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Found 287 results
  1. Content Article
    As reported recently, the Scottish Healthcare Workers Coalition called upon the Scottish Government to reinstate 'universal masking' in health and social care settings.  In this statement written in support of their campaign, an occupational safety and health practitioner, David Osborn, explains the legal requirements for risk assessments that the Government ought to have undertaken before reaching such a decision that exposes healthcare staff to the life-changing consequences associated with repeat Covid-19 infections.  He also explains the legal duty of the Government to consult with workers before implementing changes that may affect their health and safety. Neither duty (risk assessment nor prior consultation with workers) appears to have been well met, putting the Scottish Government and Health Boards in breach of UK-wide health and safety law. 
  2. Content Article
    In this report, Professor Brian Edwards summarises contributions given to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry by various politicians and senior civil servants, relating to how prepared the UK and Scottish Governments were for the Covid-19 pandemic. It contains reflections on the contributions of: Nicola Sturgeon (First Minister of Scotland during the pandemic) Matt Hancock (Secretary of State for Health and Social Care during the pandemic) Jenny Harries (Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency) Emma Reed (civil servant, DHSC)
  3. Content Article
    The 'Living with Long Covid' podcast series from Julie Taylor aims to raise awareness of Long Covid, and provide a platform of support, education and the lived experience.
  4. News Article
    As surges of COVID-19 cases driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant recede, parts of the United States, Canada, and Europe are moving swiftly to lift constraints on a pandemic-fatigued public. Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have abolished nearly all ­COVID-19–related restrictions in recent weeks, and the United Kingdom announced it would do the same this month, dropping even the legal requirement that people quarantine after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. In the United States, despite persistently high numbers of COVID-19–related deaths and busy hospitals, 10 governors, many known for being cautious in their pandemic response, last week announced immediate or impending ends to their states’ indoor or school mask mandates. Some of those moves came with assertions that it’s time to “live with the disease” and treat the coronavirus as endemic—a stable, enduring figure in the panoply of human pathogens, alongside cold viruses and influenza. That suggestion troubles many scientists, who warn it is eroding governments’ commitment to tracking and responding to the pandemic—which could leave countries flying blind and unprepared for any new variant. “Endemic delusion is probably what captures it the best,” says Kristian Andersen, an infectious disease researcher at Scripps Research who has been especially critical of recent moves by his home country of Denmark, which include an announcement that as of this month COVID-19 would no longer be categorised as a “socially critical disease” even though related death and hospitalisation rates were still climbing there. In the United States, governors cited various metrics to justify recent decisions to lift or let expire indoor mask mandates. California Governor Gavin Newsom noted stable hospitalisation rates and a 65% reduction in cases since Omicron’s peak in announcing the state’s mandate would end this week. But leaders also face political and economic pressures. States’ moves may be driven largely by the public’s impatience with restrictions, says epidemiologist Dustin Duncan of Columbia University. “Even people who recognize the importance of masking, social distancing, all that stuff, may be more amenable to take more risk,” he says. “At the same time, to me, going maskless just seems egregious.” Read full story Source: Science, 15 February 2022
  5. News Article
    Masks worn by doctors "aggravated" a miscommunication over the dose of an anti-epileptic drug that resulted in a man's death, a coroner has warned. John Skinner died at Watford General Hospital in May 2020. A coroner has written a Prevention of Future Deaths Report (PFDR) saying he feared the same could happen at other hospitals if action was not taken. Assistant Coroner for Hertfordshire, Graham Danbury, said in the report: "As a result of failure in verbal communication between the doctors, aggravated as both were masked, a dose of 15mg/kg was heard as 50mg/kg and an overdose was administered." Mr Danbury, writing to NHS England, said: "This is a readily foreseeable confusion which could apply in any hospital and could be avoided by use of clearer and less confusable means of communication and expression of number." A spokesperson for West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust said: "A comprehensive action plan is in place to ensure that lessons are learned from this incident." Read full story Source: 15 February 2022
  6. News Article
