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Showing results for tags 'Staff factors'.
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Content ArticleYou can now watch the recording of the Nuffield Trust event: 'Does the rush for new types NHS staff have a dark side?'
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- Workforce management
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Content ArticleIn this blog Patient Safety Learning considers the impact on patient safety of the shortage of hospital beds facing the NHS this winter. It focuses on two specific issues stemming from this, the increasing numbers of patients being cared for in corridors and other non-clinical areas, and current proposals to reduce the number of patients waiting to be discharged.
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- Long waiting list
- Lack of resources
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Content ArticleThe health service needs to develop innovative ways of treating an increasingly elderly and frail population, while harnessing new technology to help mitigate the staffing crisis. As part of the Times Health Commission, this article outlines some potential solutions — encompassing new ways of working and regulation to promote healthier lifestyles — to some aspects of the health and social care crisis in the UK.
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- Organisation / service factors
- Innovation
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Content Article
CQC: Maternity survey 2022
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Maternity
This survey from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) looked at the experiences of women and other pregnant people who had a live birth in early 2022. -
Content ArticleIn this article, HSJ's Annabelle Collins reflects on the increasing number of NHS staff quitting their jobs and the risk to patient safety of 'corridor care'.
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- Safe staffing
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Content ArticleThe NHS saved William Fear's life and inspired him to change career. But when William started as a healthcare assistant on a hospital ward for older patients, it was clear how bad things had got. This is his story, told to the Guardian, of a typical shift
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- Older People (over 65)
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Content ArticleLaura Pickup and Suzy Broadbent present on the impact staff fatigue has on patient safety.
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- Fatigue / exhaustion
- Staff safety
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Content ArticleThis survey undertaken by SCATA and supported by the FightFatigue group is looking at rest facilities and culture in anaesthesia and intensive care. Aims: To describe the current situation regarding availability and quality of rest facilities in anaesthetic and intensive care departments in the UK and ROI, compared with current standards. To describe the current situation regarding rest culture in anaesthetic and intensive care departments in the UK and ROI, compared with current standards. To feedback to departments and provide a benchmarking of their practice as compared to current standards and peers nationally. If you would like to take part, please follow the link and enter the data into the data collection tool for each rota, in consultation with colleagues as you feel necessary. The data collected will be shared with partners in the FightFatigue group and used in line with the aims of the project as above and to produce a summary report. In this report, each Trust/Board will be able to identify their own data but not others. Please direct queries to fatigue@scata.org.uk.
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- Fatigue / exhaustion
- Data
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Content ArticleThis study, published in The Organization of Primary Healthcare during the COVID-19 Pandemic, aims to investigate the effect of being a training practice on a number of different outcomes related to the safety culture of primary care practices. It found that: "Training young GPs has an important positive impact on the health system. It safeguards the health workforce of the future (and the present), while also being associated with higher quality and safety of the practices involved in training while lowering the risk of distress for qualified GPs participating in vocational training".
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- Training
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Content ArticleLetter from Sir David Sloman Chief, Operating Officer NHS England, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, National Medical Director NHS England, and Dame Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer, to ICBs and Trusts regarding the upcoming ambulance industrial action.
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- Workforce management
- Ambulance
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Content ArticleThis report from the International Council of Nurses is intended to give an overview of the continuing challenges faced by nurses, highlight the potential medium- to long-term impacts on the nursing workforce, and inform policy responses that need to be taken to retain and strengthen the nursing workforce.
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- Nurse
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Content ArticleHow have the numbers of doctors in the NHS who come from the EU and the European Free Trade Association changed since the Brexit referendum in 2016? And do certain specialties face particular problems? Martha McCarey and Mark Dayan take a closer look at what’s happened since the vote.
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- Workforce management
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Content ArticleThis analysis by The Health Foundation looks at NHS staff pay over the ten years to 2021. During those 10 years, there was very little change in overall average basic pay for NHS staff, after accounting for inflation. However, the analysis found considerable variation in how pay has changed across different NHS staff groups over the same period. After accounting for inflation, pay declines are particularly visible for nurses and health visitors, midwives, and scientific, therapeutic and technical staff.
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Content ArticleThe General Medical Council (GMC) commissioned this research to understand the decision-making processes of doctors leaving the UK workforce to practise medicine overseas. This research built on previous work by exploring migration ‘decision journeys’ and the practical steps and considerations involved at each stage of the process.
