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Found 2,342 results
  1. News Article
    One in 10 staff at some Welsh health boards are off sick or self-isolating, BBC Wales has been told. The NHS Confederation said staffing problems were having a "huge impact". It said the overall NHS Wales absence rate was between 8% and 9%, but some services have up to half their staff absent. Monthly absence rates in December are usually about 5%, but Aneurin Bevan, Cwm Taf Morgannwg and Betsi Cadwaladr health boards have rates of about 10%. Welsh NHS Confederation director Darren Hughes told Wales Live the NHS was in "the same storm but different parts will definitely be in different boats", with absence rates higher in areas hit hardest by coronavirus. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 December 2020
  2. News Article
    Coronavirus has not caused an increase in stillbirths despite fears it could do so, Government data suggests. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published data on Monday showing that the stillbirth rate decreased from 4.0 stillbirths per 1,000 total births in 2019, to 3.9 in the first three quarters (January to September) of 2020, in line with the long-term trend. The data comes amid fears that coronavirus can impact pregnancy and the stillbirth rate. Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 8 December 2020
  3. News Article
    Dialysis patients who must travel to hospital are nearly four times as likely to die of covid than those aged over 80, but so far have not been prioritised for receiving vaccination, HSJ has learned. UK Renal Registry data shows that, from March to November 2020, 3.3% of all in-centre haemodialysis patients have died from covid (662 deaths out of a population of 20,000). This figure compares to a death rate of approximately 0.7% in all those aged over 80 and 1.8% in over 90s. Although the government classifies dialysis patients as clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID-19, not all patients are able to receive dialysis at home and those receiving inpatient treatment still need to travel to dialysis clinics, either in main hospital buildings or smaller satellite clinics, three times a week. At present the Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation COVID-19 vaccine prioritisation list ranks all dialysis patients at priority level four, alongside all other shielding patients and those aged over 70. Priority one covers all care home residents and staff, while priority two covers all over 80s and frontline health workers. The Renal Association wrote to Public Health England and JCVI over the weekend to ask for a change in vaccine prioritisation but, at the time of writing, has not received a response. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 December 2020
  4. News Article
    All non-urgent elective operations are being postponed for at least two weeks in a health system still seeing significant and growing pressure from coronavirus. The four acute trusts in Kent and Medway will still carry out cancer and urgent electives, but other work is being postponed. Relatively few elective operations are usually carried out around Christmas and New Year, meaning the county is likely to see little or no elective work for the next four weeks. In a covid update bulletin issued last night, the Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group acknowledged the pressure hospitals across its area were under but stressed cancer and other urgent operations would go ahead. It added: “However, we are now pausing non-urgent elective services. This will allow staff to move to support the increased number of covid-19 patients. “Initially this will be for a two-week period. We will keep this under weekly review and will contact individual patients where appointments need to be rescheduled.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 December 2020
  5. News Article
    A 90-year-old woman has become the first patient in the world to receive the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine after its approval in the UK, where the NHS has launched its biggest vaccine campaign. Margaret Keenan received the jab at about 6.45am in Coventry, marking the start of a historic mass vaccination programme. The vaccines will be administered at 50 hospital hubs around the country, with patients aged 80 and over who are either already attending hospital as an outpatient or are being discharged home after a hospital stay, being first in line. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 8 November 2020
  6. News Article
    Concern is growing that NHS hospitals may face a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic with a much higher level of covid-positive inpatients than at the beginning of the second wave. This raises the prospect of the service being overwhelmed during the January-February “winter pressures” period and having to once again halt elective and non-urgent work in many areas. HSJ understands national NHS leaders are concerned that anything over 5,000 covid patients in hospital by the year end would leave the service vulnerable to being overwhelmed. Their concerns are based on the fact that the second wave added 13,000 hospitalised covid patients at peak. During the first wave, covid hospitalisation peaked at just over 17,000, and in order to prepare for it the NHS cancelled most elective and non-urgent work. Read full story Source: HSJ, 7 December 2020
  7. News Article
