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Found 110 results
  1. News Article
    The ‘optimal layout’ for an isolation room to contain the spread of Covid has been created following tests at a London hospital. The room was designed by researchers at Imperial College London to reduce the risk of infection for health care staff as far as possible. Researchers used a state-of-the-art fluid model to simulate the transmission of the virus within an isolation room at the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, west London. They found that the area of highest risk of infection is above a patient’s bed at a height of 0.7 to two metres, where the highest concentration of Covid is found. After the virus is expelled from a patient’s mouth, the research team explained that it gets driven vertically by wind forces within the room. The research, published in the journal Physics of Fluids, is based on data collected from the room during a Covid patient’s stay. The work centred on the location of the room’s air extractor and filtration rates, the location of the bed, and the health and safety of the hospital staff working within the area. Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 February 2023
  2. News Article
    Six wards in a busy London Hospital, added at a cost of £24 billion during the pandemic, are lying empty because the builders did not install sprinklers. With the NHS in crisis, the Royal London Hospital in east London, has had to mothball the space, which is large enough to take 155 intensive care beds, while officials work out what to do with it. They have no patients in it since last May. Source: The Sunday Times, 29 January 2023 Shared by Shaun Lintern on Twitter
  3. News Article
    Thousands of extra hospital beds and hundreds of ambulances will be rolled out in England this year in a bid to tackle the long emergency care delays. The 5,000 new beds will boost capacity by 5%, while the ambulance fleet will increase by 10% with 800 new vehicles. Details of the £1bn investment will be set out later in a joint government and NHS England two-year blueprint. Questions have also been raised about how the extra resources will be staffed - 1 in 10 posts in the NHS is vacant. The government believes the measures, which will be introduced from April, will help the NHS to start getting closer to its waiting time targets. It has set goals that by March 2024: 76% of A&E patients will be dealt with in four hours. Currently fewer than 70% are. The official target is 95% An average response time of 30 minutes for emergency calls such as heart attacks and strokes. In December patients waited over 90. The official target is 18. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said cutting NHS waiting times was one of his five main priorities. Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 January 2023
  4. News Article
    A major London trust has been criticised for ‘underplaying’ the problems caused by a ‘catastrophic’ IT outage, a new report has revealed. The Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust report also noted one patient suffered “moderate harm” and several others “low” level harm after last July’s incident, which was caused by a combination of a heatwave and ageing infrastructure. However, the trust said there was no evidence the “underplaying” of issues was deliberate. The report identified one incident of “moderate” patient harm, in which a patient was unable to receive a pancreas transplant due to staff being unable to safely monitor critical observations. The patient has since had a successful operation, the trust’s report stated. Another 20 “low” harm incidents were reported, which included delays in patients receiving their test results and/or medicines, while the report added the trust could not rule out that “further harm events may be identified” amidst an ongoing harm review. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 27 January 2023
  5. News Article
    A construction firm has been ordered to pay £5m after fire and electrical safety defects were found at one of the NHS’s largest cancer centres. Lendlease was responsible for the design and build of the Bexley Wing at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, under a private finance initiative deal nearly 20 years ago. The building houses Leeds Cancer Centre, one of the largest in the country, and some other services. It is run by Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. Concerns were later raised over fire and electrical safety in the plant room, where the building’s power supply is situated, according to a ruling published by the technology and construction court. This included a lack of fire separation between the primary and secondary source of power, which risked a single incident disabling them both. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 January 2023
  6. News Article
    The Government has insisted that plans to build 48 ‘new’ hospitals by 2030 will still go ahead, despite widespread concerns over timelines and increasing construction costs. In its 2019 manifesto, the Conservative Party announced the New Hospitals Programme, a pledge to build 48 new hospitals across the country, including eight schemes that had been announced by previous governments. However, since then, the number has been seemingly interchangeable, with the Government, in a response to questions from BBH, referring to just 40 developments in total, even though the GM Government website clearly mentions 48. And, to date, just two of those projects have been completed, while only five others are under construction. The remaining schemes are still in the planning or approval stages, and this, combined with rising inflation and construction costs and a shortage of building materials, has led to concerns that they will not go ahead. Read full story Source: Building Better Healthcare, 28 November 2022
  7. News Article
