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Showing results for tags 'Crisis response'.
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Content ArticleMonths before Hurricane Helene would devastate the Southeast, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement was launching its Chief Quality Officer Network. The group was to serve as a forum for best practices on quality and safety for executives around the world. Hospital leaders discuss how they navigated the healthcare challenges caused by Hurricane Helene, including working together through the CQO Network to share solutions.
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Content Article
Spotlight on Sudan: How can we improve healthcare services during war?
tikena17 posted an article in Organisational
From Kiev to Khartoum to Gaza, people are losing all their rights, including the right to life itself. From his observations of healthcare conditions in Sudan, Dr Ahmed Khalafalla presents some ideas on how we can improve healthcare services during times of war and uncertainty to make healthcare services accessible for those who need them. In Sudan, at the beginning of the conflict, people turned to adaptive measures that derived from the inherited and acquired health culture of our local communities. The local people returned to using the tools and resources that they have known for thousands of years to manage their health, including the use of folk healers or natural medicine. Next, the healthcare systems and healthcare institutions had to adapt because of the comprehensive collapse of the healthcare system and the inability of most health institutions to provide healthcare due to institutions targeted and destroyed by the warring parties during the fighting and for other reasons related to its operational capacity – the workforce and human resources no longer having any organisational body, medical and logistical equipment and supplies becoming almost non-existent, and a lack of financing and financial resources. This led to adaptation methods represented by the displacement of a large part of the workforce from providing healthcare services in urban cities to the countryside. In Sudan there is a big difference and variation between providing healthcare services in urban cities and providing healthcare services in the countryside, where healthcare services are few and limited in rural regions. As the war extended into the cities, doctors were forced to go to the countryside and rural regions to provide their medical services, operating public hospitals and increasing their operational capacity by adding new specialty or operating medical centres as a private sector. We must also recognise the roles that international organisations working in the health and humanitarian field play. They have made notable efforts in supporting and providing medical and health services, providing financial support, providing medicines and medical consumables, and putting pressure on warring parties to provide safe passages for healthcare providers operating in some hospitals. However, I believe that their role is very small compared to what is expected of them. All of these abovementioned factors contribute to improving healthcare for people living in countries at war. However, we need more effective measures to improve the provision of healthcare services, including: Increasing community awareness and involving local communities in improving healthcare plans. Increasing the administrative and technical leadership organisation. Launching initiatives to attract support for healthcare services. Increasing pressure on the parties at war to first stop the war, and second to adhere to the ethics of war and the humanitarian norms and laws by allowing the provision of healthcare services and protecting medical teams and healthcare providers. Appealing to the World Health Organization and other organisations to increase their support for war and disaster areas. Further blogs from Dr Ahmed Khalafalla: Spotlight on Sudan: Patient safety during wartime when healthcare systems collapse -
Content ArticleThe Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) sets out the NHS's approach to developing and maintaining effective systems and processes for responding to patient safety incidents for the purpose of learning and improving patient safety It is intended to support one of the key aims of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, to help the NHS improve its understanding of safety by drawing insight from patient safety incidents. This will replace the Serious Incident Framework with organisations expected to transition to PSIRF within 12 months of its publication, by Autumn 2023. Guidance documents and templates Patient Safety Incident Response Framework Engaging and involving patients, families and staff following a patient safety incident Guide to responding proportionally to patient safety incidents Oversight roles and responsibilities specification Patient safety incident response standards PSIRF Preparation guide PSIRF policy and plan templates Patient safety learning response toolkit The PSIRF is a contractual requirement under the NHS Standard Contract and as such is mandatory for services provided under that contract, including acute, ambulance, mental health, and community healthcare providers. Its intention is to support the development and maintenance of an effective patient safety incident response system that integrates four key aims: Compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents. Application of a range of system-based approaches to learning from patient safety incidents. Considered and proportionate responses to patient safety incidents. Supportive oversight focused on strengthening response system functioning and improvement. As part of this change, organisations are required to develop a thorough understanding of their patient safety incident profile, ongoing safety actions (in response to recommendations from investigations) and established improvement programmes. A patient safety incident response planning exercise is used to inform what the organisation’s proportionate response to patient safety incidents should be. The PSIRF approach is designed to be flexible and adapt as organisations learn and improve, so they explore patient safety incidents relevant to their context and the populations they serve.
