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Showing results for tags 'Ambulance'.
Found 65 results
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News Article
Woman died in Cardiff home after waiting 'hours' for ambulance
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
Maria Whale, 67, has died after waiting more than two hours for an ambulance after her husband dialled 999 when she began experiencing "severe abdominal" pain. Mr Whale has said the family have questioned whether she would have lived if the ambulance had arrived sooner, saying they had waited "four to five hours" for it to come. However, the Welsh ambulance service has said its records showed the call was placed at 02:10 BST before a paramedic arrived at 04:22 BST, with the ambulance following shortly thereafter at 04:35 BST - two hours and 25 minutes after the first call. "We are d -
News ArticleThe care watchdog has warned patient care may be being affected by the current pressures on the NHS with healthcare workers suffering significant levels of stress. Concerns have been raised in recent weeks after a surge in Covid-19 infections has resulted in record numbers of people calling for ambulances and attending emergency departments, overwhelming the service. Professor Ted Baker, the Care Quality Commission’s chief inspector of hospitals has said “It's imperative that not only do we deal with the immediate pressures on the system, we also need to deal with the underlying pro
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News Article
London Ambulance Service declares incident as 999 calls surge
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
The London Ambulance service declared a 'business continuity incident' on Monday after a surge in 999 calls. Paramedics were told the ambulance service was under extreme demand after the calls threatened to overwhelm the service. The announcement was made after more than 400 calls were made in a single hour during Monday afternoon. “Yesterday we saw high levels of demand for our services and used tested processes to care for our patients – this allowed some people with the least urgent care needs to be treated through alternative routes" said a London Ambulance Service spokesperson -
News Article
Ambulance trusts on 'black alert'
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
999 calls soar as patients experience record waiting times in the back of ambulances. The Independent has seen a leaked brief from the West Midlands Ambulance Service and has found patients have been waiting for hours outside hospitals, meaning ambulances could not respond to any emergency 999 calls. Ambulance staff have also faced hours of delays resulting in at least four hours or more at the end of their 12 hour shift. The briefing in June said "“This current situation is unacceptable and leads to fatigue, poor morale, has impacts on patient safety and potentially non-comp -
News Article
Ambulance crews in England to get body cameras after 30% rise in assaults
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Thousands of ambulance crews in England will be given body cameras after a sharp rise in attacks on NHS staff treating patients, the government has announced. Data shows that 3,569 ambulance staff were physically assaulted by members of the public last year – 30% more than in 2016-17. The plans come after successful trials in London and the north-east. The cameras will be given to crews in 10 ambulance trusts across the country. Medics will wear the cameras and be able to press a button to start recording if patients or the public become aggressive or abusive, and the film will be given t -
News Article
Ambulance trust reveals patient’s death amid handover delays row
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An ambulance trust has highlighted the death of a woman which it says was due to “being delayed on the back of an ambulance”, just two days after it warned that lives were ‘at risk’ from long handovers. West Midlands Ambulance Service University Foundation Trust’s board papers this month reveal the woman in her 90s — who has not been named — was taken to hospital because a severe nose bleed would not stop. Its clinical quality board paper says the “patient story” showed ”how a patient being delayed on the back of an ambulance resulted in significant deterioration and ultimately the d -
Content Article"For our May 2021 report, we are presenting a patient story of how a patient being delayed on the back of an ambulance resulted in significant deterioration and ultimately the death of a patient. We have removed all patient identifiers from this account: The patient associated with this case was a lady in her early 90s who had a two hour history of epistaxis (the third episode within the space of a week), the bleeding would not stop despite direct pressure and the application of the 'rhino pinch' and packing of the patient’s nostrils. The patient was extricated to the ambulance and c
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News Article
Ambulance crews in England to use iPads to assess accident and stroke victims
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ambulance crews will start using iPads to send photographs of accident and stroke victims to specialist hospital doctors so that they can make rapid diagnoses and save some patients a trip to A&E. NHS England is giving 30,000 iPads to regional ambulance services to help paramedics decide what care to give and whether to take someone to hospital or treat them at the scene. The tablet computers will be a vital link between ambulance crews and hospital consultants, whose digital interaction will make treatment faster and better, NHS England said. For example, the devices will l -
News ArticleThe Equality and Human Rights Commission has required an ambulance trust to sign a legally-binding agreement stating how it will protect its staff from sexual harassment. This is thought to be the first time the EHRC has taken such action against an English NHS organisation and follows repeated concerns about the culture at East of England Ambulance Service Trust. As a result, EHRC will now monitor the trust’s action plan for protecting staff from sexual harassment. The Care Quality Commission asked the EHRC to consider taking enforcement action against the trust last summer, af
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Content Article
