Whilst Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has never been systematically integrated into National Health Service (NHS) provision, there has been some limited evidence of a developing presence of CAM in NHS hospital based nursing and midwifery. This paper reports on a qualitative study that sought to document the nature and extent of such integrative practice in England, and the interpe...

OBJECTIVE To measure the effect of an urgent care telephone service NHS 111 on population perceptions of urgent care. DESIGN Controlled before and after population survey, using quota sampling to identify 2000 respondents reflective of the age/sex profile of the general population. SETTING England. 4 areas where NHS 111 was introduced, and 3 control areas where NHS 111 had yet to be introdu...

INTRODUCTION The variety of organisations providing National Health Service (NHS)-funded services in England is growing. Besides NHS hospitals and general practitioners (GPs), they include corporations, social enterprises, voluntary organisations and others. The degree to which these organisational types vary, however, in the ways they manage and provide services and in the outcomes for service...

Acute Kidney Injury (AKI), an abrupt deterioration in kidney function, is defined by changes in urine output or serum creatinine. AKI is common (affecting up to 20% of acute hospital admissions in the United Kingdom), associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and expensive (excess costs to the National Health Service in England alone may exceed £1 billion per year). NHS England has m...

To cite: Lorenc A, Robinson N. J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 2015;41:8–12. BACKGROUND Patient and public engagement (PPE) consists of involving, consulting and listening to patients and the public, to make services responsive to patients’ needs and improve clinical outcomes and patient experience. PPE has a central role in the UK National Health Service (NHS), at every level, from planning to ...

The National Schedule of Reference Costs were first introduced in England in 1997 (White Paper The New NHS, 1997), with the aim of finding new ways of measuring performance and efficiency of the ‘new’ NHS. The requirement set in the White Paper was for “NHS [Hospital] Trusts to publish and benchmark their own costs on the same basis, [thus giving] Health Authorities, Primary Care Groups2 and th...

BACKGROUND The UK National Health Service Health Checks programme aims to reduce avoidable cardiovascular deaths, disability and health inequalities in England. However, due to the reported lower uptake of screening in specific black and minority ethnic communities who are recognised as being more at risk of cardiovascular disease, there are concerns that NHS Health Checks may increase inequali...

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to identify if patients have adequate access to Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (cCBT) programmes in all mental health trusts across England. DESIGN The primary researcher contacted a targeted sample of information technology (IT) leads in each mental health trust in England to complete the survey. SETTING Telephone, email and postal mail were used to c...

To cite: Astbury-Ward E. J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care Published Online First: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/jfprhc2014-101104 BACKGROUND Before the creation of the National Health Service (NHS), the health of the British nation was in a perilous state and hospitals survived on the philanthropy of rich benefactors. Following its introduction on 5 July 1948, the NHS was the bigges...