Jump to content

Search the hub

Showing results for tags 'Staff factors'.

More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Start to type the tag you want to use, then select from the list.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • All
    • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Culture
    • Improving patient safety
    • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Leadership for patient safety
    • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Patient engagement
    • Patient safety in health and care
    • Patient Safety Learning
    • Professionalising patient safety
    • Research, data and insight
    • Miscellaneous

Categories

  • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Commissioning and funding patient safety
    • Digital health and care service provision
    • Health records and plans
    • Innovation programmes in health and care
    • Climate change/sustainability
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Blogs
    • Data, research and statistics
    • Frontline insights during the pandemic
    • Good practice and useful resources
    • Guidance
    • Mental health
    • Exit strategies
    • Patient recovery
    • Questions around Government governance
  • Culture
    • Bullying and fear
    • Good practice
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Safety culture programmes
    • Second victim
    • Speak Up Guardians
    • Staff safety
    • Whistle blowing
  • Improving patient safety
    • Clinical governance and audits
    • Design for safety
    • Disasters averted/near misses
    • Equipment and facilities
    • Error traps
    • Health inequalities
    • Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
    • Improving systems of care
    • Implementation of improvements
    • International development and humanitarian
    • Safety stories
    • Stories from the front line
    • Workforce and resources
  • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Investigations and complaints
    • Risk management and legal issues
  • Leadership for patient safety
    • Business case for patient safety
    • Boards
    • Clinical leadership
    • Exec teams
    • Inquiries
    • International reports
    • National/Governmental
    • Patient Safety Commissioner
    • Quality and safety reports
    • Techniques
    • Other
  • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Government and ALB direction and guidance
    • International patient safety
    • Regulators and their regulations
  • Patient engagement
    • Consent and privacy
    • Harmed care patient pathways/post-incident pathways
    • How to engage for patient safety
    • Keeping patients safe
    • Patient-centred care
    • Patient Safety Partners
    • Patient stories
  • Patient safety in health and care
    • Care settings
    • Conditions
    • Diagnosis
    • High risk areas
    • Learning disabilities
    • Medication
    • Mental health
    • Men's health
    • Patient management
    • Social care
    • Transitions of care
    • Women's health
  • Patient Safety Learning
    • Patient Safety Learning campaigns
    • Patient Safety Learning documents
    • Patient Safety Standards
    • 2-minute Tuesdays
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2018
    • Patient Safety Learning Awards 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Interviews
    • Patient Safety Learning webinars
  • Professionalising patient safety
    • Accreditation for patient safety
    • Competency framework
    • Medical students
    • Patient safety standards
    • Training & education
  • Research, data and insight
    • Data and insight
    • Research
  • Miscellaneous

News

  • News

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start
    End

Last updated

  • Start
    End

Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End

Group

First name

Last name

Country

Join a private group (if appropriate)

