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Showing results for tags 'Infection control'.
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News Article
UK flu jab rates prompt complacency warning
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Complacency over the flu jab risks overwhelming the NHS, experts warn, as data reveals the scale of the challenge in expanding the vaccination programme. Last month, the government announced plans to double the number of people who receive the influenza jab. But BBC analysis has found the take-up rate among people in vulnerable groups eligible for a free jab has declined. Health secretary Matt Hancock said he did not want a flu outbreak "at the same time as dealing with coronavirus". The government wants to increase the number of people vaccinated from 15 million to 30 million amid fears coronavirus cases will rise again in the autumn. Local authorities in England saw an average 45% of people with serious health conditions under 65 take up the offer of a free vaccine last winter, data shows. That represents a drop from 50% in 2015. The UK government has an ambition to vaccinate 55% of people in vulnerable groups, which includes people with multiple sclerosis (MS), diabetes or chronic asthma. The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously said countries should vaccinate 75% of people in "vulnerable" categories. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 August 2020- Posted
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Content ArticleApproximately 60-70% of imported respiratory masks are defective and not effective in protecting frontline workers. ECRI offers specialised PPE testing services coupled with customised consultation and recommendations to assist healthcare providers in keeping staff and patients safe. ECRI's N95-Style Mask Testing Program provides assurance on whether masks you have procured or plan to purchase meet industry standards. By testing imported masks, as well as isolation gowns, ECRI is helping healthcare organizations validate products prior to purchase and verify the safety and quality of products already in inventory.
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Content ArticleTools and resources to support the implementation of the WHO Guidelines on Core Components of Infection Prevention and Control Programmes.
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- Infection control
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News Article
Public Health England 'to be replaced'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Public Health England (PHE) is to be replaced by a new agency that will specifically deal with protecting the country from pandemics, according to a report. The Sunday Telegraph claims Health Secretary Matt Hancock will this week announce a new body modelled on Germany's Robert Koch Institute. Ministers have reportedly been unhappy with the way PHE has responded to the coronavirus crisis. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Public Health England have played an integral role in our national response to this unprecedented global pandemic." "We have always been clear that we must learn the right lessons from this crisis to ensure that we are in the strongest possible position, both as we continue to deal with Covid-19 and to respond to any future public health threat." The Telegraph reports that Mr Hancock will merge the NHS Test and Trace scheme with the pandemic response work of PHE. The paper said the new body could be called the National Institute for Health Protection and would become "effective" in September, but the change would not be fully completed until the spring. Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 August 2020- Posted
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Content ArticleOlder people and people with an intellectual disability who receive long-term care are considered particularly vulnerable to infection outbreaks, such as the current coronavirus pandemic. The combination of healthcare concerns and infection-related restrictions may result in specific challenges for long-term care staff serving these populations during infection outbreaks. This review from Embregts et al. aimed to: (1) provide insight about the potential impact of infection outbreaks on the psychological state of healthcare staff and (2) explore suggestions to support and protect their psychological well-being. They found that research into support for long-term care staff during an infection outbreak is scarce. Without conscious management, policy and research focus, the needs of this professional group may remain underexposed in current and future infection outbreaks. The content synthesis and reflection on it in this article provide starting points for new research and contribute to the preparation for future infection outbreaks.
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Content ArticleThis is a report and survey analysis from Runnymede, the UK’s leading independent thinktank on race equality and race relations. Results show that black and minority ethnic (BME) people face greater barriers in shielding from coronavirus as a result of: the types of employment they hold (BME men and women are overrepresented among key worker roles)having to use public transport moreliving in overcrowded and multigenerational households morenot being given appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment) at work. In all of these areas, most BME groups are more likely to be over-exposed and under-protected compared with their white British counterparts.
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Content ArticleThis update from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) provides the latest data and analysis related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its impact on deaths and health data.
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Content ArticleIn this briefing The Health Foundation provides an overview of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social care in England. In part 1 they describe how the pandemic unfolded in the social care sector from March until June 2020, and in part 2 they examine the factors that contributed to the scale and severity of outbreaks in care homes. In part 3 they attempt to quantify the disruption to health and social care access from February until the end of April 2020.
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Content ArticleHospital-acquired pneumonia, whether device associated or not, is the number one hospital-acquired infection in the United States and a major threat to the safety of patients. This blog by Patient Safety Movement discusses how engaging nurses in quality improvement around mouth care reduces ventilator acquired pneumonias.
