Our review of the way NHS trusts review and investigate deaths has found that opportunities to learn from patient deaths are being missed – and too many families are not being included or listened to when an investigation takes place.
A year after a review commissioned by NHS England uncovered failings at Southern Health Foundation Trust, we look at how acute, community and mental health trusts across the country investigate and learn from deaths of people who have been in their care.
IHealth Education England (HEE) has worked with Public Concern at Work and the National Guardian Office to develop a package of online learning resources that aim to encourage and support NHS staff to raise and respond to concerns.
Available on HEE’s e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH) website, two e-learning sessions promote relevant policies, procedures, best practice and available support in relation to raising and responding to concerns.
The consultation outlines a proposal to legally make sure information provided by staff as part of a health service investigation is kept confidential except in limited circumstances, i.e. where there is an immediate risk to patient safety, or where the High Court makes an order permitting disclosure. The proposal aims to reassure staff that the information they provide will not be passed on, while assuring patients and families that they will be given full facts about their care.
Health Education England's e-Learning for Healthcare team (HEE e-LfH) has developed a new online resource for healthcare staff to equip them with the necessary knowledge and confidence to raise public interest concerns.
Safe staffing decisions should be made locally and not be governed by ratios [brief news item]. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
The average person remembers less than half of the information provided by healthcare professionals during a medical visit.1 The situation is arguably most challenging for patients leaving the hospital, where acute illness, sleep deprivation and delirium add to the challenge of learning and memory.2 ,3 Indeed, research has shown that after hospital discharge, only 59.6% of patients are able to accurately describe their discharge diagnoses, and 43.9% can accurately recall follow-up appointments.4 Approximately one-third of patients have difficulty understanding their discharge medication regimen.5 To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Come and visit our first pop-up library at Severn Fields, Shrewsbury 19th July 11.00am-3.00pm. Join the library, borrow and return books, get help finding information and evidence, set up an Athens account, find out what the library can do for you and your team.
We're looking at how NHS acute, community healthcare and mental health trusts investigate deaths and learn from their investigations. We also want to assess whether opportunities to prevent deaths have been missed.
A fully independent ‘Guardian Service’ is being launched for the North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) where staff can discuss any matters relating to service users care and safety, whistleblowing, bullying and harassment, and work grievances in complete confidence.
The report makes recommendations about establishing the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) as well as how to improve investigation, and learning from investigation, across the health system.
Clinical summaries are electronic health record (EHR)-generated documents given to hospitalised patients during the discharge process to review their hospital stays and inform postdischarge care. Presently, it is unclear whether clinical summaries include relevant content or whether healthcare organisations configure their EHRs to generate content in a way that promotes patient self-management after hospital discharge. We assessed clinical summaries in three relevant domains: (1) content; (2) organisation; and (3) readability, understandability and actionability. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Safe staffing levels across the NHS have worsened significantly in the last year, according to UNISON’s UK-wide annual survey of nursing professionals published today (Monday), at the start of its annual health conference in Brighton.