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Found 1,304 results
  1. Content Article
    A new report from the Public Policy Projects (PPP) calls on integrated care systems (ICSs) to harness the unique capabilities of the pharmacy sector and implement a pharmacy-led transformation of healthcare delivery. The report, Driving true value from medicines and pharmacy, is chaired by Yousaf Ahmad, ICS Chief Pharmacist and Director of Medicines Optimisation at Frimley Health and Care Integrated Care System, and is the culmination of three roundtable events attended by key stakeholders from across the pharmacy sector and ICS leadership. Insight from these roundtables has also been accepted as evidence in the Health and Care Select Committee’s recent inquiry into the future of the pharmacy sector.
  2. News Article
    The government must allow health systems to plan their finances over a longer period to help deliver ‘real’ savings by rationalising services, says a leading chief executive. Kevin McGee, who recently stepped down from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, said the “short-termism” baked into the annual NHS budget cycle is a major source of frustration for local leaders. Many trusts and systems have struggled to deliver their financial plans this year due to the savings required, and Mr McGee warned that continuing to “salami slice” the budgets will exacerbate patient safety risks. He said Lancashire and many other systems urgently need to rationalise and consolidate acute services on fewer sites, which would bring significant cost savings. However, changes such as these can often take years to plan and implement. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 November 2023
  3. News Article
    No senior NHS England director is prepared to take responsibility for ADHD services — which are facing waits of up to a decade and severe medication shortages — HSJ has discovered. Despite soaring demand for assessments and widespread drug shortages recently triggering a national patient safety alert, responsibility for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder services does not sit within any NHS England directorate. HSJ understands that none of NHSE’s mental health, learning disability, or autism programmes have been given any resources for ADHD. It is also claimed that the medical and long-term conditions teams “are not very interested” in taking responsibility, and “assumed someone else was doing it”. A senior source, very close to the issue, told HSJ that no NHS senior director had taken “ownership” of the issue, and there was a widespread misapprehension that responsibility for ADHD services was part of the autism remit given to the mental health directorate. “We haven’t got the attention we need around ADHD,” said the source, “we need a [dedicated] neurodiversity programme.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 26 October 2023
  4. News Article
    The NHS waiting list in England has hit a new record high, with almost 7.8 million people waiting for treatment, data shows. An estimated 7.75 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of August, up from 7.68 million in July. It is the highest number since records began in August 2007. The waiting list for treatment has been growing for much of the last decade, passing three million in 2014, four million in 2017, five million in 2021 and seven million in 2022. As the NHS waiting list grows A&E pressures are “ running red hot”, a major think tank has warned, with new figures showing 123,000 patients waited more than 12 hours in emergency departments last month. Some 8,998 people in England are estimated to have been waiting more than 18 months to start routine hospital treatment at the end of August, up from 7,289 at the end of July, according to data. A total of 396,643 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of August, up from 389,952 at the end of July. The Government and NHS England have set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than a year by March 2025. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 October 2023
  5. News Article
    An NHS hospital has been accused of posing a continuing risk to patients by “covering up” leadership failures, including not properly investigating the deaths of two babies. Dr Max Mclean, chairman of Bradford Teaching Hospitals trust, has quit in protest at the conduct of the trust’s chief executive, Professor Mel Pickup, after no action was taken over serious concerns about her performance. In a blistering resignation letter, Mclean said he “cannot, in good conscience, work with a CEO who has fallen so short of the standards expected of her role that there is a genuine safety risk to patients and colleagues”. He is calling for senior national NHS figures to establish new leadership at the trust, and has written to the head of NHS England to share his concerns about Pickup, who has been in post since 2019. Mclean told The Times there were parallels with the Lucy Letby scandal, when management ignored the concerns of whistleblowers. “Patients are at risk, babies are at risk, and there could be avoidable deaths unless there is a change of leadership,” he said. The former detective chief superintendent who has chaired the trust since 2019, raised nine serious issues about Pickup’s performance, which he said were confirmed by an independent investigation that concluded last month. However, the trust’s board met on October 2 and decided there would be no further action against Pickup, leaving Mclean with “no option” but to resign and speak publicly. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 10 October 2023
  6. News Article
