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Showing results for tags 'Risk assessment'.
Found 206 results
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Content ArticleNHS England helps illustrate the benefits of business continuity planning and how the planning is implemented during a response. Case studies have been put together from various incident debrief reports from organisations to provide examples of approaches to incident reports and also allow identification of learning across organisations
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Further serious patient safety incidents: why are staff still not being listened to when concerns are raised?
Anonymous posted an article in Whistle blowing
Due to COVID-19 and the safety issues the pandemic is highlighting, I have decided to write a sequel to my previous blog 'Dropped instrument, washed and immediately reused'. I am writing this because it recently came to my notice from colleagues that safety is once again being compromised in the same private hospital where my shifts were blocked after I reported a patient safety incident.- Posted
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Content ArticlePublic Health England (PHE) has published data on the disparities in the risk and outcomes from COVID-19. This review presents findings based on surveillance data available to PHE at the time of its publication, including through linkage to broader health data sets. It confirms that the impact of COVID-19 has replicated existing health inequalities and, in some cases, has increased them. These results improve our understanding of the pandemic and will help in formulating the future public health response to it.
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Content ArticleBased on the Health & Safety Executive Guidance (HSE (2013) INDG451 ‘Heat Stress in the workplace’), Dr Susan Whalley-Lloyd has produced a document and flowchart addressing what happens to us when we experience extreme heat. This can be the result of extreme outside air temperature due to the weather or heat build-up in a work area due to equipment generating heat, or restricted workspace, or large areas of glass within a building, or air conditioning problems or windows that won’t open, or a combination of conditions eg high energy tasks whilst wearing PPE and few rest breaks for fluid intake.
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Content ArticleReturning to ‘normal’ levels of activity after the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to take some time and, even before COVID-19, there were substantial challenges with waiting times. As the NHS looks to start to recover services, this analysis from the Health Foundation looks at the context in which planned treatment will recommence. Specifically, it looks at what would have been needed – if the NHS were operating within a ‘business as usual model’ – to return to delivering the standard of 92% of patients being treated within 18 weeks, given the waiting lists and waiting times backlog that had built up by January 2020.
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Content ArticleThere is evidence of disproportionate mortality and morbidity amongst black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people, including NHS staff, who have contracted COVID-19. The authors of this blog argue that this is not just an equality, diversity and inclusion issue but an urgent medical emergency and we need to act now.They look at how the NHS can support BAME staff through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, focusing on: protection of staff engagement with staff representation in decision making rehabilitation and recovery communications and media.
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NHS Employers: Risk assessments for staff – COVID-19
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Staff safety
This page contains guidance for employers on how to carry out risk assessments particularly for vulnerable groups, to understand the specific risks staff members face from exposure to COVID-19 and actions which employers can take to keep staff safe. This includes staff returning to work for the NHS, and existing staff who are potentially more at risk due to their race, age, disability or pregnancy. -
Content ArticleThese controversial implants are used by medical professionals to treat stress incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, both of which can occur after childbirth. But there’s a darker side to the mesh story, with many women left in excruciating pain, suffering long-term health problems as a result of being fitted with them. This article in Woman & Home explores the issues around vaginal mesh implants and speaks to women and campaigners.
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Should we trust algorithms?
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Data and insight
There is increasing use of algorithms in the healthcare and criminal justice systems, and corresponding increased concern with their ethical use. But perhaps a more basic issue is whether we should believe what we hear about them and what the algorithm tells us. Large numbers of algorithms of varying complexity are being developed within the healthcare and the criminal justice system, and include, for example, the UK HART (Harm Assessment Risk Tool) system for assessing recidivism risk, which is based on a machine-learning technique known as a random forest. But the reliability and fairness of such algorithms for policing are being strongly contested: apart from the debate about facial recognition on predictive policing algorithms says that ”their use puts our rights at risk.” -
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'Storm in a Checklist'
Kathy Nabbie posted an article in Surgery
Kathy Nabbie reflects on the recent flights caught up in Storm Dennis and how 'routine' quickly became 'out of the ordinary'. As with aviation, in surgery we must always do the safety checks for each patient to ensure that every journey for the patient is a safe one. -
Content ArticleIn this BMJ Opinion article, David Rowland from the Centre for Health and the Public Interest discusses why he thinks the Independent Inquiry into the issues raised by Paterson is yet another missed opportunity to tackle the systemic patient safety risks which lie at the heart of the private hospital business model. David believes that although the Inquiry provided an important opportunity for the hundreds of patients affected to bear witness to the pain and harm inflicted upon them it fundamentally failed as an exercise in root cause analysis. None of the “learning points” in the final report touch on the financial incentives which may have led Paterson to deliberately over treat patients. Nor do they cover the business reasons which might encourage a private hospital’s management not to look too closely. Yet these concerns about how the private hospital system works and the associated patient risks it produces had been established in a number of previous inquiries. He suggests that the Inquiry report threw the responsibility for managing patient safety risks back to the patients themselves in two of its main recommendations but that it should be for the healthcare provider first and foremost to ensure that the professions that they employ are safe, competent and properly supervised, and for this form of assurance to be underpinned by a well-functioning system of licensing and revalidation by national regulatory bodies.
