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Found 1,293 results
  1. News Article
    Virtual wards, at-home antibiotic kits and using artificial intelligence in GP surgeries are among new initiatives to be trialled as part £160m funding to tackle waiting lists in the NHS. NHS England announced the funding to aid in the health service’s recovery after the pandemic, after figures last month revealed the number of people waiting to begin hospital treatment in England had risen to a new record. A total of 4.7 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of February - the highest figure since records began in August 2007. But NHS England said indicators suggest operations and other elective activity were at four-fifths of pre-pandemic levels in April, which is "well ahead" of the 70% threshold set out in official guidance. It said it is working to speed up the health service's recovery by trialling new ways of working in 12 areas and five specialist children's hospitals. The so-called "elective accelerators" will each get some of the £160m as well as extra support for new ways to increase the number of elective operations, NHS England said. Tens of thousands of patients in the trial areas will be part of initiatives including a high-volume cataract service, one-stop testing facilities and pop-up clinics to allow patients to be seen and discharged closer to home. Other trials over the next three months include virtual wards and home assessments, 3D eye scanners, at-home antibiotic kits, "pre-hab" for patients ahead of surgery, artificial intelligence in GP surgeries and so-called "Super Saturday" clinics, bringing multi-disciplinary teams together at the weekend to offer more specialist appointments. Read full story Source: The Independent,
  2. News Article
    The government has confirmed its commitment to bring in new health legislation during this Parliament, but social care reform has again been ‘kicked into the long grass’. Today’s Queen’s Speech confirmed that planned, radical changes to the Health and Social Care Bill 2012 will be laid before Parliament this year. The changes, first outlined in the government’s proposals this February, will put integrated care systems on a statutory footing, dissolve clinical commissioning groups, water down the internal market within the NHS and increase the powers the health secretary has over NHS England and the service. Today’s Queen’s Speech said these changes meant “patients will receive more tailored and preventative care, closer to home [and will] empower the NHS to innovate and embrace technology”. However, it did not add any further information to the government’s already stated plans to “bring forward proposals in 2021” for social care reform. The 2019 Queen’s Speech, the first delivered during Boris Johnson’s tenure as prime minister, promised to bring in ”legislation for long-term social care reform in England”. To date, the government has failed to act on this promise. Read full story Source: HSJ, 11 May 2021
  3. News Article
    Every adult who has tested positive for COVID-19 in Scotland is to be invited to take part in a major new study into the effects of long Covid. Researchers hope to identify how many people in Scotland continue to be unwell after having the virus. The Covid in Scotland Study (CISS) will ask people what their symptoms are and how it affects their lives. Those taking part will be asked to use a phone app to answer questions about their health before and after Covid. Early estimates suggest as many as 6,000 people in Scotland were experiencing long term symptoms after the first wave of the pandemic but it is not known what that tally is now. Read full story Source: BBC News, 12 May 2021
  4. News Article
    New research examining the effect of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios has found it reduces the risks of those in care dying by up to 11%. The study, published in The Lancet, also said fewer patients were readmitted and they had shorter stays in hospital. It compared 400,000 patients and 17,000 nurses working in 27 hospitals in Queensland, Australia to 28 other hospitals. The state has a policy of just one nurse to every four patients during the day and one to seven at night, in a bid to improve safety and standards of care. The research said savings made from patients having a shorter length of stay, which fell 9%, and less readmissions were double the cost of hiring the extra nurses needed to achieve the ratios. NHS England has resisted moves towards minimum nurse to patient ratios, suspended work by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on safe nurse staffing in 2015. This came as the watchdog was preparing to call for minimum ratios in accident and emergency departments. It has advised that eight or more patients to one nurse is the point at which harm can start to occur. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 May 2021
  5. News Article
    Pregnant women are facing a postcode lottery over whether they can bring a partner to maternity appointments. Health boards were given flexibility in November to allow pregnant woman in low Covid rate areas to take their partners to maternity appointments. But many parts of Wales with the lowest rates are still forcing pregnant women to attend some appointments alone. There are calls, as lockdown eases, for partners Wales-wide to be allowed to all appointments and during labour. Emma Fear, 30, was not able to take her partner with her to hospital when she experienced bleeding during pregnancy in June last year and was told, alone, that she was losing her baby. She then had to repeat the news to her partner, who was waiting outside in the car. "At the time, he could have come and sat outside a pub with me, but he couldn't come with me when I'd had severe bleeding and knew I had probably lost my baby." Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 May 2021
