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News ArticleChildren with mental health problems are dying because of failings in NHS treatment, coroners across England have said in what psychiatrists and campaigners have called “deeply concerning” findings. In the last five years coroners have issued reports to prevent future deaths in at least 14 cases in which under-18s have died while being treated by children’s and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). The most common issues that arise are delays in treatment and a lack of support in helping patients transition to adult services when they turn 18. Coroners issue reports to prevent future deaths in extreme cases when it is decided that if changes are not made then another person could die. Dr Elaine Lockhart, the chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ faculty of child and adolescent psychiatry, said the findings were “deeply concerning” and every death was a tragedy. She said there were too often lengthy delays and services were under strain as demand rises and the NHS faces workforce shortages. “In child and adolescent mental health services in England, 15% of consultant psychiatrist posts are vacant,” Lockhart said, calling for more support, investment and planning to grow staff levels. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 February 2022
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News Article
Improving cancer care a huge challenge post-pandemic
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Improving cancer care will be a huge challenge, ministers are being warned as they promise a new 10-year strategy for England. Figures suggest there have been 34,000 fewer diagnoses since Covid hit - 50,000 if you include the whole UK. It risks an increasing number of late diagnoses which reduces the chances of survival, cancer charities said. It comes as the government is promising to invest in new technologies and equipment to spot cancer quicker. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the new "war on cancer" strategy will be published later this year. "It will take a far-reaching look at how we want cancer care to be in 2032. Looking at all stages from prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and vaccines," he said. Mr Javid pointed out the NHS was already taking steps, including evaluating new blood tests to spot cancers early and opening a network of testing centres. Lynda Thomas, of Macmillan Cancer Support, said given the impact of the pandemic people with cancer needed "support more than ever". "We have been sounding the alarm for a long time," she added. But she said while improving diagnosis and treatment was crucial, it was like "building sandcastles while the tide comes" without extra staff to tackle the backlogs and demand for care. Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 February 2022 -
News Article
Number of patients 'medically fit' to leave hospital increases
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The number of patients in hospitals who are ‘medically fit’ to leave has increased in January, despite NHS England targets for trusts to dramatically reduce the numbers. Internal data seen by HSJ suggests there were an average of 12,819 patients who no longer met the ‘criteria to reside’ in NHS hospitals in the week to January 23 – up from around 10,500 before the Christmas period. Last month, NHS England told local systems to dramatically reduce their numbers of medically fit patients who remained in hospital, as they aimed to free up beds amid a surge in covid-19 admissions fuelled by the omicron wave. It told local leaders “a significant proportion of discharge delays are within the gift of hospitals to solve”. The message was reiterated by NHSE’s regional teams at the start of January, with systems told to reduce their numbers of medically fit patients by between 30 and 50 per cent. Yet the proportion of ‘medically fit’ for discharge patients occupying NHS general, acute or critical care beds has also been rising, from around 12% in December to around 14% in mid-January. Delayed discharges are frequently cited as the main cause of long delays for patients being admitted through hospitals’ emergency departments, which have significantly worsened in recent months. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 26 January 2022 -
News Article
NHS England plans dental ‘treatment blitz’ to tackle appointments backlog
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hundreds of thousands of dental patients in England are to be offered weekend and evening appointments under NHS plans to tackle the backlog exacerbated by the pandemic. More than 350,000 extra dental appointments are to be made available in February and March, NHS England said, with a new £50m funding pot aimed at fuelling a dentistry “treatment blitz”. However, senior dentistry sources said the cash was a “drop in the ocean”, with tens of millions of NHS appointments cancelled as a result of Covid-19 and the resulting backlog set to take years to clear. Some also expressed doubts about whether there would be enough staff to offer the additional appointments, since hundreds of dentists have quit the profession in the last year amid warnings that NHS dentistry is increasingly “hanging by a thread”. Millions of patients have struggled to access dental care since 2019. Some have spent weeks or months in pain as a result, and others believed they had no option but to conduct “DIY dentistry” while waiting for treatment, or felt coerced into “going private”. Under the new plans to tackle the backlog, NHS England said dentists involved in the scheme would “be paid more than a third on top of their normal sessional fee” for delivering care outside their core hours. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 25 January 2022 -
