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Showing results for tags 'Pandemic'.
Found 2,344 results
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Content ArticleThis article in iNews looks at a major new study in The BMJ by researchers in Israel which suggests that symptoms of Long Covid end within a year in most people with the condition. The study looked at information on a number of symptoms linked to Long Covid, including loss of taste and smell, breathing problems, concentration and memory issues, weakness, palpitations and dizziness. The research also demonstrated the role of Covid vaccines in improving outcomes for people with Long Covid. However, the article also highlights cautions from experts who note that people who got Long Covid after a more serious case of the virus were not included in the study, and their symptoms typically last longer than for those who got the condition after a mild infection. The authors also highlight that these results do not match up with the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). According to the ONS, 57% people reporting symptoms in December 2022 said that they had had long Covid symptoms for at least one year, with 30 per cent reporting that symptoms had lasted for at least two years.
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Content ArticleThis study examined the risks and patterns of childhood deaths before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this cohort study, there were 3409 childhood deaths from April 2019 to March 2020, 3035 deaths from April 2020 to March 2021, and 3428 deaths from April 2021 to March 2022. Overall risk of death was significantly lower from 2020 to 2021, but not from 2021 to 2022 when compared with the reference year of 2019 to 2020. These findings suggest that there was a significant reduction in all-cause child mortality during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021), which returned to near prepandemic levels the following year (2021-2022).
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Content Article
Oesophago-gastric cancer report 2022 (NOGCA, 12 January 2023)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Cancers
This report from the National Oesophago-Gastric Cancer Audit (NOGCA) focuses on the care received by patients diagnosed with invasive epithelial cancer of the oesophagus, gastro-oesophageal junction (GOJ) or stomach, or high-grade dysplasia (HGD) of the oesophagus between April 2019 and March 2021. For outcomes of curative surgery among people with OG cancer, data are reported for a three year period (April 2018 to March 2021). -
Content ArticleEven before the Covid-19 pandemic, rural and remote health services in England faced long-standing workforce, financial and capacity issues. This report by the Nuffield Trust explores the impact the pandemic has had on the delivery of rural and remote health services, highlighting the underlying challenges faced by these services. It outlines how the challenges faced are different for rural areas when compared to more urban areas. The authors also discuss how performance could be monitored to signal the risk of any significant service pressures over the coming months.
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Content ArticleThis blog by Robert Otto Valdez, Director of the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), outlines the setbacks to patient safety and the healthcare workforce caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. He highlights areas of concern including workforce burnout and an increase in healthcare associated infections (HAIs) since 2020. The issues faced by the US healthcare system are not felt equally, and Valdez draws attention to a report that demonstrates worsening health inequalities. The blog includes links to evidence-based research and initiatives developed by AHRQ aimed at improving current patient safety priorities. Toolkits to improve antibiotic use. These resources are based on a “Four Moments of Antibiotic Decision Making” model that has shown success in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and ambulatory care practices. Tools to engage patients and families in making healthcare safer. Patients and families are powerful partners in improving quality and safety in hospital settings, during primary care visits, or whenever a diagnosis is made. These resources help ensure that patients’ voices are heard. Surveys on patient safety culture. This family of surveys asks healthcare providers and staff about the extent to which their organisational culture supports patient safety. Each survey is designed to assess patient safety culture in a specific setting. Diagnostic Centers of Excellence. These grants establishing 10 centres of excellence are aimed at developing systems, measures, and new technology solutions to improve diagnostic safety and quality.
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Content Article
Molnupiravir plus usual care versus usual care alone as early treatment for adults with COVID-19 at increased risk of adverse outcomes (PANORAMIC): an open-label, platform-adaptive randomised controlled trial (22 December 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Data, research and statistics
The safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of molnupiravir, an oral antiviral medication for SARS-CoV-2, has not been established in vaccinated patients in the community at increased risk of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19. In this study, Butler et al. aimed to establish whether the addition of molnupiravir to usual care reduced hospital admissions and deaths associated with COVID-19 in this population. The authors conclude that molnupiravir did not reduce the frequency of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations or death among high-risk vaccinated adults in the community. -
Content ArticleHealthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevention has been difficult for healthcare providers to maintain during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study summarises themes for maintaining infection prevention activities learnt from the implementation of a quality improvement (QI) programme in intensive care units (ICUs) during the pandemic. The authors of the study conducted qualitative analysis of participants’ semi-structured exit interviews, self-assessments on HAI prevention activities, participant-created action plans, chat-box discussions during webinars and informal correspondence. The study identified four themes for successful maintenance of infection prevention activities during the pandemic: the value of a pre-existing infection prevention infrastructure flexibility in approach broad buy-in for maintaining QI programmes the facilitation of idea-sharing.
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Content ArticleThis article in Science News looks at the impact of the growing global burden of Long Covid during 2022. It describes "a tidal wave of people with lingering symptoms—some mild, some profoundly disabling" which has commanded the attention of researchers and doctors, who are still looking for answers on how to diagnose and treat Long Covid. The article also highlights risk factors, symptoms and the need to focus on people whose lives are most severely restricted by the condition.
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Content ArticleThis article for ABC News looks at a study conducted by researchers from the Bond University and other Australian universities about the impact of the 'hero' and 'angel' narratives applied to nurses during the Covid-19 pandemic. They interviewed critical care nurses in the UK, Australia and North America about their perceptions of these terms. The study found that nurses felt the labels devalued their professionalism, created unreasonable expectations, contributed to gender stereotypes and increased burn-out by putting emphasis on showing up for work even when nurses are unwell. The study also highlighted that nurses responded more positively to the terms 'hero' and 'angel' when used by patients, as opposed to governments and the media.