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- ICU/ ITU/ HDU
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Content Article
The cost of uncoordinated responses to COVID-19
lzipperer posted an article in Data, research and statistics
This blog post from Aral and Eckles highlights a study done at the Social Analytics Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) examining the impact of the uncoordinated responses to COVID-19 across the United States. The blog links to the original study and other related materials.- Posted
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News Article
Most people in England to be offered flu vaccine
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
Most people in England, about 30 million, are to be offered a free flu vaccine this year, the government says. It is to prepare for a winter that could see the annual flu season coincide with a surge in coronavirus. The traditional flu programme will include all over-50s for the first time, as well anyone on the shielding list and the people they live with. Also for the first time, children in their first year of secondary school will all be offered the vaccine. Plans for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have not yet been announced. Read full article here -
Content ArticleAntibiotics are key to modern medicine and treatment. Many procedures and treatments developed over recent years, such as chemotherapy, organ transplants and other major surgery, rely on antibiotics to prevent infections. They are also crucial in treating some forms of pneumonia and other illnesses. However, an increasing number of common infections are becoming resistant to the drugs designed to treat them. This is called antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is part of the fight against AMR. The purpose of AMS is to ensure ‘the right antibiotic for the right patient, at the right time, with the right dose, and the right route, causing the least harm to the patient and future patients’. AMS programmes might include improving prescribing of antibiotics, promoting data collection and raising public awareness of AMR.
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News Article
‘Almost half of healthcare workers had covid-19’ at some hospitals
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Almost half of healthcare workers at some hospitals were infected with COVID-19 during the height of the first wave, the director of a biomedical research centre has told MPs. Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, told MPs today that COVID-19 had infected up to 45% of healthcare workers during ”the height of the pandemic” at some hospitals, according to the centre’s research. Chief medical officer Chris Whitty also told the Health and Social Care Committee that there was more evidence that COVID-19 was transmitted between staff, rather than from patients to staff, and there was “just as much risk as people being in their break rooms than on wards”. Sir Paul told MPs the Francis Crick Institute contacted Downing Street in March and wrote to health secretary Matt Hancock in April to emphasise the importance of regular systematic testing for all healthcare workers as it was “quite clear” that those without symptoms were likely to be transmitting the disease. He said hospital staff “were infecting their colleagues, they were infecting their patients, yet they were not being tested systematically.” Read full story Source: HSJ, 21 July 2020- Posted
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News Article
Trust with record covid deaths asks NHSE for help
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The hospital trust which has been recording the largest number of covid deaths for several weeks has asked NHS England and NHS Improvement for help with infection control. East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust is also getting help from the Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group, including a senior infection control and prevention nurse who is now working with the trust. It has seen persistently high numbers of covid deaths at a time when most other trusts have seen them dwindle to nothing or almost nothing. In the week to 10 July, it had 18 deaths – 9.5% of the national total. In a statement to HSJ yesterday the trust said it had “recently asked for support from NHS England and NHS Improvement to strengthen our infection prevention and control resource”. It said it had also introduced “a strict ‘front door’ policy, limiting the number of people on site, taking temperature checks before people enter the building, providing face masks and hand washing facilities”; begun testing asymptomatic staff; and regularly testing asymptomatic patients. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 July 2020- Posted
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Content Article
The group B Strep i-learn module
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Maternity
Group B Strep can be a complex topic, with some confusion about what exactly is the latest guidelines on testing, risk factors, recommended antibiotics, and the impact (if any) of GBS on homebirths, waterbirths, breastfeeding, and much more.This is why Group B Strep Support and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) have produced an evidence-based group B Strep i-learn module.The group B Strep i-learn module focuses on the current UK guidelines for preventing group B Strep infection in newborn babies and on signs of these infections in babies. It will refresh clinician knowledge of the national guidelines, and help you tackle the FAQs you get from expectant and new parents.Follow the link below to find out how to sign up.- Posted
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Content ArticleOut-patient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT) is now a routine part of care in the UK following demonstration that it is safe and effective for patients and OPAT is now being actively promoted as part of the UK government’s stewardship initiatives. NHS North Tees and Hartlepool share their experience of redesigning their OPAT services. See the attachment below for details on the project.
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News Article
Spain's coronavirus antibodies study adds evidence against herd immunity
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Spain's large-scale study on the coronavirus indicates just 5% of its population has developed antibodies, strengthening evidence that a so-called herd immunity to COVID-19 is "unachievable," the medical journal the Lancet reported on Monday. The findings show that 95% of Spain's population remains susceptible to the virus. Herd immunity is achieved when enough of a population has become infected with a virus or bacteria – or vaccinated against it – to stop its circulation. The European Center for Disease Control told CNN that Spain's research, on a nationwide representative sample of more than 61,000 participants, appears to be the largest study to date among a dozen serological studies on the coronavirus undertaken by European nations. "In light of these findings, any proposed approach to achieve herd immunity through natural infection is not only highly unethical, but also unachievable," said the Lancet's commentary authors, Isabella Eckerle, head of the Geneva Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases, and Benjamin Meyer, a virologist at the University of Geneva. Read full story Source: CNN, 6 July 2020 -
News Article
Patients endangered by ‘hazardous’ use of PPE
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The “hazardous” use of personal protective equipment (PPE) required because of COVID-19 is contributing to the spread of secondary infections in intensive care units and other hospital settings, a leading expert has told HSJ. Infection Prevention Society vice president Professor Jennie Wilson, said: “[PPE] has been used to protect the staff, but the way it has been used has increased the risk of transmission between patients. The widespread use of PPE particularly in critical care environments has exacerbated the problem (of patient to patient transmission). Unless we tackle the approach to PPE we will continue to see this major risk of transmission of infections between patients.” Professor Wilson warned this was espeically worrying as the risk includes spreading antibiotic resistant infections among ICU patients. There is increasing concern these are developing more often in covid patients due to widespread use of broad spectrum antibiotics in the early days of the pandemic, she added. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 July 2020- Posted
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Content ArticleThis interview is part of the hub's 'Frontline insights during the pandemic' series where Martin Hogan interviews healthcare professionals from various specialties to capture their experience and insight during the coronavirus pandemic. Here Martin interviews an oral surgeon who has been in the post for a year in a trust that covers two sites in the West Country.