News Article
Severe shortage of nurses in UK children’s intensive care units
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Britain’s sickest children are being treated in intensive care units that are struggling with severe shortages of the specialist nurses needed to look after them, a report says. The shortages in the UK’s 30 paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) are so severe that healthcare assistants are covering the work of nurses in an attempt to ensure that staffing levels are maintained. Only one of the PICUs – at the James Cook University hospital in Middlesbrough – was found to have enough nurses to guarantee the standards of care expected. About 15,000 children and young people a year, often with life-threatening conditions, are cared for in PICUs. Clinical standards that prevail in PICUs require them to ensure that seven nurses are on duty for each bed in a 24-hour cycle. However, the report by the Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network (PICANet), a group of experts from Leicester and Leeds universities, found that 29 of the 30 had too few nurses to do that, and that all 30 had vacancies, sometimes large numbers of them. “Parents will find this extremely alarming”, said Patricia Marquis, the Royal College of Nursing’s England director. “Most people wouldn’t believe that only one paediatric intensive care unit across the whole UK has enough staff to function properly, but this is the reality of the workforce crisis. Key roles in specialist nursing teams are lying vacant for years.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 January 2022 -
News ArticleA “very tense” behind-the-scenes row over how quickly hospitals in England can be expected to reduce the massive backlog of surgery has broken out between NHS bosses and ministers. The dispute has delayed publication of the government’s “elective recovery plan”, which Downing Street had indicated would be part of Boris Johnson’s “Operation Red Meat” political fightback this week. No 10, the Treasury and Department of Health and Social Care are pressing NHS England to ensure that hospitals do as many operations as they can, as quickly as possible, in order to tackle the backlog, which now stands at a record 6 million patients. They want to impose “stretching and demanding” targets on hospitals, sources with knowledge of the discussions said. However, NHS trust bosses say the ongoing impact of treating patients sick with Covid, due to the current Omicron surge, longstanding gaps in their workforce, exhaustion at the frontline and record levels of staff sickness, mean they need time to get back to doing as much surgery as they did before the pandemic. The Treasury is said to be frustrated with NHS England and privately believes it is “foot-dragging” over the targets. NHS bosses for their part fear the plan is being driven by “political expediency”, given the growing concern at the sheer number of people facing long delays for care. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 January 2022
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News Article
Patients 'wait two years' for check-ups as dentists drop NHS work
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS dentistry is "hanging by a thread" with some patients facing two-year waits for check-ups, the British Dental Association has said. Department of Health data analysed by the BBC shows almost 1,000 dentists working in 2,500 roles across England and Wales left the NHS last year. One woman told how she had been in pain for more than a year while waiting to have root canal surgery. NHS England said patients who most needed care should be prioritised. Pamela Carr, 58, from Carlisle, has been looking for an NHS dentist to fix her root canal since November 2020. "I've become used to the pain," she said. "I can't afford the private care, and I've tried every practice within 30 miles. I phoned NHS England too." "They said there's nothing they can do because there are no NHS dentists. That was the end of the conversation." Clinical Commissioning Group North Cumbria, which covers the area, lost 4% of its dentists in the last year. The worst-affected area was NHS Portsmouth CCG, which lost 26% of its NHS dentists over 12 months. At least 10% of NHS dentists were lost in 28 other English CCGs. Read full story Source: BBC News, 19 January 2022 -
News Article
Yorkshire heart attack patient urged to take lift to York hospital
