Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Pandemic'.
Found 2,342 results
-
Content ArticleThis report looks at lessons that can be learned from the Covid-19 pandemic around developing culturally relevant health information for South Asian communities. The authors conclude that there is an urgent need for culturally appropriate health information for South Asian communities to help reduce inequalities in health outcomes seen prior to the pandemic and exacerbated during it. They also highlight a lack of research into optimal ways of developing culturally relevant health information resources.
-
Content ArticleThis report by Muscular Dystrophy UK looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on people living with muscle-wasting conditions, according to the results of a survey conducted in Scotland. It is estimated that more than 6,000 people in Scotland live with a muscle-wasting condition and require access to a range of specialist appointments and clinicians to meet their complex care needs.
-
Content ArticleThese resources from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh were developed following a study funded by the Chief Scientist Office in Scotland. The study was based on an online survey which people completed between July and August 2020, followed by a further survey six months later. Some participants also took part in a telephone interview to enhance understanding of their responses. The study used the responses of people living with Long Covid to: develop a resource with advice for people accessing services for Long Covid. write guidance for people providing services relevant to people with Long Covid. write recommendations to inform policy and service design that relate to Long Covid and other impacts of the pandemic. plan a series of short podcasts, interviewing people who have lived experience of Long Covid.
-
Content Article'Support after Covid-19' is a series of short podcasts exploring Long Covid and work. It was developed by Professor Cathy Bulley and Dr Eleanor Curnow at Queen Margaret University in response to research insights from the ‘Support After Covid Study,’ which was carried out between May 2020 and June 2021. It focuses on the experiences of people working in health services who are living with Long Covid, offering resources, insight and advice.
-
Content ArticleThe serious and growing workforce crisis in the NHS and social care is the biggest, most pressing threat to the viability of services for people who need them. COVID-19, Brexit, and points based immigration rules have accelerated issues around recruitment, retention, workload, and wellbeing that were already affecting the workforce even before the pandemic. What we need is a relentless focus on implementing solutions, resourcing them properly, and reporting progress, writes David Oliver in this BMJ article.
-
Content Article
BMJ: Raining in Los Angeles (14 January 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
Amid climbing covid case numbers and with scarce resources, Tara Vijayan describes what it has been like in the US to triage treatments that aim to prevent patients being hospitalised with COVID-19 -
Content ArticleThere has been a lot of discussion about whether the NHS will be overwhelmed this winter, if it is already overwhelmed, or if it is just having yet another “normal” winter crisis and will get through, as it always has, despite the additional pressures from omicron. The sight of the army being deployed in hospitals and ambulance services should be a clue that all is not well, but we are on a “war footing” after all. But can we be more precise about our current state?, writes Katherine Henderson, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, in this BMJ opinion piece. Is the healthcare system delivering the needed level of patient care? The problem of the elective backlog—known and unknown—is well documented. Individual patients have lost months, or even years of good health. They have anxiety, pain, and debilities that limit their ability to engage fully with their families and society. But how about the ability of the NHS to provide safe and effective emergency care to the most seriously ill, distressed, or injured—the emergency part of the urgent and emergency care pathway? What service should we be delivering, and how do we match up to those standards at the moment?
-
Content ArticleDecision makers should apply insights learnt from people living with chronic illness to collectively managing covid, says Charlotte Augst in this BMJ opinion article.
-
Content ArticleIn this primer for Patient Safety Network, the authors examine the issues surrounding diagnostic error and delay during the Covid-19 pandemic. They discuss the following issues: Biases in the diagnostic process - availability bias, anchoring bias, implicit biases Diagnostic testing for active SARS-CoV-2 Infection Clinical implications of diagnostic error
-
Content ArticleAfter nearly two years of pandemic, 5,000 inpatients and 1,000 deaths, the staff of one of the largest hospitals in north-west England are frustrated and exhausted. While ministers talk of encouraging signs that the Omicron wave may be receding in parts of England, staff at the Royal Preston are struggling to keep their heads above water. The hospital has seen a near four-fold increase in Covid patients since Christmas Day, rising to 103 last week. It is one of the largest hospitals in a region with the highest infection levels in the UK and two neighbouring NHS Trusts have declared critical incidents. Despite a recent slowdown in admissions, the “horrendous” levels of staff absence means the pressure is ratcheting up.
