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News Article
NHS boss Amanda Pritchard says patients not always getting care they deserve
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Patients are not always getting the care they deserve, says the head of NHS England. Amanda Pritchard told a conference the pressures on hospitals, maternity care and services caring for vulnerable people with learning disabilities were of concern. She even suggested the challenge facing the health service now was greater than it was at the height of the pandemic. Despite making savings, the NHS still needs extra money to cope, she said. Next year the budget will rise to more than £157bn, but NHS England believes it will still be short of £7bn. Ms Pritchard told the King's Fund annual conference in London that demand was rising more quickly than the NHS could cope with. "I thought that the pandemic would be the hardest thing any of us ever had to do," she said. "Over the last year, I've become really clear.... it's the months and years ahead that will bring the most complex challenges." Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 November 2022 -
News Article
Confed chair: Trusts lacking senior diversity should not get top CQC ratings
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Trusts underperforming on leadership diversity should not be rated “good” or “outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the NHS Confederation chair has told HSJ. Victor Adebowale said he did not understand how organisations can achieve the top CQC ratings if they do not demonstrate sufficient diversity at senior levels. Lord Adebowale was speaking to HSJ alongside Marie Gabriel, following Ms Gabriel being appointed last month to chair the new NHS Race and Health Observatory, which is being hosted by the confederation. The influential peer’s comments also follow the new People Plan tightened criteria around equality, diversity and inclusion in the “well-led” aspect of the care quality regulator’s inspections. He said: “I struggle to see [how] any NHS trust that performs badly, [on] racial equality and leadership, can be considered to be good and outstanding. I don’t get it. “It seems to me there is enough regulation to take into account the requirement to lead all the people, all the time. But, obviously, if you’re not, then you shouldn’t be [getting] slaps on the back, and [be rated] outstanding or good in anything else.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 28 August 2020 -
News Article
Inspectors criticise poor nursing and leadership in latest damning report
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A damning new report has exposed numerous lapses in nursing care on wards at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust amid a culture which left patients at risk of “unsafe and uncaring” treatment, the care watchdog has said. Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) cited multiple examples of nurses at the scandal-hit trust lacking the knowledge to look after patients safely and failing to record key information needed to keep patients safe during an inspection of medical wards in June this year. The inspectors found poorly completed nursing records, equipment unavailable and nurses not following procedures. This meant some patients developed pressure sores, fell from their beds and were injured or suffered pain at the end of their life. Other patients were at risk of suffering similar harm. Inspectors ruled the trust, which was rated inadequate and put into special measures in 2018, was unsafe and criticised the hospital leadership for what it said was a “collective failure” that was perpetuating the problems at the hospital. Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 August 2020 -
News Article
Leeds Teaching Hospitals launch patient and volunteer support fund
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
Leeds Teaching Hospitals has launched a support fund for patients, their relatives and volunteers who may be struggling financially due to the coronavirus pandemic. The fund is intended to assist (but is not limited to): Bereaved relatives facing immediate financial pressures until their personal financial affairs are sorted eg having weekly bills to meet and no immediate access to bank accounts Patients isolating for 14 days in advance of admission to hospital and suffering income loss, excess cost or other financial hardship as a result Patients, their immediate families or volunteers who have experienced significant household income loss as a result of the pandemic and are struggling with financial obligations Those experiencing significant increases in costs as a direct result of the pandemic, eg increased childcare costs Read the full article here -
News Article
Shrewsbury maternity scandal: Hospital bosses ‘softened’ damning safety report
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hospital bosses at scandal-hit Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust were more concerned with reputation management than addressing patient safety concerns in its maternity department, according to a new NHS investigation. Families harmed by poor care at the trust have called for chairman Ben Reid to resign after the report by NHS England revealed how senior figures in the trust, including the former chief executive, tried to soften a report into maternity services that raised serious concerns over safety. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) report was not published until after the college had agreed to an “unprecedented” addendum report 12 months after its inspection in 2017, that presented the trust in a more positive light. When the final report was made public in July 2018 the addendum was placed at the front of the report. The original RCOG report warned: “Neonatal and perinatal mortality rates will not improve until areas of poor / substandard care are addressed.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 22 July 2020 -
News Article
Have your say in shaping the future of NHS complaint handling
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Parliament and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) been working with the NHS and other public service organisations, members of the public and advocacy groups to develop a shared vision for NHS complaint handling. We've called this the Complaint Standards Framework. Now they want to hear from you. Have your say in shaping the future of NHS complaint handling by taking part in their survey. Read the Complaint Standards Framework: Summary of core expectations for NHS organisations and staff -
News Article
Patient safety - will there be a big step forward?