  6. News Article
    Extremely unwell eating disorder patients are having to be tube fed at home by their families owing to a lack of hospital beds, as the Royal College of Psychiatrists reports a rise in people being treated in units without specialist support. Leading psychiatrists are urging the government for an emergency cash investment as the pandemic has prompted a rise in demand for treatment for conditions such as anorexia, amid “desperate pressure in the system”. In interviews with the Guardian, a number of parents told of the struggles of helping a severely unwell person from home. A number of families said they had no choice but to tube feed their children at home daily. Other parents said their children had been admitted to general children’s wards, where they were being treated by staff who had no experience of eating disorders. It is unclear how many patients are being treated at home, but Agnes Ayton, the chair of the Eating Disorder Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said she had heard of people being unable to find beds and being creative in the community: “There is desperate pressure in the system.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 22 April 2021
  7. News Article
    Coronavirus tests for patients in mental health hospitals should be couriered to testing labs and prioritised for results to prevent patients being forced to self-isolate for longer than is necessary, according to new guidance. NHS England has told mental health hospitals they need to use dedicated couriers for urgent swabs and tests should be specifically labelled for mental health patients so they can be turned around faster. Health bosses are worried thousands of patients in mental health wards could deteriorate ifare forced to self-isolate in their rooms for longer periods. More than 14,000 patients were being detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act in January 2021, with patients needing to be tested on admission to wards and if they show symptoms. Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 March 2021
  8. News Article
    That throbbing headache just won’t go away and your mind is racing about what may be wrong. But Googling your symptoms may not be as ill-advised as previously thought. Although some doctors often advise against turning to the internet before making the trudge up to the clinic, a new study suggests that using online resources to research symptoms may not be harmful after all – and could even lead to modest improvements in diagnosis. Using “Dr Google” for health purposes is controversial. Some have expressed concerns that it can lead to inaccurate diagnoses, bad advice on where to seek treatment (triage), and increased anxiety (cyberchondria). Previous research into the subject has been limited to observational studies of internet search behaviour, so researchers from Harvard sought to empirically measure the association of an internet search with diagnosis, triage, and anxiety by presenting 5,000 people in the United States with a series of symptoms and asked them to imagine that someone close to them was experiencing the symptoms. The participants – mostly white, average age 45, and an even gender split – were asked to provide a diagnosis based on the given information. Then they looked up their case symptoms (which, ranging from mild to severe, described common illnesses such as viruses, heart attacks and strokes) on the internet and again offered a diagnosis. As well as diagnosing the condition, participants were asked to select a triage level, ranging from “let the health issue get better on its own” to calling the emergency services. Participants also recorded their anxiety levels. The results showed a slight uptick in diagnosis accuracy, with an improvement of 49.8% to 54% before and after the search. However, there was no difference in triage accuracy or anxiety, the authors wrote in the journal JAMA Network Open. These findings suggest that medical experts and policymakers probably do not need to warn patients away from the internet when it comes to seeking health information and self-diagnosis or triage. It seems that using the internet may well help patients figure out what is wrong. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 March 2021
  9. News Article
    Many GPs find telephone appointments with patients frustrating and want to see them in person because they fear they will otherwise miss signs of illness , the leader of Britain’s family doctors has said. Prof Martin Marshall told the Guardian that remote consultations felt like working “in a call centre” and risked damaging the relationship between GPs and their patients. Telephone and video appointments had proved useful during the Covid pandemic, when GP surgeries limited patients’ ability to come in for face-to-face appointments, he said. However, while that helped limit the spread of coronavirus, “this way of working has been frustrating for some GPs, particularly when most consultations were being delivered remotely, who have felt like they’ve been delivering care via a call centre, which isn’t the job they signed up for." “Remote consultations have advantages, particularly in terms of access and convenience for patients. But we know that patients prefer to see their GP face to face." “Remote working has been challenging for many GPs, particularly when delivering care to patients with complex health needs,” said Marshall, who is a GP in London. “It can also make it harder to pick up on soft cues, which can be helpful for making diagnoses.” His remarks come as NHS leaders and doctors groups are discussing how far appointments should return to being in person now the pandemic is receding. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 28 March 2021