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An ambulance trust has apologised after a man having a heart attack said he was advised to get a lift to hospital or face a long wait. Graham Reagan said he was on the verge of collapsing when he finally got to York hospital after a lift from his son. Mr Reagan said he was concerned about the impact on patients with potentially life-threatening conditions. Speaking to BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire's Politics North programme, Mr Reagan described his experience as "scary". "I'd had indigestion, or so I thought, for a couple of days, and then on 17 December I went to bed early feeling rough," he said. In the early hours, Mr Reagan said the pains in his chest grew worse and he asked his wife to call for an ambulance. "I couldn't take it any more," he said. Mr Reagan, from Malton in North Yorkshire, said his wife was asked "can you get to hospital" as the nearest ambulance was about 20 to 30 miles away. "My wife doesn't drive, but fortunately my son was with us and he drove me to York hospital." On arrival Mr Reagan said they found the entrance to A&E had also been re-routed. "So, we then had to walk out of the hospital grounds and back in - by which time I'm collapsing," he added. He said staff at the hospital were "absolutely brilliant" and arranged for him to be transferred to Hull for treatment after a heart attack was confirmed. However, he said he was faced with a further 35-minute delay while he waited for an ambulance to take him. Mr Reagan said he wanted to share his experience to raise awareness. Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 January 2022 -
News ArticleThe number of Covid patients in hospitals in England and Scotland has continued to rise this week, as NHS England reached a deal with private hospitals to free up beds amid the outbreak of Omicron cases. Meanwhile, Covid staff absences in England rose to their highest level since the introduction of the vaccine. The number of NHS workers in England off sick because of Covid was up by 41% in the week to 2 January, according to the latest figures. Five health workers describe some of the challenges they are facing, including understaffing, waiting times and bed-blocking. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 14 January 2022
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News ArticleNHS England has encouraged trusts to consider taking legal action against patients who refuse to leave hospital beds when step-down care is made available. NHSE guidance sent to trusts late last year, seen by HSJ, advised clinicians that where people “with mental capacity” refuse to vacate a bed because they do not accept NHS-funded short-term care offers, the “local discharge choice policy” should be followed, which could involve legal action. The guidance said the process “may include seeking an order for possession of the hospital bed” under civil law, and that “appropriate formal notification of the process must be given to the person and their representatives/carers”. These legal powers were open to trusts prior to covid, but the memo from NHSE comes amid increasing pressure on trusts to improve discharge rates, as waits for emergency and elective care continue to soar. Helen Hughes, chief executive of Patient Safety Learning, said: “Given the current pressures posed by covid, it is understandable that the NHS is seeking to ensure that the hospital discharge process is as swift and effective as possible. “However, hospital discharges are complex processes and can potentially result in avoidable harm if patients are discharged before they are clinically ready. It only takes one element of this complex process failing to put a patient’s safety at risk. “We would be particularly concerned if patients and their carers were put under pressure to accept potentially unsafe discharge options due to the threat of possible legal action by an NHS trust.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 14 January 2022
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News Article
Record 6m people waiting for routine hospital treatment in England
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Just under 6 million people in England are now waiting for hospital treatment – a record high – as latest performance figures show how the NHS was struggling even before the Omicron Covid variant emerged. A total of 5,995,156 patients were on the waiting list for an operation in November, of whom more than 2 million had already waited longer than the maximum standard of 18 weeks for routine treatment. Figures published by the NHS underlined its growing inability to provide timely care. They also showed that more than 300,000 people have been waiting more than a year for surgery and that performance against the crucial four-hour A&E target is the worst ever. The figures led to warnings from the Health Foundation thinktank that the NHS was “being stretched to its limits” and from the Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Daisy Cooper that “patients are being catastrophically let down by this government’s woeful neglect of the NHS”. “With the NHS now in the thick of one of the most uniquely challenging periods in its history, unacceptably long waits for hospital care are becoming increasingly commonplace,” said Siva Anandaciva, the chief analyst at the King’s Fund. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 January 2022 -
