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Found 2,335 results
  1. News Article
    A Harley Street doctor suspended for working while testing positive for Covid at the height of the pandemic has said that his patient’s cancer treatment took priority. Dr Andrew Gaya was found to have “blatantly disregarded” the rules by going to work at a centre for patients with brain tumours after he tested positive for the disease. The “highly regarded” consultant oncologist “dishonestly” misled colleagues that he was safe to work by keeping his positive test secret, a tribunal found. Dr Gaya, whose work is at the forefront of tumour care and has been described as “world class”, said he defied Covid-19 rules because he believed “the risk of harm to his patient” in delaying treatment was “greater than the risk he posed”. Now, the doctor of 27 years has been suspended for three months at a Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 20 Ocotober 2022
  2. News Article
    The NHS is setting up “war rooms” as it prepares for one of the toughest winters in its history, officials have announced. In a letter to staff, health leaders in England set out “winter resilience plans”, which include new system control centres that are expected to be created in every local area. These centres will be expected to manage demand and capacity across the entire country by constantly tracking beds and attendances. They will be operated by clinicians and experts who can make quick decisions about emerging challenges in the health service, NHS England said. The data-driven centres will be able to spot when hospitals are near capacity and could benefit from mutual aid. Where A&Es are especially busy, ambulances will be diverted to nearby hospitals with more space. Meanwhile, NHS England announced plans to expand falls response services so people are treated in their homes, avoiding unnecessary trips to hospital where possible. NHS England’s chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, said: “Winter comes hot on the heels of an extremely busy summer – and with the combined impact of flu, Covid and record NHS staff vacancies – in many ways, we are facing more than the threat of a ‘twindemic’ this year. “So it is right that we prepare as much as possible – the NHS is going further than it ever has before in anticipation of a busy winter, and today we have set out further plans to step up these preparations – building on our existing plans to boost capacity set out in August this year." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 19 October 2022
  3. News Article
    Time is running out for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people who are facing another winter shielding from Covid, campaigners have said. They are calling on the government to buy a drug called Evusheld to provide some protection against the virus. The government says it is not clear how long that protection will last when up against the Omicron variant. But patients, charities and health experts argue the protection offered is better than nothing. There are around 500,000 people in the UK with suppressed immune systems. That means their bodies struggle to produce antibodies, so the existing vaccines offer them little or no protection, leaving them very vulnerable to Covid. Blanche Hampton has lupus, a condition where her immune system has turned against her. The drugs she takes to control the lupus also suppress her immune system, meaning her body has no defences against Covid. Blanche has been shielding for two and a half years, but she believes Evusheld offers a chance for at least some kind of existence outside of her small flat in Inverkip, west of Glasgow. "Evusheld would give me a layer of protection, that is better than nothing. Because that's what I have currently - nothing." And Blanche, like many people who find themselves in the same situation, says she feels abandoned. Read full story Source: BBC News, 17 October 2022
  4. News Article
    At 9.16am Florence Wilkinson gave birth to a healthy baby boy by planned caesarean section. The team of NHS doctors and midwives worked like a well-oiled machine, performing what to them was a standard operation, while also showing real kindness. After a short stint in a close observation bay, Florence was moved onto the postnatal ward. Still anaesthetised, Florence was completely reliant on her partner Ben to help her recover from the birth and feed her son in his first hours of life. Yet just a few hours later, the scene was very different. Due to Covid protocol, Ben was not able to stay overnight. At 8pm, midwives bustled around briskly ejecting fathers and birth partners from the ward – and what followed was one of the hardest, most frightening nights of Florence's life. She was alone with a newborn, yet during the course of that night she only saw a midwife once. She was still recovering from my operation and unable to pick up her baby. An exhausted healthcare assistant told Florence she didn’t have time to help and the newborn didn’t feed for seven hours. There simply weren’t enough staff to look after the mothers, but no partner to advocate for them either. A review of the maternity policies listed on the websites of 90 hospital trusts