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Failure to publish report led to further abuse in mental health unit in North Wales say families with relatives at Tawel Fan ward.
Families whose relatives were admitted to Tawel Fan ward in North Wales say the “appalling events could and more importantly, should have been avoided if the findings from the Hergest mental health unit report had been published.”
Disappointment over the Chancellor’s failure to announce investment in nurses in his summer statement.
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak focused his spending announcements on general measures to safeguard jobs for UK workers and stabilise the employment market offering no boost to nurse staffing or pay. The move drew criticism from the Royal College of Nursing and a number of other unions.
Dave Prentis, general secretary of the union Unison, said the statement offered “next to nothing for public services and the workers who’ve kept the country going through the last few difficult months”. Sunak’s plan did however include a new commitment to inject more than £1bn in 2020-21 into “NHS critical maintenance and A&E capacity across England”
All nurses in England to be charged for hospital parking.
Parking charges that were lifted for all NHS staff as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic will be brought back in by the government, but as yet no timeline for this has been provided.
Responding to the news, RCN director for England, Mike Adams said the move would be detrimental to the government’s relationship with nurses : ‘The government made a positive decision to support healthcare workers during the first wave of the pandemic by removing parking charges. Reversing this now would not give the impression that their professionalism and commitment is truly valued.’
A record 18,000 new nurses, midwives and nursing associates join the NMC register.
The largest annual increase on record to its register has been welcomed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, but with a warning that the right environment, conditions and incentives need to be created to support the retention of staff for the future.
Andrea Sutcliffe, NMC chief executive and registrar warned that because much of the growth has come from overseas, there were “potential stormy waters ahead.” with restrictions on travel making it harder for new staff to migrate. She added that “the retention of our existing workforce will be ever more important.”
MPs call for evidence on maternity safety and what more must be done to improve it.
Recurrent failings in maternity services and what action is needed to improve safety for mothers and babies is the focus of this new inquiry launched by the Health and Social Care Committee. The Safety of Maternity Services in England inquiry will examine evidence relating to ongoing concerns despite the substantial amount of work carried out in recent years.
The Committee will build upon investigations that followed incidents at East Kent Hospitals University Trust and Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust, as well as the inquiry into the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust.
MPs will also consider whether clinical negligence and litigation processes need to be changed to improve the safety of maternity services, as well as the extent to which a “blame culture” affects medical advice and decision-making.
Chair’s comments
Health and Social Care Committee Chair Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP said:
“The death of a baby when something goes wrong is a tragedy for a family. When we’ve seen a pattern of baby deaths, we must be confident that failings that contributed to them have been addressed and lessons learned.
“However, the safety of our maternity services continues to be a matter of concern.
“We’ll be looking at the evidence that’s been gathered to date and whether recommendations are being acted upon to ensure that lasting improvements are made to safeguard the lives of mothers and their babies.”
2 women are diagnosed with cancer in and around pregnancy in the UK and Ireland every day –
Mummy’s Star needs your help.
These women are in desperate need of support as they go through treatment and lifesaving surgery. Little stars are still being born and families are still trying to cope with bereavement despite COVID-19. Please help raise awareness of cancer and pregnancy by sharing #CPAW2020 posts, telling your health care team about Mummy’s Star, putting Mummy’s Star in touch with your GP surgery or making a donation to support their work.
North Wales’ health board still in special measures five years on
On the anniversary of the move to special measures, Deeside.com looks at what has happened over the course of five years, speaking to the author of the Ockenden Report into the Tawel Fan mental health ward who also carried out a subsequent study highlighting flaws in board governance. Donna Ockenden said : “It is five years since my first report was published and almost two years since the completion of my Governance review. I sincerely hope in the intervening time BCUHB can show the significant improvements they would have made as a result of the recommendations in these two reports.”
Deaths linked to learning disabilities and autism soar during Covid-19 crisis
The Care Quality Commission has revealed that there has been a 134 per cent increase in deaths of people with learning disabilities or autism in care settings. The regulator looked at figures for a period spanning April and part of May this year and compared the numbers with the same period last year.
Ethnic minorities face double the risk of death from Covid-19
A report by Public Health England has revealed that the risk to people from Asian, Caribbean and black ethnicities from coronavirus is “disproportionate” but it is as yet unclear why this is. Health Secretary Matt Hancock described the report as “troubling” but “timely” due to current anger about racial injustice. He added that “much more work” needed to be done to understand the reason for the disparities.
Huge decline in overseas nurse registrations
Data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council reveals that overseas nurse registrations have plummeted by more than 1,300 in a month. The decline has been attributed mainly to travel restrictions and other measures put in place in the UK and abroad in response to Covid-19, laying bare the full scale of the pandemic on international recruitment.
SANDS : Awareness month in June
The stillbirth and neonatal death support group SANDS has an Awareness month throughout June with a special focus on what the charity has to offer the NHS. SANDS wants to spread the word about the support it provides to those working on the frontline, helping equip them with skills to care for families facing loss. The charity has adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic by offering a range of on-line learning resources for NHS staff, including free webinars advising how best to support parents and families when a baby dies, as well as two e-learning modules focusing on best practice in relation to bereavement
Death toll for Covid-19 passes 40,000 in England and Wales
The latest analysis by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows 41,220 deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. 11 thousand of these were in care homes. The northwest has had the highest number of virus-related deaths for the second week in a row, with a total of 620.