Jump to content

Search the hub

Showing results for tags 'Health hazards'.

More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Start to type the tag you want to use, then select from the list.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • All
    • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Culture
    • Improving patient safety
    • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Leadership for patient safety
    • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Patient engagement
    • Patient safety in health and care
    • Patient Safety Learning
    • Professionalising patient safety
    • Research, data and insight
    • Miscellaneous

Categories

  • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Commissioning and funding patient safety
    • Digital health and care service provision
    • Health records and plans
    • Innovation programmes in health and care
    • Climate change/sustainability
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Blogs
    • Data, research and statistics
    • Frontline insights during the pandemic
    • Good practice and useful resources
    • Guidance
    • Mental health
    • Exit strategies
    • Patient recovery
  • Culture
    • Bullying and fear
    • Good practice
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Safety culture programmes
    • Second victim
    • Speak Up Guardians
    • Staff safety
    • Whistle blowing
  • Improving patient safety
    • Clinical governance and audits
    • Design for safety
    • Disasters averted/near misses
    • Equipment and facilities
    • Error traps
    • Health inequalities
    • Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
    • Improving systems of care
    • Implementation of improvements
    • International development and humanitarian
    • Safety stories
    • Stories from the front line
    • Workforce and resources
  • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Investigations and complaints
    • Risk management and legal issues
  • Leadership for patient safety
    • Business case for patient safety
    • Boards
    • Clinical leadership
    • Exec teams
    • Inquiries
    • International reports
    • National/Governmental
    • Patient Safety Commissioner
    • Quality and safety reports
    • Techniques
    • Other
  • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Government and ALB direction and guidance
    • International patient safety
    • Regulators and their regulations
  • Patient engagement
    • Consent and privacy
    • Harmed care patient pathways/post-incident pathways
    • How to engage for patient safety
    • Keeping patients safe
    • Patient-centred care
    • Patient stories
  • Patient safety in health and care
    • Care settings
    • Conditions
    • Diagnosis
    • High risk areas
    • Learning disabilities
    • Medication
    • Mental health
    • Men's health
    • Patient management
    • Social care
    • Transitions of care
    • Women's health
  • Patient Safety Learning
    • Patient Safety Learning campaigns
    • Patient Safety Learning documents
    • Patient Safety Learning news archive
    • 2-minute Tuesdays
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2018
    • Patient Safety Learning Awards 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Interviews
    • Patient Safety Learning webinars
  • Professionalising patient safety
    • Accreditation for patient safety
    • Competency framework
    • Medical students
    • Patient safety standards
    • Training
  • Research, data and insight
    • Data and insight
    • Research
  • Miscellaneous

News

  • News

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start
    End

Last updated

  • Start
    End

Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End

Group

First name

Last name

Country

Join a private group (if appropriate)

