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Found 961 results
  1. News Article
    Patients in nine hospitals in Ireland were often treated in the wrong places, sometimes corridors, in situations where it was “unclear” who was supposed to be providing their care, a clinical review has found. It warned of the potential for people to receive inappropriate specialist input and recommended specific wards be used to avoid so-called “safari rounds” where consultants must seek out scattered patients. The independent review team consisted of clinical and management experts from Scotland and England who undertook a programme of visits between August and November, 2019. “The review team witnessed widespread boarding and outliers – any bed, anytime, anywhere and including mixed gender,” the document said. “This does not create extra capacity, leads to safari rounds, increases length of stay, introduces harm by non-specialist care and increases staff absenteeism.” Although acknowledging often excellent work by staff, the report was commissioned to examine non-scheduled care at nine hospitals found to be “under the greatest pressures” during the winter season of 2018/2019. These had “significant numbers” of patients waiting for long periods on trolleys. Read full story Source: The Irish Times, 4 April 2022
  2. News Article
    The NHS in England is struggling to make progress on its flagship target to diagnose three-quarters of cancer cases at an early stage, MPs are warning. The Health and Social Care Committee said staffing shortages and disruption from the pandemic were causing delays. Some 54% of cases are diagnosed at stages one and two, considered vital for increasing the chances of survival. By 2028, the aim is to diagnose 75% of cases in the early stages, but there has been no improvement in six years. It means England - as well as other UK nations - lag behind comparable countries such as Australia and Canada when it comes to cancer survival. If the lack of progress continues, the committee warned that it could lead to more than 340,000 people missing out on an early cancer diagnosis. The Department of Health said it recognised "business as usual is not enough" and said it was developing a new 10-year cancer plan. But a spokesman said progress was already being made, with a network of 160 new diagnostic centres being opened.R Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 April 2022
  3. News Article
    Stroke and heart attack victims are now routinely waiting more than an hour for an ambulance, after a further fall in performance in recent weeks, and with hospital handover delays hitting a new high point, HSJ reveals. Figures for ambulance performance this week, seen by HSJ, showed average response times for category two calls at more than 70 minutes for successive days. 3,000 patients may have suffered “severe harm” from delays in February, ambulance chief executives say. Several well-placed sources in the sector said response times had deteriorated further this month, and that more than half of ambulance trusts were this week seeing average category two responses of longer than an hour. Some cited an average category two response last week of around 70 minutes, with the services under huge pressure from a combination of demand, long handover delays, and covid-related sickness. Category two calls include patients with suspected heart attacks and strokes, and the national target for reaching them is 18 minutes. The figures seen by HSJ for this week showed average response times for category one calls — the most serious, including cardiac arrests and other immediately life threatening emergencies — of more than 10 minutes on Wednesday, against a target of just 7 minutes. Monthly average performance for category one has never reached 10 minutes. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 April 2022
  4. News Article
    A policy ‘at the heart’ of NHS England’s efforts to improve maternity care is under question after being sharply criticised by an independent inquiry, and is the subject of major tensions within NHSE and midwifery, HSJ understands. The Ockenden report into major care failings at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust included 15 “immediate actions” for all maternity services in England, which government has accepted and said it would begin implementation. However, one of these relates to the “continuity of carer” model, which NHS England has championed since 2017, when it was described as “at the heart of” its national plans for improving maternity care and outcomes. The model intends to give women “dedicated support” from the same midwifery team throughout their pregnancy, with claimed benefits including improved outcomes, with a particular focus on some minority groups. However, Ms Ockenden indicated its implementation in recent years had stretched staffing, and therefore harmed quality and safety overall, and also appeared to question whether the model was evidenced. Some midwifery leaders are advocates for the model, but others have described how it can result in awful working patterns, with concerns it is causing some staff to leave the profession. Royal College of Midwives director for professional midwifery Mary Ross-Davie told HSJ: “With the right resources and the right number of midwives, CoC can have a positive impact on maternity care – but in too