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Content ArticleThis report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies examines how NHS funding, resources and treatment volumes compare with pre-pandemic levels. The study examines how the funding, staffing and hospital beds available to the NHS have changed since 2019, comparing the number of patients treated by the NHS in eight different areas compares with 2019 levels. For most areas of care, the NHS is still struggling to treat more people than it was pre-pandemic, despite having – on the face of it – additional staff and funding. The report considers a range of different factors that could explain this seeming fall in performance and output.
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Content ArticleIn this interview for the Betsy Lehman Center in Massachusetts, Lee Kim Erickson, Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at Wellforce, talks about maintaining a focus on patient safety during times of crisis, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on training for healthcare workers and the importance of maintaining a focus on care from the patient's point of view.
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Content ArticleWeaknesses resulting from a patchwork of patient safety processes developed by individual healthcare organisations over the past quarter-century, exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, can be remedied through both local systems design support and widespread best practices uniformity.
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Content ArticleFor decades, western Europe’s national healthcare systems have been widely touted as among the best in the world. But an ageing population, more long-term illnesses, a continuing recruitment and retainment crisis plus post-Covid exhaustion have combined, this winter, to create a perfect healthcare storm that is likely to get worse before it gets better, writes Jon Henley (Berlin), Kate Connolly (Berlin), Sam Jones (Madrid) and Angela Giuffrida (Rome) in this Guardian article.
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Content ArticleThe World Health Organization (WHO) has been tracking the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning of 2020. This report is a comprehensive and consistent measurement of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by estimating excess deaths, by month, for 2020 and 2021. It estimates 14.83 million excess deaths globally, 2.74 times more deaths than the 5.42 million reported as due to COVID-19 for the period. There are wide variations in the excess death estimates across the six World Health Organization regions.
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Content ArticleThis 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.
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Content ArticleThe brief focuses on the nursing workforce at a time when a global pandemic is raging across the world. The year just ended—2021— has seen unprecedented damage inflicted on health systems and on the nursing workforce. The year just begun—2022— marks no change in the continuing relentless pressure of the pandemic on individual nurses, and on the global nursing workforce. This brief was commissioned by the International Centre for Nurse Migration (ICNM). It provides a global snapshot assessment of how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting on the nursing workforce, with a specific focus on how changing patterns of nurse supply and mobility will challenge the sustainability of the global nursing workforce. It also sets out the urgent action agenda and global workforce plan for 2022 and beyond which is required to support nurse workforce sustainability, and therefore improve health system responsiveness and resilience in the face of COVID-19.
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Content ArticleThis report from the International Council of Nurses is intended to give an overview of the continuing challenges faced by nurses, highlight the potential medium- to long-term impacts on the nursing workforce, and inform policy responses that need to be taken to retain and strengthen the nursing workforce.
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Content ArticleThis study in eClinicalMedicine aimed to bring together the global evidence on the prevalence of persistent symptoms in people who had experienced Covid-19 infection. The authors found, across the 194 studies included in the systematic review, that 45% of Covid-19 survivors, regardless of hospitalisation status, were experiencing a range of unresolved symptoms at around four months after infection. The authors state that current understanding is limited by heterogeneous study design, follow-up durations and measurement methods, and highlight that definition of subtypes of Long Covid is unclear, which hampers effective treatment and management strategies.
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Content ArticleQuestions 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.
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Content ArticleThis report by the Beryl Institute and Ipsos explores the core trends impacting healthcare and patient experience overall in the United States. It highlights key issues expressed by consumers in an online survey relating to quality of care and experience of care, taking into account the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it has altered the delivery of healthcare.
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Content ArticleKeeping patients safe during their care and treatment should be at the heart of any health system, including the NHS. Yet avoidable harm still occurs every day, around the world. There have been major efforts to prioritise patient safety in England, but the pandemic has shone a light on areas of care where progress has stalled, or safety has deteriorated. This report by Imperial College London's Institute of Global Health Innovation, commissioned by Patient Safety Watch, brings together publicly available data to present a national picture of patient safety in England.
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Content ArticleA survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund has found that a majority of primary care doctors in the US and other high-income countries say they are burned out and stressed, and many feel the pandemic has negatively impacted the quality of care they provide. This article presents the survey results in the form of graphs with a commentary, and you can also download data from the survey.
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Content ArticleThis report by LCP Health Analytics, looks at how inequalities across the medicine life cycle impact patients and populations. It paints a vision of what success could look like, and proposes specific, feasible calls to action across industry, health technology assessment (HTA) bodies and players that could transform the role of the life science sector in reducing inequalities and fostering healthy populations. The report identifies two key challenges in addressing health inequalities that are tractable, and where the life science sector is most likely to make commitments and contributions: Multimorbidity is increasing and embedding inequalities in health Financial incentives across health systems are not aligned with patient and population health
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Content ArticleDeaths from Covid-19 are rare in children and young people, and the high rates of asymptomatic and mild infections complicate assessment of cause of death in this group. This study assessed the cause of death in all children and young people with a positive Covid-19 test since the start of the pandemic in England. The authors concluded that:Covid-19 deaths remain extremely rare in CYP, with most fatalities occurring within 30 days of infection and in children with specific underlying conditions.Covid-19 was responsible for 1.2% of all deaths in <20 year-olds in this period.
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Content ArticleThis article from Reuters highlights the results of a survey of 1,002 people which was conducted in October 2022 by market research company Censuswide on behalf of recruitment website Indeed. The survey showed that more than three quarters of British people who have suffered persistent ill health following a Covid-19 infection have had to cut back or change the work they do.