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News ArticleViolence against healthcare workers has become a “global crisis”, with 161 medics killed and 188 incidents of hospitals being destroyed or damaged last year, according to a new report. Data collected from 49 conflict zones by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC), also found that 320 health workers were wounded in attacks, 170 were kidnapped and 713 people were arrested in the course of their work. The US-based group said on Tuesday that, although the total number of attacks was similar to those recorded in recent years, there had been an increase in violence in areas of new or renewed conflict in 2021, “underlining the fact that attacks on healthcare are a common feature in many of today’s conflicts”. Christina Wille, director at Insecurity Insight, which led the data collection and analysis, said: “Violence against healthcare resulted in widespread impacts on public health programmes, vaccination campaigns and population health, contributing to avoidable deaths and long-term consequences for individuals, communities, countries and global health writ large.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 24 May 2022
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Content ArticleWhen Emma Powell experienced psychosis this year, she was told to go to A&E by the mental health crisis team. But she was left waiting for a bed for three and a half days, in conditions that only made her distress worse. In this article, Emma describes several experiences of trying to access crisis care for her schizoaffective disorder. She explains the impact of long waits at A&E and how they make her condition worse, with the overcrowded and busy environment causing overstimulation, and changing staff carrying out repetitive consultations causing confusion and exhaustion.
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Content ArticleTo tackle the serious harms, up to and including death, associated with eating disorders it is crucial that more is done to identify them at the earliest stage possible so that the appropriate care and treatment can be provided. This new guidance by the Royal College of Psychiatrists is based on the advice and recommendations of an Expert Working Group. It provides a comprehensive overview of the latest evidence associated with eating disorders, including highlighting the importance and role of healthcare professionals from right across the spectrum recognising their responsibilities in this area.
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Content ArticleThis letter to NHS mental health trusts, Integrated Care Boards and Commissioners outlines NHS England's position on the use of Serenity Integrated Mentoring (SIM) in NHS mental health services. SIM is a model of care that has been used with people with mental health issues who are considered high-intensity users of emergency services. It is a controversial approach as it instructs services providing emergency care not to provide support to these individuals. In the letter. Professor Tim Kendall, National Clinical Director for Mental Health outlines NHS England's position that SIM or similar models must no longer be used in NHS mental health services. More specifically, the following three elements, which were all included within SIM but were not exclusive to it, must be eradicated from mental health services: Police involvement in the delivery of therapeutic interventions in planned, non-emergency, community mental health care (this is not the same as saying all joint work with the police must stop). The use of sanctions (criminal or otherwise), withholding care and otherwise punitive approaches, as clarified in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. Discriminatory practices and attitudes towards patients who express self-harm behaviours, suicidality and/or those who are deemed ‘high intensity users’.
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Content ArticleThe NHS and social care system in the UK are under immense strain, and this is increasingly causing harm to patients. This is seen in the current crisis in urgent and emergency care, but is present throughout the system. This BMJ article looks at a collaborative document produced by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) and the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM). The document highlights key actions and priorities that may help mitigate part of the crisis facing the NHS. As part of these recommendations, the authors call on the UK governments to increase and prioritise investment in primary care, social care, mental health and ambulance services.
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Content ArticleThis report by Save the Children's Global Medical Team (GMT) shares the results of independent audits conducted in 2021. The audits aimed to assess the safety and quality of clinical and pharmacy services delivered by the organisation across seven countries. The team strategically focused on higher-risk programmes where Save the Children staff deliver services directly, with an aim to ensure that services remain safe and fully assured. This report highlights some key findings. Clinical services 100% of direct medical services were conducting the Clinical Standards Scorecards to ensure the safety of their service provision. However, use of the monthly and quarterly checklists was not as high or as regular. Direct service delivery in a majority of countries audited (5 out of 7) were fully compliant with the Clinical Standards. The average patient satisfaction score was 88%, outlining that in general, the 105 patients surveyed were satisfied with all aspects of service provision within our direct medical services. The report also makes recommendations for improvement related to: Infection prevention and control Morbidity and mortality reviews Clinical referrals Medical standard treatment compliance Clinical triage Infrastructure Human resources for health Pharmacy services Overall compliance to pharmacy standards varies significantly across countries, ranging from 57 to 100%. Compliance with waste management and Medical Incident Reporting (MIR) is generally high (above 80%) across all seven countries. Countries that were able to attend GMT Pharmacy Reference Group meetings on a regular basis had higher compliance scores. The report also makes recommendations for improvement related to: Sourcing medications In-country staff engagement Stock management Medication storage Ensuring pharmacy support at a local level
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Content Article
This is part of our new series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people about their role and what motivates them to make health and social care safer. Roohil talks to us about the vital role of pharmacists in making sure medications help patients, rather than causing harm. She highlights the global threat of substandard and counterfeit medicines, the need to improve access to medicines and the importance of having pharmacists 'on the ground' to help patients understand how to take them. -
Content ArticleCrisis resolution teams (CRTs) provide treatment at home to people experiencing mental health crises, as an alternative to hospital admission. This study in the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing aimed to measure whether CRTs adhere to a model of good practice, using one-day fidelity reviews of UK crisis teams. The authors found that despite a national mandate to implement the CRT model, there are wide variations in implementation in the UK and no teams in the sample achieved overall high fidelity.