  10. News Article
    Tens of thousands of post-operative deaths could be avoided by ensuring patients are given coronavirus vaccines while waiting for elective surgery, a new study suggests. People awaiting surgery around the globe should thus be prioritised for COVID-19 jabs ahead of other groups, according to the research, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Studying data for 141,582 patients from across 1,667 hospitals in 116 countries – including Australia, Brazil, China, India, UAE, the UK and the US, scientists found that between 0.6 and 1.6% of patients have developed coronavirus in the wake of elective surgery. For patients who did contract COVID-19, their risk of death was four to eight times greater than typically seen in the 30 days after surgery. Given the higher risks that surgical patients face, scientists calculate that vaccines are more likely to have a life-saving impact upon pre-operative patients – particularly the over-70s and cancer patients – than among the general population. The researchers estimated that – in order to save one life in the course of a year – 351 people aged over 70 facing cancer surgery required vaccination. This figure rises to 1,840 among over-70s in general. “Pre-operative vaccination could support a safe restart of elective surgery by significantly reducing the risk of Covid-19 complications in patients and preventing tens of thousands of Covid-19-related post-operative deaths,” said co-lead author Aneel Bhangu, from the University of Birmingham. Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 March 2021
  11. News Article
    An elderly woman died alone in a care home while her daughter was left waiting in a nearby room, an ombudsman says. When the daughter went into her mother's room at the Puttenham Hill House Care Home in Guildford, Surrey, she found she had died. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said the care home had not protected the woman's dignity. Surrey County Council has apologised to the family for the distress caused. The council had arranged and funded the woman's care at the Bupa-run home. A Bupa spokesman said it had apologised to the family and introduced "comprehensive measures" to prevent such a situation happening again. The woman's daughter had complained she had been called too late to the care home when her condition deteriorated in August 2019. When she arrived she was left in a waiting area and not told her mother was seriously ill, the ombudsman said. When she went into her mother's room 15 minutes later it was apparent her mother had died, and she found dried blood on the floor and oxygen pipes in her mother's nose. The agency nurse looking after the woman never spoke to the daughter, the ombudsman said. An inquest found the woman died from a brain haemorrhage, which would have been difficult to spot. Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: "The daughter was not able to be with her mother as she died and her mother should not have been alone in the final moments of her life." Read full story Source: BBC News, 23 March 2021
  12. News Article
    Blanket orders not to resuscitate some care home residents at the start of the Covid pandemic have been identified in a report by England’s care regulator. A report published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found disturbing variations in people’s experiences of do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions during the pandemic. Best practice is for proper discussions to be held with the person involved and/or their relatives. While examples of good practice were identified, some people were not properly involved in decisions or were unaware that such an important decision about their care had been made. Poor record-keeping, and a lack of oversight and scrutiny of the decisions being made, was identified. The report, 'Protect, respect, connect – decisions about living and dying well during Covid-19', calls for a ministerial oversight group – working with partners in health and social care, local government and the voluntary sector – to take responsibility for delivering improvements in this area. The report surveyed a range of individuals and organisations, including care providers and members of the public, and identified: Serious concerns about breaches of some individuals’ human rights. Significant increase in DNACPRs put in place in care homes at the beginning of the pandemic, from 16,876 to 26,555. 119 adult social care providers felt they had been subjected to blanket DNACPR decisions since the start of the pandemic. A GP sent DNACPR letters to care homes asking them to put blanket DNACPRs in place. In one care home a blanket DNACPR was applied to everyone over 80 with dementia. Read full story Source: The Guardian. 18 March 2021
  13. News Article