About me

Organisation

Role

Found 843 results
  1. News Article
    People would rather go to England if they had a stroke than use the A&E at a north Wales hospital, a health watchdog has said. Inspectors said there was a "clear and significant risk to patient safety" after inspections at the department in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Denbighshire. North Wales Community Health Council's Geoff Ryall-Harvey said it was the "worst situation" they had seen. The report said inspectors found staff who were "working above and beyond in challenging conditions" during a period of "unrelenting demand". Many staff told them they were unhappy and struggling to cope. They said they did not feel supported by senior managers. However inspectors said that the health board was not fully compliant with many of the health and care standards, and highlighted significant areas of concern, which could present an immediate risk to the safety of patients, including: Doctors were left to "come across" high-risk patients instead of being alerted to them. Patients were not monitored enough - including a suspected stroke patient and one considered a suicide risk. Children were at serious risk of harm as the public could enter the paediatric area unchallenged. Inspectors found evidence of children leaving unseen or being discharged against medical advice. Betsi Cadwaladr health board said it was committed to improvements. Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 August 2022
  2. News Article
    The NHS in England is increasingly reliant on doctors and nurses recruited from outside the UK and EU, analysis has found. Some 34% of doctors joining the health service last year came from overseas, a rise from 18% in 2014. The government said overseas recruitment had always been part of its strategy, but unions have warned it is an unsustainable way of recruiting in the long-term. Patricia Marquis, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) director for England, said ministers must do more to reduce the "disproportionate reliance" on international recruits. The government is funding an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England - a 25% increase over three years. However, last week a report by MPs concluded the large number of unfilled NHS job vacancies, about 110,000 in total, was posing a serious risk to patient safety. Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said it was "high time for the government to commit to a fully-funded, long-term workforce plan for the NHS" to tackle "chronic workforce shortages". Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 August 2022
  3. News Article
    Midwife numbers are reaching a dangerous level which could put lives at risk, as records show more staff leaving than joining the profession for the first time in a decade. As a record number suffer burnout and leave, the figures from NHS Digital for 2021/22 show almost 300 more staff abandoned midwifery than joined the service, with 3,440 leaving and only 3,144 coming in. Analysis of the data showed a record 551 resigned in 2021 because of a lack of work-life balance. Midwives working in NHS trust maternity units typically work 12-hour shifts, but many work longer for no additional pay to cover staff shortages and to keep services running. The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) says members are "at the end of their tether' and 'physically and emotionally burnt out" Joeli Brearley, chief executive of campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, said: "We don't have enough midwives, and those we do have are underpaid, undervalued and overworked." "This is a problem that has been communicated to the Government repeatedly for years. It is putting the lives of women and their babies in danger and causing untold damage to their mental and physical health. The Government needs to get a grip of the situation urgently before there are more tragedies." Read full story Source: Daily Mail, 1 August 2022 .
  4. News Article
    Staff at a mental health trust, run by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, falsified records that they had checked on a vulnerable patient the night he died, an inquest has heard. Eliot Harris was found dead in his room at Northgate Hospital in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in April 2020. A police witness statement detailed how CCTV footage contradicted 19 log entries. Mr Harris, 48, was admitted to hospital after the care home where he was a resident requested an urgent mental health assessment, an inquest into his death at Norfolk Coroner's Court heard. He had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, had a history of epileptic seizures and had not been taking his medication. Mr Harris was deemed to be high risk and was supposed to be on regular checks four times an hour. In a witness statement read out in court, Det Sgt Nick Appleton described how police had cross referenced logs of his observations with CCTV recordings. Det Sgt Appleton listed 19 instances in which the observation record was signed by a staff member that night, indicating Mr Harris had been checked, but was not backed up by the CCTV record. He identified a number of "points of concern" in his evidence in which falsifying logs was "normal" and "standard practice" on wards. Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 August 2022
  5. News Article
    Bullying and harassment allegations made against leaders of the organisation that supplies blood to the NHS have prompted a Care Quality Commission (CQC) review, with staff claiming poor culture has exacerbated the crisis around low blood stocks. HSJ has learned whistleblowers at NHS Blood and Transplant raised concerns with the CQC. As a result, the regulator has been carrying out a review of the organisation’s leadership. Several current and former staff, who wished to remain anonymous, told HSJ there are widespread concerns about the organisation’s culture, which they claim has enabled bullying and harassment from senior employees, including some racist behaviours. They said the culture has resulted in a significant number of staff being absent due to stress and anxiety, which alongside the latest wave of coronavirus, has contributed to an ongoing staffing crisis. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 28 July 2022