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Content ArticleThis letter from NHS Confederation to Thérèse Coffey MP, the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, sets out what needs to be done to support the delivery of an emergency winter plan for health and social care services. It outlines the views of NHS Confederation members on what will be needed to deliver the ‘ABCD’ highlighted as priorities by the Secretary of State: ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists.
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Content ArticlePort-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, has seen waves of clashes between armed groups. The violence has driven a stark need for emergency trauma care and surgery, and cut people off from the everyday healthcare services they need. Nurse Amadeus von der Oelsnitz explains how the Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence help teams provide vital healthcare in a city torn apart by insecurity.
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Content ArticleThis report by The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change sets out an action plan to save the NHS this winter. It highlights the pressures the health service faces, worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, including a resurgent flu epidemic, the effect of the cost-of-living crisis, the unprecedented elective-care backlog and a depleted and exhausted workforce. The authors call for the Government to immediately: focus leadership minimise demand on the service improve patient flow and efficiency maximise capacity. The report proposes twelve actions to help stem the crisis facing the NHS: Focus Leadership 1. Set up a winter-crisis taskforce and settle additional funding early. Minimise Demand 2. Campaign for widespread and early Covid-19 and flu vaccinations across the NHS workforce. 3. Extend public-facing Covid-19 and flu-vaccination strategies to all those aged over 18. 4. Mandate FFP2/3 face-mask wearing for NHS staff in health-care settings. 5. Be prepared to reintroduce the mandating of mask wearing on public transport and in confined spaces. Improve Patient Flow and Efficiency 6. Improve the speed and consistency of access to primary care. 7. Roll out technology to release capacity and manage patient demand. 8. Increase support for social-care services and expedite patient discharges. 9. Identify and enable the flexible use of regional surge capacity. Maximise Capacity 10. Stand up a volunteer and reservist workforce. 11. Expand use of private-sector capacity. 12. Prioritise staff retention.
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Content Article
We should be! The NHS has declared climate change a health emergency, but are trust leaders and healthcare staff talking and acting on this? In her second blog for the hub, Angela Hayes, Clinical Lead Sustainability at the Christie Foundation Trust, discusses why as healthcare professionals we have a duty to care, to protect and promote public health, and why nurses are ideally placed to deliver this vital climate emergency health message. The impact of climate change on public health is extensive (see diagram from the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare below) and has been declared an ‘emergency’. The climate crisis threatens to undo the gains we made to public health over the last 50 years and threatens the lives of millions. It impacts on the most vulnerable members of society – those who contribute to global warming the least and who are least resilient to its effects. Avoidable deaths are happening now – we’ve seen the devastation caused by the recent floods in Pakistan, and the ongoing famine in Somalia means thousands face starvation. Both these are directly attributable to global warming. The climate emergency is literally on our doorstep and we have to act now – not in the future. We have to act in response to an emergency. As healthcare professionals we have a duty to care, to protect and promote public health. Our nursing unions agree and, as the most trusted profession for the 20th consecutive year, nurses are ideally placed to deliver this vital climate emergency health message. Working in a greener way should be an integral part of every nurse’s role – not just a job for some bloke in the Estates Team who’s changing a few old light bulbs and installing recycling bins! Sustainable ways of working clinically comes in many forms – from prescribing to reduce unnecessary pharmacological waste, to general dietary health advice to our patients (cutting down on meat and dairy is the most effective way an individual can reduce their own carbon footprint – by up to 70% and is great for the pocket and the waistline). Metered dose inhalers have a terrible carbon footprint, as do some anaesthetic gases. In my department, we’re exploring the use of a light-source treatment for cancer patients having chemo and radiotherapy – which maintains the mucosal lining and prevents the need for complex pain management, prolonged feeding regimes and, ultimately, hospital admissions. Living and working greener is just generally better all round – for our health and that of our planet. And if by looking after our planet our own health improves, then it’s win-win! What can you identify in your clinical practice to reduce waste and cost and help meet the Net Zero targets? Because it’s only by working together, that we’ve a chance of meeting them! We would love to hear what you and your trust are doing about sustainability and climate change. Is this something you've discussed at work? Share your good practice and ideas in the comment field below. Further blogs from Angela Climate change: why it needs to be on every Trust's agenda -
Content ArticleLucy is a world-leading authority on recovering from disaster. She has been at the centre of the most seismic events of the last few decades, advising on everything from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami to the 7/7 bombings, the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand, the Grenfell fire and the Covid-19 pandemic. In every catastrophe, Lucy is there to pick up the pieces and prepare for the next one. She holds governments to account, helps communities rally together, returns personal possessions to families, and holds the hands of the survivors. In her moving memoir she reveals what happens in the aftermath and explores how we pick up and rebuild with strength and perseverance. She takes us behind the police tape to scenes of destruction and chaos, introducing us to victims and their families, but also to the government briefing rooms and bunkers, where confusion and stale biscuits can reign supreme. Telling her own personal story, Lucy looks back at a life spent on the edges of disaster, from a Liverpudlian childhood steeped in the Hillsborough tragedy to the many losses and loves of her career.
