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Content ArticleThis Take, Treat and Test webinar took place on 10 September 2020, presented by Dr Ron Daniels, Founder, and Executive Director – Clinical – Sepsis Trust UK and Consultant in Critical Care and Anaesthesia, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
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Content ArticlePatient Safety Learning’s response to the announcement by the NHS on the 7 October 2020 of a new five-part package of measures to boost support for Long Covid patients.
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Content Article
Long-term health consequences of COVID-19 (5 October)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Blogs
Because COVID-19 is a new disease, much about the clinical course remains uncertain – in particular, the possible long-term health consequences, if any. This article, published by JAMA, looks at the available data on neurological, cardiovascular, pulmonary manifestations of the virus. It also looks at the impact on mental health and wellbeing. The authors conclude: "It is imperative that the care of this vulnerable patient population take a multidisciplinary approach, with a thoughtfully integrated research agenda, to avoid health system fragmentation and to allow the comprehensive study of long-term health consequences of COVID-19 on multiple organ systems and overall health and well-being. Furthermore, such an approach will provide the opportunity to efficiently and systematically conduct studies of therapeutic interventions to mitigate the adverse physical and mental health effects among hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who recover from COVID-19." -
Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented level of public scrutiny of patient care, and developing highly reliable systems is no longer going to be optional for organisations in the future. Healthcare leaders are now challenged to implement new cultures focussed on sustaining safe, person-centred care for both patients and health workers. HealthManagement.org features The Patient Safety Movement Foundation's Chief Clinical Officer, Dr Donna Prosser, to offer insight regarding the unprecedented level of public scrutiny of patient care and how we can adjust moving forward.
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Content ArticleThe COVID 19 pandemic has been testing the resilience of healthcare workers around the globe. With increased patient loads, the constant threat of getting infected, and ordeal of treating the critically ill, there have been increased burnouts and mental health issues. The safety of Healthcare workers is, therefore, a real concern that needs to be addressed carefully and decisively. Neesha Nair and Ihab Alawour from the Aster Sanad Hospital reflect on how lessons from the MERS-COV epidemics in Saudi Arabia helped them plan for the emerging coronavirus crisis. They use the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) framework which places healthcare workers at the centre of the work system. All other system components like healthcare work tasks, technologies and tools, environmental factors, and organisational conditions, serve to enable the healthcare worker to perform their role and determine the quality of the outcomes, may it be job effectiveness or occupational health and safety.
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Content ArticleAs the pandemic approached England in early 2020, government policy decisions ensured most people stayed at home and NHS hospitals were largely protected. Yet some lives were not saved that should have been and England subsequently experienced the highest levels of excess mortality in Europe. Now as we head towards a winter living with COVID-19, a new hospital discharge policy suggests the English NHS has not learned from early mistakes and may be putting the lives of vulnerable people at risk.
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Content Article'Long Covid' is a term is used to describe individuals who continue to suffer from COVID-19 symptoms outside of the two-week period in which they are believed to be infected. The World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed this two-week period as enough time for the virus and its symptoms to be able to come and go, yet studies are revealing cases in which symptoms are persisting well outside of this window. Survivors may have a chronic debilitating illness for many months.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic will impact the health of many people in England and unfortunately many people will lose their lives. This paper from the Department of Health and Social Care, Office for National Statistics, Government Actuary’s Department and Home Office, provides a summary of research and analysis, discussing and estimating the health impacts (both excess deaths and morbidity) from the pandemic.
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Content ArticlePatient Led Research for COVID-19 invite you to participate in this research study if you have previously experienced or you are currently experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19 as a result of suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The aim of this research study, sponsored by University College London (UCL), is to better describe and understand the patient experience and recovery of those with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, with a specific emphasis on the Long COVID experience. The focus of this study includes participants’ backgrounds, testing, symptoms, and psychological wellbeing. A secondary aim of this study is to publish patient-driven data in order to advocate for the Long COVID population within the medical community. Patient Led Research for COVID-19 are a self-organised group of COVID-19 long-haul patients working on patient-led research around the COVID experience and prolonged recoveries. They are all researchers in relevant fields – participatory design, neuroscience, public policy, data collection and analysis, human-centered design, health activism – in addition to having intimate knowledge of COVID-19.
