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Found 1,294 results
  1. News Article
    A man turned up to an accident and emergency department in the Midlands complaining about ear wax on the day a hospital declared a critical incident, a nurse who works there has said. Lesley Meaney, a sister at University Hospitals of North Midlands (UNHM), said the patient presented to A&E with “no pain, no discomfort, just eat war wax!” Earlier on 30 December officials at the trust declared a critical incident, citing “extremely high demand for all of our services.” The disclosure by Ms Meaney underlines the scale of the challenge facing the NHS and staff working in hospitals across the country. Writing on Twitter, Ms Meaney added: “Seriously what is up with the general population? A major incident declared, ambulances queuing, and you decide to come to the emergency department on New Year’s Eve with ear wax.” Dr Matthew Lewis, medical director at UNHM, said: “The accident & emergency departments at UHNM are some of the busiest in the country so we would urge the public to only come to our Emergency Departments if it’s for serious, life-threatening conditions that need immediate medical attention, such as persistent severe chest pain, loss of consciousness, acute confusion, severe blood loss, serious burns, broken bones, suspected stroke. Read full story Source: The Independent, 4 January 2023
  2. News Article
    Senior NHS staff have been advised by the Welsh government to discharge people who are well enough to leave, even without a package of care. But one GP called the announcement "terrifying" and warned that patients could deteriorate and end up back in hospital. The seven health boards in Wales have nearly 1,800 patients medically well enough to leave hospital. The Welsh government has called the NHS situation "unprecedented". The message comes after one health leader said the NHS was on a "knife-edge" in terms of its ability to cope. The letter from the chief nursing officer and the deputy chief medical officer to the health boards offered "support and advice to ensure patients are kept as safe as possible, and services are kept as effective as possible over the next period". Read full story Source; BBC News, 4 January 2023
  3. News Article
    Care workers are taking as little as three minutes to help vulnerable people in their own homes, the social care ombudsman has found, after discovering a council was allocating extremely short visits to hundreds of people. Amid chronic staff shortages and rising unmet care needs nationwide, a homecare worker commissioned by Warrington borough council sometimes stayed for just three minutes, despite the family paying for the full visit. The council was found to have allocated 15-minute care calls to more than 300 people in the region, despite national guidance stressing these were “not usually appropriate”. The Homecare Association, which represents care providers, said the number of short calls being commissioned was increasing more widely and said “15-minute visits are inappropriately short”, result in inadequate care and are stressful for workers placed under “unfair pressure”. The case that triggered the investigation involved a woman with dementia who was paying the full costs of her care under a plan devised by the council. In 15 minutes two agency care workers were expected to wake her, prepare a meal and a drink, ensure she ate and drank, administer her medication, change her incontinence pad, administer any personal care and tidy the kitchen. Electronic monitoring showed they regularly stayed less than 15 minutes and the ombudsman said it was probable her care needs were not met and her care was not dignified. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 January 2023
  4. News Article
    People have been urged to wear face coverings and remain at home if feeling unwell, as an already crisis-stricken NHS faces down multiple waves of winter illnesses. With children returning to school at a time when high levels of flu, Covid-19 and scarlet fever are all being reported, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued fresh guidance in a bid to minimise the diseases’ spread. Parents have been urged to keep children at home if they are unwell and have a fever, with adults told to only go out if necessary and wear face coverings if they are ill and avoid visiting vulnerable people. While transport secretary Mark Harper said the advice was “very sensible”, Downing Street insisted that such guidance was “pretty longstanding”, stressing that it was “not mandatory” and remained a far cry from ministers “telling people what to do” at the height of the pandemic. The government has also reintroduced travel bans for those testing positive for Covid-19 in China from 5 January amid a mass outbreak there. It comes as pressure on the NHS continues to grow, but Rishi Sunak said he was “confident” the NHS has the funding it needs despite accusations from senior doctors his government is in denial about the scale of the crisis in the health service. Read full story Source: The Independent, 3 January 2023
  5. News Article
