Health Management and Policy Alert

Re:Birth summary report

Royal College of Midwives -
This project worked with representatives from across maternity care, including staff, advocacy groups and service users. It advises that midwives and obstetricians put the needs and wishes of women at the heart of all conversations about their care. It recommends that maternity staff should follow the five As: acknowledge, ask, affirm, avoid and annotate.

• Summary report
• Royal College of Midwives - press release

Compensation and redress for the victims of infected blood: recommendations for a framework

Cabinet Office - 

This study by Sir Robert Francis QC looks at options for a framework for compensation for the victims of the infected blood tragedy. Sir Robert will give evidence about his work to the Infected Blood Inquiry in July 2022. Before then, it is important that the Inquiry, and recognised legal representatives of its infected and affected core participants, have an opportunity to consider his work. The Minister for the Cabinet Office has published a statement about the study.

• Study
• More detail

Nursing under unsustainable pressures: staffing for safe and effective care in the UK

Royal College of Nursing - 

In March 2022, the RCN invited nursing and midwifery staff from across the UK to give their experiences of the last time they were at work. There were 20,325 responses to the survey. Eight in ten (83 per cent) said there weren’t enough nursing staff to meet all patient needs safely and effectively on their last shift. Just a quarter (25 per cent) of shifts had the planned number of registered nurses. Less than one in five (18 per cent) said they had enough time to provide the level of care they’d like.

• Report
• Press release

Beds in the NHS

Royal College of Emergency Medicine - 

This report shows that an additional 13,000 staffed beds are required in the NHS across the UK to drive meaningful change and improvement. Meaningful change and improvement would constitute a significant improvement in A&E waiting times, ambulance response times, ambulance handover delays, and a return to safe bed occupancy levels.

• Report
• Press release

Infection prevention and control: resource for adult social care

Department of Health and Social Care -
This document sets out general infection prevention and control principles to be used in combination with guidance on managing specific infections. It is for people responsible for setting and maintaining standards of infection prevention and control within adult social care in England, such as care managers. A Covid-19 supplement has been published alongside this guidance. The guidance applies from 4 April 2022.

• Guidance
• Covid-19 supplement
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Final findings, conclusions and essential actions from the Ockenden review of maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

Department of Health and Social Care -
This review of maternity services at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust independently assesses the quality of investigations relating to newborn, infant and maternal harm at the trust. This final report of the review covers the findings, conclusions and essential actions of this independent review. Based on a review of all family cases that formed part of this investigation, the final report outlines system-wide learnings and immediate and essential actions to improve maternity care.

• Report
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Personalised prescribing: using pharmacogenomics to improve patient outcomes

Royal College of Physicians (RCP) - 

This report, from a RCP and British Pharmacological Society joint working party, explains how a type of testing, known as pharmacogenomic testing, should be deployed across the NHS to ensure all patients have an equal chance of being prescribed a medicine at a dose that is likely to be safe and effective for them, with minimal side effects. There can be enormous variation from person to person in whether a medicine works, whether it causes serious side effects and what dose is needed. The report states that testing patients for genetic variations that affect how their body will respond to common medicines must be integrated fully, fairly and swiftly into the NHS.

• Report
• Press release

Out of sight – who cares?: restraint, segregation and seclusion review - progress report

Care Quality Commission -
The Out of sight – who cares? report, published in October 2020, looked at the use of restraint, seclusion and segregation in care services for people with a mental health condition, a learning disability or autistic people. This report comments on progress made since the original report was published and highlights the main areas where work is still needed.

• Report
• Care Quality Commission - publications

Workforce standards for the district nursing service

Queen’s Nursing Institute - 

This document sets safety standards for the district nursing workforce in the UK, setting out areas of risk and giving examples of major ‘red flags’ that require escalation.

• Standards
• Press release

Patient safety in healthcare products and services

NHS Confederation - 

Shared learning on patient safety and how collaborative working is enabling better assurance and safety for health care products and services. This briefing (produced by NHS Supply Chain) aims to showcase examples of learning related to patient safety, highlighting the role of NHS Supply Chain and other national bodies. It outlines the impact of collaborative working across healthcare systems to contribute to assurance and patient safety in relation to health care products and services.

• Briefing