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Showing results for tags 'Organisational culture'.
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News Article
Southern Health: 'Cultural shift' in communication with patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A doctor told a panel investigating an NHS trust there has been a "cultural shift" in the way staff communicate with patients and their families. Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust is being investigated after failures in its care of five patients who died between 2011 and 2015. Dr Susie Carman said staff went through a "rough patch" when they "felt worried about doing the wrong thing". She said there was "more confidence" among staff to communicate better. The inquiry, which is due to last six weeks, is probing how the trust currently handles complaints, communicates with families of patients, and carries out investigations. It follows a report by Nigel Pascoe QC that found Southern Health, one of the biggest psychiatric trusts in England, acted with "disturbing insensitivity and a serious lack of proper communication" to family members. Dr Carman said there had since been a "genuine culture shift from the top of the organisation". She believed the trust could "still do things better" in its communication methods but said there was "more will about understanding why it (communication) is so important". The inquiry heard that a patient's "consent to share" information or not could present an "obstacle" in communicating with families and carers. Ahead of the inquiry, the bereaved families decided to withdraw from the process after they claimed to have been "misled, misrepresented and bullied" by the NHS. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 March 2021 -
News ArticleNHS England has ordered an independent review into patient safety and governance concerns at an acute trust which had been resisting calls to take this step, HSJ has learned. The intervention at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust comes after pressure from staff and local MPs, who believe more extensive investigation is required into cases of patient harm within the trauma and orthopaedics division. The broad issues were first revealed by HSJ in November, with documents suggesting several patients were harmed after leaders failed to act on multiple concerns being raised about a surgeon. The trust has already commissioned one external review. This reported last year and found the service to be riven by “internecine squabbles”. However, the review was overseen by trust executives and the terms of reference were focused on incident reporting and culture within the department. It is understood that some consultants have since been pushing for further investigation into specific cases where patients were harmed, as well as concerns that managers or clinicians who were accused of failing to tackle the issues have since been promoted to more senior positions. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 2 March 2021
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News Article
Bullying on NHS maternity units and poor training a risk to safety, MPs told
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Doctors and midwives working in maternity services face higher levels of bullying than any other part of the NHS, MPs have been told. According to the General Medical Council, trainee doctors in maternity services report more than twice the level of bullying seen in the rest of the NHS while the Nursing and Midwifery Council said midwives were also more likely to be bullied. MPs on the Commons health select committee heard that the culture in some maternity units was a major barrier to improving safety and tackling poor care. In an evidence session as part of an ongoing inquiry into maternity care, MPs were also warned the lack of properly funded training was forcing some midwives to pay out of their own pocket. The inquiry by the committee was launched last year after repeated maternity scandals at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust and East Kent Hospitals University Trust. Giving evidence to the committee, Charlie Massey, chief executive of the General Medical Council said: “We do see in our data some quite troubling data around bullying." “If you are an obstetrics or gynaecology trainee, we see in our national training survey each year that some 14% report that they have experienced bullying – and that’s against an average for all trainees of 6%. You see more than double the rate of bullying in obstetrics and gynaecology than you do elsewhere.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 January 2021 -
News ArticleA nurse who was threatened by colleagues for speaking out about care failings at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust has said bullying remains a “real problem” in the NHS. Helene Donnelly has told MPs that more than 10 years on from the scandal – commonly known as Mid Staffs – she was still seeing “echoes” of what she experienced happening across the country. “Although it is in the minority, as we saw at Mid Staffs the results can be absolutely catastrophic” She called for the development of a national body to improve workplace cultures in the NHS and “stamp out bullying once and for all”. The inquiry into poor standards of care and deaths at Mid Staffordshire indentified issues around staff behaviour, inadequate staffing levels and skills, and lack of effective leadership and support. Ms Donnelly told a Health and Social Care Committee hearing today that there were “real negative behaviours” at the trust that created a “real bullying culture of fear and intimidation”. “There was not a culture that encouraged and enabled staff to speak up and if they did as I did, we were bullied and threatened,” said Ms Donnelly, who now holds the roles of ambassador for cultural change and lead Freedom to Speak Up Guardian at the organisation where she works. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Nursing Times
