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News ArticleDeborah Birx, who was the White House coronavirus response coordinator under President Donald Trump, has told a congressional inquiry that at least 129 000 lives could have been saved if his administration had provided adequate testing and properly communicated the gravity of the situation to the public. But the election year “just took people’s time away and distracted them from the pandemic,” she told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. “I felt like the White House had gotten somewhat complacent through the campaign season.” Asked if Trump did everything he should have to counter the pandemic, she said, “No. And I’ve said that to the White House. I believe I was very clear to the president in specifics of what I needed him to do.” “If we had fully implemented the mask mandates, the reduction in indoor dining, the getting friends and family to understand the risk of gathering in private homes, and we had increased testing, then we probably could have decreased fatalities by 30-40%.” That would amount to at least 129 000 preventable covid deaths over the course of the Trump presidency, which saw roughly 429 000 reported deaths attributed to the coronavirus." Read full story Source: BMJ, 28 October 2021
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News Article
Christmas mixing ‘will cost many lives’, warn top medical journals
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government’s plan to allow up to three households to mix at Christmas is a “major error that will cost many lives” and should be stopped, the editors of two leading medical journals have said. In a rare joint editorial, the editors of the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal have said the government’s plan to relax coronavirus restrictions for five days between 23 and 27 December is a serious “blunder” that will put more pressure on the NHS and cause thousands of operations to be cancelled. The article published jointly on Tuesday says: “The government was too slow to introduce restrictions in the spring and again in the autumn. It should now reverse its rash decision to allow household mixing and instead extend the tiers over the five-day Christmas period in order to bring numbers down in the advance of a likely third wave.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 December 2020 -
News ArticleA trust is investigating after two junior doctors developed covid following an offsite event attended by 22 juniors where social distancing rules were allegedly ignored. The cases, involving doctors from the Royal Surrey Foundation Trust in Guildford, have been declared an outbreak by Public Health England and police have investigated the incident. But HSJ understands that contact tracing has concluded no patients needed to be tested because staff had worn appropriate PPE at all times and those involved had swiftly self-isolated once they realised they might have covid or had been at risk of exposure to it. It is not known whether any of the doctors had returned to work after the event before realising they might have been exposed to covid. Dr Mark Evans, deputy medical director, said: “Protecting our patients is our priority and we are committed to ensuring that all of our staff follow government guidance. This incident took place outside of work and has been reported appropriately, and there was no disruption to our services for patients.” Read full story Source: HSJ, 22 October 2020
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News Article
COVID-19: Government’s handling of pandemic had “big mistakes,” MPs say
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government’s actions in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic have received a mixed review from MPs in a report that set out the successes and failures of the UK response. Although the joint report from the House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee praised the UK’s covid vaccination programme as highly effective, it also condemned serious errors, especially delayed lockdowns and how a test, trace, and isolate system was set up. Overall, the MPs’ inquiry found that some government initiatives were examples of global best practice but that others represented “serious mistakes.” The UK’s pandemic planning was based too narrowly on a flu model that had failed to learn the lessons from the SARS, MERS, and Ebola epidemics, said the MPs, which meant that its covid planning was worse than in other countries. Delays in establishing an adequate test, trace, and isolate system hampered efforts to contain the outbreak, said the MPs, and the government’s initial decision to delay a comprehensive lockdown had revealed its then “fatalistic” assumption that it was impossible to suppress the virus, which amounted, in practice, to accepting that herd immunity by infection was inevitable. The report said that many thousands of deaths could have been avoided if the government had not let hospitals discharge people into care homes in the initial phase of the pandemic and that this showed the “longstanding failure” to give social care sufficient priority and the same attention as the NHS. Read full story Source: BMJ, 12 October 2021 -
News ArticleA cabinet minister has refused to apologise for the government’s handing of the COVID-19 pandemic despite a new report finding that errors cost “thousands of lives”. Cabinet Office minister Stephen Barclay defended the government’s decision making to Sky News, saying: “We followed, throughout, the scientific advice. We got the vaccine deployed extremely quickly, we protected our NHS from the surge of cases.” His comments come as family members who lost loved ones to COVID-19 described the MPs’ report as “laughable” for failing to take evidence from the bereaved. The COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group criticised the parliamentary report as being “more interested in political arguments about whether you can bring laptops to Cobra meetings that it is in the experiences of those who tragically lost” family members to COVID-19. When asked, for a second time, if he would apologise by presenter Kay Burley, Stephen Barclay replied: “Well no, we followed the scientific advice, we protected the NHS, we took the decisions based on the evidence before us.” He made these comments despite the report finding that the delayed decision to lock down in spring last year was one of the “most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 October 2021
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News Article
Covid response ‘one of UK’s worst ever public health failures’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Britain’s early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history, with ministers and scientists taking a “fatalistic” approach that exacerbated the death toll, a landmark inquiry has found. “Groupthink”, evidence of British exceptionalism and a deliberately “slow and gradualist” approach meant the UK fared “significantly worse” than other countries, according to the 151-page “Coronavirus: lessons learned to date” report led by two former Conservative ministers. The crisis exposed “major deficiencies in the machinery of government”, with public bodies unable to share vital information and scientific advice impaired by a lack of transparency, input from international experts and meaningful challenge. Despite being one of the first countries to develop a test for Covid in January 2020, the UK “squandered” its lead and “converted it into one of permanent crisis”. The consequences were profound, the report says. “For a country with a world-class expertise in data analysis, to face the biggest health crisis in 100 years with virtually no data to analyse was an almost unimaginable setback.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2021 -
News Article
Hospitals in England can relax Covid rules to treat more patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hospitals in England have been given the green light to ease some of the Covid infection-control measures that have been in place during the pandemic. The changes, recommended by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), are aimed at easing pressure on the NHS. It says testing and isolating patients before planned operations can be dropped and hospitals can return to normal cleaning procedures. Social distancing can also be reduced from 2m (6ft) to 1m in some areas. UKHSA chief executive Dr Jenny Harries said the new recommendations would help local hospitals plan more elective care. "This is a first step to help the NHS treat more patients more quickly, while ensuring their safety and balancing their different needs for care," she said. Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: "As ever more people benefit from the protection of our phenomenal vaccination campaign, we can now safely begin to relieve some of the most stringent infection controls where they are no longer necessary, to benefit patients and ease the burden on hardworking NHS staff." Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 September 2021 -
Content ArticleThis guidance from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) sets out: key messages to assist with planning and preparation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic so that local procedures can be put in place to minimise risk and provide the best possible support to people in supported living settings. safe systems of working including, social distancing, respiratory and hand hygiene and enhanced cleaning. how infection prevention and control (IPC) and personal protective equipment (PPE) applies to supported living settings.