About me

Organisation

Role

Found 32 results
  1. Content Article
  2. News Article
    Hospitals in England have recorded more than 450 sewage leaks in the last 12 months, data shows, putting patients and staff in danger and prompting warnings that the NHS estate is “falling apart” after a decade of underinvestment. Freedom of information requests to NHS trusts by the Liberal Democrats found alarming examples of sewage leaking on to cancer wards, maternity units and A&E departments. The investigation also uncovered multiple cases of urine and faeces flowing into hospital rooms and on to general wards. Health officials called the revelations shocking. In some instances, sewage leaks made entire hospital departments unsafe for patients and led to staff struggling to work because they felt nauseous and had headaches. Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: “This is a national scandal. Our country’s hospitals are falling apart after years of underinvestment and neglect. Patients should not be treated in these conditions and heroic nurses should not have the indignity of mopping up foul sewage.” “At every turn, our treasured NHS is crumbling, from hospital buildings to dangerous ambulance wait times. The government needs to find urgent funds to fix hospitals overflowing with sewage. Patient and staff safety is a risk if ministers fail to act,” he said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 17 February 2023
  3. News Article
    A patient was left traumatised when his body caught on fire halfway through surgery - leaving his insides scorched. Mark, 52, went to hospital for a routine abscess removal - but woke up to the news that a freak accident in theatre had sparked an horrific blaze. A diathermy machine, used to stop bleeding, caused a swab to catch fire - before flames burnt their way through his exposed flesh, Mark explained. It took over a year for Mark - not his real name - to recover from his dreadful injuries - and the emotional scarring it caused. Between 2008 and 2018, 37 cases were acknowledged by NHS trusts across Britain. But from 2009 to 2019, it has paid out nearly £14 million in compensation settlements and legal fees. Fires such as these are often fuelled by leaking oxygen - and are caused by faulty machinery or sparking equipment. Campaigners are concerned that UK hospitals are lagging behind other countries in recording surgical fires and introducing protocols to reduce both their frequency and severity. Theatre scrub nurse Kathy Nabbie has spent the past five years trying to make colleagues more aware of the threat of surgical fires. In 2017 - after hearing how a woman in Oregon, USA, had suffered severe burns when her face was set alight in surgery - she made a simple safety checklist. Her Fire Risk Assessment tool allowed colleagues to check for the presence of elements that together might cause a fire to break out. But senior staff failed to implement the initiative and - when a surgical fire actually took place three months later - Kathy learned that her laminated checklist had simply been put in a drawer. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “After that they did start using it, but why on earth should it have taken an actual fire to persuade them?” Read full story Source: The Sun, 7 April 2022 Further reading What can we do to improve safety in the theatre? Reflections from theatre nurse Kathy Nabbie How I raised awareness of fires in the operating theatre - Kathy Nabbie
  4. Content Article
    Here is the FRAS tool I implemented: Fire risk assessment tool.pdf Other useful resources I found: Scoring_Fire_Risk-2.pdf Surgical Site Fire Triangle.pdf Surgical_Fire_Poster (1).pdf Video: Fire hazard demo by Zaamin Hussain and Mike Reed Demonstration: "Burning Bruce" drives home the reality of surgical fires - article in Outpatient Surgery
  5. Content Article
    Resources: driver diagrams (tree diagrams) the health and wellbeing framework and diagnostic tool workforce stress and the supportive organisation — a framework for improvement.
  6. Content Article
    This action plan includes details of the event, notable practice, improvements to be made and the learning found.
  7. Content Article
  8. Content Article
  9. Content Article
    In 2012, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority published an analysis of surgical fires reported through its database for the primary purpose of determining whether surgical fires continued to be a problem. In 2018, the Authority published an update, including analysis of events reported from 1 July 2011 through to 30 June 2016. The model suggests a 71% decrease in the patient risk of surgical fires from 2005 to 2016. The analysts noted that in 2005, there was about one surgical fire per month in Pennsylvania, and, if the downward trend continues, the rate will be only one surgical fire per year in 2032.
  10. Content Article
    Key points Communication between members of the surgical team is an integral component of the prevention of surgical fires. Open delivery of 100% oxygen should be avoided if at all possible for surgery above the xiphoid process. Surgeons usually control the ignition sources, such as electrosurgical units and lasers. Operating theatre nurses or practitioners usually control the fuel sources, such as alcohol-based preparations and surgical drapes. The use of an ignition source in close proximity of an oxidiser-enriched environment creates a high risk for surgical fires.
  11. Content Article
  12. Content Article
    The authors found that fire occurs when the three elements of the fire triad, fuel, oxidiser and ignition, coincide. Surgical fires are unusual in the absence of an oxygen-enriched atmosphere. The ignition source is most commonly diathermy but lasers carry a relatively greater risk. The majority of fires occur during head and neck surgery. This is due to the presence of oxygen and the extensive use of lasers. The risk of fire can be reduced with an awareness of the risk and good communication. Surgery will always carry a risk of fire. Reducing this risk requires a concerted effort from all team members.
  13. Content Article
  14. Content Article
  15. Content Article
