Researchers from Spectrum Community Health, in partnership with the University of York, have published a qualitative exploration of patient experience in UK prisons.

Interviews were conducted in two UK prisons (one female and one male) to identify the source of patient experience feedback, as well as what patients and healthcare staff think about giving or receiving feedback.

The willingness of patients to give feedback depends on whether or not they felt comfortable to raise concerns (some may be frightened or apprehensive to), and patients will be disheartened if no outcomes are offered after feedback. Healthcare staff note that the majority of feedback they receive is regarding the prison regime, rather than care. Suggestions for improving patient experience in prisons are proposed.

To read the full paper, please visit: https://pxjournal.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1603&context=journal

Employees from City Health Care Partnership have published an article in the International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry.

The paper explores the outcome of dental assessments compled by a Specialist in Paediatric Dentistry after a referral for an exodontia (extraction) dental general anaesthetics by the patients’ General Dental Practitioner.

Six hundred and fourty-two sets of notes were reviewed and statistically significant differences were found in the assessment and treatment children received between GDP plans and specialist plans.

To find the full paper, please visit: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30367524

Clinical Research Director for the Transform Research Alliance, Dr Nat Wright, and other members of staff at Spectrum Community Health CIC have published a report pertaining to the management of long-term conditions in remand prisons.

This research project entailed extracting data from the records of 1,126 prisoners across four prisons, of which 78% were male, 61% were from a white ethnic background and 46% were sentenced. This was supplemented  by 19 qualitative interviews with staff members. Seventeen percent of the sample had at least one long-term condition, the most common condition being asthma, confirmed in 12% of the sample. The confirmed prevalence rates for the other long-term conditions were hypertension 3%, coronary heart disease 2%, diabetes 2% and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 1%. The prevalence of epilepsy was 3%. There was considerable variability between prisons regarding prevalence of “epilepsy”, the likely reason being differences in coding practice for patients with either pseudo seizures or alcohol withdrawal seizures. Having a long-term condition was associated with female gender and increasing age. QOF completion rates varied between long-term conditions and were highest for asthma with a 40% completion rate, and lowest for diabetes with an 8% completion rate.

The full report can be downloaded here

Clinical Research Director for the Transform Research Alliance, Dr Nat Wright, has co-authored a new paper, published in Qualitative Health Research.

The article, published in May 2019, explores meanings and experiences of Deep Vein Thromboses in injecting drug users. Following 19 interviews, themes were report pertaining to meaning, bodily experience and stigma.

The most pertinent worry was amputation. Patients recognised stopping injecting as important, but it did not necessarily occur. Stigma resulted in delayed admission to hospital and feelings of isolation; support groups might alleviate the latter. Although groin injecting was undertaken partly to avoid the censure of being a drug user, ironically, a DVT led to long-standing stigmata that were discrediting signs of that exact status.

Transform Research Alliance Clinical Research Director – Dr Nat Wright – has co-authored a paper pertaining to self-harm and predictability in prisoners.

This research explored the pre-existing measurement tools for assessing future self-harm behaviours in prisoners undergoing ACCT (Assessment, Care in Custody, Teamwork) monitoring.

Five instruments were administered across prisoners and a 6-month follow-up determined the ability to predict future self-harm.
The study found that none of the scores derived from the instruments identified a meaningful ability to predict self-harm, however, gender-specific item sets were statistically significant in predicting self-harm behaviours.

The implications for future policy were that improvements in staff awareness and attitude towards self-harm, as well as further training are required to help prevent self-harm and suicide in prisons.

To read the article in full, please visit: https://healthandjusticejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40352-018-0076-3 

Six Degrees have secured Big Lottery funding worth £350,000 to provide a new dementia training programme that will aim to help thousands of families across Greater Manchester.

The free, EmPoWereD Conversations training, founded by Dr Phil McEvoy, will be rolled out across all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester to family carers and professional carers. With the aim of alleviating communication issues, the course helps people to break down barriers by improving relationships and giving practical ways to connect and stay connected.

To read the full story, please visit: http://six-degrees.org.uk/thousands-of-families-set-to-benefit-from-new-dementia-training-in-greater-manchester/