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Found 2,339 results
  1. News Article
    Pregnant women and new mothers are three times as likely to suffer from poor mental health in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study. The report, carried out by a coalition of leading maternal mental health organisations, suggested before that the public health crisis up to 20% of women developed a mental illness during pregnancy or within the first year after having a baby. But in lockdown, 6 in 10 mothers had substantial concerns around their mental health, according to researchers who polled more than 5,000 pregnant women and parents. The study warned women were more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, loneliness and suicidal thoughts during the COVID-19 crisis. The Maternal Mental Health Alliance is one of the organisations behind the research. Luciana Berger, a former Labour MP who is now chair of the group, said: “Today’s report should serve as an ear-splitting warning siren about the dangers to women’s maternal mental health and potential risks to the wellbeing of their babies." Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 March 2021
  2. News Article
    A group of 47 cancer charities says that without urgent action, the UK's cancer death rate will rise for the first time in decades. NHS figures suggest tens of thousands fewer people started cancer treatment since the first lockdown compared to normal times. One Cancer Voice says that the NHS needs more resources. The government says cancer treatment remains a top priority and urges people to see their GP if they have symptoms. Radio 1 Newsbeat has spoken exclusively to One Cancer Voice about the impact of coronavirus on cancer care. The group of charities wants to see more staff available to diagnose and treat cancer, with greater NHS access to private facilities in order to "clear the backlog". "We are calling on the government to invest more money in ensuring the backlog of cancer cases is reduced and eliminated," says Michelle Mitchell, the boss of Cancer Research UK, which heads up One Cancer Voice. "We could face, in this country today, the prospect of cancer survival reducing for the first time in decades. That's why urgent action is required by the government." Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 March 2021
  3. News Article
    Stories about people getting blood clots soon after taking the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine have become a source of anxiety among European leaders. After a report on a death and three hospitalisations in Norway, which found serious blood clotting in adults who had received the vaccine, Ireland has temporarily suspended the jab. Some anxiety about a new vaccine is understandable, and any suspected reactions should be investigated. But in the current circumstances we need to think slow as well as fast, and resist drawing causal links between events where none may exist. As Ireland’s deputy chief medical officer, Ronan Glynn, has stressed, there is no proof that this vaccine causes blood clots. It’s a common human tendency to attribute a causal effect between different events, even when there isn’t one present: we wash the car and the next day a bird relieves itself all over the bonnet. Typical. Or, more seriously, someone is diagnosed with autism after receiving the MMR vaccine, so people assume a causal connection – even when there isn’t one. And now, people get blood clots after having a vaccine, leading to concern over whether the vaccine is what caused the blood clots. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 March 2021
  4. News Article
    Professor Sir Ian Diamond, head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), has said there will “no doubt” be another wave of coronavirus infections in the autumn. Speaking on Sunday, Sir Ian acknowledged the impact of the “wonderful” vaccine rollout though cautioned “we need to recognise that this is a virus that isn’t going to go away.” "And I have no doubt that in the autumn there will be a further wave of infections," he told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One. The UK’s national statistician pointed toward regional variations in terms of how many people have antibodies. “There is a lot of regional variation, so we find 30 per cent of London have antibodies whereas only 16 per cent in the South West, so we need to recognise that as well,” he told the programme. This comes after Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said he would “strongly advise” against any rapid easing of coronavirus restrictions. Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 March 2021
  5. News Article
    The pandemic has been a catalyst for innovation in the NHS and some changes will have a lasting effect, says Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary. The Covid pandemic has transformed our hospitals. Car parks are empty, once-bustling corridors are quiet, and these days you won't see any staff making fashion statements - we're all in scrubs and masks. Dr Wright says changes made to reduce spread of infection are here to stay and will help us live with future outbreaks of Covid and other infectious diseases. But there is also much to learn from how we have adapted to non-Covid care - with drive-through PCR swabs and blood tests, for example, or the use of oximeters to monitor oxygen levels in the blood of Covid patients in their homes, providing warning if they need to be admitted to hospital. But the biggest change has been in the way hospital consultations are carried out. Before the pandemic nearly all appointments took place face-to-face. Last year probably 90% occurred via telephone or video call, and most of my colleagues at Bradford Royal Infirmary are still running remote clinics today. This is much more convenient for patients. In the past a typical consultation might have involved a half-day of travel, the search for a parking place, and then sitting in a waiting room. However, remote consultations do have their drawbacks. Patients tend to underplay their symptoms on the phone and it is easier to avoid discussing challenging issues. Life-changing diagnoses require sensitive, face-to-face communication. Another problem is that some patients struggle with technology. The main drawback, though, is that clinicians are unable to undertake physical examination remotely. Clinical histories are the yin of the consultation but physical examinations are the yang, and video consultations only provide half the picture. Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 March 2021
  6. News Article
    NHS England’s cancer director has said it could take another year for the level of cancer treatments and diagnosis carried out to return to normal, after being impeded by COVID-19. National cancer director Dame Cally Palmer told HSJ’s national cancer forum event last week that activity over the past 12 months had been 89% of the previous year, but the service was committed to getting “fully reset” to 2019 levels by March 2022. She shared information showing that, by December 2020, the amount of treatment being carried out following an urgent referral, for most cancers, exceeded December 2019 levels, but that there are still significant treatment backlogs. And, for lung cancer patients, the number of treatments carried out in December 2020 was only 73% of that a year earlier — a decrease from September and October 2020 levels — as covid pressures rose during the third wave. Lung cancer is one of the most amenable to treatment if picked up early. Other areas of diagnostics and treatment have also been severely impeded because of requirements to change practice to reduce the risk of spreading covid, particularly to vulnerable patients. Dame Cally, also chief executive of the Royal Marsden Foundation Trust, said the service was committed to returning to at least normal levels of activity across the board by March next year. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 12 March 2021
  7. News Article
    Homeless people will be prioritised for coronavirus vaccinations alongside adults in at-risk groups, the government has said. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said the decision would “save more lives among those most at risk in society”. It comes after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which said those experiencing rough-sleeping or homelessness were likely to have underlying health conditions and should be offered vaccinations alongside those in priority group six. "People experiencing homelessness are likely to have health conditions that put them at higher risk of death from COVID-19. He added: "This advice will help us to protect more people who are at greater risk, ensuring that fewer people become seriously ill or die from the virus." Read full story Source: The Independent, 11 March 2021
  8. News Article
    The Covid surge in January hit key services including cancer and routine surgery, NHS England figures show. Less than half the expected number of operations were done, pushing the waiting list to a record-high of 4.6m. More than 300,000 of those have been waiting more than a year for treatment - compared to 1,600 before the pandemic began. Surgeons described it as a dire situation which would take a long time to turnaround. Tim Mitchell, of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: "Behind today's statistics are people waiting in limbo. Many will be in considerable pain, others will have restricted mobility and be at risk of isolation and loneliness." "Dealing with this daunting backlog will take time, and also sustained investment in the NHS," he said. Similar problems are also being seen in Scotland where 39,000 people have been waiting over a year for treatment. The NHS Confederation has warned the true picture could be much worse with nearly 6 million fewer referrals made by GPs in England for routine treatments, which includes operations such as knee and hip replacements, last year, suggested there was an additional hidden backlog. The organisation, which represents hospitals, said it was likely people have not sought help or found it difficult to access services during the pandemic. Read full story Source: BBC News, 11 March 2021
  9. News Article
    Cancer patients are much less protected against COVID-19 than other people after one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, the first real-world study in this area suggests. With a 12-week wait for the second dose this could leave them vulnerable, says the King's College London and Francis Crick Institute research team. An early second dose appeared to boost cancer patients' protection. Cancer charities are calling for the vaccine strategy to be reviewed. But Cancer Research UK said the small study had not yet been reviewed by other scientists and people undergoing cancer treatment should continue to follow the advice of their doctors. The government said it was focused on "saving lives" and the antibody response "was only part of the protection provided by the vaccine". About 1.2 million people at very high risk of being seriously ill with COVID-19 were prioritised for a first vaccine dose in the first phase of the UK rollout, which includes people with specific cancers. The UK government decided to extend the gap between first and second jabs from three to 12 weeks in late December to give more people some protection as soon as possible. Dr