    Hazardous Hospitals: Cultures of Safety in NHS General Hospitals, c.1960-Present is a three-year research project at the University of Warwick, funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is being conducted by Dr Christopher Sirrs. The publication of the Francis Report into healthcare failures at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in 2013 dramatically refocused public and political attention on issues of ‘safety’ in the National Health Service. ‘Safety’ has increasingly occupied the attention of policy makers in recent decades, with hospital managers establishing various systems and processes to protect patients and staff from harm. These include learning and reporting systems, policies about patient consultation, and campaigns for preventing harms such as falls and healthcare-associated infections. However, little is understood about how and why these ideas and practices around ‘safety’ in the NHS evolved. This three-year project explores the history of safety in the NHS, highlighting how hospitals have promoted ‘safety cultures’: ideas, values and behaviours which support safety. Drawing upon a rich seam of archival material, as well as a distinctive methodology, it makes timely contribution to historical understandings of the NHS. The project asks the following key questions: 1. What defines the ‘safety culture’ of NHS hospitals? How can these ‘safety cultures’ vary? 2. How was safety in hospitals assessed, and in what ways did it come to the attention of NHS managers and policymakers after 1960? 3. How did NHS managers promote safety among their staff? 4. What role did groups such as patient organisations, safety campaigners and the press play in depicting, challenging and promoting reform of hospital ‘safety cultures’? The project will directly engage individuals and organisations involved in promoting or campaigning for safety in the NHS. Interviews will also be conducted with a wide range of individuals. If you are interested in participating in the project, please see the ‘Participate‘ page for more information. You can follow the project via @hazardhospitals or, for more information follow the link below.
  16. Content Article
  17. Content Article
  18. Content Article
  19. Content Article
    This document is accompanied by: general advice and advice for hospital inpatients supporting information for healthcare staff including background and findings posters in English and Welsh Health and Safety Laboratory report FS/06/12 ‘Fire hazards associated with contamination of dressings and clothing by paraffin based ointments’ examples of products containing paraffin warning / hazard stickers for products a patient safety video leaflets in English and Welsh. Although the deadline for actions has passed, this guidance remains best practice. It should be followed to prevent future patient safety incidents.
  20. Content Article
    For fires to occur, heat, fuel and oxygen must be present. Oxygen was a factor in half of the surgical fire cases reviewed, usually when the concentration of oxygen being delivered for ventilation wasn’t reduced sufficiently during electro- or laser surgery on the head, neck or upper chest. Most of the burns that weren’t caused by fire involved heat from equipment. These cases included surgeons using the wrong device or settings, as well as issues with the maintenance, malfunction or positioning of devices. Cases involving fuel were usually caused by the unsafe use of alcohol-based antiseptics, including allowing it to pool under patients, using the wrong concentration, or failing to let it dry before placing drapes. To reduce the risk of fires and burns, CMPA recommends that surgical teams “identify, separate and manage the elements of the fire triangle” before procedures. This involves ensuring that “ignition sources should not come into contact with fuels, and oxygen should be reduced to the minimum required concentration.” The association also recommends that surgical teams ensure that antiseptic has time to dry and doesn’t pool, follow device instructions, and run simulations to practice responding to fires.
  21. Content Article
  22. Content Article
    Reminder: Advise patients not to: smoke; use naked flames (or be near people who are smoking or using naked flames); or go near anything that may cause a fire while emollients are in contact with their medical dressings or clothing. Change patient clothing and bedding regularly—preferably daily—because emollients soak into fabric and can become a fire hazard. Incidents should be reported.
  23. News Article
    Hospitals across England could see oxygen supplies at worse levels this winter than at the peak of the first coronavirus wave – when some sites were forced to close to new admissions. An alert to NHS hospitals this week warned that because of the rise in admissions of COVID-19 patients, there is a risk of oxygen shortages. Trusts have been ordered to carry out daily checks on the amount of oxygen in the air on wards to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires or explosions. The problem is not because of a lack of oxygen but because pipes delivering the gas to wards will not be able to deliver the volume of gas needed by all patients. This can trigger a cut-off in supply and a catastrophic drop in pressure, meaning patients would be denied the oxygen they need to breathe. Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 November 2020
  24. News Article
    Frontline NHS staff are at risk of dying from Covid-19 after the protective gear requirements for health workers treating those infected were downgraded last week, doctors and nurses have warned. Hospital staff caring for the growing number of those seriously ill with the disease also fear that they could pass the infection on to other patients after catching it at work because of poor protection. Doctors who are dealing most closely with Covid-19 patients – A&E medics, anaesthetists and specialists in acute medicine and intensive care – are most worried. A doctor in an infectious diseases ward of a major UK hospital, who is treating patients with Covid-19, said: “I am terrified. I am seriously considering whether I can keep working as a doctor.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 March 2020
  25. News Article
    Two out of five GPs have still not received any personal protective equipment (PPE) against coronavirus, a Pulse survey suggests. The poll of over 400 GPs saw 41% of respondents say they have not received any PPE, while a further 32% said they had not received enough. Just 15% of GPs said they have sufficient PPE, with the remainder unsure. This comes despite NHS England promising last week that it would ship PPE free of charge to practices. The Welsh Government made the same announcement this week, while in Scotland health boards should be distributing PPE. A GP who has received no proper equipment, Dr Kate Digby, in Cirencester, said she feels "woefully underprepared". She told Pulse: "I'm becoming increasingly concerned at the lack of resources being provided for frontline primary care". Read full story Source: Pulse, 2 March 2020
×