Good Deeds & News (Corona)

[Parafox]

On 08/05/2020 at 09:45, davieG said:

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/health/leicester-hospitals-successfully-treated-discharged-4114894

 

Hundreds of coronavirus patients have been successfully discharged from Leicester’s Hospitals.

Some 535 patients have either been sent home to recover or transferred into the care of local community hospitals or care homes.

All of them tested positive for Covid-19 during a stay at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester General Hospital or the Glenfield Hospital.

And Andrew Furlong, medical director at Leicester's hospitals, said: “It’s always a joy when a patient is well enough to leave hospital.

"To see so many of those we have cared for, including those who have been extremely poorly, go back to their homes and families is a huge comfort and boost for our hard working team.

"We wish them all the best for their continued recovery."

Oh no. Just when they thought they'd got through it.

[Dahnsouff]

2 minutes ago, Parafox said:

Oh no. Just when they thought they'd got through it.

 Is this despair? Is this black humour? 

[Parafox]

Just now, Dahnsouff said:

 Is this despair? Is this black humour? 

Black humour, pal. It's a requirement in my job.

[Dahnsouff]

5 minutes ago, Parafox said:

Black humour, pal. It's a requirement in my job.

Aye, imagine it is, and an absolute shed load at that 

[davieG]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52467443

 

How coronavirus is changing NHS technology
By Sooraj Shah
Technology of Business reporter
15 May 2020

NHS technology is changing at speed, says Adrian Byrne
"Many people within the NHS are talking about two years of transformation done in two weeks," says Adrian Byrne, chief information officer at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHSFT).

His hospital has been among the many seeing innovations, including the use of a chatbot to provide automatic alerts for Covid-19 test results.

"Doctors don't look on the system every five minutes to see whether test results are back and this can waste time in being able to discharge or provide patients with care," says Mr Byrne.

The coronavirus outbreak has spurred hospitals to deal with all sorts of technology issues, not least staff having to use devices while dressed in full personal protective equipment (PPE).

At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, Dr Peter Young, an anaesthetist and intensive care specialist, had to ask for an app to be built to help non-specialist staff in critical care units to communicate more effectively.

"They continuously have many questions and while in full PPE they have to rely on a number of ad hoc WhatsApp lists to try and track down the right person who can help them or else they physically have to leave the unit to sort out their problem, wasting valuable PPE," he says.

Through the Call 4 Help app, staff can request help from everyone in the ICU through a real-time message board. Senior doctors and nurses can monitor and assign tasks through the app, which has been built with PPE in mind.

Dr Peter Young requested an app to help intensive care staff
"We've made sure it is easy to read through visors, and the onscreen buttons are sensitive enough to work easily through double gloved fingers," says Dr Young.

The iPhone X was chosen for the ICU as it is waterproof for cleaning, has a loud speaker and sensitive microphone. Once the requestor connects with the responder, the app provides a link to switch from the message board to FaceTime or a phone call if required. The app could be rolled out to all NHS hospitals nationwide.

Tech demand
Sarah Wilkinson, NHS Digital's CEO, says that the organisation has had to scale up its NHS 111 service, as it was receiving almost 100 time as much use as before the pandemic.

In addition, NHS Digital has worked with a team at Cambridge University that has built machine learning models to predict the upcoming demand for ICU beds and for ventilators.

This is being extended to estimate how long patients will stay in hospital and eventually, Ms Wilkinson hopes, it could help to simulate the best environments and treatment decisions for patients. These models have been deployed across many NHS trusts already.

The pandemic has also accelerated a number of projects which had been on many NHS trusts' agendas for a very long time.

"The clamour for virtual smart cards instead of physical cards increased as we moved into PPE environments, where putting in the physical card was very difficult," Ms Wilkinson said, explaining that the NHS has rolled out virtual cards as a result.

The NHS 111 service has seen a huge rise in demand because of the pandemic
Video conferencing tools had been put on the backburner too, but are now enabling GPs to communicate with patients, doctors to oversee wards and patients to speak to their families and friends.

Mike Ogonovsky, assistant director of informatics at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board says the NHS Wales video consulting service reached 88% of GP practices within a month across Wales, and it has been extended to include hospitals, mental health services and care homes.

"It was an R&D evaluation programme which turned into an aggressive national rollout plan in Wales when the pandemic hit - it became a very black and white issue," he says.

Similar tools are being used across Scotland and England, while Microsoft Teams has been deployed to 1.2 million users with NHS mail.

Another programme of work has been to reduce the amount of paper created in wards.

