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Showing results for tags 'Pandemic'.
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Content ArticleIt is well known that pausing planned hospital care during the pandemic worsened growing waiting lists, and that waits for routine care now stand at record-breaking levels. This research from the Nuffield Trust, supported by the NHS Race and Health Observatory, looks at how the fallout from the pandemic affected people across different ethnic groups, and whether that impact was spread evenly.
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Content ArticleThis report by the National Medical Examiner, Dr Alan Fletcher, summarises the progress made by medical examiner offices in 2021 and outlines areas of focus going forward. It highlights that medical examiners continued to receive positive feedback from bereaved people—many said they appreciated being given the opportunity to have a voice in the processes after a death and knowing any concerns were listened to. It includes information on: The national medical examiner system Implementation Guidance and publications Training Stakeholders Increasing the number of non-coronial deaths scrutinised Feedback received by medical examiners in England and Wales
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Content Article
Blog - Long Covid: A catalogue of shame (2 November 2022)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Blogs
In this blog, Roger Kline, Research Fellow at Middlesex University Business School, highlights the lack of support from the Government and NHS that healthcare staff with Long Covid face. He looks at the impact of the Government’s decision to scrap extended sick pay for NHS staff with Long Covid and argues that healthcare workers deserve better support. The blog includes accounts from 31 NHS nurses and midwives with Long Covid; some are having to use annual leave as they cannot work their full hours and some have been threatened with redundancy. Others describe their experiences of phased return to work and applying for the NHS Injury Allowance or ill health early retirement. -
Content ArticleAppreciative Inquiry (AI) is a research approach that aims to create practical and collaborative change by taking participants through an in-depth exploration of their organisation, team or role. This article in the European Journal of Midwifery reflects on the process of using AI in a study that explored staff wellbeing in a UK maternity unit. The authors share key lessons to help others decide whether AI will fit their research aims, and highlight issues in its design and application.
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Content ArticleThe Covid-19 pandemic has, in many ways, been healthcare’s finest hour. Clinicians performed miracles as they battled to understand a new disease, learning as they went along the techniques and approaches that gave patients the best chance of survival. But, for all this quiet heroism, the crisis also turned a harsh spotlight on the deficiencies of health systems, writes Sarah Neville in this Financial Times article.
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Content Article
APPG Coronavirus evidence session: Long Covid
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Patient recovery
Recording of the recent All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)Coronavirus evidence session on Long Covid. -
Content ArticleLucy is a world-leading authority on recovering from disaster. She has been at the centre of the most seismic events of the last few decades, advising on everything from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami to the 7/7 bombings, the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand, the Grenfell fire and the Covid-19 pandemic. In every catastrophe, Lucy is there to pick up the pieces and prepare for the next one. She holds governments to account, helps communities rally together, returns personal possessions to families, and holds the hands of the survivors. In her moving memoir she reveals what happens in the aftermath and explores how we pick up and rebuild with strength and perseverance. She takes us behind the police tape to scenes of destruction and chaos, introducing us to victims and their families, but also to the government briefing rooms and bunkers, where confusion and stale biscuits can reign supreme. Telling her own personal story, Lucy looks back at a life spent on the edges of disaster, from a Liverpudlian childhood steeped in the Hillsborough tragedy to the many losses and loves of her career.
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Content ArticleThis article in The BMJ by Tessa Richards, Senior Editor for patient partnership and Henry Scowcroft, Patient Editor, looks at the way in which people with expertise rooted in lived experience were excluded from policy decisions during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. They argue that engaging patients, families, and frontline health and social care professionals would have prevented some of the excess morbidity and mortality that came from policy responses to the pandemic, particularly among elderly people, those with long term conditions and those in lower socioeconomic groups.