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Content ArticleThis Independent SAGE report provides its own guidance on the measures needed to avoid another national lockdown. "We are in a crisis. Infections and hospital admissions are rapidly increasing. The testing system has broken down and it will be weeks before it is sorted. If nothing changes, there will come a point soon when the situation is so far out of control that the only possible response will be a second national lockdown and our lives will be completely disrupted once again. No one wants thisto happen. We can avoid it if we take urgent action. We must take action immediately to regain control of the pandemic and drive down infections now. We must implement immediately a comprehensive plan including rebuilding our broken test and trace system. And we must all - government, employers and public alike – take responsibility for our own part in making this plan work." Independent SAGE is a group of scientists who are working together to provide independent scientific advice to the UK government and public on how to minimise deaths and support Britain’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.
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Content ArticleA research study with 20,000 people found people who read the advice in Germ Defence are less likely to catch viruses. If they do become ill, the illness is likely to be less severe. Germ Defence has been developed by health experts in UK universities.
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Content Article
Vaccination centres: minimising the risks to vulnerable people
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
Jane Carthey, Human Factors and Patient Safety Specialist, shares her reflections on COVID-19 vaccination centres and the risk they may present for covid transmission. -
Content ArticleSince the UK’s first lockdown in March, the government has had one (perhaps only one) consistent message — protect the NHS, write Alastair McLellan and Fiona Godlee, the editors of the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal, in a rare joint editorial. They say that the government’s plan to relax coronavirus restrictions for five days between 23 and 27 December is a serious “blunder” that will put more pressure on the NHS and cause thousands of operations to be cancelled.
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Content Article
The cost of uncoordinated responses to COVID-19
lzipperer posted an article in Data, research and statistics
This blog post from Aral and Eckles highlights a study done at the Social Analytics Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) examining the impact of the uncoordinated responses to COVID-19 across the United States. The blog links to the original study and other related materials. -
Content ArticleThis interview is part of the hub's 'Frontline insights during the pandemic' series where Martin Hogan interviews healthcare professionals from various specialties to capture their experience and insight during the coronavirus pandemic. Here Martin interviews an oral surgeon who has been in the post for a year in a trust that covers two sites in the West Country.
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Content ArticleThe UK IPC Guidance has been updated. This takes into account the latest assessment of the scientific evidence, and also the feedback from local providers on the ongoing impact on capacity that IPC measures are having.
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Content Article
Isolation posters: created by Chronically Awesome
Sam posted an article in Good practice and useful resources
Chronically Awesome is a brand new charity supporting people of working age who live with chronic illness. As coronavirus has shown, all too little awareness and support exists for people who suffer with incurable illnesses that are often invisible. Chronically Awesome are building programmes to support people through things like exercise videos, mental health support, employment advice and more, all online to make it as accessible as possible to everyone. Chronically Awesome have created posters for people to use to show they are self-isolating and are sharing them with us via the link below. They are free to download, although they ask you to consider making a donation to their work via Paypal using the email address hello@chronicallyawesome.org.uk. Instagram @chronically.awesome Facebook at chronicallyawesometribe -
Content ArticleThis webpage from Asthma UK explains how to cut the risk of getting coronavirus and what happens to your usual asthma care.
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Content ArticleThis resource on managing contraceptive provision without face to face consultations has been produced by the Primary Care Women’s Health Forum to help primary care clinicians support women with their contraceptive needs during the coronavirus pandemic. It covers hormonal contraception including pills, patches, combined hormonal ring, IUD, IUS, implant, depo provera and emergency contraception.
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Content ArticleThis webinar by Professor Keith R. McVilly PhD (University of Melbourne) focuses on developing and maintaining healthy friendships and relationships in a time of national physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Keith R. McVilly PhD is a Registered Clinical Psychologist and the Foundation Professorial Fellow for Disability & Inclusion, in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. His work addresses the translation of research into policy and practice, with a focus on promoting the well-being and community inclusion of people with multiple and complex disabling experiences.
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Content Article
UK Covid-19 Inquiry website
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Covid-19 Inquiry
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has been set up to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and learn lessons for the future. The Inquiry’s work is guided by its Terms of Reference.
