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Found 287 results
  1. News Article
    Britain’s lead public health body has a staggering lack of control over billions of pounds of spending, and there is no plan for stockpiling vaccines or personal protective equipment (PPE) for a future pandemic, a damning MPs’ report has found. The public accounts committee was highly critical of the repeated governance and financial failings at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which was set up with great fanfare under Boris Johnson. Meg Hillier, the committee chair, said it would be “utterly inexcusable” for the government to have failed to make serious preparations for future health emergencies and warned the lack of a plan for stockpiling could leave health workers once again exposed to danger as they were in 2020. The committee lambasted the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which oversees UKHSA, for lacking a strategy for reserves of PPE, vaccines and medicines despite its mandate to protect the country’s health security. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 July 2023
  2. News Article
    It would be “sensible” for hospitals to reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing, the chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has said, as several trusts in England and Wales announced the move. When NHS rules on wearing masks in England were dropped on 10 June, local health bodies were given the power to draft their own policies. Their guidance, however, is no longer legally enforceable. Figures from NHS England show there were about 10,658 patients hospitalised with coronavirus on Monday. Infections have doubled in a fortnight across England – with about 1,000 patients being admitted with the virus each day. Prof Andrew Pollard, who is also the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, which developed the AstraZeneca jab, said there were an “extraordinary” number of cases at the moment. “I certainly know more people now who have had Covid than at any time in the past,” he told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Because there’s so much in the community, anything we can do in our hospitals to reduce the potential outbreaks make sense and so the mandatory mask wearing in hospitals is very sensible policy,” he added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 July 2022
  3. News Article
    Hospitals are bringing back requirements for masks on wards just weeks after rules were relaxed as Covid rates spike, The Independent can reveal. Experts have warned of a surge in cases, believed to be the fifth wave, with one in 40 people in the UK testing positive for the virus. Meanwhile, latest NHS data shows more than 8,000 Covid-positive patients on wards following a warning of a “deleterious” impact on hospital waiting times. In response, three major hospital trusts have told staff they must wear masks, with warnings more must follow if the NHS is to handle another wave of Covid. Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine told The Independent: “Over the past 2 years Covid has highlighted and exacerbated what was an already growing crisis. “High staff absence levels, burn-out and low morale have dominated staff landscapes during this time and continue to do so. Future waves and potentially large numbers of upcoming flu cases will only serve to deepen these problems making the hopes of patients, clinicians and politicians alike of elective recovery seem somewhat fanciful." Read full story Source: The Independent, 29 June 2022
  4. News Article
    The National Deaf Children’s Society has written to every NHS trust in England urging them to start using transparent face masks because standard ones create a “serious communication barrier” for deaf patients. The letters, co-signed by the British Academy of Audiology, said deaf patients could “miss vital information about their health” as opaque masks make lip reading impossible and facial expressions difficult to read. It is likely that face masks will remain widespread in the NHS, as new guidance issued at the start of June states they will still be required in a number of settings, including cancer wards and critical care units, and staff may wear them in other areas depending on personal preference and local risk assessments. Susan Daniels, the chief executive of the National Deaf Children’s Society, said: “Transparent face masks are fully approved and they could transform the healthcare experience for deaf people. However they communicate, almost all deaf people rely on lip reading and facial expressions. Opaque face masks make these techniques much more difficult and this could seriously affect communication at a time when they might need it the most.” Three types of transparent masks, designed not to fog up, are now approved for use as PPE in healthcare settings, and although they are not currently available on the NHS supply chain, they can be bought direct from suppliers. The government previously delivered 250,000 clear masks to frontline NHS and social care workers in September 2020. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 June 2022
  5. News Article
    Patients who enter general practices in England no longer have to wear a face mask unless they have respiratory symptoms, NHS England and NHS Improvement says. But the updated guidance also underlines the importance of local risk assessments and says that increased measures can be used when deemed necessary. A letter sent to clinical commissioning groups and trusts set out the changes to infection prevention and control measures following updates from the UK Health Security Agency.1 It said that health and care staff should continue to wear face masks as part of personal protective equipment when working with patients with suspected or confirmed covid-19, including untriaged patients in primary care and emergency departments. It said that universal masking should be applied when there is a known or suspected cluster of SARS-CoV-2, for example during an outbreak or if new variants of concern emerge. Health and care staff working in non-clinical areas such as offices and social settings do not need to wear masks unless it is their personal preference or if there are specific problems raised by a risk assessment. Patients with respiratory symptoms who are required to attend for emergency treatment should wear a face mask, if tolerated, or be offered one on arrival. All other patients are “not required” to wear a face mask but can if they prefer. In settings where patients are at high risk of infection owing to immunosuppression, such as oncology or haematology, patients might be encouraged to wear a face mask after a local risk assessment. Read full story Source: BMJ, 13 June 2022
  6. News Article