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The list is a dismal and shameful one - Mid-Staffordshire, Morecambe Bay, the rogue surgeon Ian Paterson, maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford. All are patient safety scandals involving tragic stories of life-changing mistreatment of patients and, in some cases, the loss of loved ones. Pledges have been made that patient safety will be put front and centre of health policy. New regulators have been put in place. But now yet another review has found the health system in England to be "disjointed, siloised and defensive" and that the culture needs a shake-up. It has called for a new patient safety champion with legal powers to be put in place. The plan is to have an individual with "real standing" outside and independent of the system, accountable to the parliamentary Health and Social Care Select Committee. The Commissioner would be expected to take up and investigate patient complaints where appropriate, and hold organisations to account - the review had stated that the failure of health authorities to respond to concerns was a recurrent theme. Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 July 2020 -
News Article
Coronavirus: Unprecedented demand for action on NHS workforce shortages
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS will be unable to meet the needs of patients unless significant action is taken to tackle staff shortages, an unprecedented coalition of health leaders has warned. Medical royal colleges, NHS trade unions and bodies representing senior hospital managers and other health organisations have joined together to warn bosses at NHS England and the government that they must act to ensure the health service workforce is supported in the wake of coronavirus. The organisations said they were united in the belief that meaningful action on long-standing workforce issues would be the best way to repay the efforts of NHS staff during the virus outbreak – calling for a public commitment to boost numbers, increase flexible working, and improve leadership and support for staff. Professor Carrie MacEwen, chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which organised the statement, told The Independent: “Continued staff shortages in the NHS will be hugely damaging for patients. It has long been recognised that there is a serious shortage of doctors and nurses and right now we need to keep the staff we have, who have done a brilliant job during the pandemic, as well as increase the size of the workforce." Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 July 2020 -
News Article
Call for bosses to quit at hospital that tried to conceal blunders
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Executives in charge of the health secretary’s crisis-hit local hospital are facing calls to step down after The Sunday Times raised serious questions about attempts to cover up catastrophic medical mistakes. West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds had placed Dr Patricia Mills, one of its most senior consultants, under disciplinary investigation after she had voiced concerns about blunders that had killed one patient and left another seriously brain-damaged. A number of doctors have claimed that a bullying management culture has led to staff being too afraid to speak up about patient safety concerns at the hospital. Executives were accused of being obsessed with maintaining the hospital’s “outstanding” status in annual Care Quality Commission. One of the governors said their were "frustrations and concerns" among his fellow council members that they were being kept in the dark by the hospital's executives. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Sunday Times, 8 March 2020 -
News Article
Approachable managers linked to better error reporting, analysis finds
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
There is a “strong association” between staff experience of senior management and whether an organisation acts on error reporting, exclusive analysis for HSJ of the staff survey data suggests. Analysis by health and social care charity Picker Institute examined statistical relationships between responses to staff survey questions regarding staff communication with managers and those relating to error reporting. The analysis, which included all trust types, looked at the relationships between statements such as “communication between senior managers and staff is effective” and “I know who the senior managers are here” to “When errors, near misses or incidents are reported, my organisation takes action to ensure they do not happen again” and other similar indicators. A high correlation to the questions does not categorically prove a direct causal relationship but the data suggested “strong associations”, Picker Institute chief statistician Steve Sizmur told HSJ. He said: “There are a number of strong associations in the latest staff survey data, to the extent that there is likely to be a link between staff experiences of senior management and their views about error reporting and whether the organisation addresses their concerns.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 27 February 2020 -
News Article
New European study overhauling hospitals for nurse wellbeing
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hospitals in the UK will be among 60 across Europe that will be supported to redesign their systems and ways of working to tackle nurse burnout and stress, under a ground-breaking four-year study. The first-of-its-kind project will see chosen hospitals implement the principles of the Magnet Recognition Programme, an international accreditation scheme that recognises nursing excellence in healthcare organisations. Run by the accreditation wing of the American Nurses Association, the scheme is based on research showing that creating positive work environments for nurses leads to happier and healthier staff and the delivery of safer patient care, in turn improving recruitment and retention. Among the key pillars of Magnet are transformational leadership, shared governance and staff empowerment, exemplary professional practice within nursing, strong interdisciplinary relationships and a focus on innovation. The new study – called Magnet4Europe – is being directed by world-renowned nursing professor Linda Aiken, from the University of Pennsylvania in the US, and Walter Sermeus, professor of healthcare management at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. Read full story Source: Nursing Times, 24 February 2020 -