    The government has written off £8.7bn it spent on protective equipment bought during the pandemic, accounts show. The Department for Health and Social Care documents show items costing £673m were unusable, while £750m of equipment was not used before its expiry date. The largest write-off - £4.7bn - was because the government paid more for it than it is currently worth, now that global supplies have recovered. No 10 said the purchases were justified - with 97% of items suitable for use. A further £2.6bn of equipment was judged to be unsuitable for use in the NHS, the 2020/21 accounts show, but the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) believes it could still be sold or given to charities. At the start of the pandemic, countries around the world were clamouring for personal protective equipment (PPE), sending prices soaring. No 10 said "we stand by the decision to purchase the items that we did", saying the approach was "justified" to get PPE to the front line. And the government was now able to "mitigate" similar problems in the future by "massively increasing our onshore-based PPE production". Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 February 2022
  7. News Article
    The self-isolation period for positive cases is being cut and the limit on visitors lifted from next week. Residents who test positive will have to self-isolate for up to 10 days, with a minimum isolation period of five full days followed by two sequential negative lateral flow tests – as is already the case for the rest of the population. Isolation periods for those having care after an emergency hospital visit will also be reduced to a maximum of 10 days, while a requirement for residents to test or self-isolate after normal visits out will be removed. Care homes will have to follow outbreak management rules for 14 rather than 28 days, and by 16 February care workers will need to use lateral flow tests before work rather than taking a weekly PCR test. The limit on visitors to care homes will be lifted. Visitors should still obtain a negative lateral flow test result earlier in the day of their visit, and guidance on the use by visitors of PPE such as face masks remains unchanged. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 January 2022
  8. News Article
    Over 30 trusts are now mandating FFP3 masks are used beyond settings stipulated in national rules, amid calls for system leaders to clarify the national position on the key staff and patient safety issue. Fresh Air NHS, a group of frontline staff who campaign for better protection against Covid-19, said it now knows of 32 trusts which have already introduced enhanced infection prevention control policies that mandate FFP3 use beyond national guidance. News that a growing number of trusts are mandating more stringent PPE use comes amid fresh confusion around the national guidance after small but potentially significant alterations were made last week. A new line has been added to guidance which says:: “FFP3 respirator or equivalent must be worn by staff when caring for patients with a suspected or confirmed infection spread by the airborne route.” David Tomlinson, consultant cardiologist and also a member of Fresh Air NHS, said NHS trusts were “in fear of going beyond the guidance and allowing non-ICU staff to wear FFP3 respirators”. “The guidance doesn’t mandate respirators for staff in highest risk of transmission areas, for example, medical wards housing symptomatic patients at a time in their disease when they are releasing greatest amounts of infectious aerosols,” Dr Tomlinson said. “Real world data has consistently shown far greater rates of SARS2 infection comparing non-ICU healthcare workers to those on ICU.” Alison Leary, chair of healthcare and workforce modelling at London Southbank University, said: “Trusts choosing to implement evidence based safety interventions is a positive move towards workforce safety.” Read full story Source: HSJ, 27 January 2022
  9. News Article
    NHS staff treating Covid patients should be given much more protective facewear than thin surgical masks to help them avoid getting infected during the Omicron rise, doctors say. The British Medical Association (BMA), Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) and Doctors’ Association UK are calling for frontline personnel to be given FFP3 masks. Making the much higher-quality face masks standard issue would save the lives of health workers who fall ill as a result of treating Covid patients, the BMA said. “At this critical point in the pandemic this is extremely urgent – a matter of life and death,” said Prof Raymond Agius, the acting chair of the doctors’ union’s occupational health committee. FFP3 masks, also known as filtering facepiece respirators, have been shown in a trial in Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge to reduce the number of healthcare staff who become infected. However, the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) guidance on personal protective equipment, updated last week, only recommends their use in limited circumstances. “With a high transmissible new strain now circulating, and clear evidence that Covid-19 spreads in small airborne particles, healthcare workers must be given the best possible protection against the virus. Surgical masks don’t give the necessary protection against airborne transmission of Covid,” Agius said. The BMA has written to every hospital trust in England demanding that any health professional treating patients who are or may be Covid-positive should be routinely issued with FFP3s, which are much more expensive than the surgical masks usually provided. Surgical masks are “unsuitable” given the threat Covid poses, the BMA believes. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 December 2021