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News Article
Ukraine’s hospitals ‘desperate’ for medical supplies as oxygen runs out
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hospitals across Ukraine are “desperate” for medical supplies, doctors have warned, as oxygen stores are hit and other vital health supplies run low amid bombardment from Russian forces. UK-based Ukrainian doctors have issued an urgent appeal for donations of supplies as they travel to eastern Europe in response to reports of shortages of medical equipment and medicines. The World Health Organisation warned on Sunday evening that oxygen supplies in Ukraine were “dangerously low” as trucks were unable to transport oxygen supplies from plants to hospitals across the country. Dr Volodymyr Suskyi, an intensive care doctor at Feofaniya Clinical Hospital in Kyiv, told The Independent he had been forced to use an emergency back-up system to supply oxygen to a patient on life support after the area near plant which supplies his hospital was bombed. Dr Dennis Olugun, a UK-based doctor who is leading the group of medics from the Ukrainian Medical Association of the United Kingdom (UMAUK) to deliver medical supplies, said the situation was “desperate” in some areas. He said some hospitals did not have basic necessities such as rubber gloves. He told The Independent: “What they need in the hospitals is portable ultrasound machines, portable x-ray machines because they have so many patients they much rather walk around the wards and do whatever diagnostic work rather than transporting patients." The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations have called for medicines, pharmaceutical ingredients and raw materials to be excluded from the scope of sanctions being levied against Russian trade. Read full story Source: The Independent, 1 March 2022 -
Content ArticleAdvice and guidance on the health needs of migrant patients from Ukraine for healthcare practitioners. The key messages are: Screen all new entrants, including children, for tuberculosis (TB). (Due to low prevalence) look for hepatitis B risk factors that may indicate a need for screening. Consider screening for hepatitis C (considerably higher prevalence than the UK). There is a risk of typhoid infection. Consider nutritional and metabolic concerns. Work with a professional interpreter where language barriers are present. Consider the impacts of culture, religion and gender on health. Assess for mental health (and trauma) conditions. Support individuals and ensure that all patients, especially children, are up-to-date with the UK immunisation schedule, including making the offer of Covid vaccination (primary course, boosters, or completion of initial course if begun overseas) Refer pregnant women to antenatal care. Newly arrived individuals will need help on how to access the NHS, and this will include GP registration as the principle route for accessing services. Individuals may struggle to provide proof of ID, address or confirmation of immigration status and their registration requests should be managed sensitively. None of these documents are required for registration and the inability of any individual to provide them is no reason to refuse registration.
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News Article
Ukraine: GPs get updated guidance on treating refugees and returning citizens
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
GPs have received updated guidance on providing healthcare to people coming from Ukraine. In a bulletin to general practices on 10 March notifying them of the update from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, NHS England said that the health service was starting to see refugees and citizens returning from Ukraine and reminded practices that proof of identity is not required for registration at a practice. The guidance advises practices to explain to people coming from Ukraine how the NHS works and their entitlements to healthcare, to ensure that they are up to date with the UK immunisation schedule, and to ask about any travel plans they may have to visit friends and relatives in their country of origin. GPs are also advised to: Screen all new entrants, including children, for tuberculosis Ascertain any risk factors for hepatitis B infection that may indicate the need for screening (owing to its low prevalence in the UK) Consider screening for hepatitis C, because of a considerably higher prevalence in Ukraine than in the UK Ensure that travellers are offered typhoid immunisation and advice on preventing enteric fever Consider nutritional and metabolic concerns (anaemia, vitamin D, vitamin A, iodine) Work with a professional interpreter where language barriers are present Consider the effects of culture, religion, and gender on health Assess for mental health conditions, and Refer pregnant women to antenatal care. Read full story Source: BMJ, 14 March 2022