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- Doctor
- Recruitment
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News Article
Oliver McGowan: NHS autism training mandatory after teen's death
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Mandatory training for treating people with autism and learning disabilities is being rolled out for NHS health and care staff after a patient died. It comes after Oliver McGowan, 18, from Bristol, died following an epileptic seizure. At the time, in November 2016, he had mild autism and was given a drug he was allergic to despite repeated warnings from his parents. His mother Paula lobbied for mandatory training to potentially "save lives". A spokesman for the NHS said the training had been developed with expertise from people with a learning disability and autistic people as well as their families and carers. The first part of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is being rolled out following a two-year trial involving more than 8,300 health and care staff across England. Mark Radford, chief nurse at Health Education England said: "Following the tragedy of Oliver's death, Paula McGowan has tirelessly campaigned to ensure that Oliver's legacy is that all health and care staff receive this critical training. "Paula and many others have helped with the development of the training from the beginning. "Making Oliver's training mandatory will ensure that the skills and expertise needed to provide the best care for people with a learning disability and autistic people is available right across health and care." Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 November 2022- Posted
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News ArticleMinisters have been urged to launch a public inquiry into the care of mental health patients after The Independent revealed allegations that patients had suffered “systemic abuse” in inpatient units. A joint investigation with Sky News found that teenagers at facilities run by The Huntercombe Group had been left with post-traumatic stress disorder by their treatment despite hundreds of warnings to regulators and the NHS. Now the government is facing calls to review all mental health care services over fears that these cases are “the tip of the iceberg”. Labour’s shadow mental health minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan has called for a “rapid review” by the government into inpatient mental health services, while Deborah Coles, the chief executive of charity Inquest, has called on the new health secretary Steve Barclay to launch a statutory public inquiry. Read full story Source: The Independent, 28 October 2022
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- Mental health
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News ArticleChildren say they were "treated like animals" and left traumatised as part of a decade of “systemic abuse” by a group of mental health hospitals, an investigation by The Independent and Sky News has found. The Department of Health and Social Care has now launched a probe into the allegations of 22 young women who were patients in units run by The Huntercombe Group, which has run at least six children’s mental health hospitals, between 2012 and this year. They say they suffered treatment including the use of “painful” restraints and being held down for hours by male nurses, being stopped from going outside for months and living in wards with blood-stained walls. They also allege they were given so much medication they had become “zombies” and were force-fed. But despite reports to police and regulators dating back seven years, and findings by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that the units were inadequate, the NHS has still handed Huntercombe nearly £190m since 2015-16 to admit children to its mental health beds. Through witness testimony, documents obtained by Freedom of Information request and leaked reports, the investigation has uncovered: The CQC has received more than 700 whistleblowing and safeguarding reports, including “incidents of concern” and several “sexual safety” concerns. NHS England was notified of 195 safeguarding reports between 2020 and 2021. A 2018 internal report at Meadow Lodge hospital in Newton Abbot (now closed) found staff members using sexually inappropriate language in front of patients. 160 reports investigated by Staffordshire police about Huntercombe Staffordshire between 2015 and 2022. Between March 2021 and 2022, the CQC gave permission for 29 patients to be admitted to Maidenhead hospital after it was placed in special measures. Read full story Source: The Independent, 27 October 2022
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- Mental health unit
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News Article
Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust fined for exposing babies to 'serious harm'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A hospital trust has been fined £200,000 for putting four babies at "serious risk"of harm. Staff at Rotherham Hospital failed to spot non-accidental injuries during admissions, Sheffield Magistrates' Court heard. District Judge Naomi Redhouse criticised failures in the hospital's systems and processes. Health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), had earlier highlighted problems with safeguarding training at the trust prior to the babies' admissions between January 2019 and February 2020. The court was told how one eight-day-old baby was brought into the hospital on 23 December 2019 suffering from breathing difficulties and bleeding from the nose and mouth. It was only on the child's fifth visit to hospital - after a GP raised concerns - that a child safety examination took place, revealing rib and leg fractures that were deemed non-accidental. Ms Redhouse also heard how a month-old baby brought in with a mouth injury on 20 January 2019 was on a child protection plan but this was not spotted by the paediatric nurse who examined the baby. This child was twice released from hospital, with no safeguarding concerns, before a scan and other examinations revealed multiple fractures, the court heard. Prosecutor Ryan Donohue said failings had been identified in areas including policy implementation, training, reporting, auditing and governance. Eleanor Sanderson, mitigating for the trust, said: "The trust wishes to express to the court its deep regret for the circumstances which gave rise to these offences and the risk posed to those who required safeguarding." Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 October 2022- Posted
