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EMAS rated ‘Good’ overall and ‘Outstanding’ for caring in latest inspection
17/07/2019
East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) is delighted to announce that we have been rated as ‘Good’ overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and ‘...
HPV vaccine could prevent over 100,000 cancers
11/07/2019
Estimates suggest that the HPV vaccine programme could prevent over 64,000 cervical cancers and nearly 50,000 non-cervical cancers by 2058. From...
Alexa will see you now
11/07/2019
The NHS is collaborating with Amazon to provide reliable health information from the NHS website through voice-assisted technology. The technology...
Thousands more GP staff recruited across England
03/06/2019
NHS England has recruited 300 more family doctors and thousands more nurses, pharmacists and other staff to work alongside GPs delivering better care in the community. There are now 7,302 more full time equivalent (FTE) health professionals working in primary care than three years ago, NHS Digital...
Independent review of national cancer screening programmes in England
30/05/2019
Professor Sir Mike Richards is leading a major overhaul of national cancer screening programmes as part of a renewed drive to improve care and save lives. This interim report calls for practical measures to be used across the NHS to make screening more convenient and reverse the longstanding...
NHS WiFi now available to millions of patients
30/05/2019
Free NHS WiFi is now available in 6,749 GP practices and 212 acute, mental health and community NHS Trusts across England, benefitting millions of patients. 95% of GP practices and 98% of NHS trusts are already connected with the remaining four trusts and ten CCGs all underway with their own...
Workforce race equality standard data collection for CCGs
28/05/2019
For the first time this year, CCGs will be required to submit data for national analysis and publication in the same way as NHS trusts. Guidance and timelines have been sent to CCG accountable officers. The NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) was mandated in April 2015. It aims to ensure...
Podcast on mental health support for schools
22/05/2019
NHS England has recorded a discussion between clinicians and system leaders about the benefits of improving mental health provision in schools. More.....
New reports recommend improvements to a range of services
22/05/2019
The Healthcare Qualify Improvement Partnership (HQIP) has made recommendations to commissioners for improvements to services for COPD, breast cancer, lung cancer and other disease areas. The reports draw on data from clinical audits and patient outcome reports. HQIP is a partnership of several...
New device will protect prostate cancer patients during radiation treatment
22/05/2019
An innovation that can reduce the side-effects of radiotherapy for prostate cancer patients by over 70% will be rolled out across the NHS to put cutting-edge treatments at the heart of people’s care. Thanks to a deal struck by the NHS with manufacturer Boston Scientific, hospitals in England will...
Parents told to look out for scarlet fever symptoms
22/05/2019
Scarlet fever is a seasonal bacterial illness that is common at this time of year, mainly affects children, and is easily treated with antibiotics. The latest report by Public Health England (PHE) on seasonal levels of Group A streptococcal infection shows that 9,887 cases of scarlet fever have...
Brain cancer treatment aid now available across England
22/05/2019
A new treatment aid will allow surgeons to identify areas of the brain affected by cancer more accurately, helping up to 2,000 patients a year. Known as “the pink drink”, 5-ALA uses fluorescent dye and ultraviolet light to make cancerous cells glow under UV light. This allows surgeons to more...
Community pharmacy oral health campaign
22/05/2019
NHS England and NHS Improvement have launched a campaign to help parents and carers stop children under five from experiencing tooth decay. Pharmacies will display posters and provide advice on healthy dental habits, such as consuming less sugar, brushing twice a day with fluoride toothpaste, and...
Disabled doctors to get increased support
22/05/2019
Disabled doctors and medical students can expect greater support to pursue their careers, following new guidance from the General Medical Council (GMC). The regulator has advised medical schools and training providers of the steps they should put in place to make sure all students and trainee...
Funding to help rough sleepers with mental illness
22/05/2019
The government is to spend £1.9m to help adults who are sleeping rough and living with mental illness or substance misuse. The money will be used to improve their access to healthcare. More....
NHS experts brought in to care homes to tackle over-medication
22/05/2019
NHS England has recruited experts to help prevent care home residents being given too many medicines as part of a package of measures to improve older people’s health and care in the NHS Long Term Plan. Care home residents are prescribed an average of seven medicines a day, with many taking 10 or...
New multiple sclerosis drug may soon be available on NHS
22/05/2019
Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) will have routine access to a drug that can slow disability under a deal struck between NHS England and the manufacturer Roche, paving the way for its approval by NICE. Ocrelizumab (also known as Ocrevus) is the first treatment that can modify or change the...
Thank you: Over 411 people tell Healthwatch what they think would make the NHS better
09/05/2019
Local people share their views about how they want local health services to improve. We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has shared their feedback with us about the local implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan. We’ve been speaking to people throughout North East Lincolnshire about how...
Annual NHS cancer checks top two million for the first time
25/04/2019
For the first time last year, the NHS in England carried out more than two million checks on people who feared they might have cancer. In 2018, patients underwent 2.2 million cancer checks following urgent referral by their GP, almost 6,000 a day or more than four every minute. Record numbers of...
Advances in cancer treatment
23/04/2019
The pace of innovation in cancer treatment is rapid, with promising developments for patients in terms of survival and quality of life. Research in the fields of immunotherapy and radiotherapy have shown positive results in treating some cancers where established treatments are not effective. This...
An A&E perspective on violence in England and Wales
23/04/2019
A report from Cardiff University finds that despite the recent spate of knife violence and homicide in some UK cities, the number of people injured in serious violence in England and Wales dropped by 1.7% between 2017 and 2018. The study , which examines data by age and sex, is produced from a...
Nominate someone for a general practice award
23/04/2019
Nominations are now open for the General Practice Awards 2019, which honour the contribution of primary care professionals in general practice. The deadline for entries is 31 May 2019. Nominations are now open for the General Practice Awards 2019, which honour the contribution of primary care...
Record breaking numbers in GP specialty training
23/04/2019
Figures released by Health Education England (HEE) show that recruitment to GP specialty training is the highest ever for this time of year with 2598 trainees accepted on to courses compared to 2533 for the same period last year. The GP specialty training fill rate for Round 1 A is up 2% on last...
Health and wellbeing at work
23/04/2019
The latest annual survey from CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) highlights some cause for concern, including an increase in stress-related absence and a lack of support for managers, who are increasingly expected to take responsibility for their team's wellbeing. The CIPD is...
Tackling inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities
12/04/2019
A parliamentary report criticises the failure by national and local policy makers to tackle long standing inequalities facing Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. It finds that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people have the worst outcomes of any ethnic group across a huge range of areas, including...
Action plan for social care
12/04/2019
The Department of Health and Social Care has published information on the action plan for the Quality Matters initiative, now in its second year, which aims to improve adult social care. More....
Quit smoking advice for pregnant women in NHS drive to prevent stillbirths
12/04/2019
Pregnant women are to be offered specialist stop smoking referrals as part of NHS action to reduce stillbirths, which has already resulted in at least 160 babies’ lives being saved. A programme piloted in 2015 resulted in 20% fewer babies dying at birth. Now NHS England has confirmed that the...
New programme launched for armed forces personnel seriously wounded in conflict
05/04/2019
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) and NHS England have launched a new package of support for seriously wounded military personnel. The joint agreement between the MOD and NHS England, developed with the Department of Health and Social Care, will ensure that individuals with very complex and enduring...
