Bariatric Surgery: Too Lean a Service?

This new NCEPOD report highlights the process of care for patients aged over 16, who underwent bariatric surgery for weight loss. The report takes a critical look at areas where the care of patients might have been improved during the whole patient journey, from referral to follow up.

Hospital2Home resource pack

The Hospital2Home resource pack contains essential information for all the professional sectors that have a role in hospital discharge for older people in England.

NICE-appraised medicines: variation in use across NHS

This report, commissioned by the Department of Health found that in its study of 25 treatment groups there were apparent variations in the use of medicines in several of them.

Care of dementia patients in hospital

The Royal College of Nursing has launched a film and guide to help nursing staff care for people with dementia in hospital.

Improving basic COPD care

A basic guide to the key principles every area should be adopting to provide good COPD care– if you do nothing else, start with these ten things and make sure they are in place for all your patients.

National Bowel Cancer Audit 2011

This national audit has found that about a quarter of bowel cancer patients in England are only diagnosed with the disease after an emergency admission to hospital.

Never Events Data published

The DoH has published ‘Never Event’ data for the NHS.  It shows that over 300 never events were reported to Strategic Health Authorities over the past year. The vast majority of never events are surgical. The NHS Commissioning Board is setting up a taskforce to look at surgical never events, in order to make sure that these events are eradicated from NHS surgery.

Ten Years of Maternity Claims: An Analysis of NHS Litigation Authority Data

The report from the NHSLA analyses maternity claims occurring between 1 April 2000 and 31 March 2010.  It is designed to help NHS health professionals responsible for the care of women and their babies to improve safety by learning lessons from the claims that have been made.

CQC warns Bristol Royal Children’s Hospital that it must improve staffing levels on cardiac ward to protect patients

The Care Quality Commission has issued a formal warning to University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust in relation to staffing levels on a cardiac ward at Bristol Royal Children’s Hospital. Inspectors found that the trust had been failing to meet three essential standards of quality and safety covering staffing levels, staff training and support, and the overall care and welfare of patients.