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Found 185 results
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Content ArticleIn this article, critical criminologist Sharon Hartles looks at the ongoing fight for justice by families affected by the hormone pregnancy test (HPT) Primodos. Primodos was given to thousands of women in the 1960s and 70s which has been linked to miscarriages, birth defects and stillbirth. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and pharmaceutical company Bayer are applying to strike out court proceedings against them in a civil litigation case brought by the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests (ACDHPT). This would prevent a five-day hearing scheduled to take place at the Royal Courts of Justice in May 2023 from going ahead. The article outlines the argument brought by the DHSC and Bayer that no additional evidence has been found to warrant the case being brought by the ACDHPT. It then goes on to highlight recent research that has established a causal link between HPTs and birth malformations and that therefore gives credence to the litigation. Sharon highlights the importance of the legal system acknowledging and confronting the damage inflicted upon the families affected by the use of Primodos, many of whom have been seeking justice for decades. Related reading Primodos, mesh and sodium valproate: Recommendations and the UK Government’s response (Sharon Hartles, August 2021) Sodium Valproate: The Fetal Valproate Syndrome Tragedy A year on from the Cumberlege Review: Initial reflections on the Government’s response (Patient Safety Learning, 23 July 2021)
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Content ArticleThe National Centre for Social Research’s (NatCen’s) British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey has been conducted annually since 1983. Each year the survey asks people what it's like to live in Britain and what they think about how Britain is run, including measuring levels of public satisfaction with the health and care services. The most recent survey was carried out between 7 September and 30 October 2022 and asked a nationally representative sample (across England, Scotland and Wales) of 3,362 people about their satisfaction with the National Health Service (NHS) and social care services overall, and 1,187 people about their satisfaction with specific NHS services, as well as their views on NHS funding. This report highlights the key findings of the survey, which was jointly sponsored this year by The King's Fund and the Nuffield Trust.
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Content Article
My experience of an outpatient hysteroscopy procedure
Anonymous posted an article in Patient stories
The following account has been shared with Patient Safety Learning anonymously. We’d like to thank the patient for to sharing their experience to help raise awareness of the patient safety issues surrounding outpatient hysteroscopy care.- Posted
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Content ArticleA key priority for all involved in the development, manufacture and prescription of medicines is safety. To keep patients safe, regulators and pharmaceutical manufacturers have a statutory obligation to provide product information covering the most important instructions on how to take medicines correctly. This report by Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) outlines the findings of a project around the accessibility of medication information. Patients, carers, healthcare professionals (HCPs) and senior healthcare system stakeholders were asked what they think about current medicines product information, and if it could be improved using digital solutions.
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Content ArticleThis correspondence published in Anaesthesia reflects on the recent guidance released by the Difficult Airway Society and the Association of Anaesthetists, 'Implementing human factors in anaesthesia: guidance for clinicians, departments and hospitals'. The authors highlight that although the guidance is a positive step forward in improving system safety in anaesthesia, there is a need to include a broader range of Human Factors (HF) specialists in the development of guidelines such as these. They call for a higher level of collaboration between clinicians and HF specialists to ensure that healthcare system safety can benefit from years of HF expertise.
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Content ArticleThis article by Till Bruckner of Transparimed outlines how a new UK law will affect how clinical trial results are reported. The UK Government will introduce a legal requirement to make the results of all clinical trials public within 12 months of trial completion. Any company or university breaking the law will be refused permission to start new trials.
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Content ArticleThis report by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) sets out recommendations for the Government to tackle the workforce and workload crisis in general practice, and support GPs and their teams to meet the healthcare challenges of the 21st century. Based on a survey of more than 2,600 GPs and other practice team members from across the UK, the report provides a snapshot of what frontline staff have faced during one of the most difficult winters experienced in the NHS, and what they think needs to happen to make general practice more sustainable. Respondents describe a profession in crisis, with unmanageable workload and workforce pressures fuelling an exodus of fully qualified GPs.
