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Content ArticleThe UK Government has opened a consultation on changes to the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 Code of Practice, and implementation of Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS). This consultation is also seeking views on the LPS regulations, which will underpin the new system. This consultation applies to England and Wales and is open until 7 July 2022.
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Content ArticleThis film from NHS England and NHS Improvement follows patients at the NHS specialist Post-Covid service at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, one of 90 such services that are now established across England, as part of a £200m NHS investment to support people experiencing the long term effects of Covid. Featured in the film is John, who explains how the ongoing effects of Covid have impacted on his overall health and day-to-day life. As part of his assessment, John gets a psychological and physical check-up from a multidisciplinary team of NHS professionals to help him manage his symptoms and support his recovery. Anyone who is concerned about long-lasting symptoms following Covid-19 should contact their GP, or go online to the NHS Your Covid Recovery website for further advice: https://www.yourcovidrecovery.nhs.uk/
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Content ArticleLong Covid Support are keen to hear your experiences of Long Covid service(s) for adults in England. The purpose of this survey is to collect information on the patient experience of healthcare and other support services for Long Covid. Because services differ by nation, this survey is for patients in England only. This survey has been designed and developed by people who have Long Covid. You can do the survey for yourself, or on behalf of a friend or relative who has Long Covid. The survey will take 15 - 30 minutes to complete depending on your answers. You may save the survey and finish it later as long as you use the same device to complete it. Long Covid Support is a not-for-profit organisation, advocating for those impacted by Long Covid.
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News Article
Over 80% of UK GPs think patients are at risk in their surgery, survey finds
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than 80% of GPs believe that patients are being put at risk when they come into their surgery for an appointment, a new survey shows. A poll of 1,395 GPs found only 13% said their practice was safe for patients all the time. Meanwhile, 85% expressed concerns about patient safety, with 2% saying patients were “rarely” safe, 22% saying they were safe “some of the time” and 61% saying they were safe “most of the time”. Asked if they thought the risk to patient safety was increasing in their surgery, 70% said it was. Family doctors identified lack of time with patients, workforce shortages, relentless workloads and heavy administrative burdens as the main reasons people receiving care could be exposed to risk. The survey, which was self-selecting, also found that: 91% said more GPs would help improve the state of general practices. 84% have had anxiety, stress or depression over the past year linked to their job. 31% know a colleague who was physically abused by a patient in the last year. 24% know of a member of general practice staff who has taken their own life due to work pressures. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 March 2022 -
Content Article“Hi, I’m the doctor. First I need to apologise for how long you’ve been waiting.” An apology is now the default way I introduce myself to patients in the busy emergency department where I work, writes an emergency medicine consultant in an article for the Independent newspaper. An apology for the shortage of beds, an apology for the shortage of staff and most importantly for the person in front of him, an apology for how long they’ve waited, in pain and distress, to be seen.
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News ArticleJust 1 in 10 patients preferred face-to-face GP appointments during the Covid pandemic, with most requesting telephone consultations instead, according to research carried out on behalf of NHS England. The Improvement Analytics Unit (IAU) – a partnership between NHS England and think-tank the Health Foundation – looked at data from 146 England GP practices using the askmyGP online consultation system between March 2019 and September 2021, examining over 7.5 million patient-initiated consultation requests. During the pandemic, GPs suffered a backlash from the media, Government and NHS England over accusations that general practice was closed and GPs were not seeing patients face-to-face. GP leaders suggested that NHS England needed to take the research into account and allow practices to decide their own way of working. The research found that: Before the pandemic, 30% of patients requests specified a face-to-face consultation, dropping to less than 4% at the beginning of the pandemic. But by the end of the study period in September 2021, only 10% of patients requests were for face-to-face GP appointments. Telephone consultations were the most popular option, making up over half (55%) of patient requests in 2020/21. However, less than 1% of patients preferred a video consultation, according to the data. IAU head at the Health Foundation Arne Wolters said: ‘Our analysis shows that patients often choose remote over face-to-face consultations and that GP practices can mitigate the risk of digital exclusion via a blended approach.’ He said that ‘traditional routes to accessing and delivering care’ had been ‘offered alongside an online option and, in planning care, practices were able to take account of factors such as patients’ age, frequency of use, clinical needs and preferences’, at the studied practices." And he added: ‘With patient demand at an all-time high due to the care backlog Read full story Source: Pulse, 18 March 2022
