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Showing results for tags 'Care coordination'.
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News Article
Thousands of English NHS 999 calls answered in Wales
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Thousands of 999 calls are being transferred to the Welsh Ambulance Service because they are taking more than five minutes to answer in England, HSJ can reveal. More than 50,000 calls – 1.2% of all made – were sent to a different ambulance service than the one intended between October and the middle of February, under a new system of routing unanswered calls was introduced. It automatically diverts calls which have not been answered after five minutes, rerouting them to services with current capacity, while a BT operator remains on the line until the call is answered. The Welsh Ambulance Service explained it records details from the transferred caller, prioritises the response level and provides lifesaving instructions if required, including having access to a national database of defibrillators. However, it is unable to despatch ambulances outside its area and does not provide clinical assessment. Instead the details are transferred electronically into the “home” trust’s computer-aided despatch system. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 March 2023- Posted
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- Emergency medicine
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News Article
‘Risk averse’ NHS 111 algorithm sends too many patients to A&E
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS 111 sends too many people to accident and emergency departments because its computer algorithm is “too risk averse”, the country’s top emergency doctor has warned. Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), said that December was the “worst ever” in A&E with 9 in 10 emergency care leaders reporting to the RCEM that patients were waiting more than 24 hours in their departments. Asked what measures could help improve pressures in emergency care, Dr Boyle said more clinical input was needed in NHS 111 calls. “In terms of how we manage people who could be looked after elsewhere, the key thing to do is to improve NHS 111,” Dr Boyle told MPs. “There is a lack of clinical validation and a lack of clinical access within NHS 111 - 50 per cent of calls have some form of clinical input, there’s an awful lot which are just people following an algorithm.” Dr Boyle added where clinical input is lacking “it necessarily becomes risk averse and sends too many people to their GP, ambulance or emergency department”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 24 January 2023- Posted
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- Accident and Emergency
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News Article
NHS ‘bed-blocking’ fuelled by 50 steps needed to discharge fit patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hospital staff have to complete 50 separate steps on average to discharge a patient, it has emerged, as the NHS grapples with a bed-blocking crisis. On average, around 14,000 patients deemed fit to leave hospital are stuck in beds every day, according to the latest official figures. The congestion is helping to fuel the backlog in accident and emergency (A&E) departments, where more than 55,000 patients waited 12 hours or longer last month. Steve Barclay, Health Secretary, announced an additional £250 million in funding last week to buy up care beds to help discharge thousands of patients. But doctors, social care experts and families have warned discharges are being delayed by NHS “bureaucracy” and excessive form filling. Dr Matt Kneale, co-chair of the Doctors’ Association UK and a junior doctor in Manchester, said patients are held up by “numerous bottlenecks” before being sent home. “While social care shortages are the predominant issue, smaller factors stack up to create a big problem,” he told The Telegraph. Many hospitals have limits on the times their pharmacies are open, he explained, meaning patients can often be stuck on the ward all day, or an extra night, waiting for their medication. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 15 January 2023- Posted
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- Lack of resources
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News Article
Vulnerable patients, including some children, have faced long delays for a suitable bed as organisations argue over whose responsibility it is to fund and deliver their care, HSJ understands. In a letter outlining winter arrangements, NHS England has warned trust leaders and commissioners against delaying emergency mental health admissions – typically needed when a patient is away from home, and understood to be more common over the Christmas period – while determining which area has which responsibility. National mental health director Claire Murdoch wrote: “It is not acceptable to delay an emergency mental health admission while determining which area has clinical and financial responsibility for the care of an individual.” She added such admissions should be arranged “as quickly as possible, and without delay caused by any financial sign-off process”. It comes as HSJ has been told patients can often end up waiting for several days in emergency departments or in “inappropriate” out of area or acute beds when disputes occur over who is responsible for their care. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 December 2022- Posted
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- Emergency medicine
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News Article
NHSE tells trusts: ‘be robust’ with GP referrals