News ArticleA trust has warned it could be forced to restrict maternity services due to a high midwife vacancy rate, and large numbers unvaccinated among the current staff. The government has mandated that all patient-facing NHS staff must have had two covid vaccination doses from 1 April — meaning they will need to have received their first dose by 3 February. If not, they can be redeployed to non patient-facing roles, or face dismissal. Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust’s board heard on Tuesday that the current numbers pose a “significant operational problem” amid efforts to encourage more staff to get both covid jabs before the government’s deadline. The board meeting was told that, of the trust’s 7,550 staff, approximately 1,300 workers – or 17.4% – do not have a vaccination recorded against them, with the areas of greatest concern being women’s and children’s health, geriatric services, the emergency departments and some clinical support services. At the board meeting, BHRUHT chief executive Matthew Trainer said: “The vacancy rate, plus the unvaccinated rate, would put us in quite a serious position. “At the minute, for example, the Queen’s Birth Centre [at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, east London], I don’t think, has been open since I got here. I couldn’t see any circumstances in which it would reopen if we lost another chunk of midwives, for the foreseeable future certainly, in terms of vaccination. “I think it would leave us in a position where we’d have to look at constraining services and focusing in on core [services], establishment being focused on the labour ward, looking at complex births and making sure we’re doing everything we possibly can to manage it as safely as possible.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 12 January 2022
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News Article
‘Low priority’ community cases to be deferred as staff redeployed
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS England has told local systems to defer ‘low priority’ cases across 11 community services, because of the pressures created by the omicron wave. NHSE has issued guidance for the prioritisation of the community health workforce “given the increasing pressures on the health system due to the omicron wave of COVID-19 this winter and the need to provide booster jabs as quickly as possible”. It is hoped the guidance will encourage the redeployment of community staff to help reduce the strain on acute services. Staff working in musculoskeletal services are being asked to deprioritise some low priority rehabilitation work, with patients enabled to self-manage at home. It adds: “Where possible, provide capacity to support other community resources focused on rehabilitation and recovery for those discharged from acute care and those whose functioning is deteriorating at home, and/or the administration of vaccines.” A host of other services have been advised to continue, but with “prioritised” waiting lists and a deferral of provision considered for “low priority cases” to “free up workforce capacity”, including children’s therapy interventions, children’s community paediatric services and audiology services for older adults. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 11 January 2022 -
News ArticleHospitals across Kent, Sussex and Surrey are being asked to discharge hundreds of patients who are well enough to leave by Friday. The head of NHS South East, Anne Eden, said the beds are needed to deal with an expected surge in admissions of people ill with the Omicron variant. The NHS nationally has agreed to a reduction of 30% of such patients based on the baseline figure of 13 December. South East hospitals are being asked to make a 50% reduction by 31 January. In a letter seen by the BBC, Ms Eden said: "This is in order to create the headroom to manage any further Covid pressures, with current modelling indicating a peak in Covid activity in mid-January." She wrote: "It is now critical that we redouble our efforts to discharge those patients who no longer require bedded care, to create capacity, improve flow and reduce the pressure on staff." Ms Eden said staff absences and the need to maintain delivery of critical care for patients mean the NHS "must continue to focus on creating the necessary capacity to meet demand". "Failure to do this will significantly increase the risk of a further rise in patient harm," she said. She said hospitals must work with partners, including social care providers, to achieve the reduction in the number of patients in hospital who were well enough to be discharged. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 January 2022