    People will be able to check if they have bowel cancer by swallowing a tiny capsule containing miniature cameras, in an extension of patient self-care. In what experts described as a trend towards more NHS at-home care, hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of people in England will be able to avoid the discomfort of having a camera inserted into their bowel by instead swallowing a capsule the size of a cod liver oil tablet. Pictures transmitted from inside their body during the painless procedure will help doctors judge whether the person has bowel cancer, the second deadliest form of the disease in the UK. The boss of the NHS in England said the procedure, known as a colon capsule endoscopy, is an example of “sci-fi” medicine increasingly deployed to improve care. One of the country’s top doctors said the capsules illustrated a major shift of healthcare out of hospitals that will see more and more diagnosis and treatment of illness done at home. Prof Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “We’re aware that some patients are reluctant to seek help for certain cancers because the diagnostic tests available can be invasive, so this is a fascinating development and we will be very interested to see the results of the trial. “GPs are preparing for an upsurge in cases of suspected cancer cases post-Covid, and the capsule cameras and new test for cervical cancer are welcome developments that could enable more patients to monitor and manage their own health at home without embarrassment or discomfort.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 11 March 2021
  14. News Article
    A doctor told a panel investigating an NHS trust there has been a "cultural shift" in the way staff communicate with patients and their families. Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust is being investigated after failures in its care of five patients who died between 2011 and 2015. Dr Susie Carman said staff went through a "rough patch" when they "felt worried about doing the wrong thing". She said there was "more confidence" among staff to communicate better. The inquiry, which is due to last six weeks, is probing how the trust currently handles complaints, communicates with families of patients, and carries out investigations. It follows a report by Nigel Pascoe QC that found Southern Health, one of the biggest psychiatric trusts in England, acted with "disturbing insensitivity and a serious lack of proper communication" to family members. Dr Carman said there had since been a "genuine culture shift from the top of the organisation". She believed the trust could "still do things better" in its communication methods but said there was "more will about understanding why it (communication) is so important". The inquiry heard that a patient's "consent to share" information or not could present an "obstacle" in communicating with families and carers. Ahead of the inquiry, the bereaved families decided to withdraw from the process after they claimed to have been "misled, misrepresented and bullied" by the NHS. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 March 2021
  15. 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
  16. News Article
    The unlawful or inappropriate use of “do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation” (DNACPR) orders by some clinicians risks undermining the care of terminally ill patients, almost 40 leading doctors, nurses and charities have warned. During the coronavirus pandemic repeated examples of unlawful decisions have emerged including widespread blanket orders on care home residents and patients with learning disabilities. Now the charity Compassion in Dying along with Marie Curie, Hospice UK and Sue Ryder, as well as more than 30 GPs, nurses and doctors, are warning more must be done to listen to patients and their families. In a joint statement, signed by more than 30 clinicians, they warn: “There have been examples of poor practice in relation to DNACPR decision-making during the pandemic, and the distressing impact this has had on patients and families cannot be underestimated. It is essential to thoroughly understand and learn from these cases to ensure that they do not happen again." “We are aware that the benefits of DNACPR decisions can be easily undone if they are not accompanied by honest, open and sensitive communication with a person’s healthcare team. To ensure that everybody who encounters a DNACPR discussion has a positive experience, we need to do more to listen to individuals and their families; their wishes must be sought and documented, their questions answered and their feelings acknowledged. “A DNACPR decision must always involve the person, or those close to them, and should be part of a wider conversation about what matters to that individual.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 March 2021
  17. News Article
    A man was left in a care home for five months without regard for "basic human rights", an investigation has found. The Nottinghamshire man, who had dementia, was placed in the home for two weeks as respite for his family. But the county council failed to properly assess whether he could return home, leaving his family with a £15,000 care bill, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said. The authority has apologised and said it would make improvements. The ombudsman launched an inquiry after complaints from the man's family. He was placed in the care home by his wife while she struggled to look after her son, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The investigation found that after the first two weeks, the man's wife said she still could not cope with his return. But instead of carrying out a review or assessment to judge what support was needed for him to potentially go home, the council allowed the case to "drift". The ombudsman, Michael King, said: "The man had a right to respect for his family life, and to enjoy his existing home peacefully." "But the council did not have any regard for the man's human rights during those five months he was away from his family." In its report, the watchdog said it found "fault causing injustice". Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 March 2021
