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Showing results for tags 'Resources / Organisational management'.
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News ArticleThe mother of a former patient at a north Wales mental health unit has said she "couldn't let" her daughter "go back there" as new details about people being "neglected" there have emerged. ITV News has seen a leaked copy of the Robin Holden report from 2014. It was commissioned by Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board after staff on the Hergest mental health unit, which is situated within Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor, blew the whistle over management and patient safety concerns. It reveals details never before made public, about how staff struggled to care for patients. The document, which the health board has fought for six years to keep out of public view, gives an account of the death of a patient while no doctor was available because of rota gaps, another of a patient who tried to take their own life, again when no doctor was available, and inadequate staffing affecting patient care. Read full story Source: ITN News, 31 August 2020
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Coronavirus: Unprecedented demand for action on NHS workforce shortages
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS will be unable to meet the needs of patients unless significant action is taken to tackle staff shortages, an unprecedented coalition of health leaders has warned. Medical royal colleges, NHS trade unions and bodies representing senior hospital managers and other health organisations have joined together to warn bosses at NHS England and the government that they must act to ensure the health service workforce is supported in the wake of coronavirus. The organisations said they were united in the belief that meaningful action on long-standing workforce issues would be the best way to repay the efforts of NHS staff during the virus outbreak – calling for a public commitment to boost numbers, increase flexible working, and improve leadership and support for staff. Professor Carrie MacEwen, chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which organised the statement, told The Independent: “Continued staff shortages in the NHS will be hugely damaging for patients. It has long been recognised that there is a serious shortage of doctors and nurses and right now we need to keep the staff we have, who have done a brilliant job during the pandemic, as well as increase the size of the workforce." Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 July 2020 -
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Hospital’s critical care unit overwhelmed by coronavirus patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A major London hospital has declared a “critical incident” due to a surge in patients with coronavirus, with one senior director in the capital calling the development “petrifying”. In a message to staff, Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow said it has no critical care capacity left and has contacted neighbouring hospitals about transferring patients who need critical care to other sites. The message, sent last night and seen by HSJ, said: “I am writing to let you know that we have this evening declared a ‘critical incident’ in relation to our critical care capacity at Northwick Park Hospital. This is due to an increasing number of patients with Covid-19. “This means that we currently do not have enough space for patients requiring critical care. “As part of our system resilience plans, we have contacted our partners in the North West London sector this evening to assist with the safe transfer of patients off of the Northwick Park site” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 20 March 2020 -
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Stop moaning and get a grip, doctors told by their leader
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Doctors need to stop moaning and take responsibility for improving the NHS, the leader of Britain’s medics has said. Ministers have given the NHS a “substantial sum” of money and doctors must now stop blaming the government for all its problems, Carrie MacEwen, Chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, told The Times. Britain’s 220,000 doctors have a professional duty to make the health service’s ten-year plan work and can no longer “sit on their hands”, Professor MacEwen said. After years in which the loudest medical voices have tended to complain about government funding and staffing levels, she said that doctors should take advantage of a “golden opportunity”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 25 February 2020 -
Content ArticleThe WHO Flagship Initiative “A Decade of Patient Safety 2020-2030” will: Respond to global movement and latest developments in the area of patient safety. Give due prominence to the concept “First do not harm” and patient safety area of work. Call for political commitment and immediate action at country level. Leverage resources (internal and external/financial and human). Ensure institutional mechanisms within the organisation for coordinated work across departments/divisions, especially with disease-specific programmes.
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Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act 2016
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in NHS Wales
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Woman with anorexia 'faced delays' before death
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A woman described as a "high risk" anorexia patient faced delays in treatment after moving to university, an inquest has heard. Madeline Wallace, 18, from Cambridgeshire, was told there could be a six-week delay in her seeing a specialist after moving to Edinburgh. The student "struggled" while at university and a coroner said there appeared to be a "gap" in her care. Ms Wallace died on 9 January 2018 due to complications from sepsis. A parliamentary health service ombudsman report into her death was being written at the time of Ms Wallace's treatment in 2017 and issues raised included moving from one provider to another and higher education. Coroner Sean Horstead said Ms Wallace only had one dietician meeting in three months, despite meal preparation and planning being an area of anxiety she had raised. Dr Hazel said she had tried to make arrangements with the Cullen Centre in Edinburgh in April 2017 but had been told to call back in August. The Cullen Centre said it could only accept her as a patient after she registered with a GP and that an appointment could take up to six weeks from that point. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 February 2020 -
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Nearly 35,000 patients overdue follow-ups at single trust
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nearly 35,000 patients are overdue a follow-up appointment at North Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust, HSJ has learned. Almost 20% of the 34,938 follow-up appointments are in ophthalmology. A paper from the trust’s November board meeting said the “backlog of follow-up appointments… clearly remains a risk”. The report also said the service was failing some of the quality guidelines set out by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The trust told HSJ it had introduced a clinical harm review process last year to address the backlog. It has reviewed “more than 5,000 patients”, out of the 34,938 cases to date, according to Chief Operating Officer Shaun Stacey. He said the trust had initially identified 83 patients who could have come to “potential harm”. Read full story Source: HSJ, 28 January 2020 -
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Content ArticleBoth the 2019/20 CCG and PSS CQUIN schemes comprise indicators, aligned to four key areas, in support of the NHS Long Term Plan. Patient safety Mental health Prevention of ill health Best practice pathways This document sets out the: Overview of quality and safety indicators CCG Scheme Specialised Services Scheme Scheme Eligibility and Value Rules and Guidance - Agreeing and Implementing a CQUIN Scheme
