British Medical Association -
This national guidance outlines how MAPs (medical associate professionals) can work safely and effectively in the NHS and sets out the responsibilities of MAPs including PAs (physician associates) and AA (anaesthesia associates). It uses a traffic light-style system to illustrate what clinical duties MAPs should be able to carry out, as well as those responsibilities from which they should be prohibited.
Health Services Safety Investigations Body -
This report finds that the misidentification of patients remains a persistent safety risk across the NHS but is one that is under-recognised and under-researched. It draws together evidence from six completed Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch investigations and wider intelligence, such as the research literature and national policy documents. The aim of the report is to support national learning and influence national action to reduce the risk of patient misidentification.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) -
This document outlines how the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Health Services Safety Investigations Body will work together. It sets out: roles; responsibilities; governance; and accountability arrangements.
UK Health Security Agency -
This research explores the experience of social care practitioners, employed by Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered providers to provide domiciliary care and care in care homes, in relation to extreme temperatures. This evidence will inform the development of climate change adaptation interventions for the adult social care sector. The findings contribute to developing the evidence base concerning the impacts of climate change on public health and ultimately will help the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to protect the nation’s health from threats in the environment.
Future Health -
This report reveals that an estimated 464,000 people who are admitted to hospital have disease related malnutrition each year in England. This is the equivalent to over 50 people admitted to hospital every hour. People with malnutrition are more likely to visit their GP, be admitted to hospital and recover from treatment more slowly. The research estimates that the additional cost of a person with malnutrition is £7,775 per person per year at a total cost to the healthcare system in England of £22.6 billion. The report sets out a series of recommendations to tackle the issue of disease related malnutrition.
Public Accounts Committee -
This report warns of wide regional variations in the quality of patients’ access to urgent and emergency care. It finds that ambulance services covering large rural areas, for example services in the South-West and East of England, were particularly challenged and disproportionately affected by problems stemming from the flow of patients elsewhere in the system. The report further warns that not enough is being done to tackle delayed discharges, with beds unable to be released for new patients.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman -
Despite some progress on diagnosis and treatment of sepsis since the publication of the PHSO's report, Time to act in 2013, lessons are not being learned and repeated mistakes are putting people at risk. This report highlights that the same serious failings are still happening, and that significant improvements are urgently needed to avoid more fatalities. Failings include delays in diagnosis and treatment, poor communication and record-keeping, and missed opportunities for follow-up care.
MBRRACE-UK -
This report, the tenth MBRRACE-UK annual report of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity, includes surveillance data on women who died during or up to one year after pregnancy between 2019 and 2021 in the UK. In addition, it also includes confidential enquiries into the care of women who died between 2019 and 2021 in the UK and Ireland from obstetric haemorrhage, amniotic fluid embolism, anaesthetic causes, infection, general medical and surgical disorders and epilepsy and stroke. The report also includes a Morbidity Confidential Enquiry into the care of women with morbidity following repeat caesarean birth.
Demos -
Martha Mills died aged 13 in the summer of 2021 and the inquest into her death heard that she would likely have survived the sepsis that killed her had consultants made a decision to move her to intensive care sooner. This report is a response to a call from Martha Mills’s parents to rebalance the power between patients and medics to improve patient safety. It outlines evidence that shows that failing to properly listen to patients and their families contributes to safety problems in the NHS, along with public awareness among citizens that the NHS can feel unresponsive at times.
House of Commons Library -
This briefing details government and NHS policies on the quality and safety of maternity care in England.