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Found 2,339 results
  1. Content Article
    In anticipation of an increase in patients requiring a temporary tracheostomy due to the huge surge in patients placed on ICU ventilation at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHS England National Patient Safety Team launched a National Patient Safety Improvement programme to rapidly support the NHS to provide safe tracheostomy care.
  2. Content Article
    In April 2023, National Voices held a workshop with members, supported by The Disrupt Foundation, on the unequal impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It explored how communities and groups were affected differently by both the virus itself and the measures brought in to control it.   It painted a grim picture of the ways in which the pandemic response exacerbated existing, deep-rooted inequalities across the UK and compounded the disadvantages experienced by people from minoritised communities, by disabled people and by people living with long term conditions.  Just some examples include people who are immunocompromised, who were asked to go into isolation for huge periods of time and still feel completely overlooked as control measures have been lifted. Or the use of DNRs (Do Not Resuscitate orders) which were disproportionately applied to people with learning disabilities.  With the Covid-19 Inquiry underway, it is imperative that we capture the lessons learnt from the pandemic, and use them to suggest action for the future.
  3. Content Article
    A global shortage of an estimated 18 million health workers is anticipated by 2030, a record 130 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and there is the global threat of pandemics such as COVID-19. At least 400 million people worldwide lack access to the most essential health services, and every year 100 million people are plunged into poverty because they have to pay for healthcare out of their own pockets. There is, therefore, an urgent need to find innovative strategies that go beyond the conventional health-sector response. WHO recommends self-care interventions for every country and economic setting as critical components on the path to reaching universal health coverage (UHC), promoting health, keeping the world safe and serving the vulnerable.
  4. News Article
    Two years after launching what officials hailed as a five-year flagship project for hunting viruses among wildlife to prevent human pandemics, the US Agency for International Development is shutting down the enterprise. Hear the update from the Editor-in-Chief of The BMJ, Kamran Abbasi. Source: BMJ, 7 September 2023
  5. News Article
    Covid cases in England have almost doubled in a month after the rise of two new variants. According to the most recent government statistics available, 875 cases were logged in England on August 11, compared to just 449 a month earlier. Hospital admissions have also risen by a fifth in a week. UKHSA statistics show Covid cases in England rose from a seven-day rolling average of 373 on July 8 to 879 as of August 8. Also, 589 out of 6,500 neighbourhoods in England had detected at least three Covid cases in the week to August 12. The uptick comes after reports of a new variant called Eris which makes up one in four new cases. Also, another strain nicknamed Pirola is quickly spreading globally. The US is also seeing an increase in hospital admissions with coronavirus, its first significant uptick since December 2022. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said they are unsettled by the variant and suggested the rapid spread could suggest an international transmission. Christina Pagel, a member of the Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies that advises on the virus, said: "Without ramping up surveillance, and in the face of waning immunity, we are travelling into winter more vulnerable and with blinkers on." Prof Pagel predicted the new wave could cause extreme pressure on the health service, with a repeat of last winter’s “unprecedented” NHS crisis of Covid, flu and respiratory virus that came all around the same time. Read full story Source: Independent, 24 August 2023
  6. News Article
    Thirty families are starting legal action against the government, care homes and several hospitals in England over the deaths of their relatives in the early days of the Covid pandemic. The families argue not enough was done to protect their loved ones from the virus. They are claiming damages for loss of life and the distress caused. The government says it specifically sought to safeguard care home residents using the best evidence available. The legal claims focus on the decision in March 2020 to rapidly discharge hospital patients into care homes without testing or a requirement for them to isolate. The cases follow a 2022 High Court judgement that ruled the policy was unlawful - as it failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable care home residents of asymptomatic transmission of the virus. One of the cases is being brought by Liz Weager, whose 95-year-old mother Margaret tested positive for the virus in her care home in May 2020 and died later in hospital. "What was happening in the management of those care homes? What advice were they having?" Liz asks. "It goes back to the government. There was a lack of preparedness, which then translated down to the care home." Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 August 2023
  7. News Article
