NHS England has today published details setting out how it will play its part in delivering commitments set out in the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases. The Statement of Intent (this document is available on our archived website) is a key document which will be used to inform the development of NHS England’s five-year strategy for […]

NHS England has today launched a three-month public consultation on changes made to a number of its specialised services specifications. The specifications set out what is expected of providers in terms of the standards required, and define access to a service. Full details of the consultation, and how you can contribute your views, can be […]

NHS England has received an impressive 80 nominations for the first ever Kate Granger Awards for Compassionate Care, to be presented at the Health and Care Innovation Expo on 4 March. Kate Granger, a doctor terminally ill with cancer, will present the awards and share her intensely personal views on the levels of compassion demonstrated […]

Getting up close and personal on the eve of his retirement, Sir David Nicholson, Chief Executive of NHS England, will sit down with the Guardian journalist, David Brindle, to reflect on his 36-year career in the NHS. Book your place on Tuesday 4th March at 10:30 and sign up for the exciting program of talks […]

NHS England today publishes the results of the 2013 NHS Staff Survey which was carried out between September and December 2013. Over 265 NHS organisations and twice as many staff as last year (203,000) responded. Key findings include: Staff engagement: The survey includes a basket of indicators designed to measure staff engagement which is key […]

NHS England is today launching the start of the process to create a unique  framework agreement for commissioning support services. The lead provider framework will allow Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s), NHS England and others to buy some or all of their commissioning support needs, ranging from non-frontline support services to bespoke services that support local […]

NHS Medical Director, Sir Bruce Keogh has given his seal of approval to the first hospital in the country dedicated to providing emergency care every day of the week. Due to open in 2015, Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington will have specialist emergency care consultants working round the clock to provide care for […]

This weekly summary offers an overview of the system and pulls together information on waiting times in A&E, ambulance response times, daily situation reports from the NHS, and information on flu rates. Winter health check report 21 February 2014

An NHS England patient safety alert has been issued today (20 February 2014) to all hospitals in England who administer spinal (intrathecal) chemotherapy, to minimise the risk of wrong route administration. The alert instructs hospitals to only use syringes and needles, and other devices, with non-Luer connectors when delivering this type of chemotherapy, as they […]

This alert provides new guidance on spinal (intrathecal) devices for chemotherapy that replaces guidance in previous alerts NPSA/2009/PSA004A and NPSA/2011/PSA001. All other guidance in previous alerts remains unchanged. Non-Luer spinal (intrathecal) devices for chemotherapy Non-Luer spinal (intrathecal) devices for chemotherapy (supporting information) Analysis of stakeholder engagement responses Patient safety alerts are shared rapidly with healthcare […]