  6. News Article
    NHS England is introducing a new ceiling on the amount spent within each integrated care system on agency staff — cutting it by at least 10% in each area in one year — as part of a drive to find further savings across the health service. Integrated Care Services (ICSs) have been told to cut spending on temporary staff by providers in their area by at least 10%, or £257m, on 2021-22 levels, taking expenditure down to a total of £2.3bn nationally. A letter to finance directors sent today, seen by HSJ says: “This will mean that some systems will need to go beyond their current financial plans to reduce agency expenditure.” The move is part of a wider efficiency crackdown from NHS England, with further national control measures to be introduced over the next 18 months. HSJ understands that the renewed drive will focus on five other areas in addition to agency spend: medicines, pathway redesign, corporate services, procurement and specialised commissioning. The extra savings ask comes on top of ICSs already committing to £5.5bn in efficiencies over 2022-23, which Nuffield Trust CEO Nigel Edwards said was “not a credible savings target”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 20 July 2022
  7. News Article
    A shortage of maternity staff is putting women and babies at risk in Gloucestershire, inspectors have said. The county's maternity services have been downgraded by two levels, from good to inadequate, by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Its report highlighted staff shortages, missed training, exhaustion among workers and concerns over equipment. Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust issued an apology and said improvements have been made. CQC inspectors visited maternity wards, birth units and community midwives in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Stroud in April after receiving concerns about the "culture, safety and quality of services". They found the service did not have enough midwifery staff with the "right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep women safe from avoidable harm or to provide the right treatment all the time". Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 July 2022
  8. News Article
    Women working in healthcare earn on average 24% less than their male peers and face a larger gender pay gap than in other economic sectors, a joint report by the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization has found. The analysis, which looked at data from 54 countries across all geographic and income regions, found a raw gender pay gap of around 20%, which jumped to 24% when factors such as age, education, and working time were considered. Gender pay gaps also tended to be wider in higher pay categories, where men were over-represented, while women were over-represented in the lower pay categories. The authors said the findings highlighted that women, who accounted for 67% of the global health and care workforce in 2020, were underpaid and undervalued. Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 13 July 2022
  9. News Article
    More than a quarter of nursing staff in hospitals across the UK say patient care is being compromised due to treatment taking place in the wrong setting. Investment in the nursing workforce is needed now, the Royal College of Nursing insists, as survey findings show clinical care is taking place in settings such as hospital corridors and waiting rooms rather than on wards. The poll of more than 20,000 nursing and midwifery staff found the situation is worst in emergency care settings where nearly two-thirds of respondents reported the problem. Elsewhere, more than a quarter of nursing staff who responded say patients are being treated in the wrong setting, meaning their care is being compromised and even made unsafe. Staff shortages are a key factor, and across health and social care settings this is causing delays to patients being discharged into the community. This leaves hospitals full, with emergency care staff having to provide care in inappropriate settings. One specific issue identified by respondents was extra beds being added to wards, making carrying out care more difficult, and leading to a lack of privacy for patients and their families. A nurse who works on an NHS adult acute ward in Scotland said patients and their relatives had complained about an extra bed being squeezed into a four-bedded bay, meaning they had no buzzer, no curtains and were not two-metre distanced. She added: “I feel incredibly frustrated and embarrassed. It is totally inappropriate for ward rounds, nursing procedures, COVID precautions and an extra stress on staff.” Read full story Source: Royal College of Nursing, 14 July 2022
  10. News Article