    It may take seven years to get NHS Wales waiting lists of 700,000 back to 2020 levels, Wales' auditor general has said. The number of patients waiting for non-urgent treatment has doubled since February 2020, just prior to the Covid pandemic. They include Patient Michael Assender, 74, who has spent two years on a waiting list with severe back pain. After struggling with his back, Mr Assender, from Cwmbran, Torfaen, paid £1,500 for a private scan, which revealed he had two slipped discs. "At the moment I'm coping pretty well, taking pills for the pain and trying to stay active," he said. "But something that took me half hour before now takes an hour." Mr Assender said he knew others waiting for surgery who had become depressed and considered taking their lives, adding: "A lot of people out there are in a constant pain and I do pity them." "It's a dire situation really." The Welsh government said it had a plan to deal with backlogs. But Wales' Auditor General Adrian Crompton said: "Just as the NHS rose to the challenge of the pandemic, it will need to rise to the challenge of tackling a waiting list which has grown to huge proportions." "Concerted action is going to be needed on many different fronts, and some long-standing challenges will need to be overcome." Read full story Source: BBC News, 31 May 2022
  8. News Article
    A lack of diabetes checks following the first Covid lockdown may have killed more than 3,000 people, a major NHS study suggests. Those with the condition are supposed to undergo regular checks to detect cardiac problems, infections and other changes that could prove deadly. But researchers said a move to remote forms of healthcare delivery and a reduction in routine care meant some of the most crucial physical examinations did not take place during the 12 months following the first lockdown. Experts said the findings showed patients had suffered “absolutely devastating” consequences and were being “pushed to the back of the queue”. The study, led by Prof Jonathan Valabhji, the national clinical director for diabetes and obesity, links the rise in deaths to a fall in care the previous year. It showed that, during 2020/21, just 26.5% of diabetes patients received their full set of checks, compared with 48.1% the year before. Those who got all their checks in 2019-20 but did not receive them the following year had mortality rates 66% higher than those who did not miss out, the study, published in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, found. The study shows that foot checks, which rely on physical appointments, saw the sharpest drop, falling by more than 37%. “The care process with the greatest reduction was the one that requires the most in-person contact – foot surveillance – possibly reflecting issues around social distancing, lockdown measures, and the move to remote forms of healthcare delivery,” the study found. Those in the poorest areas were most likely to miss out. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 30 May 2022
  9. News Article
    Britain’s safety at work regulator refused to investigate reports from NHS trusts that 10 frontline staff had died as a result of catching Covid-19 during the pandemic. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) declined to look into at least 89 dangerous incidents that NHS trusts said involved healthcare workers being exposed to Covid, including 10 deaths. The stance taken by the HSE, which oversees workplace health and safety and can bring prosecutions, is disclosed in freedom of information requests by the Pharmaceutical Journal. It has prompted concern that the regulator is too strict in its definition of workplace harm. It found that 173 trusts in England submitted at least 6,007 reports about employees’ exposure to Covid-19 in the course of their duties to the HSE between 30 January 2020 and 11 March 2022, under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR). They included 213 “dangerous occurrences”, which are incidents that have the potential to cause significant harm; 5,753 cases where a staff member had caught Covid-19; and 41 deaths among people who had been exposed to the disease at their workplace. However, the HSE refused to look into five Covid deaths reported under the RIDDOR scheme by the Yorkshire ambulance service (YAS) because of what it considered a lack of evidence. The regulator also decided not to look into the Covid deaths of five staff at University College London hospital acute trust, despite the trust’s belief they had caught it at work. “The HSE found that there was no reasonable evidence that the infection was contracted at work,” a trust spokesperson said. Shelly Asquith, the health, safety and wellbeing officer at the Trades Union Congress, said the HSE’s decisions and claimed lack of evidence was “really concerning”. It suggested a continued “element of denial about Covid being airborne and it not being possible to necessarily pinpoint where exactly somebody was exposed once it’s in the air”, she added. Read full story Source: Guardian, 26 May 2022
  10. News Article