    A number of hospitals are insisting that patients keep wearing masks despite instructions from NHS chiefs to drop the rules. National coronavirus guidance which insisted on face coverings has now been scrapped, with health officials leaving it to local organisations to draft their own policies. However, several hospitals have called on patients and staff to continue to wear masks and face coverings on their sites. Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, has repeatedly called on NHS trusts to drop restrictions in hospitals which are limiting operational capacity. Last month, he threatened to name and shame hospitals that do not lift social distancing measures and restrictions on visitors. A letter from health chiefs said that patients visiting accident and emergency (A&E) departments, hospital outpatient appointments and GP surgeries no longer needed to wear masks “unless this is a personal preference”. Hospitals have now begun issuing guidance for their local communities, with a number saying they intend to keep insisting on people wearing masks. The Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS trust issued a notice to patients and staff saying: “We are still asking patients, visitors, staff and anyone working at one of our hospital or community sites to continue to wear a mask, gel hands and social distance while in our buildings despite the lifting of national restrictions." “This is to keep vulnerable people as safe as possible.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 8 June 2022
  7. News Article
    The UK health department was forced to write down £14.9bn worth of personal protective equipment and other medical items, according to a report by the independent public spending watchdog, which also issued a scathing criticism of the UK Health Security Agency. The National Audit Office said that the Department for Health and Social Care did not complete an “effective programme of year-end stock counts” to assess the quality and quantity of coronavirus-related items, such as lateral flow tests. During the last two financial years, the DHSC reported nearly £15bn of write down costs associated with PPE and other health items. The department estimated that the continuing cost of storage and disposal of excess and unusable equipment stands at £319mn. The watchdog found a “lack of adequate governance, oversight and control” at the UKHSA. It noted that due to a “lack of sufficient, appropriate audit evidence and significant shortcomings in financial control” the NAO was unable to provide an audit opinion on the 2021-22 accounts of the agency. Read full story (paywalled) Source: Financial Times, 27 January 2023
  8. News Article
    The deaths of two nurses from Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic have been ruled as industrial disease. Gareth Roberts, 65, of Aberdare, and Domingo David, 63, of Penarth, were found to have been most likely to have contracted the virus from colleagues or patients while working for hospitals under the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. The senior coroner Graeme Hughes concluded on Friday that although they were given appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), Roberts and David were “exposed to Covid-19 infection at work, became infected and that infection caused” their deaths. He made a finding of industrial disease. Roberts’ family had argued for a conclusion of industrial disease, while the health board had made the case for ruling that both deaths were from natural causes. Unions are campaigning for Covid-19 to be considered an industrial disease by the UK government so workers affected by it would receive greater financial support. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 January 2023
  9. News Article
    NHS leaders and ministers face allegations of a “cover up”, as Byline Times reveals that almost two-thirds of NHS employers did not make a single, legally-required report of Covid being caught by staff working during the first 18 months of the pandemic. And four-fifths (82%) of NHS employers have not reported a single death of a worker from Covid caught while working in those first two waves. The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases & Dangerous Occurrences (RIDDOR) rules mean that employers have a legal duty to report certain serious workplace accidents and occupational diseases – including Covid. The lack of acceptance of responsibility from NHS employers has left some families in limbo – and angry at what they consider to be deliberate “denial” of the experiences of those who died serving the public. David Osborn, a health and safety consultant and member of the Covid-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance (CATA), co-wrote the research. He said: “One wonders how many bereaved families who have been denied this payment did not have the benefit of [these reports] to support their case.” Osborn wrote to Sarah Albon, Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Executive, to raise his concerns after speaking with family members of NHS workers who had died of Covid, saying the reports of zero NHS worker deaths from Covid caught in the workplace are “difficult, nigh impossible, to believe.” Read full story Source: Byline Times, 6 April 2023
  10. Content Article
    Dr Nabarro’s recent comment made on Independent Sage 2 December, that Covid-19 is primarily a droplet-borne infection, flies in the face of overwhelming international scientific consensus that the pandemic is driven by airborne transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Despite airborne transmission being accepted as the dominant mode of spread in almost every other arena, within official infection prevention and control (IPC) bodies in the World Health Organization (WHO) and many national authorities including the UK, there is denial or minimising of airborne spread, and continuing adherence to the droplet theory of transmission. This has meant rejection of airborne mitigations within healthcare, with profound consequences for the lives and health of healthcare workers, as well as for patients in hospitals and care homes. It is now clear that the IPC authorities will not be persuaded, no matter how much evidence is presented to them that SARS-CoV-2 is primarily airborne, and that efforts by aerosol scientists, engineers and health experts to provide further evidence of this, are futile.  This statement from Doctors in Unite explores these issues in detail, and highlights the disastrous record of droplet-only precautions in our hospitals and care homes. It also asks why the critically important “precautionary principle” was not applied throughout healthcare from the outset, to keep workers and patients safe, while the mode of transmission of the virus was being fully elucidated, despite this being official WHO policy. 