    There were more than 3,700 patients a day in hospital with flu last week - up from 520 a day the month before, the latest data from NHS England shows. Of these, 267 people needed specialised care in critical care beds last week. NHS England warns pressures on the health service continue to grow as viruses like flu re-circulate after a hiatus during the pandemic. Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: "Sadly, these latest flu numbers show our fears of a 'twindemic' have been realised, with cases up seven-fold in just a month and the continued impact of Covid hitting staff hard, with related absences up almost 50% on the end of November." He warned this was "no time to be complacent" with the risk of serious illness being "very real" and encouraged those eligible to take up their flu and Covid jabs as soon as possible. Admissions among children under 5 have been high this flu season, as well as among older people. Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 December 2022
  6. News Article
    Police have carried out more than 5,500 investigations into patients who have been reported missing from NHS facilities in Scotland since 2019. The figures were outlined in a written response from Keith Brown, the justice secretary, to Jamie Greene, the Conservative MSP. Greene, who is the justice spokesman for the Conservatives, said the figures gave serious cause for concern. He said that the complete figure could be much higher because the data provided only included those reported to police. He urged Brown and Humza Yousaf, the health secretary, to provide adequate resources for policing and the health sector to ensure vulnerable patients were not slipping through the cracks. Greene said: “These figures are deeply alarming. Relatives expect their loved ones to be safe while they are staying, or being treated in, an NHS facility. It gives serious cause for concern that over 200 investigations have had to be launched in just the last few years to determine the whereabouts of young people who went missing from NHS grounds.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 3 January 2023
  7. News Article
    The NHS entered the last six hours of the ambulance strike with a sense that the real test will be seen in the coming days. Call volumes were down and many A&Es quieter than in previous days. NHS111 was very busy. Despite the fears expressed by leaders ahead of the strike not yet coming to fruition, the day ended with eight integrated care systems declaring critical incidents, along with all striking ambulance trusts and a number of hospital trusts. Leaders across the country told HSJ they feared that those who stayed away today in response to pleas for “common sense” amid industrial action may come back tomorrow, seeing demand return strongly. A senior London source said: “The ambulances will have stacked some calls and we may have a flood of movement tomorrow.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 December 2022
  8. News Article
    Patients are spending an extra day in hospital on average when admitted as an emergency compared to before covid, consuming millions of additional ‘bed days’, HSJ analysis has found. The finding explains in part why fewer people are being treated in hospitals, but more resources are being consumed to do so. This has prompted concerns about an apparent big drop in productivity. NHS England chief finance officer Julian Kelly told HSJ the marked increase in length of stay meant hospitals needed to focus on “discharge and decongest” of emergency care, to help recover activity rates and productivity in elective care. The NHS also needs to create more elective capacity insulated from emergency care, he said, and for “local leadership [to] keep people focused”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 19 December 2022
  9. News Article
    Four out of five Britons are worried about the NHS’s ability to provide safe care for patients during strikes by nurses and ambulance workers, a new poll has found. While around half of those surveyed said they support the planned industrial action, the majority expressed concern about the impact on patient safety. The Ipsos poll of 1,100 adults found that 80% were very or fairly concerned about the ability of the NHS to provide safe care for people during the nurses’ strike, which began on Thursday. Meanwhile, 82% of those questioned in the survey said they are very or fairly concerned about patient safety during the ambulance workers’ industrial action, with the first strike planned for 21 December. The new poll comes as the NHS continues to face high demand and widespread staffing gaps, with health leaders fearing this winter will be the most difficult in the health service’s history. Ambulances have been struggling to meet response times targets, while new data published on Thursday shows handover delays at hospitals in England have hit a new high. But the Ipsos survey suggests that, nevertheless, more people are supportive of the industrial action than are opposed to it. Some 50% of those questioned said they either strongly support or tend to support the industrial action by nurses, while 47% are supportive of the ambulance worker strikes. Read full story Source: The National, 15 December 2022
  10. News Article
    All new hospitals built in England must have only single patient rooms, health infrastructure chiefs have confirmed, requiring an overhaul of many trusts’ current proposals. Leaders of the New Hospitals Programme said the NHS needed to be “brave”, with the move marking an end for multi-bed bay wards and representing a major change in hospital design. Previously, NHS trusts were expected to consider a minimum of 50% single rooms when refurbishing or building new facilities, but HSJ revealed in September that officials were considering a 100 per cent requirement. Natalie Forrest, senior responsible officer for NHP, said England was “behind the times” on single patient rooms. She said: “If we really want to look for evidence of why patients should have the ability to sleep in privacy and choose to socialise in social areas… we need not look very far. Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Europe, the US – where they wouldn’t dream of building a hospital that didn’t provide single bedroom occupancy.” Ms Forrest, who is also a nurse, acknowledged an “anxiety” among NHS staff that they can’t care for patients in single rooms as well, and stressed the need to combine them with “digital technology”. “I have said we need to be brave and take on new challenges, and this is one of those brave decisions the NHS needs to stand up and move forward with.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 December 2022