    Covid-19 vaccination is effective for cancer patients but protection wanes much more rapidly than in the general population, a large study has found. Vaccine effectiveness is much lower in people with leukaemia or lymphoma, those with a recent cancer diagnosis, and those who have had radiotherapy or systemic anti-cancer treatments within the past year, according to the research published in Lancet Oncology. The authors of the world’s largest real world health system evaluation of Covid-19 in cancer patients highlighted the importance of booster programmes, non-pharmacological strategies, and access to antiviral treatment programmes in order to reduce the risk that Covid-19 poses to cancer patients. Peter Johnson, professor of medical oncology at the University of Southampton and joint author of the study, said, “This study shows that for some people with cancer, covid-19 vaccination may give less effective and shorter lasting protection. This highlights the importance of vaccination booster programmes and rapid access to covid-19 treatments for people undergoing cancer treatments.” Study leader, Lennard Lee, department of oncology, University of Oxford, said, “Cancer patients should be aware that at 3-6months they are likely to have less protection from their coronavirus vaccine than people without cancer. It is important that people with a diagnosis of cancer are up to date with their coronavirus vaccination and have had their spring booster if they are eligible.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 24 May 2022
  11. News Article
    More than 400,000 children and young people a month are being treated for mental health problems – the highest number on record – prompting warnings of an unprecedented crisis in the wellbeing of under-18s. Experts say Covid-19 has seriously exacerbated problems such as anxiety, depression and self-harm among school-age children and that the “relentless and unsustainable” ongoing rise in their need for help could overwhelm already stretched NHS services. The latest NHS figures show “open referrals” – troubled children and young people in England undergoing treatment or waiting to start care – reached 420,314 in February, the highest number since records began in 2016. The total has risen by 147,853 since February 2020, a 54% increase, and by 80,096 over the last year alone, a jump of 24%. January’s tally of 411,132 cases was the first time the figure had topped 400,000. Mental health charities welcomed the fact that an all-time high number of young people are receiving psychological support. But they fear the figures are the tip of the iceberg of the true number of people who need care, and that many more under-18s in distress are being denied help by arbitrary eligibility criteria. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 22 May 2022
  12. News Article
    The NHS threat level in response to Covid-19 has been downgraded following drops in community cases and hospital inpatient numbers, NHS England chiefs have announced. The threat level to the health service has been dropped from a “level four” incident, which requires NHSE to “command and control” NHS resources in response to the pandemic, to a “level three” incident, which requires a response by a number of trusts within an NHS region. A letter from NHSE chief executive Amanda Pritchard and chief operating officer Sir David Sloman, published today, said local systems “need to ensure their resilience and capability to re-establish full incident responses” if needed. At NHSE’s board meeting she stressed that covid was still impacting the service. Trusts have also been reminded to relax visiting restrictions. The letter said all healthcare settings “should now begin transitioning back towards their own pre-pandemic [or better] policies on inpatient visiting and patients being accompanied in outpatient and [urgent and emergency care] services”. The default position for trusts should be “no patient having to be alone unless through their choice,” the letter said. It comes as some trusts have resisted pressure from government and NHSE to relax visiting restrictions. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 19 May 2022
  13. News Article
    Respiratory syncytial virus is killing 100,000 children under the age of five every year worldwide, new figures reveal as experts say the global easing of coronavirus restrictions is causing a surge in cases. RSV is the most common cause of acute lower respiratory infection in young children. It spreads easily via coughing and sneezing. There is no vaccine or specific treatment. RSV-attributable acute lower respiratory infections led to more than 100,000 deaths of children under five in 2019, according to figures published in the Lancet. Of those, more than 45,000 were under six months old, the first-of-its-kind study found. More children are likely to be affected by RSV in the future, experts believe, because masks and lockdowns have robbed children of natural immunity against a range of common viruses, including RSV. “RSV is the predominant cause of acute lower respiratory infection in young children and our updated estimates reveal that children six months and younger are particularly vulnerable, especially with cases surging as Covid-19 restrictions are easing around the world,” said the study’s co-author, Harish Nair of the University of Edinburgh. “The majority of the young children born in the last two years have never been exposed to RSV (and therefore have no immunity against this virus).” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 19 May 2022
  14. News Article