    More people signed off sick with mental health problems during lockdown, analysis reveals. Millions of people expected to need help after effect of coronavirus on UK A GP fit note is issued after the first seven days of sickness absence if a doctor agrees the patient is too ill to work The proportion of people applying for fit notes from their GP for mental health reasons jumped 6% during lockdown in England, according to new research. It adds to growing concern the UK will see a surge in mental health problems as a result of the pandemic and the impact on society and the economy. It could be the first signs of increasing mental health illnesses since the pandemic started. The Centre for Mental Health think tank has warned the government needs to prepare for the aftermath of COVID-19. Its analysis, based on research into COVID-19 and the effects of other epidemics on mental health, predicts 8.5 million adults and 1.5 million children in England will need support for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders and other mental health difficulties in the coming months and years. That is the equivalent of 20 per cent of all adults and 15 per cent of all children. A third of patients would need help for the first time. Read full story Source: Independent, 6 December 2020
  8. News Article
    The coronavirus vaccine is the "beginning of the end" of the epidemic in the UK, Prof Stephen Powis has said, as vaccinations begin on Tuesday. But the NHS England medical director warned the distribution of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would be a "marathon not a sprint". It will take "many months" to vaccinate everybody who needs it, he said. Frontline health staff, those over 80, and care home workers will be first to get the COVID-19 vaccine. In England, 50 hospitals have been initially chosen to serve as hubs for administering the vaccine. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland will also begin their vaccination programmes from hospitals on Tuesday. Prof Powis was speaking outside Croydon University Hospital in south London, which became one of the first hospitals in the UK to take delivery of the vaccine on Sunday. Read full story Source: BBC News, 6 December 2020
  9. News Article
    A new mother has spoken of her distress after wrongly-imposed Covid rules led to her being separated from her six-week-old baby for almost a week while she received treatment in hospital. Charlotte Jones, 29, was taken to Princess Royal University hospital in Kent by ambulance last Wednesday, after complications following the birth of her son, Leo. When she arrived, she asked whether she would be able to see her baby, whom she is breastfeeding, while in hospital, but was told it would not be allowed because of the threat of coronavirus. She did not see him until her release six days later. The restrictions as applied in Jones’s case, appear to contravene official guidance and go against the advice of NHS England, which specifies that mothers and babies should be kept together unless it is absolutely necessary to separate them. Separation at such a critical time can have an adverse impact on the physical and mental health of the mother, baby and wider family, say healthcare professionals and charities. King’s College NHS foundation trust, which manages the hospital, has admitted that although it is limiting the number of visitors during the pandemic, there is no policy stopping babies to be brought in to be breastfed. The trust has pledged to ensure staff are aware of its policies. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 December 2020
  10. News Article
    NHS staff will no longer get the coronavirus vaccine first after a drastic rethink about who should be given priority, it emerged last night. The new immunisation strategy is likely to disappoint and worry thousands of frontline staff – and comes amid urgent warnings from NHS chiefs that hospitals could be “overwhelmed” in January by a third wave of COVID-19 caused by mingling over Christmas. Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “If we get a prolonged cold snap in January the NHS risks being overwhelmed. The Covid-19 restrictions should remain appropriately tough. “Trust leaders are worried about the impact of looser regulations over Christmas.” Frontline personnel were due to have the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine when the NHS starts its rollout, which is expected to be next Tuesday after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved it on Wednesday. However, hospitals will instead begin by immunising care home staff, and hospital inpatients and outpatients aged over 80. The new UK-wide guidance on priority groups was issued by the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JCVI) amid uncertainty over when the rest of the 5m-strong initial batch of doses that ministers ordered will reach the UK. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 December 2020
  11. News Article
    More than 60,000 people in the UK have now died within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, official figures show. A further 414 were recorded on Thursday, taking the total to 60,113. Two other ways of measuring deaths - where Covid is mentioned on the death certificate, and the number of "excess deaths" for this time of year - give higher total figures. Only the US, Brazil, India and Mexico have recorded more deaths than the UK, according to Johns Hopkins University. However, the UK has had more deaths per 100,000 people than any of those nations. In terms of deaths per 100,000 people, the UK is the seventh-highest country globally, behind Belgium, San Marino, Peru, Andorra, Spain and Italy. Read full story Source: BBC News,
  12. News Article
    Care homes will not receive the first batches of the Covid vaccine in Scotland because of problems transporting small doses around the country. The health secretary has said about 65,500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive in Scotland by next Tuesday. They will initially be stored in freezers in packs of 997 doses. The first people to receive the jab may have to travel to where the doses are being held. Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said that means care homes would have to wait until the issue of breaking down the vaccines packs into smaller doses is resolved. She told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "The doses come to us in packs of 997 and we need to know to what degree we can pack that down into smaller pack sizes. If we can't, then we absolutely need to bring those who need to be vaccinated to those freezers - to the centres - because there is a limit to how much you can transport the doses once you have defrosted them." "We don't want to waste any of this vaccine so it's not possible at this point to take it in smaller doses into, for example, care homes." Read full story Source: BBC News, 3 December 2020