News Article
"Patients are not empowered to prevent their own harm", says Sir Liam Donaldson
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Today, Sir Liam Donaldson is chairing a patient safety meeting at the World Health Organization (WHO) 'A Global Consultation – A decade of Patient Safety 2020–2030' to formulate a Global Patient Safety Action Plan. His introductory address this morning focused on the task ahead – to maintain the World Health Assembly resolution momentum and patient safety as a global movement. "Patients are not empowered to prevent their own harm", Donaldson said, as he highlighted patient stories of unsafe care and the alarming parallels of patient and family experiences across the world. So where is the power? Donaldson went on to to highlight how the six current power blocks are not doing enough to improve safety and that we need to engage and motivate these power blocks to achieve change: Designing of health systems – we have not seen much evidence of systems being designed for safety. Health leaders are not using their power to lead for reduced harm. Educational institutions – these have to happen faster to train staff in. Research community – has patient safety research led to sustainable reduction in risk? Data and information – how has this improved patient safety? Industry – pharma doing very little on medication packaging and labelling; medical devices industry also could do more. -
News ArticleThe former police chief who investigated mental health services in a crisis-hit health board was “shocked” by the poor working relationships and “blame shifting” he uncovered. David Strang, who led the independent inquiry into the issues in NHS Tayside, said staff felt isolated and unsupported and people complained about each other’s practices without coming together to sort the issues out. He described asking staff questions based on information he had received and being met with the response: “Who told you?” He added: “A lot of staff felt there was a real blame culture and that risk and blame fell to the front line.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: 6 February 2020, The Times
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News Article
Care firm's leadership criticised by Care Quality Commission
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has raised concerns about the treatment of patients at mental health units run by Cygnet. It follows inspections in the wake of a BBC Panorama investigation about alleged abuse at Wharlton Hall in County Durham. The CQC found that patients under the firm's care were more likely to be restrained. Higher rates of self-harm were also noted by inspectors who quizzed managers and analysed records at the company's headquarters. The regulator also found a lack of clear lines of accountability between the executive team and its services. It said directors' identity and disclosure and barring service checks had been carried out, butd that required checks had not been made to ensure that directors and board members met the "fit and proper" person test for their roles. Systems used to manage risk were also criticised, while training for intermediate life support was not provided to all relevant staff across services where physical intervention or rapid tranquilisation was used. Cygnet runs more than 100 services for vulnerable adults and children, caring for people with mental health problems, learning disabilities and eating disorders. The CQC says Cygnet must now take immediate action to address the concerns raised. Cygnet said a number of the services highlighted have since been improved, but "we are not complacent and take on board recommendations where we must improve". Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 January 2020 -
News Article
Trust blames behaviour ‘from top of the NHS’ for bullying
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Leadership behaviour from the “very top of the NHS” has led to an increase in bullying, according to an official strategy document produced by an acute trust. East and North Hertfordshire Trust published its new people and organisation strategy in its January board papers. Within it, the report said: “Leadership behaviour from the very top of the NHS, during this time of pressure has led to an increase in accusations of bullying, harassment and discrimination.” In a separate section, the paper noted the difficulties of being a healthcare professional, saying “many staff leave before they need to and many more cite bullying, over work and stress, as reasons for absence and mistakes”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 January 2020 -
Content ArticleThere are too many integrated care systems (ICSs) in some parts of the country, especially the South West and Midlands, writes Alastair McLellan and Dave West in this HSJ article. This means that effective integration will struggle due to limited resources, leadership capacity and ability to influence large providers. It is also a problem widely acknowledged at the centre and within the regions. The proposed structure for ICSs is overly complex, consisting of a partnership board with little statutory power, which is meant to give strategic direction to an executive board which in practice will be held accountable for all decisions, but which is also meant to give up as much power and money as possible to “place based” entities which remain ill defined and have no statutory standing.