-
Content ArticleThere is no longer any scientific doubt about how Covid spreads through the air. Covid spreads like any other airborne respiratory disease. The virus is carried in tiny particles called aerosols, which we breathe out constantly — especially when speaking loudly or singing. The particles stay in the room air like smoke, and if someone has Covid, their exhaled aerosols contain the virus and can infect someone who breathes them in. We stop the disease spreading by stopping people inhaling infected aerosol. In this article for the Guardian, Dr Adam Squires and Prof Christina Pagel detail what we can do to protect ourselves from the airborne spread of Covid. “Filtering facepiece respirator” masks, social distancing and opening windows are short term solutions. Additionally, much can be done by cleaning the air in the room, removing infectious aerosol before it can be inhaled through ventilation and supplement the clean air by filtering out the respiratory aerosol particles using small portable HEPA (“High Efficiency Particle Air”) filter unit.. Longer term, new developments in ultraviolet (UV) technology can safely and efficiently kill airborne pathogens in large spaces such as canteens, gyms or theatre. Infrastructure upgrades and new builds, necessary for zero carbon targets, can combine more energy-efficient ventilation with filtration to lower pollution. In the classroom and the workplace, clean fresh air has wider benefits on health and wellbeing far beyond our current airborne pandemic.
-
Content Article
Hospitals are in serious trouble (7 January2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
Omicron is inundating a healthcare system that was already buckling under the cumulative toll of every previous surge, writes Ed Yong in an article for the Atlantic. When a healthcare system crumbles, this is what it looks like. Much of what’s wrong happens invisibly. At first, there’s just a lot of waiting. Emergency rooms get so full that “you’ll wait hours and hours, and you may not be able to get surgery when you need it,” says Megan Ranney, an emergency physician in Rhode Island. When patients are seen, they might not get the tests they need, because technicians or necessary chemicals are in short supply. Then delay becomes absence. The little acts of compassion that make hospital stays tolerable disappear. Next go the acts of necessity that make stays survivable. Nurses might be so swamped that they can’t check whether a patient has their pain medications or if a ventilator is working correctly. People who would’ve been fine will get sicker. Eventually, people who would have lived will die. This is not conjecture; it is happening now, across the United States. -
Content ArticlePopulation-level data on COVID-19 vaccine uptake in pregnancy and SARS-CoV-2 infection outcomes are lacking. Stock et al. describe COVID-19 vaccine uptake and SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women in Scotland, using whole-population data from a national, prospective cohort. They found that vaccine coverage was substantially lower in pregnant women than in the general female population of 18−44 years. Overall, 77.4% of SARS-CoV-2 infections, 90.9% of SARS-CoV-2 associated with hospital admission and 98% SARS-CoV-2 associated with critical care admission, as well as all baby deaths, occurred in pregnant women who were unvaccinated at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis. Addressing low vaccine uptake rates in pregnant women is imperative to protect the health of women and babies in the ongoing pandemic.
-
Content ArticleThe evidence for preventing COVID-19 is lost in translation, writes Dancer et al. in a BMJ Editorial. The world is finally coming to terms with the realisation that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is airborne. While keeping your distance, wearing a mask, and getting vaccinated have provided much protection, one intervention that would have a significant impact is adequate indoor ventilation. Healthcare, homes, schools, and workplaces should have been encouraged to improve ventilation at the very beginning of the pandemic, but tardy recognition of the airborne route by leading authorities in 2020 stalled any progress that could have been made at that stage.This was compounded by controversies over the terms “droplet” and “aerosol,” as the definition of these dictates different infection prevention strategies, including type of mask. Inserting the term “ventilation” into a COVID-19 policy document might appease readers, but ensuring people get enough fresh air in indoor environments seems to have fallen by the wayside. Why is this? Can we establish the reasons for this seemingly lethargic response to improving indoor air quality?
-
Content ArticleSpotting and acting on the signs of deterioration in a patient or care home resident is vital to ensuring patient safety. The objective of the national Managing Deterioration Safety Improvement Programme (known as ManDetSIP) is to create and embed the conditions for staff across the healthcare system to improve the safety and outcomes of patients by managing deterioration, and provide a high quality healthcare experience across England.
-
Content ArticlePeople in England’s most deprived neighbourhoods work longer hours than those in the rest of the country but live shorter lives with more years in ill health costing an estimated £29.8bn a year to the economy in lost productivity. People living in these communities were also 46% more likely to die from COVID-19 than those in the rest of England. The findings, revealed in a joint report released today by the All-Parliamentary Party Group for ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods and Northern Health Science Alliance, shows the devastating impact of poor health for those living in deprived areas and left behind neighbourhoods (LBNs) and makes a number of recommendations to overcome the health inequalities faced by people living in these places. Those living in local authorities that contain ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods have a further £2bn gap in lost productivity compared to those areas with a similar rate of deprivation but with more civic assets, connectedness and an active and engaged community. Across most measures people in these areas fair even worse than those in deprived neighbourhoods.
