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Found 2,335 results
  1. 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.
  2. News Article
    The mother of a young woman who died with herpes said she was "disgusted" with an NHS trust which "lied" about the potential cause of the virus. Kim Sampson and Samantha Mulcahy died with herpes after the same obstetrician at the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust carried out their caesareans. Yvette Sampson's daughter had been "fit and healthy" until she gave birth on 3 May 2018, an inquest has heard. She said the trust had lied about links between the two mothers' deaths. They were treated by the same surgeon and midwife six weeks apart, neither of whom were tested for herpes, the inquest in Maidstone was told. Ms Sampson said her daughter had been "in agony" from 3 May when she gave birth to her second child, until she died on 22 May. She told the inquest she had received "poor treatment" by midwives at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) in Margate, which she felt also "contributed" to her daughter's death. Ms Sampson was initially denied a Caesarean and instead told to push for almost three hours, despite repeatedly telling midwives that "something wasn't right" and "clinging to the bed in agony", her mother said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 April 2023
  3. News Article
    The UK is not ready for the next global pandemic because public services are being dismantled and key research is being defunded, experts have claimed. More than three years after the global outbreak of coronavirus, top scientists have warned that the UK is no better prepared for a pandemic than it was in 2020. They say another epidemic on the scale of Covid-19 is inevitable, but that disinvestment in infection-monitoring services, dismantling of key infrastructure, and the state of the NHS mean the country is “losing ground”. Sir John Bell, a leading immunologist and a member of the UK’s Covid vaccine taskforce during the pandemic, said it was too easy to dismiss Covid-19 as a “once in a generation crisis”. Writing in The Independent, he warned that it is “a question of when, not if, another pandemic strikes”, adding that the nation needs to adopt an “always on” approach that includes building a more resilient healthcare system, carrying out better surveillance, and identifying future threats. Read full story Source: The Independent, 18 April 2023
  4. News Article
    Up to one in 20 new diabetes cases could be related to Covid infection, data suggests. The research adds to mounting evidence the pandemic may be contributing to a rapidly escalating diabetes crisis, with individuals who have experienced more severe Covid at greatest risk. However, lifestyle factors such as being overweight or obese continue to be the main driver for the increase, with 4.3 million officially diagnosed cases in the UK alone. Although previous research has hinted that Sars-CoV-2 infection may increase the risk of developing diabetes – possibly by damaging insulin-producing cells in the pancreas – these studies were either relatively small or limited to specific groups of individuals, such as US military veterans, who may not represent the general population. To delve deeper, Prof Naveed Janjua at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and his colleagues turned to the British Columbia Covid-19 Cohort, a surveillance platform that links data on Covid infections and vaccinations with sociodemographic and administrative health data. They examined records from 629,935 people who took a PCR test for Covid and found those who tested positive were significantly more likely to experience a new diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 diabetes in the following weeks and months – with 3-5% of new diabetes cases attributable to Covid overall. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 18 April 2023
  5. 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.
  6. 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. 
