of babies who have spent time in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to submit questions for neonatal research to the Neonatal Priority Setting Partnership. The partnership is made up of healthcare professionals and parent representatives that have come together to oversee a process to identify and prioritise research questions that can be tested in randomised trials in UK neonatal care. Answers to the questions submitted should improve neonatal care and reduce unwanted variations in practice. Questions can be submitted until 28 February 2022.
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News Article
Patient safety and the right of the sick to reject care from unvaccinated staff
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The question of whether to impose a policy requiring mandatory vaccination for NHS staff has raised countless ethical and practical considerations, but with many healthcare workers still unvaccinated and the Government set for a U-turn over mandatory Covid jabs for NHS staff in England, has enough thought been given to the perspective of patients? Various legal experts and health groups have argued that while doctors and nurses can reject the offer of vaccination, patients should also have the right to refuse treatment from a healthcare worker who is not jabbed, instead requesting that their care is placed in the hands of someone who is protected. With the February deadline pushed back, could patients start to grow weary of staff who have not been vaccinated? Will they feel as though the chance for refuseniks to get jabbed has come and gone, and that it is therefore justified that they are stripped of their right to deliver treatment? “Patients have a right to safe care, so it’s reasonable for patients to expect any health or social care professional caring for them to have had a Covid-19 vaccine,” says Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association. Most patients may not be overly concerned about the vaccination status of those caring for them, but in a world in which we’re expected to live alongside the threat posed by Covid, there are undoubtedly certain groups who will be more invested in these matters. “A person who is ‘vulnerable’ by way of disability or chronic illness (eg immunocompromised) may well have an argument under the Equality Act that the NHS failing to provide vaccinated staff to them constitutes disability-based discrimination,” says one barrister who specialises in mental health capacity law. After all, these individuals are most at risk from COVID-19 – and will be for years to come. Clinically vulnerable people who do find themselves in hospital for whatever reason will know that a Sars-CoV-2 infection could further exacerbate their condition, or endanger their lives. Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 January 2022 -
News ArticleNearly half of patients with blood cancer are insufficiently protected against the Omicron variant after three vaccine doses, according to a new study. Experts from the Francis Crick Institute and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust said their research highlights the need for a fourth jab among these vulnerable people. As part of the ongoing Capture study, scientists have been monitoring the antibody response of hundreds of patients with different types of cancer, after one, two and three vaccine doses. Specifically, the researchers measured levels of neutralising antibodies which identify, attack and block the Omicron variant from infecting the body’s cells. Patients with solid tumours appeared to generate antibody responses similar to people without cancer. But among patients with blood cancer who had three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, only 56 per cent generated neutralising antibodies, according to the study, which has been published as a research letter in The Lancet. This means that 44% of patients with blood cancer did not generate a sufficient antibody response. The study supports the need for four jabs among these immunocompromised groups of people. “We found that a third vaccine dose boosted the neutralising response against Omicron in patients with cancer, but the effect was blunted in patients with blood cancer compared to those with solid cancer,” the authors wrote. Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 January 2022
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News Article
Public urged to sign up for Covid drug trial
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Over-50s and younger adults with underlying health conditions are being urged to participate in a study of life-saving treatments for COVID-19. The study is open to those who test positive for Covid and had symptoms develop in the previous five days. Volunteers will be given pills to take at home. The study will help decide how antiviral drugs will be used, Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said. Health Secretary Sajid Javid asked everyone eligible to "step forward" and "help us to learn more about medicines which could save thousands of lives". Antivirals were "part of our approach as we learn to live with Covid, by preventing the most vulnerable from being hospitalised", he said. The UK regulator has licensed both for treating Covid, with molnupiravir the first to be given the green light, in November. Both have completed clinical trials and shown promising results at reducing the risk of serious illness or death. Launched in December, it already has 4,500 people signed up but needs 6,000 more as soon as possible. You can sign up at the study website now or your GP may contact you to ask you to participate if you test positive for Covid. Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 January 2022 -
News ArticleLeading charities have spoken out against the government’s scrapping of COVID-19 measures warning that clinically vulnerable people have been made “collateral damage for political considerations.” Those representing thousands of clinically vulnerable people have warned the government’s decisions to scrap COVID-19 restrictions leaves people “marginalised” and warned there was a risk to 5-11 year old vulnerable children who are yet to be vaccinated. The removal of COVID-19 restrictions next week will mean masks are no longer mandatory and the government will no longer ask people to work from home. Blood Cancer UK has called for the government to do more to support immunocompromised people such as giving them priority testing. Alzheimer's Society has said it is too early to drop basic measures, such as mask wearing, which help protect vulnerable members of society. Charlotte Augst, chief executive for the charity National Voices said clinically vulnerable people had now become “collateral damage in political considerations.” She said: “The pandemic has obviously been difficult for everyone, but it’s been the most difficult for people who are vulnerable to the virus, and some of these people have never really come out of 22 months of lockdowns. “There are obviously infection control measures that are harmful to society and lockdown is one of them - it causes harm. But there are some infection control measures which are not and which enable people to get on with their lives - wearing masks, improving ventilation. “Why would we not do this? When we understood that dirty water caused illness, we cleaned up the water. It cannot be a political statement to say we should clean up the air this is just fact-based decision making, but the situation] has now become all about politics. Read full story Source: The Independent. 21 January 2022
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Content ArticleIt is particularly important that severely immunosuppressed people receive their booster given the new dominant Omicron variant. However, this is causing some difficulties as the system does not currently distinguish between a third primary dose and a booster. This update from the Royal College of Physicians provides guidance for doctors on identifying severely immunosuppressed patients who are eligible for a booster vaccine, having already had a third primary dose.