in England reveals that 54% still restrict partners from staying overnight after birth. While a few trusts have always limited access at night, many admit to bringing in restrictions during the pandemic which they continue to implement to this day. “It is deeply concerning to hear that some Trusts are continuing to implement restrictions on visiting, such as limited postnatal visiting overnight, under the premise of Covid, particularly at this stage in the pandemic,” says Francesca Treadaway, director of engagement at the charity Birthrights. “There is overwhelming evidence, built up since March 2020, of the impact Covid restrictions in maternity had on women giving birth. It must be remembered that blanket policies are rarely lawful and any policies implemented should explicitly consider people’s individual circumstances.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 13 October 2022
  5. News Article
    Long Covid is “devastating” the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of people, and wreaking havoc on health systems and economies, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned as he urged countries to launch “immediate” and “sustained” efforts to tackle the “very serious” crisis. The world has never been in a better position to end the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is also “very clear” that many of those infected by the virus, which first emerged in China in late 2019, are still experiencing “prolonged suffering”, the WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said. With the absence of evidence about how best to treat it, Long Covid is turning people’s lives upside down, and many face “often lengthy” and “frustrating” waits for support or guidance, Tedros said. The large numbers of those cruelly affected by the long tail of Covid is also having a dangerous impact on health systems and economies still reeling from waves of infections. “While the pandemic has changed dramatically due to the introduction of many lifesaving tools, and there is light at the end of the tunnel, the impact of long Covid for all countries is very serious and needs immediate and sustained action equivalent to its scale,” Tedros said, writing for the Guardian. Countries must now “seriously ramp up” both research into the condition and access to care for those affected if they are to “minimise the suffering” of their populations and protect their health systems and workforces. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2022
  6. News Article
    Even mild cases of Covid-19 during pregnancy “exhaust” the placenta and damage its immune response, new research suggests. The findings, which come as coronavirus cases are again on the rise in the UK, lend weight to multiple studies over the course of the pandemic linking the virus to a rise in dangerous pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia. But the results of the study – the largest yet involving the placentas of infected women – may represent the “the tip of the iceberg” of how Covid-19 affects foetal or placental development, warned Dr Kristina Adams Waldorf, the senior author on the study, which was published last month in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Early in the pandemic, it was widely assumed that the coronavirus did not harm the developing foetus because so few babies were born with the infection, said Dr Adams Waldorf, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “But what we’re seeing now is that the placenta is vulnerable to Covid-19, and the infection changes the way the placenta works, and that in turn is likely to impact the development of the foetus,” explained the professor. Read full story Source: The Independent, 9 October 2022
  7. News Article
    NHS trusts may be forced to cancel appointments and limit visiting times in a Covid and flu “twindemic” this winter, health leaders have warned. Fears have been raised the viruses could strip back the workforce and further increase demand for services during an already busy period. It comes amid rising Covid infections in the UK. Around 1.3 million tested positive in late September, according to the latest figures, which was a 25% increase on the week before. The UK is also concerned there could be a bad flu season this year, with lower immunity across the population due to reduced exposure in the Covid pandemic. NHS leaders have warned that this background could make winter even more difficult for the health service. “I make no bones about this: we know it’s going to be a pressurised time for trusts over the next four months if not longer,” Saffron Cordery from NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, told The Independent. The interim chief executive added: “We’re worried about Covid and we’re worried about flu.” Ms Cordery said these joint pressures – which could increase demand, strip back workforces and introduce the need for greater infection control measures – could have a knock-on effect on services. “We need to anticipate that there may well be cancellations for either outpatient appointments or routine procedures or operations, because there could be staff shortages or rising demand in emergency care – that means that those routine appointments cannot take place as quickly as we’d like,” she said. Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 October 2022