    All new hospitals built in England must have only single patient rooms, health infrastructure chiefs have confirmed, requiring an overhaul of many trusts’ current proposals. Leaders of the New Hospitals Programme said the NHS needed to be “brave”, with the move marking an end for multi-bed bay wards and representing a major change in hospital design. Previously, NHS trusts were expected to consider a minimum of 50% single rooms when refurbishing or building new facilities, but HSJ revealed in September that officials were considering a 100 per cent requirement. Natalie Forrest, senior responsible officer for NHP, said England was “behind the times” on single patient rooms. She said: “If we really want to look for evidence of why patients should have the ability to sleep in privacy and choose to socialise in social areas… we need not look very far. Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Europe, the US – where they wouldn’t dream of building a hospital that didn’t provide single bedroom occupancy.” Ms Forrest, who is also a nurse, acknowledged an “anxiety” among NHS staff that they can’t care for patients in single rooms as well, and stressed the need to combine them with “digital technology”. “I have said we need to be brave and take on new challenges, and this is one of those brave decisions the NHS needs to stand up and move forward with.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 December 2022
  8. News Article
    English hospitals have increased emergency fuel supplies and put staff on standby to postpone operations and switch off X-ray scanners amid heightened concerns over energy provision this winter. NHS hospital trusts across England have put their power plans under the microscope as they look to protect patients from potential outages for lifesaving equipment. Responses to freedom of information requests to 63 NHS trusts revealed that 41 are re-examining their plans for a loss of power for this winter. A further 10 trusts said they conducted routine reviews of their business continuity plans this year, while 12 had not revised their strategies. National Grid warned in October that, in extreme circumstances, it would be forced to enact planned three-hour power cuts with a days’ notice. Major hospitals are exempt from this system, called rota disconnection, however businesses and the government have studied their plans for a complete power failure on the network. Despite the pressure on the NHS budgets, the responses show that most hospitals have up-to-date plans and backup generators to ensure lives are not lost due to lack of power. A quarter of hospital trusts said they were able to run indefinitely on backup diesel generator power, providing they had access to fuel supplies. Just over 10% said they could run on backup power for 10 days. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 December 2022
  9. News Article
    Dilapidated mental health facilities across the country are in need of £677m worth of repairs to fix sewerage issues, collapsing roofs and wards that deprive patients of their dignity, The Independent has been told. An NHS analysis of the government’s flagship programme to build 40 hospitals, seen by The Independent, shows ministers have failed in their promise of “parity” for mental health services as issues are not addressed. NHS trust and psychiatry leaders warned that the out-of-date buildings are putting patients at risk and urged the government to include six mental health hospitals within its next round of improvements. Data analysis by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, shared with The Independent, found that the cost of fixing “high and significant” risks in mental health and learning disability hospitals has rocketed from £92m in 2019-20 to £186m in 2021-22 – far higher than the 16 per cent increase in costs seen in acute hospitals. These are risks that must be fixed to avoid “catastrophic” failure or safety problems that could result in serious injury. Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive at NHS Providers, said patients and staff are at risk because so many buildings aren’t fit for purpose, and warned that things will get worse until mental health trusts get the capital funding they need. Read full story Source: The Independent, 11 December 2022
  10. News Article
    Multiple trusts have expressed disappointment at being overlooked in the government’s latest announcement on the ‘40 new hospitals’ programme. In 2021, ministers expanded the new hospitals programme by inviting bids for another eight projects to be funded nationally. However, last week they confirmed that just five new bids – all acute hospitals with unsafe roof plank structures – had been accepted. Multiple mental health trusts have also expressed frustration, after just one new mental health scheme has been included in the list of 40 “new” hospitals, although the government is counting three which were already in progress outside the programme. Joe Rafferty, chief executive of Mersey Care, has compared a lack of investment into mental health estate to “institutionalised discrimination”. Bradford District Care said it was “very disappointing” to find out its bid to replace “wholly unsuitable” wards designed in the 1950s had not been accepted, adding: “Still no parity for mental health in the total NHP funding allocation so far.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 31 May 2023
  11. News Article
    The health secretary is set to signal a major delay to one of the headline promises in the last Conservative manifesto by suggesting the delivery of 40 new hospitals in England is likely to be pushed back until after 2030. In a move that will spark anger among MPs who wanted “spades in the ground” before the next election, government sources said Steve Barclay would make the announcement today. The pledge to build and fund “40 new hospitals over the next 10 years” was one of the major headlines of Boris Johnson’s pitch to the electorate in 2019. Sources indicated the government had been ready to make the announcement about the probable delay for some time, but it was repeatedly pushed back because of fears about a backlash from Tory MPs. Rundown NHS hospitals have become a danger to patients, warn health chiefs Read full story Source: The Guardian, 25 May 2023