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Content ArticlePatient lead users can be defined as patients or relatives who use their knowledge and experience to improve their own or a relative’s care situation and/or the healthcare system, and who are active beyond what is usually expected. This study in the BMJ Open aimed to explore patient lead users’ experiences and engagement during the early Covid-19 pandemic in Sweden, from 1 June to 14 September 2020. The authors recruited 10 patient lead users living with different long-term conditions and undertook qualitative in-depth interviews with each of them. They found that health systems were not able to fully acknowledge and engage with the resource of patient lead users during the pandemic, event though they could be a valuable resource as a complementary communication channel.
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Content ArticleDr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, has warned against prematurely declaring victory over the pandemic, not only due to short-term needs but because long Covid represents an “insidious” public health emergency for millions of people. In an interview with the Guardian, Fauci urged US Congress to avoid complacency and resume funding to combat the virus as well as Long Covid, a chronic and prolonged illness that continues to elude scientists and healthcare providers.
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Content ArticleThe coronavirus pandemic had an unparalleled impact on NHS services and on the people who use them. In August 2022, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) carried out research to better understand what impact the pandemic had on public attitudes towards complaining about the NHS. They also asked respondents about: their attitudes to complaining about the NHS currently and during the pandemic how satisfied they were with the NHS organisations they used or had contact with during the pandemic. The results have now been published.
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Content ArticleHealthcare professionals share their experiences of Long Covid with the Guardian.
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Content ArticleLong Covid is now estimated to affect 2 million people in the UK, and almost 145 million globally. It’s a complicated diagnosis to receive and those affected have to cope with both the physical symptoms and the psychological strain of having an illness that is not yet well understood and does not have well-established treatments. Three Long Covid patients share with the Guardian on how they navigated this journey.
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Content ArticleThe impact of Long Covid needs urgent action – and there are five key elements to drive the effort forward, writes the WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in this article for the Guardian.
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Content ArticleThe Covid-19 pandemic triggered a very sudden and widespread shift to remote consulting in general practice. Many patients and healthcare professionals have welcomed the convenience, quality and safety of remote consulting, but there are inherent tensions in choosing between remote and face-to-face care when capacity is limited. This report by the Nuffield Trust explores the opportunities, challenges and risks associated with the shift towards remote consultations, and the practical and policy implications of recent learning.
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Content ArticleThis article in The Atlantic by Adam Gaffney, a doctor who works in both primary and secondary care, looks at the difficulty of defining and estimating the number of people living with Long Covid. The condition presents in a variety of different ways in people who were hospitalised with Covid-19, as well as people who had mild illness. He argues that incomplete and limited perspectives on what Long Covid is or isn’t, limits people's understanding of who is suffering and why, and of what we can do to improve the lives of people with the condition. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms involved in varied presentations of Long Covid.
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Content ArticleThis chapter from the book 'Managing future challenges for safety' starts with the premise that the future of work is unpredictable. This has been illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and further profound changes in contexts of work will bring significant and volatile changes to future work, as well as health, safety, security, and productivity. Micronarrative testimony from healthcare practitioners whose work has been affected dramatically by the emergence of the pandemic is used in this chapter to derive learning from experience of this major change. The narratives concern the nature of responding to a rapidly changing world, work-as-imagined and work-as-done, human-centred design and systems thinking and practice, and leadership and social capital. Seven learning points were drawn from clinicians’ reflections that may be more widely relevant to the future of work.
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Content ArticleThis blog by Professor Michael Marmot, Professor of Epidemiology, University College London looks at the ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic both exposed and amplified underlying inequalities in society. He highlights the link between higher Covid mortality rates, race and deprivation that demonstrates the striking health inequalities that exist in the UK. He asks the question, "Can the UK learn the lessons of the pandemic, and build back fairer?"
