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Showing results for tags 'Pandemic'.
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Content Article
Experiences from a shielding frontline worker
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Patient Safety Learning interviews a critical care outreach nurse who has been shielding during the pandemic and hears about the effect it has had on her and the support she has received. -
Content Article
Coronavirus and clinical negligence (6 June 2020)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Blogs
This commentary from Nigel Poole, was published in the Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management. Nigel discusses how the coronavirus pandemic will affect clinical negligence litigation in England and Wales. Subsections include: context is all the pandemic is not a license to act negligently expert evidence delay backlog in litigation a reduction in the number of new claims. -
Content Article
Covid-19 and health at work (29 April 2020)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
In this Editorial in Occupational Medicine, Raymond Agius asks why when millions of people are in ‘lockdown’ in their own homes to avoid the contagion of COVID-19, many workers lack a comparable degree of protection. The planning and logistics of contending with this pandemic may be analogous to those of war, but we are not in a conflict: workers’ lives need not and must not be lost. "On the face of it, the conclusion that during this pandemic thousands of workers may have been seriously jeopardized and denied the safeguards that are theirs by right is difficult to refute." -
Content ArticleThe Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF) surveyed their community members from April 20 to May 4, 2020 and share the results in this report. They collected a total of 195 complete responses worldwide. This included 71% respondents from the US, 13% from EMEA, 7% from Mexico, 4% from the rest of LATAM, 3% from JAPAC, 2% from Canada, and 1% from India. The community sample also comprised of approximately a quarter of nurses, a quarter of other medical professionals (doctors, pharmacists), and significant representation of administrators, vendors, advocates, quality control, as well as many other backgrounds and occupations.
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Content ArticleKnight et al. in a study published in the BMJ describe a national cohort of pregnant women admitted to hospital with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the UK, identify factors associated with infection, and describe outcomes, including transmission of infection, for mothers and infants. Most pregnant women admitted to hospital with SARS-CoV-2 infection were in the late second or third trimester, supporting guidance for continued social distancing measures in later pregnancy. Most had good outcomes, and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to infants was uncommon. The high proportion of women from black or minority ethnic groups admitted with infection needs urgent investigation and explanation.
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Content Article
COVID-19 has exposed the weak safety culture in medicine
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
"Many things will change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them has to be the safety culture in medicine. Those in positions of authority must stop paying lip service to it and instead treat frontline workers as equal partners in the drive to improve safety, not as expendable infantry who can be bullied over the top with impunity or scapegoated ‘pour encourager les autres'", says Dr David Berger, a remote hospital doctor in Northern Australia. In this blog, David discusses how a robust, modern safety culture involves the closest possible partnership between management and frontline workers, where concerns can be shared freely, cooperation is total and where all interested parties must agree that the best possible system is in place. -
Content ArticleThe International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has set up a FIP COVID-19 information hub with guidance to support pharmacists and the pharmacy workforce in responding to the pandemic. The updated guidance document takes into account newly available evidence and recommendations.
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Content ArticleThe government has unveiled a COVID-19 test and trace strategy for England, but it wasted valuable time in recognising what needed to be done after the lockdown was imposed and has been playing catch up ever since writes Chris Ham in a BMJ Opinion article. Chris says responding effectively to COVID-19 requires a blend of national and local leadership. Tragically, the government has been slow to recognise this, no more so than in plans to resume community testing and contact tracing as the lockdown is relaxed. These plans are essential to identify further outbreaks when they occur and to contain their impact. The challenge now is to ensure that every area of England has effective arrangements in place ahead of further relaxations of the lockdown in June. These arrangements must involve people being able to access tests in convenient locations, including their own homes, and for tests to be analysed rapidly. Agreement is needed on sharing test results with GPs and contact tracing staff to enable effective follow up.
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Content ArticlePharmacy Times® interviewed Allison Hanson, PharmD, BCPS, 2019-2020 Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) International Medication Safety Management Fellow, to discuss medication safety during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, including key medication safety takeaways from the pandemic and current advancement efforts in the promotion of knowledge around medication safety.
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Content ArticleTo deliver a new normal that serves patients we must grab this opportunity to bake patient involvement into new structures, processes and cultures within the NHS, writes Rachel Power, Chief Executive at the Patients Association, in this HSJ article. In responding at scale and pace to coronavirus – discharging patients, cancelling operations, changing how patients access services – the NHS avoided becoming overwhelmed. However, changes were delivered without allowing the patients affected a say. Given the emergency, that was probably necessary and people were largely supportive. But as the NHS looks ahead to what the “new normal” might be, if its recent experience has given it a taste for bold, clinically led change, then the NHS needs to think again.
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Content Article
BMA. COVID-19: PPE for doctors (last updated June 2022))
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Guidance
The BMA has provided clarification on PPE use in primary and secondary care, including procurement, use, safe working and CPR. -
Content ArticleAs the number of COVID-19 hospital admissions gradually declines, policy attention is turning to how the NHS can restart some more routine activities. But doing this while living alongside COVID-19 will involve major practical challenges that will need to be overcome. This new discussion paper by Nigel Edwards looks at the realities the health and care systems will now begin to face.