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News Article
New training for NHS maternity staff to boost babies safety
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hundreds of senior midwives are to be given new training to help improve culture and leadership across 126 NHS trusts. Patient safety minister Nadine Dorries said a new £500,000 maternity leadership programme would be rolled out later this year aimed at giving senior staff running maternity wards the skills and knowledge they need to boost culture and safety. Its one step towards improving the working relationships between midwives and obstetricians and follows the damning report by the Ockenden inquiry into decades of poor care at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust. The report, published last month, highlighted leadership on maternity wards as a key factor in cases at the trust which led to preventable baby deaths and cases of neglect over many years. Announcing the fund, Nadine Dorries said: “The shocking and tragic findings of the Ockenden Review highlighted the importance of strengthening maternity leadership and oversight as well as fostering more collaborative approaches within maternity and neonatal services. “I’m pleased to announce a new training programme for NHS maternity leaders, which will empower nurses, midwives and obstetricians to get the best out of their teams, and deliver safe, world-class care to mothers and their babies.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 January 2021 Government press release -
News ArticleLabour is to push for key changes to the government’s NHS reforms, with new laws on transparency in the NHS and a demand for safe staffing levels on hospital wards, following a series of scandals relating to failures in patient care. Amendments to the government’s Health and Care Bill will also include plans for the investigation of stillbirths by medical examiners, and for limits on the power of the health secretary to interfere in investigations. Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth believes the changes – which also include giving local NHS regions the ability to object to some spending limits if they consider them to pose a risk to patient safety – will attract the support of Conservative MPs. In an exclusive interview with The Independent ahead of the Labour Party conference in Brighton, Mr Ashworth said it was vital that the NHS learned from mistakes and improved its record on safety, which he said could only be achieved through greater transparency. “Patient safety has been forgotten in this bill. The patient voice has been ignored. Patients are like the ghosts in the machine,” he said. “The bill is going through parliament, and we are putting down amendments to improve it as best we can. We want to put in the bill a framework to deliver greater patient safety, because after all, it should be the golden thread running through every aspect of healthcare delivery." Read full story Source: The Independent, 26 September 2021
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News ArticleThe Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) outgoing chief inspector of hospitals has called on integrated care system leaders to be ‘courageous’ in putting quality first. Speaking at the HSJ’s Patient Safety Congress, Ted Baker implored ICS leaders to not focus solely on financial and operational targets, although he also acknowledged “there is a lot of pressure to meet [those] targets”. In his speech yesterday, he said: “It’s often taken really courageous leaders to put quality first ahead of financial targets and operational targets… You have to be courageous to do that and I think some of the leaders of the ICSs, they need to be that courageous. “They need to focus on quality and safety within an [ICS] and not, if you like, go down the kind of NHS path of focusing on financial and operational targets. “If we can do that, we can have a really transformative effect on integrated care across [the] system. I suppose that’s what I’m asking for: courage from all of us to tackle some of the cultural issues in the NHS." Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 22 September 2021
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News Article
Service rated ‘good’ despite ‘weaknesses in culture’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A trust’s maternity services were rated ‘good’ despite an independent report finding ‘weaknesses in the culture’ and ‘defensive and fractious’ behaviours, HSJ has learned. As previously reported, former staff at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospital Trust had raised concerns with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) over what they described as a “toxic management culture” and “unsafe” staffing levels in the trusts maternity service. Particular concerns were raised around community midwifery services. This prompted an unannounced inspection by the CQC in May, which found “low morale and negative culture” in the services. However, the CQC ultimately concluded the trust was taking positive steps to address the problems and rated its maternity services “good” overall, as well as for leadership and safety. Some frontline staff in the service have questioned those findings, however, and pointed to an independent review which was conducted in the early months of 2021. This review, carried out by independent consultant Debbie Graham and seen by HSJ, concluded there was “evidence of weaknesses in the culture; evidenced in the behaviours of some staff which appears to go unaddressed; a lack of strong, visible leadership; a lack of a shared vision; the finding that some staff have a fear of ‘speaking up’; and poor communication systems.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 20 September 2021 -