  11. Content Article
    Health workers, hailed as heroes during the pandemic, say they’re being abandoned by the NHS and the government. Some are living with Long Covid and say it’s having a devastating impact on both their personal and professional lives. For Panorama, the BBC’s health correspondent, Catherine Burns, meets staff struggling to return to work and reveals how some are now facing financial hardship and the prospect of having to retire early or, worse, being sacked.
  12. Content Article
    In this blog, Paul E Sax, Contributing Editor at NEJM Journal Watch looks at a recent study into the effectiveness of medical masks compared to N95 respirators for preventing Covid-19 infection among healthcare workers. The author aims to help readers understand how to appraise research studies and decide how and whether to apply their findings. He defines some of the complex terminology used in the study and looks at its methods and findings from both a critical and supportive viewpoint.
  13. Content Article
    This blog is written by David Osborn, a health and safety consultant, reflecting on the blog written by Anna Carey regarding her guilt about not being able to return to work because of her Long Covid.
  14. Content Article
    Questions have been raised as to whether medical masks offer similar protection against Covid-19 compared with N95 respirators. This study in The Annals of Internal Medicine aimed to determine whether medical masks are noninferior to N95 respirators in preventing Covid-19 in healthcare workers providing routine care. The authors of the study conducted a multicentre, randomised, noninferiority trial at 29 healthcare facilities in Canada, Israel, Pakistan and Egypt. The study found that among healthcare workers who provided routine care to patients with Covid-19, the overall estimates rule out a doubling in hazard of PCR–confirmed Covid-19 for medical masks when compared with N95 respirators.
  15. News Article
    A surge in Covid cases over winter could lead to harsh visiting restrictions being reimposed in care homes and hospitals, MPs and campaigners have warned. Families are still facing a “postcode lottery” of Covid restrictions in care homes, with visiting times restricted and personal protective equipment (PPE) obligatory. However MPs are worried that some will reimpose even harsher measures if Covid cases rise this winter. Daily global Covid infections are projected to rise slowly to around 18.7 million by February, up from the current 16.7 million average daily cases this October. MPs are calling for the government to enact legislation that would enshrine the right for an essential care giver to be present with their loved ones in care settings. Liberal Democrat MP Daisy Cooper said that one of her constituents, Lynn, was not allowed into a hospital A&E ward to see her husband Andy when his dementia deteriorated over Christmas last year. The hospital refused to let Andy have any visitors for two weeks until Ms Cooper intervened. When she was allowed in, Lynn was distraught to find that Andy had lost a significant amount of weight in the weeks he was isolated. Ms Cooper continued: “We have come a long way since last Christmas, and since the start of the pandemic, but as winter approaches the NHS and care settings are once again expected to struggle with a surge in Covid cases. “It is not inconceivable that what happened to Lynn and Andy could happen again to them and to many others.” Read full story Source: Independent, 30 October 2022 Further hub reading Visiting restrictions and the impact on patients and their families: a relative's perspective It’s time to rename the ‘visitor’: reflections from a relative Mother knows best – a blog by Dr Abha Agrawal
  16. News Article
    Trainee medics battling Ebola in Uganda's virus epicentre accuse the government of putting their lives at risk. "Most times you come into contact with a patient and you use your bare hands," one worker told the BBC anonymously. All trainees at Mubende's regional hospital say they are on strike and are demanding to be moved somewhere safer. But Ugandan health ministry spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona told the BBC there was "no strike at the hospital". Yet all 34 of the hospital's interns - including doctors, pharmacists and nurses - have announced their decision to strike in a joint statement. They say they are being put at undue risk because they lack appropriate safety kit, risk allowances and health insurance. Six interns at the hospital have already been exposed to the virus, and are awaiting their test results in isolation. Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 September 2022
  17. News Article
    A coroner has said she does not understand why frontline workers were not required to wear a mask during lockdown after hearing a paramedic had died with Covid. A two-day inquest into the death of Peter Hart, who died on his 52nd birthday, concluded on Tuesday (September 13) with assistant coroner Dr Karen Henderson ruling the father-of-three died of natural causes caused by Covid. She said on the balance of probabilities he caught the disease while working at East Surrey Hospital, where he died on May 12, 2020. During the onset of the pandemic only healthcare workers tending to those suspected of having Covid-19 were required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). In accordance with national guidelines, Mr Hart, who was treating patients not suspected of having the virus, did not need to. “Retrospectively it is difficult to comprehend why the national guidance said PPE did not need to be used for all patients and healthcare workers at the earliest opportunity,” Dr Henderson said. “Although there appears a lost opportunity to ensure maximum protection I make no finding of fact whether this contributed to Mr Hart’s death. “Patients not suspected to have Covid were not expected to wear face masks. This is in effect a perfect storm and given evidence of Mrs Hart I am satisfied Mr Hart contracted Covid during his work at East Surrey Hospital,” she added. Read full story Source: Surrey Live, 13 September 2022