  8. News Article
    Bereaved families fear their experiences will be “diluted” in the UK Covid-19 Inquiry after it was confirmed their evidence would be submitted to a third-party company. Instead of the usual “pen portraits” heard in the inquiry, families will submit their evidence to a private research company as part of a parallel listening exercise that will analyse the responses and feed back the findings to the inquiry chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett. Matt Fowler, co-founder of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign, said while families believe the start of the inquiry is a step in the right direction after campaigning for two years, they fear being excluded from the inquiry because of the listening exercise. “All bereaved families want from the inquiry is the same outcome that anyone should, for lessons to be learnt from our loss that can stop the monumental scale of death that took place from happening again,” Matt said following the preliminary hearing. “As Baroness Hallett herself has acknowledged, for that to happen the experiences of the bereaved must be learnt from, so why is she leaving us out in the cold instead of working with us?” A&E doctor Saleyah Ahsan, from east London, worked in intensive care units during the pandemic. She said she remembers holding hands with people and telling them they needed to be incubated as they desperately called their families – some died in intensive care. “It is very important that stories jump off the page and are real because they are real,” She added: “If we really want to make sure we get this right there is only this inquiry, it has to be right. I am a medic, I see the numbers are rising, it’s autumn. Thankfully we’ve got a booster but hospitals are getting busy – I’m worried.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 4 October 2022
  9. News Article
    The first preliminary hearing of the UK Covid public inquiry will begin today. The session, in London, will focus on the UK's pandemic preparedness before 2020. It will be largely procedural, involving lawyers and an announcement about who will be giving evidence. Public hearings where witnesses are called will not start until the spring. The inquiry formally started in the summer, with a listening exercise. But this first preliminary hearing is still being seen as an important milestone for the families who lost loved ones. Lindsay Jackson's mother, Sylvia, 87, died from Covid during the first lockdown, after contracting it at a care home. Ms Jackson, of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group, said it was essential lessons were learned. She was "really pleased" the inquiry was finally starting but it had taken too long to reach this stage. "It's two-and-a-half years since the pandemic started," she said. "We lost so many people. If people have done things wrong, they need to be held accountable. "For me, my family and the others who lost loved ones, it's important that answers are found to the questions that we have." Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 October 2022
  10. News Article
    Every hospital in the UK is under significant pressure and a new Covid surge is “a very heavy straw on the camel’s back”, health leaders have warned. At least eight hospitals declared a critical incident, cancelled operations or asked people not to come to A&E unless they were seriously ill last week. One of Britain’s most senior emergency doctor said there were links between incidents like these and the rapid rise in hospitalisations for Covid, up nearly 37% in a week to 7,024. While the Office for National Statistics said it was too early to say if an autumn Covid wave had begun, health leaders said ministers need to urgently address staffing shortages. Dr Adrian Boyle, the incoming president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine told the Observer: “Our system is under-resourced. We don’t have enough beds, and we don’t have the workforce for the demand that we’re being asked to deal with. “Covid just makes everything that much harder and it’s entirely valid to link this with critical incidents being called around the country. All hospitals are feeling significant levels of pressure at the moment. Covid is a very heavy straw on the camel’s back.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 October 2022
  11. News Article
    A leading academic is calling on new Health Secretary Therese Coffey to reconsider rolling out a Covid drug for people with weakened immune systems. Last month the government decided it would not supply Evusheld in the UK. But Dr Lennard Lee, an academic medical oncologist from Oxford University who is backed by more than 120 leading scientists and clinicians, said a rethink was needed. The government said more data was required on the treatment. Evusheld was approved for use in March, but was reviewed after the Omicron variant emerged. The drug's manufacturer AstraZeneca said there was "ample real-world data" that it worked. It is currently available in 32 countries. Dr Lee told the BBC: "It's time for a re-review of the data, and to think about transparency in terms of why they decided not to do this, and also the pros and cons of doing this. "We do know that coronavirus cases are likely to go up in winter, and we do know there are people who face increased risks... "Therefore if there is anything we can do to protect... anyone immunosuppressed I think this is something that does need to be reconsidered." Research from the US and Israel suggests Evusheld reduces the risk of infection by about 50%, and cuts the risk of serious illness by 90%. Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 September 2022