News Article
Staff frightened to speak about NHS trust bullying
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A culture of bullying and racial discrimination has been found at a hospital trust, according to an inspection report. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said there was a bullying culture across Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) Trust, with many staff too frightened to speak up. The trust has been told it requires improvement as a result of the report. NUH said it was working to address the concerns. The report said a number of the bullying cases were directly attributable to racial discrimination. It said the trust's latest staff survey showed the organisation was above average for black, Asian and minority ethnic staff experiencing bullying. Sarah Dunnett, the CQC's head of hospital inspection, said they were told of bullying incidents that had not been addressed. "We were concerned about the culture of bullying across the trust with many staff being too frightened to speak up," she said. She said the CQC would "monitor the service closely" to ensure changes were made. Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 September 2021 -
News Article
Scandal-hit trust sees surge of staff voicing concerns
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A trust facing serious questions about its working culture has had a dramatic rise in the number of concerns raised about issues such as harassment and bullying. In the first quarter of 2021-22, staff raised 84 incidents to East of England Ambulance Service Trust’s Freedom to Speak Up guardian, compared with only eight in the first quarter of 2020-21. Half of the cases raised to the guardian this year involved issues of harassment, bullying or concerns about behaviours or relationships, according to a report to the trust board. However, the biggest single area of concern — with 35 cases — was “the inconsistent applications of processes in policies” and only one out of 84 cases involved patient safety or quality. The report said: “Staff across the organisation are exhausted and express concern at continuing under this pressure… staff continue to report that the slow pace of change leaves them with little confidence of lasting change.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 September 2021 -
News ArticleThe boss of a NHS trust that asked hospital staff for fingerprints and handwriting samples as it hunted a whistleblower is stepping down. Dr Stephen Dunn will leave West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust in the summer after seven years as chief executive. An independent inquiry into the way management handled the affair is expected to report in the autumn. In 2018, Jon Warby received a letter two months after the death of his wife, Susan. It claimed mistakes were made during her bowel surgery. An inquest into her death was subsequently told how she had been given glucose instead of saline fluid via an arterial line. The Doctors' Association described the hospital's attempt to find the author of the letter a "witch-hunt". A subsequent Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection said the way internal investigations had been conducted by the hospital was "unusual and of concern". Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 July 2021
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News Article
Report finds ethnic minority staff face 'regular discrimination'
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
A new report published by Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, consultancy Nous reveals worrying examples of discrimination towards ethnic minority staff. It has been noted that attempts at progress and improving equality has had 'limited effectiveness' with ethnic minorities experiencing minimal resources to carry out their roles. Findings showed ethnic minorities faced barriers to appropriate care with staff experiencing "substantial inequalities". Read full story.(paywalled) Source: HSJ, 10 June 2021 -
News ArticleOversight failures, a fearful workplace culture and lax quality standards for years at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Arkansas, USA, allowed a pathologist who was routinely drunk on the job to misdiagnose thousands of veterans — sometimes with dire or deadly consequences, a new investigation has found. Hospital leaders “failed to promote a culture of accountability” that would have led more of the doctor’s colleagues to come forward with accounts that his behavior was putting patients at risk, according to the report released Wednesday by VA’s Office of Inspector General. But the staff members at the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks in Fayetteville feared that reporting their concerns would lead to retaliation from their bosses. “Any one of these breakdowns could cause harmful results,” Inspector General Michael Missal’s staff wrote in an 86-page report about the failures to stop the pathologist, Robert Morris Levy. “Together and over an extended period of time, the consequences were devastating, tragic, and deadly.” Read full story Source: The Washington Post, 2 June 2021
