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Found 1,519 results
  1. News Article
    NHS England has recorded more than 120,000 breaches of its mixed-sex hospital accommodation guidance in the past six years, a 257% increase. Guidance added to the NHS constitution in 2012 states that hospital patients will not share sleeping accommodation with members of the opposite sex “except where appropriate”. Exemptions include critical care wards or patients receiving treatment, such as chemotherapy, where they “may derive comfort from the presence of other patients with similar conditions”. The guidance also says patients should not share toilet or bathroom facilities with members of the opposite sex and should not “have to walk through an area occupied by patients of the opposite sex to reach toilets or bathrooms”. However, data from NHS England analysed by the Observer shows thousands of breaches every month, with patient dignity and safety put at risk. Caitlin (not her real name) worked on an acute mental health ward in a private hospital which switched from 12 women-only beds to 15 mixed beds. “Women on our ward often had a history of sexual or domestic abuse,” she said. “Some had tried to end their life in the wake of this, and a lot of them felt intimidated by the level of aggression shown by some men on the ward.” Women and men had separate wings but shared a communal area. “A lot of the women were really fearful of the men,” she added. Caitlin said the use of mixed-sex accommodation had a negative impact on some women’s recovery. “Women would stay in their rooms, not even coming out to watch TV,” she says. “Some acutely unwell women would display sexually disinhibited behaviour in the communal areas, which is a symptom of their diagnosis. They were put in a position where their dignity could not be protected.” “Women make hundreds of conscious and unconscious decisions to keep ourselves safe from men,” said Karen Ingala-Smith, author of Defending Women’s Spaces. “Women should not have to be on their guard like this when they are in hospital.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2023
  2. News Article
    The true picture of A&E waiting times in Wales has been seriously under-reported for a decade, the BBC can reveal. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has established thousands of hours are missed from monthly figures. Senior A&E doctors have been raising the issue for months. The Welsh government said it would ask health boards for assurances they were following the guidance "to ensure the data is absolutely transparent". The RCEM said it could not measure "how bad" things were because thousands of patients subject to so-called "breach exemptions" were not included in the overall A&E waiting times. The Welsh government initially disputed the RCEM's claim, but after seeing detailed figures - which were obtained through freedom of information (FOI) requests to health boards - it changed its position. Wales' health minister has repeatedly claimed A&E waiting times in Wales have "bettered English performance". But once the missing data is taken into account, it suggests the performance in Wales is worse. Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 October 2023
  3. Event
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    This two-day King's Fund conference aims to explore how the current strain on services makes listening to people more difficult but even more important, at a time when public satisfaction with the NHS is at an all-time low. Join us to hear about how you can make sure building in the user voice is routine and core to the business of the health and care system, not just ‘a nice to have’. Conference sessions will: discuss how the NHS and social care cannot deliver quality unless listening to patients and carers, and acting on their feedback, lies at the heart of its culture.   provide learning on how to listen well and what meaningful engagement with people and communities looks like. Gain insight into the findings from the Fund’s project on understanding integration with the HOPE (Heads of Patient Experience) network by working with six sites on an action learning piece. Learn about how health and social care decision-makers cannot overcome challenges and answer long-term questions alone - such as how the system will address the deep inequalities and how it can adapt to provide the joined-up, efficient care that people want and gives them more control – public input is crucial. Join peers to share learning on grasping this opportunity to finish building a culture where listening to patients, service-users, and communities is everyone's business.   Register
  4. Content Article
    In this webinar, Chloe from the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme and Raj, a patient who had had surgery at a surgical hub an hour and half away from his home, talk about a project to improve the elective surgical hub programme based on patients' experiences and feedback. They were joined by the Patients Association project manager, Hannah.  Elective hubs are surgical centres on existing hospital sites, separated from emergency services, which means the facilities can be kept free for patients waiting for planned operations, reducing the risk of short-notice cancellations. Raj speaks candidly of his experiences in the early days of the project, and Chloe explains how patient experiences have enabled the NHS to improve the service. 