  11. News Article
    There is evidence of black, Asian and minority ethnic women being treated differently at the University Hospital of Wales, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) has said. HIW completed an inspection of UHW's maternity services in November 2022 and served an urgent improvement notice. A follow up inspection in March found continuing issues with patient safety. The inspectorate said in November that it identified issues which meant that patients were not consistently receiving an "acceptable standard of timely, safe, and effective care". Although "some improvements had been made in many areas... there remained significant challenges, and overall, the improvements were not progressing at the pace required", it said. The report added: "We found low morale amongst staff that we spoke to, and similar comments were received following a staff survey. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 June 2023
  12. News Article
    The government has proposed new legislation to make patient visiting a legal right and also give the Care Quality Commission (CQC) fresh powers to enforce it. The Department of Health and Social Care has launched a consultation to seek views from patients, care home residents, families, professionals and providers on the introduction of new legislation which will require health and care settings, including hospitals, to accommodate visitors in most circumstances. It said the new visiting laws will also provide the CQC with a “clearer basis for identifying where hospitals and care homes are not meeting the required standard”, and enable it to enforce the standards by issuing requirement or warning notices, imposing conditions, suspending a registration or cancelling a registration. It said although the CQC currently has powers “to clamp down on unethical visiting restrictions”, the expected standard of visiting rules is not “specifically outlined in regulations”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 June 2023
  13. News Article
    More than 5,000 mental health patients have been sent at least 62 miles from home for treatment in the two years since ministers pledged to banish the “dangerous” practice. The disclosure prompted calls for the “scandal” of out of area placements in mental health care to end, with claims that it represents “another broken government promise on the NHS”. Chronic shortages of mental health beds have for years forced the health service in England to send hundreds of patients a month to be admitted for care, sometimes a long way from their own area. Mental health campaigners, psychiatrists and patients’ families have argued that being far from home can make already vulnerable patients feel isolated, deprive them of regular visits from relatives, increase the risk of self-harm and reduce their chances of making a recovery. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 June 2023
  14. News Article
    The government should ‘relieve’ GP practices of being the sole controller for their patients’ data, a senior NHS England director has said. Tim Ferris, NHSE director of transformation, said it was a “challenge” that GP practices acted as the sole controllers of their patients’ data. Dr Ferris, whose background is as a primary care doctor in the US, was giving evidence to a Lords committee on integration of primary and community care today. He was asked whether it was time to revisit legislation on the control of GP patient data. He said: “Thirty years ago when the law was created, it made more sense. But I think it might no longer be fit for purpose… The idea that if I were a GP in this country, if I had legal liability for the exchange of data, I would be worried about that.” Dr Ferris agreed there would be merit to the committee recommending the government “relieve” GPs of the sole responsibility for data protection, and their data controller status. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 20 June 2023
  15. News Article
    Two-thirds of GP practices from a sample of 100 in London declined to register a patient without an address, contrary to national rules which are meant to ensure homeless and excluded people can get healthcare, HSJ has found. NHS England guidance states anyone can register with a GP without proof of address, and that people without a permanent address “can still register using a temporary address or the address of the GP surgery”. Practices normally need to record an address, but the exception rule is meant to ensure people who are homeless, or living in unstable or short-term accommodation, are still able to access primary care or referrals for secondary services. Despite this, when HSJ called 100 randomly selected practices in London (about 9 per cent of the total), 64 refused to register the caller. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 19 June 2023
  16. News Article