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Content Article
Greater risk of severe COVID-19 in Black, Asian and minority ethnic populations is not explained by cardiometabolic, socioeconomic or behavioural factors, or by 25(OH)-vitamin D status: study of 1326 cases from the UK Biobank (29 June 2020)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Health inequalities
Research has found that variations in cardiometabolic factors, vitamin D levels and socioeconomic or behavioural factors do not adequately explain why COVID-19 disproportionately affects black, Asian and minority ethnic populations. In this study published in the Journal of Public Health, Raisi-Estabragh et al. examined whether the greater severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) amongst men and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) individuals is explained by cardiometabolic, socio-economic or behavioural factors. They found ethnicity differential pattern of COVID-19 was not adequately explained by variations in cardiometabolic factors, vitamin D levels, or socioeconomic or behavioural factors. This, the researchers said, suggests that alternative biological pathways or genetic susceptibilities may have importance in driving the higher rates of severe COVID-19 in BAME populations and should be investigated. -
Content ArticleThis is the first study, published in Age and Ageing, demonstrating higher prevalence of probable delirium as a COVID-19 symptom in older adults with frailty compared to other older adults. This emphasises need for systematic frailty assessment and screening for delirium in acutely ill older patients in hospital and community settings. Clinicians should suspect COVID-19 in frail adults with delirium.
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Content ArticleThe Health and Social Care Committee is calling for urgent action to assess and tackle a backlog of appointments and an unknown patient demand for all health services, specifically across cancer treatments, mental health services, dentistry services, GP services and elective surgery. MPs say a compelling case has been made for the nationwide routine testing of all NHS staff and they are yet to understand why it cannot be introduced.
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Content ArticleIn the UK, people affected by dementia have been hit the hardest by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. From the high death rate in care homes, to the significant cognitive decline for people who live in the community, to the rising mental health challenges for unpaid carers, the pandemic has had a severe impact, while exposing our fragmented social care system for all to see. Alzheimer’s Society is the UK’s leading dementia charity, and in this report they bring together evidence from a wide range of sources to shine a light on the impact of COVID-19 on people who have dementia and those who care for them.
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Content ArticleA number of posts on Facebook and Twitter are making a number of unfounded claims about government changes to how vaccines are introduced in the UK. These claims are misleading and can cause fear. Some of these posts imply that unlicensed vaccines are untested, which is not the case. An “unlicensed” vaccine for COVID-19 or anything else, does not mean it’s not been tested. Any vaccine rolled out to the public, unlicensed or not, still has to go through extensive clinical trials. This would include a COVID-19 vaccine. Licensing happens after the vaccine has gone through all three phases of pre-launch trials, which usually means the vaccine has already been tested on thousands of adults. Licensing is when experts within the national Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (or the EU regulators, up to the end of the transition period) review the results of the trials. The standards of vaccines generally have to be much higher than those for medication to treat illnesses, as vaccines are usually given to healthy people to prevent disease.The government can already roll-out unlicensed (but not untested) vaccines during a public health emergency, and the government consultation is proposing to clarify the rules around doing this. Here, Full Fact outlines what the government consultation document proposes doing. Full Fact is the UK’s independent fact checking charity.
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Content Article
First, Do No Harm — But in a Pandemic, How? (25 September 2020)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
As hospitals in the US braced for the onslaught of coronavirus cases this past spring, they radically restructured and reorganised to help ease the burden on staff and minimise transmission within the hospital. Along with ceasing elective surgeries and transforming floors to allow for care of intubated patients, visitors were forbidden from entering hospitals with few exceptions. Now, several months removed from the peak of the pandemic, a limited number of visitors are allowed at a time. While limiting visitors allows some additional element of physical distancing, how much does a ban actually help our patients, and how much does it hurt them — especially mothers-to-be in the vulnerable perinatal period? Is it possible to limit visitor-spread virus while allowing our patients the dignity and the peace of companionship during one of the most stressful periods of their lives? In this blog, Byrne and Goldfarb look at the consequences of limiting visitors during the pandemic and considers the negative effect this may have on the health of the patient. -
Content ArticleThe government’s new 'Hands. Face. Space; campaign urges you to continue to wash your hands, cover your face and make space to control infection rates. By following these simple steps, illustrated in this video, you could make a significant difference in reducing the transmission of coronavirus and help protect yourself and your family, friends and colleagues from the virus.
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Content ArticleIn this report, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) explain the information they have gathered on the pressures that services and local systems have faced during COVID-19 and the efforts that have been made to tackle them. These insight reports are designed to help everyone involved in health and social care to work together to learn from the first stages of the COVID-19 pandemic by: sharing and reflecting on what has gone well understanding and learning from the experience of what hasn't helping health and care systems prepare better in the future.