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Content ArticleThe perspective of Megha Prasad, a New York cardiologist leading a COVID-19 infections disease service, discusses leadership qualities of being available, communication, adaptability, humility and gratitude as key to effective leadership during challenging times.
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News Article
'Unacceptable' drop in care at Kettering home with 12 COVID-19 deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A dramatic collapse in standards at a care home where a dozen people died from COVID-19 has been revealed by inspectors who discovered hungry and thirsty residents living with infected wounds in filthy conditions. Infection control was inadequate, residents with dementia were left only partially dressed and one family complained of finding their loved one smeared in dried faeces at Temple Court care home in Kettering, which is operated by Amicura, a branch of Minster Care which runs more than 70 homes in the UK. Amicura said the home had been “completely overwhelmed” by COVID-19 infections which it said arrived with 15 patients discharged from hospitals in the second half of March. They were overrun,” one relative told the inspectors. “They were short-staffed and then with the influx of people, they couldn’t cope.” Residents’ wounds had become necrotic and infected, requiring hospital treatment and several people had experienced falls, some of which resulted in injuries needing hospital treatment, the inspectors found. The conditions discovered by the Care Quality Commission on 12-13 May were so poor that surviving residents were moved out immediately. The CQC report into the service, published on Friday, found multiple breaches of the health and social care act. Northamptonshire police have launched an investigation to identify whether any offences may have been committed. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 June 2020- Posted
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News Article
NHS test and trace unable to reach almost 30% of people with COVID-19
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government’s contact-tracing programme failed to reach almost 30% of people who tested positive for the coronavirus in England last week, the latest figures show. Only 70% of the 6,923 people who tested positive for COVID-19 during the period were reached by NHS Test and Trace staff, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. This means that 2,054 people with the virus – and potentially thousands of their close contacts – could not be traced by the new system. The fact that one in four people with the virus had not been reached since the launch was “surprising and worrying”, said Keith Neal, emeritus professor of the epidemiology of infectious diseases at the University of Nottingham. Read full story Source: The Independent, 26 June 2020 -
News Article
Coronavirus: UK must prepare for second virus wave says health leaders
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Health leaders are calling for an urgent review to determine whether the UK is properly prepared for the "real risk" of a second wave of coronavirus. In an open letter published in the BMJ, ministers were warned that urgent action would be needed to prevent further loss of life. The presidents of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons, Nursing, Physicians, and GPs all signed the letter. It comes after Boris Johnson announced sweeping changes to England's lockdown. Following the prime minister's announcement, health leaders called for a "rapid and forward-looking assessment" of how prepared the UK would be for a new outbreak of the virus. "While the future shape of the pandemic in the UK is hard to predict, the available evidence indicates that local flare-ups are increasingly likely and a second wave a real risk," they wrote in the letter. "Many elements of the infrastructure needed to contain the virus are beginning to be put in place, but substantial challenges remain." The authors of the letter, also signed by the chair of the British Medical Association, urged ministers to set up a cross-party group with a "constructive, non-partisan, four nations approach", tasked with developing practical recommendations. "The review should not be about looking back or attributing blame," they said, and instead should focus on "areas of weakness where action is needed urgently to prevent further loss of life and restore the economy as fully and as quickly as possible". Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 June 2020 -
Content Article
COVID-19 has exposed the weak safety culture in medicine
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
"Many things will change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them has to be the safety culture in medicine. Those in positions of authority must stop paying lip service to it and instead treat frontline workers as equal partners in the drive to improve safety, not as expendable infantry who can be bullied over the top with impunity or scapegoated ‘pour encourager les autres'", says Dr David Berger, a remote hospital doctor in Northern Australia. In this blog, David discusses how a robust, modern safety culture involves the closest possible partnership between management and frontline workers, where concerns can be shared freely, cooperation is total and where all interested parties must agree that the best possible system is in place. -
News Article
Two hospitals see 60 percent of new covid cases caught on the wards
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than 60% of new covid cases diagnosed at two hospitals in the Midlands in recent days were caught at least two weeks after the patient was admitted — suggesting there may be particular problems with the virus spreading on their wards. Northamptonshire is also still grappling with larger numbers of covid cases in hospital, in contrast to most of England. Its NHS organisations have said they do not know the cause of its ongoing problems. But the large share of cases diagnosed among patients who have been in hospital for at least 15 days – classed by NHS England as definitely “healthcare associated” – indicate that problems controlling the spread within the hospitals may be playing a significant part, rather than the outbreaks in the community. There has been major national concern about in-hospital spread of the virus in recent weeks, with the government introducing new mandatory controls on Friday. Read full story Source: HSJ, 11 June 2020