    Hospital doctors are being sent home from daytime shifts and told to come back and work overnight in the latest stark illustration of the NHS’s crippling staff shortage. Medics are having to change their plans at the last minute because hospitals cannot find any others to plug gaps in the night shift medical rota and need to ensure they have enough doctors on duty. Hospital bosses are forcing last-minute shift changes on junior doctors – trainees below the level of consultant up to the level of senior registrar – because staff sickness and the scarcity of locum medics has left them struggling to ensure patients’ safety is maintained overnight. One trainee doctor in south-west of England told how they started their shift as planned at 8am. However, “by mid-morning the doctor that was meant to be working that night, that I would hand over to, had called in ill”. The doctor stopped working at 11am, drove home – an hour away – and came back to work the night shift at 11pm. “By the time I returned I had already worked for three hours and driven for three hours. That’s an extra six hours on top of a busy night shift of 12.5 hours,” they said. Dr Julia Patterson, the chief executive of EveryDoctor, said: “We are hearing of escalating problems with NHS doctors being forced to work unsafe, unfair hours." “Patient safety is of paramount importance to all doctors, but this situation is simply not sustainable. When mistakes occur, staff are blamed. But staff are working in an unworkable system.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 11 July 2022
  11. News Article
    The NHS will have to cut investment in cancer care if ministers award frontline staff a pay rise above 3% but refuse to provide extra money to cover it, health service bosses have warned. The NHS England chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, and Julian Kelly, its chief financial officer, made clear their belief that soaring inflation means the service’s 1.3 million staff deserve a pay award of more than the 3% the government has already given the organisation funding to cover. But they warned that any increase above that would force it to cut services, including primary care and the planned new nationwide network of centres intended to diagnose killer diseases early – unless the Treasury covers the cost of the higher amount. If ministers do award staff more, then the 3% originally planned “we would then be looking at having to … cut back on investment in our major areas, when our major areas are primary care, cancer care, or indeed at the margin … some big capital investments. In fact we were just talking about the diagnostic centres [intended to spot cancer and other illnesses sooner]", said Kelly. “[A] pay settlement higher than 3% and no extra money would entail some really difficult decisions.” It is “not realistic” to expect the NHS to absorb any extra costs, he added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 7 July 2022
  12. News Article
    The controversial ‘SIM’ mental healthcare model sometimes ‘blurred’ the role of police with healthcare staff, according to results of local reviews seen by HSJ. Following a whirlwind of concerns last summer, national clinical director Professor Tim Kendall wrote to mental health trust medical directors urging them to review use of the controversial Serenity Integrated Mentoring (SIM) programme. Pressure to investigate the model, which has been used by at least 22 NHS trusts in recent years, came from patient groups and clinicians alike. One year on and results of local reviews, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, have revealed a varying picture of SIM’s use across English mental health trusts. Professor Kendall’s letters, seen by HSJ, asked trusts to investigate five key areas of concern. These included: a lack of patient reported outcomes; adherence to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on self-harm and personality disorders; the principle of police involvement in case management; the legal basis for sharing patient records; and human rights/equalities implications. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 7 July 2022
  13. News Article
    The government is to cut special sick pay for NHS staff off work with Covid from next week – even as cases soar – The Independent has learnt. The Department of Health and Social Care is set to announce an end to the enhanced pay arrangements provided during the pandemic, meaning that staff who go off sick with either Covid or Long Covid will be subject to normal sick-pay rules. In response to the pandemic, the government announced special arrangements for staff to be paid if they were isolating because of Covid, and to receive a full 12 months’ pay if they were suffering from Long Covid. Arrangements will now revert to the normal NHS sick-pay rules, which give workers six months’ full pay and six months’ half pay. A senior healthcare source said: “They have agreed to end the arrangement for new people from next week, and then have an implementation period where people who are currently off on this sort of scheme revert back to normal sick-pay entitlement from September.” The Royal College of Nursing’s director for England, Patricia Marquis, speaking about the cut in sick pay, said: “This decision is hugely disappointing, given that Covid-19 clearly hasn’t gone away, and nursing staff continue to be disproportionately affected by the virus as they face a higher risk of exposure." Read full story Source: The Independent, 2 July 2022
  14. News Article
    Vulnerable patients cared for in secure mental health units across England could miss out on vital medications due to a shortage of learning disability nurses, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has warned. The report into medication omissions in learning disability secure units across the country highlights problems with retaining learning disability nurses, with the number recruited each year matching those leaving. Figures quoted in the report suggest the number of learning disability nurses in the NHS nearly halved from 5,500 in 2016 to 3,000 in 2020. The HSIB launched a national investigation after being alerted to the case of Luke, who spent time in NHS secure learning disability units but was not administered prescribed medication for diabetes and high cholesterol on several occasions. At Luke’s facility, which included low and medium secure wards, HSIB investigators considered that the quality and style of care provided to patients had been directly impacted by a lack of nurses with required skill sets. Findings from HSIB’s wider national investigation link a shortfall of learning disability nurses to instances of patients missing their medication, with the report’s authors describing a “system in which medicines omissions were too common and prevention, identification and escalation processes were not robust”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 23 June 2022