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An NHS England director says trusts should use ‘as robust triage as you can possibly do’ when deciding whether to accept referrals from GPs. Ian Eardley, NHSE’s joint national clinical director for elective recovery, was asked during an internal NHSE webinar how trusts can encourage GPs to work more closely with secondary care to make sure they only send appropriate referrals. He said: “There’s got to be as robust triage as you can possibly do, so if you’ve got referrals coming in which haven’t got the relevant or wrong information, then I think you need senior clinicians in a position to go back to the GP and say we need this bit of information or the other… Ultimately, it’s about robust front-end management.” However, he admitted it was a “difficult [issue and] really difficult to do anything centrally”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 23 November 2022 -
News Article
Hospital merger confusion blamed for cancer deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A ‘leading’ cancer service has reported a series of safety incidents which contributed to patients being severely harmed or dying, HSJ has reported. An internal report at Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust suggests the incidents within the pancreatic cancer specialty were partly linked to patient pathways being ill-defined following the merger of its two major hospitals. The report lists seven incidents involving severe harm or death, and five involving moderate harm. It is not clear how many of the patients died. The trust was formed in 2019 through the merger of the Royal Liverpool and Aintree acute sites, with the consolidation of clinical services an integral part of the plans. However, there were no formal plans to change the configuration of pancreatic cancer services, which already operated under a “hub and spoke” model. In one finding relevant to all 12 incidents, the report said: “Patient ownership and clinician accountability (local vs specialist) have not been defined following the merger of the legacy trusts and subsequent service reconfigurations. “This has contributed to system failures in the provision of timely quality care, particularly in patients with time-critical clinical uncertainty.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 October 2022- Posted
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News Article
NHS 111 failures led to early Covid deaths, investigation finds
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Multiple failures by the NHS 111 telephone advice service early in the pandemic left Covid patients struggling to get care and led directly to some people dying, an investigation has found. The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) looked into the help that NHS 111 gave people with Covid in the weeks before and after the UK entered its first lockdown on 23 March 2020. It identified a series of weaknesses with the helpline, including misjudgment of how seriously ill some people with Covid were, a failure to tell some people to seek urgent help, and a lack of capacity to deal with a sudden spike in calls. It also raised concerns that the government’s advice to citizens to “stay at home” to protect NHS services deterred people who needed immediate medical attention from seeking it from GPs and hospitals, sometimes with fatal consequences. Mistakes identified by HSIB included that: The CRS algorithm did not allow for the assessment of any life-threatening illness a caller had – such as obesity, cancer or lung disease – to establish whether they should undergo a clinical assessment. When many callers reached the core 111 service, there was no way to divert them as intended to the CRS, which was operationally independent of 111. Although patients who had Covid-19 symptoms as well as underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, were meant to be assessed when they spoke to the core 111 service, some were not. The number of extra calls to 111 in March 2020 meant that only half were answered. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 September 2022- Posted
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- Pandemic
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Event
untilFrom the perspective of a service user, interactions with health and social care are often exceedingly difficult to navigate. The NHS’s traditional to approach to managing patient pathways has involved letters, appointments at set times, and stress for an individual needing to communicate that a planned consultation is no longer needed – or is needed more urgently. Knowing which service to access, and how to do so swiftly, can be particularly challenging. All this is inefficient and can lead to poor patient experience. As the service seeks to manage the backlog of care, and to meet the continuing demands of an unpredictable pandemic, that becomes particularly problematic. So how might healthcare organisations help move from patients who are passive participants in pathways to active partners, able to regularly communicate as their needs change? How might self-referrals and patient initiated follow up processes be more widely rolled out? What unpinning technology would be needed to make such a shift? This HSJ webinar, run in association with Salesforce, will bring together a small panel to discuss these issues. Register- Posted
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- Patient engagement
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Event
untilIn order to support the NHS Priorities set out for 2022/2023 in delivering significantly more elective care to tackle the elective backlog and to reduce long waits, we take a look at the developing approaches to patient care using collaborations with providers delivering treatments in the home in order to support patient flow. This webinar will explore: How teams have innovated to provide hospital-at-home during the Covid-19 crisis and what’s needed to maintain the momentum of change? What is the future direction for hospital-at-home, post-pandemic, and what will accelerate or prevent adoption at scale? Evaluation and evidence required to support the case for change. Register- Posted