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Content ArticleA significant number of staff involved in delivering around the clock care in healthcare environments are shift workers. While patients are outside of the scope of this document, they are reliant on a workforce dedicated to providing out-of-hours care. Shift work has many benefits for the employee. It allows employees to condense their working time to improve work-life balance and to manage carer responsibilities for instance. However, poorly designed shift patterns, aligned with poor sleep patterns and environmental factors can have a detrimental impact on employee health and patient outcomes. Poorly managed shift patterns can, for example, increase sickness absence rates, presenteeism, increased at work errors and patient safety incidents, and associated costs. Therefore, it is important to ensure that safeguards are put in place to support safe working practice around shift working.
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Content ArticleDr Hein Le Roux is Primary Care Patient Safety GP Lead at the West of England Academic Health Science Network. Here Hein interviews Dr Emma Redfern on their programme to encourage the use of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS), followed by a conversation with Dr Sheena Yerburgh on a standardised admission sheet they have helped to develop, which is being used by GPs in the Gloucestershire area when referring patients to emergency departments.
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Content ArticleWhite paper on nurse staffing levels for patient safety and workforce safety was produced in 2019 by the Saudi Patient Safety Center and the International Council of Nurses. The paper brings together evidence from a wide range of sources, covering different countries and contexts, showing that having the right numbers of nurses, in the right place and at the right time, delivers quality and safety for the populations they serve, and will help to retain nurses.
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Content ArticleIn this PharmaTimes article, Anna Smith discusses a survey, published by Medicspot, that has revealed that pharmacists are “worried” about the supply of medicines to the UK, after we officially left the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020.
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Content ArticleThe objective of this study, published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, was to determine the predictive value of individual and combined dutch-early-nurse-worry-indicator-score indicators at various Early Warning Score levels, differentiating between Early Warning Scores reaching the trigger threshold to call a rapid response team and Early Warning Score levels not reaching this point.
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Content ArticleA significant fall in maternal death due to Venousthromboembolisation (VTE) followed the publication of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists guideline ‘Thromboprophylaxis’ in 2004. It is likely that the fall in deaths is the result of better recognition of at-risk women and widespread thromboprophylaxis. All women should undergo a documented assessment of risk factors for VTE in early pregnancy or before pregnancy. All pregnant women should have a documented VTE risk assessment at the booking appointment whilst the comprehensive history is being taken.
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Content ArticleThe international Society for Rapid Response Systems (iSRRS) is the peak international body related to Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) and Critical Care Outreach (CCO) services around the work. The aim of the iSRRS is to improve the prevention of, and response to acute deterioration in hospitalised patients.
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Content ArticleAhead of the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s next oral evidence session, Patient Safety Learning have raised several urgent safety issues with the Chair, Jeremy Hunt MP. Below is a blog summarising our submission to the Committee.
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Content ArticleThis pneumonic is for quick diagnosis / risk assess for coronavirus developed by doctors in Italy.
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Content ArticleGirls and women need effective, safe, and affordable menstrual products. Single-use products are regularly selected by agencies for resource-poor settings; the menstrual cup is a less known alternative. The authors of this study, published in The Lancet, reviewed international studies on menstrual cup leakage, acceptability, and safety and explored menstrual cup availability to inform programmes.
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Improving standards of asthma management in a prison setting
Claire Cox posted an article in Prison setting
An initiative to raise standards of asthma care in a prison setting has lessons for the management and care of people with asthma in other healthcare settings. This article is published in the Nursing Times. You can register for guest access which gives you 1 week’s unrestricted access to nursingtimes.net. -
Content ArticleThe Health and Social Care Select Committee is currently holding an Inquiry into Delivering Core NHS and Care Services during the Pandemic and Beyond. It’s stated aim is to ‘give focus to these upcoming strategic challenges, and give those working in the NHS and care sectors an opportunity to set out what help they will need from Government in meeting them’ [1]. This is a submission to the Inquiry by Patient Safety Learning.
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Content ArticleThis briefing, from the Royal College of Midwives, sets out the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of women choosing to birth unassisted (freebirth). It highlights that anecdotal evidence suggests the number of women choosing to have their babies in this way is on the rise, due to a reduction in birth options. This briefing looks at the safety and legal implications, key guidance around freebirthing and lists some important considerations for midwives when caring for women who make this decision.
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Liver transplantation and COVID-19 (9 April 2020)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Blogs
You may have heard that fewer liver transplants are taking place than usual because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a very worrying time for those who are waiting for a liver transplant. The safety of organ donation and transplantation is a priority for NHS Blood and Transplantation (NHSBT), which is working to continue organ donation where possible, so transplants can go ahead if appropriate. Professor Douglas Thorburn, PSC Support Expert Panel and Chair of the Liver Advisory Group for NHS Blood and Transplant, shares his insight and concerns with the charity PSC Support.
