Health & Wellbeing

A nurse is preparing to spend her TENTH Christmas period in a row looking after patients at St Giles Hospice next month (December).

Keeley Sherwin (28) works as a nurse on the inpatient unit at St Giles in Whittington, caring for local people and their families living with a terminal illness.

Every year, winter comes around, and every year the NHS braces itself for a challenging time. 

This year is no different, and unfortunately will be even more challenging. The NHS continues to deal with backlogs, staff sickness, and rising numbers of a range of infections to name a few issues.  

A new report by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine ‘Crowding and its Consequences’ has found that at least 4,519 patients have died as a result of crowding and 12 hour stays in Emergency Departments in England in 2020-2021. The new report investigates the extent of harm that crowding causes and applies NHSE’s own findings from the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) program which found that one in 67 patients staying in the Emergency Department for 12 hours come to excess harm.

Black women are more than four times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than white women in the UK, a review of 2017-2019 deaths shows. The Mbrrace report found women from Asian backgrounds are almost twice as likely to die as white women.

Some 495 individuals died during pregnancy or up to a year after birth, out of 2,173,810 having a child.

NHS IT staff at Warwick Hospital and George Eliot Hospital (Nuneaton), employed by South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust and George Eliot hospital NHS Trust, are on a four-day strike (from yesterday - Tuesday) over their employers’ plans to force them to work for a new company called Innovate Healthcare Services.

A Sandwell charity is hosting a free virtual conference to help people better understand mental health and support those who might be struggling.

The Kaleidoscope Plus Group, a leading mental health charity based in West Bromwich, will host the free two-day Mending Minds Conference between 26 and 27 January 2022.

A soldier from Sutton Coldfield, in the West Midlands, was travelling on the M6 when a vehicle up ahead suddenly stopped. With no hazard lights on and the vehicle at a slight angle, the soldier knew something was wrong.

Sgt Richard Jennings, 32, had been on a 7-week Caving course with the Army Adventurous Training Group in Ripon and was travelling back to his base at the Joint Service Mountain Training Centre in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, North Wales when the incident took place.

Pregnant women in Wolverhampton are being urged to get the Covid-19 vaccine as data shows that nearly 20% of the most critically ill coronavirus patients were pregnant women who have not been vaccinated. Although the overall risk to pregnant women and new-born babies from Covid-19 disease is low, in later pregnancy some women may become seriously unwell and could need hospital treatment.

Almost half of employees in the West Midlands would not talk to their employer if they were experiencing a health issue, having a detrimental impact on business performance and culture, according to new research from not-for-profit healthcare provider, Benenden Health.

As many as 45% of individuals in the region reported that they wouldn’t feel confident discussing any health issue with their employer, with many worrying about what it would mean for their career and relationships within the workplace.

Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice has raised an incredible £234,000 through its recent ‘Raise the Roof’ capital appeal which launched last spring. The appeal was launched after the charities annual buildings survey showed that the flat rooves of its Selly Oak based Inpatient Unit had deteriorated so badly, that patient bedrooms would be affected when the winter weather hit if not repaired in time.

Face coverings have been made mandatory for everyone working in the House of Commons except MPs.

In updated guidance, the Commons authorities said all staff, visitors, contractors and press must cover their faces to combat the spread of Covid.

A councillor is appealing for witnesses to come forward after a vital piece of medical equipment was stolen from a public park. Thieves stole a defibrillator – a device which gives a high energy electric shock to the heart of someone who is in cardiac arrest – from King George V Playing Fields in Wednesfield on September 30.

Responding to the Medical Schools Council (MSC) recommendation to increase the number of medical students by 5000 to a total of 14,500 graduating doctors per year, Dr Katherine Henderson, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said:

“The NHS had widespread workforce shortages before the pandemic and these are at the root of the problems currently facing the NHS.

Leading charities and health organisations are urging public access defibrillator owners in the West Midlands to register their devices on a new national database, called The Circuit, which could help save thousands of lives from cardiac arrests in the coming years. 

There are around 3,700 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year in the West Midlands, but just one in 13 people survive.

Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are at twice the risk of developing type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes and taking the contraceptive pill can reduce the risk by over a quarter, finds a new University of Birmingham-led study.

PCOS affects 10% of women world-wide and has previously been associated with a number of other conditions, such as endometrial cancer, cardiovascular disease, and non-alcohol related fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

On World Osteoporosis Day, Wednesday 20 October 2021, the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) is publishing the biggest study for many years into life with the overlooked health condition.   

The findings provide a new insight into how life has changed since 2014 for the 3.5m people living with osteoporosis (weak bones).