  7. News Article
    Covid-19 has dropped out of the top five leading causes of death in England and Wales for the first time since the start of the pandemic, figures show. Coronavirus was recorded as the main cause of death for 22,454 people in 2022, or 3.9% of all deaths registered, making it the sixth leading cause overall. In both 2020 and 2021 Covid-19 was the leading cause of death, with 73,766 deaths (12.1% of the total) and 67,350 (11.5%) respectively. By contrast, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was the leading cause in England and Wales in 2022, with 65,967 deaths registered (11.4% of the total), up from 61,250 (10.4%) in 2021. The other causes in the top five were ischaemic heart diseases (59,356 deaths and 10.3% of the total); chronic lower respiratory diseases (29,815 deaths, 5.2%); cerebrovascular diseases such as strokes and aneurysms (29,274 deaths, 5.1%); and trachea, bronchus and lung cancer (28,571 deaths, 5.0%). Read full story Source: The Independent, 11 April 2023
  8. News Article
    NHS leaders and ministers face allegations of a “cover up”, as Byline Times reveals that almost two-thirds of NHS employers did not make a single, legally-required report of Covid being caught by staff working during the first 18 months of the pandemic. And four-fifths (82%) of NHS employers have not reported a single death of a worker from Covid caught while working in those first two waves. The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases & Dangerous Occurrences (RIDDOR) rules mean that employers have a legal duty to report certain serious workplace accidents and occupational diseases – including Covid. The lack of acceptance of responsibility from NHS employers has left some families in limbo – and angry at what they consider to be deliberate “denial” of the experiences of those who died serving the public. David Osborn, a health and safety consultant and member of the Covid-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance (CATA), co-wrote the research. He said: “One wonders how many bereaved families who have been denied this payment did not have the benefit of [these reports] to support their case.” Osborn wrote to Sarah Albon, Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Executive, to raise his concerns after speaking with family members of NHS workers who had died of Covid, saying the reports of zero NHS worker deaths from Covid caught in the workplace are “difficult, nigh impossible, to believe.” Read full story Source: Byline Times, 6 April 2023
  9. News Article
    A virus carried by ticks, which is common in many parts of the world, is now present in the UK and health officials are reminding the public how to avoid bites from the tiny bugs. They say the risk of tick-borne encephalitis is very low—only one person is confirmed to have been infected in England so far, last year. But the tick species which carries the virus is widespread in the UK. Most people do not develop symptoms but swelling to the brain is possible. The UK Health Security Agency has recommended changes to testing in hospital so that any new cases can be picked up quickly. Health officials say anyone who becomes unwell after a tick bite should see a GP. More serious symptoms to look out for include severe headache, stiff neck, unexplained seizure, sudden confusion and weakness in arms and legs. Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 April 2023
  10. News Article
    Two concurrent outbreaks of the Marburg virus, a close cousin of Ebola that can kill as many as 90 percent of the people it infects, are raising critical questions about the behaviour of this mysterious bat-borne pathogen and global efforts to prepare for potential pandemics. Marburg causes high fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding from orifices. It spreads between people via direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of infected people and with surfaces and materials such as clothing contaminated with these fluids. One of the two outbreaks, in Tanzania in East Africa, seems to have been brought under control, with just two people left in quarantine. But in the other, in Equatorial Guinea on the west coast, spread of the virus is ongoing, and the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week that the country was not being transparent in reporting cases. The WHO said both outbreaks pose regional risks: Equatorial Guinea has porous borders with Cameroon and Gabon, and so far the cases have appeared in geographically diffuse parts of the country. In Tanzania, the Kagera region has busy borders with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Read full story (paywalled) New York Times, 5 April 2023
  11. News Article
    Covid testing is being scaled back even further in England from April. It is part of the "living with Covid" approach that relies on vaccines to keep people safe. Most staff and patients in hospitals and care homes will no longer be given swab tests, even if they have symptoms. Some will though, such as staff working with severely immunocompromised patients or if there is an outbreak on a ward or in a hospice or prison, for example. The long-running Office for National Statistics Covid infection survey that estimated how many people in the community had the virus each week - based on nose and throat swabs from volunteers - has already come to an end. The final one suggested 1.7 million people - about one out of every 35 (2.7%) - had Covid in the week ending 13 March, a14% rise on the previous week. But the UK Health Security Agency says thanks to the continuing success of the vaccination programme, testing in England can now become more like the approach used for other common respiratory infections such as flu. Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 March 2023
  12. Content Article
    Factsheet on Long Covid from the World Health Organization.
  13. 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.
  14. News Article
    NHS Highland has been reprimanded for a data breach which revealed the personal email addresses of people invited to use HIV services. The health board used CC (carbon copy) instead of BCC (blind carbon copy) to send an email to 37 people. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the error amounted to a "serious breach of trust". It called for improvements to be made to data protection safeguards for HIV service providers. The mistake meant all recipients of the email could see the personal addresses of the others receiving it. One person said they recognised four other individuals, one of whom was a previous sexual partner. Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 March 2023
  15. News Article
    UK ministers should act to ensure Long Covid sufferers receive the support they need from employers, with as many as two-thirds claiming they have been unfairly treated at work, a report argues. The report, from the TUC and the charity Long Covid Support, warns that failing to accommodate the 2m people who, according to ONS data, may be suffering from long Covid in the UK will create, “new, long-lasting inequalities”. The analysis is based on responses from more than 3,000 long Covid sufferers who agreed to share their experiences. Two-thirds said they had experienced some form of unfair treatment at work, ranging from harassment to being disbelieved about their symptoms or threatened with disciplinary action. One in seven said they had lost their job. The report makes a series of recommendations, including urging the government to designate Long Covid as a disability for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act, to make clear sufferers are entitled to “reasonable adjustments” at work; and to classify Covid-19 as an occupational disease to allow people who contracted it through their job to seek compensation. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 March 2023
  16. 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.