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News Article
UK life expectancy growing at slower rate than rest of G7, research shows
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Life expectancy in the UK has grown at a slower rate than comparable countries over the past seven decades, according to researchers, who say this is the result of widening inequality. The UK lags behind all other countries in the group of G7 advanced economies except the US, according to a new analysis of global life expectancy rankings published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. While life expectancy has increased in absolute terms, similar countries have experienced larger increases, they wrote. In the 1950s, the UK had one of the longest life expectancies in the world, ranking seventh globally behind countries such as Denmark, Norway and Sweden, but in 2021 the UK was ranked 29th. The researchers said this was partly due to income inequality, which rose considerably in the UK during and after the 1980s. Prof Martin McKee, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “That rise also saw an increase in the variation in life expectancy between different social groups. One reason why the overall increase in life expectancy has been so sluggish in the UK is that in recent years it has fallen for poorer groups". Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 March 2023 -
Content ArticleResearchers writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine say that while UK life expectancy has increased in absolute terms over recent decades, other, similar countries are experiencing larger increases. In 1952, when Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne, the UK had one of the longest life expectancies in the world, ranking seventh globally behind countries such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In 2021 the UK was ranked 29th. The researchers show the rankings of the G7 countries at each decade from 1950 to 2020. The G7 is a collection of countries with advanced economies (UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S.) that represent about half of global economic output.
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Content ArticleAt least 1 in 5 mothers experience a perinatal mental health (PMH) problem, making mental illness the most common serious health problem that a woman might experience in the perinatal period. This resource was produced by the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) in partnership with the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA). It draws together principles collated from a comprehensive desktop evidence review of current policy, research, reports and literature on what good PMH care looks like. It aims to support individuals, services, pathways, multiagency groups and networks across health, public health, social care and non statutory services to consider: Where are we now? Is the care we currently provide good enough? What do families want mental health care in the perinatal period to look like?
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Content ArticleThis article in Social Science & Medicine aims to show how patients’ contributions to their safety in hospital are less about involvement as a deliberate intervention, and more about how patients manage their own vulnerability in their interactions with staff. The article outlines the conflict between the current focus on encouraging patients to speak up, raise queries and take ownership of their healthcare, and the relational vulnerability created by the 'sick role'—an established societal role that excuses people from their normal duties in society and entitles them to seek help. The authors highlight that supporting staff to elicit concerns from patients, and offer assurance that challenge is welcome, will be crucial in creating an environment where patients can become fully involved in own safety.
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Content ArticleThe NHS was struggling before Covid-19 and was further severely disrupted by the pandemic. As a result, it is now dealing with a massive backlog in elective care. This blog by Saoirse Mallorie, Senior Analyst at The King's Fund, looks at the causes and state of the backlog and identifies ways to tackle the issue, including increasing workforce and investment, innovation and focusing on prevention.
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Content ArticleThis article in the journal Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery for the Clinician looks at the importance of recognising and addressing human factors in surgery. It explores human factors in the context of optimising individual performance, enhancing team working to improve patient safety, and creating better working lives for healthcare professionals across surgery and medicine.
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Content ArticleEmergency care services in the UK face an unparalleled crisis, with more patients than ever before experiencing extremely long waiting times in Emergency Departments (EDs), associated with patient harm and excess deaths. This explainer from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) outlines the latest data on ED waiting times and the impact this is having on patient safety.
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Content ArticleThe UK Covid-19 Inquiry is the independent public inquiry set up to examine the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, assess the impact of the pandemic and learn lessons for the future. The Inquiry is Chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge. This is a recording of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry's preliminary hearing for its third investigation looking at the impact of the pandemic on healthcare. The agenda includes: introductory remarks from the Chair update from Counsel to the Inquiry including designation submissions from core participants. Read the transcript of the hearing.
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Content ArticleThis ethnographic qualitative study in the BMJ aimed to describe how patients are engaged with cancer decisions in the context of multidisciplinary teams (MDT) and how MDT recommendations are carried out in the context of a shared decision. The study was carried out at four head and neck cancer centres in the north of England. The authors found that the current model of MDT decision-making does not support shared decision-making, and may actively undermine it. They recommend the development of a model that allows the individual patient more input into MDT discussions, and where decisions are made on potential treatment options rather than providing a single recommendation for discussion with the patient. Deeper consideration should be given to how the MDT incorporates the patient perspective and/or delivers its discussion of options to the patient.