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Using temporary nurses can increase risk of patients dying, warns new study
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Patients are more likely to die on wards staffed by a high number of temporary nurses, a study has found. Researchers say the findings, published in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, are a warning sign that the common practice by many hospitals of relying on agency nurses is not a risk-free option for patients. The University of Southampton study found that risk of death increased by 12 per cent for every day a patient experienced a high level of temporary staffing – defined as 1.5 hours of agency nursing a day per patient. For an average ward, this increased risk could apply when between a third and a half of the staff on each shift are temporary staff, according to Professor Peter Griffiths, one of the study’s authors. He told The Independent: “We know that patients are put at risk of harm when nurse staffing is lower than it should be. “One of the responses to that is to fill the gaps with temporary nursing staff, and that is an absolutely understandable thing to do, but when using a higher number of temporary staff there is an increased risk of harm. “It is not a solution to the problem.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 10 December 2019 -
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Content ArticleThis report builds on those of previous years to provide analysis of longer-term trends and insights into the changing NHS staff profile. It focuses specifically on the critical NHS workforce issues that have been repeatedly identified in recent years: nursing shortages, and shortages of staff in general practice and primary care. The report also explores key pressure points: student nurses the international context and international recruitment retention. The report concludes by summarising the key workforce challenges that will need to be considered in the development of the full NHS people plan. Patient Safety Learning's repsonse to the report: This report on NHS workforce trends released by the Health Foundation today includes some really interesting findings, particularly around the changes in the skills mix between nurses and clinical support staff (including health care assistants and nursing assistants). The report states that in 2009/10 there were equal numbers of nurses and support staff, with one clinical support staff member for every FTE nurse in the NHS. In 2018/19, the number of support staff per FTE nurse had risen 10% to 1.1 FTE per nurse. Looking at the numbers, this translated to the NHS employing 6,500 more clinical support staff to doctors, nurses, and midwives, compared to 4,500 more FTE nurses. While changes to ratio of nurses to clinical support staff may reflect changing patient needs, technological advances and other factors, the report also notes concerns that these may be ‘introduced in an unplanned way in response to negative factors – such as cost pressures or recruitment difficulties – rather than positive drivers of improvement’. At Patient Safety Learning we believe to achieve a patient-safe future, patient safety must be more than a priority for an organisation. It must be core to its purpose, reflected in everything that it does. This should apply to the NHS when considering changes in workforce staffing and numbers so that the impact that these may have on patient safety is considered as an intrinsic part of the decision making process. While the report notes that in many cases decisions on skill mix changes are implemented well and evidence led, it’s not clear whether patient safety has been taken into account. Our view is that these decisions should involve a explicit, evidence-based assessment of the impact on patient safety which leads to the selection of the option that offers that safest outcome for patients.
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NHS bed occupancy beyond safe levels ahead of Christmas
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hospital wards across the country are having to look after an unsafe number of patients, with hundreds of beds closed due to an outbreak of norovirus. NHS England has said that on average almost 900 beds were closed each day during the week to Sunday 15 December. Hospitals have reported fewer empty beds with bed-occupancy rates reaching as high as 95 per cent, 10 per cent higher than the recommended safe level. Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 December 2019 -
News ArticleThe first publication of data from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s 2019-20 Winter Flow Project shows that existing data does not reflect the true scale of the problem of 12 hour stays in A&E. RCEM data shows that in the first week of December over 5,000 patients waited for longer than 12 hours in the Emergency Departments of 50 Trusts and Boards across the UK. The sample of trusts and boards from across the UK is the equivalent to a third of the acute bed base in England. From the beginning of October 2019 over 38,000 patients have waited longer than 12 hours for a bed at the sampled sites across the UK – yet data from NHS England reports that in England alone a total of only 13,025 patients experienced waits over 12 hours since 2011-12. President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Katherine Henderson said: “In a nine-week period, at only a third of trusts across the UK, we’ve seen nearly three times the number of 12 hour waits than has been officially reported in eight years in England. This must be fixed." Read full story Source: Royal College of Emergency Medicine, 9 December 2019
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Content ArticleThree NHS case studies (from acute care, primary care and commissioning) are described and reviewed in the light of evidence from successful organisational change in the US. Eight key features of successful leadership for patient and family centred care are outlined: Strong, committed senior leadership Active engagement of patients and families Clarity of goals Focus on the workforce Building staff capacity Adequate resourcing of care delivery redesign Performance measurement and feedback
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Safety fears as hospitals redeploy nurses to care for patients in corridors
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hospitals are having to redeploy nurses from wards to look after queues of patients in corridors, in a growing trend that has raised concerns about patient safety. Many hospitals have become so overcrowded that they are being forced to tell nurses to spend part of their shift working as “corridor nurses” to look after patients who are waiting for a bed. The disclosure of the rise in corridor nurses comes days after the NHS in England posted its worst-ever performance figures against the four-hour target for A&E care. They showed that last month almost 100,000 patients waited at least four hours and sometimes up to 12 or more on a trolley while hospital staff found them a bed on the ward appropriate for their condition. “Corridor nursing is happening across the NHS in England and certainly in scores of hospitals. It’s very worrying to see this,” said Dave Smith, the Chair of the Royal College of Nursing’s Emergency Care Association, which represents nurses in A&E units across the UK. "Having to provide care to patients in corridors and on trolleys in overcrowded emergency departments is not just undignified for patients, it’s also often unsafe.” A nurse in south-west England told the Guardian newspaper how nurses feared the redeployments were leaving specialist wards too short of staff, and patients without pain relief and other medication. Some wards were “dangerously understaffed” as a result, she claimed. She said: “Many nurses, including myself, dread going into work in case we’re pulled from our own patients to then care for a number of people in the queue, which is clearly unsafe. We’re being asked to choose between the safety of our patients on the wards and those in the queue." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 12 January 2020