  12. News Article
    Patients, doctors and nurses are enduring constant ward closures and flooding in “dilapidated and unpleasant” buildings because a new hospital promised by the government has still not been delivered, one of its most senior medics has warned. Patient safety could soon be at risk unless the replacement for St Helier Hospital, in south London, is finally confirmed by ministers, according to the outgoing chief medical officer of its NHS trust. Some of the buildings pre-date the NHS, while wards have been shut due to sinking foundations. Writing in the Observer, Dr Ruth Charlton, the chief medical officer of Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, warns: “Right now, we are delivering safe care – but it’s not easy in such a dilapidated and unpleasant environment, and I fear we won’t be able to provide the level of care we’d like to – or should be – for much longer,” she writes. “Our patients and our staff deserve so much better than this current state – where wards are being shut down because the foundations are sinking, and floods and leaks are a certainty every winter. “Every day we wait costs money, and each year we have to spend more and more on updating our old, rundown buildings – diverting scarce resources from the front line … there’s no other option. We must progress our plans to build our new hospital and make improvements to our existing sites.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 May 2023
  13. News Article
    A fifth of UK hospitals were forced to cancel operations during the three days in July last year when temperatures soared, research suggests. The findings, published in a letter to the British Journal of Surgery, are based on surveys from surgeons, anaesthetists and critical care doctors working during the heatwave from July 16-19 2022, when temperatures reached as high as 40C in some parts of the country. The researchers received 271 responses from 140 UK hospitals – with one in five (18.5%) reporting elective surgeries being cancelled due to the heatwave. The respondents also said surgical services were poorly prepared for heatwaves, with 41% of operating theatres having no means to control ambient temperature, while more than a third (35.4%) reported making changes to maintain routine surgical activity during the period. These include delayed discharge of high-risk patients, changes to surgical teams, selecting lower-risk patients to have surgery, and restricting surgical activity to day cases. Other measures included longer staff breaks, extra fluids to patients, and surgeries earlier in the morning when temperatures were lower. Read full story Source: The Independent, 23 March 2023
  14. News Article
    A trust has called for ministers to make an ‘urgent’ decision on funding for a new hospital, as a raft of maintenance problems such as leaking roofs and overflowing sewage pipes are hampering efforts to tackle waiting list backlogs. There was a surge in estates’ incidents reported by Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust last year — to an average of nearly 12 each week — and the Essex trust is calling for clarity on whether it will be given the green light to build a new hospital. The trust is one of eight given priority status under the government’s new hospitals programme, but there has been speculation in recent weeks the programme could be scaled back as departments are told to find spending cuts. Michael Meredith, estates director at Princess Alexandra Hospital, said patients still received good care, but admitted the problems – which include sewage overflow, outdated electrics and theatre roofs leaking – were “absolutely” affecting the hospital’s ability to recover elective care. He told HSJ: “It means you have to cancel some of your elective work. And at the moment that is critical, because we know [we’ve] got a long waiting list, we know we need to recover, we know we’ve got people waiting longer than they need to… “That has a real impact on our staff morale, and a real impact on patients waiting to be seen.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 November 2022
  15. News Article
    New hospitals may be required to have single patient rooms only, HSJ has revealed Chiefs at the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) are assessing whether to include a requirement for 100% single rooms in the new facilities, in what would be a major change for NHS hospital design. It comes a year after NHS England medical director Stephen Powis said single patient rooms should be “the default” in hospitals as this would improve infection control and patient flow. Currently, the Department of Health and Social Care expects hospitals to consider a minimum of 50% single rooms when refurbishing or building new sites. HSJ understands the NHP is working with the NHS’ technical standards team on how many single rooms will be required in the new hospitals the government has committed to building by 2030. The teams are considering recommending the percentage to be raised from 50% to 100%. The work is part of efforts to standardise design across the NHP projects and so therefore better control costs. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 30 September 2022
  16. News Article