  13. News Article
    The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use. British regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against COVID-19 illness, is safe for rollout next week. Immunisations could start within days for those who need it the most, such as elderly, vulnerable patients. The UK has already ordered 40m doses - enough to vaccinate 20m people. Around 10m doses should be available soon, with the first 800,000 arriving in the UK in the coming days. It is the fastest ever vaccine to go from concept to reality, taking only 10 months to follow the same developmental steps that normally span a decade. Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted "It's the protection of vaccines that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again." Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast that people will be contacted by the NHS when it is their turn for the jab. Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 December 2020
  14. News Article
    Trusts are carrying out harm reviews after a ‘contamination issue’ affecting hundreds of samples resulted in some staff and patients being wrongly told they had coronavirus, HSJ can reveal. The error happened in mid-October and involved swabs from five trusts in the South East region, which were being processed by the NHS-run Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services. HSJ understands it is thought that around 100 people across several trusts were given false positive results, and subsequently tested negative. The trusts involved are the Royal Surrey Foundation Trust, Frimley Health Foundation Trust, Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals Foundation Trust and Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust. Frimley has completed a clinical review and found no harm had been caused, while Royal Berkshire, Ashford and St Peter’s and the Royal Surrey have reviews ongoing. The position for Berkshire Healthcare, a mental health trust, is not known. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 2 December 2020
  15. News Article
    People with learning disabilities have been "at the back of the queue" during the coronavirus pandemic, a panel of MPs has been told. Those living in supported accommodation were left waiting weeks for guidance on testing and visits. MPs were also told long-term social factors were likely to be more important than biology when it came to ethnic divides in the virus's impact. The panel focused on what lessons could be learned. Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 December 2020
  16. News Article
    The NIHR-supported PRINCIPLE trial is to start investigating the inhaled corticosteroid budesonide to find out if it can help treat COVID-19 in patients who aren’t in hospital. Led by the University of Oxford, the PRINCIPLE is the UK’s national platform trial for COVID-19 treatments that can be taken at home. It is evaluating treatments that can help people aged over 50 recover quickly from COVID-19 illness and prevent the need for hospital admission. The study, funded by NIHR and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has so far recruited more than 2100 volunteers from across the UK with support from NIHR’s Clinical Research Network. Inhaled budesonide is often used to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with no serious side-effects associated with short-term use. In some patients with COVID-19, the body’s immune response to the virus can cause high levels of inflammation that can damage cells in the airways and lungs. Inhaling budesonide into the airways targets anti-inflammatory treatment where it is needed most, and can potentially minimise any lung damage that might otherwise be caused by the virus. Patients taking part in the study will be randomly assigned to receive an inhaler in the post, alongside the usual care from their clinician. They will be asked to inhale two puffs twice a day for 14 days with each puff providing a 400 microgram dose of budesonide. They will be followed up for 28 days and will be compared with participants who have been assigned to receive the usual standard-of-care only. Read full story Source: National Institute for Health Research, 27 November 2020
  17. News Article
    COVID-19 could be causing lung abnormalities still detectable more than three months after patients are infected, researchers suggest. A study of 10 patients at Oxford University used a novel scanning technique to identify damage not picked up by conventional scans. It uses a gas called xenon during MRI scans to create images of lung damage. Lung experts said a test that could spot long-term damage would make a huge difference to Covid patients. The xenon technique sees patients inhale the gas during a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Prof Fergus Gleeson, who is leading the work, tried out his scanning technique on 10 patients aged between 19 and 69. Eight of them had persistent shortness of breath and tiredness three months after being ill with coronavirus, even though none of them had been admitted to intensive care or required ventilation, and conventional scans had found no problems in their lungs. The scans showed signs of lung damage - by highlighting areas where air is not flowing easily into the blood - in the eight who reported breathlessness. The results have prompted Prof Gleeson to plan a trial of up to 100 people to see if the same is true of people who had not been admitted to hospital and had not suffered from such serious symptoms. He is planning to work with GPs to scan people who have tested positive for COVID-19 across a range of age groups. The aim is to discover whether lung damage occurs and if so whether it is permanent, or resolves over time. Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 December 2020
