British anaesthetist pleads for doctors and nurses to be allowed naps and limited night shifts, as in other critical workplaces
About half of all hospital doctors and nurses have had accidents or experienced near misses while driving home after a night shift.
The risks they pose to themselves and other road users have been calculated as the same as those posed by drivers who are over the legal alcohol limit, delegates at a European medical conference were told last week.
Continue reading...Coroner identifies unacceptable treatment in lead-up to death from multi-organ failure due to sepsis, calls for new interstate rules
Broken Hill teenager Alex Braes’s parents remember him as a ray of sunshine, a funny and smart young man ready to live a full life.
But the 18-year-old mechanic died with “tragic suddenness”, suffering multi-organ failure due to sepsis, one month after treatment for an infected ingrown toenail.
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Continue reading...Australian Medical Association backs delay of non-urgent tests but says supply issues highlight need for national stockpile of critical medical supplies
Public hospitals in Australia are postponing non-urgent screening tests and are recommending doctors consider alternative imaging options as the health system grapples with a global shortage of medical imaging dyes, widely used in diagnostic tests such as CT scans.
The shortage of medical imaging dyes is further proof Australia needs to develop a national stockpile of critical medical supplies and increase its domestic manufacturing of crucial medicines, the Australian Medical Association has said.
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Continue reading...Five-year-old Hiyaan Kapil died early on Monday after being sent home from the Logan hospital
A patient has described chaotic scenes at an emergency department in the lead-up to the death of a five-year-old boy, who was discharged from a hospital south of Brisbane while still visibly sick.
Hiyaan Kapil died in the early hours of Monday morning, after being sent home from the Logan hospital at about 10pm on Sunday night.
Continue reading...Exclusive: health leaders call for uplift for lowest-paid staff, to prevent ‘mass exodus’ to pubs and supermarkets
The NHS faces a “mass exodus” of thousands of staff to better-paid jobs in pubs, shops and supermarkets as a result of the cost of living crisis, ministers have been warned.
Health leaders fear significant numbers of lower-paid workers will leave for higher wages in the private sector amid rising food and heating bills and soaring inflation. The NHS already has 110,000 vacancies, and there are fears that a further deepening of the workforce crisis will “jeopardise” the ability of hospitals to tackle record-high waiting lists.
Continue reading...Long waiting times and difficulty in accessing other NHS facilities drive a trebling in those leaving without completing care
More than one in five patients at some hospitals are leaving accident and emergency departments before completing treatment, and in some cases before being seen for assessment at all, with the rate across England trebling since before the pandemic.
Experts told the Observer that the increase was probably driven by a combination of long A&E waiting times and by difficulties accessing NHS facilities such as GPs, community health services and NHS 111.
Continue reading...Mobile polling in health facilities was stopped amid the pandemic and patients in hospital unexpectedly have no way to cast their ballot
Australians unexpectedly admitted to hospital before the election are struggling to cast their vote due to a decision to abort mobile polling in health facilities due to Covid.
The Australian Electoral Commission announced before the campaign that it would not be sending mobile teams into hospitals to take votes in the lead-up to polling day, in an attempt to balance voting access with the risk of spreading Covid in vulnerable settings.
Continue reading...State’s chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, urges people to get flu vaccinations as 2,000 cases reported in last week
Surging cases of the flu are putting extra demand on emergency departments around New South Wales, with major outbreaks in boarding houses contributing to a doubling in cases in a week.
According to NSW Health, 2,000 flu cases were reported in the week to 7 May – up from 1,024 the week before.
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Continue reading...Most seriously ill inmates left to wait in cells often due to bed shortages at secure hospitals, data shows
Hundreds of severely mentally ill prisoners in urgent need of hospital treatment are being left in prison cells due to bed shortages in secure NHS psychiatric units, an investigation has discovered.
Freedom of information (FoI) responses from 22 NHS trusts reveal for the first time that just over half of the 5,403 prisoners in England assessed by prison-based psychiatrists to require hospitalisation were not transferred between 2016 and 2021 – an 81% increase on the number of prisoners denied a transfer in the previous five years.
Continue reading...Issues include understaffing, poor access to services and discrimination towards First Nations people seeking medical help
People in rural New South Wales have “significantly poorer health outcomes” due to a system that is “failing” them, according to a scathing report handed to the state government on Thursday.
The report included 44 recommendations to fix the healthcare system in rural, regional and remote areas which it found was “in crisis”.
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Continue reading...Pilot scheme will see trained volunteers responding to ‘category three’ calls where extra help needed due to mobility problems
Volunteers could be responding to urgent 999 calls in London within weeks, as the capital’s ambulance service tries to tackle mounting delays.