many trusts and boards this is simply not the situation. We are really pleased, therefore, to see that the review team has echoed the RCM’s recommendations around the suspension of continuity of carer where too few staff puts safe deployment at risk.” She said the model was “something to which many maternity services aspire, particularly for women who need enhanced monitoring throughout their pregnancy to deliver better outcomes for them and their baby”. Helen Hughes, chief executive of Patient Safety Learning charity, said that although it had heard positive feedback that the model can improve outcomes, there must also be a “robust assessment of the safety impact of implementing such changes and the sources and staffing in place to deliver this”. “Otherwise the core intentions and benefits will be lost,” Ms Hughes said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 31 March 2022 Further reading Midwifery Continuity of Carer: What does good look like? Midwifery Continuity of Carer: Frontline insights The benefits of Continuity of Carer: a midwife’s personal reflection
  5. News Article
    A shortage of more than 2,000 midwives means women and babies will remain at risk of unsafe care in the NHS despite an inquiry into the biggest maternity scandal in its history, health leaders have warned. A landmark review of Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, led by the maternity expert Donna Ockenden, will publish its final findings on Wednesday with significant implications for maternity care across the UK. The inquiry, which has examined more than 1,800 cases over two decades, is expected to conclude that hundreds of babies died or were seriously disabled because of mistakes at the NHS trust, and call for changes. But NHS and midwifery officials said they fear a growing shortage of NHS maternity staff means trusts may be unable to meet new standards set out in the report. “I am deeply worried when senior staff are saying they cannot meet the recommendations in the Ockenden review which are vital to ensuring women and babies get the safest possible maternity care,” said Gill Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). The number of midwives has fallen to 26,901, according to NHS England figures published last month, from 27,272 a year ago. The RCM says the fall in numbers adds to an existing shortage of more than 2,000 staff. Experts said the shortage was caused by the NHS struggling to attract new midwives while losing existing staff, who felt overworked and fed up at being spread too thinly across maternity wards. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 March 2022
  6. News Article
    The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) estimated 36 Scots died as a direct result of avoidable delays in the week to 30 March. It comes as the number of people in hospital with Covid reached another record high, the worst cancer waiting times were reported since records began in 2006, and the Royal College of Nursing issued a warning that patient care is under “serious threat” from record-high staffing shortages. The RCEM said it would “welcome” a decision to extend the legal requirement to wear face coverings in Scotland to protect the NHS. “Anything that can continue to reduce the spread and therefore try and relieve as much pressure as possible in the healthcare system would be welcomed,” said RCEM Vice President in Scotland Dr John Thomson. Dr Thomson, an emergency medicine consultant at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, said the government must understand the “unconscionable” harm coming to patients. “We have clear evidence that prolonged weeks in an emergency department lead directly to patient deaths,” he said. “Good evidence that, irrespective of what the medical problem is that they present with, that long wait alone is associated with death. “We can measure that quite clearly. One in 72 patients who wait in an emergency department beyond eight hours will die as a direct result. “In the last week alone we would estimate there were 36 avoidable deaths due to waits beyond eight hours. That's unconscionable.” A&E’s in Scotland are facing the “biggest patient safety crisis for a generation”, he said. Read full story Source: The Scotsman, 29 March 2022
  7. News Article
    NHS staff are significantly less likely to recommend their organisations as places to work or believe they employ enough people to deliver effective care, the service’s annual staff survey has revealed. The 2021 survey results, published today, showed regression across a broad range of questions, including in areas such as motivation, morale, workload pressures and staff health. One of the biggest drop-offs in survey scores related to the question asking whether there were enough staff in their organisation for respondents to do their job properly. Only 27.2% of those surveyed said staffing was adequate, a fall of 11% points from the previous year (38.4%). Only 59.4%nof staff said they would recommend their organisation as a place to work. This represented a 7% point decline from the previous year (66.8%). The rating had steadily improved since 2017 when it was at 59.7%. While a decline was seen across all sectors, the steepest drop was found among ambulance trusts. Ambulance trusts performing worse compared to other sectors appeared to be a recurring theme across the survey. Read full story (paywalled) Source: 30 March 2022
