Spinal surgery report may bring benefits for tens of thousands of back pain patients – GIRFT national report. Replacing short-term pain relief injections with long-term physical and psychological rehabilitation programmes could help tens of thousands more patients cope with debilitating back pain, according to a new Getting It Right First…

Maternity services survey 2018 – Care Quality Commission (CQC)  Findings from a national survey of more than 17,600 women who gave birth in February 2018 shows that many women are positive about maternity care in England. However, the findings show that there has been limited improvement in patient experience between 2017…

Are patients benefiting from better integrated care? Nuffield Trust This briefing breaks down a range of indicators to see whether drives to integrate services have led to improvements for patients. A quick guide to approaches to improving staff engagement in the NHS – NHS Employers This briefing looks at a range of…

Falls prevention resources – NHSI Resources to reduce the instances of falls in hospitals. Suspicion of sepsis insights dashboard – NHS Improvement A case study describing action by Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP) through the patient safety collaborative (PSC) to develop a suspicion of sepsis insights dashboard. Reducing the impact of…

Transforming elective care services: Ophthalmology / Diabetes / Dermatology NHS England has published three handbooks which describe what local health and care systems can do to transform services at pace, why this is necessary and how the impact of this transformation can be measured.  Practical guidance for implementing and adopting…

NIHR Signals Adding low dose theophylline to inhaled corticosteroids does not reduce COPD exacerbations Combining mirtazapine with other antidepressants is not effective for treatment-resistant depression The benefits of commonly used blood pressure and cholesterol lowering treatment can last 16 years Antidepressants do not help treat depression in people living with…

NHS productivity NHS England has highlighted statistics showing NHS productivity for the financial year ending 2017 grew by 3% in England, more than treble the 0.8% achieved across wider the UK economy in 2016/17.  Labour productivity, UK: July to September 2018 statistics, published by the Office of National Statistics, show…

Measles and rubella elimination strategy Public Health England has published Measles and rubella elimination UK Strategy 2019.  This report explains the UK’s strategy towards measles and rubella elimination.  It focuses on four core components: achieve and sustain ≥ 95% coverage in the routine childhood programme; achieve ≥ 95% coverage with…

NHS Long Term Plan: briefing and additional links NHS Providers has published an On the day briefing for the NHS Long Term Plan.  This document summarises key content included in each chapter of the Plan: a new service model, action on prevention and health inequalities, progress on care quality and…

NHS Long Term Plan NHS England has published The NHS Long Term Plan.  The plan is intended to make the NHS fit for the future and to get the most value for patients out of the taxpayers’ investment.  It focuses on making sure everyone gets the best start in life,…