  15. News Article
    An ambulance trust has been placed in special measures after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated its leadership ‘inadequate’ and said staff felt unable to raise concerns without fear of reprisal The CQC inspected South East Coast Ambulance Service Foundation Trust after being contacted by staff with concerns about bullying and harassment, inappropriate sexualised behaviour and a leadership team which failed to address concerns. Many of the concerns echo those raised in 2017 in an independent review into a “culture of fear” at the trust, shortly after it was first placed in regulatory special measures. It was taken out in 2019 but has now been placed back in the equivalent “recovery support programme” on the CQC’s recommendation. CQC director of integrated care Amanda Williams praised staff who had contacted the regulator. She said: “While staff were doing their very best to provide safe care to patients, leaders often appeared out of touch with what was happening on the front line and weren’t always aware of the challenges staff faced. Staff described feeling unable to raise concerns without fear of reprisal – and when concerns were raised, these were not acted on. “This meant that some negative aspects of the organisational culture, including bullying and harassment and inappropriate sexualised behaviour, were not addressed and became normalised behaviours." Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 22 June 2022
  16. News Article
    Violence against ambulance staff in England has reached a record high, as the NHS crisis in emergency care continues to deepen. An estimated 12,626 incidents were reported in the 12 months to April 2022, according to nationwide data shared with The Independent – a 7% rise on the previous year. However, since 2016, the number of paramedics who have been verbally or physically assaulted, or threatened with assault, has nearly doubled, rising from 7,689. Adam Hopper, the national ambulance violence prevention and reduction lead for the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), which provided the data, said the findings “confirm the worrying trend of increasing violence against ambulance staff”. One paramedic told The Independent a bone was broken in his neck after he was strangled by a drunken patient he was attempting to treat. Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, a membership body for trusts in England, said that alcohol is the most prominent factor in such assaults, followed by drugs and people being in mental health crisis. “Race and sexuality have also increased as exacerbating factors in these assaults, as have delays to treatment and arrival times,” he added. Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 June 2022
  17. News Article
    The COVID-19 crisis has both divided and galvanised Canadians on healthcare. While the last three years have presented new challenges to healthcare systems across the country, the pandemic has also exacerbated existing challenges, most notably the high levels of errors and mistreatment documented in Canadian health care. According to a 2019 report from the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, Canada was already facing a public health crisis prior to the pandemic: a crisis of patient safety. As the report details, patient safety incidents are the third leading cause of death in Canada, following cancer and heart disease. Few studies calculate national data on this topic, but a 2013 report found that patient safety events resulted in just under 28,000 deaths. Many Canadians who have experienced these errors have shared their experiences with media in an effort to raise awareness and demand change. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a moment of dual crises. First, the pre-existing crisis of patient safety, and second, healthcare overall is now at a breaking point after three years of COVID-19, according to healthcare workers. Edmonton physician Dr. Darren Markland, for example, recently closed his kidney specialist practice after making a few "profound mistakes." In an interview with Global News, he explains he could no longer work at the current pace. He is not alone in this decision. Across the country, there have been waves of resignations in health care, leaving some areas struggling with a system that is "degrading, increasingly unsafe, and often without dignity." Read full story Source: MedicalXpress, 17 June 2022
  18. News Article
    Next week’s rail strikes will ’probably end up killing people’ as they will prevent staff working for already struggling ambulance trusts from getting to work, a senior NHS leader has told HSJ. Both London Ambulance Service Trust and South Central Ambulance Service Foundation Trust have moved to ”Reap 4”, This is the highest level of alert, meaning they are under extreme pressure. Ambulance trusts are already experiencing high demand amid soaring temperatures and continuing problems with lengthy handovers at the accident and emergency departments. Fears are now growing that next week’s rail strikes will push services to breaking point as many ambulance staff travel to work by public transport. The three days of rail strikes – on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday next week – will see many lines with very limited services. Tube services in London will also be hit by a strike on Tuesday and the London Overground and some tube lines will be affected on rail strike days. A senior leader closely involved in southern England’s emergency and urgent care services told HSJ: “Next week’s rail strikes will probably end up killing people because they’ll prevent ambulance trust staff getting to work.” Other ambulance trusts are understood to be monitoring the situation closely. Trusts in REAP 4 (REAP stands for resource escalation action plan) normally take a series of measures including diverting more staff to frontline duties, asking some patients to make their own way to hospital and concentrating on reaching the most serious patients. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 June 2022