"If we're creating paper notes in a Covid-19 positive environment then those notes are a risk for 72 hours, so we're placing them somewhere else before scanning them. This is a hassle as the notes are not available immediately and there is a risk to any of the administrative teams who want to go through them," Mr Byrne explains.

One of the biggest frustrations within the NHS is the inability for every organisation to have access to patient details when they're required. Ms Wilkinson says that many of the patient-sharing initiatives that had been built prior to the pandemic, such as GP Connect, have now been commissioned to be made more accessible for Covid-19.

The lingering question then, is why weren't many of these technologies being used prior to the pandemic?

"ICT budgets compete against the budgets of fixing a leaky roof or hiring another clinician, meaning there are immensely difficult judgements to make, particularly as some other costs pay off immediately and IT may be slower to pay off," says Ms Wilkinson.

For instance, some trusts had bought desktop computers instead of laptops because they were cheaper. Even though laptops allow staff to move around more freely and work from home, many trusts may not have believed that this would save money - and all technology projects have to prove that they can save the NHS money to get the green light.

Dr Young says the Care 4 Help app would not have been possible in normal circumstances because of the funds and time required for development. Twenty engineers from Kulestar, 4 Roads, CK Alpha and Concept Software have voluntarily worked full-time on the app.

But during this crisis, those in the NHS making the financial decisions have been far more receptive to those on the technology side.

"I think anyone in IT in the NHS would tell you it's been a lot easier to do things in the last few weeks than it would have been prior to the crisis. We're now seeing freeing up of money for digital because it has had to happen," says Mr Byrne.

But the NHS may have been in a better place to manage the crisis if certain projects had been given the go-ahead far earlier, says Cindy Fedell, the chief digital and information officer at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

"Video conferencing is something we could have done one or two years ago, but it was slow to get off the ground, not because of technical issues, but because of people."

Funding is just one part of the problem; there are also strategic and cultural barriers that those in IT in the NHS have to contend with, but Ms Wilkinson believes this will improve as a result of what is now being achieved.

"The art of the possible is so much better understood now, I think we will have a much better understanding [of]... the enormous potential for digitalisation. There will be a broader appetite to invest," she says.

 

 

[davieG]

BBC

 

Coronavirus: Ibuprofen tested as a treatment

By Michelle RobertsHealth editor, BBC News online

8 hours ago

 

Scientists are running a trial to see if ibuprofen can help hospital patients who are sick with coronavirus.

The team from London's Guy's and St Thomas' hospital and King's College believe the drug, which is an anti-inflammatory as well as a painkiller, could treat breathing difficulties.

They hope the low-cost treatment can keep patients off ventilators.

In the trial, called Liberate, half of the patients will receive ibuprofen in addition to usual care.

The trial will use a special formulation of ibuprofen rather than the regular tablets that people might usually buy. Some people already take this lipid capsule form of the drug for conditions like arthritis.

Studies in animals suggest it might treat acute respiratory distress syndrome - one of the complications of severe coronavirus.

Prof Mitul Mehta, one of the team at King's College London, said: "We need to do a trial to show that the evidence actually matches what we expect to happen."

Early in the pandemic there were some concerns that ibuprofen might be bad for people to take, should they have the virus with mild symptoms.

These were heightened when France's health minister Oliver Veran said that taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, could aggravate the infection and advised patients to take paracetamol instead.

A review by the Commission on Human Medicines quickly concluded that, like paracetamol, it was safe to take for coronavirus symptoms. Both can bring a temperature down and help with flu-like symptoms.

For mild coronavirus symptoms, the NHS advises people try paracetamol first, as it has fewer side-effects than ibuprofen and is the safer choice for most people. You should not take ibuprofen if you have a stomach ulcer, for example.

[Wymsey]

But why didn't they consider that idea in the first place?

Edited 3 June 2020 by Wymsey

[davieG]

AstraZeneca said it will be able to supply two billion doses of a potential virus vaccine following two new deals.

Last month, AstraZeneca said it could manufacture one billion doses, that it is developing with scientists at Oxford University.

On Thursday, it signed two deals, including one backed by Bill Gates, allowing it to double production.

The British drug maker has agreed to supply half of the doses to low and middle-income countries.

One of the new partnerships is with the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume. The other is a $750m (£595m) deal with two health organisations backed by Bill and Melinda Gates.

[davieG]

Visit ItalyLike Page

t8Sa Jucponreancnege at Sseto1reSl5df:3d7 · 

Matera's hospital closes Coronavirus ward 🇮🇹 www.visititaly.eu/basilicata

[davieG]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-53254200#

 

Coronavirus: Sniffer dogs trial going 'very well'

By Charlie JonesBBC News

9 hours ago

 

Image copyrightMDD

Image captionThe six dogs chosen to take part in the trial are: top, from left Digby, Jasper and Storm; and bottom, from left, Asher, Star and Norman

A trial to see whether dogs can detect coronavirus is going "very well", according to the charity behind it.