  10. News Article
    David Oliver, NHS consultant physician and a columnist for the BMJ makes a plea on behalf of his colleagues as they face a surge of admissions due to the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19 this Christmas. "Pandemic health protection measures are not all about you and your own personal risk or appetite for it, your own ‘natural immunity’ or fitness, your own liberty or freedom. They are about protecting everyone else. It might be your own parent, grandparent or sibling that dies from COVID-19 or from lack of access to overwhelmed services. It might be your neighbour’s or someone in another town or from another social class or ethnic group, This isn’t a game and we need to take it seriously and stop posturing and point-scoring, before, once again, we have left it too late to act" Read full story Source: Byline Times, 21 December 2021
  11. News Article
    A thousand health professionals have backed an appeal for hospital staff to be given improved personal protective equipment. In an open letter to UK political leaders, they say there is growing evidence that tiny coronavirus particles can spread through the air. The group want general ward staff to be given the type of high-quality masks usually only worn in intensive care. Nurses' leaders said higher level PPE should be provided as a "precaution". Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 January 2021
  12. News Article
    Thousands of frontline workers delivering treatments where the risk of transmitting coronavirus is heightened are still being denied personal protective equipment (PPE), according to multiple unions and professional bodies. Eleven organisations, including Unison and the British Association of Stroke Physicians, believe numerous procedures have been “wrongly excluded” from the list of 13 “aerosol generating procedures” that require PPE, despite the NHS now having adequate supplies. They say their members are “facing illness and even death” while performing procedures such as chest physiotherapy, introducing feeding tubes, and assessing whether a patient can swallow safely. The unions have formed an alliance to lobby on the issue, and its chair Dr Barry Jones told HSJ: “We’ve asked ministers and the Department of Health and Social Care again and again to take action and provide PPE to frontline NHS staff carrying out procedures which are not currently listed as AGPs but which the scientific evidence shows should be. Read full story Source: HSJ, 13 November 2020
  13. News Article
    Some disabled people in the UK have been struggling to obtain essentials such as medication and breathing equipment during the Covid pandemic, research for the BBC suggests. Some 60% of those who rely on social care told a YouGov survey they were finding it hard to obtain at least one of their necessities. Charity WellChild said people felt more "forgotten than they ever have been". But ministers say the needs of disabled people were being considered. The Department of Health and Social Care says it has sufficient stocks and patients should contact their local care provider. Like one in 20 of those survey respondents who receive social care, Fi Anderson, a mother of two with muscular dystrophy from Bolton in Greater Manchester, said she has faced problems obtaining breathing apparatus. Her local hospital told her to re-use the filter for her portable ventilator, recommending she boil it, because supplies were so short. Disabled people who rely on social care - which funds equipment and other support to allow them to live independent lives - also said they had struggled to obtain personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks. Many of them receive funding directly to employ carers in their home, so they also need to provide them with PPE during the coronavirus crisis. The survey, which the BBC commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act, asked more than 1,000 people about life in the UK with a disability and how it has changed in the shadow of a pandemic. More than 65% felt their rights had regressed, and 71% said disabled people's needs had been overlooked. The Coronavirus Act, which granted the government emergency powers, gave local councils the ability to reduce care, education and mental health provision for disabled people if it became necessary during the pandemic. According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, nearly six out of 10 deaths from COVID-19 were of disabled people. Read full story Source: BBC News,
  14. News Article
    NHS staff and their families accounted for one in six patients in hospital with Covid, due in part to inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE), new research suggests. A study of hospitals from March to June revealed that healthcare workers in patient-facing roles were around three times more likely to be hospitalised with the virus than the general population. Writing in the BMJ, the study's authors called for an urgent focus on how COVID-19 spreads around hospitals to prevent a similar toll in future waves of the pandemic. They also call for hospitals to consider re-deploying staff with vulnerable family members away from high-risk zones. Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 29 October 2020
