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Showing results for tags 'Secondary impact'.
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Think tank claims NHS waiting list could reach 10 million by April
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Waiting lists for NHS surgery in England could hit 10 million by April, a think tank has claimed while calling for NHS hospitals to use more private sector capacity to reduce delays for patients. In a new report the right-wing think tank Reform said the worst case scenario for patient waits could see one in six people in England waiting for treatment by April. It said the impact of coronavirus had turned the NHS into a “national Covid service” with six million fewer referrals for treatment in 2020. It warned the delays in treatments could have dire consequences for patients with an e -
Content ArticleRecommendations Recommendation 1: NHS England and Improvement should mandate the publication of waitlist recovery plans by integrated care systems and trusts. These should clearly state how independent sector capacity will be used and usage data should be published at regular intervals. Recommendation 2: NHS England and Improvement should devote resources to building ‘community diagnostic hubs’ to meet the diagnostic backlog outside of the hospital setting. Recommendation 3: The General Medical Council should create an ‘NHS reserve list’ with healthcare professionals who are n
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Content Article
Patient referrals and waiting lists: A ticking time bomb
Jerome P posted an article in By health and care staff
It’s been a really difficult time for all of us this past year. When I say ‘we’, I mean every single person on the planet. I am yet to find anyone who hasn’t had to deal with stress, mental health problems, anxiety, illness, disappointment or bereavement of some nature over the past year. Collectively, we are all going to need a period to heal. I fear that the healthcare system will have no time to heal and that we are only on the tip of what more there is to come. Not only has the healthcare system had to deal with a pandemic, we have had to deal with the consequences from that. The- Posted
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News ArticleAvailability of inpatient child and adolescent mental health services beds — particularly for eating disorders — has reached ‘crisis point’, with young people left waiting on a standard paediatric ward or at home as demand surged during the covid pandemic. A report to Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in January read: “Availability of tier four beds [inpatient mental health beds for children and adolescents, commissioned centrally by NHS England] in the South East and across the country is at crisis point and providers have to compete for the small pool of beds." “
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News Article
More than 100,000 waiting for ‘urgent’ operations
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than 100,000 people were waiting for ‘urgent’ priority two operations in late January, as planned care rates plummeted amid the covid third wave, according to NHS data seen by HSJ. However, the rate of elective procedures carried out last month appears to have been a lot higher than in the spring wave of coronavirus, despite there being more covid patients in hospital this time. In the three weeks to 20 December, the NHS was reporting around 110,000 day cases and 18,000 planned overnight admissions each week. But during January these totals dropped to around 85,000 day cases and -
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News Article
‘Catastrophic’ threat to cancer ops at England’s third largest hospital trust
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Cancer services at large hospital trust have been at ‘catastrophic’ risk of being overwhelmed, after two of its hospital sites had to suspend life-saving cancer surgeries in the last month due to COVID-19. In its latest board papers Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust rated the “cancellation of cancer elective activity” at its highest risk level of 25 – which based on their own risk-scoring key is “catastrophic”. It said the expected consequences at this risk level include “permanent disability or death, serious irreversible health effects” and an “unacceptable… quality of service”. -
News Article
Ambulance service facing 'terrifying' levels of risk, says trust chief
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The chief executive of a small acute trust has described the “terrifying situation” faced by ambulance crews and hospital staff in trying to provide adequate emergency care as coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the local NHS services. Susan Gilby, of Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust, told HSJ staff are seeing “tragic and potentially avoidable” instances where patients with COVID-19 have reached the emergency department too late. She suggested this is due to a combination of patients waiting too long to call 999, and then having to wait long periods for an ambulance to ar -
News ArticleSmear-test delays during lockdown have prompted calls for home-screening kits. Cervical cancer screening has restarted across the UK - but some women say they will not attend their appointments for fear of catching Covid. Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust is urging "faster action" on home tests for HPV, which causes 99% of cervical cancers. An NHS official said GP practices should continue screening throughout lockdown, and "anyone invited for a cervical smear test should attend". Cancer Research UK said it was not yet known how effective and accurate self-sampling could be in cer
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News Article
Covid: 'Sharp drop' in heart-attack hospital admissions
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
There has been a sharp drop in the number of patients admitted to hospitals in England with heart attacks or heart failure in recent months, research reveals. Experts are worried that people who need urgent medical help are not seeking it. This was also the case during the first wave of the pandemic. The researchers included 66 hospitals in the study and compared daily admission rates in the year before the pandemic with those during the first and second waves in England, up to 17 November. During the first lockdown, daily admissions for heart attacks or heart failure decreased -
News ArticleNHS bosses have instructed hospitals to keep performing urgent cancer surgery despite Covid pressures, after a growing number cancelled procedures because they did not have enough intensive care beds or available staff. They have told England’s regional directors of cancer to ensure treatment of people who need cancer surgery within four weeks gets the same priority as care of patients who have Covid. The move was unveiled in a letter, obtained by HSJ, sent last Friday by Amanda Pritchard, the chief operating officer at NHS England and NHS Improvement. It was also signed by Cally Pal