Sheeba Irshad, oncologist and senior study author from King's College London, said the findings were "really worrying" and recommended an urgent review of the timing of doses for people in clinically extremely vulnerable groups. "Until then, it is important that cancer patients continue to observe all public health measures in place such as social distancing and shielding when attending hospitals, even after vaccination," she said. The study, which recruited 205 people, included 151 with solid cancers, such as lung, breast and bowel, or blood cancers. The researchers tested volunteers for antibodies and T-cells in their blood, which signals that the immune system can protect against illness from the virus in the future. Three weeks after one dose, an antibody response was found in 39% of people with solid cancers, 13% of people with blood cancer and 97% of people with no cancer. Following a second dose three weeks after the first, which some cancer patients received, there was a sharp rise in their antibody response against the coronavirus, to 95%. However, among those who had to wait longer for their second dose, there was no real improvement in protection. Read full story Source: BBC News, 11 March 2021
  10. News Article
    Scientists are questioning the reliability of algorithms used to trawl through patients’ health records and flag those who should be asked to shield and prioritised for vaccination. GPs have reported being contacted by young, healthy patients confused as to why they have been told they are at high risk, or have been invited for a COVID-19 jab. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has defined nine priority groups for vaccination, including everyone aged over 50, plus frontline health and social care workers and people aged 16–64 with serious health conditions. The QCovid risk prediction algorithm, introduced last month, combines various characteristics, including age, sex, ethnicity and body mass index (BMI), to estimate the risk of catching, being admitted to hospital, or dying from Covid-19. However, the algorithm appears to throw up certain inconsistencies. For example, if a patient’s weight or ethnicity are not recorded on their health records, QCovid automatically ascribes them a BMI of 31 (obese) and the highest risk ethnicity (black African), meaning they are more likely to be invited for a vaccine. One York-based GP, Dr Abbie Brooks, has identified 110 seemingly healthy individuals who were added to the shielding list and invited to book a vaccine last month. Although it will not harm younger, healthier individuals to receive a jab before their peers, it may mean more vulnerable people have to wait longer for their doses. “I can see that they don’t want to miss out people, which may be why they’re taking this conservative approach, but the problem is that when you make that prioritisation, you are pushing others further down the line,” Irene Petersen, professor of epidemiology and health informatics at University College London, said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 March 2021
  11. News Article
    NHS clinics were still seeing just two-thirds of the number of chronic pain patients they normally would by the end of last year, with some patients having waited a year or more. In Ayrshire and Arran, 94 of the 112 chronic pain patients seen between October and December – equivalent to nearly 84% – had been on the waiting list for their first appointment for 52 weeks or longer. Only nine were seen within the 18-week target. This was by far the worst performance for any health board in Scotland. Pain relief clinics across NHS Scotland were paused for four months at the beginning of the pandemic, leading to reports that some patients with problems such as nerve damage and arthritis were paying thousands of pounds to travel to private facilities in England for medical infusions or injections to ease their symptoms. In a statement at the end of last year, Joanne Edwards, the director of acute service at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, apologised for the delays, saying the coronavirus pandemic "has had a significant impact on the capacity of the chronic pain service". Ms Edwards said the health board was increasing the number of face to face and telephone clinics that the chronic pain team can undertake, adding that an "enhanced clinical review" of the waiting list was also being carried out to prioritise patients for appointment based on clinical need. Read full story Source: The Herald, 10 March 2021
  12. News Article
    The NHS Covid symptom checker has been criticised by a study which found it may not pick up some people who are seriously ill. By being told to stay at home rather than consult a doctor, they may not receive treatment quickly enough. NHS Digital says the 111 online service, used more than 3.9 million times in the past year, is not a diagnostic tool. The symptom checker has been constantly revised and updated, it adds. The NHS 111 online Covid symptom checker asks a series of set questions about symptoms in order to offer people advice on their condition and what to do next. The study, in BMJ Health and Care Informatics, used 50 simulated cases to compare online checkers used during the pandemic from four countries - UK, US, Japan and Singapore. It found the symptom checkers used by the UK and US were half as likely to advise people to consult a doctor as the systems used in Japan and Singapore. Japan and Singapore also had the lowest case fatality rates of the four nations. Despite improvements in the safety of the NHS 111 symptom checker since the research was carried out in April, the researchers said they still have "ongoing concerns". Read full story Source: BBC News, 9 March 2021
