Over a third of GP-led Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) around the country have been approved to jointly commission GP services with NHS England, it has been announced today. This follows the announcement last week of the first CCGs approved to take on greater delegated responsibility for GP services and means that from 1 April, over […]

Sir Bruce Keogh has paid a return visit to Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital as the impressive £75million development prepares to open this summer. NHS England’s National Medical Director met some of the doctors and nurses who have helped design the hospital and who will be caring for seriously ill or injured patients from North […]

Based on a two year data collection from sites covering both adults’ and children’s services, NHS England has produced a development currency for palliative care which focuses on patient need. The aim of the work is to provide a transparent basis for palliative care commissioning. In October 2014 the NHS England Pricing Team published the […]

The Friends and Family Test (FFT) is set to mark its second anniversary by rolling out to millions more patients when it is implemented from April 1 in NHS dental practices, ambulance services, patient transport, day-case and outpatient services. Launched less than two years ago in April 2013, FFT has already allowed more than five […]

The Health Secretary today asked Sir Bruce Keogh to carry out a review of codes of practice for health professionals The move by Jeremy Hunt came as a report into the failings over the deaths of mothers and babies at Morecambe Bay was made public. The review to be carried out by Sir Bruce, NHS […]

We are deeply saddened by the tragic and inexcusable events described in this report. They should never have happened, and they must never be allowed to happen again. Our fundamental purpose is to ensure that every NHS patient is offered safe, honest and compassionate care, but the report is unequivocal that the care provided to […]

NHS England has today announced details of a major review of the commissioning of NHS maternity services, as promised in the NHS Five Year Forward View. The review will assess current maternity care provision and consider how services should be developed to meet the changing needs of women and babies. Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of […]

NHS England is supporting frontline staff and healthcare professionals to develop apps and other digital tools to become the centrepiece of an unprecedented initiative to harness the information revolution and make a real difference to patient care. National Director for Patients and Information Tim Kelsey will launch the NHS Code4Health programme today (Tuesday 3 March) […]

On Friday 27 February, the latest Commissioning for Value packs were published – Integrated Care Pathways packs – to add to the ‘Pathway on a Page’ data packs published for CCGs in November 2014. The new packs focus on integrated care pathways and complex patients. These packs are designed to support you with local discussions […]

Since the publication of the joint letter from Simon Stevens and David Bennett on 18 February setting out new information on tariff arrangements for 2015/16, NHS England and Monitor have received a number of questions about how the arrangements are expected to work.  As a result, a Q&A document has been published to answer the […]