Leading figures in health are celebrating ten years of a checklist for surgical teams which has saved countless lives and improved outcomes for patients in England and around the world. The Surgical Safety Checklist is a simple tool designed to improve communication and teamwork by bringing together the surgeons, anaesthesia providers and nurses involved in […]
New guidance for the NHS will help doctors, nurses and other staff use instant messaging safely to co-ordinate patients’ care during emergencies. Medics have turned to communication channels such as Whatsapp to deal with emergency situations like the Croydon tram crash, Grenfell Tower fire and terrorist attacks in London Bridge and Manchester Arena. The new […]
Most community pharmacies in England are now providing improved asthma and dementia care, NHS England figures show. Thousands of community pharmacists took up incentives to offer new patient services, such as providing asthma checks and undertaking training to become more dementia aware, as part of a programme to improve care. The uptake figures from NHS […]
The NHS is today (Tuesday 21 March) taking the precautionary step of writing to patients who have had certain types of open heart surgery to inform them that they may have a low risk of having contracted an infection caused by Mycobacterium chimaera (M. chimaera). Over the next two weeks, letters are being sent to […]
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) and NHS England are working with Marie Stopes International to make sure that patients are protected from potential harm when undergoing pregnancy terminations. Following CQC’s inspections of Marie Stopes International’s services and its corporate headquarters in England, the regulator has raised concerns about the provider’s corporate and clinical governance arrangements […]
A patient safety alert has been issued by NHS England around the prioritisation of general practice home visits. When a request for a home visit is made, it is vital that general practices have a system in place to assess: whether a home visit is clinically necessary; and the urgency of need for medical attention. […]
A patient safety alert has been issued by NHS England to raise awareness of the risk of severe dehydration and death caused by an omission or delay of desmopressin in patients with cranial diabetes insipidus. Cranial diabetes insipidus is a rare disorder of the pituitary gland characterised by an inability to produce antidiuretic hormone (ADH), […]
A joint patient safety alert has been issued by NHS England and the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to raise awareness of the risk of having two different types of airway humidification devices simultaneously connected to a patient’s ventilation equipment. There are two humidifiers in common use: heated [water] humidifiers (HHs), usually located […]
A patient safety alert has been issued by NHS England to raise awareness of the importance of taking, recording and responding to vital signs where restraint has been used to manage a person’s behaviour if they are at risk to themselves or others. Healthcare professionals should follow existing guidance on positive interventions to reduce the […]
A joint patient safety alert has been issued by NHS England and the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to highlight the risk of falls from hoists. The alert has been issued following patient safety incident reports that suggest existing Health and Safety Executive (HSE) advice on safely using hoists and providing training had […]