A need for transparency, better safety checks on testing, consistency and standardisation of processes and procedures are some of the recommendations made to NHS England in a review into pathology services. Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, Medical Director of NHS England commissioned Dr Ian Barnes, chair of NHS England’s Pathology Quality Assurance Review Board, to strengthen and refine the quality assurance […]

NHS England’s Chief Data Officer Dr Geraint Lewis said: “NHS England and the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) welcome the increase in public awareness and debate about NHS data usage following the nationwide distribution of the leaflet ‘Better Information Means Better Care’. “It is vital, however, that this debate is based on facts, […]

Since this news item published, certain details have now been superseded. Please see the care.data page for the most recent and up to date information. Leaflets explaining how the NHS uses patient information will begin landing on the doormats of England’s 26.5 million households from today. Over the next four weeks, every household in England […]

NHS England on behalf of the Incident Management Team today publishes the findings of its review of cancer services at Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust. The primary aim of the immediate review was to answer the question “Are the cancer services safe?” The Review took place between the 14th November and the 9th December […]

Hospitals are to get a £150 million boost to help improve patient safety and help make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world. NHS England has worked with Monitor to adjust the price hospitals are paid to treat patients, in recognition that some hospitals will incur additional costs. They expect it to be […]

NHS England today (Thursday) publishes more detailed data than ever before about “never events” – the serious errors in care that put patients at risk of harm and that should not happen if full preventative procedures are in place. For the first time, provisional quarterly data on the number of never events happening at each […]

A patient safety alert has been issued today (5 December 2013) by NHS England on the use of placement devices for inserting nasogastric tubes. This alert has been issued via the Central Alerting System (CAS) to ensure all hospitals and community services that use nasogastric tubes continue to follow previous guidance issued by the National […]

This alert has been issued in response to two recently reported patient safety incidents, when enteral nutrition was unintentionally given into the respiratory tract through a misplaced nasogastric tube inserted with the aid of a placement device. Placement devices for nasogastric tube insertion Patient safety alerts are shared rapidly with healthcare providers via the Central […]

NHS England and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are working together to improve the reporting and learning in two important areas. It is proposed to increase and improve reporting of medical devices and medication errors via an integrated reporting system and enhanced governance (control) systems. In partnership we have drafted two Patient […]

NHS England today highlighted the significant work it is leading to improve the safety of patients as part of a co-ordinated response to the Francis Report. In the coming months NHS England will: Launch Patient Safety Collaborative Programmes in a network covering the entire country – that will bring together frontline teams, experts, patients, commissioners […]