International media coverage for research linking flu vaccine with reduced risk of stroke

ipvastia_wordcloudA study from CaHRU, ‘Influenza vaccination and risk of stroke: self-controlled case-series study‘, recently published in the journal Vaccine, received international coverage in news media. The study of almost 18,000 patients with stroke looked at data from general practices in England using a self-controlled case series analysis, and showed that the risk of suffering a stroke is significantly reduced for up to two months after receiving a flu vaccine.

ipvastia_teamThe lead author was Dr Zahid Asghar, who conducted the research together with Prof Niro Siriwardena (both from CaHRU) and Dr Carol Coupland (from Nottingham University School of Community Health Sciences). This is the fourth in a series of studies over the past 10 years looking at the link between flu vaccination and reduction in risk of heart attack and stroke.

ipvastia_mediamapThe coverage included articles in The Times, Sun and Scottish Sun newspapers, BBC television and radio and online media outlets in the US, Middle East, Asia, Australasia and South America. The team are now designing future studies to explore the potential for flu vaccination to reduce risk of heart attack and stroke.

HEI Challenge for Patient Supported Quality Improvement and Education in Healthcare PPI conference

The Higher Education Institution (HEI) Challenge for Patient Supported Quality Improvement and Education in Healthcare held its Patient and Public Involvement Working Group Conference at Loughborough University on 1st October 2015. This collaborative event formed a central part of the HEI Challenge. Led by the Patient and Public Involvement working group, the overall aim of the event was to provide a forum to focus and share achievements and help identify how Universities can support developments for the future; locally, regionally and more widely.

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RachelHawleyposterWho Attended? Just over fifty people attended the event, bringing together both staff and service user perspectives. Participating universities were represented by staff, service user and learner voices. People travelled from across the region from a range of voluntary and service user led organisation including; Healthwatch Nottinghamshire, British Heart Foundation National Centre for Physical Activity and Health, Leicester – Loughborough Biomedical Research Unit, CLASH – MSK, Alzheimer’s Action Alliance, Diabetes UK, and the Carers Federation.

HThe HEI Challenge Award 2014-15, from the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network, is a unique opportunity for East Midlands Universities to foster a sustainable approach to working collaboratively for the benefit of our population and to drive positive experiences and outcomes for learners and local employers. The ultimate goal of the HEI Challenge is to collaboration to share, develop, showcase and spread work across East Midlands and surrounding Universities around the unifying topic of healthcare quality improvement.

Loughborough5Overview and highlights of the day: Conference delegates were welcomed to the event by Kristen Clements. Together Kris and Rhian Last co lead the PPI working group. The day began with a two presentations on that addressed the HEI challenge for patient supported quality improvement and education in healthcare. Rachel Hawley, Project Manager began by providing an overview of the Challenge to set the context for the day. Professor Niro Siriwardena showcased examples of patient supported quality improvement.. Participants engaged in group discussions to explore what patient supported quality improvement means to them and their organisation, each working group capturing its essence in ways that will inform future guiding principles for practice.

102915_1047_HEIChalleng1.pngThe Street Activity: The lunch time period was filled with conversations and emerging collaborations. Ten service user led / voluntary sector organisations gathered in ‘The Street’ to participate in activities aimed at stimulating conversations, hopefully leading to new collaborative projects. Participants were invited to submit project ideas to be awarded funding – further information about these projects will be shared soon. Participants engaged in a range of activities along the way; from stepper machines, to Bollywood dancing.

The afternoon began by moving into workshops activities on the following themes:

  • Loughborough3Involvement and Inclusion in action: Shahnaz Aziz, EM-AHSN; Theo Stickley, University of Nottingham and and Julie Gosling, Making Waves
  • Bridging the gap for involvement in research, education and practice: Andrew Grundy, Nottingham University and Elizabeth Rye SUCRAN
  • To train or not to train? The development for involvement: Paula Wray CLAHRC
  • Assessment of impact – The value of patient stories: Rachel White – NHS England

Keynote Showcase: Transformational change and social innovation

Loughborough4The final session showcased staff and service users coming together to share their experiences through two presentations; Phil Smith, Kidney patient champion, Emma Watson, Kidney patient centre representative along with SCAD team members, Rebecca Pritchard and Catherine Beck. Experiences were shared that clearly showed the benefits of patient supported quality improvement in action; for staff, for service users and for the organisation.

A participant said: “That was a fantastic event. I thought the blend of academic input and service user experience was just right. Some of these events are valuable but exhausting. This time I found it valuable and energizing – and much more determined to push harder“.