  12. News Article
    A coroner has said she does not understand why frontline workers were not required to wear a mask during lockdown after hearing a paramedic had died with Covid. A two-day inquest into the death of Peter Hart, who died on his 52nd birthday, concluded on Tuesday (September 13) with assistant coroner Dr Karen Henderson ruling the father-of-three died of natural causes caused by Covid. She said on the balance of probabilities he caught the disease while working at East Surrey Hospital, where he died on May 12, 2020. During the onset of the pandemic only healthcare workers tending to those suspected of having Covid-19 were required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). In accordance with national guidelines, Mr Hart, who was treating patients not suspected of having the virus, did not need to. “Retrospectively it is difficult to comprehend why the national guidance said PPE did not need to be used for all patients and healthcare workers at the earliest opportunity,” Dr Henderson said. “Although there appears a lost opportunity to ensure maximum protection I make no finding of fact whether this contributed to Mr Hart’s death. “Patients not suspected to have Covid were not expected to wear face masks. This is in effect a perfect storm and given evidence of Mrs Hart I am satisfied Mr Hart contracted Covid during his work at East Surrey Hospital,” she added. Read full story Source: Surrey Live, 13 September 2022
  13. News Article
    NHS staff have warned that needles supplied with a Covid vaccine which targets the omicron strain are “not fit for purpose” and could place vaccinators and members of the public at risk. Dozens of messages shared on an NHS staff forum reveal widespread concerns about the needles supplied with the Moderna SpikeVax vaccine, which are said to bend when vaccinators pierce the top of the vial containing the Covid-19 vaccine doses. The SpikeVax bivalent vaccine was the first to target both the original and the omicron strain of the virus. It is due to play a key role in the NHS’s autumn Covid vaccination booster programme. One pharmacist said: “They [the needles] just are not fit for purpose and as such we are not using them and are using the original needles until a solution is found”. A UK Health Security Agency spokesperson confirmed the problem, stating: “We are aware that some NHSE sites are experiencing some problems with the use of the new needle and syringe being supplied for administrating the Moderna bivalent vaccine. We are in touch with the supplier about these concerns, including the facilitation of additional training support, but if necessary will also offer an alternative suitable product to avoid any disruption to the vaccination programme.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 September 2022
  14. News Article
    The global response to the first two years of the Covid-19 outbreak failed to control a pandemic that has led to an estimated 17.7 million deaths to date, a major review has concluded. The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the Covid-19 pandemic, produced by 28 world leading experts and 100 contributors, cites widespread failures regarding prevention, transparency, rationality, standard public health practice, operational coordination, and global solidarity. It concludes that multilateral cooperation must improve to end the pandemic and manage future global health threats effectively. The commission’s chair, Jeffrey Sachs, who is a professor at Columbia University and president of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, said, “The staggering human toll of the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic is a profound tragedy and a massive societal failure at multiple levels.”In its report, which used data from the first two years of the pandemic and new epidemiological and financial analyses, the commission concludes that government responses lacked preparedness, were too slow, paid too little attention to vulnerable groups, and were hampered by misinformation.Read full story Source: BMJ, 14 September 2022
  15. Content Article
    There has been a steady increase in the numbers of people dying at home in recent years. These trends became entrenched during the pandemic, which could reflect people fearful of Covid-19 in hospitals and care homes just as much as broader patient preferences for dying at home. So did those dying at home receive the care they needed, at a good standard? This new research from the Nuffield Trust sheds light on the services used by people who died at home in England, before and during the first year of the pandemic.