    Despite the drawbacks of turning to artificial intelligence in medicine, some US physicians find that ChatGPT improves their ability to communicate with patients. Last year, Microsoft and OpenAI released the first free version of ChatGPT. Within 72 hours, doctors were using the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot. Experts expected that ChatGPT and other A.I.-driven large language models could take over mundane tasks that eat up hours of doctors’ time and contribute to burnout, like writing appeals to health insurers or summarising patient notes. However, they found that doctors were asking ChatGPT to help them communicate with patients in a more compassionate way. Dr Michael Pignone, the chairman of the department of internal medicine at the University of Texas at Austin, has no qualms about the help he and other doctors on his staff got from ChatGPT to communicate regularly with patients. However, skeptics like Dr Dev Dash, who is part of the data science team at Stanford Health Care, are so far underwhelmed about the prospect of large language models like ChatGPT helping doctors. In tests performed by Dr Dash and his colleagues, they received replies that occasionally were wrong but, he said, more often were not useful or were inconsistent. If a doctor is using a chatbot to help communicate with a patient, errors could make a difficult situation worse. Read full story (paywalled) Source: New York Times, 12 June 2023
  17. News Article
    Patients may be found guilty of discrimination if they refuse the care of a transgender medic, according to new NHS guidance. Health bosses have been warned that patients have no right to be told a healthcare worker’s assigned sex at birth. However, transgender health workers can choose not to treat patients if they feel uncomfortable doing so, the report by NHS Confederation says. The report, published earlier this month in partnership with the LGBT Foundation, says patients can only request care from a same-sex staff member in limited circumstances, such as if they are having an intimate examination. It states that when a patient requests an employee administering care to be a woman or a man, “the comfort of the staff member should be prioritised”. Read full story Source: Telegraph, 9 June 2023
  18. News Article
    GPs in England may start offering weight-loss jabs to some patients to reduce obesity-related illnesses and resultant pressure on hospitals. Wegovy was approved for NHS use after research suggested users could shed over 10% of their body weight. The drug blunts appetite, so users feel full and eat less. Rishi Sunak said it could be a "game-changer" as he announced a £40 million pilot scheme to increase access to specialist weight management services. But experts warn "skinny jabs" - widely used in the US and endorsed by many celebrities - are not a quick fix or a substitute for a healthy diet and exercise. NHS drugs watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), says patients can access Wegovy for a maximum of two years via specialist weight-management services. The new scheme will test how GPs could safely prescribe such drugs and the NHS provide support in the community or digitally, contributing to the government's wider ambition to reduce pressure on hospitals and give patients access to the care they need where it is most convenient for them. Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 June 2023
  19. News Article
    Paramedics are being told to take a police escort to more than 1,200 addresses for fear of attack, The Times has revealed. The College of Paramedics said the figure was outrageous and called on courts to implement tougher sentences for assaults on paramedics. Ambulance services have marked hundreds of addresses after violence towards crew. Notes on addresses include “patient keeps axe under pillow — serrated knife hidden round the house and is known to be a risk”, “shoots/throws acid”, and “patient is anti-ambulance”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 4 June 2023
  20. News Article
    An integrated care board (ICB) has advised its GP practices not to give patients automatic access to their records, contradicting NHS England national requirements. Instead, North East London ICB has suggested practices only allow access where patients request it, and subject to conditions. The national go-live date for patients to be allowed automatic access to future entries in their records has been repeatedly delayed since initially being set at December 2021. GPs have argued they needed more time to redact sensitive information, ensure records are not inappropriately shared, and train staff. They have cited workload and safeguarding concerns. The ICB’s chief clinical information officer Osman Bhatti, who is a GP, told HSJ the ICB instead “wanted a process where patients could access both prospective and retrospective records safely, with less workload for GPs and so patients who actually want access can have it”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ. 1 June 2023
  21. News Article