  15. News Article
    With so many operations put on hold when the pandemic started in March, surgeon Douglas Hartley and a team of medical veterans got to work pioneering new types of protective equipment. When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the UK, thousands of surgical procedures were put on hold. For surgeons like Douglas, who performs operations on deaf children to restore their hearing, this created a significant moral dilemma – he wanted to get back into surgery to provide this vital care, but didn’t want to inadvertently catch or pass on COVID-19 in the process. Douglas regularly carries out cochlear implant surgery, a process in which a surgeon embeds an electronic device which stimulates the hearing nerve in the ear. The scientific evidence is clear that this surgery needs to be performed at the earliest opportunity so that these children can benefit from being able to hear at a vital stage in their development. But performing the surgery as normal would have put both children and surgical teams in danger. They needed to come up with another way of doing things. The team in Nottingham had to combine creativity and science to develop a novel and safe way to restart cochlear implant surgery in a matter of just a few weeks. The team used a systematic evidence-based approach to evaluate a variety of PPE for its usability and effectiveness. During simulated cochlear implant surgery, they evaluated each type of PPE across several parameters, including its effect on a surgeon’s ability to communicate, their field of vision, and their comfort. Many of the PPE options were found to substantially restrict the surgeon’s vision during operating. That rendered them unsafe for performing this sort of surgery. Instead, they found that the combination of “spoggles” and a half-face respirator mask had consistently superior performance across all aspects of clinical usability compared with all other options. During their studies, Douglas and his team also worked with a surgical product manufacturer to develop a novel drape, basically a tent, that was designed to be suspended from a microscope covering the patient’s head and torso to provide a physical barrier between the site of drilling and the rest of the team. They found that the operating tent significantly contained the droplets and prevented them from spreading around the theatre environment. They are the first – and are currently only – group in the world to develop an operating tent design that is marked for medical use. After completing our studies, we now had appropriate PPE and a protective operating tent to permit the safe restarting of cochlear implant surgery during the pandemic. These recommendations were rapidly disseminated internationally via webinars and journal publications and quickly adopted as standard patient care by Nottingham University NHS Foundation Trust and, subsequently, embraced in other departments in the UK and across the world. Read full story Source: The Independent, 22 October 2020
  16. News Article
    Care homes should refuse to take coronavirus patients from hospitals if they cannot prevent the spread of the disease, the care watchdog has told The Independent. Staff should admit these patients only if care homes are equipped with the right personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention measures, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said. During the first wave of the pandemic, care homes saw widespread outbreaks of the virus with 16,000 deaths. Homes struggled to access protective clothing for staff and were forced to take 25,000 untested patients discharged from hospitals. In an in-depth interview, Kate Terroni, the CQC’s chief inspector of social care, said care homes should not be put under pressure during a second wave to take infected patients they could not properly look after. She said any home that refused to admit patients would have her support. “Care home providers should only admit a resident when they are confident they can meet their care needs, so where they are confident they’ve got good infection prevention control, they’ve got the right PPE, they’ve got the right workforce." “We will absolutely support a provider to say they cannot admit someone if those ingredients aren’t in place.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 October 2020,
  17. News Article