  5. News Article
    The mother of a patient at Muckamore Abbey Hospital has described how her son contracted tuberculosis (TB) while at the hospital. She said he had been left severely disabled after a series of associated strokes. Patient P116 is now 40 years old and has suffered from severe epilepsy since he was a baby. His mother told the inquiry into abuse at the hospital that her concerns over her son's health were ignored. She said that even after he began developing symptoms - including losing six stone (38kg) of weight - staff seemed "not to care". In the end, he was only diagnosed with TB after his mother took him to hospital herself. Due to the delay in the diagnosis and the way the family's complaint was handled, a serious adverse incident review was carried out and P116's mother received a letter of apology from the then permanent secretary at the Department of Health, Richard Pengelly, and Theresa Villiers, who was Northern Ireland secretary at the time. His mother told the inquiry her son's time in Muckamore remained a "major trauma" for the family and she still found it very difficult to talk about. She told the inquiry she felt strongly that "independent expert support" should be given to patients abused or neglected in Muckamore, including specialist counselling for the patients and their families. Read full story Source: BBC News, 12 October 2023
  6. 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
  7. Content Article
    It is important that people who work in health and care are trained, skilled and treat patients and service users well. Regulators and accredited registers help to keep you safe by ‘registering’ health and care practitioners - you should check a practitioner’s registration when you: Pay for private services from a health or care practitioner. Employ a health or care practitioner. Commission services from a health or care practitioner. Have concerns about a practitioner. The link below allows you to search for a practitioner.
  8. 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
  9. News Article
    The NHS in England is facing mounting pressure amid a surge in patients attending A&E departments with minor ailments, health bosses have said. Emergency departments, which are designed for serious injuries and life-threatening emergencies only, are seeing an increase in people attending with sore throats, insomnia, coughs and earache. Data analysed by the Press Association news agency also shows more people going to A&E with complaints such as hiccups, nasal congestion, backache and nausea. Cases where sore throat was the chief complaint rose by 77% between 2021-22 and 2022-23, from 191,900 cases to 340,441. Patients going to A&E with coughs rose by 47%, from 219,388 to 322,500, while attendances for nosebleeds rose by a fifth, from 47,285 cases to 56,546. Miriam Deakin, the director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said: “The rise in A&E admissions is piling even more pressure on to an already stretched NHS. Persistent strain on primary care services, including GPs and dentists, means patients often resort to A&E when they cannot access timely care elsewhere. “Minor ailments such as coughs, earache, fever, nausea and hiccups can and should be managed through more appropriate services such as pharmacies and NHS 111 online. This could ease pressure on emergency departments, whose priority is to deliver urgent care for those most in need. Boosting capacity of staff, beds and equipment in these settings would also significantly help. However, this requires proper funding and support from the government.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 10 October 2023
  10. Content Article
    Urgent funding is required to clear waiting list backlogs and drive Northern Ireland's long-term healthcare transformation, the Northern Ireland Audit Office has said in a new report which outlines the health service's "critical situation" after almost a decade of worsening waiting lists for elective care. The NI Audit Office looked at waiting list data from 2014 to 2023. It found the number of patients waiting for elective care has risen by 452,000 during that nine-year period. The Audit Office also said: "Available information suggests waiting list performance levels are significantly worse in Northern Ireland compared with the other UK regions."
  11. News Article
    An NHS trust and ward manager have appeared in court charged with the manslaughter of a 22-year-old mental health patient who died in hospital in July 2015. Alice Figueiredo was found dead at Goodmayes Hospital in east London, and an investigation into her death was opened in April 2016. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorised the Met Police to charge North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) with corporate manslaughter last month following a five-year investigation. It is just the second NHS Trust to face manslaughter charges. The Trust is additionally charged with an offence under section three of the Health and Safety at Work Act in connection with mental health patient Ms Figueiredo's death. Ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa also faces a charge of gross negligence manslaughter and an offence under section seven of the Health and Safety at Work act. NELFT is just the second ever NHS Trust believed to have been charged with corporate manslaughter, after Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust was charged over the death of a woman who underwent an emergency Caesarean in 2015. Read full story Source: Mail Online, 6 October 2023
  12. Content Article
    The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) and the Office of the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (CAHPO) have launched three publications aimed at reducing misogyny and improving sexual safety in the ambulance service.