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- Safety culture
- Organisation / service factors
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News ArticleThe troubled agency that supplies blood to the NHS has a ’very serious problem’ with racism, a staff survey has revealed. Six hundred staff at NHS Blood and Transplant were surveyed and the results have been summarised in an internal memo, seen by HSJ. It said 55% of respondents felt the problem of racism at NHSBT is “extremely or very serious”, while half had little confidence in the organisation’s recent efforts to tackle racial inequality. When contacted for comment, a NHSBT spokeswoman said the results were “difficult to read” and added that “we are deeply sorry to those who have experienced negative behaviour”. The issues over race and leadership come at perhaps the most operationally challenging period in NHSBT’s history. It is struggling to find enough staff for its donation clinics, which meant it issued its first-ever “amber alert” over blood supplies recently. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 October 2022
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- Racism
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News Article
Care substandard at 39% of maternity units in England, NHS watchdog finds
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Two out of five maternity units in England are providing substandard care to mothers and babies, the NHS watchdog has warned. “The quality of maternity care is not good enough,” the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said in its annual assessment of how health and social care services are performing. It published new figures showing it rated 39% of maternity units it inspected in the year to 31 July to “require improvement” or be “inadequate” – the highest proportion on record. Ian Trenholm, the CQC’s chief executive, said maternity services were deteriorating, substandard care was unacceptably common and failings were “systemic” across the NHS. Its latest state of care report said: “Our ratings as of 31 July 2022 show that the quality of maternity services is getting worse, with 6% of NHS services (nine out of 139) now rated as inadequate and 32% (45 services) rated as require improvement. “This means that the care in almost two out of every five maternity units is not good enough.” The report said: “The findings of recent reviews and reports … show the same concerns emerging again and again. The quality of staff training, poor working relationships between obstetric and midwifery teams and a lack of robust risk assessment all continue to affect the safety of maternity services. These issues pose a barrier to good care.” Staff not listening to women during pregnancy and childbirth is a recurring problem, Trenholm said. Their concerns “are not being heard” by midwives and obstetricians “in the way that they should”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 October 2022- Posted
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- Organisation / service factors
- Maternity
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News Article
NHSE’s ‘institutionalised’ firing of CEOs contributed to ‘major service failure’
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
An “institutionalised” and “counterproductive” system of hiring and firing trust leaders was a contributory factor to care failings which caused the death of at least 45 babies an inquiry has concluded. The inquiry into maternity care at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, chaired by Bill Kirkup, discovered what it described as the latest ”major service failure” in NHS maternity care. It concluded that successive chairs and chief executives were “wrong” to believe the trust had provided adequate care for more than a decade and urged they be held accountable. But he added the churn of senior management had been “wholly counterproductive” for the trust. His report said: “We have found at chief executive, chair and other levels a pattern of hiring and firing, initiated by NHS England. The practice may never have been an explicit policy, but it has become institutionalised. In response to difficult problems, pressure is placed on a trust’s chair to replace the chief executive, and/or to stand down themself." Read full story Source: HSJ, 20 October 2022 (paywalled)- Posted
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News Article
End rules stopping thousands of doctors working in GP surgeries, says GMC chief
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Thousands of doctors are being prevented from working in overstretched GP surgeries across the UK because of unnecessary “red tape”, leaving NHS patients experiencing “unprecedented” waits for care, the head of the doctors’ regulator in the UK has said. Charlie Massey, the chief executive of the General Medical Council, said barriers that stopped medics from being deployed to meet areas of high demand, such as in primary care, must be removed urgently if the NHS workforce crisis was to be resolved and access to care improved. “Red tape is stopping the UK from making the most of many of its skilled and experienced doctors,” he said. “Without action, patients will suffer.” The regulator will on Tuesday call for a relaxation of rules so the fastest-growing part of the medical workforce – skilled doctors in non-training roles – can undertake a wider range of work beyond hospitals, such as in GP surgeries. “There are no easy answers to the challenges facing the NHS. There is no army of new doctors coming over the horizon, so part of the solution must be to make sure that we have more doctors in the places that patients need them,” Massey said. “The government should make a start immediately by changing the performers list criteria so more doctors are allowed to work alongside GPs. That needs to be done urgently. “But beyond technical changes there is also a need for fresh thinking in the way our health services are structured and in how teams of health professionals work together. We can’t keep doing things the same way they have always been done, or nothing will change." Read full story Source: BBC News, 18 October 2022- Posted