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Content ArticleThe recent workforce race equality standard report described how staff from a Black and minority ethnic background are less well represented at senior levels of the NHS, and that they have worse day-to-day work experiences and face more challenges in progressing their careers. In this Nuffield Trust chart, Billy Palmer shows how stark some of the differences are.
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Content Article
Yakob Seman Ahmed, former Director General for Medical services in Ethiopia and the chair of national patient safety task force, and a recent Humphrey fellow, Public Health Policy, at the Virginia Commonwealth University, reflects on Patient Safety Learning's recent report 'Mind the implementation gap: The persistence of avoidable harm in the NHS' and the similar challenges Ethiopia faces in implementing its own standards and policies.- Posted
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Content Article
In a previous blog, 'What is a Whistleblower',[1] Hugh drew attention to negative perceptions of whistleblowers in the eyes of some people. A crossword and clues were published on the hub to emphasise how wrong such perceptions are and how damaging they can be, with serious patient safety implications.[2] This follow-up outlines the nature of the journey travelled by some NHS staff who have spoken up and the problems which still exist with NHS whistleblowing culture. It provides a link to an attached file which contains the answers to each clue. The attachment also shows the completed crossword in larger, easier-to-read, format than the small illustration in this blog. There is a further link to companion notes which expand on the answer to each clue. These notes contain more detail about the realities of speaking up. They reinforce the link between hostility towards those who speak up and an ongoing series of patient safety scandals.[7-21] -
Content ArticlePreventable harm continues to occur to critically ill premature babies, despite efforts by hospital neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) to improve processes and reduce harm. This article in the Journal for Healthcare Quality describes the introduction of a robust process improvement (RPI) program at a NICU in a US children's hospital. Leaders, staff, and parents were trained in RPI concepts and tools and given regular mentoring for their improvement initiatives, which focused on central line blood stream infections, very low birth weight infant nutrition and unplanned extubations. The authors conclude that implementing the RPI program resulted in significant and sustainable improvements to reduce harm in the NICU.
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Content ArticleHuge numbers of patients suffer avoidable harm in US hospitals each year as a result of unsafe care. In this blog, published in the Harvard Business Review, the authors argue that these numbers could be greatly reduced by taking four actions: Make patient safety a top priority in hospitals’ practices and cultures, establish a National Patient Safety Board, create a national patient and staff reporting mechanism, and turn on EHRs machine learning systems that can alert staff to risky conditions.
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Content ArticleAs part of the Medicines and Medical Devices Act 2021, the UK Government formally committed to establishing the new role of a Patient Safety Commissioner for England. In this blog Dr Victoria Moore explores the role of the proposed Patient Safety Commissioner, arguing that this may not be sufficient to ensure patient safety.
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Content ArticleIn this blog for The Health Foundation, the authors make five recommendations for strengthening NHS management and leadership: Support providers and systems to tackle variation in management practice Improve access to training and development opportunities Ensure training equips managers and leaders with the skills they need today Tackle the reporting burden and 'priority thickets' facing managers Ensure the role of managers and leaders is better understood and valued
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Content ArticleFollowing the Shrewsbury maternity scandal where "at least 201 babies would have survived with better care", outgoing CQC chief inspector of hospitals Ted Baker said the NHS should listen to criticism to be able to change. Ted Baker said the NHS faced a resistance to being challenged and "for anyone to refuse to listen to criticisms of what the NHS does I think is a big mistake." Listen to Ted Baker's, CQC's outgoing chief inspector, full interview on Times Radio.
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Content ArticleNow that the national plan to tackle the elective backlog is public, thoughts will be turning to how to achieve the challenging task ahead. A week before the plan was published, the King's Fund held a roundtable, supported by Novartis, with local health care leaders to discuss just that. The overwhelming theme from this discussion was that effective communication within local systems will be essential to success. The national strategy has set out the ambition, but ultimately solutions will be implemented locally. Five relationships stood out as being vital. Local areas and their neighbours. Primary and secondary care. Leaders and their workforce. NHS and patients. Local systems and their data.