  13. News Article
    Patients with coronavirus have been discharged from a hospital and infected family members, a councillor claimed. Heather Kidd, a Liberal Democrat member of Shropshire Council, said a woman in south Shropshire told her that her husband had been "sent home with Covid". She initially found evidence of four cases but said those were the "tip of the iceberg" with more coming to light. The medical director of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) said they were following guidelines, but would look into the "concerning" cases. Ms Kidd said since she first spoke out, she had been contacted by a number of people who have had Covid-positive family members discharged from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal in Telford back into their homes. Arne Rose, the medical director at SaTH, said there was now a "special swab squad" testing patients every 24 hours as opposed to every 48 hours. He said some patients, who after 28 days of their first positive Covid test were no longer considered infectious, would be the subject of a "careful risk assessment". They could then be discharged with advice on self-isolating at home. "The cases... sound concerning," Mr Rose said, adding he would investigate to "learn if anything went wrong." Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 March 2021
  14. News Article
    Younger adults and those living in poorer neighbourhoods and black people have the highest levels of vaccine hesitancy, new survey data from the Office for National Statistics has shown. The vast majority of Britons back the COVID-19 vaccines and are keen to be inoculated, with more than 9 out 10 people being positive about the jab. But the ONS said data from a survey between 13 January and 7 February revealed reluctance among less than 10% of the population. It found more than 4 in 10 of black or black British adults reported vaccine hesitancy, the highest of all ethnic groups, while adults aged 16-29 were most likely to report hesitancy, at around 1 in 6 or 17%. Adults living in the most deprived areas of England were more likely to report vaccine hesitancy at 16%, compared with 7% of adults in the least deprived areas of England. This has been evident in the take up of the vaccine among some deprived areas of the country which have struggled to vaccinate everyone in priority groups. Even among NHS and social care staff there has been reported hesitancy over vaccines, particularly among BAME staff. Read full story Source: The Independent, 9 March 2021
  15. News Article
    A study is under way in the Southern Health Trust area to investigate possible links between Type 1 diabetes and COVID-19. A consultant paediatrician said there has been an increase in the number of young people being diagnosed since the beginning of the pandemic. Last year, the trust said there were 41 new cases, its highest yearly total on record. Dr Sarinda Millar specialises in Type 1 diabetes in children and young people. "We are having more diagnoses, specially since the start of 2021 but more last year, as well," she said. "...in January we had nine new cases of Type 1 diabetes in children and young people in one week alone in our trust area," she said. "In other years, we wouldn't even have had one every week. And regionally, we have all seen an increase in Type 1 diabetes which leads us to question is COVID-19 in some way related?" Because of the increase in Type 1 diabetes over the past year, the Southern Trust is commissioning fresh research on the matter. "It is quite a wide piece of research we are hoping to do," Dr Millar said. "As well as looking to see if these children have been exposed to Covid, looking at their antibody status, we also want to know what other implications COVID-19 has had. For example, have families delayed bringing their child to hospital? We have seen that children are presenting sicker." Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 March 2021
  16. News Article
    Sufferers say they have had little specialist help despite NHS England setting up dedicated clinics. “It’s not that I feel I have been abandoned, I think that is perfectly obvious,” says Rachel Pope. “If you speak to any long Covid patient, they have been abandoned.” Until exactly a year ago – 5 March 2020 – Pope was “an incredibly fit woman”. A senior lecturer in European prehistory at the University of Liverpool, her work and lifestyle were very active. But after falling ill to Covid, she spent four months unable to walk, then three more when she could manage little more than “a sort of shuffle”. She still has a host of symptoms, “but the most debilitating is the fact that I still can’t do more than 2,000 steps in a day. Until a few weeks ago, I was still choking every day. There’s a lot of nasty stuff that [long Covid sufferers] are living with, without treatment. “It’s not a great situation to be in. I mean, we didn’t die. But this isn’t exactly living either.” A year into the pandemic, accounts such as Pope’s have become dispiritingly familiar, as the experiences of the many thousands who have struggled for months with long Covid, often alone and unsupported, are emerging. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 March 2021
  17. News Article