  18. News Article
    Doctors are being issued with new guidance for cases where children are repeatedly brought in when there is nothing wrong. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says cases where parents know there's nothing wrong are rare. Instead genuine, if misplaced, health anxieties are more common. They advise referring to "perplexing symptoms" instead of "fabricated or induced illness". Paediatricians say there has been a rise in cases where children are repeatedly brought in, despite nothing being found to be wrong. The unexplained symptoms could be because a genuine condition has not yet been diagnosed. But there are cases where a parent or carer might make up or cause illness in their children - a rare form of abuse which used to be known as Munchausen's By Proxy Syndrome. But often, doctors say, it is genuine concerns - and they believe the rise may be fuelled by bad information online. Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 March 2021
  19. News Article
    Almost half of people with potential cancer symptoms did not contact their GP during the first wave of the pandemic, a survey suggests. Symptoms left unchecked included coughing up blood, lumps and changes to the appearance of moles. NHS figures showed a fall in referrals to cancer services last spring. However, this study, of almost 8,000 people, captures the fall in people contacting their GP in the first place. The team that carried out the study, from Cardiff University and Cancer Research UK, said this raised concerns that people could be diagnosed later - and so be less likely to be treated successfully and recover. They surveyed a representative sample of people across the UK and found that of 3,025 people who said they had experienced at least one symptom which could be a warning sign of cancer, 45% did not seek help. They also found that: 31% did not seek help after coughing up blood 41% did not seek help for an unexplained lump or swelling 59% did not seek help after noticing changes to the appearance of a mole. Some of the reasons given by people who did not contact their GP were not wanting to waste doctors' time or put extra strain on the NHS; not wanting to be seen as someone who made a fuss; and fear of catching Covid at appointments. But people who did contact their GP reported feeling "safe" and "secure" when attending face-to-face appointments. Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 February 2021
  20. News Article
    Local groups of GPs have decided to prioritise all patients with learning disabilities for COVID-19 vaccination, after fresh evidence showed that disabled patients were at much higher risk from the disease. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics1 showed that 60% of people in England who died from covid-19 from January to November 2020 (30 296 of 50 888) had a disability. This week an extra 1.7 million people in England—including some with severe learning disabilities—are being added to the list of people identified as clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID-19, although this does not include people with mild or moderate learning disabilities. But some clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have deviated from national guidance and said that they will prioritise all patients with learning disabilities for vaccination given the disproportionate impact on them. In a statement published on its website, Kent and Medway CCG said that it had decided to include all adults with learning disabilities in the current priority phase for vaccination delivery. “Given the evidence of covid-19 inequalities increasing deaths amongst people with learning disabilities, the NHS in Kent and Medway has agreed to prioritise vaccinating the 9500 people on GP learning disability registers,” it said. Oxfordshire CCG was also praised by local campaigners for adjusting its priority list so that everybody with a learning disability is included in priority group 6, regardless of its severity. Read full story Source: BMJ, 19 February 2021
  21. News Article
    People living with HIV in England and Wales can now choose to have their Covid vaccine through specialist clinics, without notifying their GP. NHS England has updated its guidance for people not comfortable with sharing their status. Everyone with HIV should be in vaccine priority groups four or six, and offered a jab by mid-April at the latest. But campaigners worried stigma would cause some to miss out. The updated guidance, obtained by the i newspaper, follows the lead of NHS Wales which put the same measures in place last week. Head of leading HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, Ian Green, said: "Some may be surprised to hear that a significant number of people living with HIV feel unable to talk to their GP about their HIV status, but this underlines how much stigma still surrounds the virus even in 2021." "This is great news and the right decision from the NHS as it means people living with HIV will be able to take up the potentially life-saving Covid-19 vaccine at their earliest opportunity. We are working towards a society where everyone living with HIV feels comfortable sharing their status with their doctor and other health professionals, but we're not there yet and we welcome this fast, pragmatic action." Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 February 2021
