A Sage member and NHS England have pushed back against criticism of hospital admissions data
Claims that hospital admissions for Covid-19 in England were overreported at the peak of the outbreak may not be telling the whole story.
According to government figures, the daily hospital admissions for Covid-19 patients in hospital rose from 1,541 on 3 March to 17,172 on 12 April. On 20 August the figure was 516.
Continue reading...City sees ‘extremely concerning’ rise to 30 cases per 100,000 as positive tests in Britain hit highest level since mid-June
Police and officials in Birmingham have warned the public to act now to avert a city-wide lockdown as the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England rose 27% in a week, hitting its highest level since mid-June.
The UK’s second city, which has a population of more than 1 million, has seen a rise to 30 cases per 100,000 up from 22.4 the week before and 12 at the start of the month, its director of public health said.
Continue reading...Critics say PHE is being scapegoated for government’s failings during pandemic
Senior doctors, hospital bosses and public health experts have accused ministers of scapegoating Public Health England for their own failings over Covid-19 by planning to axe the agency.
The government’s decision to scrap PHE and merge it into a new body charged with preventing future outbreaks of infectious diseases produced a chorus of criticism on Sunday.
Continue reading...Shielding rules were relaxed in England on 1 August, but I’m not rushing to the shops or beach any time soon
I am one of those people who were told that from 1 August we no longer needed to shield to protect ourselves from the coronavirus.
While you might assume that, having been trapped inside our homes for the past 18 weeks, we would embrace our newfound freedom with enthusiasm, the reality remains far from it.
Continue reading...More than 30 marches due on Saturday in recognition of work during coronavirus pandemic
Thousands of NHS workers have protested across the UK calling for fair pay for NHS staff and true recognition of their work during the pandemic.
More than 30 marches were planned on Saturday as anger grows about an absence of action to match gestures such as weekly applause for healthcare workers.
Continue reading...Blood plasma containing coronavirus antibodies may help patients in any second wave
People who have recovered from Covid-19 are being urged to donate their blood plasma as part of an urgent appeal to help the NHS treat those who fall ill during a potential second wave.
The call follows news that the number of appointments booked each week as part of the ongoing NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) convalescent plasma collection has dropped by almost half in the past month. There are fewer eligible donors due to the fall in new infections during lockdown.
Continue reading...Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham warns that dramatically shifting pictures of infection rates will continue to force local lockdowns
Last week we got a taste of things to come. As we head for winter without a Covid-19 vaccine, we will all need to get used to a new routine where, every Thursday, the latest round of local restrictions is announced. Greater Manchester was not the first and we certainly won’t be the last.
When the secretary of state for health called late on Thursday afternoon to inform me of his intentions, I was not surprised.
Continue reading...Even within a hospital, the ICU can feel like another world. But critical care goes far beyond simply keeping people alive – it’s also about what happens next
In early March, Mike Brunner, an intensive care doctor at Northwick Park hospital in north London, saw his first few Covid-19 patients. They were arriving with mild coughs, but just hours later were relying on oxygen tanks to breathe, their lungs on the brink of collapse. Within days, three patients became seven, then 20, and from then on, said Brunner, “we were in it”.
For a while, Brunner felt as if he and his colleagues were the only ones who saw the huge change coming. “We could see this tsunami of people coming at us, and yet nobody else did,” said Brunner. Driving through London on his way to work, past people crowded together in shops and pubs and cafes, he felt as if no one understood that very soon life was not going to be the same. “It was an incredibly lonely feeling,” he said.
Continue reading...Dr Rudresh Pathak’s fatal stroke highlights brain complications and blood clots associated with severe cases
When Rudresh Pathak finally left intensive care after 81 days, staff at Pilgrim hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire – where he had worked as a consultant psychiatrist for nearly three decades – lined the corridors to applaud.
Though visibly weak, the 65-year-old, who is thought to be one of a few patients in the UK to have remained on a ventilator with Covid-19 for so long, clapped along.
Continue reading...At least 540 health and social workers have died in England and Wales during crisis
Only 19 families of NHS and social care workers who died after contracting coronavirus have so far been approved for the £60,000 compensation payment from the government.