    Financial directors need to take responsibility for safety, which should be at the core of how the NHS runs services, the leadership of the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) said at its launch Wednesday. The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch is now an independent body – and has been renamed HSSIB – although maternity investigations are hosted by the Care Quality Commission. Questioning how many finance directors across the NHS take responsibility for safety, HSSIB’s interim chief investigator Rosie Benneyworth said: “We need a position where finance directors in every organisation are as responsible for safety as the person leading the safety agenda and vice versa, the safety person works with the finance agenda to support them. “Often you see the finance director and safety lead don’t work effectively together and we need to change that.” Dr Benneyworth said progress will not be made unless operational delivery, financial delivery and safety are tackled “in the same breath”. HSSIB’s new chair Ted Baker also called for safety to become a core part of running services “in the way running the accounts is”, as it is currently still seen “as an add-on”. He stressed that safety “drives efficiencies, enables innovation and saves costs”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 19 October 2023
  7. News Article
    Trusts haven been warned to be careful of “contentious” approaches to staff recognition, such as those that mimic the “clap for carers” initiative organised during the pandemic. NHS England has published a Staff Recognition Framework which stresses marking staff achievements is important. However, it also warns staff could also be demoralised by recognition they felt was derisory. The framework says: ”During the pandemic, studies suggested the weekly 8pm ‘clap for carers’ movement and use of the word ‘heroes’ were contentious approaches to staff recognition. The NHS is always in the media spotlight. Don’t let this put you off but do consider the broader political and economic context.” Recent strikes saw clinicians make the point that organised clapping was no substitute for increase-linked pay increases. The document for senior leaders recommends “developing a recognition strategy” which takes a triple track “formal, informal and everyday” approach to celebrating staff achievement. It said “evidence shows that pay alone will not influence staff wellbeing, engagement, and retention in the long-term – praise and social approval have also proved to be critical factors”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 12 October 2023
  8. News Article
    The Health and Social Care Select Committee have commissioned an Expert Panel to consider the Government’s progress against accepted recommendations from public inquiries and reviews on patient safety. The Panel will consider a range of recommendations made by public inquiries and reviews on both patient safety and whistleblowing and subsequently select a number of these for evaluation. The Panel will in its final report provide a rating of the Government’s progress against each of these recommendations. Panel members are: Professor Dame Jane Dacre (Chair). Sir Robert Francis KC Anita Charlesworth Professor Stephen Peckham Sir David Pearson Professor Emma Cave Read full story Source: House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee, 24 October 2023
  9. News Article
    The Health Services Safety Investigation Branch has been accused of taking “divisive potshots” at NHS finance directors. Speaking at an event to mark the watchdog becoming an independent body, HSSIB chief investigator Rosie Benneyworth said: “We need a position where finance directors in every organisation are as responsible for safety as the person leading the safety agenda and vice versa… Often you see the finance director and safety lead don’t work effectively together and we need to change that.” Dr Benneyworth said progress on safety would not be made unless it was tackled “in the same breath” as operational and financial matters. In response, the Healthcare Financial Management Association said Ms Bennyworth’s views had “incensed” its members. Commenting below the story, HFMA chief executive Mark Knight said: “I have been contacted by a number of finance directors who are incensed by the comments in this article. To gain a fuller picture of the views of the newly created HSSIB we will be asking for a meeting with Dr Benneyworth and [HSSIB chair Ted] Baker. The HFMA would like to understand the evidence on which the assertions in the article are based, which are completely at odds with how I know the vast majority of finance directors and their teams behave.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 23 October 2023
  10. News Article
    Regulation of managers must not lead to a disbarring process without also introducing ”developmental” and supportive measures, NHS England’s national patient safety director has said. Speaking at HSJ’s Patient Safety Congress, Aidan Fowler was asked whether NHS board members and managers should be regulated, amid calls for this in the wake of the Lucy Letby scandal. He said: “I think there are pros and cons to regulation… What I would say is that you just have to be cautious that you do not lead to a disbarring process without the developmental side of regulation, and the support side of regulation. For staff, to support them to do a good job. “We have seen that there is a gap in patient safety training for boards, which we need to work on, for them to understand and to encourage them to talk about it more. “I think there is a developmental part of regulation, which is really important… in any discussion. I know because we are already having discussions around it. That is a key part to pay attention to.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ,18 September 2023
  11. News Article