    Inspectors have demanded improvements from a hospital after a report highlighted a number of failings over COVID-19 precautions. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected the emergency department and medical wards at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, on 11 August. Inspection teams visited a ward where patients showed symptoms and were awaiting test results as well as a ward caring for patients who had COVID-19. A ward for patients without the virus and a fourth ward where there had been an outbreak of COVID-19 were also inspected. The CQC said it took urgent enforcement action, telling the trust to ensure there was an "effective system to manage the health and safety of people using the hospital". The report revealed staff did not always wear PPE or face coverings correctly in medical wards. One member of the nursing team was seen to be wearing a mask incorrectly in the ward where there had been an outbreak of the coronavirus. At least seven members of staff were seen entering and leaving the ward caring for people who were suspected of having COVID-19 without adhering to hand hygiene practices. Staff did not always remove PPE upon entering a new clinical area of the emergency department. Nor did they always put on or take off their PPE when entering and leaving patient bays. While equipment was said to have been cleaned on the day, inspectors found this was not always recorded. The report also detailed that five members of staff were seen in one room that was too small to enable the practised social distancing in that space. East Kent Hospitals Trust chief executive Susan Acott said: "In August, a CQC inspection team visited the William Harvey Hospital and saw examples of practice which falls short of the high standard we all want to provide for our patients." "Keeping our patients and staff safe is our priority. We have responded to the CQC with the actions we are taking and we are committed to the care and safety of every patient in our hospitals." Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 October 2020
  18. News Article
    General practices will struggle to cope with a second wave of COVID-19 unless urgent measures are put in place to support them, the BMA has warned. It said that practices in England were reporting that they did not have the capacity to carry out all of the work required of them while managing ongoing patient care, dealing with the backlog of care put on hold during the first wave of the pandemic, and reconfiguring services. Richard Vautrey, chair of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee England, said, “GPs, like all doctors, are extremely concerned that without decisive action now services will be overwhelmed if we see another spike in the coming weeks and months.” In the report, the committee called for a package of measures to support the GP workforce, including making occupational health services available to all staff to ensure that they are properly risk assessed and to provide free supplies of personal protective equipment. It also called for the suspension of routine inspections by the Care Quality Commission and of the Quality and Outcomes Framework, as part of efforts to reduce bureaucracy. NHS England’s covid support fund for practices should be rolled over until March 2021 and expanded to ensure that all additional costs such as additional telephony and cleaning are included, it added. Vautrey said, “The measures we’ve outlined are aimed at supporting practices and their staff to deliver high quality care while managing the increased pressures of doing so during a pandemic, and it is vital that the government and NHS England listen and implement these urgently, to ensure that primary care can continue to operate safely through what looks to be an incredibly difficult winter.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 1 October 2020
  19. News Article
    Health inspectors have uncovered multiple problems with infection control and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in care homes in England ahead of a second spike in COVID-19, which is starting to be detected in care facilities across the country. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found homes where PPE was not being worn and that had out-of-date infection prevention policies and were failing to take steps to protect black and minority ethnic residents and staff who have been identified as potentially more vulnerable to the virus. The checks took place last month in 59 English care homes and were triggered by concerns about safety and quality or complaints by residents, staff and relatives. The checks precede a government announcement within days of a winter infection control fund that is expected to broadly match the £600m already committed this year. The fund will pay additional staff costs stemming from using fewer highly mobile temporary workers, who have been shown to spread the virus. However, the CQC inspections found PPE being worn inconsistently by staff members, limited supplies of masks in some places, and a failure to store PPE safely away from infection risk. “We found examples of infection prevention and control policies that were out of date,” the inspectors said. “Some had been updated early on in the Covid-19 outbreak but had not been amended since and so contained out-of-date information. This posed a risk to the staff and people who live in the care home. Others had not been updated since 2019. One care home had completed a [contingency] plan, but it only covered the hot weather and did not include preparations for autumn and winter.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 September 2020
  20. News Article