    As many as 6 million “hidden” patients could join the queue for NHS treatment in the coming months, swelling official waiting lists to records not seen for more than a decade, health chiefs have warned. In the wake of a Budget that offered no new investment for the health service ministers must level with the public that previous guarantees on waiting times are now impossible to meet, the head of the NHS Confederation has said. In an interview with The Independent, Danny Mortimer said some patients should expect to wait many months, or possibly even beyond a year, for their treatment. He said: “It's going to take many years to recover the waiting list position to where we want it to be. “We have to be realistic about the time that it will take us to address these issues, and the government have to be realistic about what it will take particularly if this week’s Budget is an indication that actually there won’t be money made available to the NHS to truly address these issues. “The government has to take responsibility for explaining to the public what the consequences of that are.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 March 2021,
  18. News Article
    A leading doctor has said the NHS should expect to treat up to a million people for long Covid in the aftermath of the pandemic. Long Covid affects about 1 in 10 people of any age infected with coronavirus, and sufferers can experience symptoms including breathlessness, chronic fatigue, brain fog, anxiety and stress for several months after contracting COVID-19. The likelihood of experiencing long-term symptoms does not appear to be linked to the severity of the initial virus and people with mild symptoms at first can still have debilitating long Covid. The absence of long Covid registers makes it difficult to measure the scale of the problem, and major studies into the condition are ongoing in an attempt to identify causes and potential treatments. But one of Britain’s leading doctors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, estimates that about a million people will need care for long Covid as the NHS recovers from the effects of the pandemic. “Although officially about 4 million people have had Covid, in reality, it’s about 8 million or 9 million,” the anonymous doctor told The Guardian. “If 10% of those people have got something, then it could be almost a million people, and that’s enormous.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 March 2021
  19. News Article
    NHS workers have raised concerns about the prospect of all health and social care staff in England being compelled by law to take the Covid vaccine. The Downing Street review which is considering making it mandatory for NHS workers to have the jab, as a way of protecting patients, has led to questions about its moral and legal implications. A consultant in a busy north-west hospital said they would feel “incredibly uncomfortable” with the idea of forcing NHS staff to have the vaccine. They said they would prefer a concerted high-profile campaign to encourage staff to have the vaccine, with a last-resort option of asking unvaccinated staff to take on different roles, away from the frontline. “I would feel very uncomfortable with us forcing anyone to have it – you can’t force an injection into someone,” the consultant said. Last week Care UK said it only wanted to hire new staff who had had the vaccine, while another care provider, Barchester, said it wanted all of its staff, including current workers, to have had the jab by 23 April, adding that if they did not they would not be considered for shifts. The matron of a care home in Merseyside said there had been a lot of pressure put on her to have the vaccine, which was making her anxious. “I don’t want to be bullied into a decision when I have legitimate concerns. I feel being told I am selfish and putting others at risk is insulting," she said. However, a CBT therapist in her 30s, who also works in the north-west of England believed all NHS staff should be vaccinated, regardless of their role. She said her hospital trust’s values emphasised “care, compassion and commitment” and individuals who refused the vaccine could potentially harm others. “If we’re going to be caring for people, it comes under that value and it’s a core part of what the NHS is about. So if someone is saying they don’t want the vaccine, it puts into question whether you are going against the values of the trust.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 March 2021
  20. News Article
    The development of coronavirus vaccines tweaked to target new variants will be fast-tracked in the UK and four other countries, Britain’s regulator has said, adding that “robust evidence” on effectiveness and safety will still be required for authorisation. The approach, similar to the regulatory process for the modified flu vaccine, will not need a brand new approval or “lengthy” clinical studies, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said on Thursday. This will "significantly reduce" the length of time it takes for the vaccines to be ready, with concern mounting over the threat posed by the South African and Brazilian variants and their ability to partially evade the body’s immune response. Under the new guidance, developers will need to provide clear evidence their adapted vaccines produce a strong immune response to the variant and meet the high safety standards outlined by the MHRA. “This is based on scientific principles and does not cut any corners on safety or effectiveness,” said Dr Christian Schneider, chief scientific officer at the MHRA. Read full story Source: The Independent, 4 March 2021
  21. News Article
