A patient safety alert has been issued to warn NHS providers of the risk of severe harm and death if an insulin needle and syringe is used to administer insulin withdrawn directly from a pen device or replacement cartridge. Risk of severe harm and death due to withdrawing insulin from pen devices Patient safety concerns […]

Today NHS England published the latest statistical information on patients’ experience of mental health services in the NHS. This is an update to include results from the 2016 Community Mental Health Survey. This survey is part of a rolling programme of NHS patient surveys overseen by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which cover a range of services including […]

England’s Chief Nursing Officer has urged young people newly diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes to respect their condition and ‘not to let it define them’. Jane Cummings was 19 when she was diagnosed with Type 1 and has needed to inject insulin several times a day ever since. For World Diabetes Day she is aiming to […]

The Self Care Forum is calling on people to make more use of their local pharmacist this winter to help ease the burden on frontline NHS services. As it launched Self Care Week today, the Forum highlights the huge number of consultations with GPs and visits to A&E by patients with common ailments – health […]

The NHS needs to make common-sense and overdue changes that will improve care for patients, NHS Medical Director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh said today (Monday 14 November). Sir Bruce was speaking as the King’s Fund published a new report on local plans to improve services, known as Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs). Over the last […]

We welcome this judgment by the Court of Appeal which sets out three important rulings. First, it establishes that NHS England has the ability but not the obligation to fund PReP. Second, it means that should we decide to do so, we would not be subject to legal challenge on these grounds from rival ‘candidates’ […]

Chair of the Maternity Transformation Programme and Chief Executive of Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Sarah-Jane Marsh has today announced seven local areas who will be taking forward the recommendations set out in Better Births. The Early Adopter sites, which have been carefully chosen by a selected panel, will test a range of […]

Current alert level: Level 1 – Winter preparedness and action Issued at: 12:41 on Wed 9 Nov 2016 Temperatures/weather conditions are not expected to exceed Cold Weather Alert threshold criteria in any region from 09/11/2016 12:00:00 until further notice. More details about the weather alert are available on the MET Office website.

A patient safety alert has been issued on the safe use of injectable phenytoin. Risk of death and severe harm from error with injectable phenytoin Injectable phenytoin is used to slow and stabilise erratic electrical brain activity in, for example, status epilepticus, which is a life-threatening medical emergency. It is a particularly complicated drug to […]

NHS England’s Chief Executive Simon Stevens has today announced details of proposed new action to cut obesity and reduce the sales and consumption of sugary drinks sold in hospitals. England would become the first country in the world to take action across its health service in this way. A formal consultation launched today gives details […]