  19. News Article
    The NHS is facing a major exodus of doctors of ethnic minority backgrounds due to persistent levels of racism faced at a personal and institutional level, a ground breaking study has revealed. Nearly one third of doctors surveyed have considered leaving the NHS or have already left within the past two years due to race discrimination, with 42 per cent of Black and 41 per cent Asian doctors in particular having considered leaving or having left. The survey paints a picture of institutional barriers to career progression, dangerously low levels of reporting of racist incidents and a growing mental health burden on ethnic minority doctors. With more than 2,000 responses from doctors and medical students across the UK, the BMA – a professional association representing all doctors in the UK – believes that this survey is one of the largest of its kind to document the experience of racism in the medical profession and workplace. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA chair of council, said: “The NHS was built on the principle of equality of care for patients whoever they are, but this report shows that the NHS is shamefully failing in this principle for its own doctors, with those from ethnic minorities reporting alarming levels of unfair treatment and racial inequality at work. Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 June 2022
  20. News Article
    One of the trusts worst affected by coronavirus has been issued with two warning notices and rated ‘inadequate’ for leadership, following a Care Quality Commission inspection. The regulator raised serious concerns about the safety of Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust’s maternity services, as well as the oversight and learning from incidents. It also found staff were experiencing multiple problems with a newly installed electronic patient record, while systems for managing the elective waiting list were said to be unsuitable. In maternity services, the inspectors flagged severe staff shortages and a failure to properly investigate safety incidents. They said there were three occasions during the inspections when the antenatal and post-natal ward was served by only one midwife, despite the interim head of midwifery saying this would never happen. Inspectors also highlighted five incidents last year where women had suffered a major post-partum haemorrhage, involving the loss of more than two litres of blood and which resulted in an unplanned hysterectomy. The CQC said two were not reported as serious incidents, and where learning had been identified from the others, action plans were not being completed on time. The CQC said it was only made aware of the incidents by a whistleblower, while internal actions agreed in December 2021 had still not been implemented two months later. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 June 2022
  21. News Article
    The number of calls for an ambulance in England have almost doubled since 2010, with warnings of record pressures on the NHS that are seeing A&E patients stuck in corridors and many paramedics quitting the job. Ambulance calls have risen by 10 times more than the number of ambulance workers, according to a new analysis of NHS data carried out by the GMB union. An increase in people seeking emergency treatment, GPs unable to cope with demand and cuts to preventive care are all being blamed for the figures. While the figures represent all calls for an ambulance, some of which go unanswered and do not lead to a vehicle being sent, they reveal the increasing pressures that have led to claims that patient safety is being put at risk by ambulance waiting times. There has been a significant increase in the number of the most serious safety incidents logged by paramedics in England over the past year. Paul, a paramedic and GMB deputy branch secretary, said he had recently seen a crew waiting almost 10 hours between arriving at hospital and transferring a patient to hospital care. “They arrived at the hospital at 20.31,” he said. “They then cleared from the hospital at 05.48 in the morning. The impact of the lack of resources is affecting the ambulance service. “We are also seeing people become aggressive to the ambulance crew, because they’ve waited hours upon hours in an ambulance." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 June 2022
  22. News Article
    Concerned healthcare workers in Illinois and Indiana are calling on The Joint Commission to add a safe staffing standard to its accreditation process. Yolanda Stewart, a patient care technician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, once injured her back so badly on the job that she couldn’t work for six months. But when she talks about that time, she doesn’t mention her own pain. Instead, she talks about the patient she’d been trying to help, recalling his extreme discomfort. Because the unit was short-staffed, Stewart lifted and turned the patient on her own. The move helped the patient but cost Stewart. Many healthcare workers have similar stories, she says, adding, “Working short-staffed is a safety issue for workers and patients.” In fact, reports show that lack of staff in hospitals leads to higher patient infection and death rates. Covid-19 has greatly worsened the healthcare staffing