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- Care goals
- Care coordination
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Community Post
Untapped resource: patient knowledge
lzipperer posted a topic in Patient engagement
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"There is an aspect of information exchange that has attracted less attention and fewer resources: that patients are experts in their experience and know much more than clinicians about their own health and the needs and goals important to them." From: https://catalyst.nejm.org/information-asymmetry-untapped-patient/ Such an important point to see patients as knowledge hubs on their own care experiences.- Posted
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Content Article
The Diabetes UK report is informed by a survey of more than 10,000 people living with and affected by diabetes, and revealed: Almost half (47%) had experienced difficulties managing their condition in 2021. 63% attributed this in part to not having sufficient access to their healthcare team, rising to 71% in the most deprived areas of the country. One in six reported no contact whatsoever about their diabetes with their healthcare team since before the pandemic. These findings are backed up by NHS figures which report that just 36% of people with diabetes in England received all their recommended care checks in 2020/21, compared with 57% in 2019-201. The survey also revealed stark health inequalities. It showed that people from the most deprived areas of the country were more likely to have experienced difficulties managing their diabetes, with 56% of people in the most deprived areas saying they had experienced problems compared to 44% in the least deprived. Call for action A recovery plan from UK Government specifically addressing the challenges facing diabetes services, including staffing constraints, so that people with the condition can access the vital support they need. A renewed commitment to improving outcomes for people with, and at risk of, diabetes in the forthcoming refresh of the NHS Long Term Plan – and the further investment needed to make this happen. A cross-government strategy to tackle health inequalities in the forthcoming White Paper on Health Disparities. Integrated Care Systems to urgently draw up plans to catch up on the backlog of diabetes care, with the aim of ensuring everyone with diabetes has had a review of the key care processes and their care plan by the end of 2022. -
News Article
111 First to go live imminently amid ‘vehement’ opposition in some EDs
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Emergency care leaders are warning it will take up to six more months to determine whether pilots of a radical change to accident and emergency are working, even though it is due to go live nationally next week, HSJ has learned. HSJ understands the new “111 First” system — where walk-in patients not in medical emergencies call 111 to “book” urgent care — is set to “go live” across England from next week following pilots in acute trusts which have been run since the summer. From 1 December, people will be able to call NHS 111 from anywhere in the country and have urgent care “booked” for them if needed, it is understood. NHS England has been pursuing the 111 First model to help reduce overcrowding and the risk of nosocomial infections in A&Es. The service is also intended to be able to book them into GP practice appointments. Well-placed sources confirmed most acute trusts have now implemented some form of 111 First and the model is set to be part of their standard operations when the national system “goes live” next week. A national advertising campaign is expected to promote the approach. But the Royal College of Emergency Care Medicine said there was a “vocal minority” of clinicians who are “vehemently against” 111 First as they believe it will increase demand in emergency departments. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 25 November 2020- Posted
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- Accident and Emergency
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News Article
Safety probe launched into NHS 111 Covid triage service
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Long delays for coronavirus patients to get through to NHS 111 call handlers while other seriously ill patients were told to stay at home have prompted a safety watchdog to launch an investigation of the phone triage service. The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has launched an inquiry into the handling of coronavirus calls by NHS 111 – the first port of call for patients when they become unwell. During the pandemic the NHS 111 service set up a dedicated COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS) but concerns over the safety of advice given to patients saw nurses and non-medical staff stopped from taking patient calls in August last year. Now concerns from a number of patients and families have led the independent HSIB to launch a review of the service and to identify any learning and improvements. HSIB told The Independent the investigation was at an early stage and it was not yet certain of any direct link to patient harm. It said the number of patient cases could grow but that it had initial family concerns related to difficulties getting through to NHS 111, long delays in getting clinical call backs after an initial triage call and concerns that some patients were told to stay at home when they were seriously ill. Read full story Source: The Independent, 23 March 2021- Posted