At least 540 health and social care workers have died in England and Wales during the crisis but, as of 8 July, just 51 claim forms for the taxpayer-funded bereavement scheme had been received. None have been rejected, with 32 still under consideration, according to the figures, provided by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Continue reading...Prime minister makes comments while promoting extension of free winter flu jabs
Boris Johnson has said people opposed to vaccinations are “nuts” as he promotes an expanded programme of flu jabs that ministers hope will ease pressure on the NHS if there is a second wave of coronavirus this winter.
Visiting a doctors’ surgery in London on Friday, the prime minister said to staff: “There’s all these anti-vaxxers now. They are nuts, they are nuts.”
Continue reading...Disclosures call into question UK’s reliance on ‘just in time’ logistics during pandemic
The NHS was deprived of large amounts of protective gear at the height of the coronavirus outbreak after a French company contracted to supply millions of masks allegedly prioritised more lucrative deals with deep-pocketed clients including a Chinese state-owned energy company.
A joint investigation by the Guardian and the French news website Mediapart has uncovered evidence suggesting the mask manufacturer Valmy failed to fulfil the terms of a £1.2m contract with the NHS to supply about 7m masks in the event of a pandemic.
Continue reading...Local cases confirmed by Sitel, the US firm that runs the affected site in Scotland
Health officials are investigating a cluster of Covid-19 cases at a call centre in Scotland that carries out contact tracing for the NHS.
US firm Sitel confirmed on Sunday that its call centre in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire has suffered a “local outbreak” of infections.
Continue reading...Blackburn with Darwen’s public health director says only half those at risk in north-west being contacted
Failures of the government’s test-and-trace system are risking an exponential growth of coronavirus in hotspots across England, a director of public health has warned.
Dominic Harrison, the director of public health in Blackburn with Darwen, said the national tracing system was only managing to reach half of those who had been in close contact with a coronavirus patient in towns with high infection rates in the north-west.
Continue reading...The prime minister says he is hoping for the best but planning for the worst. We look at key areas of concern
Boris Johnson’s approach to a winter wave of Covid-19 is to hope for the best but plan for the worst, he said on Friday. The worst-case scenario was spelled out earlier in the week by the Academy of Medical Sciences: as many as 120,000 hospital patients dead. Avoiding that will depend on the state of preparations in many areas.
Continue reading...Capt Tom Moore, whose sponsored walks in his garden raised £33m for NHS charities, has been knighted in the Queen’s first official engagement in person since lockdown. The 100-year-old war veteran attended a unique open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle on Friday to receive the honour
Exclusive: training session at Hillingdon hospital resulted in 70 staff being quarantined
Nurses not wearing face masks or staying two metres apart led to an outbreak of Covid-19 that shut an A&E unit after 70 staff at a hospital had to go into quarantine, an inquiry has found.
An investigation by Hillingdon hospital in north-west London has found that a nurse who had coronavirus unwittingly infected 16 others during a training session they all attended on 30 June, in what was described by a doctor as a “super-spreading event”.
Continue reading...Minimum salary thresholds to also remain in place, presenting additional barrier
Care home staff have been excluded from a post-Brexit fast-track visa system for health workers, in a move that critics say could prove “an unmitigated disaster” and may increase the risk of spreading coronavirus.
Confirming there would be no special treatment for carers coming from the EU or the rest of the world, the government said it hoped Britons would fill a shortfall of around 120,000 workers, equating to 10% of all posts. Currently 17% of care jobs are filled by foreign citizens.
Continue reading...Home secretary will announce the biggest overhaul of the UK system in decades
The home secretary is to unveil further detail on the future of immigration in the UK on Monday in an attempt to prepare businesses and organisations for the biggest overhaul of the system in decades.
The Home Office has previously revealed the core principles behind the forthcoming points-based system, which is meant to be introduced when the transition period from leaving the European Union ends on 1 January. Under the system, UK borders will be closed to so-called non-skilled workers and applicants will be have to show a greater understanding of English.
Continue reading...Exclusive: health secretary said to be frustrated by his lack of authority over NHS England boss Simon Stevens
Boris Johnson is planning a radical and politically risky reorganisation of the NHS amid government frustration at the health service’s chief executive, Simon Stevens, the Guardian has learned.
The prime minister has set up a taskforce to devise plans for how ministers can regain much of the direct control over the NHS they lost in 2012 under a controversial shake-up masterminded by Andrew Lansley, the then coalition government health secretary.
Continue reading...