    Dangerous roofs that could collapse at any time at hospitals across England will not be fixed until 2035, NHS bosses have admitted. The disclosure came in NHS England’s response to a freedom of information request from the Liberal Democrats about hospitals that have roofs at risk of falling down on to staff, patients and equipment. One of the hospitals used by Liz Truss’s constituents, the Queen Elizabeth in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, is at joint highest risk, with four dangerous roofs. The roofs are built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a lightweight, cheaper form of material that one hospital boss has called “a ticking timebomb”. Some hospital managers are so worried that their RAAC roofs could crash down without warning that they have had to install hundreds of steel props to hold them up. Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, a hospitals group, said: “The prime minister acknowledged during the leadership contest that her own local hospital is falling apart and is being held up by stilts. Yet her government has not yet signalled any intention to give the NHS the urgent capital investment it needs to update its buildings and estates. The Department of Health and Social Care said it was “committed to urgently addressing any risks to patient and staff safety”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 28 September 2022
  17. Content Article
    Appropriate capital funding is needed to bring long neglected parts of the NHS estate into the 21st century for staff and patients. From fixing leaking roofs and broken boilers, to transforming estates to make them fully digitised and sustainable, and enhancing diagnostic capacity, capital investment has the potential to transform the NHS – improving patients’ experience and making it more efficient and effective. This report from NHS Providers explores the state of capital funding and allocations across the NHS provider sector and how trusts can access capital. It highlights the extent of the dilapidated estate and make the case for strategic capital investment at both the system and national level to drive productivity, improve patient care, and enable much-needed transformation across the NHS.
  18. News Article
    NHS England has warned trusts not to compromise on fire safety when using corridor spaces to treat patients, amid growing pressure to accommodate more patients. It comes as emergency departments face increasing pressure from national and regional officials to find more space for patients this winter – even when they are deemed full to capacity – to reduce ambulance handover delays. The guidance, issued earlier this month, says trusts should complete new fire safety risk assessments before bringing any new part of a hospital into use for patient care, or extending the capacity of an existing area. It also said trusts have a legal duty to ensure escape routes are kept clear. It added: “As we continue to find extra capacity in the estate by newly using, or re-using, parts of hospitals for patient treatment or care, or increasing the capacity of existing areas, we would like to remind you of how any change of use of areas may affect fire safety requirements. “Under no circumstances must fire compliance be compromised on sites which have been changed.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 29 November 2022
  19. News Article
    A coroner has written to the health secretary warning a lack of guidance around a bacteria that could contaminate new hospitals' water supply may lead to future deaths. It follows inquests into the deaths of Anne Martinez, 65, and Karen Starling, 54, who died a year after undergoing double lung transplants at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge in 2019. Both were exposed to Mycobacterium abscessus, likely to have come from the site's water supply. The coroner said there was evidence the risks of similar contamination was "especially acute for new hospitals". In a prevention of future deaths report, external, Keith Morton KC, assistant coroner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said 34 people had contracted the bacteria at the hospital since it opened at its new site in 2019. He said the bacteria "poses a risk of death to those who are immuno-suppressed" and there was a "lack of understanding" about how it entered the water system. There was "no guidance on the identification and control" of mycobacterium abscesses, the coroner said. Mr Morton said documentation on safe water in hospitals needed "urgent review and amendment". "Consideration needs to be given to whether special or additional measures are required in respect of the design, installation, commissioning and operation of hospital water systems in new hospitals," he said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 November 2022
  20. News Article
    Patients have been asking to go to other hospitals rather than one where the ageing roof is being held up by more than 2,400 wooden and steel posts. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn has already had to close four of its seven operating theatres because of concerns the ceiling could collapse. Alex Stewart, head of Healthwatch Norfolk, said some pregnant women have asked to go to other hospitals. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) opened in 1980, one of seven hospitals built using a material called reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). The material has serious weaknesses and is deteriorating, with uncertainty over its structural integrity leading to more than £100m being spent this financial year on safety measures across the affected sites. Mr Stewart told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think people are very frustrated, they're well aware that the hospital staff inspect the hospital on a daily basis, several times a day. "That said, we are aware of patients, for example, who are giving birth, who have asked to go to other hospitals because they're scared in case the roof might fall in on them." The hospital's interim chief executive, Alice Webster, said while four theatres have had to be closed, "potentially" there could be problems with the ceilings in the others. "We continue to monitor it on a daily basis," she said. "We're making sure our theatres are functioning longer, we're functioning at weekends and trying to manage the waiting lists that way." She added: "If we don't get a new hospital we will have to review all the services that we currently provide, but we won't be able to provide all the services that we currently do." Read full story Source: BBC News, 13 November 2022
