Reassurance given on immediate safety issues but hospital asked to improve monitoring of care Children’s heart surgery at Leeds General Infirmary can begin a phased restart on Wednesday April 10, NHS England said on Monday April 8. It follows completion of the first-stage of a review by a multi-disciplinary independent clinical team which has been […]

NHS England today published a plan confirming our commitment to putting patients at the heart of improving care now and for future generations. Putting Patients First: the NHS England business plan for 2013/14 – 2015/16 is a three-year plan that will measure how health and care services are performing, with a strong emphasis on making […]

NHS England today gave further details of the assurances that are being sought to enable Leeds Hospital to restart children’s heart surgery next week. It stressed the Trust’s decision to pause surgery was a prudent, precautionary step. Since then a review, which started last week, has been look in detail into: mortality outcome data and […]

The next Board meeting will take place on Friday 12 April from 11.00-approximately 12.15 at our NHS England offices , 4-8 Maple Street, London, W1T 5HD. If you would like to attend, please register your interest as places are limited. Please contact nhscommissioningboard@hscic.gov.uk, by 4pm on Thursday 11 April. Please note that members of the public […]

From 1 April 2013 NHS England is responsible for authorising prescribing contractors to use the Electronic Prescription Service. This responsibility is included in paragraph 39A of Schedule 6 of the GMS Contract Regulations. NHS England hereby authorise the following sites to use the Electronic Prescription Service. All prescribing sites that are already using EPS Release […]

NHS England has published a number of interim generic policies, ensuring fair and consistent decision-making across its direct commissioning function. The 14 policies cover all aspects of NHS England’s direct commissioning responsibilities including specialised services, primary care, screening, military and offender health. The policies, agreed by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG), set out NHS […]

NHS England is today publishing an agreed set of clinical access policies for specialised commissioning. For the first time ever, specialised services will be commissioned using a nationally consistent approach, meaning that patients will have equal access to high quality services, regardless of where they live. The policies, along with a number of specialised services […]

NHS England is today (Thursday) taking action to end regional variation of access to the Cancer Drugs Fund. There will be one national list of approved fast-track drugs giving uniform access to treatment across the country. From 1 April, NHS England took on responsibility for the operational management of the Cancer Drugs Fund, creating for […]

NHS England hailed the introduction of the friends-and-family test in hospitals as a major step forward in its drive to give patients a greater voice. From 1 April 2013, every patient in England who visits an A&E, and all patients who stay in hospital overnight will be asked whether they would recommend the service they […]

Care Homes – Never Events For the attention of commissioners of Care Homes: Action is required to ensure that new and varied commissioning contracts include the Never Events applicable to Care Homes. Commissioners should read the alert (document is available via our archived website) and take the appropriate action in respect of their Care Homes […]