  8. News Article
    Public satisfaction with the NHS has dropped to its lowest level for 25 years after a sharp fall during the pandemic, a survey suggests. The British Social Attitudes poll, seen as the gold standard measure of public opinion, found 36% of the 3,100 asked were satisfied in 2021. That is a drop from 53% the year before - the largest fall in a single year. Only once have satisfaction levels been lower since the poll started in 1983. That was in 1997, and shortly after that the Blair government started increasing the budget by record amounts. The public said it was taking too long to get a GP appointment or hospital care, and there was not enough staff. Satisfaction with GP care and hospital services were both at their lowest levels since the survey began. Dan Wellings, senior fellow at the King's Fund, described them as "extraordinary". He said the NHS initially saw a "halo" effect early on in the pandemic, with satisfaction rates being maintained as the NHS battled through the first wave. But he said it was clear that had now gone. "People are often struggling to get the care they need. These issues have been exacerbated by the extraordinary events of the past two years, but have been many years in the making following a decade-long funding squeeze, and a workforce crisis that has been left unaddressed for far too long." Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 March 2022
  9. News Article
    Burnout is not a strong enough term to describe the severe mental distress nurses and other NHS staff are experiencing, says a doctor who has led efforts to improve care for health professionals. Medical director of the NHS Practitioner Health service Dame Clare Gerada told MPs radical action was needed to improve the mental well-being of NHS staff. She said nurses and other healthcare staff should be entitled to one hour of paid reflective time per month to be written into NHS employees’ contracts, alongside mentoring, careers advice and leadership training built in throughout people’s careers. Dr Gerada was among senior clinicians who gave evidence this week to the Health and Social Care Committee, which is looking at issues around recruitment and retention of staff. She told the committee the term ‘burnout’ simply did not cover the level of stress and mental anguish experienced by NHS workers. ‘Burnout is too gentle a term for the mental distress that is going on amongst our workforce,’ she said. High suicide rates among nurses and doctors, high levels of bullying and staff being sacked because they have long-COVID are all signs the health service is failing to look after its employees, she said. ‘The symptoms we have got are the symptoms of an organisation that is unable to care for its workforce in the way that it should be caring,’ she said. Read full story Source: Nursing Standard, 25 March 2022
  10. News Article
    "Absolutely soul destroying" is how one paramedic describes his job. He is not alone. Over the past few months, BBC Wales has been contacted by employees from the Welsh Ambulance Service who paint a dire picture of a service under immense pressure. Ambulance waiting times have climbed and climbed throughout the pandemic. The impact that has on patients is well known - but what about those on the other side? Mark, who did not want to disclose his real name or show his face for fear that he would lose his job, described the stress of his shifts with a radio strapped to his chest, hearing "red calls waiting, red calls waiting". "That is the potential of somebody's life waiting in the balance - and you can't get there. It's absolutely soul-destroying. We wouldn't treat animals this way, why are we treating humans?", he said. Mark said the job has always come with pressure and anxiety. But over the course of the pandemic that has intensified and he has "never known as many people looking for other jobs as they are at the moment". The stress has become so bad that he is now on antidepressants. Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 March 2022
  11. News Article
    The use of temporary treatment areas for patients arriving via ambulance at over-crowded A&Es is ‘borderline immoral’ and ‘a danger to patient safety and dignity’, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has warned. The college said NHS England had told regional bosses to prepare to errect more of the so-called “tents” outside their major emergency departments as part of plans to get a grip on ambulance handover delays, which have reached record highs in the last two weeks. Senior figures also told HSJ that trusts have been instructed by NHS England to call the overflow facilities “temporary external structures” and not tents – a move also criticised by RCEM president Katherine Henderson. Dr Henderson told HSJ: “Using tents is just wrong on every level… We’ve been down this route before. It doesn’t work. It’s a huge distraction, and I think what upsets me the most about it is it creates the appearance that people are taking action when it’s not the action that will deal with the problem.” In an opinion piece for HSJ, Dr Henderson says: “We find ourselves in the completely unacceptable situation where the ‘solution’ to ambulance handover problems is to put up tents or sheds in front of emergency departments – euphemistically being called ‘temporary external structures’. “Trust leaders and NHS England must not be afraid to stand up and make this case – putting patients in tents is a bad, borderline immoral bodge job to treat the symptom rather than cause, and our patients need to see some real leadership to protect them." Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 25 March 2022