A pilot scheme, revealed in London ambulance service (LAS) board papers at the end of March, will focus on people who fall into “category three”, where they require a response within two hours, and need extra help because of mobility problems.
Continue reading...AMA chief to call on Anthony Albanese to ‘stand for health’, saying funding boost is urgent to alleviate pressure on medical system
The head of Australia’s peak medical body will meet with the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, to urge him to reconsider his “small target” strategy on health. Dr Omar Khorshid will warn that substantial funding is urgently needed to address the crisis in the country’s hospitals.
The message from the Australian Medical Association president comes after Albanese called him on Thursday morning in response to the association criticising Labor’s $135m urgent care clinic policy, announced this week, as “incoherent”.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: two Victorian councils limiting maternal and infant service, despite government lifting statewide pause enacted during Covid surge
There are fears health issues in babies could be going undetected as infant and maternal health checks remain suspended in parts of Melbourne’s west due to a shortage of workers.
Early childhood and maternal care experts warned the ongoing limits to the free service meant some parents were relying on blogs instead to find health information about their child’s development.
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Continue reading...Electrical problem triggers global safety alert on 2,000 Philips machines
Two thousand ventilators being used in UK hospitals are at risk of suddenly shutting down due to electrical faults that have led to a global safety alert.
Hospitals have been ordered to source replacement ventilators after Philips Respironics said its breathing support devices could suddenly stop working, in some cases without activating a warning alarm.
Continue reading...Watchdog expresses concern over safety of mothers and babies days after damning Shrewsbury report
Hospital inspectors have uncovered repeated maternity failings and expressed serious concern about the safety of mothers and babies in Sheffield just days after a damning report warned there had been hundreds of avoidable baby deaths in Shrewsbury.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found Sheffield teaching hospitals NHS foundation trust, one of the largest NHS trusts in England, had failed to make the required improvements to services when it visited in October and November, despite receiving previous warnings from the watchdog.
Continue reading...Five-year investigation to conclude mothers forced to suffer traumatic births because of targets for ‘normal’ births
Three hundred babies died or were left brain-damaged due to inadequate care at an NHS trust, according to reports.
The Sunday Times has reported that a five-year investigation will conclude next week that mothers were denied caesarean sections and forced to suffer traumatic births due to an alleged preoccupation with hitting “normal” birth targets.
The inquiry, which analysed the experiences of 1,500 families at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital trust between 2000 and 2019, found that at least 12 mothers died while giving birth, and some families lost more than one child in separate incidents, the newspaper reported.
Donna Ockenden, an expert midwife who led the inquiry with the input of more than 90 midwives and doctors, said her team had been “shocked and saddened” by the scale of the tragedy.
The Ockenden report is expected to reveal that hundreds of babies were stillborn, died shortly after birth or were left permanently brain-damaged while many had fractured skulls or broken bones, or were left with life-changing disabilities.
Continue reading...Hospitals in southern England worst affected, with Devon recording highest ever numbers of Covid patients
Rising numbers of people entering hospital with Covid are leading to other patients becoming infected, staff absences, delayed operations and long waits in emergency departments, experts have said.
In recent weeks, Covid infection levels have been rising in the UK and hospitalisations are also increasing.
Continue reading...The state’s two publicly funded home-birth programs are suspended, with some expectant mothers not told until weeks before due dates
Expectant mothers are having planned home births cancelled within weeks of their due dates, with Victoria’s ambulance crisis putting intense strain on the state’s maternity services.
Victoria has just two publicly funded home-birth programs at Sunshine and Casey hospitals – both of which are now temporarily suspended. Assisted home births require ambulances to be available in case of any complications during the procedure.
Continue reading...Downdraft toppled 87-year-old on footpath near Derriford hospital helipad and injured one other woman
An 87-year-old woman has died after being blown over by a helicopter landing at a hospital, police have confirmed.
Devon and Cornwall police said two people were thought to have been injured as the helicopter landed at a helipad at Derriford hospital in Plymouth on Friday.
Continue reading...Ambika Mod, who plays stressed junior doctor, reacts to criticism that BBC drama disrespects women
It is the TV drama that has divided its viewers. Hailed by some as a brutally accurate depiction of the realities of working in an NHS maternity unit, This Is Going to Hurt has been denounced by others as misogynistic and insulting to women giving birth.
Now the actor who plays an exhausted and stressed female junior doctor in the show has rejected criticism of the BBC series set on an NHS obstetrics and gynaecology ward.
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