  16. Content Article
    I guess that a common feature linking most visitors to Patient Safety Learning is that they have a profound interest in two things. First, recognising and applauding innovations and ‘best practice’ in healthcare. Second, recognising, exposing and denouncing bad practice. The thing they have in common is the desire to learn from the mistakes in the past to do better in the future. When it comes to ‘bad practice’ in healthcare it is usually in connection with some adverse and damaging impact on patients. Our thoughts turn perhaps to certain medical failures, such as the ‘Mid‑Staffs scandal’. Seldom do we find the need to consider the adverse and damaging impacts on the doctors, nurses and all the other staff who work in the health and social care sector. However, those of you who watched the recent BBC Panorama programme, 'Forgotten heroes of the Covid frontline' will have been appalled at the scandal that now confronts so many frontline staff for whom we stood outside our front doors and clapped for so enthusiastically back in those dark days at the height of the pandemic. This blog is dedicated to those 'forgotten heroes'. I hope that it demonstrates that they are not, in fact, forgotten I hope that the resources linked to this blog may be of help to them.
  17. Content Article
    Covid-19 infection may lead to acute and chronic sequelae. Emerging evidence suggests a higher risk of diabetes after infection, but population-based evidence is still sparse. In this study, Naveed et al. evaluated the association between COVID-19 infection, including severity of infection, and risk of diabetes. They concluded that Covid-19  was associated with a higher risk of diabetes and may have contributed to a 3% to 5% excess burden of diabetes at a population level.
  18. Content Article
    Dawn Stott has worked in healthcare for many years. Her passion is customer care and service improvement. She has designed courses to support healthcare providers improve practice through capturing enthusiasm and sharing best practice.  For the last thirteen plus years she has worked as CEO of the Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP), a healthcare charity that supports theatre personnel who work in hospitals. When faced with lock down, Dawn shared her thoughts and feelings, via regular emails with her work team. The result is a culmination of her musing, along with some impressions, observations and learning that formed the basis for her book. 
  19. Content Article
    Factsheet on Long Covid from the World Health Organization.
  20. Content Article
    NHS Wales has published a new report detailing the good progress being made to investigate and learn from hospital-acquired COVID-19 in Wales. Established in April 2022, the National Nosocomial COVID-19 Programme is supporting NHS Wales organisations to carry out a review of nosocomial (hospital acquired) COVID-19 patient safety incidents that occurred between March 2020 and April 2022. The programme has prioritised the investigation of the most complex cases, with an aim to provide as many answers as possible for service users, families, carers and staff impacted by nosocomial COVID-19. The programme also aims to maximise learning opportunities across NHS Wales, to drive quality and safety improvements.
  21. Content Article
    The Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact heavily on all our lives and one of the long-lasting, but unanticipated, impacts is the emergence of Long Covid. Whilst many people infected by Covid-19 may fully recover, significant numbers will experience varied, ongoing and debilitating symptoms that last weeks, months or years following the initial infection. This prolonged condition has been given the umbrella term Long Covid. Recognition of Long Covid was accelerated by people-led advocacy groups such Long Covid Support. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) reported that, as of 1 August 2021, 970,000 people in the UK were experiencing self-reported Long Covid. The most recent data from 2 January 2023, shows that this has increased to 2 million people This report summarises the findings of a self-selecting survey of 3,097 people with Long Covid in September and October 2022 on their experiences of work.