  17. Event
    This conference focuses on recognising and responding to the deteriorating patient and ensuring best practice in the use of NEWS2. The conference will include National Developments including the recommendations on NEWS2 and Covid-19, and implementing the recommendations from the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch Report Investigation into recognising and responding to critically unwell patients. The day will include practical case study based sessions on identifying patients at risk of deterioration, improving practice in patient observations, the role of human factors in responding to the deteriorating patient, improving escalation and understanding success factors in escalation, sepsis and Covid-19, involving patients and families in recognising deterioration, using clinical judgement, and improving the communication and use of NEWS2 in the community, including care homes, and at the interface of care. The Recording of NEWS2 score, escalation time and response time for unplanned critical care admissions is now an NHS CQUIN goal. For further information and to book your place visit https://www.healthcareconferencesuk.co.uk/conferences-masterclasses/deteriorating-patient-summit or email kate@hc-uk.org.uk. hub members receive a 20% discount. Email: info@pslhub.org Follow on Twitter @HCUK_Clare #DeterioratingPatient
  18. News Article
    The Covid-19 Inquiry is a public inquiry to examine the UK’s response to the pandemic, as well as its wide-sweeping impact. In the UK, at least 216,726 people have had Covid-19 mentioned on their death certificate since the start of the pandemic. Multiple lockdowns, school closures and furloughs later, a public inquiry aims to gauge what lessons can be learned for the future. Two preliminary hearings have already taken place on 28 February and 1 March. The next one will be on 21 March and will cover Scotland, including strategic issues, political governance, lockdowns and restrictions. The inquiry is chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge. The inquiry has been split into three modules: resilience and preparedness, core UK-decision making; political governance, and the impact of Covid-19 on healthcare systems across the UK. In Spring 2022, the inquiry held a public consultation on its draft terms of reference which allowed people to give their opinions on the topics the inquiry would cover. The public inquiry has come under heavy criticism after it was announced that structural racism will not be explicitly considered. Read full story Source: The Independent, 2 March 2023
  19. News Article
    Race should be made a central part of the UK's independent public inquiry into the pandemic, campaigners say. A letter seen by BBC News, sent to the chairwoman of the Covid-19 inquiry, calls for it to look at "racism as a key issue" at every stage. Ethnic minorities were significantly more likely to die with Covid-19, according to official figures. An inquiry spokesperson said the unequal impacts of the pandemic would be at the forefront of its work. People from ethnic minority backgrounds who lost loved-ones during the pandemic also told BBC News they felt "sidelined" by the process so far. The letter to Baroness Hallett, who is chairing the inquiry, has been co-ordinated by the group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and race equality think tank Runnymede. It calls for ethnic minority communities to be "placed firmly at the centre" of the inquiry. Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 February 2023
  20. News Article
    British health officials are preparing plans to deploy lateral flow tests if signs emerge that avian flu has begun to spread from one person to another. The programme would provide rapid information about the dangers posed by the disease. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is also working on blood tests to detect antibodies against the virus and officials will analyse the disease’s genetic mutations to reveal data about the increased risk to human health from avian flu. The moves follow last week’s news that an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia has died from H5N1, the flu strain that is being spread around the globe by migrating birds and is infecting poultry farms. At present, evidence suggests the H5N1 virus does not pass easily to people although scientists have urged care and caution. “The risk to humans is still very low, but it’s important that we continue to monitor circulation of flu in both bird and mammal populations", said Prof Jonathan Ball, of Nottingham University. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 February 2023
  21. Content Article
    Community hospitals are an important part of local health and care systems, yet there has been very little shared on their role and contribution during the pandemic. This project from the Community Hospitals Association sought to redress this and highlight the role of these local hospitals. This two-year project enabled staff to reflect on their experiences and innovations in their community hospitals during the pandemic in a systematic way that facilitated wider sharing and learning. It captures the experiences of staff working in UK community hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on positive impact changes. 