    A national NHS leader has said regulation of managers ‘is coming’, and the service should ‘just go with it and make it as effective’ as possible. Sir Jim Mackey, national director for elective recovery and the chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust, also told HSJ that regulation could offer better “protection” for management staff if implemented properly. NHS England is considering additional regulation of NHS management after being asked to “revisit” the idea by health and social care secretary Steve Barclay in the wake of the murder of babies by nurse Lucy Letby at the Countess of Chester Hospital. In an interview with HSJ, Sir Jim said: “Honestly, I think it’s coming. So we just need to go with it and make it as effective as it can be. It’s completely understandable in the current context for politicians and the public to want people in these positions to be regulated.” He continued: “There’s potentially some protection for people in being regulated in an effective way, as well as [being subject to] clear rules, clear processes. If somebody makes an allegation and it’s found to be wrong [and] you’ve been through a thorough regulatory process, it’s going to help you to move on and put it behind you.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 18 September 2023
  12. News Article
    The deputy leader of a trust rated ‘inadequate’ by a health watchdog four times in the past decade has admitted the necessary changes to its culture may take a further four years. Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust staved off calls to break it up earlier this year after the Care Quality Commission raised its rating from “inadequate” to “requires improvement”. However, it has come under increased scrutiny in recent months after a review found it lost track of patient deaths, and a subsequent BBC Newsnight investigation discovered the report was edited to remove criticism of its leadership. The BBC found earlier drafts removed references to a “culture of fear” highlighted by some staff. Now deputy CEO Cath Byford has addressed growing concerns about the morale of staff working at the organisation, and their ability to speak up, at a meeting of Norfolk County Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee. During the meeting, she revealed the results of an anonymous survey which received 18,000 staff interactions. Most feedback was “not positive” admitted Ms Byford. She said many staff reported bullying and harassment, unfairness, inequality, and nepotism. This was particularly the case in recruitment, with staff feeling jobs were being lined up for certain individuals. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 September 2023
  13. News Article
    Leaders of two maternity services have been told to take urgent action, after inspectors found understaffing and declining levels of care, despite safety warnings from midwives. Maternity services at University Hospital North Durham and Darlington Memorial Hospital have been downgraded from “good” to “inadequate” in Care Quality Commission reports, published today. The CQC noted a “concerning deterioration” in the care the two services provided, despite midwives telling managers they felt the service was unsafe. Sue Jacques, chief executive of County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust, which runs the hospitals, said the CQC’s findings would be taken “extremely seriously”. The reports also said staff reported “feeling ‘frozen out’ or that their concerns were ignored by leaders” and that staff felt “‘continuity of carer’ was the trust’s main focus, despite depleted safe staffing levels, skill mix, and staff being pulled in to cover acute areas on a frequent basis”. Last year, trusts were told not to pursue continuity of carer models – which were previously championed by NHS England – unless they had adequate staffing levels to do so safely. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 September 2023
  14. News Article
    The WHO-hosted global conference on patient safety and patient engagement concluded yesterday with agreement across a broad range of stakeholders on a first-ever Patient safety rights charter. It outlines the core rights of all patients in the context of safety of healthcare and seeks to assist governments and other stakeholders to ensure that the voices of patients are heard and their right to safe health care is protected. “Patient safety is a collective responsibility. Health systems must work hand-in-hand with patients, families, and communities, so that patients can be informed advocates in their own care, and every person can receive the safe, dignified, and compassionate care they deserve,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Because if it’s not safe, it’s not care.” "Our health systems are stronger, our work is empowered, and our care is safer when patients and families are alongside us,” said Sir Liam Donaldson, WHO Patient Safety Envoy. “The journey to eliminate avoidable harm in health care has been a long one, and the stories of courage and compassion from patients and families who have suffered harm are pivotal to driving change and learning to be even safer." The global conference on patient engagement for patient safety was the key event to mark World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) which will be observed on 17 September under the theme “Engaging patients for patient safety”. Meaningful involvement of patients, families and caregivers in the provision of health care, and their experiences and perspectives, can contribute to enhancing health care safety and quality, saving lives and reducing costs, and the WPSD aims to promote and accelerate better patient and family engagement in the design and delivery of safe health services. At the conference, held on 12 and 13 September, WHO unveiled two new resources to support key stakeholders in implementing involvement of patients, families and caregivers in the provision of health care. Drawing on the power of patient