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News ArticleThe Care Quality Commission (CQC) has revealed a new strategy that will place more emphasis on a patient’s experience of care and seek to get a better grip on ”care settings where there’s a greater risk of a poor culture going undetected”. Ian Trenholm, chief executive of the CQC told HSJ the CQC’s new approach would be informed by the belief that ”people’s experience of care is driven as much from the way different providers will interact with each other – both public sector, private sector, third sector - in a place as much as it by the individual performance of individual providers.” He repeated his pledge, made to HSJ in August, that the CQC would endeavour to make inspections less time consuming for providers. An important part of the CQC’s increased focus on patients’ experience of care would be taking more effort to determine the quality of services whose users may have trouble expressing their views, said Mr Trenholm. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 27 May 2021
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News ArticleAlmost a fifth of nurses who left the profession cited a negative workplace culture as a reason for leaving along with almost a quarter saying they were under too much pressure. The nursing regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) warned there could be an exodus of registered nurses after the coronavirus pandemic in its latest annual report. Despite a record number of nurses and midwives joining the profession across the UK, the NMC said pressure on frontline nurses could drive many away. In a survey of 5,639 nurses who left the register between July 2019 and June 2020, the NMC found that after retirement as the most common reason for leaving, almost a quarter of nurses (23%) said they left their jobs because of "too much pressure", leading to stress and poor mental health. A total of 18% blamed a negative workplace culture as the reason to leave. The NMC report warned: “These issues existed before the pandemic, and may well outlast it, further disrupting an already fatigued nursing and midwifery workforce. If not addressed, this could have a significant impact on the number of people we report leaving our register over the next year and beyond.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 May 2021
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EventThis one day masterclass will focus on a toolkit to allow organisations to use patient experience and incident to improve patient safety. The Toolkit uses 3 phases: planning, implementation and review. The Francis Report showed that the NHS had stopped listening to the needs of its users. Patient experience is still an underutilised tool in the armoury of a healthcare organisation and commissioners. The toolkit uses the priorities of the Francis Report to improve patient experience and patient safety. These include putting patients first, openness, candour, accountability, complaints handling, culture of caring and compassionate leadership. For further information and to book your place visit https://www.healthcareconferencesuk.co.uk/conferences-masterclasses/patient-experience-and-learning-from-incidents-to-improve-safety or email aman@hc-uk.org.uk. hub members receive a 20% discount. Email info@pslhub.org for discount code.
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Event
Systems approach to patient safety
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
This one day masterclass is part of a series of masterclasses focusing on how to use Human Factors in your workplace. Leadership in the NHS is the responsibility of all staff. Understanding human factors will allow healthcare to enhance performance, culture and organisation. These masterclasses have been re-designed in line with the new Patient Safety Syllabus. It will look at why things go wrong and how to implement change to prevent it from happening again or mitigate the risks. This masterclass will focus on systems to improve patient safety. For further information and to book your place visit https://www.healthcareconferencesuk.co.uk/conferences-masterclasses/systems-approach-patient-safety-masterclass or click on the title above or email kate@hc-uk.org.uk hub members can receive a 20% discount. Email info@pslhub.org for discount code. -
EventPerioperative practitioners have worked tirelessly to rise to the challenges presented in recent years, and now continue to face the challenge of managing record-breaking waiting lists. Theatre work is challenging. You’re on your feet all day, mentally engaged and, at times, emotionally charged. This study day gives you an opportunity to focus on your own health and wellbeing as well as the welfare of your patients. "If we look after ourselves, we can look after others!" Topics will include: Review of mental health wellbeing and how to optimise it Health diet and fluid intake The benefits of exercise Optional Tai Chi taster session The importance of sleep and rest Debriefing and feedback to prevent burnout and PTSD Menopause awareness Open debate: Achieving a work-life balance in a demanding perioperative role Book