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News Article
Covid: Vulnerable NHS patients to be offered new drug
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A new Covid drug designed to reduce the risk of vulnerable patients needing hospital treatment will be available on the NHS from today. Sotrovimab is a monoclonal antibody given as a transfusion to transplant recipients, cancer patients and other high-risk groups. If given quickly after symptoms develop it is should help prevent people from falling seriously ill with the disease. Initial tests suggest it should still work against the Omicron variant. "These new drugs have an important role to play," said Prof Steven Powis, the national medical director of NHS England. "If you test positive and are at high risk then we will be contacting you, and, if eligible, you will be able to get access to these new treatments." Around 1.3 million of the highest risk NHS patients are eligible to receive Sotrovimab, along with other new Covid treatments as they become available. The drug is most effective if taken in the first five days after infection and is likely to be given in clinics or to outpatients in hospital. It has been approved for use in vulnerable groups - such as those with cancer, diabetes or heart disease. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 December 2021 -
EventuntilThis webinar by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices in the US is aimed at: Pharmacists, physicians, nurses Medication safety officers Quality professionals Risk managers Leaders in pharmacy and nursing Pharmacy and anaesthesia technicians Although most medications in healthcare today have a wide margin of safety, there remains some which can cause serious harm or death if they are misused. To reduce the risk of error with these “high-alert” medications, special precautions and high leverage strategies should be implemented to avoid serious patient safety events. Many organizations have taken steps to identify these medications, but many are still less than confident that they have taken all the necessary precautions with high-alert drugs against serious patient harm. Join the ISMP faculty as we examine and define the importance of high alert medications as part of routine patient care and review the results of ISMP’s National Medication Safety Self Assessment® for High-Alert Medications with particular attention to vasopressors and insulin. Faculty will review specific safety characteristics of each these important drug classes, describe self assessment findings related to the use of these medications and discuss the necessary strategies for harm prevention when using these medications. Register for the webinar 3.00pm Eastern Time (US and Canada), 8.00pm GMT
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Content ArticleThe Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Audit (CVDPREVENT) is a national primary care audit that automatically extracts routinely held GP data. This tool provides open access to the data, with clear, actionable insights for those tasked with improving cardiovascular health in England.
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News Article
Covid: Doctors' leaders back postponed health checks
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
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 -
News Article
CQC threatens to suspend licence of ‘large scale’ GP provider
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A major GP group in Plymouth covering tens of thousands of patients could have its licence removed after failing to make ‘substantial improvements’ ordered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). In August, the CQC rated the Mayflower Medical Group “inadequate” and last month the regulator said it had served a “letter of intent” on the group after another inspection. Such a letter is the last step the CQC takes before a provider’s licence is suspended. Licence suspension would affect around 40,000 people (a sixth of Plymouth’s population), who live in one of the highest areas of deprivation in the country – according to Public Health England (now the UK Health Security Agency). Among the CQC’s concerns were safety fears about the way medicines were prescribed, poor management of high-risk patients, coding issues, limited monitoring of the outcomes of care and treatment, and patients experiencing difficulties accessing care and treatment. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 2 December 2021 -
News Article
GPs in England may stop monitoring vulnerable patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ministers may allow GPs in England to halt regular monitoring of millions of patients with underlying health problems as part of the urgent new blitz on delivering Covid booster jabs. Sajid Javid and NHS bosses are locked in talks with GP representatives at the British Medical Association (BMA) about relaxing rules which mean family doctors undertake checks on people with diabetes, high blood pressure and other conditions that mean they are at higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke. It came as the health secretary announced the government has secured contracts to buy 114m more vaccine doses for next year and 2023. The deals, accelerated in the wake of the Omicron variant, will see the UK purchase 54m more Pfizer/BioNTech jabs and 60m from Moderna to “future-proof” the inoculation programme, Javid said. The BMA, the doctors’ union, has been lobbying Javid for months to suspend or scrap the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF), which it says is “bureaucratic” and interferes with GPs’ right to judge how they care for patients. Officials with knowledge of the talks told the Guardian that those involved spent much of Tuesday discussing the suspension of part or all of the requirements under QOF. “They’re talking about a partial suspension of QOF. But they may well just bin it,” one said. However, sources stressed that ministers are nervous about approving a move that could lead to claims that vulnerable patients could see any deterioration in their condition go undetected by GPs. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 December 2021 -
News Article
Did bad vaccine advice cost Samantha Willis her life?