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Content ArticleDuring the Covid-19 pandemic there was a large-scale shift to remote consulting in UK general practice. In 2021, we saw a partial return to in-person consultations, which occurred in the context of extreme workload pressures due to backlogs, staff shortages and task shifting. This study in the British Journal of General Practice looked at media depictions of remote consultations in UK general practice at a time when general practice was under stress. The authors did a thematic analysis of national newspaper articles about remote GP consultations during two time periods: 13–26 May 2021, following an NHS England letter, and 14–27 October 2021, following a government-backed directive, both stipulating a return to in-person consulting. They found that newspaper coverage of remote consulting was strikingly negative and conclude that remote consultations have become associated in the media with poor practice. They recommend proactive dialogue between practitioners and the media to help minimise polarisation and improve perceptions around general practice.
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Content ArticleThis report by Best Beginnings, Home-Start UK and the Parent-Infant Foundation highlights the impact Covid-19 and measures introduced to control its spread have had on babies. It highlights a “baby blindspot” in Covid-19 recovery efforts and a shortage of funding for voluntary sector organisations and core services like health visiting to offer the level of support required to meet families’ needs. The authors of the report spoke to mothers of babies born during the pandemic and surveyed professionals and volunteers who work with babies and their families.
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Content ArticleInfant mental health describes the social and emotional wellbeing and development of children in the earliest years of life. It reflects whether children have the secure, responsive relationships that they need to thrive. However, services supporting infant mental health are currently limited; only 42% of CCGs in England report that their CAMHS service will accept referrals for children aged 2 and under. This briefing by the Parent-Infant Foundation is aimed at commissioners looking to set up specialist infant mental health support.
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Content ArticleThe Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) has launched a commission on Covid-19, Disablism and Systemic Racism to explore how the worst impacts of Covid have fallen on Disabled people, particularly those from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic groups. The Commission is examining the extent to systemic neglect of social care over many years has caused negative outcomes that have been worsened by confused approaches by the Government during the pandemic. This includes poor implementation of policy and conflicting guidance. The work will gather evidence, scrutinise the Department of Health and Social Care’s policies and responses to the pandemic, including ways in which systemic racism may have further worsened outcomes for disabled people of colour, and build solutions and support for transformative and sustainable change in social care, based on justice and human rights. The Commission is calling on Disabled people and people with long-term health conditions from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic groups to share their views and experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic as part of its 'Call for Views and Experiences'. They are also keen to hear from families, carers and people who work in social care.
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Content ArticleAt the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, demand on the NHS 111 system exceeded capacity and only around half of calls were answered during that time. This investigation by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) aimed to support improvements in the delivery of NHS 111 and other telephone triage services during a national healthcare emergency. HSIB first identified a potential safety risk associated with NHS 111’s response to callers with Covid-19-related symptoms when concerns were raised through HSIB’s Citizens’ Partnership. The national investigation aimed to understand: the set-up, design and delivery of the Covid-19 telephone triage service accessed by the public by dialling 111 in response to the pandemic. the context and contributory factors influencing the pathway for patients calling NHS 111 with Covid-19-related symptoms. The investigation used four real patient safety incidents involving patients and their families who dialled NHS 111 for advice during the Covid-19 pandemic. All four patients in these reference events—Vincenzo, Ali, Patrick and Dr C—died of Covid-19 having been advised by NHS 111 to stay at home.
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Content ArticleThis practice pointer in The BMJ provides an update on treating Long Covid in primary care and outlines how healthcare professionals might respond to questions that patients ask about the condition. The article provides information on: Definition of Long Covid Epidemiology Symptoms and case definition Questions patients ask Further resources for patients and healthcare professionals
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Content ArticleLong Covid is politically problematic, medically uncertain, and personally scary. It is too easy to look away. In media narratives this summer the Covid-19 pandemic was eclipsed by the cost of living and climate crises. But in practice these crises co-exist and interact. Long Covid makes heatwaves and price hikes a whole lot harder to bear. Jo Maybin was healthy, triple vaxed, and had been down with Long Covid since February 2022. In this blog for The King's Fund, Jo describes how she feels and asks you not to look away from Long Covid, this ‘mass disabling event’, which is affecting 2 million people in the UK, and will likely have a direct impact on hundreds of thousands more this winter.