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EventSensemaking, according to Karl Weick, is the process through which the complex and unpredictable world is given order, within which people can orient themselves, find purpose, and take effective action. Organisations unravel when sensemaking collapses, when they no longer supply meaning, and when they cling to interpretations that no longer work. As we enter the third year of a global COVID-19 pandemic, when nearly every aspect of our care and caring has faced disruption, how do we make sense of and take action to prevent the unraveling of organisations and sustainably reverse setbacks in patient and workforce safety? Join IHI’s annual Patient Safety Awareness Week webinar on March 16, 2022 from 11:00 AM to 11:50 AM ET with speakers Don Berwick, MD, MPP, and Jessica Berwick, MD, MPH, for a conversation on sensemaking during times of uncertainty, complexity, and chaos. This session will provide insights and perspective to foster sensemaking and action to reinforce patient and workforce safety in your organisation. Register
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Content ArticleIn this article for The BMJ, Partha Kar, consultant in diabetes and endocrinology, looks at the importance of education and peer support in self-management for people with long-term conditions. He looks at how diabetes peer support and education programmes have adapted to the need for remote access during the pandemic, and suggests that increased access to these elements of diabetes care may have helped reduce diabetic ketoacidosis hospital admissions during the first wave of Covid-19.
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Content Article
Waiting Lists Tracker
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Suggest a useful website
Get information on waiting times for treatment at NHS Trusts in England. This data is sourced from NHS England, and is published two months in arrears. Please note that some data may not be available. This could be because a) the Trust does not provide treatment for the selected condition, b) data has not been submitted, or c) some services (e.g. mental health) are not covered in the source data. -
Content ArticleRecovering services from the covid crisis is the big task for NHS leaders for the foreseeable future. HSJ's Recovery Watch newsletter tracks prospects and progress. This week HSJ bureau chief and performance lead James Illman discusses virtual wards and why staffing pressures are ‘likely to be under-estimated’ and are a patient safety risk.
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Content ArticleThe introduction of remote triage and assessment early in the pandemic raised questions about patient safety. Wieringa et al. sought to capture patients and clinicians’ experiences of the management of suspected acute COVID-19 and generate wider lessons to inform safer care. Lessons from the pandemic suggest three key strategies are needed to prevent avoidable deaths and inequalities in the next crisis: (1) strengthen system resilience (including improved resourcing and staffing; support of new tools and processes; and recognising primary care’s role as the ‘risk sink’ of the healthcare system); (2) develop evidence-based triage and scoring systems; and (3) address social vulnerability.
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Content ArticleFewer than 1% of UK general practice consultations occur by video. This study by Trisha Greenhalgh and colleagues aims to explain why video consultations are not more widely used in general practice.
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Content ArticleHow is the UK handling long Covid, one of the biggest health issues to emerge from the pandemic? A panel of experts brought together by The Independent discussed this and the overall message was that the UK’s response has been lacking. Chaired by Health Correspondent Rebecca Thomas and Science Correspondent Samuel Lovett, the panel included Dr Elaine Maxwell, Professor Amitava Banerjee and Professor Brendan Delaney. The session explores the UK’s response in depth from research approaches to provision for patients. Watch back a video of the full event.
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EventuntilAre you interested in storytelling health? Do you want to use narrative as the basis for improvement? Do you want to work with people and hear about their experiences of care? Are you curious about storytelling? If so, come along to the NHS/Hope storytelling festival which is taking place between 9 and 23 March. You will find out about filmmaking, arts therapy, live performance, storytelling for quality improvement, staff stories, digital stories, how volunteers can capture stories, and hear from the author of a book about storytelling in health and how patient leaders are shaping our programme of digital storytelling. You will also hear how stories are being used across systems as a learning tool. There will also be the opportunity to take part in online training where you can gain a contribution to your CPD and gain some essential knowledge about a broad range of storytelling methods. Each session takes place between 6pm and 7.30pm and details can be found here.