  18. News Article
    The government has admitted the NHS in England does not have enough nurses and doctors to keep all its services running if there is a third spike in coronavirus cases as leaked figures show the number of staff off work because of the virus rising. An analysis of the impact of coronavirus, released by Downing Street on Monday, warned that even with a 6% growth in NHS staff since August 2019 and extra funding “there is a trade-off between the NHS’s ability to deliver COVID-19 and non-Covid-19 care in the event that COVID-19 hospitalisations rise”. It also warned of the psychological effects on staff saying: “It would be expected that higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) would be seen amongst health and social care staff.” New leaked NHS data for England on Monday shows more than 82,000 NHS staff are absent from work with more than two-fifths, 42 per cent, linked to coronavirus either due to sickness or because they need to self-isolate. This includes almost 27,000 nurses and 4,000 doctors absent from NHS wards. Hospital leaders reiterated the strain the NHS was under in a briefing to MPs ahead of the vote on local tier restrictions today. Read full story Source: The Independent, 1 December 2020
  19. News Article
    New Covid guidance for hospitals could see more patients receiving face-to-face visits from loved ones. NHS Wales has given health boards and hospices flexibility to allow visits based on local levels of COVID-19. Until now accompanying people to medical appointments and hospital visits have not been allowed, with a few exceptions. It also allows for pregnant women in low Covid rate areas to take their partners to maternity appointments. The Welsh Government said the new flexibility was "due to the changing picture of coronavirus transmission across Wales, with significant variations in community transmission across different parts of the country and differences in the rate of nosocomial transmission". Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 November 2020
  20. News Article
    Health inspectors in England have been moving between care homes with high levels of COVID-19 infection without being tested, raising fears they have put more residents at risk of catching the virus, leaks to the Guardian have revealed. In recent weeks all care home inspections carried out in the north of England have been of infected homes, including a facility where 38 of the 41 people receiving care and 30 staff – almost half of the workers – had tested positive, internal documents from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) show. Over the last two months inspectors have been checking infection control procedures and care standards in up to 600 care homes, many of which were dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19, but the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has yet to provide testing. The CQC said on Friday it was expecting to start testing inspectors “in the coming weeks”. Weekly Covid deaths in care homes have been rising. In the week to 20 November, 398 people were notified to the CQC as having died from Covid, up from 138 a month earlier. The death toll remains lower than at the peak of the pandemic, when more than 2,500 people were dying a week in late April. The situation has sparked “very real anxieties about contracting the disease” and spreading it between infected homes, the leaked memos reveal. One inspector described work to his managers as like “going into the eye of the storm”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 November 2020
  21. News Article
    A woman has become blind after her monthly eye injections were delayed for four months during lockdown. Helen Jeremy, 73, said everything she enjoyed doing has "gone out of the window" after losing her eyesight. She has glaucoma and was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration four years ago. Monthly injections controlled the condition and meant she could still drive and play the piano. However, her appointments were cancelled when the pandemic struck and her eyesight deteriorated. "I was panicking. It was terrifying. Because I'm a widow I'm on my own and it was awful," she said. "Suddenly my eyesight was basically gone. By the time of my next appointment I was told there was no point in going on with these injections because the damage had been done to the back of my eye." Thousands more people in Wales are at risk of "irreversible sight loss" because of treatment delays, RNIB Cymru warns. The Welsh Government said health boards are working to increase services. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 November 2020
  22. News Article