  18. Content Article
    I guess that a common feature linking most visitors to Patient Safety Learning is that they have a profound interest in two things. First, recognising and applauding innovations and ‘best practice’ in healthcare. Second, recognising, exposing and denouncing bad practice. The thing they have in common is the desire to learn from the mistakes in the past to do better in the future. When it comes to ‘bad practice’ in healthcare it is usually in connection with some adverse and damaging impact on patients. Our thoughts turn perhaps to certain medical failures, such as the ‘Mid‑Staffs scandal’. Seldom do we find the need to consider the adverse and damaging impacts on the doctors, nurses and all the other staff who work in the health and social care sector. However, those of you who watched the recent BBC Panorama programme, 'Forgotten heroes of the Covid frontline' will have been appalled at the scandal that now confronts so many frontline staff for whom we stood outside our front doors and clapped for so enthusiastically back in those dark days at the height of the pandemic. This blog is dedicated to those 'forgotten heroes'. I hope that it demonstrates that they are not, in fact, forgotten I hope that the resources linked to this blog may be of help to them.
  19. Content Article
    An understanding of the social sciences within infection prevention and control (IPC) is important for those working in health and social care. This new book positions the specialty of IPC as more than a technical discipline concerned with microbes. It is about people and their behaviour in context and the book therefore explores a number of relevant social sciences and their relationship to IPC across different contexts and cultures. IPC is relevant to every person who works in, and accesses health care and it remains a global challenge. Exploring novel approaches and perspectives that expand our collective horizons in an ever changing and evolving IPC landscape therefore makes sense.
  20. News Article
    Around 250,000 clear face masks are set to be delivered to frontline NHS and social care workers to allow for better care to be provided to those who use lip-reading and facial expressions to communicate, whilst still ensuring staff and patients remain safe during coronavirus. The clear face masks will allow for improved communication with people with certain conditions like hearing loss, autism and dementia. Designed with an anti-fogging barrier to ensure the face and mouth are always visible, the see-through masks will help doctors, nurses and carers get important messages across to all patients clearly. An estimated 12 million people in the UK are thought to have hearing loss, while those who rely on facial expressions to support communication – such as people with learning disabilities, autism or dementia, or foreign language speakers and their interpreters – will also see benefit from the government deal. Minister for Care Helen Whately said: “Everyone using our remarkable health and care system deserves the best care possible and communication is a vital part of that." “This pandemic has posed numerous challenges to the sector, so we are always on the hunt for simple solutions to support those giving and receiving care." Read full story Source: National Health Executive, 7 September 2020
  21. News Article
    The human rights watchdog for England and Wales has backed a grieving daughter’s court action against the health secretary, Matt Hancock, over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in care homes. Cathy Gardner, who lost her father, Michael Gibson, to COVID-19 in a care home that accepted hospital discharges, is seeking a judicial review of policies that she alleges “failed to take into account the vulnerability of care home residents and staff to infection and death, the inadequacy of testing and PPE availability”. The government denies acting illegally over care homes in England, where more than 15,000 people have died with confirmed or suspected COVID-19. But the Equalities and Human Rights Commission said the case “raises potentially important issues of public interest and concern as to the way in which the rights of care home residents have been and will be protected during the current coronavirus pandemic”. “The bereaved families group isn’t backing down in its call for a public inquiry and I am not backing down in my call for a judicial review into policies I believe led to deaths in care homes,” Gardner said. ”I am delighted the EHRC have written to the court. This is a Human Rights Act case.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 September 2020
  22. News Article
