BACKGROUND The population health needs of an ageing population, with increasing demands and opportunities for intervention, mean that the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK) faces inevitable change. Maintaining traditional boundaries and professional roles is placing an unmanageable burden on the NHS and its workforce. Redesigning roles and developing capacity for integrate...

METHODS The arrangements for bulk clinical waste handling were audited in 16 UK hospitals, one year after an earlier audit that revealed many deficiencies in performance. RESULTS Storage of clinical waste carts in areas accessible to members of the public and failure to lock individual waste carts was common. Waste segregation was poor. Many clinical waste carts and the areas dedicated to the...

INTRODUCTION Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) is used to treat a wide range of infections, and is common practice in countries such as the USA and Australia. In the UK, national guidelines (standards of care) for OPAT services have been developed to act as a benchmark for clinical monitoring and quality. However, the availability of OPAT services in the UK is still patchy and ...

BACKGROUND Whilst there has been recognition of the need to strengthen the evidence base for occupational health in the UK, it is not clear how much different groups contribute to the emerging research. AIMS To establish the research contribution from different types of organization and how this has changed. METHODS All original research papers published in Occupational Medicine in the 5-ye...

Objective: To evaluate the cost of atrial fibrillation (AF) to health and social services in the UK in 1995 and, based on epidemiological trends, to project this estimate to 2000. Design, setting, and main outcome measures: Contemporary estimates of health care activity related to AF were applied to the whole population of the UK on an age and sex specific basis for the year 1995. The activitie...

BACKGROUND The re-engineering of emergency department (ED) processes in the UK since 2002 has produced significant reductions in waiting times. AIMS We aim to describe the generic themes contributory to this improvement in performance, which has led to progress not yet replicated elsewhere in the English-speaking world. METHODS We reviewed the Emergency Services Collaborative (ESC) set up b...

The Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology, commonly called the Warnock Report after the chair of the committee Mary Warnock, is the 1984 publication of a UK governmental inquiry into the social impacts of infertility [4] treatment and embryological research. The birth of Louise Brown in 1978 in Oldham, UK, sparked debate about reproductive and embryological ...

OBJECTIVES To examine whether patient satisfaction with nursing care in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in England is associated with the proportion of non-UK educated nurses providing care. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis using data from the 2010 NHS Adult Inpatient Survey merged with data from nurse and hospital administrator surveys. Logistic regression models with corrections for ...

OBJECTIVES To explore the success of the introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) 111 urgent care service and describe service activity in the period 2014-2016. DESIGN Comparative mixed method case study of five NHS 111 service providers and analysis of national level routine data on activity and service use. SETTINGS AND DATA Our primary research involved five NHS 111 sites in Eng...

The Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology, commonly called the Warnock Report after the chair of the committee Mary Warnock, is the 1984 publication of a UK governmental inquiry into the social impacts of infertility [4] treatment and embryological research. The birth of Louise Brown in 1978 in Oldham, UK, sparked debate about reproductive and embryological ...