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EventThis one day masterclass will focus on improving patient safety by motivating staff to change behaviour and affect organisational culture. It looks at effective ways to encourage health professionals to routinely embed high quality clinical evidence into their everyday work. It will explore the characteristics of relatively successful behaviour change interventions. Key Learning Objectives: Improve patient safety by motivating staff Explore the characteristics of successful behaviour change interventions Embed high quality clinical evidence into everyday work Understand safety culture Improve motivation with staff Learn how to implement 'Nudge Theory' within your organisation. Facilitated by Mr Perbinder Grewal General & Vascular Surgeon and Human Factors & Patient Safety Trainer. Register
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Human Factors in your work and your team
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
This virtual masterclass, facilitated by Mr Perbinder Grewal, will guide you in how to use Human Factors in your workplace. All medical and non-medical staff should attend. Leadership in the NHS is the responsibility of all staff. Understanding human factors will allow healthcare to enhance performance, culture and organisation. It can be used to assess why things go wrong and how to implement change to prevent it from happening again or mitigate the risks. Perbinder Grewal is a Consultant Surgeon. He is a human factors and patient safety trainer. He leads on medical education both locally and nationally. He is a Member of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He has a passion for training and medical education. He is a Module Tutor for the ChM in Vascular Surgery for the University of Edinburgh and Tutor for the ChM in General Surgery for the past 5 years. He has Postgraduate Certificates in Leadership and Coaching. Register -
Event
Human Factors in your work and your team
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
This virtual masterclass, facilitated by Mr Perbinder Grewal, will guide you in how to use Human Factors in your workplace. All medical and non-medical staff should attend. Leadership in the NHS is the responsibility of all staff. Understanding human factors will allow healthcare to enhance performance, culture and organisation. It can be used to assess why things go wrong and how to implement change to prevent it from happening again or mitigate the risks. Perbinder Grewal is a Consultant Surgeon. He is a human factors and patient safety trainer. He leads on medical education both locally and nationally. He is a Member of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He has a passion for training and medical education. He is a Module Tutor for the ChM in Vascular Surgery for the University of Edinburgh and Tutor for the ChM in General Surgery for the past 5 years. He has Postgraduate Certificates in Leadership and Coaching. For more information https://www.healthcareconferencesuk.co.uk/conferences-masterclasses/human-factors-workplace or email kerry@hc-uk.org.uk hub member receive a 20% discount. Email info@pslhub.org for the discount code. -
Event
Pursuit of Safety Culture Excellence
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
This one day masterclass, Mr Perbinder Grewal, General & Vascular Surgeon and Human Factors Trainer, will focus on teams working effectively and productively through improving the culture within healthcare organisations. There will be a focus on how safety and culture is perceived by healthcare staff and how culture relates to QI and audit. The outcome of the day is to not only improve safety culture and patient safety but also staff experience and staff engagement. Key learning objectives: Define culture within healthcare. Understand safety culture. Explore culture of quality improvement and audits. Improve civility within teams. Learn how to lead cultural change. All Medical and Non-medical Staff should attend. This masterclass is aimed at Clinical Staff, Team Managers, Senior Management. Register hub members receive 20% discount. Email: info@pslhub.org for discount code. -
EventThis one day masterclass will focus on improving patient safety by motivating staff to change behaviour and affect organisational culture. It will look at effective ways to encourage health professionals to routinely embed high quality clinical evidence into their everyday work. It will explore the characteristics of relatively successful behaviour change interventions. The course is facilitated by Perbinder Grewal, a General & Vascular Surgeon. He is a human factors and patient safety trainer; leads on medical education both locally and nationally; is a Member of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; has a passion for training and medical education; is a Module Tutor for the ChM in Vascular Surgery for the University of Edinburgh and Tutor for the ChM in General Surgery for the past 5 years; has Postgraduate Certificates in Leadership and Coaching. For further information and to book your place visit https://www.healthcareconferencesuk.co.uk/conferences-masterclasses/motivating-staff or email kate@hc-uk.org.uk hub members can receive 20% discount. Please email info@pslhub.org
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EventuntilThis event for Speak Up Month brings the themes of Speak Up, Listen Up and Follow Up together to focus on culture. This event, in association with the Institute of Business Ethics, will be chaired by Mark Chambers, Associate Director at the IBE and Non-executive director at the Care Quality Commission. The panel will discuss what a "Speaking Up Culture" means and how to foster an environment where people can speak up and be confident they will listened to and the action will follow for learning and improvement. Mark will be in conversation with Katy Steward, Head of Culture and Transformation and NHS England/Improvement with other guests to be confirmed. Register