-
Content ArticleIn this article for The BMJ, Ingrid Torjesen looks at new data from Japan that suggest patients with the omicron variant of Covid-19 shed virus for longer after symptoms emerge, than with other Covid-19 variants. This has a potentially significant impact on hopes of shortening the period of isolation for people testing positive. The article examines new evidence from Japan that suggests that with omicron, the peak of virus shedding may be two or three days later than with other variants. It also looks at the relative value of self-isolation in the UK while omicron is circulating so widely in the community, with up to two-thirds of cases now undetected by testing.
-
Content ArticleThe National Care Forum (NCF) represents not-for-profit organisations providing care and support services to adults in the UK. The NCF conducted a survey of its members over a five day period from 5-10 January 2022, considering the impact of the Covid-19 Omicron variant. Its results highlighted increased pressure faced by the care sector in this period, with staff absence being compounded by existing high vacancy rates and difficulties and delays with testing.
-
Content Article
Post-COVID syndrome symptoms, functional disability, and clinical severity phenotypes in hospitalized and nonhospitalized individuals: A cross-sectional evaluation from a community COVID rehabilitation service (15 November 2021)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Data, research and statistics
There is currently limited information on clinical severity phenotypes of symptoms and functional disability in post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID) Syndrome (PCS). A370 PCS patients from a dedicated community COVID-19 rehabilitation service was assessed using the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale where each symptom or functional difficulty was scored on a 0–10 Likert scale and also compared with before infection. Phenotypes based on symptom severity were extracted to identify any noticeable patterns. The correlation between symptom severity, functional disability, and overall health was explored. -
Content Article"Patients wait up to 12 hours. Some die waiting. How long must we wait for this dire situation to improve?" The NHS is overwhelmed. Although Covid has shone a bright light on this, it alone did not create these problems. There are multiple reasons for failure writes the'Secret Paramedic' in this Guardian article.
-
Content Article"To healthcare workers in the COVID era, holidays mean death, and we knew Omicron was coming before it had a name. The wave caused by this variant has barely begun, rapidly gathering steam, and we are exhausted, attempting to pull from reserves badly drained by earlier surges." Kathryn Ivey, a critical care nurse at a medical center in Nashville, Tennessee, confronts the Omicron surge filling her hospital.
-
Content ArticleIn this opinion piece for The BMJ, Partha Kar, consultant endocrinologist and NHS England National Specialty Advisor for Diabetes, looks at the crisis facing primary care in the UK. He highlights that many primary care professionals are feeling burnt out due to the intense pressure and negative attention GPs are currently experiencing. The cost of relying on primary care for the vaccination programme is that treatment for mental health and long term conditions has been neglected. GPs are at the receiving end of patients' frustrations about delays to their care. Partha highlights the need to: prepare well in advance for potential future waves of Covid-19, including by developing a vaccine delivery workforce that is not reliant on primary care. ensure vaccines are distributed to less developed countries, and move away from seeing vaccination as an issue of nationalism. increase funding for primary care in a focused and sustained way.
-
Content ArticleIn this article for The Conversation, the authors discuss their latest research findings regarding Covid-19 transmission, outlining the likelihood of catching Covid-19 in different indoor and outdoor scenarios. They demonstrate that speaking, shouting, singing and heavy exercise all increase the likelihood of transmission, and illustrate the impact of ventilation, face coverings and number of people on the risk of catching the virus. The article includes an table summarising their findings and a link to the Covid-19 Aerosol Transmission Estimator developed by the authors. View the full research paper
-
Content ArticleIn this interview for Woman's Hour, Dr Nisreen Alwan, Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of Southampton, discusses the impact of Long Covid on her own life with presenter Emma Barnett. She also shares insights from research that suggests women, people of working age, people from areas of high social deprivation and frontline health and education workers are more likely to be affected by Long Covid. Dr Alwan talks about the need to manage Long Covid alongside daily activities and highlights new research that demonstrates that vaccines may reduce the incidence of the condition. The interview can be heard at 17:23-25:20 in the recording.
-
Content ArticleA new study developed by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the European Commission draws out lessons for strengthening resilience to future health threats. The Health systems resilience during COVID-19: Lessons for building back better study gathers the evidence on how countries have managed (or not managed) to re-engineer how they work, the ways in which they utilise their resources and the methods they use to face and counter the pressures exerted by both COVID and non-COVID challenges.
