A patient safety alert has been issued by NHS England to further raise awareness of the risk of harm or death from inappropriate doses of naloxone in patients on long-term opioid or opiate treatment, where these drugs are used to provide relief from both chronic and acute pain, such as following surgery. In cases where […]

It is not too late to sign up for this year’s Future of Health Conference. The event, being staged at Kensington Olympia, London, on Friday (November 21), will be opened by NHS England’s Chief Executive Simon Stevens. Other speakers will include Professor David Haslam, Chair of NICE, and Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General […]

Forty six NHS organisations have received a share of a £2.5m fund to help change patients’ lives and improve care through innovation. The winners of NHS England’s Regional Innovation Fund were announced today by Chief Executive, Simon Stevens at the Managers in Partnership Conference 2014. The £2.5m fund was launched in April to support and […]

NHS England initiative sees Consultant Surgeons’ data published for 2014 – new specialities and indicators added on patient-friendly NHS Choices website The NHS’s world-leading transparency drive takes another step forward today as the latest annual results for individual consultant surgeons are published (from 6am on Wednesday 19 November). This year the NHS is bringing together […]

NHS England has today published the NHS Number Survey Report, a national baseline report across all Trusts on their use of the NHS Number when sharing information for direct care. The recent “Framework for Action” report outlined the importance of the NHS Number and this survey has enabled NHS England to build, for the first […]

Dementia is a clinical syndrome and at one level simply implies brain failure (analogous to heart failure or liver failure). The diagnosis is a two stage process. First, to make a diagnosis of dementia you need to differentiate it from: depression; delirium; the effect of drugs and; the changes in memory expected as part of […]

NHS England has today published the latest quarterly ‘Assuring Transformation’ data that tracks progress on the NHS commitments in the Winterbourne View Concordat, as of 30 September 2014. The Concordat is an action plan, published by the Department of Health (December 2012), to ensure that all people with learning disabilities and autism receive the health […]

Radical new plans to improve health outcomes and the quality of patient care through digital technology and innovation have been unveiled by national health and social care organisations today. Established by the Department of Health and chaired by NHS England’s National Director for Patients and Information, Tim Kelsey, the National Information Board has set out […]

NHS England today published its updated procedure for evaluating drugs in the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), which will mean more effective and promising drugs will be prioritised and made available to patients. Since it was established in 2010, more than 55,000 patients have accessed treatment through the CDF – around 2,000 every month. Last week […]

NHS England in Nottinghamshire has been working with Public Health England to investigate apparent breaches of infection control procedures by a single dentist, who was contracted to provide NHS dental services at the former Daybrook Dental Practice, 88 Mansfield Road in Gedling, Nottinghamshire. In June 2014 NHS England was contacted by a whistleblower who had […]