  22. News Article
    Patient positivity about NHS hospital services suffered a sharp drop during the autumn, and satisfaction with access is now well below pre-pandemic levels, according to analysis exclusively shared with HSJ. The analysis of social media and online sentiment by PEP Health appears to show that a surge of goodwill towards the health service during the first covid peak last spring dissipated last autumn. At that time, the first-wave peak had passed, but hospitals were getting a lot busier — with more emergency attendances, and efforts to get planned appointments and procedures back close to normal levels. Emergency departments were coming under strain, coping with infection control measures, and large numbers of very long waits for elective care had built up. The drop in positive feeling towards NHS hospitals was particularly felt between October and January, especially with concerns over the speed of access to health services. The work only covers acute hospital services. One hospital chief executive told HSJ the change in patient sentiment was palpable at the frontline. “There is quite a lot of chippiness from patients and relatives. The ‘we love the NHS’ feels a very long lost memory. “We see a lot of chippiness to staff, and aggression and irritability — which is understandable because everyone’s been waiting a long time — but is really unhelpful because everyone [staff are] knackered and trying to do their best.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 22 February 2021
  23. News Article
    Patients and families who suffer avoidable harm as a result of mistakes in the NHS should be given targeted help and support to recover. Campaign group the Harmed Patients Alliance and patient safety charity Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) believe the NHS needs to develop a specific harmed patient pathway to care for families affected by errors in their care. They are hoping to define what the pathway will look like in partnership with families, patients and NHS trusts with the idea of piloting an approach in the NHS and getting it adopted nationally. There are more than two million safety incidents reported in the NHS every year, with more than 10,000 incidents resulting in severe harm and death. Read full story Source: The Independent, 11 February 2021
  24. News Article
    Coronavirus patients who call an ambulance but are not yet sick enough to go to hospital are being given new home oxygen monitoring kits to help spot those who may deteriorate earlier. Across the Thames Valley region, thousands of patients will be given the kits which include a pulse oximeter device to monitor blood oxygen levels, a diary to track their symptoms and advice on what to do if they become sicker. South Central Ambulance Service Trust (SCAS) has become the first ambulance service in the country to launch the scheme after research showed a small drop in oxygen levels among some patients could be an early warning sign of serious complications. Patients with pneumonia and non-Covid lung conditions often experience shortness of breath before a drop in oxygen levels. But with coronavirus, patients can suffer what has been called ‘silent hypoxia’ where their oxygen levels can fall before the patient becomes breathless and calls for help. Read full story Source: The Independent, 2 February 2021
  25. News Article
    Guidance from NHS England that doctors may lawfully use video assessments during the pandemic to decide whether patients should be detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act was wrong, two High Court judges have ruled. The act makes it a legal requirement that doctors must “personally examine” a patient before recommending detention. A code of practice requires “direct personal examination of the patient and their mental state.” But guidance from NHS England just after the start of the first lockdown last March said that “temporary departures from the code of practice may be justified in the interests of minimising risk to patients, staff, and the public.” Revised guidance in May 2020 included a section drafted jointly by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care for England (DHSC) “for use in the pandemic only.” This stated, “It is the opinion of NHS England and NHS Improvement and the DHSC that developments in digital technology are now such that staff may be satisfied, on the basis of video assessments, that they have personally seen or examined a person ‘in a suitable manner.’ ” The guidance added, “While NHS England and NHS Improvement and the DHSC are satisfied that the provisions of the Mental Health Act do allow for video assessments to occur, providers should be aware that only courts can provide a definitive interpretation of the law.” It went on, “Even during the COVID-19 pandemic it is always preferable to carry out a Mental Health Act assessment in person. Decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis and processes must ensure that a high quality assessment occurs.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 25 January 2021
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