  12. News Article
    The chief nursing officer for England has spoken about the ongoing shortages of nurses across the country and how the government’s previous pledge for 50,000 more nurses is now “not enough”. At one of her first in-person speeches since the start of the pandemic, Ruth May also revealed that she thought the removal of the student nurse bursary in England was “fundamentally the wrong decision”. Ms May was speaking at an event organised by the League of St Bartholomew’s Nurses in honour of pioneering nurse Pam Hibbs, who died following a Covid-19 infection last year. During her keynote address, Ms May said workforce remained a “big focus” for her team due to the “shortage” of nursing staff nationally. She said work to address the gaps was centred on the three areas of international recruitment, domestic training, and retention. She said numbers of nurses being recruited from overseas annually had risen from around 5,000 to 6,000 before the pandemic, to an expected 20,000 in this financial year. “I’m very, very glad that the NHS has had a diverse workforce from its very inception. We have welcomed colleagues from across all countries of the world, and we will continue to do that,” Ms May said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Nursing Times, 22 March 2022
  13. News Article
    The former health secretary Jeremy Hunt will join doctors’ representatives today in a call to stem the “bleed” of GPs or risk endangering patients. Polling shows that almost nine in ten GPs fear that patient safety is being put at risk by shortages of family doctors and too little time for appointments. The government has admitted that it will fail to fulfil an election pledge to recruit 6,000 extra full-time GPs by 2024. Hunt is campaigning with the British Medical Association and the GPDF, which represents local medical committees, in calling for the government to put forward a GP workforce plan to “rebuild general practice”. He said: “The workforce crisis is the biggest issue facing the NHS. We can forget fixing the backlog unless we urgently come up with a plan to train enough doctors for the future and, crucially, retain the ones we’ve got. “As someone who tried hard to get more GPs into local surgeries but ultimately didn’t succeed because the numbers retiring early exceeded those joining, I’m passionate about fixing this.” The campaign wants the government to deliver on its pledge for an extra 6,000 GPs in England and action to tackle the reasons for GPs leaving the profession, such as burnout. It says that a plan is needed to reduce GP workload, which would improve patient safety.
  14. News Article
    A trust has admitted it is having to discharge patients inappropriately into care homes or community hospital beds because of a shortage of home care workers. A report to East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust’s board last week revealed that 160 extra beds had been commissioned to maintain flow across the local health economy “due to insufficient domiciliary/care package capacity.” It went on: “The clinical commissioning group have tried via Kent County Council to commission additional domiciliary care without success. It is acknowledged by the local health economy that it is important to withdraw from these additional beds as quickly as possible as they are not a cost-effective resource and more importantly, in many cases, they are not the ideal discharge destination for those patients who could have been discharged home with a care package. “Patients are being transferred into community hospital beds or residential home beds due to a lack of domiciliary care packages. Although this is a national issue, it will not be resolved locally until appropriate pathway capacity is commissioned.” Professor Adam Gordon, president elect of the British Geriatrics Society, said: “If people have been sent to a care home when they don’t want or need to be there that can affect their motivation and result in a form of deconditioning. One of the principles of effective rehabilitation in older people is that if you don’t use it, you lose it.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 17 March 2022
  15. News Article
    More than 80% of GPs believe that patients are being put at risk when they come into their surgery for an appointment, a new survey shows. A poll of 1,395 GPs found only 13% said their practice was safe for patients all the time. Meanwhile, 85% expressed concerns about patient safety, with 2% saying patients were “rarely” safe, 22% saying they were safe “some of the time” and 61% saying they were safe “most of the time”. Asked if they thought the risk to patient safety was increasing in their surgery, 70% said it was. Family doctors identified lack of time with patients, workforce shortages, relentless workloads and heavy administrative burdens as the main reasons people receiving care could be exposed to risk. The survey, which was self-selecting, also found that: 91% said more GPs would help improve the state of general practices. 84% have had anxiety, stress or depression over the past year linked to their job. 31% know a colleague who was physically abused by a patient in the last year. 24% know of a member of general practice staff who has taken their own life due to work pressures. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 March 2022