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News ArticleA trust has written to its registered workforce to reassure them of management support when delivering care in ‘extremely challenging circumstances’. Derbyshire Community Health Services Trust sent out a “statement of support for professionally registered colleagues”, in which it thanked them for their “continued efforts”, and explained how they would support staff from a “professional and regulatory perspective”, when delivering services that require “a high level of clinical knowledge and autonomous decision-making”. This week has seen NHS staff absences hit new highs – over 100,000 – and the military brought in to support care in London hospitals, in combination with very high community covid transmission rates and very busy acute trusts. The DCHST email, signed by executive director of nursing Michelle Bateman, executive medical director Ben Pearson and interim director of Allied Health Professionals Trish Bailey, said: “When services are at this high level of escalation it can mean that we are not always able to deliver care in the way we would like and that can challenge our professional values.” Helen Hughes, chief executive of charity Patient Safety Learning, said Derbyshire Community Healthcare’s message needed to be echoed by every trust in the country. “Without sufficient staffing resources, difficult decisions are required to prioritise care,” Ms Hughes said. “In some cases, delays in treatment as a result of these decisions could lead to avoidable harm.” She stressed it was “imperative” that future investigations into safety incidents “properly reflect the systemic nature of reasons for error or harm, not simply blaming staff for failures to provide safe care”. “Health professionals’ codes mean that they are not allowed to work outside their sphere of competence. But what if staff are being tacitly encouraged or required to work in an unsafe system? Staff need to be able to feel secure in raising any concerns they have, being listened to and being supported,” Ms Hughes added. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 10 January 2022
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News Article
Tory pledge to bolster GP surgery staff set to be broken, say health leaders
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A manifesto pledge to hire 26,000 extra health professionals to work in GP surgeries is set to be broken by the government, health leaders have warned, leaving family doctors straining under a heavier workload. About 9,500 of the promised physiotherapists, pharmacists, mental health therapists and other clinical staff so far have been recruited to help GPs and practice nurses. Senior doctors have warned that patients will pay the price for the slow delivery of extra personnel by facing persistently long waits for an appointment. The plan was to free up family doctors’ time by having physiotherapists see patients with sore backs, pharmacists undertaking medication reviews, counsellors supporting people with mental health problems and dieticians advising those with food-related problems. Those 26,000 staff, alongside the arrival of “6,000 more doctors in general practice” in a separate pledge, would help GPs and their teams offer 50m more consultations, the Conservatives said. But in November the health secretary, Sajid Javid, admitted that Johnson’s often-repeated 6,000 extra GPs pledge would be missed. “Whilst progress in meeting this target is better than the GP [recruitment] target, it’s still slow and very concerning that this could be another promise that won’t be met,” said Prof Matin Marshall, the chair of the RCGP. “The impact of not having enough staff in general practice is being felt acutely both by GPs and our team members who are working to their limits, and our patients, who are facing longer waits for the care they need. Meeting this [extra staff] target – and the GP target – will be vital to addressing this.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 January 2022 -
News Article
Trusts fall far short of NHSE discharge target
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS trusts have been unable to get anywhere close to the target for reducing delayed discharges set by NHS England last month ahead of the omicron wave. The latest NHSE data shows that, in the week beginning 27 December, there were on average 9,857 medically fit for discharge adult patients occupying hospital beds. This is just 836 fewer than the average of 10,693 in the week of 13 December. This was when NHSE told trusts to discharge at least half of their medically fit patients to free up beds ahead of a surge in Covid patients. The news follows ministers announcing £300m would be invested into the adult social care workforce to fund community placements to aid discharges. However, in the letter on 13 December, NHSE said “a significant proportion of discharge delays are within the gift of hospitals to solve”. Meanwhile, ambulance handover delays remained a near record high levels last week as the urgent and emergency care system showed clear signs of pressure, including massive demand on NHS 111. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 7 January 2022 -
News Article
Fix NHS staffing crisis to tackle waiting lists backlog, warn MPs