Six dogs are being trained by Medical Detection Dogs in Milton Keynes.

Claire Guest, the charity's co-founder and chief executive, said the dogs were already showing signs that they would be able to sniff out the virus.

She has previously trained dogs to spot the scent of malaria, cancer and Parkinson's disease.

 

"The study is moving forwards very well and the signs are all really positive," said Dr Guest.

"At the moment, we are cutting up tiny strands of a tennis ball, and then touching the strands with a piece of paper and hiding the paper, and they are able to find it. They are incredibly skilled."

Norman, Digby, Storm, Star, Jasper and Asher will be trained to smell the virus on sterilised socks, stockings and face masks worn by NHS staff in London.

The team expects the 3,200 samples to start coming back next week. Scientists will work out whether they contain the virus and the dogs will be tasked with spotting the positive samples from the negative ones and alerting the trainers.

 

Dr Guest said her rescue dog Asher has been doing "exceptionally" well in training. The cocker spaniel was rehomed seven times because of his high drive before he found a home with her.

"He had already learned how to spot malaria and Parkinson's so we knew he would be well suited to this. He has been finding the training odour without any errors," she said.

"He is really leading the way and Storm is also doing incredibly well. He is very driven and really enjoying the work."

After eight weeks' initial training, the successful dogs will move on to a second phase to test them in live situations.

It is hoped the scheme will be expanded and dogs will be able to screen up to 250 people per hour, potentially at airports. They could also be used at testing centres.

The trial, backed by £500,000 of government funding, involves scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Durham University.

 

Dr Guest started training dogs to detect cancer in 2002 and set up the charity in 2008.

A year later, her fox-red Labrador Daisy, trained to detect bladder and prostate cancer, started pawing at her chest.

Doctors discovered she had a breast cancer tumour so deep it would have been very hard to detect had she not been alerted.

"I know from my own experience how clever these dogs are. They are primed and ready for the task and we are very optimistic we can help in the fight against coronavirus."

[davieG]

Huge £8.4m study into long-term health impacts of coronavirus launched in Leicester
Around 10,000 patients are expected to take part

ByMaia Snow
10:00, 5 JUL 2020
NEWS

A huge study into at the long-term health impacts of coronavirus will be lead by a team from Leicester.

Patients on the study will be assessed using techniques such as advanced imaging, data collection and analysis of blood and lung samples, to build up a comprehensive picture of the impact Covid-19 has had on long term health across the UK.

The study, which launches today, is called the PHOSP-COVID study and will be led by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Leicester Biomedical Research Centre.

The research centre is a partnership between the University of the Leicester and the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock said: "As we continue our fight against this global pandemic, we are learning more and more about the impact the disease can have not only on immediate health, but longer-term physical and mental health too.

"This world-leading study is another fantastic contribution from the UK's world-leading life sciences and research sector. It will also help to ensure future treatment can be tailored as much as possible to the person."

The study has been awarded £8.4 million by the NIHR and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and it will draw on expertise from leading researchers and clinicians from across the UK to assess the impact of Covid-19 on patient health and their recovery.

Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said: "As well as the immediate health impacts of the virus it is also important to look at the longer term impacts on health, which may be significant.

Leicester has been placed back under full lockdown by the Government, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced
Leicester will lead a study into the long-term health impacts of Covid-19 (Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
"We have rightly focused on mortality, and what the UK can do straight away to protect lives but we should also look at how COVID-19 impacts on the health of people after they have recovered from the immediate disease.

"This UKRI and NIHR funded study is one of the first steps in doing this."

Around 10,000 patients are expected to take part, which will make it the largest study in the world into the long-term impact of the virus on patients.

Chris Brightling, professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Leicester, consultant respiratory physician at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, and chief investigator for the study said: "As we emerge from the first wave of the pandemic, we have new insights into the acute phase of this disease but very little information about patients’ long term needs.

"It is vitally important that we rapidly gather evidence on the longer term consequences of contracting severe COVID-19 so we can develop and test new treatment strategies for them and other people affected by future waves of the disease."

It is just one of a number of a Covid-19 studies that have been given urgent public health research status by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Rebecca Brown, acting chief executive of University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said: "University Hospitals of Leicester has demonstrated its culture of research and innovation during the pandemic: we introduced the SPACES model for ward layout to protect staff, were the highest recruiting site to key drug trials like RECOVERY, and have worked with our academic partners to understand and protect our diverse ethnic minority population.