  21. News Article
    A health visitor wrote to housing officials expressing concern about conditions in a rented flat months before a two-year-old died after his exposure to mould. An inquest in Rochdale is investigating the death of toddler Awaab Ishak who lived with his mother and father in a one-bedroom housing estate flat managed by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH). Awaab’s father, Faisal Abdullah, first reported the damp and mould in autumn 2017, a year before the birth of his son. He made numerous complaints – phoning and emailing – and requested re-housing. In December 2020 Awaab developed flu-like symptoms and had difficulty breathing. He was given hospital treatment and then discharged. Two days later his condition at home worsened and he was seen at Rochdale urgent care centre where he was found to be in respiratory failure. He was transferred to Royal Oldham hospital where, upon arrival, he was in cardiac arrest and died. It was just a week after his second birthday. A pathologist told the inquest that the child’s throat was swollen to an extent it would compromise breathing. Exposure to fungi was the most plausible explanation for the inflammation. Lawyers for the family say the inquest will consider a number of matters including concerns about mould and damp and how they were dealt with. It will also look at the sharing of information between agencies and how the family’s cultural and language requirements were taken into account. Officials from RBH have yet to give evidence at the inquest but a statement was provided to the coroner on Tuesday in which RBH admits it “should have taken responsibility for the mould issues and undertaken a more proactive response”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 8 November 2022
  22. News Article
    Oxygen supplies at a Hertfordshire hospital inundated with coronavirus patients became so precarious last week that officials considered how to decide who should receive the gas and who should miss out and likely die, the Guardian understands. The oxygen system at Watford general hospital came close to breaking point on Saturday, when a critical incident was declared and staff had to tell the public not to come to the hospital. Some patients were moved out to prevent the vital system failing. A senior clinician said: “They were [consulting] the hospital ethics committee every day and considering who they were not going to oxygenate and ventilate if they needed it, and making decisions about who would be triaged to not have oxygen and die.” Read full story Source: Guardian, 5 April 2020
  23. News Article
    Patient safety is at risk in “crumbling” NHS mental health hospitals starved of the money needed to improve dilapidated buildings, new data has revealed. Hundreds of vulnerable mentally ill patients are still being cared for in 350 old dormitory-style wards, 20 years after the NHS was told to provide all patients with en-suite rooms. A lack of funding to refurbish hospitals has also meant too many wards still have ligature points that patients can use to try to harm themselves. NHS leaders said the lack of cash from the government meant they could not deal with warnings issued by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the sector’s watchdog. A survey of mental health trust leaders by NHS Providers has now found bosses are worried the state of psychiatric wards is undermining their ability to keep patients safe. Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 February 2020
  24. News Article
    A doctor and mother of two with just months left to live has warned of a “hidden epidemic” of asbestos-related cancers among NHS staff and patients because hospitals have failed to properly handle the toxic material. Kate Richmond, 44, has spoken out to raise awareness after she won a legal case against the NHS for negligently exposing her to asbestos while she was working as a medical student and junior doctor. An investigation by The Independent has learnt there have been 13 prosecutions linked to NHS breaches of regulations for the handling of asbestos since 2010, while 381 compensation claims have been made by NHS staff for work-related diseases, including exposure to asbestos, since 2013, costing the health service more than £26m. According to data from the Health and Safety Executive, between 2011 and 2017, a total of 128 people working in health and social care roles died from mesothelioma, the same asbestos-related cancer which is killing Kate Richmond. She described how maintenance staff removed asbestos ceiling tiles with no protective measures, allowing dust and debris to fall on to wards where patients were in their beds and staff were working. Managers at the Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry failed to heed warnings by workers that they were putting people at risk. Read full story Source: The Independent, 9 February 2020
  25. News Article
    Children’s cancer services in south London are to be reconfigured after a new review confirmed they represented an “inherent geographical risk to patient safety” — following HSJ revelations last year of how serious concerns had been “buried” by senior leaders. Sir Mike Richards’ independent review was commissioned after HSJ revealed a 2015 report linking fragmented London services to poor quality care had not been addressed, and clinicians were facing pressure to soften recommendations which would have required them to change. The review, published in conjunction with Thursday’s NHS England board meeting, recommended services at two sites should be redesigned as soon as possible to improve patient experience. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 31 January 2020
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