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News ArticleNearly a quarter of a million people have been waiting more than a year for operations and other hospital procedures, HSJ has learned. Official NHS England data for November, released on Thursday, showed 192,000 patients had been waiting for treatment for more than a year. However, figures leaked to HSJ of weekly data up to 3 January showed a steep increase to 223,000 patients — the highest reported so far throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and before. According to the leak, just under 4.2 million people are waiting for treatment, of which year-long waiters comprise 5.4%. The dat
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News ArticlePatients are missing out on potentially life-saving organ transplant surgery because hospital intensive care beds are filled by coronavirus patients, The Independent has learnt. Major organ transplant centres in London, as well as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, have been forced to close their doors to transplant cases because of a lack of beds, the increased risk to patients, and the need to redeploy doctors and nurses to the coronavirus front line. The impact on organ transplant services follows hundreds of urgent cancer operation
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News ArticleMore than 1,000 people needing urgent cancer surgery in London have no date for their treatment, HSJ can reveal. A document leaked to HSJ showed that, at the end of last week, more than 1,000 of London’s cancer surgery patients without an appointment date were defined as P2 (priority two), meaning they needed to be seen within four weeks or risk their condition worsening. The report seen by HSJ also showed more than 300 P2 patients had their surgery postponed in the past week, a statistic NHS England London has so far refused to disclose. Hospitals in the capital are facing thei
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News ArticleThousands of women have had abortions after falling pregnant while having difficulties accessing contraception during the pandemic, healthcare providers have warned. Sexual health clinics have been forced to shut or run reduced services while staff are transferred to work with Covid patients or have to self-isolate – with the profound disruption leaving many women unable to access their usual methods of contraception. Many women are struggling to get the most effective long-acting contraceptive choices of a coil or an implant due to these requiring face-to-face appointments which hav
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News Article
Covid crisis forces suspension of maternity services
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Some trusts in London and the South East are closing standalone birth centres and warning they cannot support home births because of high levels of demand for ambulance services from covid patients. Women in East Sussex who planned to give birth at Eastbourne District General Hospital and Crowborough Birth Centre have been told they need to go to other units. Both Eastbourne and Crowborough have standalone midwife-led units and women who have a difficult labour would need to be transferred by ambulance to another hospital. Both East Sussex Healthcare Trust and Maidstone and Tunbridge -
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 ArticlePotentially life-saving cancer operations have been put on hold at a major London NHS trust because of the number of beds taken by Covid patients. King's College Hospital Trust has cancelled all "Priority 2" operations - those doctors judge need to be carried out within 28 days. Cancer Research UK said such cancellations did not appear to be widespread across the country. And surgery has not been stopped on the same scale as during the first wave. Rebecca Thomas, who has had her bowel cancer surgery at King's College Hospital "cancelled indefinitely", told the BBC she felt
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News Article
NHS plea for private help as covid forces cancer surgery cancellations
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS leaders are holding fresh talks with private healthcare groups to try to secure surgery for urgent cancer patients in London, as the covid-19 second wave causes hospitals in the capital to make widespread cancellations, HSJ understands. In recent weeks, pivotal independent sector providers have declined to do the procedures for the payments on offer. In the spring covid peak, the NHS block-booked private capacity in London, but now only small, spot contracts are in place for this work. Under the previous deal, rules meant low-priority private patients could not be treated ahead o -
News Article
Leaks reveal record waits for emergency care due to covid pressures
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Very long waits for emergency hospital care have surged in London since mid December, due to a rapid rise in COVID-19 admissions combined with limited capacity, according to figures leaked to HSJ. Data sent to HSJ indicates that December will set a new record high nationally for the number of 12-hour “trolley waits”. This is when there are 12 hours or longer from the decision is made to admit a patient from the emergency department to hospital, to when they are actually admitted to a bed. It adds to fears about what will happen if rising covid occupancy — which has left some hospital -
News ArticleTwenty-three hospital trusts had more than a third of their core bedbase occupied by COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, and occupancy is still rising at all but one. Three trusts (North Middlesex in north London, as well as Medway and Dartford and Gravesham in Kent) had more than half of general and acute beds occupied by patients who had the virus, and others were not far behind. Several trusts saw their covid occupancy share up by more than 10 percentage points in a week — a rate of growth which would soon see them entirely filled by covid patients, a situation with radical consequences
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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 ArticleA major incident has been declared in Essex amid fears the number of COVID-19 cases could overwhelm the county's health services. The Essex Resilience Forum (ERF) said "growing demand" was putting stress on hospitals and social care settings. On Tuesday Mid and South Essex NHS Trust placed all three of its hospitals on critical alert. All of Essex is in tier four and the south of the county has some of the worst-affected districts in England. Essex Police Chief Constable BJ Harrington, who is co-chairman of the ERF, said declaring a major incident allowed it "to seek furthe