  16. News Article
    Infection control rules in hospitals are ‘now disproportionate to the risks’ posed by covid and should be relaxed, some of the NHS’s most senior leaders have warned. The government rules – such as not allowing covid-positive staff to work, and separating out services for covid, non-covid and covid-contact patients – make a big dent in hospital capacity and slows down services. Glen Burley, who is chief executive of three Midlands trusts and involved in national-level discussions on elective matters, told HSJ: “Pretty much every pathway has a covid and non-covid route, which slows down flow and staff productivity. “There is a growing argument that these rules are now disproportionate to the risks. With covid cases in the community also rising now, we may have to question again the relative risks of continuing to isolate staff.” NHS Confederation director of policy Layla McCay told HSJ: “Healthcare leaders are concerned the current [IPC] measures are having a serious knock-on effect on capacity and that the measures in their current form are reducing efficiency and capacity within healthcare settings. “We need more clarity on if and how current measures can be safely adjusted so [the NHS] can further increase bed capacity and patient throughput, as well as the ability to transport patients more quickly and efficiently.” But NHS Providers, which has previously said relaxing the IPC guidance would not enable a “rapid” increase in the NHS’ capacity to tackle the elective care backlog and could pose significant “risks”, remains more cautious. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 March 2022
  17. News Article
    Women and NHS staff have warned that mothers are being “forgotten” after giving birth, with a staff crisis only making matters worse. Kate, a 32-year-old from Leeds, says she has been left in “excruciating” pain for nine years after horrifying postnatal care. Other women have told The Independent stories of care ranging from “disjointed” to “disastrous”. It comes as midwives warn there are “horrendous” shortages in community services, which have prevented women from accessing adequate antenatal and postnatal care. Mary Ross-Davie, the Royal College of Midwives’ director for professional midwifery, said that with each Covid wave midwifery staffing has been hit worse than the last. To provide safe care during labour, antenatal and postnatal care, teams are sent into wards putting “huge pressure on care”. She said this could mean clinicians end up “missing things”, such as women struggling emotionally after birth. The warnings over poor antenatal and postnatal care come after experts at the University of Oxford said in November there were “stark” gaps in postnatal care, despite the highest number of deaths being recorded in the postnatal period. Dr Sunita Sharma, lead consultant for postnatal care at Chelsea and Westminster Trust, said that when NHS maternity inpatient staffing overall is in crisis “often the first place staff are moved from is the postnatal ward, which is clinically very appropriate, but it can come at a cost of putting more pressure on postnatal care for other mothers”. Dr Sharma said postnatal teams were doing their best to improve services but need national drivers and funding to sustain improvement. Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 March 2022
  18. News Article
    Patients waiting for surgery and cancer care in England will face long delays for years to come, MPs have warned in a new report that is highly critical of both ministers and NHS bosses. The already-record 6.1 million-strong waiting list for vital treatment will keep growing and officials are “too optimistic” that plans to tackle it will succeed, the public accounts committee (PAC) said in a report on Wednesday. “For the next few years it is likely that waiting time performance for cancer and elective care will remain poor and the waiting list for elective care will continue to grow,” it said. The committee of MPs, which monitors spending across Whitehall, acknowledges Covid-19’s role in contributing to the ballooning backlog and lengthening waiting times. But it singled out years of inaction by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for particular blame. Patients waiting for surgery and cancer care in England will face long delays for years to come, MPs have warned in a new report that is highly critical of both ministers and NHS bosses. The already-record 6.1 million-strong waiting list for vital treatment will keep growing and officials are “too optimistic” that plans to tackle it will succeed, the public accounts committee (PAC) said in a report on Wednesday. “For the next few years it is likely that waiting time performance for cancer and elective care will remain poor and the waiting list for elective care will continue to grow,” it said. The committee of MPs, which monitors spending across Whitehall, acknowledges Covid-19’s role in contributing to the ballooning backlog and lengthening waiting times. But it singled out years of inaction by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for particular blame. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 March 2022