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A long-term plan to fix the staffing crisis in the NHS is needed to cut record waiting lists for treatment, the government is being warned. Currently, nearly six million people in England are waiting for routine operations and procedures - many of whom are in pain. A report from MPs says the government needs to address staff shortages - or NHS workers will quit. There have been repeated warnings over the length of hospital waiting lists in England. As of September 2021, a record 5.8 million patients were waiting for surgery - such as hip or knee replacements - with 300,000 waiting more than a year compared with just 1,600 before the pandemic. In the autumn Budget, the government announced an extra £5.9bn for the NHS in England to help clear the backlog. This was on top of another funding package in September to create an extra nine million checks, scans and operations. But in its report published today, the Commons health and social care select committee said the health service was hugely understaffed and was facing an "unquantifiable challenge" in tackling the backlog. Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary who now chairs the committee, said the NHS was short of 93,000 workers and there was "no sign of any plan to address this". He described the staffing crisis as "entirely predictable", adding: "The current wave of Omicron is exacerbating the problem, but we already had a serious staffing crisis, with a burnt-out workforce." "Far from tackling the backlog, the NHS will be able to deliver little more than day-to-day firefighting unless the government wakes up to the scale of the staffing crisis facing the NHS." Read full story Source: BBC News, 6 January 2022 -
News ArticleA health minister has asked NHS England to look into a stricken ambulance trust that is asking patients to get a lift to A&E. The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said staff should “consider asking the patient to be transported by friends or family.” See previous news story. NEAS medical director Dr Mathew Beattie said the service had “no option than to try to work differently” amid Covid staff shortages. However, Health Minister Gillian Keegan said she would ask NHS England to look into the situation. She told Sky News: "That is not what we have put in place at all. We have more ambulance crews in operation than we have ever had." “We also gave £55 million extra just for this period to cover staff and make sure we had increases in staff and staffing levels. "I've actually asked NHS England to look at that particular case because that doesn't sound to me like that's an acceptable approach. “People should be able to get an ambulance if they have a heart attack and that's why we've put that extra funding in place, and why we've been building up our ambulance service over the last couple of years." Read full story Source: Mirror, 5 January 2022
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News Article
More than 90 care home operators in England declare red alert over staffing
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Care operators are facing acute staffing shortages caused by Omicron with more than 90 declaring a “red” alert, which means staffing ratios have been breached. Over 11,000 care home workers are off for Covid reasons, according to internal health system staffing data seen by the Guardian. One of the UK’s largest private operators, Barchester, is dealing with outbreaks in 105 of its 250 homes. It said that rules meaning homes with Covid cannot accept hospital discharges will cause backlogs in the already struggling NHS. Across England, 9.4% of care home staff are off work, according to government live data, with close to 3% absent because of Covid. The figures, which may be an underestimate because of the festive break, are drawn from submissions by thousands of care providers. “The spread of Omicron across the country will bring more care homes into outbreak, put huge pressure on the already compromised staff group and mean those who need care do not get it,” said Vic Rayner, chief executive of the National Care Forum. Many care operators said delays in getting PCR test results back were a key frustration, meaning workers who may not be infected were isolating longer than necessary." Stephen Chandler, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services, said councils were braced for calls for help from care operators and said “the care that people experience will be affected”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 January 2022 -
News ArticleAmbulance trusts have begun asking patients with heart attacks and strokes to get a lift to hospital with family or friends instead of waiting for an ambulance, because of high covid absences and ‘unprecedented’ surges in demand, HSJ has learned. An internal note at North East Ambulance Service Foundation Trust said that where there was likely to be a risk from the delay in an ambulance reaching a patient, call handlers should “consider asking the patient to be transported by friends or family”. This applies to calls including category two, which covers suspected strokes and heart attacks, according to the note seen by HSJ. It said call handlers should “consider all forms of alternative transport” for patients. The note from medical director Mathew Beattie gives the example of a person with chest pain who would normally get a category 2 response – with a target of reaching them within 18 minutes – but where the ambulance response time would be two hours. In the message to staff, Dr Mathew Beattie said: “To manage [current] unprecedented demand, we have no other option than to try and work differently which I am aware will not sit comfortably but is absolutely essential if we are to sustain a service to those who need it most." “We need to weigh up the risk of delays for ambulances against alternative disposition or transport options. Where such risks are considered, I want you to be aware that the trust will fully support you in your decision-making under these circumstances.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 4 January 2022