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News Article
Serious patient safety and wellbeing concerns about the latest hospital discharge guidance have been raised to HSJ by senior clinicians and charities. Senior geriatricians warned that the guidance could prompt an increase in “urgent readmissions”, “permanent disability” and “excess mortality”, while charities said families could be left with “unsustainable caring responsibilities” because of the new rules. The government guidance, Hospital Discharge Service: policy and operating model, published in August, said clinicians should consider discharging patients when they were “medically optimised” rather than “medically fit”. It said 95% of these patients would return straight home with additional social care and rehabilitation support if needed. Many of the concerns raised surround the retention of the “criteria to reside”. This was originally agreed in March when there was a push from NHS England to free up acute beds over fears hospitals would become overwhelmed with covid admissions as the pandemic hit the UK. The criteria has, however, been maintained in the new guidance, despite a significant fall in infections and deaths from the virus. Rachel Power, chief executive of The Patients Association charity, warned: “This guidance makes it clear that the NHS is still having to take drastic emergency action in the face of covid-19, that will continue to take a heavy toll on patients. It is clear that many patients will be rushed home who would normally have had a longer period of hospital care.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 September 2020- Posted
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- Post-discharge support
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News Article
Hancock extends emergency patient data sharing rules
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Matt Hancock has extended four national data sharing orders which allow GPs and NHS organisations to share confidential patient information, as part of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data sharing instructions were initially put in place in March when the pandemic broke out in earnest, and they were due to expire at the end of September. Under the arrangement GPs, NHS providers, NHS Digital, NHS England/Improvement, local authorities and the UK Biobank can share information about patients’ treatment and medical history - if doing so would help their response to COVID-19. The data sharing instructions have now been extended until 31 March next year. According to the Department of Health and Social Care’s update which notified organisations of the extension, NHS entities can share information for reasons such as helping to support the NHS Test and Trace service, identifying further patients at risk of COVID-19, and understanding information about patient access to health and adult social care services. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 20 August 2020 -
News Article
Social care at breaking point in England after 'lost decade'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Policymakers’ failure to tackle chronically underfunded social care has resulted in a “lost decade” and a system now at breaking point, according to a new report. A team led by Jon Glasby, a professor of health and social care at the University of Birmingham, says that without swift government intervention including urgent funding changes England’s adult social care system could quickly become unsustainable. Adult social care includes residential care homes and help with eating, washing, dressing and shopping. The paper says the impact has been particularly felt in services for older people. Those for working-age people have been less affected. It suggests that despite the legitimate needs of other groups “it is hard to interpret this other than as the product of ageist attitudes and assumptions about the role and needs of older people”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 August 2020- Posted
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- Community care facility
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News Article
Covid aftercare piles pressure on ‘understaffed’ community services
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The aftercare of COVID-19 patients will have significant financial implications for ‘understaffed’ community services, NHS England has been warned. This month the national commissioner released guidance for the care of patients once they have recovered from an immediate covid infection and been discharged from hospital. It said community health services will need to provide “ongoing health support that rehabilitates [covid patients] both physically and mentally”. The document said this would result in increased demand for home oxygen services, pulmonary rehabilitation, diagnostics and for many therapies such as speech and language, occupational, physio, dieticians and mental health support. One GP heavily involved in community rehab told HSJ: “There is a lot detailed information about what people might experience in recovery, but it doesn’t say what should actually happen. “We have seen people discharged from hospital that don’t know anything about their follow-up and the community [health sector] hasn’t got any instructions of what they should be doing or what services have even reopened. This guidance needs to go a step further and rapidly say what is expected so local commissioners can put that in place.” Read full story Source: HSJ, 10 June 2020 -
News Article
Ministers to set up ‘dedicated team’ to aid NHS recovery