  13. Content Article
    This report presents findings from a rapid evidence review into improvement cultures in health and adult social care settings. The review aims to inform CQC’s approach to assessing and encouraging improvement, improvement cultures and improvement capabilities of services, while maintaining and strengthening CQC’s regulatory role. It also identifies gaps in the current evidence base.
  14. News Article
    Police are investigating possible corporate manslaughter at the hospital where serial killer Lucy Letby worked. The former nurse, 33, was jailed in August for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital. Cheshire Police said the latest investigation was in its early stages. Lawyers representing some of the victims' families said they were "reassured" steps were being taken to consider the actions of management. Organisations and companies can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care under The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. Det Supt Simon Blackwell, of Cheshire Police, said the inquiry would focus on the indictment period of the charges for Letby from June 2015 to June 2016. He said the investigation would consider areas "including senior leadership and decision making to determine whether any criminality has taken place". "At this stage we are not investigating any individuals in relation to gross negligence manslaughter," he added. Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 October 2023
  15. News Article
    A district general hospital has accused a major teaching trust of ‘failing to adhere to arrangements’ made around the provision of acute stroke services, sparking patient safety warnings in a local integrated care board’s (ICB) risk register. Harrogate and District Foundation Trust’s accusation that its neighbour, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, is failing to comply with protocol around acute stroke pathways was published in West Yorkshire ICB’s risk register. The ICB’s September risk register also said the “risk to patient safety is significant and probable if the situation remains unresolved”. The issues centre on the provision of hyper-acute stroke unit beds, which provide the first two to three days of care for patients with newly diagnosed strokes, and what happens to patients requiring acute stroke care following their initial HASU stay. West Yorkshire ICB said in its September’s performance report that the problem had “grown due to two recent clinical incidents,” but added “there is no quick solution to this problem”. Harrogate has raised concerns with the ICB in recent months that “a number of patients are not receiving HASU level care at Leeds”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 October 2023
  16. News Article
    The impact of successive doctors’ strikes is now ‘causing significant disruption and risk to patients’, including to those needing urgent heart and cancer treatment, NHS England leaders have told the BMA in their strongest warnings yet. A letter to the union’s council chair on Tuesday evening, leaked to HSJ, said: “We are increasingly concerned that the cumulative impact of this action is causing significant disruption and risk to patients… “We are extremely concerned that Christmas Day cover is insufficient to ensure appropriate levels of patient safety are being maintained across local health systems. This is particularly the case in the current period of industrial action, with three consecutive Christmas Day levels of service.” Although Christmas Day includes cover for emergency care, the officials said that in practice – with demand above Christmas Day levels, and with successive days and repeated strikes – it was not protecting patients needing urgent care. The letter, signed by NHSE leaders including chief medical officer Sir Steve Powis, and chief nurse Dame Ruth May, goes on: “Secondly, we are becoming increasingly concerned that combined periods of industrial action are impacting on our ability to manage individuals who require time-sensitive urgent treatment, for example cardiac, cancer or cardiovascular patients, or women needing urgent caesarean sections.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 October 2023
  17. News Article
    A trust has been reprimanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for exposing a domestic abuse victim to risk by disclosing their address to an ex-partner. University Hospitals Dorset Foundation Trust is one of only seven organisations in the UK – and the only NHS organisation – to have received a reprimand since July 2022 for a data breach involving a victim of domestic abuse. According to new details released by the ICO, University Hospitals Dorset received a reprimand in April this year over a procedure it had in place that, when sending correspondence by letter, would include the full addresses of all recipients of that letter without their consent to do so. In the case that was referred to the ICO, the subject of the data breach had their full address revealed to their ex-partner despite previous allegations of abuse, which has created a “risk of unwanted contact which will remain”. The ICO concluded that, while the subject did not request their address be withheld, it would not be a reasonable expectation that personal information would be shared without prior consent. The report raised concerns that UHD did not have a clear policy in place for managing situations where there are parental disputes and that no formal training was provided to administrative staff for dealing with such circumstances. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 2 October 2023