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News Article
NHS unable to treat every child with eating disorder as cases soar
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS can no longer treat every child with an eating disorder, a leading psychiatrist has warned, as “worrying” figures reveal hospital admissions have risen 41% in a year. A dramatic surge in cases during the pandemic has left already struggling community services overstretched with many unable to care for everyone who requires help, experts said. NHS Digital data for England shows a sharp rise in admissions in every area of the country. The provisional data for April to October 2021 – the most recent available – shows there were 4,238 hospital admissions for children aged 17 and under, up 41% from 3,005 in the same period the year before. Charities said the fast rising number of hospital admissions was “only the tip of the iceberg”, with thousands more children needing support for eating disorders. Dr Agnes Ayton, the chair of the eating disorders faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “The hidden epidemic of eating disorders has surged during the pandemic, with many community services now overstretched and unable to treat the sheer number of people needing help. We are at the point where we cannot afford to let this go on any longer." “Early intervention is key to recovery and to preventing serious illness, which is why it’s crucial that the money announced by government urgently reaches the frontline. The government must also deliver a workforce plan to tackle the shortages in eating disorder services so that they have enough staff to treat everyone who needs help.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 January 2021 -
News Article
Lincolnshire hospitals declare 'critical incident' over staff shortages
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A critical incident has been declared at four Lincolnshire hospitals because of staff shortages due to COVID-19. United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said it was taking "additional steps to maintain services" at all its hospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham. The trust's medical director, Dr Colin Farquharson, said there were "significant staffing pressures due to absence related to COVID-19". But he said essential services "remain fully open". According to a leaked email seen by The Sunday Times, the trust declared a critical incident on Saturday night "due to extreme and unprecedented workforce shortages". It issued an "urgent appeal" for clinical and non-clinical staff to offer extra time supporting colleagues "over the next 72 hours". It also asked staff to "consider limiting social contacts with people outside of work". Original tweet on Twitter: Read full story Source: BBC News, 3 January 2022 -
News Article
NHS mental health services in ‘desperate’ situation
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS mental health services are facing a “desperate” situation as all hospitals across the country are dangerously full and leaked data shows hundreds of patients waiting over 12 hours in A&E, The Independent can reveal. The news comes as the spread of Omicron risks outbreaks in mental health hospitals, with a large hospital in London forced to close its doors to new admissions on three wards. In response to the growing bed pressures in the capital over the past month the NHS has commissioned 40 beds from private sector hospitals run by The Priory Group, The Independent understands. NHS data, seen by The Independent, has revealed that almost all mental health hospitals in London have been at “black alert” levels of bed availability during October and November, meaning their beds were nearly 100 per cent full. A senior national source has warned the situation is similar across the country, with nearly all mental health trusts 94 per cent full and services at their most stressed ever. Read full story Source: The Independent, 23 December 2021 -
News Article
NHS 24 warns of call delays over high festive demand
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS 24 is urging people to treat common illness at home as it faces its busiest period over the festive season. Helpline bosses have warned that it will take longer to answer calls as the service faces staffing pressures and increased demand caused by Covid. It expects 170,000 calls over Christmas and New year - including two four-day weekends with GP surgeries closed. The public have been advised to use the NHS Inform website to check symptoms before phoning NHS 24. Janice Houston, NHS 24 associate director of operations and nursing, said the spread of Omicron had left the service "missing key staff" with people required to self-isolate. "This year is exceptional and particularly busy," she said. "We plan within an inch of our life for our busiest period, so I would just ask the public to be patient with us. "We need to re-plan depending on who can't come to work from self-isolating. It might take a bit longer to answer the phone, but you will always get good care." Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 December 2021