"I am proud we are the lead NHS trust to investigate the long term effects of Covid-19 as presented in our clinics - it is the next step in our journey to tackle this disease."

Professor Melanie Davies, Director of the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre said: "The purpose of a Biomedical Research Centre is to translate scientific breakthroughs into benefits for patients at pace.

"The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the value of centres like ours in Leicester where we are leading research embedded into clinical care settings, which will have a direct impact on patient care, and we are delighted to be awarded this prestigious funding to continue our exemplary record in the fight against coronavirus."

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/huge-84m-study-long-term-4295461

[davieG]

 

 

Leicester's Hospitals
· 
❣️[Warning: This story may be the best thing you see today]❣️

Husband and wife of 61 years, Michael, 91 and Gillian, 88, walked out of hospital together yesterday following three-weeks in hospital recovering from COVID-19.

Laura Lomas, Sister on Ward 36 LRI, described how each morning during their stay, Mr England would get himself up and dressed before the therapist teams arrived, so that when he needed to exercise he could ask to walk to his wife at her bedside. And there, awake and waiting in earnest would be his wife, ready for their daily cup of tea together. 😭😭

Mr England said: “While I’ve been in hospital I’ve not really missed anything because Gillian is here and I have been able to see her every day.”

The couple, who continued to take tea and meals together throughout recovery journey, said they were looking forward to seeing their three sons and their families again.

He added: “I can’t describe the kindness of the nursing staff who made our stay in hospital so comfortable and worked hard to make sure we were looked after on the same ward. They have shown such compassion in so many ways. Kindness goes such a long way.”

[StanSP]

Nice 

 

[ealingfox]

8 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Nice 

 

 

Class this, from a GWR fan 

[StanSP]

 

[yorkie1999]

On 03/06/2020 at 11:35, Wymsey said:

But why didn't they consider that idea in the first place?

I was thinking exactly the same, but no doubt the answer will be because of the potential risks from side effects.

[yorkie1999]

On 03/07/2020 at 10:33, davieG said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-53254200#

 

Coronavirus: Sniffer dogs trial going 'very well'

By Charlie JonesBBC News

9 hours ago

 

Image copyrightMDD

Image captionThe six dogs chosen to take part in the trial are: top, from left Digby, Jasper and Storm; and bottom, from left, Asher, Star and Norman

A trial to see whether dogs can detect coronavirus is going "very well", according to the charity behind it.

Six dogs are being trained by Medical Detection Dogs in Milton Keynes.

Claire Guest, the charity's co-founder and chief executive, said the dogs were already showing signs that they would be able to sniff out the virus.

She has previously trained dogs to spot the scent of malaria, cancer and Parkinson's disease.

 

"The study is moving forwards very well and the signs are all really positive," said Dr Guest.

"At the moment, we are cutting up tiny strands of a tennis ball, and then touching the strands with a piece of paper and hiding the paper, and they are able to find it. They are incredibly skilled."

Norman, Digby, Storm, Star, Jasper and Asher will be trained to smell the virus on sterilised socks, stockings and face masks worn by NHS staff in London.

The team expects the 3,200 samples to start coming back next week. Scientists will work out whether they contain the virus and the dogs will be tasked with spotting the positive samples from the negative ones and alerting the trainers.

 

Dr Guest said her rescue dog Asher has been doing "exceptionally" well in training. The cocker spaniel was rehomed seven times because of his high drive before he found a home with her.

"He had already learned how to spot malaria and Parkinson's so we knew he would be well suited to this. He has been finding the training odour without any errors," she said.

"He is really leading the way and Storm is also doing incredibly well. He is very driven and really enjoying the work."

After eight weeks' initial training, the successful dogs will move on to a second phase to test them in live situations.

It is hoped the scheme will be expanded and dogs will be able to screen up to 250 people per hour, potentially at airports. They could also be used at testing centres.

The trial, backed by £500,000 of government funding, involves scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Durham University.

 

Dr Guest started training dogs to detect cancer in 2002 and set up the charity in 2008.

A year later, her fox-red Labrador Daisy, trained to detect bladder and prostate cancer, started pawing at her chest.

Doctors discovered she had a breast cancer tumour so deep it would have been very hard to detect had she not been alerted.

"I know from my own experience how clever these dogs are. They are primed and ready for the task and we are very optimistic we can help in the fight against coronavirus."

The bottom left dog looks a bit worried.

Edited 5 January 2021 by yorkie1999