    The UK government failed in its duty of care to protect doctors and other healthcare staff from avoidable harm and suffering in its management of the covid-19 pandemic, a major review by the BMA has concluded. Two reports published on 19 May document the experiences of thousands of UK doctors throughout the pandemic, drawing on real time surveys carried out over the past two years, formal testimonies, data, and evidence sessions. The reports will form part of a wider review by the BMA into the government’s handling of the pandemic, with three further instalments to come. The evidence lays bare the devastating impact of the pandemic on doctors and the NHS, with repeated mistakes, errors of judgment, and failures of government policy amounting to a failure of a duty of care to the workforce, the BMA said. Chaand Nagpaul, BMA chair of council, said, “A moral duty of government is to protect its own healthcare workers from harm in the course of duty, as they serve and protect the nation’s health. Yet, in reality, doctors were desperately let down by the UK government’s failure to adequately prepare for the pandemic, and their subsequent flawed decision making, with tragic consequences. “The evidence presented in our reports demonstrates, unequivocally, that the UK government failed in its duty of care to the medical profession.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 19 May 2022
  15. News Article
    Around 60,000 NHS staff members have post-traumatic stress after working through the Covid-19 pandemic, new research suggests. Nine out of 10 health workers say it will take them years to recover from the ordeal and one in four had lost a colleague to coronavirus, according to NHS Charities Together The charity, NHS staff and mental health experts are now calling for more support from the health service and UK government to support those struggling in the aftermath of the pandemic. “I think it’s quite clear there hasn’t been enough support to help NHS workers recover from their experiences during the pandemic. As a result, a lot of people are feeling incredibly jaded,” said Dr Ed Patrick, an NHS anaesthetist who worked in a Covid-19 intensive care unit from the beginning of the pandemic. On his experiences of working on the front lines of the health service, Dr Patrick said: “Like everyone else in the world, we lost our outlets for release. Everything was shut down and for NHS workers, our lives just became the hospital." He described the long and gruelling hours and the emotional burden of working at the height of the pandemic: “We all had an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness. There was also a deep sadness because everything you would normally do to help patients just wasn’t working. Read full story Source: The Independent, 17 May 2022
  16. News Article
    Families are being ‘left without the support they need’, as overstretched services struggle to handle ‘a significant and growing minority’ of children not developing as expected. Figures published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities earlier this month show 79.6% of children who received a two-to-two-and-a-half year review with an ages and stages questionnaire during quarter three of 2021-22 met the expected level in all five areas of development measured. The five areas assessed by the screening questionnaire are communication skills, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem solving, and personal-social. A lower-than-expected score in any of the five areas will likely mean some sort of intervention, which may include further monitoring from health visitors or referral to a specialist service. However, health visitor numbers are declining. ber 2015. Alison Morton, Institute of Health Visiting executive director, said: “The latest national child development data highlight a worrying picture with fewer children at or above the expected level of development at two-to-two-and-a-half years. While the majority of children are developing as expected, a significant and growing minority are not. “The pandemic and its impacts are not over. In many areas, despite health visitors’ best efforts, they are now struggling to meet growing levels of need and vulnerability and a backlog of children who need support. In our survey, health visitors reported soaring rates of domestic abuse, mental health problems, child behaviour and development problems, poverty, and child safeguarding. “In addition, onward referral services like speech and language therapy, and mental health services, also have long waiting lists and families are left without the support that they need.” Read full story Source: HSJ, 16 May 2022
  17. News Article
    The United States could see a deficit of 200,000 to 450,000 registered nurses available for direct patient care by 2025, a 10 to 20% gap that places great demand on the nurse graduate pipeline over the next three years. The new estimates and analysis come from a McKinsey report published this week. The shortfall range of 200,000 to 450,000 holds if there are no changes in current care delivery models. The consulting firm estimates that for every 1% of nurses who leave direct patient care, the shortage worsens by about 30,000 nurses. To make up for the 10 to 20%, the United States would need to more than double the number of new graduates entering and staying in the nursing workforce every year for the next three years straight. For this to occur, the number of nurse educators would also need to increase. "Even if there was a huge increase in high school or college students seeking nursing careers, they would likely run into a block: There are not enough spots in nursing schools, and there are not enough educators, clinical rotation spots or mentors for the next generation of nurses," the analysis states. "Progress may depend on creating attractive situations for nurse educators, a role traditionally plagued with shortages." Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 12 May 2022
  18. News Article