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Content ArticleHSIB recommendations HSIB recommends that NHS England and NHS Improvement revise the Ambulance Clinical Quality Indicator: Clinical Outcomes for ST-elevation myocardial infarction to reflect each element of the call to balloon response and review this indicator alongside the critical time standards workstream. HSIB recommends that the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, working with the College of Paramedics and cardiology specialists, produces a position statement on the use of pre-hospital thrombolysis by paramedics. HSIB recommends that NHS England and NHS Improvemen
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Content Article
Human factors for emergency response and critical care
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Techniques
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News ArticleRotating clinicians and keeping ventilation running are among Public Health England’s (PHE) recommendations for how to avoid spreading covid while looking after patients in the back of ambulances outside emergency departments. The suggestions are made in unprecedented new guidance issued by PHE amid sky-high rates of very long ambulance handovers outside hospitals. This is because emergency departments (EDs) are struggling with attempts to maintain distancing for infection control, along with high occupancy and severe operational pressures elsewhere in hospitals. It has led over the
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News Article
Patients ‘treated in ambulances as there was no space in A&E’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A London hospital is being forced to send patients back to ambulances for treatment due to an ‘overwhelming’ number of Covid patients on ICU wards, according to a frontline doctor. The medic, who asked to remain anonymous, said A&E staff are "running" into waiting ambulances to treat patients there until space becomes available. He said: "It’s not the fault of the staff, but the sheer numbers are so unprecedented and being full like this means that you just have to do your best to adapt. But it’s not the standard (of care) I signed up to." "It’s extremely stressful for us to -
News ArticleHundreds of people a day across London are waiting hours for an emergency ambulance to get to them, as paramedics warn that patients are dying as a result of delays. Patients in emergency calls classified as category two, such as those involving a suspected stroke or chest pains, should be seen by paramedics within an average of 18 minutes but are being forced in some cases to wait up to 10 hours. Even life-threatening calls where patients are in cardiac arrest and should be reached within seven minutes have experienced delays, with data suggesting one such call was waiting 20 minute
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News ArticleElderly people who suffer falls are having to wait up to six hours for an ambulance because of rising Covid pressures, a medical body has warned. The delays are due to paramedics having to prioritise 999 calls from people suffering from coronavirus related breathing difficulties. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 1 January 2021
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News Article
Major trust diverts ambulances and cancels electives after covid surge
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
One of England’s largest hospital trusts has been forced to divert ambulances and cancel operations, after seeing a very steep increase in covid-19 admissions over the past week. Whipps Cross Hospital in north east London, part of Barts Health Trust, declared a critical incident over the weekend, the trust has confirmed. The trust has also declared a “high pressure phase” of covid response. A well placed source said Whipps Cross had been forced to divert ambulances in recent days, because of pressure on its emergency services, while a message to staff said it was deferring some plann -
Content Article
Podcast: Incident reporting
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Good practice
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News ArticleAmbulance chiefs have warned coronavirus precautions in hospital emergency departments are putting patients’ lives at risk because of long delays before patients are being treated. West Midlands Ambulance Service has written a formal warning to three hospitals in the region over the delays to handing over patients from ambulance to hospital staff. In one case, a patient was left waiting with ambulance crews for up to three and a half hours. According to the letter, obtained by the Health Service Journal, the delays are being caused because of tougher infection control measures w
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News ArticleFollowing a damning report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) has been placed into special measures. It comes after inspectors uncovered a culture of bullying and sexual harassment at the trust. As a result of the decision, EEAST will receive enhanced support to improve its services. A statement from NHS England and NHS Improvement outlined that the Trust would be supported with the appointment of an improvement director, the facilitation of a tailored ‘Freedom to Speak Up’ support package, the arrangement of an external ‘bud
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News ArticleAn ambulance service could be put in special measures after a damning report criticised poor leadership for fostering bullying and not acting decisively on allegations of predatory sexual behaviour towards patients. East of England Ambulance Service Trust failed to protect patients and staff from sexual abuse, inappropriate behaviour and harassment, the Care Quality Commission said. It failed to support the mental health and wellbeing of staff, with high levels of bullying and harassment. Staff who raised concerns were not treated with respect and some senior leaders adopted a “comba
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Content Article
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News Article
Fears some ambulances 'left Covid patients at home'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Some seriously ill COVID-19 patients in London may not have been taken to hospital by ambulance because of a system temporarily used to assess people, a BBC investigation suggests. Patients could have "become very sick or died at home" instead, a paramedic claimed. One family said they had to plead to get hospital care. Medical professionals use 'NEWS2', as one way of identifying patients at risk of deteriorating, a check normally used for sepsis patients. Under normal circumstances, ambulance teams would blue-light anyone with a score of five or above to hospital. But on 1