  22. News Article
    Scarlet fever cases have surged by tenfold in a year, official data shows, as pharmacists grapple with a shortage of antibiotics during a Strep A outbreak. Strep A bacteria usually only causes mild illness, including scarlet fever and strep throat, which is treated with antibiotics. But in rare cases, it can progress into a potentially life-threatening disease if it gets into the bloodstream. Infections are higher than normal for this time of year, and at least nine children have died after contracting the bacteria in recent weeks. Pharmacists say they are struggling to get their hands on antibiotics to treat Strep A infections – despite the government insisting there is no shortage. “We are worried because we are having to turn patients away,” said Dr Leyla Hannbeck, the head of the Association of Multiple Pharmacies (AIMP). Read more Source: The Independent, 8 December 2022
  23. News Article
    Intensive care doctors in Germany have warned that hospital paediatric units in the country are stretched to breaking point in part due to rising cases of respiratory infections among infants. The intensive care association DIVI said the seasonal rise in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases and a shortage of nurses was causing a “catastrophic situation” in hospitals. RSV is a common, highly contagious virus that infects nearly all babies and toddlers by the age of two, some of whom can fall seriously ill. Experts say the easing of coronavirus pandemic restrictions means RSV is affecting a larger number of babies and children, whose immune systems aren’t primed to fend it off. Cases of RSV and other respiratory illnesses have also increased in the UK and in the US, which is also suffering from a shortages of antivirals and antibiotics. In Germany, hospital doctors are having to make difficult decisions about which children to assign to limited intensive care beds. In some cases, children with RSV or other serious conditions are getting transferred to hospitals elsewhere in Germany with spare capacity. “If the forecasts are right, then things will get significantly more acute in the coming days and week,” Sebastian Brenner, head of the paediatric intensive care unit at University Hospital Dresden, told German news channel n-tv. “We see this in France, for example, and in Switzerland. If that happens, then there will be bottlenecks when it comes to treatment.” Others warned that, in certain cases, doctors already were unable to provide the urgent care some children need. “The situation is so precarious that we genuinely have to say children are dying because we can’t treat them any more,” Dr. Michael Sasse, head of paediatric intensive care at Hanover’s MHH University hospital, said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 December 2022
  24. News Article
    Public health leaders were slow to act on repeated warnings over Christmas 2020 that contact tracing and isolation should be triggered immediately after a positive lateral flow test result, leaked evidence to the Covid inquiry shows. A scathing “lessons learned” document written by Dr Achim Wolf, a senior test and trace official, and submitted to the inquiry, gives his account of a trail of missed opportunities to improve the NHS test-and-trace regime in the first winter and spring of the pandemic – before vaccines were available. It suggests that people will have unnecessarily spread the virus to friends and relatives in the first Christmas of the pandemic and subsequent January lockdown period because they were not legally required to isolate and have their contacts traced as soon as they got a positive lateral flow test. Instead, for around two months, those eligible for rapid testing were told to get a confirmatory PCR test after a positive lateral flow. About a third of those who subsequently got a negative PCR result were likely to have had Covid anyway. In the “lessons learned” document seen by the Guardian, Wolf says: “Over the winter months, the prevalence in individuals who had 1) a positive lateral flow; followed by 2) a negative PCR; may have been upwards of 30%. These individuals were then allowed to return to their high-risk workplaces.” The former head of policy at NHS test and trace highlights how it took too long to get clear advice from Public Health England about policy on contact tracing and isolation rules in the face of changing scientific evidence on the accuracy of lateral flows. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 30 November 2022
  25. News Article
    The UK is not in a significantly better place to deal with a new pandemic, the former vaccine taskforce chief has said, as a leading public health expert suggested Covid infections may be on the rise again. Dame Kate Bingham, the managing partner at the life sciences venture capital firm SV Health Investors, headed the UK’s vaccine taskforce between May and December 2020. Speaking to a joint session of the Commons health and social care committee and the science and technology committee, about lessons learned during the pandemic, Bingham said many of the initiatives set up by the taskforce had been dismantled, while key recommendations it had provided had not been acted upon. “To begin with, I thought it was lack of experience of officials since we don’t have a lot of people within Whitehall who understand vaccines, relationships with industry, all of that, but actually, I’m beginning to think this is deliberate government policy, just not to invest or not to support the sector,” she said. Among her concerns, Bingham cited the failure to create bulk antibody-manufacturing capabilities in the UK and the proposed termination of the NHS Covid vaccine research registry through which the public could indicate their willingness to participate in clinical trials for Covid vaccines. The decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Research to close the registry was eventually reversed after Robert Jenrick, then a health minister, stepped in. “I am baffled as to the decisions that are being made,” she said. Bingham also raised concerns about the length of time it is taking to agree a contract with Moderna – a US-based company that produces mRNA Covid vaccines – to create a research and development, and manufacturing, facility in the UK. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 30 November 2022
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