  22. News Article
    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has decided not to recommend Evusheld for adults who are unlikely to have an adequate immune response or cannot have the vaccine against Covid-19, citing a lack of evidence that it is effective against circulating variants. However, it is still reviewing whether the antibody drug could be used to prevent covid-19 infection in adults at the highest risk of severe illness, including people with immunodeficiency, people who have had a solid organ transplant, and people with cancer. NICE’s director of medicines evaluation, Helen Knight, acknowledged that the decision would be “disappointing for the many thousands” of vulnerable people who “continue to significantly modify their behaviour to avoid infection. Commenting on NICE’s decision, Lennard Lee, senior clinical research fellow at the University of Birmingham, said, “While it’s right for NICE to ensure that treatment options are based on the best possible evidence for their safety, efficacy, and cost effectiveness, it must be recognised that those who remain extremely vulnerable to covid need to be prioritised in trials akin to those early days of the pandemic to find treatments fit for them. “Otherwise, we run the risk of consigning half a million people to continue to live in 2020, stuck in their homes, not able to see their families and friends for fear of infection with no protection.” Read full story Source: The BMJ, 16 February 2023
  23. Content Article
    Dr Nabarro’s recent comment made on Independent Sage 2 December, that Covid-19 is primarily a droplet-borne infection, flies in the face of overwhelming international scientific consensus that the pandemic is driven by airborne transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Despite airborne transmission being accepted as the dominant mode of spread in almost every other arena, within official infection prevention and control (IPC) bodies in the World Health Organization (WHO) and many national authorities including the UK, there is denial or minimising of airborne spread, and continuing adherence to the droplet theory of transmission. This has meant rejection of airborne mitigations within healthcare, with profound consequences for the lives and health of healthcare workers, as well as for patients in hospitals and care homes. It is now clear that the IPC authorities will not be persuaded, no matter how much evidence is presented to them that SARS-CoV-2 is primarily airborne, and that efforts by aerosol scientists, engineers and health experts to provide further evidence of this, are futile.  This statement from Doctors in Unite explores these issues in detail, and highlights the disastrous record of droplet-only precautions in our hospitals and care homes. It also asks why the critically important “precautionary principle” was not applied throughout healthcare from the outset, to keep workers and patients safe, while the mode of transmission of the virus was being fully elucidated, despite this being official WHO policy. 
  24. News Article
    The ‘optimal layout’ for an isolation room to contain the spread of Covid has been created following tests at a London hospital. The room was designed by researchers at Imperial College London to reduce the risk of infection for health care staff as far as possible. Researchers used a state-of-the-art fluid model to simulate the transmission of the virus within an isolation room at the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, west London. They found that the area of highest risk of infection is above a patient’s bed at a height of 0.7 to two metres, where the highest concentration of Covid is found. After the virus is expelled from a patient’s mouth, the research team explained that it gets driven vertically by wind forces within the room. The research, published in the journal Physics of Fluids, is based on data collected from the room during a Covid patient’s stay. The work centred on the location of the room’s air extractor and filtration rates, the location of the bed, and the health and safety of the hospital staff working within the area. Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 February 2023
  25. News Article
    Free HIV tests that can be done at home are being offered this week to people in England. It is part of a government drive to improve diagnosis, which dropped off during the Covid pandemic. The kit is small enough to fit through the letterbox and arrives in plain packaging through the post. It gives a result within 15 minutes by testing a drop of blood from a finger prick. A "reactive" result means HIV is possible and a clinic check is needed. Support and help is available to arrange this. About 4,400 people in England are living with undiagnosed HIV, which comes with serious health risks. HIV medication can keep the virus at undetectable levels, meaning you cannot pass HIV on and your health is protected. Most people get the virus from someone who is unaware they have it, according to the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) charity which campaigns about and provides services relating to HIV and sexual health. HIV testing rates remain a fifth lower than before the Covid-19 pandemic - with heterosexual men in particular now testing far less than in 2019. Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 February 2023
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