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- Workforce management
- Additional staff required
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News Article
Paramedics in ‘Mexican standoff’ with A&E staff after ‘unprecedented’ rule change
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Angry exchanges between paramedics and A&E staff in Liverpool have broken out after new measures were deployed to hold and treat patients in the back of ambulances. Sources said there have been “Mexican standoff” situations at Aintree Hospital in recent days, after hospital staff insisted patients who had been brought inside should be returned to ambulance vehicles. Staff at North West Ambulance Service told HSJ they were informed of a new protocol last week, which said patients should be kept in the back of ambulances if the corridor of the emergency department is full with patients. There have been repeated orders from NHS England and the Care Quality Commission over the past year for hospitals to ensure patients can be offloaded by ambulance crews, even if they fear they do not have adequate staffing or beds to accept them. One senior source at NWAS said: “To see a new protocol like this is absolutely unprecedented. I very much doubt the execs had approved it. “We’ve had Mexican standoff situations over the weekend with crews who have brought patients into ED being told to take them back out to their vehicles, but they’ve refused to do this as it means they cannot cohort. “We completely accept that taking extra patients means the ED and hospital staff have to deal with additional and unacceptable risk, but holding ambulances is not the solution because the risks to patients out in the community are even greater. Despite repeated instructions from NHS England and the CQC this still doesn’t seem to be understood.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 17 October 2022- Posted
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- Paramedic
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News Article
Scotland's A&E crisis: Waits of 12 hours now a daily occurrence amid winter fears
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Staff at accident and emergency departments across Scotland have expressed “deep concern” at the daily “excessively long waiting times” that are forcing a record number of patients to wait more than 12 hours, according to a leading NHS consultant. Dr John-Paul Loughrey, vice-chair of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland national board, warned that while such long waits were once regarded as “never events,” they are now daily occurrences. Amid fears the delays will spike significantly over the winter months, especially with another wave of Covid-19 expected, Dr Loughrey said staff were already “burned out,” “exhausted,” and “overwhelmed with a system facing increasing strain.” The latest weekly data on A&E treatment shows that in the week ending 2 October, the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours had soared by 45% week-on-week. “There is deep concern among staff around the excessively long waiting times,” Dr Loughrey said. “The weekly data that show significant increases in long waits translates to real patients on the ground or in the community who are seeking urgent and emergency care. “The system is failing them. We know that long waiting times are associated with patient harm and even death. Staff face moral injury daily, but they are working incredibly hard and doing all they can to minimise this harm to patients.” Read full story Source: The Scotsman, 16 October 2022- Posted
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News Article
Secret footage reveals abuse of woman with dementia at luxury UK care home
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An 88-year-old woman with dementia was physically and mentally abused at a luxury care home charging residents close to £100,000 a year, the Guardian can reveal. Staff misconduct was exposed by secret filming inside the home run by Signature Senior Lifestyle, which operates 36 luxury facilities mostly in the south of England. It has admitted that Ann King was mistreated at Reigate Grange in Surrey earlier this year. Distressing footage from a covert camera inside her room shows: Care staff handling King roughly, causing her to cry out in distress. On one occasion she was left on the floor for 50 minutes. King being taunted, mocked and sworn at when she was confused and frightened. The retired nurse being assaulted by a cleaner, who hits her with a rag used to clean a toilet while she is lying in bed. The cleaner threatening to empty a bin on the pensioner’s head and making indecent sexual gestures in her face. The abuse was exposed by King’s children, Richard Last and Clare Miller. They became so concerned about her wellbeing at the care home, where she lived from January 2021 to March 2022, that they installed a hidden camera on her bedside table. They have shared the footage because they fear what happened to their mother may not be an isolated incident, and because: “She has always been horrified by this type of thing and we felt she would have wanted us to show this is going on.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 October 2022- Posted
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- Care home
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