    NHS trust chief executives have told HSJ they need more clarity the Pfizer-BioNTech covid vaccine is safe to reassure their worried staff. Trusts were told last week they need to be ready to start vaccinating their staff from early next month. On Tuesday, it was confirmed that they would initially be asked to use the covid vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech, assuming it is granted a licence by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Speaking at the HSJ Provider Virtual Summit, St George’s University Hospitals Foundation Trust chief executive Jacqueline Totterdell said there was a lot of “anxiety” around the vaccine among her staff. Leeds Community Healthcare Trust chief Thea Stein added leaders in her city feel “anxious and uncertain”. Ms Totterdell said: “As a responsible officer for 9,000 staff, I also need to be clear that the vaccination is safe. That bit of narrative just needs to come out from the centre, about the reasons why they think it is safe. “I think there is a lot of anxiety, and some of the polls we’ve done around south west London show that as little as 50 per cent of people are willing just to have it without any of that [assurance]." Northumbria Healthcare FT chief executive Sir Jim Mackey, who also spoke at the summit, admitted he was “a bit surprised” by some staff who said they were not going to get the vaccine. The former NHS Improvement chief added: “I think when it actually comes to it, and we get the messaging right about it, not just the responsibility for you but also your responsibility for the people you work with… then the vast majority of people will get it and take confidence in the fact that it’s been developed really quickly and effectively. “These things don’t get signed off if they’re dangerous, so we need to embrace it as the thing that’s going to get us back to normal.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 26 November 2020
  23. News Article
    Across Britain, intensive care nurses and doctors are being pushed to their limits as they try to save lives from coronavirus. During 12-hour shifts in sweltering conditions, they are faced with technical and emotional challenges that many have never faced as they tackle a virus that has swept across the globe in a matter of days, threatening to kill tens of thousands in the UK. Britain has yet to even hit the peak of infections, but intensive care specialists are already asking how long they can keep working relentlessly. “We are trained for and used to dealing with difficult and emotional scenarios, but this is like a major incident that never ends,” says critical care nurse Karin Gerber. As an advanced nurse practitioner in critical care outreach, the 47-year-old sees patients in hospital who are getting sicker and may need to be admitted to intensive care. She says she has never seen anything “at this intensity”. The Royal London Hospital is at the forefront of the capital’s fight against the virus and has created more than 200 extra beds at its Whitechapel site in east London. They are filled with COVID-19 patients. Simon Richards, senior charge nurse at the Royal London’s critical care unit, tells The Independent: “In 20 years as a nurse this situation is by far the worst I have ever seen and totally unexpected, but the team spirit that people have shown has been amazing. “It’s extremely difficult, we are working so hard. The whole team is being pushed to their limit and you do wonder how long can this be sustained for? I wish we could see light at the end of the tunnel.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 24 November 2020
  24. News Article
    Hospital trusts have been put on notice that the challenging storage requirements of the first covid vaccines are likely to mean the vaccination of their staff will have to form the vanguard of the planned roll-out next month due. HSJ reported last week that healthcare staff would share priority with “care home residents and staff” in the vaccine roll-out. However, a letter sent to trust chief executives by NHS England seeks to clarify the situation by stressing that “different vaccines are likely to be better suited to different settings because the vaccines are likely to have different storage, reconstitution and administration requirements”. “Given what we currently know about the first expected vaccine, the imperative is that NHS trusts are ready to start vaccinating from the beginning of December.” Trusts are one of several components of the vaccination programme that includes primary care-run sites, mass vaccination centres, and “roving” visits to those who need them. Local systems and regional teams will decide “the most appropriate combination of models required to deliver the vaccine to their local populations based on local needs” the letter says. However, during the early stages of the roll-out this is likely to be dictated by the vaccine types that become available. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 25 November 2020
  25. News Article
    News that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will review the data from trials of one of the most promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates, to see whether it meets the agency’s robust standards of quality, safety and effectiveness, has been welcomed by the UK Government. Initial data had shown the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 94% effective in protecting people over 65 years of age from coronavirus, with no serious safety concerns having been raised during the clinical trials. Already the UK Government has pre-ordered 40 million vaccine doses – enough to provide vaccinations for up to a third of the population – and is expected to receive the total amount by the end of 2021. The majority of doses are anticipated to be received in the first half of next year. As well as successfully protecting those over the age of 65, trial data also showed that the vaccine candidate also performed equally well in people of all ages, races and ethnicities. Approval from the MHRA, as the UK’s independent regulator, is required for the COVID-19 vaccine to be authorised for consistent manufacture and supply. To achieve this approval, it must demonstrate that it meets strict quality, safety and effectiveness standards set by the MHRA. Business Secretary Alok Sharma added: “Today, we have renewed hope that we are on the brink of one of the most significant scientific discoveries of our time, as we reach the crucial last stage to finding a COVID-19 vaccine. “While this news is a cause for celebration, we must make sure that this vaccine, like all new medicines, meets standards of quality, safety, and effectiveness." Read full story Source: National Health Executive, 24 November 2020
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