Responding to the media coverage today (14 January 2015) on NHS 111, Professor Keith Willett, NHS England’s Director for Acute Care, said: “NHS111 is doing an excellent job in terms of protecting both A&E and ambulance services from unnecessary attendances and call outs. “Doctors and nurses in A&E work incredibly hard to provide patients with […]

NHS England has launched a 12-week consultation on proposed changes to the way in which genetic laboratories are commissioned. The proposals aim to deliver services across England which can better meet advances in genomic technologies, whilst driving improvements in quality and patient outcomes. The proposed changes are set out in the new draft service specification, […]

The NHS Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) today (Monday) published the outcome of its review of drugs included in the Fund. The budget for the CDF will grow from £200 million in 2013/14, to £280 million in 2014/15, and an estimated £340 million from April 2015. This represents a total increase of 70 per cent since […]

There is a 70% probability of severe cold weather/icy conditions between 1800 on Monday and 0700 on Sunday in parts of England. This weather could increase the health risks to vulnerable patients and disrupt the delivery of services. More details about the weather alert is available on the MET Office website.

NHS England today (Sunday) announced a new independent taskforce to develop a five-year action plan for cancer services that will improve survival rates and save thousands of lives. It also launched a major new programme to test innovative ways of diagnosing cancer more quickly at more than 60 sites across the country, and committed a further £15m over three years to evaluate and treat patients with a type of modern […]

A new resource with tools for commissioning effective mental health services for children and young people has been published. NHS England has published the new model specification for Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) targeted and specialist services (tiers 2 and 3) which treat patients with a range of emotional and behavioural difficulties such […]

This 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 – 9 January 2015 (document available on our archived website).

NHS England, Monitor and TDA on behalf of the six national NHS bodies who led the development of the NHS Five Year Forward View have today appointed two experienced national leaders to support implementation of the new care models identified in the Forward View. Samantha Jones, Chief Executive of Watford, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead […]

Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England’s Medical Director, today launched the NHS Innovation Accelerator programme. Together with hosts UCLPartners and The Health Foundation, NHS England is inviting healthcare pioneers from around the world to apply to develop and scale their tried and tested innovations across parts of the NHS. The programme will focus on the conditions […]

The NHS is today publishing details of how the extra £700million that has been injected nationally is being used in every part of the country to open extra beds, employ more frontline clinicians, and support community and local council services over the winter period. This is more winter funding than last year, and it has […]