  19. News Article
    The government has overseen years of decline in cancer care and non-urgent hospital services in England, MPs say. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said services had started deteriorating long before the pandemic. It pointed out key targets had not been met since 2016 and the pandemic had just exacerbated the problems. But ministers said they were investing extra money and creating more capacity to treat patients, to address the backlog that had now developed. More than six million people are currently on a hospital waiting list - one in nine of the population - the highest figure on record. This includes people waiting for operations such as knee and hip replacements. Meanwhile, just two-thirds of urgent cancer patients start treatment within the target time of 62 days. And the number of referrals for cancer care has dropped by between 240,000 and 740,000 since the pandemic started. The MPs said people would face serious health consequences because of delays in cancer treatment, with some dying earlier. The government is also accused of failing to recognise staffing the health service remains its biggest problem. The MPs said the workforce was crippled by shortages and exhausted by two years of the pandemic. Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 March 2022
  20. News Article
    The parents of a baby boy who lived for just 27 minutes have told an inquest they were "completely dismissed" throughout labour. Archie Batten died on 1 September 2019 at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) in Margate, Kent. His inquest began on Monday at Maidstone Coroner's Court. The East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust has already admitted liability and apologised for Archie's death. The coroner heard Archie's mother Rachel Higgs was frustrated at being turned away from the maternity unit in the morning, when she had gone to complain of vomiting and extreme pain. She was told she was not far enough into labour to be admitted. She returned home to Broadstairs with her partner Andrew Batten, but continued to feel unwell so phoned the hospital. She was told the unit was now closed. Instead, two community midwives were sent to their home, where they attempted to deliver the baby but could not find a heartbeat. Andrew Batten told the inquest the midwives looked "terrified," and that there was "an air of panic", with the midwives whispering in the hallway instead of telling him and Ms Higgs what was happening. Under examination from the family's barrister Richard Baker, Victoria Jackson, the midwife who had originally seen Ms Higgs, admitted the high number of patients she was having to deal with had affected her ability to spend time with her. Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 March 2022
  21. News Article
    The highest ever number of medical students have been told there are no places for them this year, despite the health service’s crippling shortage of medics. The risk that young would-be doctors may not be allocated to start their training at a hospital in the UK has sparked concern among the medical students affected, as well as medical organisations. Pressure is growing for action to close the gap between the number of training places available across the NHS and the number of graduates seeking one, so medical talent is not wasted and hospitals hire as many fresh recruits as they can to help tackle the widespread lack of medics. Doctors are worried that the mismatch between demand for and supply of training places will lead to the NHS missing out on medics it sorely needs and that some of those denied a place will either go to work abroad instead or give up medicine altogether. The most recent official figures showed that the NHS in England is short of almost 8,200 doctors. Dr Dustyn Saint, a GP in Norfolk, tweeted the health secretary, Sajid Javid, about the situation, saying: “Sajid Javid sort this out! You know how much general practice needs these people in a few years, standing by and doing nothing is inexcusable.” Another doctor said: “It’s bonkers that 800 would-be doctors could be denied training places at a time when the NHS in England is short of 8,200 doctors.” The British Medical Association has voiced concern about the large number of unallocated medics. “Now we have a situation where a record number are left with unnecessary uncertainty about where they are headed this August,” said Khadija Meghrawi, the co-chair of its medical students committee. “In a time where student mental health is declining, this additional source of uncertainty and stress is particularly unfair.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 March 2022
  22. News Article