stories, which is one of the most effective mechanisms for driving improvements in patient safety, a storytelling toolkit will guide patients and families through the process of sharing their experiences, especially those related to harmful events within health care. The Global Knowledge Sharing Platform, created as part of a strategic partnership with SingHealth Institute for Patient Safety and Quality Singapore, supports the exchange of global resources, best practices, tools and resources related to patient safety, acknowledging the pivotal role of knowledge sharing in advancing safety. “Patient engagement and empowerment is at the core of the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030. It is one of the most powerful tools to improve patient safety and the quality of care, but it remains an untapped resource in many countries, and the weakest link in the implementation of patient safety measures and strategies. With this World Patient Safety Day and the focus on patient engagement, we want to change that”, said Dr Neelam Dhingra, head of the WHO Patient Safety Flagship. Read full story Source: WHO, 14 September 2023
  15. News Article
    A trust chief executive has warned of a ‘really significant increase’ in patient anxiety and frustration created by the ongoing doctors’ strikes. Lance McCarthy, the chief executive officer of Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust, made the comments during the most recent four-day junior doctors’ strike, which also coincided with two days of consultant strike action. The trust leader told Hertfordshire and West Essex integrated care board on Friday: “We shouldn’t underestimate the impact industrial action is having.” Mr McCarthy said this impact was not just confined to strike days but also affected the run-up and aftermath of each bout of industrial action. He said every series of strike days caused service disruption for at least another 72 hours. He said: “We are seeing increasing frustration [from] our colleagues around it, because we are constantly duplicating work, cancelling patients, rebooking the same patients, etc. “We are [also] quite understandably starting to see in the last two months a really significant increase in anxiety and concern and frustration from our patients, who took it quite well the first couple of rounds but are understandably really frustrated. It is having a really significant impact.” In a further statement to HSJ, Mr McCarthy reiterated comments that trust staff had noticed an increase in anxiety, concern and frustration among both patients and colleagues in recent months. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 25 September 2023
  16. News Article
    The BMA’s GP Committee (GPC) has demanded an investigation into the Government and NHS England’s ‘mismanagement’ of this year’s vaccination programmes. A motion was passed at the GPC England meeting today which called for a review of the ‘circumstances which led to muddled and mismanaged communications’ and for reflection on how to ‘prevent a repeat occurrence’. Last month, there was confusion over the start date for the adult flu and Covid vaccination programmes, which usually start in September. NHS England said the programmes would start in October this year – a move which the BMA said would cause ‘serious disruption’. But the Government then announced that vaccination will begin on 11 September, in what the BMA has called a ‘u-turn’, following the identification of a new Covid variant. GPs were asked to vaccinate ‘as many people as possible’ by the end of October. The GPC has said today that these ‘conflicting instructions’ led to confusion among GPs while also impacting on patient safety. Read full story Source: Pulse, 21 September 2023
  17. News Article
    The national director for patient safety in England has cautioned against the ‘false hope’ of trying to achieve ‘zero harm’ from healthcare, describing it as unachievable. Speaking at HSJ’s Patient Safety Congress earlier this week Aidan Fowler told delegates: “The dream of zero harm is appealing. It’s what we all want. But it’s unachievable in reality, it’s unmeasurable [and] it carries risk.” Mr Fowler said what is really meant is eliminating “avoidable harm”, but also described this as “problematic”. He said: “I challenge any one of you to define ‘avoidable’. We start to define a complex system in simplistic terms. We hear, ‘we’ve had no avoidable harm for six hears in our hospital’. And you think, ‘is that real?’” Mr Fowler stressed the ambition should be to reduce harm to minimal levels, but said the notion that any provider could claim they had no harm for period of years was “hard to credit”. He said by pursuing the “zero harm” ambition, the NHS was also “setting unattainable goals to our staff”. “[We are] creating unrealistic expectations and burning them [staff] out and potentially creating moral distress when they’re not achieving something they’re told they should achieve,” he said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 September 2023
  18. Content Article
    In a recent report, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) for Health and Social Care sets out its view on the biggest challenges affecting the quality and safety of health and social care. In this blog, Alan Clamp, PSA's chief executive, summarises these challenges and the possible solutions. You can also read Patient Safety Learning's reflections on the PSA report here.
  19. Content Article
    This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Lucy and Rebecca talk to us about their experience as Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) early adopters. They discuss how PSIRF puts patients at the centre of incident investigations, and the challenges and opportunities they have faced in implementing PSIRF at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.