    A former medical director on the Isle of Man, who lost her job when she questioned decisions made on the island during the COVID-19 pandemic, has won her case for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal. The hearing, which began in January, heard how Dr Rosalind Ranson was victimised and dismissed from her role after making 'protected disclosures' as part of her efforts to persuade the Manx Government to deviate from Public Health England (PHE) advice in the early stages of the pandemic. Dr Ranson, who had extensive experience as a GP and as a senior medical leader in the NHS in England, was appointed to her post as the island's most senior doctor in January 2020 with the aim of tackling what she identified as a disillusioned medical workforce, failings in management, and a bullying culture. She was soon called on to provide expert medical advice and guidance on how the Isle of Man’s health system should respond to the spread of COVID-19. In March, Dr Ranson channelled concerns from the island's doctors that the advice from PHE was flawed, and that a more robust approach should be taken to stem the spread of SARS-CoV-2. That included closing the island’s borders – a move that was initially ignored. Dr Ranson became concerned that her medical advice was not being heeded and that it might not be being passed on to ministers by the then Chief Executive of the Isle of Man’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Kathryn Magson, who was not medically qualified. The tribunal heard that because Dr Ranson had "blown the whistle" when she spoke out, she was sidelined and eventually dismissed unfairly. Read full story Source: Medscape, 11 May 2022
  19. News Article
    The scope of the UK public inquiry into the handling of the Covid pandemic has widened to include a focus on children. When the draft terms were published in March, there was criticism that they failed to even mention the impact on children and young people. But after a public consultation, the final terms have been published and now incorporate the effect on the health, wellbeing and education of children. The final terms of reference were decided following a four-week public consultation on the draft terms. As well as expanding the terms to include the impact on the health, wellbeing and education of children and young people, the inquiry will also look at the wider mental health impact across the population. The focus on inequalities will also be strengthened, the inquiry said, so that the unequal impact on different sections of society will be considered at all stages. Alongside these issues, the UK-wide inquiry will also look at the following issues which were included originally: the UK's preparedness for the pandemic the use of lockdowns and other "non-pharmaceutical" interventions, such as social distancing and the use of face coverings the management of the pandemic in hospitals and care homes the procurement and provision of equipment like personal protective equipment and ventilators support for businesses and jobs, including the furlough scheme, as well as benefits and sick pay. Read full story Source: BBC News, 12 May 2022
  20. News Article
    It was hailed as a cutting-edge laboratory that would play a key role in response to Covid-19 and future epidemics, carrying out 300,000 tests a day. Announcing the project in November 2020, then-health secretary Matt Hancock said the project “confirms the UK as a world leader in diagnostics”. But less than 18 months later, the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory – named in honour of the renowned British scientist – has been plagued by failure while costing almost twice as much as its initial £588m budget, The Independent understands. Instead of being at the forefront of the fight against Covid, the project opened six months late, facing a string of issues with equipment, staff and construction, with barely 20% of its touted capacity being reached. Now, as the government winds down its “lighthouse” testing labs as part of the plan to “live with Covid”, leaving the Leamington Spa facility as the last lab standing, there are questions about the future of the site – and whether it would be able to cope with the nation’s testing needs alone if another deadly wave of Covid were to emerge. Read full story Source: The Independent, 28 April 2022
  21. News Article
    The latest batch of hospital patient safety ratings from America's Leapfrog Group shows a general decline among “several” hospital safety measures concurrent with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the healthcare safety watchdog. Released Tuesday, the scores are accompanied by a report from Leapfrog that highlights a “significant” decline in the experiences of adult inpatients at acute care hospitals during the pandemic, with many areas “already in dire need” prior to the pandemic deteriorating even further. “The healthcare workforce has faced unprecedented levels of pressure during the pandemic, and as a result, patients' experience with their care appears to have suffered,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, said in a statement. Leapfrog’s twice-annual reports assess more than 30 patient safety measures and component measures compiled from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Leapfrog’s hospital surveys between July 2018 and March 2021. The most recent release assigns letter grades to nearly 3,000 US general hospitals and is the second collection of scores to incorporate safety and experience data from the COVID-19 pandemic. Read full story Source: Fierce Healthcare, 10 May 2022
  22. News Article
