FEATURE ARTICLES

The donation of vital equipment and paediatric operating theatres is assisting hospitals in low-income countries to provide safer surgery for children – helping to save lives, while also making a significant economic impact. Louise Frampton speaks to Kids Operating Rooms (KidsOR) – a charity that is dedicated to opening child-friendly operating rooms in low-resource settings.

Nick Rodger looks at how hospitals can promote safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness for critical care teams by embracing digitisation within the NHS.

Tim Bryant discusses the challenges presented by the elective backlog and offers an insight into how technology can help hospitals manage the recovery process – through effective management of operating theatres and patient flow.

Graham Kendall, director of the Digital Healthcare Council, outlines the Council’s thoughts on digital health innovators and its strategy to support NHS Trusts with their strategic digital healthcare opportunities in the wake of COVID-19.

Kate Woodhead RGN DMS discusses the Health and Care Bill and what it will mean in terms of healthcare delivery – from integration of care systems to new ways of working.

In this expert opinion statement, Professor Richard James, Emeritus Professor of Microbiology, University of Nottingham Medical School, considers the microbiological risks presented by inhalation and direct skin contact with surgical smoke

Isopharm iLearn provides staff of all levels with full details of the decontamination processes undertaken by sterile services and endoscopy departments and is helping to shape the future of ongoing CPD, and staff development in decontamination.

The Government has set out a blueprint to address backlogs built up during the COVID pandemic and tackle long waits for care with increased expansion in capacity for tests, checks and treatments. CSJ highlights the key pillars of the strategic plan.

Efficient point-of-care testing for COVID is critical to managing admissions and infection control for hospitals, particularly during Winter peaks. Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals have implemented a solution that is capable of speeding up detection of respiratory viruses – delivering a result in just a few minutes.

A specialist NHS laboratory, hosted by Newcastle Hospitals, is helping to accelerate the development of new, cutting-edge COVID-19 tests, as well as technologies that could give an early warning of virus threats

A new event, launched by two major NHS Trusts, will provide valuable insights into decontamination and infection prevention – from protein removal, and water microbiology, to ventilation and automated room disinfection.

SBRI Healthcare, an NHS England & NHS Improvement initiative, has awarded £1 Million to a number of pioneering innovations to support the delivery of a net zero NHS.

World TB Day, which falls on 24 March each year, is designed to build public awareness that tuberculosis remains an epidemic in much of the world. While TB was surpassed by COVID-19 as the world’s deadliest infectious disease, the disease still kills around 1.5 million people annually.

In a recent presentation at the Future Surgery show, Professor Prokar Dasgupta, professor of surgery, King’s College London, considered the ‘digital future of surgery’. He highlighted some key innovations coming to the fore – from an octopus-inspired robot with a sense of touch, to technology that enables clinicians to remotely “scrub in” to the OR.

Justin Hassall, transformation director, Informed Solutions, calls for patients and clinicians to be placed at the heart of digital health services design and highlights the challenges around interoperability

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has highlighted continued concern about the variation in the quality and safety of England’s maternity services and a confidential enquiry into maternal deaths found that women from Black ethnic groups are four times more likely to die in pregnancy than women from White groups.

Exciting innovation took centre stage at Arab Health’s UK pavilion – from live robotic surgery demonstrations to discussions with a NASA astronaut on how space technology can find its way into pioneering health applications.

Despite extensive evidence highlighting the risks associated with surgical smoke exposure, healthcare employers are still not listening to the concerns of healthcare workers and failing to provide adequate protection. Faced with a backlog of patients, are staff under pressure to ‘just get the job done’ – even when it means putting their own health at risk? Louise Frampton reports.

The Paterson Inquiry investigated a healthcare scandal involving ‘17 counts of wounding patients with intent’ and highlighted many more accounts of distressing treatment at the hands of a ‘rogue surgeon’. So what can we learn from the Government’s long-awaited report and how should we identify and challenge misconduct in the future?

With a backlog of elective surgery, long waits in A&E, as well as in ambulances, and difficulties in obtaining GP appointments, how has the pandemic impacted confidence and satisfaction in the NHS? CSJ looks at some of the latest patient surveys.