    The decision last week by the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, that in future his officers will attend emergency calls related to mental health only where a threat to life is feared, was both a wake-up call and a threat. His letter, and deadline of 31 August, have raised the stakes in negotiations with health bosses. The danger is that his combative approach will undermine attempts to find a solution to a problem that no one denies. In Humberside, a scheme called Right Care, Right Person resulted in 1,100 police officer hours a month being clawed back as health practitioners took over tasks that were previously done by them. The scheme attracted plaudits from the police inspectorate. This is the example that Sir Mark aims to follow as part of his plan to put his discredited force back on its feet. This is a sound idea. Humberside police has been judged the best force in the country, and successful innovations in public service should be copied. But the Met is a special case. At almost 20 times the size of Humberside’s service, with 43,000 officers, it is a huge organisation with responsibility for policing a growing city of almost 9 million people. Its relationships with local health and care services are far more complicated than in a smaller area. In London, there are five integrated care systems (partnership organisations that plan and deliver care). Given how overstretched these services already are, it is alarming to learn of the capital’s police chief announcing a unilateral withdrawal. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 May 2023
  22. News Article
    Lord O’Shaughnessy has carried out a widespread review of clinical trials in Britain and found it is falling behind in medical research. He has suggested a raft of reforms, which include financial incentives for GPs who carry out community drugs and treatments trials on their patients at local surgeries or in their own homes. Patients who receive genomic testing on the NHS should also be automatically asked to consent to their genetic data being used for research, the report recommends. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has been told to cut red tape and speed up approvals for medicines. It has also been asked to approve clinical trials within 60 days of submission. Writing in The Telegraph, Will Quince, Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care, said: “Cutting the time it takes for new medicines to reach patients is vital and has a direct impact on how patients recover faster or better manage conditions. “We want to make it easier for more people to be a part of life-changing research and giving the option to take part in trials virtually will improve the scope of who wants to, or can take part. “From cancer to obesity, these research studies can lead to billions of pounds in savings for the NHS and cut waiting lists through faster diagnosis and enhanced treatment.” Read full story (paywalled_ Source: The Telegraph, 26 May 2023
  23. News Article
    Patients are being urged to shop around on the NHS app and website to cut their waiting time for treatment in England. IT systems have been updated to allow patients to more easily exercise their right to choose where they go for planned care, such as knee operations. They will now be able to view up to five providers - filtered by distance, waiting times and quality of care. But hospitals warned staffing shortages still needed to be tackled to make the biggest impact on waits. The idea of choosing where to go for treatment has been in place since the early 2000s, but few use it. Currently only1 in 10 exercises their right to choose, with patients reporting they are not always offered a choice of where to go or that it is hard to select different venues. Ministers believe that by searching the list of different hospitals, patients will be able to reduce their waits - potentially by up to three months, research suggests. Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 May 2023
  24. News Article
    Patients who fail to turn up for surgical day case procedures are costing the health service thousands of pounds. It is a problem across Northern Ireland's five health trusts. Over a 10-month period in the South Eastern area 14,000 patients did not attend or cancelled review appointments on the day they were due to turn up. Assistant Director of Elective Surgery at the South Eastern Trust Christine Allam said it was "frustrating". The South Eastern trust review showed between April 2022 and January 2023, 7,755 people did not attend or cancelled new outpatient appointments on the day. During the same period, 14,003 or 10% of patients didn't show for review appointments. Ms Allam said the situation was "frustrating for those patients who are waiting to be seen". "Those slots where people don't turn up are lost capacity because we haven't been given notice - and this only lengthens the waiting lists," she added. It is a problem that all health trusts are experiencing. Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 May 2023
  25. News Article
    Some mental health patients in England are still having to travel more than 300 miles for hospital treatment two years after the government pledged to end the “completely unacceptable” practice. The number of patients in crisis forced to move potentially hundreds of miles for NHS help is rising again after falling during the pandemic, separating them from family and support networks and potentially delaying their recuperation. According to official data seen by the Observer, 420 so-called “out of area” treatments started in February because no local beds were available – up from 240 in February last year. The most recent NHS England records show there are 720 out of area placements deemed “inappropriate”, risking the patient’s recovery. Dr Mayura Deshpande, an associate registrar for policy at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said targets for eliminating the practice had been “widely missed” and called for an urgent plan for the proper funding of mental health services. “It’s completely unacceptable that some mental health patients are having to travel hundreds of miles for care at a time when they are at their most vulnerable,” she said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 May 2023
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