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2015/10/PPI-Event-Report_FINAL-.pdf” responsive=”no”]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

For further information or to get involved you can:

  • If you are interested in finding out more about the HEI Challenge contact Rachel Hawley, Project Manager – rhawley@lincoln.ac.uk 07711 532512
  • If you are interested in finding out more about the Patient and Public Involvement working group you can contact either Kristen Clements (K.M.Clements@lboro.ac.uk) or Rhian Last (R.Last@educationforhealth.org)

– We hope that you will help us continue the conversations:

Please follow us on Twitter: @qi_learning

Rachel Hawley

New book chapter from CaHRU on equality and diversity in prehospital ambulance care

vhp2A new book, Ambulance Services: Leadership and Management Perspectives by Professors Paresh Wankhade and Kevin Mackway-Jones, features a chapter on equality and diversity in prehospital care, co-authored by Viet-Hai Phung and Prof Niro Siriwardena of CaHRU together with Dr Karen Windle of the School of Health and Social Care. The new volume also refers to CaHRU’s work in developing indicators and processes for measuring and improving the quality of care provided by ambulance services.

AScoverThe chapter, Responding to diversity and delivering equality in prehospital care: statutory responsibilities, best practice and recommendations, explores the impact of increasing diversity in the UK population and NHS workforce on prehospital care delivery. As public sector organisations, ambulance services are bound by The Equality Act 2010, which obliges them to promote equality and outlaw discrimination, harassment and victimisation of people with protected characteristics such as age, disability, race, gender and sexual orientation. Ambulance services use the Equality Delivery System (EDS), a voluntary toolkit that provides guidance about how they can achieve their duties set out in The Equality Act 2010. Building on the original EDS, the new EDS2 framework encourages organisations to flexibly reflect local sensitivities.

NThere are still significant variations in the quality of data that ambulance services possess for different protected characteristic groups, which also makes progress towards greater equality difficult to measure. The chapter summarises the current policy, problems in delivering this and potential solutions to overcome these.

Viet-Hai Phung

Fighting for real equality in healthcare for people on probation

coralIf David Cameron is serious about his promise yesterday in Manchester to end discrimination and “finish the fight for real equality” he should examine the way that CCGs are funding healthcare in probation.

People on probation are a deprived and vulnerable group. National guidance in England exhorts Clinical Commissioning Groups to commission healthcare for those living in the community who are serving community orders. This includes ‘approved premises’ – accommodation providing enhanced supervision for offenders and individuals on bail who may present a high risk of harm to the public.

Desk1In an article published recently in Health and Social Care in the Community, researchers, including a member of the Community and Health Research Unit at the University of Lincoln present findings from a national survey of CCGs in England. This survey, sent as a freedom of information request to all CCGs and Mental Health Trusts in England, compared the extent to which healthcare services were commissioned for probationers in 2014 with similar data collected in 2013.

Findings show that the proportion of CCGs commissioning healthcare for probation reduced from 7% to 1%, and 20% of CCGs stated that funding healthcare for this group was the responsibility of the NHS England Area Teams. It is not the Area Team’s responsibility it is the responsibility of CCGs.

There was also a reduction in the proportion of Mental Health Trusts funding healthcare for probation between the 2013 and 2014 surveys – from 70% to 61%. The prevalence of mental health disorders in probation is high, so it was of concern that only 12% of Mental Health Trusts provided a service to support approved premises and just 32% provided clinics in probation.

The present Government’s policy, in April 2015, to privatise probation for low risk offenders in the community adds yet more complexity to this highly concerning scenario.

 

Professor Charlie Brooker and Dr Coral Sirdifield

Article on patient experiences of ambulance care published in Ambulance Today

photo2italiccolourWORDSAn article entitled, ‘Feeling reassured: the glue that holds together patients’ experiences of ambulance service care’ was published in the autumn (September) issue of Ambulance Today. The article by Prof Niro Siriwardena and Fiona Togher, based on work undertaken as part of the National Institute for Health Research funded five-year Programme for Applied Health Research co-led by Prof Siriwardena together with doctoral research by Fiona Togher, describes findings from a recent paper published in Health Expectations.

NThe article, ‘Reassurance as a key outcome valued by emergency ambulance service users: a qualitative interview study’, describes how healthcare quality incorporates the important of patient experience as well as safe and effective clinical care and what patients feel contributes to a good experience. The original study involved 22 patients who had recently experienced care from the ambulance service together with eight spouses. The interviews revealed that the ability of ambulance staff to reassure patients was the ‘glue’ that held together patients’ experiences: if patients did not feel reassured during their care this adversely affected their overall experience.

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2015/09/Siriwardena-Togher-Feeling-reassured-AT-2015.pdf” responsive=”no”]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]Patients expected the clinical care delivered by ambulance staff to be safe and effective, but what affected their experience and their feeling of being reassured were other aspects of care such as professionalism (demeanour and conduct), good communication (sensitive to the needs of patients and their relatives), responsiveness (timeliness that met needs rather than simply a rapid response), and continuity (effective handover to hospital or community pathways). The research is part of the Prehospital and Emergency Quality and Outcomes (PEQO) workstream at CaHRU and has contributed to Fiona’s doctoral research on the development of a Patient Reported Experience Measure (PREM) for use in NHS ambulance services.