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government said it will set up ‘dedicated team’ to look for innovative ways for the NHS to continue treating people for coronavirus, while also providing care for non-covid health issues. In its pandemic recovery strategy published today, the government also said step-down and community care will be “bolstered” to support earlier discharge from acute hospitals. The 60-page document contained little new information about plans for NHS services, but said: “The government will seek innovative operating models for the UK’s health and care settings, to strengthen them for the long term and make them safer for patients and staff in a world where COVID-19 continues to be a risk. “For example, this might include using more telemedicine and remote monitoring to give patients hospital-level care from the comfort and safety of their own homes. Capacity in community care and step-down services will also be bolstered, to help ensure patients can be discharged from acute hospitals at the right time for them". To this end, the government will establish a dedicated team to see how the NHS and health infrastructure can be supported for the COVID-19 recovery process and thereafter. Read full story Source: 12 May 2020- Posted
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- Virus
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News Article
NHS data sharing failure ‘exasperating and could cause error’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Significant concerns about the NHS’ refusal to share data with councils have emerged in a letter from a leading council chief executive and clinical commissioning group accountable officer. Steven Pleasant, chief executive of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and accountable officer of Tameside and Glossop CCG, said the failures are “becoming increasingly exasperating”, in a letter intended for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s shielding sounding board. Steven said he understands NHS Digital has decided the most recent version of the list cannot be shared with councils even though it is being shared with police, fire, voluntary organisations and companies offering logistical support. “I am sure that you will appreciate that this is counterproductive and frustrating given that local authorities are leading and coordinating the response to the most vulnerable in communities,” he wrote. He also raised concerns about how the NHS’ shielded patients team is passing on to councils information about people needing additional support — for instance, if the recipient’s food parcel stock is running low, requiring the council to step in. Welfare concerns and medication information could also need to be passed on. Mr Pleasant said although his council had asked for this information to be provided via email, staff “have been told by the NHS shielding team that they do not have permission to do this and that details can only be provided verbally over the phone”. “We believe this significantly increases the chances of error and presents significant risk… around incorrect information being captured,” he wrote. Read full story Source: HSJ, 21 April 2020 -
News Article
Coronavirus pressures 'put organ transplants at risk'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The UK's organ transplant network could be forced to shut down as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, the body that runs the scheme is warning. One factor is the pressure on intensive care beds, according to NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). But there is also the risk to transplant patients, who have their immune systems suppressed so their bodies don't reject new organs. This is a dilemma for those like Ana-Rose Thorpe, from Manchester, who is waiting for a liver transplant. Now aged 29, Ana-Rose has lived with hepatitis almost her entire life after contracting it as a baby. The disease has taken its toll and now her liver is failing and she is in desperate need of a transplant. "Having to go into hospital while there are coronavirus patients there is very worrying," she says. "Whilst my body could withstand the transplant, the longer I'm not being monitored, not being seen as often as I was, the longer I leave it, I could just get sicker and sicker. "I feel like it's patients that are already on the transplant list, patients waiting for other operations, we have just been swept aside." "It's my life - it is a matter of life and death," Ana-Rose says. Read full story Source: BBC News, 9 April 2020- Posted
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News Article
Mental health charity slams Government's ‘irresponsible’ coronavirus bill
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A mental health charity has branded as “irresponsible” the Government’s coronavirus bill which would grant single doctors the power to detain the mentally ill. The Government wants to relax legal safeguards in the Mental Health Act in order to free up medical staff to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. If passed, the bill would reduce the number of doctors needed to approve detaining individuals from the current minimum of two, to just one. In addition, it would temporarily allow time limits in the Mental Health Act to be extended or removed altogether. This would mean patients currently detained in mental health facilities could be released into the community early, or be detained for longer. Akiko Hart, Chief of National Survivor User Network (NSUN), a UK mental health charity, said: “Whilst we understand that these are unprecedented times, any legislative change must be proportionate and thought through, and should protect all of us. Minimising some of the safeguards in the Mental Health Act and extending its powers, is a step in the wrong direction.” Read full story Source: The London Economic, 19 March 2020- Posted
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- Virus
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