    Almost 15 million people have died as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic around the world, new figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) reveal. Estimates from the WHO show that the number of excess deaths associated directly or indirectly with the pandemic between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 was approximately 14.9 million – 13% more deaths than normally expected over a two-year period. Excess mortality is calculated as the difference between the number of deaths that have occurred and the number that would be expected in the absence of the pandemic, based on data from earlier years. WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “These sobering data not only point to the impact of the pandemic but also to the need for all countries to invest in more resilient health systems that can sustain essential health services during crises, including stronger health information systems." Most of the excess deaths (84%) are concentrated in southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas, the WHO said, while some 68% of excess deaths are concentrated in just 10 countries globally. It also found that middle-income countries account for 81 per cent of the 14.9 million excess deaths (53% in lower-middle-income countries and 28% in upper-middle-income countries) over the 24-month period, with high-income and low-income countries each accounting for 15% and 4%, respectively. Read full story Source: The Independent, 5 May 2022
  23. News Article
    Remdesivir has no significant effect on patients with Covid-19 who are already being ventilated but has a small effect against death or progression to ventilation among other patients admitted to hospital, the World Health Organization’s Solidarity trial has found. This appears to be a change from findings reported in February 2021, when preliminary trial data suggested that remdesivir “had little or no effect on patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19.” The updated results, published in the Lancet, reported that overall 14.5% of patients assigned to remdesivir died compared with 15.6% assigned to the control group. The release of these results has prompted questions about why it has taken so long to publish these data, especially considering WHO’s recommendation against the use of remdesivir in patients with Covid-19. Read full story Source: BMJ, 4 May 2022
  24. News Article
    Since February, the nurses at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA, have had an extra assistant on their shifts: Moxi, a 4-foot-tall robot that ferries medication, supplies, lab samples, and personal items through the halls, from floor to floor. After two years of battling Covid-19 and related burnout, nurses say it’s been a welcome relief. “There's two levels of burnout: There's ‘we’re short this weekend’ burnout, and then there's pandemic burnout, which our care teams are experiencing right now,” says Abigail Hamilton, a former ICU and emergency room nurse that manages nursing staff support programmes at the hospital. Moxi is one of several specialised delivery robots that has been developed in recent years to ease the strain on healthcare workers. Even before the pandemic, nearly half of US nurses felt that their workplace lacked adequate work–life balance. The emotional toll of seeing patients die and colleagues infected at such a large scale—and fear of bringing Covid-19 home to family—has made feelings of burnout worse. Studies also found that burnout can have long-term consequences for nurses, including cognitive impacts and insomnia years after the exhaustion of their early careers. The world already had a nurse shortage going into the pandemic; now, roughly two out of three nurses in the US say they have considered leaving the profession, according to a survey from the National Nurses United union. Moxi has spent the pandemic rolling down the halls of some of the largest hospitals in the country, carrying objects like a smartphone or beloved teddy bear to patients in emergency rooms when Covid-19 protocol kept family members from bedsides. Read full story Source: Wired, 19 April 2022
  25. News Article
    Hospitals are still banning patients from having bedside visitors in ‘immoral’ Covid restrictions. Last night, MPs, patient groups and campaigners criticised the postcode lottery that means some frail patients are still denied the support of loved ones. Nine trusts continue to impose total bans on any visitors for some patients, The Mail on Sunday has found. Almost half of trusts maintain policies so strict that they flaunt NHS England’s guidance that patients should be allowed at least two visitors a day. Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are among those continuing total bans on visiting for some of their patients. University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) has even been imposing its draconian restrictions on disabled patients who need special help for their care – only allowing visits on three days a week for a maximum of an hour each time. Tory MP Alicia Kearns said: ‘It is utterly unforgivable and immoral. There is no scientific evidence for any remaining inhumane restrictions on visiting. Trusts are breaching the rights of families. 'Visitors save lives, they advocate and calm their loved ones. When will this madness end?’ Read full story Source: MailOnline, 1 May 2022 You may also be interested in: Visiting restrictions and the impact on patients and their families: a relative's perspective It’s time to rename the ‘visitor’: reflections from a relative
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