  18. News Article
    An NHS hospital trust in Nottingham failed to send more than 400,000 digital letters and documents to GPs and patients, BBC News can reveal. A former employee has told of "a lack of responsibility" over a new computer system. Patient body Healthwatch said it was "deeply concerned" by the scale of the incident and the impact on care. The trust says a full investigation took place in 2017 and found no significant harm to patients. But it has now said it will carry out a review of that investigation and take any further action needed. The healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it was not aware of the incident and would be following up with the trust. This is the second major incident in England involving unsent NHS letters uncovered by the BBC recently. Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 September 2023
  19. News Article
    Thousands of women are having induction of labour delayed because of a shortage of staff, raising concerns about the safety of them and their babies, HSJ has found. The issue has been highlighted at seven hospitals in Care Quality Commission reports over the past six months, and HSJ has identified a further three trusts declaring they are concerned about it in their own board papers over the same period. At University Hospitals of Leicester Trust, more than 1,300 “red flags” were raised in a five-month period due to delays in the induction of labour, linked to staffing levels, the CQC said earlier this month. Most were dealys in continuing inductions, and a smaller number were delays between admission and beginning an induction. UHL indicated it had set its own “red flag” bar locally, so all the delays did not represent a national alert. Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare, told HSJ: “At some maternity services we’ve found women having to wait long periods of time to be induced or for transfer to a labour ward once the induction process has started, and in some cases a lack of effective monitoring during periods of delay. “Where we have found concerns about delayed treatment – including induction of labour – we have made clear to those trusts that effective oversight of the issue is vital and that all action possible should be taken to mitigate any risk and keep people using the service safe.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 27 September 2023
  20. Content Article
    Mental health in the UK is getting worse. Sickness absence due to mental illness is soaring, rates of mental health difficulties are increasing at an alarming rate, and already overstretched services are struggling to meet rising demands. Along with over 30 organisations with an interest in mental health, the Centre for Mental Health has developed a plan to address this and build a mentally healthier nation.
  21. Event
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    This webinar is open to DoF's/CFOs and deputies only. On average 11,000 deaths a year are classed as avoidable with that number probably tripling in the years following the pandemic. Patient Safety Learning is a charity and independent voice for improving patient safety. They harness the knowledge, enthusiasm and commitment of healthcare organisations, professionals and patients for system-wide change and the reduction of preventable harm. They provide a wealth of free resources on the hub and they are on a mission to align leadership and frontline delivery of care; ensuring that patient safety is a core purpose in the development of integrated care. ICSs present a significant opportunity to drive improvements in patient safety in local health systems across the NHS. However, patient safety remains the ‘elephant in the room’ in the development of ICS roles and responsibilities. Helen will bring a unique perspective to this session as an ex-NHS finance director, she understands the pressure and conflicting priorities faced by NHS leaders. But with between 13 – 15% of yearly spending being attributed to patient safety issues. Not only morally is this an issue that needs to be addressed but getting it right can also have a big impact on the bottom line. This is the second webinar running as part of the HFMA Connect network. Join this supportive community dedicated to assisting NHS finance leaders like you, being run in collaboration with the HFMA Hub partnership. This new network facilitates knowledge sharing and looks to assist directors of finance, chief finance officers and deputies as they navigate the current challenges facing the NHS. Register
  22. Content Article
    The Health Service Executive (HSE) is a large organisation of over 100,000 people, whose job is to run all of the public health services in Ireland. The HSE manages services through a structure designed to put patients and clients at the centre of the organisation. 
  23. 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
  24. Content Article
    In this article, published by the Institute for Government, Sam Freedman looks at the state of the NHS pre and post pandemic and how staffing, bed shortages, staff churn and other issues have had an impact.  Sam argues we are drifting further into crisis due to a stubborn refusal by the government to to engage properly with these issues.
  25. 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
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