shortage, with 1 in 5 hospital employees — from environmental services workers to nurses — leaving the field. Hospitals have grappled with staffing issues since before the pandemic, but Covid-19 highlighted the challenges — and exacerbated them. Now, concerned healthcare workers throughout Illinois and Indiana are sounding the alarm. They’re calling on The Joint Commission — the third-party agency that accredits 22,000 US healthcare organisations — to add a safe staffing standard to its accreditation process, similar to student-to-teacher ratio requirements that many states have. “We have all kinds of rules to make sure that hospitals are safe: We make sure that healthcare workers wash their hands before procedures, that they wear gloves and protective equipment, that bed sheets are changed between patients. Yet there are no statewide regulations about hospital staffing levels,” said Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Illinois President Greg Kelley at a demonstration in early June. Read full story Source: Chicago Health, 8 June 2022
  23. News Article
    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has issued a trust with a warning notice following an inspection that found wards did not have enough staff to care for patients. Staff at York hospital told inspectors they were not able to interact with individual patients and cater to their needs, with one saying: “We have to choose, do we turn, check, and make sure all patients are not soiled, or do we fully wash ten? Some of these patients haven’t been washed for two to three days.” York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals CEO Simon Morritt said: “Many of the issues raised by the CQC were known to us, and reflect the extreme pressures facing the trust, the demands of covid and associated staff absence, and the well-documented recruitment challenges. The report demonstrates that, when faced with these pressures, it is not always possible to give the standard of care we would want for all of our patients all of the time.” The CQC said there were “significant safety concerns about fundamental standards of patient care” at the hospital. “The service didn’t have enough nursing staff with the right skills, training and experience to keep patients safe and to provide the right care and treatment,” said Sarah Dronsfield, the CQC’s head of hospital inspection. “It was disappointing that managers didn’t regularly review the situation and change the staffing arrangements to accommodate this.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 June 2022
  24. News Article
    Patient safety campaigners have said ‘too many women’ are still not being offered a general anaesthetic for a diagnostic test because of staff shortages, leaving them in severe pain. A survey by the Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopies found around 240 women – which equates to 80 per cent of respondents – who had a hysteroscopy since the start of 2021 said they were not told they could have a general anaesthetic prior to the procedure. This suggests the situation has only improved marginally since 2019, when the campaign group first started collecting data. A spokeswoman from the campaign group called the pain being endured by women “barbaric” and said staffing shortages need to be addressed. Guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said all pain relief options, including general anaesthetic, should be discussed. Helen Hughes, chief executive of Patient Safety Learning, said: “We are hearing from too many women that they are not being given the full information about the procedure. It damages their trust and makes them worry about accessing future services.” She said: “It’s distressing that despite what we know, [the guidance] is not being implemented properly. Informed consent is essential for patient safety as well as a legal requirement.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 7 June 2022 What is your experience of having a hysteroscopy? Share your experiences on the hub in our community forum. Further reading: House of Commons Debate - NHS Hysteroscopy Treatment Through the hysteroscope: Reflections of a gynaecologist Minister acknowledges patients’ concerns about painful hysteroscopies; but will action be taken? Improving hysteroscopy safety: Patient Safety Learning blog Outpatient hysteroscopy: RCOG patient leaflet
  25. News Article
    A public inquiry has opened into allegations of extensive and repeated abuse of patients at Muckamore Abbey, a hospital for vulnerable adults in Northern Ireland. The inquiry’s chair, Tom Kark, said at the first hearing on Monday that the allegations of abuse and neglect at the psychiatric facility outside Belfast, in County Antrim, brought the medical, nursing and care professions into disrepute. “Many of the parents and relatives and carers who trusted the hospital have been let down and they are understandably furious and some feel guilty,” he said. Kark, a QC, said a civilised society had a duty to care for people with learning disabilities and mental illness. Police have arrested 34 people and more than 70 staff have been suspended as a precaution since the alleged abuse came to light in 2017. The police investigation will proceed in parallel to the inquiry. Detectives have viewed about 300,000 hours of CCTV footage from the hospital. Relatives of patients hope the inquiry will shed light on accounts of mental and physical abuse and neglect at what used to be considered one of the best facilities of its kind in Northern Ireland. The hospital currently has about 60 patients, down from about 1,500 in the 1980s. “Without pre-determining any issues, it’s quite obvious that bad practices were allowed to persist at the hospital to the terrible detriment to a number of patients,” Kark told the inquiry. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 6 June 2022
×
×
  • Create New...