    A protective device against coronavirus for at-risk doctors is to be provided free to the NHS. The SNAP device for ear, nose and throat surgeons was created after Burton-upon-Trent consultant Amged El-Hawrani died with COVID-19 in March. He was one of the UK's first senior medics to die with the virus, his death showing that they were at serious risk. The device clips over patients' masks to prevent the virus spreading through coughs and sneezes. It was developed by surgeons Ajith George and Chris Coulson, with the help of Aston University, who said nasendoscopy procedures - where a small flexible tube fitted with a camera is inserted into the nose - often made patients cough, splutter and sneeze. It works by clipping on to either side of a normal surgical face mask, creating a hole for an endoscope to be inserted while keeping the patient's nose and mouth completely covered. When it is removed, a one-way valve closes the hole so no virus can escape. "We were concerned about the safety of doctors but also about the risk of missed diagnoses and opportunities for treatment of patients," Mr Coulson, an ENT surgeon working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, said. "Our aim has been to produce an easy-to-use, cheap device that would allow clinicians to return to routine practice." Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 September 2020
  21. News Article
    The government has written to care home providers in England to warn them of a rise in new coronavirus infections within the sector. A letter from the Department of Health urged care bosses to take "necessary action to prevent and limit outbreaks". Cases were mainly among staff but risked spreading to residents, it said. It comes as a further 3,330 positive cases were recorded in the UK - the third consecutive day in which cases have been over 3,000. It brings the total number of confirmed cases to 368,504. Friday's letter from the Department of Health and Social Care said testing data had revealed an increase in the number of positive results in care homes and called on the care sector to work with the government. "You will know already that we are experiencing a rise in confirmed Covid-19 cases across the UK population," wrote Stuart Miller, director of adult social care delivery. "I need to alert you to the first signs this rise is being reflected in care homes too." "I am writing at the earliest opportunity, so we can work in partnership to prevent further spread of the disease. The rapid flow of data and information, to and from care providers, is vital to this effort." Mr Miller said the infections had been detected chiefly among staff but had been transmitted to residents in some cases. He went on to stress "the importance of regular testing and consistent use of PPE". Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 September 2020
  22. News Article
    A London hospital hit by a COVID-19 outbreak that required 70 staff to self-isolate has been ordered to take stringent measures to control infection. Hillingdon Hospital NHS Foundation Trust declared a COVID-19 outbreak in July and revealed that 70 staff members, some of whom had tested positive, were self-isolating. Ambulances were forced to divert patients to other emergency departments. An investigation later found that a nurse who had COVID-19 unwittingly infected 16 others during a training session on 30 June, described by one doctor as a “super spreading event.” The Care Quality Commission (CQC), which carried out an unannounced inspection on 4-5 August, has used its urgent enforcement powers to place conditions on the trust’s registration to protect patients and staff. Nigel Acheson, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals, said, “We found a number of concerns relating to infection control and this is why we have taken action to ensure the safety of patients, staff and visitors." “We have imposed urgent conditions upon the trust’s registration and expect the trust to focus on making the required improvements as a matter of priority. We will return to inspect and ensure that action has been taken and that improvements have been made and are being sustained.” The trust has been told it must ensure that staff and patients observe social distancing, must place personal protective equipment (PPE) in easily accessible places, and must make sure that staff wear PPE before going into high risk areas. Read full story Source: BMJ, 9 September 2020
  23. News Article
    Pressure is growing on the government to change its stance on coronavirus infection rules which it is feared may leave NHS staff and patients at risk from airborne transmission. Experts told The Independent the current guidance from Public Health England (PHE), which effectively says staff working on general wards can rely on just surgical masks for protection, was “outdated and potentially misleading” and put NHS staff at risk. At the start of the pandemic the emphasis on stopping infection was focused around droplets containing the virus both in the air over short distances and on surfaces. Increasingly scientists have begun to warn the virus can also spread through much smaller aerosols which can remain airborne for a lot longer and over further distances. On Friday, the World Health Organisation updated its information on how Covid spreads to acknowledge the risk of aerosols and last month papers released by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said health workers may need to use better protection for longer. Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 May 2021
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