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Content ArticleHow does the public view the state of the health and care service? After political turmoil in Westminster, do people think the Government has the policies to set the NHS on the right course? With the health service under so much strain, do people remain committed to its founding principles? This long read by The Health Foundation presents its analysis of public perceptions research conducted with Ipsos that tracks the public’s views on health and social care in the UK every six months. The survey was conducted via Ipsos’ UK KnowledgePanel between 24 and 30 November 2022, with 2,063 people aged 16 and older across the UK.
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Content ArticleThese Guidelines for the Provision of Anaesthetic Services (GPAS) support the development and delivery of high quality anaesthetic services. GPAS chapters have previously focused on a particular aspect of clinical service delivery. However, experience has identified a requirement in GPAS to describe what it is about a department of anaesthesia itself, beyond the different aspects of the clinical service delivery, that contribute to a successful department. The Good Department chapter has been developed to address this requirement, describing current best practice for developing and managing a safe and high quality anaesthesia service in terms of the non-clinical aspects of the service that underpin the clinical provision. The guidance makes recommendations in terms of: leadership, strategy and management workforce education and training clinical governance support services.
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Content ArticleFatigue is increasingly considered as one of the most significant hazards to aviation safety and other safety-critical industries. Both the academic community and industry have focused on understanding the phenomenon of fatigue and the factors that contribute to it in order to prevent it, but also to mitigate its possible consequences. As a result, procedures and regulations have been developed for operators to comply with and there is now a requirement for operators to demonstrate that they are actively managing fatigue. The aim of this white paper by Clockwork Research is to provide safety practitioners with a better understanding of the process of investigating fatigue.
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Content ArticleThis Quality Standard from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been updated to instruct healthcare professionals to diagnose women under the age of 65 with a urinary tract infection (UTI) if they have two or more key symptoms.
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Content Article
NHS Providers board development programme
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Boards
NHS Providers offers a board development programme that aims to improve the effectiveness of NHS boards and organisations through practical, interactive training and development delivered by expert trainers with extensive senior-level sector experience. This webpage contains information about the board development programme including: core training modules. in-house training. induction programmes. bespoke development programmes. -
Content ArticleSelf-binding directives instruct clinicians to overrule treatment refusal during future severe episodes of illness. These directives are promoted as having the potential to increase autonomy for individuals with severe episodic mental illness. Although lived experience is central to their creation, the views of service users on self-binding directives have not been seriously investigated. This study in The Lancet Psychiatry aimed to explore whether reasons for endorsement, ambivalence or rejection given by service users with bipolar disorder can address concerns regarding self-binding directives, decision-making capacity and human rights.
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Content ArticleThe National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) updated their guidance for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in 2022, recommending that CGM be available to all people living with type 1 diabetes. This review in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism aimed to compare regulatory standards for CGM in the UK and Europe, with those applied in the USA by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and in Australia by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). It describes the processes in place and highlights that the criteria applied in the UK for assessing accuracy do not translate into real-life performance. The authors offer a framework to evaluate CGM accuracy studies critically and conclude that FDA- and TGA-approved indications match the available clinical data, whereas CE marking indications applied in the EU can have discrepancies. They argue that the UK can bolster regulation, but that this need to be balanced to ensure that innovation and timely access to technology for people with type 1 diabetes are not hindered.
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Content ArticleThe Association of Anaesthetists established a working group to help anaesthetics trainees with safe sleeping patterns. In this blog, Dr Emma Plunkett, consultant anaesthetist and chair of the working group, talks more about new initiatives to fight fatigue and why it’s important to monitor the impact of tiredness in the national training surveys.
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Content ArticleThis consensus document by The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain & Ireland aims to improve patient safety. It is intended to act as a reference document for individuals and departments when considering the effects of hours of work and type of work undertaken in anaesthesia on clinician’s performance and wellbeing.