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Content ArticleThe Care Quality Commission (CQC) recognises the enormity of challenges faced by health and care providers in responding to coronavirus (COVID-19). At very short notice, services developed new procedures and ways of working. They looked at how they work with others and how people they care for can stay in touch with family and friends. The CQC asked providers to send examples of changes they made. By sharing examples this may help other providers with the same issues. These are some themes from the examples provided.
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Content ArticleHealth is a universal human right and a main contributor to well-being, economic development, growth, wealth and prosperity for all. Health systems play a key role in protecting, restoring and maintaining the health of patients and populations. A well-trained, motivated and supported health workforce is the backbone of every health system and without them, there would be no healthcare. Health workers around the world are at the front line of the daily battle to contain diseases and to save lives while often risking their own health and lives. Poor and unsafe working conditions increase the risk of occupational diseases and injuries among health workers and jeopardize patient safety, quality of care and the overall resilience of health systems. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has drawn attention to significant gaps in the protection of health workers, emphasising the need to ensure that the occupational safety and health of health workers is a priority. This is fundamental if they are to be enabled to do their jobs and to protect the health of patients and populations. The development and implementation of national programmes for protecting the health and safety of all health workers is an effective way to ensure the application of national occupational safety and health legislation and policies tailored to the needs of the health sector. This World Health Organization (WHO) policy brief is intended to provide a short overview on the issues and recommendations for policy decision-makers in ministries of health and ministries of employment and labour; local authorities; managers of health facilities; professional associations of the various groups of health workers; and organizations of workers and employers in the health sector.
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Content ArticlePresentation from Dr Andrew Hider, Clinical Director, Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Ludlow Street Healthcare, on mental health during the pandemic.
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Content ArticleThis Independent SAGE report provides its own guidance on the measures needed to avoid another national lockdown. "We are in a crisis. Infections and hospital admissions are rapidly increasing. The testing system has broken down and it will be weeks before it is sorted. If nothing changes, there will come a point soon when the situation is so far out of control that the only possible response will be a second national lockdown and our lives will be completely disrupted once again. No one wants thisto happen. We can avoid it if we take urgent action. We must take action immediately to regain control of the pandemic and drive down infections now. We must implement immediately a comprehensive plan including rebuilding our broken test and trace system. And we must all - government, employers and public alike – take responsibility for our own part in making this plan work." Independent SAGE is a group of scientists who are working together to provide independent scientific advice to the UK government and public on how to minimise deaths and support Britain’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.
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Content ArticleApproximately 60-70% of imported respiratory masks are defective and not effective in protecting frontline workers. ECRI offers specialised PPE testing services coupled with customised consultation and recommendations to assist healthcare providers in keeping staff and patients safe. ECRI's N95-Style Mask Testing Program provides assurance on whether masks you have procured or plan to purchase meet industry standards. By testing imported masks, as well as isolation gowns, ECRI is helping healthcare organizations validate products prior to purchase and verify the safety and quality of products already in inventory.
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Content ArticlePresentation from Dr Dan Dalton, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and National Specialty Advisor for Mental Health, on the legal complexity regarding the use of the Mental Health Act for ensuring compliance with infection control measures.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 crisis has created a watershed moment for the NHS, demanding a reappraisal of how essential services are delivered to the public. Even prior to COVID-19, the NHS recognised a pressing need to rethink healthcare using user-centred design principles, based on populations, not organisations. With the advent of the pandemic that pressing need has become an operational imperative. Digital capability has been and will continue to be a key part of transformation, but will only work when aligned with reforms in other key enablers such as financial flow, workforce planning and regulation. Many industries have already made the shift to enabling collaboration and innovation through more agile models of delivery by embracing technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and/or flexible and secure forms of (multi) cloud storage. Health, on the other hand, until now has introduced new technologies with the objective of improving existing pathways and service delivery models. There is now an opportunity to reimagine healthcare, driving true transformation enabled by digital capabilities.
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Content Article
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Neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) disease, also called 'neonatal herpes' or 'neonatal HSV', is a rare, and potentially fatal, disease which usually occurs in the first four weeks of a baby's life. It is caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV), the same virus that causes cold sores and genital infections. HSV infections are incredibly common in older children and adults and typically cause mild symptoms, or often no symptoms at all. There are some simple things you can do to help prevent babies from catching herpes infections. These include regular hand washing, covering cold sores and not kissing babies who are not your own. Click on the link below to find out more about neonatal herpes and how to keep your baby safe.
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