    The NHS’s London regional team has told its integrated care systems (ICS) to draw up plans for ‘another possible [covid-19] surge later in 2021’, HSJ has learned. The guidance, dated February 2021 says: “Later in March/early April we will ask for systems to begin to plan for a possible wave 3 covid surge.” The NHS England and Improvement London presentation adds: “[The] purpose of the critical care de-surge plan [is to] ensure that the… bed base can expand safely in the event of a 3rd covid surge and/or other major incident/event.” Any surge in covid cases is likely to be caused by new variants of the virus, such as those originating in Brazil and South Africa, which are more resistant to vaccines, becoming dominant in the UK. At present government advisers think this is unlikely and that even if this scenario did arise, it will be possible to modify vaccines to combat the new strain. The guidance sets out three other “strategic goals” the ICSs should address. But it has “surprised” senior figures from outside London who were waiting for the national framework for tackling the NHS’ growing elective waiting list expected later this month. The presentation said the other key goals were to: ensure “staff get… immediate rest and respite”; set out plans to “desurge critical care”; and plan for elective recovery. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 March 2021
  22. News Article
    Care home residents and staff were put at risk of infection because personal protective equipment (PPE) was used wrongly, a health watchdog has said. Croft House, in Ossett, near Wakefield, has been put in special measures after being deemed "inadequate" by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors. The home was "not well-led", according to the inspectors who visited last year. The CQC report, which was published last week, highlighted a number of measures had not been taken, meaning staff and residents were exposed to the risk of infection transmission, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. "Staff could not safely put on and take off PPE as this was stored in people's rooms. Staff needed to cross the room to collect the PPE," the report said. Meanwhile, there was no hand sanitiser in the corridors or bins to dispose of PPE and staff "were not effectively wearing PPE", it added. Residents at the home, which provides nursing and residential care for up to 68 people, were at "risk of missing medication or being given incorrect medication" because of how systems were managed, the report said. However, relatives spoke highly of staff at the home, with one family member describing an employee they knew as "accommodating and helpful", according to the report. Countrywide Care Homes, which runs the site, said improvements had been made since the inspection on 18 December. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 March 2021
  23. News Article
    Some 1 in 10 people still experience persistent ill health 12 weeks after having COVID-19, termed “long COVID” or post-COVID conditions. A new policy brief from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies documents responses to post-COVID conditions in different countries of the WHO European Region and looks at how sufferers, including medical professionals, are driving some of those responses. Written for decision-makers, this brief summarises what is known about the conditions, who and how many people suffer from them, diagnosis and treatment, and how countries are addressing the issue. Commenting on long COVID, WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge said, “COVID-19 has caused a great deal of suffering among people across the Region, with reports of long COVID an extra cause for concern. It’s important that patients reporting with symptoms of long COVID are included as part of the COVID-19 response to mitigate some of the longer-term health impacts of the pandemic. This policy brief makes clear the need for policy-makers to take the lead on this issue.” Read full story Source: WHO, 25 February 2021
  24. News Article
    A single shot of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid jab reduces the chance of needing hospital treatment by more than 80%, an analysis in England shows. The Public Health England (PHE) data showed the effect kicked in three to four weeks after vaccination. It was based on people aged over 80 who were the first to receive the jab. Government scientists hailed the result, but stressed that two doses were needed for the best protection. It comes after similar findings were published by Scottish health authorities last week, which they hailed as "spectacular". The PHE data, which has not been peer reviewed, also suggested the Pfizer vaccine, which started being rolled out a month before the AstraZeneca vaccine, leads to an 83% reduction in deaths from Covid. This was based on people over the age of 80 who had died. The data also showed vaccination cuts the risk of people over 70 developing any Covid symptoms by around 60%, three weeks after an initial dose. Prof Van-Tam, England's deputy chief medical officer, said the decision to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to older people was "clearly vindicated". Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 March 2021
  25. News Article
    The government has been called on to take action over the national “backlog” for a specialist mental health service after a woman died after a substantial wait to access treatment. Carole Mitchell, who died by suicide on 22 November 2019, waited almost seven months for a first appointment after being referred to Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust for psychology services. In a prevention of future deaths report, published earlier this month, coroner Alison Mutch said the inquest was told waits had since increased and “someone in Mrs Mitchell’s position today would be more likely to wait nine months”. The coroner added evidence heard suggested the delay experienced was “reflective of both the regional and national backlog for appointments”. The report has been sent to both the Department of Health and Social Care and Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 March 2021
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