    The chief executive of three NHS trusts says ringfencing elective care within an acute hospital site is potentially more ‘productive’ than sending it to a separate ‘cold’ site. Glen Burley, who leads a “provider group” in the West Midlands, says his trusts have been grappling with the challenge of how to maximise elective activity without it being disrupted by emergency pressures. The conventional view – as outlined in the NHS long-term plan – is that performing more elective care on a separate site from emergency can help ensure theatre lists are not disrupted. But George Eliot Trust, which has been led by Mr Burley since 2018 and only has a single district general hospital, has created a “ringfenced” elective hub within the site. In an interview with HSJ, Mr Burley said: “So I actually think the most productive model in the NHS is if you can pull that off. “If you can actually protect your elective capacity and offer it on the same site [as] urgent care, so the clinicians are not having to move between sites, you’ve got optimal productivity. “The challenge right across the NHS has been avoiding that spillage, of emergency care into your elective capacity. “As you get busier and you escalate… the order in which you encroach into areas that you should not encroach into, is really key in that. We are saying we are going to protect our elective beds in a way that we haven’t done before." Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 14 March 2022
  23. News Article
    The number of referrals for specialist NHS mental health care reached a record high in England by the end of 2021, an analysis suggests. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says the pandemic has led to unprecedented demand and backlogs and services are struggling to keep up. There were 4.3 million referrals, for conditions such as anxiety and depression, in 2021, NHS Digital says. Just under a quarter - 1.025 million - were for children or adolescents. The college said the NHS had delivered 1.8 million mental health consultations in December 2021, but an estimated 1.4 million people were still waiting for treatment. And hundreds of adults were being sent far from home for treatment because of a lack of beds in their area. President Dr Adrian James said: "As the pressure on services continues to ratchet up, the silence from government continues to be of grave concern for the college, the wider mental health workforce and, most importantly, our patients. "The warning of the long tail of mental ill health caused by the pandemic has not been heeded. "Many thousands of people will be left waiting far too long for the treatment they need unless the government wakes up to the crisis that is engulfing the country. "Staff are working flat out to give their patients the support they need but the lack of resources and lack of staff mean it's becoming an impossible situation to manage... "...We need a fully funded plan for mental-health services, backed by a long-term workforce plan, as the country comes to terms with the biggest hit to its mental health in generations." Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 March 2022
  24. News Article
    An 86-year-old man died after lying in the road waiting more than four hours for an ambulance, his family have said. George Ian Stevenson was hit by a car near his home in Johnstown, Wrexham county, last Wednesday. His family said the first 999 call was made at 19:31 GMT, and the ambulance did not arrive until 23:37 GMT. The Welsh Ambulance Service is looking into the incident, but said that at the time of the call, all its vehicles were already committed to other patients. Two off-duty paramedics stopped to help, but were reluctant to move him in case they caused further injury. Mr Stevenson's granddaughter, Ellie Williams said on the night of the accident it was raining, freezing and foggy. She said: "Left there for four hours, begging for help, waiting for help. And that makes us so sad. "A hard-working man who has paid his taxes all his life and paid into the system has been let down when he's needed them the most, and I just can't quite comprehend what has happened to him." Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 March 2022
  25. News Article
    Sajid Javid has announced a plan to tackle NHS workforce shortages will be published by the end of the year - but the health service will not receive any additional funding to back it, he said. In a speech setting out widespread reforms, the health secretary on Tuesday said the NHS is the area where the government spends the most money, adding that spending increases have meant areas such as education have lost out. Mr Javid said the UK has now come to a “crossroads” where it must choose between “endlessly putting in more and more money, or reforming how we do healthcare”. He confirmed the government will publish a long-awaited plan for the NHS workforce by the end of the year, but in response to questions from The Independent over funding, he said it would not go above the £36 billion already promised. Mr Javid said costs for the new staffing plan would come from existing budgets. Healthcare leaders have repeatedly called for a long-term “fully funded” plan to address staff shortages across the NHS, alongside a funding commitment for health education regulator Health Education England. As part of the government’s latest plan to reform NHS services, the health secretary said patients who have been waiting the longest would travel to less busy hospitals or private facilities for care - with the NHS footing the bill for travel and accommodation. He also urged people to harness the “power of families” to make a difference for their loved ones’ health, recalling when his father quit smoking at the request of his mother. Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 March 2022
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