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Content ArticleAn update on how Care Quality Commission is monitoring the Mental Capacity Act and people who are subject to the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Content ArticleIn a new series for the hub, Martin will be interviewing healthcare professionals from various specialties to capture their experience and insight during the coronavirus pandemic. Learning from frontline staff is crucial, now more than ever. Prior to a predicted second wave hitting us, the government and leaders must listen to what has gone well but, most importantly, not so well for both staff and patients. Martin is a passionate nurse working on a covid unit and wants to promote learning to ensure patient and staff safety. This initially started as a way of connecting and not feeling alone but what Martin has found is that there are many voices that need and want to be heard but just don’t know how to speak up and out. In all of the interviews the healthcare professionals wanted to remain anonymous which is indicative of their fear of reprisals from their organisation. In this first interview, Martin interviews a new student district nurse who has been working within the community in the South West. Their role involves supporting care homes with end of life care and assisting in keeping people with long term conditions at home.
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Content ArticleAlongside the frustrations, difficulties and challenges of the pandemic, many great things are also happening in the healthcare system. Prof Becky Malby and Tony Hufflett from the Health Systems Innovation Lab at London South Bank University undertook a survey to help the NHS bring this all together so that we don’t end up going back to old, less effective habits. They asked a broad mix of frontline, senior, board and middle leadership across different NHS sectors to reflect on their experiences. They received over 70 responses from a mix of frontline, senior, board and middle leadership and other roles. They reflected and spotted patterns in the core changes people are most passionate about and have summarised 10 common themes that have emerged so far.
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Content ArticleThe UK NHS has risen to the challenge posed by COVID-19 through Herculean efforts to expand capacity. This has included doubling or trebling intensive care (ICU) capacity within hospitals, augmenting this with Nightingale Hospitals, cancelling all non-emergency surgery and redeploying staff and equipment to focus on a single disease. At the same time, government and population efforts have – through social distancing then lockdown – successfully flattened the epidemic curve and so reduced demand. Together, these actions have enabled treatment of all those needing hospital care for COVID-19 and avoided the unfettered increase in mortality that would have accompanied an overwhelmed healthcare service. However, this has been achieved ‘by the skin of our teeth’ and until very recently, the threat of insufficient ICU beds ventilators, and the need for triage were all anticipated: a few hospitals were overcome by the surge of critically ill patents. Now, political and social thoughts and actions are turning to loosening lockdown and determining what ‘post-pandemic normality’ will look like. In this Editorial, William Harrop‑Griffiths and Tim Cook discuss the prospects and challenges of ‘planned surgery’ – both time-critical and wholly elective procedures.
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Content ArticleWe all can experience mental health problems, whatever our background or walk of life. But the risk of experiencing mental ill-health is not equally distributed across our society. Those who face the greatest disadvantages in life also face the greatest risk to their mental health. The distribution of infections and deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown and associated measures, and the longer-term socioeconomic impact are likely to reproduce and intensify the financial inequalities that contribute towards the increased prevalence and unequal distribution of mental ill-health.
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Content ArticleThis interview is part of the hub's 'Frontline insights during the pandemic' series where Martin Hogan interviews healthcare professionals from various specialties to capture their experience and insight during the coronavirus pandemic. Here Martin interviews an oral surgeon who has been in the post for a year in a trust that covers two sites in the West Country.
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Content ArticleThis interview is part of the hub's 'Frontline insights during the pandemic' series where Martin Hogan interviews healthcare professionals from various specialties to capture their experience and insight during the coronavirus pandemic. Here Martin interviews a chief nurse of clinical productivity leading dynamic change within culture and governance. 15 years in the post, the chief nurse is responsible for leading improvement in standards of nursing and service.
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Content ArticleTelemedicine and telephone-triage may compromise patient safety, particularly if urgency is underestimated. This paper from Haimi et al., published in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, aimed to explore the level of safety of a paediatric telemedicine service, with particular reference to the appropriateness of the medical diagnoses made by the online physicians and the reasonableness of their decisions.
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Content Article
Patient safety and maternal mental health during covid
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Mental health
Patient Safety Learning interviews Jules Mckoy, a Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Midwife. In this interview, Jules highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting on the mental health of women during their pregnancy and after birth. She describes some of the ways they are trying to alleviate anxiety locally and raises concerns about the longer term implications of a rise in postnatal depression. -
Content Article
COVID deaths – how accurate are the statistics?
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
Malcolm Kendrick, an NHS doctor, has seen people die and be listed as a victim of coronavirus without ever being tested for it. In his blog, Malcolm says if we do not diagnose deaths accurately we will never know how many died of COVID-19, or ‘because of’ the lockdown. Accurate statistics are vital for planning for the future. We have to accurately know what happened this time, in order to plan for the next pandemic, which seems almost inevitable as the world grows more crowded. What are the benefits of lockdown, what are the harms? What should we do next time a deadly virus strikes? -
Content ArticleThis interview is part of the hub's 'Frontline insights during the pandemic' series where Martin Hogan interviews healthcare professionals from various specialties to capture their experience and insights during the coronavirus pandemic. Here Martin interviews an advanced specialist paramedic working in central London with four years' experience of working on the frontline.
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Content ArticlePublic Health England (PHE) has published data on the disparities in the risk and outcomes from COVID-19. This review presents findings based on surveillance data available to PHE at the time of its publication, including through linkage to broader health data sets. It confirms that the impact of COVID-19 has replicated existing health inequalities and, in some cases, has increased them. These results improve our understanding of the pandemic and will help in formulating the future public health response to it.
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Content Article
Choices for the “New Normal” (4 May 2020)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
No one can say with certainty what the consequences of this pandemic will be in 6 months, let alone 6 years or 60. Some “new normal” may emerge, in which novel systems and assumptions will replace many others long taken for granted. But at this early stage, it is more honest to frame the new, post–COVID-19 normal not as predictions, but as a series of choices. In this article in JAMA, Donald Berwick proposes six properties of care for durable change: tempo, standards, working conditions, proximity, preparedness, and equity.