    Visiting A&E or relatives is considered much riskier than attending hospital for other reasons, according to the first in-depth piece of research into the subject. The research, authored by the University of Leicester and NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre Bioinformatics Hub, asked 400 participants how they felt about attending hospital across a range of scenarios during the pandemic. It also revealed that consistent staff use of PPE is seen as a top priority by patients, with staff testing receiving significant but much less support. Participants in the Leicester research were asked to rank how ”safe and confident” they felt coming into hospital for a number of reasons on a scale 1-100. The median score given to “visiting a friend or family member” was 49. The score for attending accident and emergency was 50. Attendance at A&E’s fell sharply during the pandemic peak. It is now rising, but has not reached pre-covid levels. The research suggests that fear could still be playing a significant part in the drop off. Attending hospital for elective care received a median score of 61. Participants were most confident in visiting hospital for essential surgery (median score 78), and clinical scans or x-ray (77). Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 September 2020
  23. News Article
    A London acute trust has told its staff they may not be paid for time at home self-isolating if it transpires they were not wearing a mask near someone with coronavirus. Staff at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Foundation Trust were told that if they have to stay at home self-isolating because they were not wearing a mask, that time would have to be taken as annual or unpaid leave. Chief executive Lesley Watts told all staff in an email today, seen by HSJ, that a worker had tested positive for COVID-19, and that four staff members had spent more than 15 minutes with them “without appropriate [personal protective equipment]” and must all now isolate themselves at home for 14 days. The trust considers it “a serious conduct issue not to wear a mask where you are putting colleagues or our patients at risk – this will be dealt with under our formal processes going forward”, Ms Watts said in the email. “If you are sent home to isolate for two weeks because you have not worn a mask, I am now informing you that you will be required to take this as annual or unpaid leave. The four staff members “would not be having to go home to isolate if the use of face masks and social distancing had been in place appropriately”. A Chelsea and Wesminster Hospital spokesman told HSJ: “The guidance around PPE has changed a number of times over the course of the pandemic and we felt it was important to be clear on the trust’s position and to reiterate how seriously we take staff and patient safety." Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 28 August 2020
  24. News Article
    Guidance to protect at-risk healthcare workers in Wales from coronavirus infection has been relaxed, the BBC has learned. A risk assessment tool initially recommended high-risk workers should not work in the parts of a hospital where infection was most likely. But it now says their personal protective equipment (PPE) should be reviewed or duties changed. The Welsh government says this reflects latest data and low infection rates. However, healthcare professionals say the change to the all-Wales COVID-19 workforce risk assessment tool was made without consultation, and are concerned it was done to prevent hospitals from losing frontline staff ahead of a potential second wave of the virus. Mr Amol Pandit, a urologist who helped to design the tool, has written to the Welsh government four times seeking clarity on the basis for the changes, and why no one was made aware of them before the tool was rolled out. "The changes could have been made in order to keep as many healthcare workers on the frontline as possible, which is why I sent a specific list of questions to the Welsh government, so that I could have assurances that it wasn't done for that reason, but for clinical, evidence-based reasons," Mr Pandit said. Mr Pandit believes healthcare workers who fall into the high-risk category and work in environments where aerosol-generating procedures are performed - considered to carry a high risk of transmission of the virus - may not be fully protected by the current version of the tool if PPE supplies fall short and additional safeguarding measures aren't put into place. "The government needs to be absolutely sure that there is adequate PPE and that it is going to be available to everybody - we have to trust them on that," he said Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 August 2020
  25. News Article
    A home care worker who did not wear protective equipment may have infected a client with a fatal case of coronavirus during weeks of contradictory government guidance on whether the kit was needed or not, an official investigation has found. The government’s confusion about how much protection care workers visiting homes needed is detailed in a report into the death of an unnamed person by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), which conducts independent investigations of patient safety concerns in NHS-funded care in England. It was responding to a complaint raised by a member of the public in April. The report shows that Public Health England published two contradictory documents that month. One advised care workers making home visits to wear PPE and the other did not mention the need. The contradiction was not cleared up for six weeks. The government’s guidance had been a shambles that had placed workers and their vulnerable clients at risk, the policy director at the United Kingdom Homecare Association, Colin Angel, said on Wednesday. The association also accused the government of sidelining its expertise and publishing new guidance with little notice, sometimes late on Friday nights, meaning that it was not always noticed by the people it was intended for.
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