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News Article
Midwife-supported home births scrapped in Guernsey
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Midwife-supported homebirths will not be re-introduced in Guernsey after their suspension due to coronavirus. The committee for health and social care explained it is difficult for a small team to accommodate the births. It said that if the service was reinstated, it may impact deliveries on Loveridge Ward in Princess Elizabeth Hospital. A spokesperson said they were "very sorry" to parents who wanted to give birth at home. The committee said homebirths rely on a demanding on-call commitment from community midwives on top of their contracted hours. To facilitate a birth at home, two of the five midwives are required to be on-call for 24 hours a day, for up to five weeks at a time. Deputy Tina Bury, vice president of the committee for health and social care, said: "The midwifery team is small and it was simply not sustainable or safe in the long-term to provide the kind of on-call cover needed to support homebirths. Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 March 2022 -
News Article
Delayed NHS patients will be able to choose private ops online
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Patients whose operations have been delayed will be able to shop online for hospitals with the shortest waiting times in the public and private sector, under plans being announced by the health secretary this week reports The Times. Sajid Javid will unveil a three-point plan to transform the NHS as part of efforts to tackle a record backlog of more than six million people. Under the proposals, patients referred for hospital care will be able to go online to look up the waiting time at their local hospital, and compare it with times at any hospital in the country, including those in the private sector. The website will allow patients to book their treatment at any unit in the country and there are plans to make the service available on the NHS app. The proposals will be set out in a speech on Tuesday. Javid said: “The NHS constitution says already that you as a patient have the right to ask for an alternative provider for your treatment." However, is this just a distraction? writes Roy Lilley in his latest newsletter. Shopping on-line for treatment depends on getting a website organised that can collect real-time data from all Trusts, for every specialty, that can take into account staffing, rota-gaps and clinical priorities. Software might be able to cope but has the potential to throw the NHS into chaos. People arriving from ‘out of area’ will need video-out-patient consultations, some way of doing blood, imaging and other tests. And post-op? The same again for out-patients and physio, OT, aids, adaptations, pharmacy and social care support... ... to say nothing of the stress on patients and their families. None of this is impossible but the NHS is nowhere near geared up for it. Sources: The Times, 6 March 2022 (paywalled) Roy Lilley's newsletter, 7 March 2022 -
Content ArticleThousands of individuals are released from immigration detention into the community every year. Between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2021, 21,362 people were detained, and 17,283 were released into the community, having been granted bail or leave to enter/remain. This means that 81% of those detained were released back into the community. 2,239 were considered to be ‘Adults at Risk’ whilst in detention by the Home Office. In this report, Medical Justice sheds light on the many issues its clients face in accessing healthcare upon release into the community. By highlighting these issues, Medical Justice seeks significant improvements in the Home Office’s continuity of care of all individuals upon release and provides specific recommendations to the Home Office.
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Content ArticleInfluenza, polio and more have shown that infections can change lives even decades later. So why the complacency over possible long-term effects of COVID-19 writes Laura Spinney in this Nature article.
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News Article
GP surgeries are told to open late and at weekends
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
GP surgeries must open for routine appointments between 9am and 5pm on Saturdays and during weekday evenings, NHS bosses have said. From October, patients will be able to book weekend and evening slots with “the full multi-disciplinary team” in a local practice, including for services such as screening, vaccinations and health checks. The British Medical Association said it was “bitterly disappointed” by the changes, which had been imposed without its agreement. A letter tells GPs the appointments must be made available at least two weeks in advance. Same-day online booking should be possible “up until as close to the time slot as possible”. Any unused slots should be available for NHS111 to allocate to callers. Some may be remote appointments, but networks are told to “ensure a reasonable number” of appointments are face-to-face consultations. Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “There’s a great deal in this letter that patients will welcome, given the struggles they have had since the start of the pandemic to see their GPs face-to-face or even get through to their surgeries.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 2 March 2022 -
News Article
More support needed for GPs to treat eating disorders
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Two leading medical organisations have told the BBC that GPs are not getting the right support to treat eating disorders. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the British Medical Association (BMA) say doctors need more time with patients and more specialist units. Beat Eating Disorders asked nearly 1,700 people about their experience of trying to get a diagnosis from their GP. Over 92% asked thought their GP needed more training with eating disorders. Out of those questioned, 69% also said they felt their GP didn't know how to help them. The survey has been released to coincide with Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Jess Griffiths had an eating disorder between the ages of 11 and 21 and, now in full recovery, she works as a consultant to NHS England and with her local eating disorder service in Dorset. She tells the BBC that when she first went to her GP to try to get help, she wasn't entirely transparent about what she was struggling with. "I was presenting at a low weight and not having periods, so the GP put me on the pill, but I went there hoping he would ask me the questions [about a potential eating disorder]" she says. "But it's really hard for people with eating disorders to - in a really pressurised situation with a doctor - say how they really feel." Dr Richard Van Mellaerts is part of the BMA's GP committee and has told the BBC the results of the survey are "deeply saddening". "People with eating disorders should never feel that GPs are a barrier to accessing care, so it is vital that medical education and training supports doctors to identify eating disorders and support their treatment," he says. But he adds that there is "poor provision of specialist care", which has left GPs "frustrated up and down the country". Read full story Source: BBC News, 3 March 2022 Read hub blog from Dr Joanna Silver on the challenges the pandemic has brought to patients with eating disorders -
Content ArticleThe latest newsletter from the Patient Safety Authority highlights the importance of stronger warnings on medications, tracking the way misinformation spreads online, treating brain conditions through art and music, and more.