  20. Content Article
    Historically, patient safety efforts have focused mostly on measuring and responding to harm. However, safety is much more than the absence of harm. Instead, patient safety includes looking at the whole system: its past, present and future in all its complexity. Healthcare Excellence Canada and Patients for Patient Safety Canada held many conversations with users of the health system, people who work in healthcare and safety scientists. The ideas collected suggest a new way of approaching patient safety – where everyone can contribute to creating safe conditions and where harm is more than physical. This discussion guide summarises what has been learned so far and captured in this key statement: Everyone contributes to patient safety. Together we must learn and act to create safer care and reduce all forms of healthcare harm.
  21. Content Article
    The Thirlwall Inquiry has been set up to examine events at the Countess of Chester Hospital and their implications following the trial, and subsequent convictions, of former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby of murder and attempted murder of babies at the hospital. This document sets out the terms of reference for this inquiry, following an engagement process led by the inquiry’s independent chair, Lady Justice Thirlwall, with the affected families and other stakeholders.
  22. Content Article
    Recognition is about thanking people for their contribution at work. It is embedded in the organisational values of the NHS. By improving recognition we can deliver the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s ambition to attract and retain the workforce we need to deliver improved patient care. One of the seven elements of the NHS People Promise is, ‘we are recognised and rewarded’. It defines recognition as: “A simple thank you for our day-to-day work, formal recognition for our dedication…” It is important that we recognise our staff because evidence shows that pay alone will not influence staff wellbeing, engagement, and retention in the long-term – praise and social approval have also proved to be critical factors. The NHS and wider health and care sector has faced unprecedented workforce shortages and pressures in recent years. Yet, the most recent NHS staff survey illustrates that approximately half of staff do not feel recognised at work. NHS England has drawn on research and evidence and has worked with NHS organisations to develop this framework. It provides simple, easy-to-follow guidance and ideas for organisations to inform their own strategies and approaches.
  23. Content Article
    The case of Lucy Letby has dominated recent headlines and caused widespread shock. Much of the early discussion in the media after the verdict has focused on whether NHS managers mishandled concerns and suspicions raised by doctors about the sudden deaths of babies and potential criminal actions—and has labelled the doctors raising those concerns as the problem. But a polarised narrative of doctors versus managers won’t help resolve many underlying systemic issues in the NHS, writes David Oliver in this BMJ opinion piece. Many managers are themselves current or former clinical practitioners, so the divide isn’t sharp. Many of the serious problems currently affecting culture and morale in the NHS workforce happen with doctors, nurses, and other clinical staff in influential leadership and management roles. Simplistic and politicised talk of “pen pushers,” “bureaucrats,” and “too many managers” ignores the fact that many of the people in charge have clinical qualifications.
  24. Content Article
    In this interview, Derek Feeley, IHI President Emeritus and Senior Fellow shares the work of the Health Improvement Alliance Europe (HIAE) workgroup related to curiosity. He outlines five simple rules linked to complexity theory, which states that if you are trying to make sense of a complex situation, you should create simple, order-generating rules. The five simple rules are: Ask rather than tell. Listen to understand rather than to respond. Hear every voice rather than only those easiest to hear.  Prioritise problem framing rather than problem solving. Treat vulnerability as a strength rather than a weakness.
  25. Content Article
    Getting the president of the United States to consider enacting your policy proposals is a major achievement. Having him actually implement them is an accomplishment that can change lives. The patient safety movement reached that first milestone with a recent report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology entitled, A Transformational Effort on Patient Safety. Whether advocates achieve the second, crucial goal remains very much an open question. The PCAST casts a wide net, examining everything from nanotechnology to the public health workforce. It appears until now to have addressed patient safety only tangentially, when in 2014 it was a small part of a larger report on accelerating health system improvement through systems engineering.  The good news for patient safety advocates is that President Joe Biden has shown a genuine understanding of the issue. Leah Binder, president of the Leapfrog Group, hailed the report in a statement that singled out two of the recommendations. The first one was to publicly report Never Events (medical errors that never should have happened) by individual facility. The second was a recommendation to establish a National Patient Safety Team. A major barrier standing between recommendation and implementation is the patient safety movement’s paltry political power. At present, patient safety has little public awareness and no grassroots constituency. Hospitals, on the other hand, are an integral part of almost every Congressional district, have a largely positive public image and are facing tough financial pressures. The White House will think long and hard about taking any actions hospitals see as unreasonable.
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