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
When the UK’s jab programme began, expectant mothers were told to steer clear – so Samantha decided to wait until she had had her baby. Two weeks after giving birth, she died in hospital from Covid. Samantha was unvaccinated – she had received advice against getting jabbed at an antenatal appointment. When the Covid vaccine programme began in the UK on 8 December 2020, pregnant women were told not to get vaccinated. But in October 2020, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) published guidance warning that “intensive care admission may be more common in pregnant women with Covid-19 than in non-pregnant women of the same age” and that pregnant women with Covid were three times more likely to have a preterm birth. Further evidence emerged in 2021 indicating that pregnant women were particularly vulnerable to Covid, especially in their final trimester. Research from the University of Washington, published in January, found that pregnant women were 13 times more likely to die from Covid than people of a similar age who were not pregnant. But throughout February and March, the JCVI’s scientists did not appear especially concerned about examining the case for vaccinating pregnant women. Priority in the early stages of the vaccine programme was being given to older people, so many pregnant women remained towards the back of the queue. The maternity campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed said: “If you look at who was on the Covid war cabinet and leading the daily briefing, it was nearly all men,” says Joeli Brearley, its founder. “Pregnant women were treated as if they were very similar to the general population, rather than being seen as a special cohort that needs special consideration. They were just not a priority.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 November 2021 -
News ArticleResearchers have launched a major clinical trial investigating whether people on long-term immune-suppressing medicines can mount a more robust immune response to COVID-19 booster jabs by interrupting their treatment. The VROOM trial will have implications for people on immune-suppressing medicines, who are among the millions of clinically vulnerable patients advised to ‘shield’ during the pandemic. The study is funded by an NIHR and the Medical Research Council (MRC) partnership, and led by a team at the University of Nottingham. Approximately 1.3 million people in the UK are prescribed the immune-suppressing drug methotrexate for inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, and skin conditions such as psoriasis. Many of them were among the 2.2 million clinically extremely vulnerable people advised to shield during the first phase of the pandemic, depending on specialist advice and on their risk factors. While methotrexate is effective at controlling these conditions and has emerged as first line therapy for many illnesses, it reduces the body’s ability to generate robust responses to flu and pneumonia vaccines. Researchers will recruit 560 patients currently taking methotrexate, to investigate whether taking a two week break in this drug immediately after they receive the COVID-19 booster jab improves their immune response to vaccination, while preventing flare-ups of their long-term illness. The study will take between one to two years to complete. All participants will have had the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as their third jab, as part of the national vaccination programme against COVID-19. Professor Andy Ustianowski, NIHR Clinical Lead for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme and Joint National Infection Specialty Lead, said: “Although the vaccine rollout has saved many lives and helped drive down the effects of the pandemic, there are still groups of vulnerable people who can’t always mount robust immunity against the virus. " “It’s important to establish if people can safely improve protection from their booster jabs by taking a break from their immune-supressing medicines, and this pivotal study will help develop our understanding of immune responses in people taking this widely prescribed medicine." Read full story Source: NIHR, 12 November 2021
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News Article
First pill to treat Covid gets approval in UK
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The first pill designed to treat symptomatic Covid has been approved by the UK medicines regulator. The tablet - molnupiravir - will be given twice a day to vulnerable patients recently diagnosed with the disease. In clinical trials the pill, originally developed to treat flu, cut the risk of hospitalisation or death by about half. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the treatment was a "gamechanger" for the most frail and immunosuppressed. In a statement he said: "Today is a historic day for our country, as the UK is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral that can be taken at home for Covid." Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 November 2021 -
Content Article
Spotting the sick child - online learning tool (2020)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Paediatrics
This online interactive tool was commissioned by the Department of Health and Health Education England to support health professionals in assessing acutely sick children. It includes footage of real patients, guidance on assessing common symptoms and real test cases.