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News Article
Private healthcare boom adds to fears of two-tier system in UK
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Growing numbers of Britons are paying for private medical treatment in a shift that could undermine the NHS and create a “two-tier” health system, a report has warned. Declining access to and quality of NHS care, both worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, have begun to “supercharge” the trend, with one in six people prepared to go private instead of waiting. That is among the findings of a report by the left-leaning IPPR thinktank, which warns that in future getting fast, high-quality care on the NHS could become as difficult as the situation that already exists in regards to state-funded dental treatment, which has become a postcode lottery. “People are not opting out of the NHS because they have stopped believing in it as the best and fairest model of healthcare,” said Chris Thomas, the IPPR’s principal research fellow and co-author of the report. “Rather, those who can afford it are being forced to go private by the consequences of austerity and the pandemic on NHS access and quality, and those without the funds are left to ‘put up or shut up’.” The report says that unless the NHS starts performing better “people who can and are willing to do so will supplement their entitlement to NHS care with private healthcare products”. “With NHS waiting lists now at record levels, it is not surprising that more patients across the country are looking at private healthcare,” said David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, a trade body that represents about 100 private providers across the UK. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 March 2022 -
Content ArticleA review of government policies tackling smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity and harmful alcohol use in England.
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News Article
Sussex woman forced to sleep in wheelchair due to lack of care staff
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A woman has been left to sleep in her wheelchair several nights a week and remain in bed for the rest of it due to a lack of social care in her local area. Mandy Page, 53, who lives alone in Hove, has difficulty getting into and out of bed on her own and previously had carers to provide support in the morning and evenings. However, since before Christmas she has had no care support in the evenings after the MyLife East Sussex agency told her it was no longer covering her care, and that the agency believed her care was now being provided by her local authority. Page receives dialysis three times a week at Royal Sussex county hospital, and on those days arrives home, by hospital transport, after 6pm. This means that without help getting out of her wheelchair and into bed she must sleep in the wheelchair. “It’s very stressful, because at the moment I’m in bed every day. I can’t get up without help, and I can’t get back to bed on a dialysis day,” Page said. “On a dialysis day, I go to dialysis and I’m in my wheelchair. Every other day, I’m in bed all day and all night. That’s no life. Page’s situation exemplifies the crisis in social care. England has faced chronic shortages of care workers, with a survey by Care England finding that 95% of care providers struggle to recruit and retain staff. In 2020/21, there were around 105,000 vacancies at any one time in the social care sector, and more than a third of the sector’s staff left their jobs during the year. Page says the lack of adequate social care has taken a negative toll on her quality of life, and has meant she hasn’t been able to undertake everyday tasks. Rob Persey, the executive director for health and adult social care at Brighton and Hove council, said the council had not been able to source a new provider for Page since her earlier care was withdrawn. “This is a national as well as a local problem as there are insufficient home care staff to meet demands. Various local initiatives, including additional funding, have been taken to increase the home care workforce, but so far they have only had a limited impact." “We recognise Mandy does not want respite care, and acknowledge this is a completely unacceptable situation for her,” he said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 28 February 2022 -
Gallery Image
Aspirin.jpg
Patient Safety Learning posted a gallery image in Medication
A patient bought wrong aspirin from pharmacy and accidentally overdosed. Easily done with such similar packaging.
