Nick Evans

Leading Change, Adding Value.

Essential facts Leading Change, Adding Value is NHS Englands new nursing and midwifery framework. It builds on Compassion in Practice (CiP), which set out the 6Cs. While CiP established the values of nursing and midwifery, the new framework explains how staff can help transform the health and care sectors to meet the aims of the NHS Englands Five Year Forward View.

Close to the tipping point: With more than half of all emergency departments rated as inadequate or requiring improvement, urgent action is needed to improve frontline services

: Rising attendances at emergency departments (EDs), lengthening waiting times and increasing numbers of admissions are well documented.

Pressures force hospitals to declare major incidents: The first week of the year is always difficult for emergency nurses, but this time it proved to be horrendous

More than 40% of hospitals in England were forced to declare major incidents during the first week of January, as bed shortages led to delays in emergency departments (EDs), thousands of trolley waits for beds and long queues of ambulances outside units. Even cancer operations, normally protected, were cancelled.

Clock ticking again on four-hour target: Emergency departments in England are being told they must start hitting the operational standard within a year

Emergency departments (EDs) in England have been told they need to start hitting the four-hour target again by March 2018. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has set the deadline following the announcement of extra money in the Budget.

NHS England promises to prioritise emergency care: Funding confirmed to help staff manage waiting times

Emergency care has been identified as one of four priorities by NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens. The others are cancer care, general practice and mental health care.

Emergency care staff need new tools to improve vital signs tests.

Worrying gaps in how children are assessed in emergency departments (EDs) have been identified in an audit of emergency services.

Relieving pressure on struggling emergency departments.

January 2016 was one of the most difficult months for emergency departments since the four-hour waiting time standard was introduced by the government in 2004. Patient demand was high and the percentages of people admitted or discharged within four hours fell to some of its lowest levels in all UK countries. This article gives an overview of the situation across the four nations and explores the reasons behind the statistics. It also outlines what hospitals and local authorities are doing to relieve pressures and cope with unprecedented demand.

Surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Emergency care nurses have been urged to play their part in Scotlands push to revolutionise care for cardiac arrest patients - by teaching others how to save a life. This article discusses the Scottish out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy, with particular focus on the drive to increase bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) rates, and on how emergency nurses are being enlisted to help promote the training of members of the public.

Ambulances miss response times as 999 calls surge.

By Nick Evans DETERIORATING AMBULANCE response times in England are ‘unacceptable’ and present a risk to the public, the Patients Association is warning. Ambulance services are meant to respond to the most life-threatening calls – known as red one and red two – in eight minutes. But latest figures from NHS England revealed that in March, 66.5% of red one and 58% of red two calls were responded to in that time, down from 73.4% and 69.6% respectively in the same period last year. It is now 11 months since the red one target was last met, while the red two target hasn’t been achieved since January 2014. Patients’ Association chief executive Katherine Murphy said: ‘Ambulance callout targets are there for a reason – in an emergency quick action is vital and it’s unacceptable for ambulance targets to be missed – action must be taken.’ Like other parts of the health service, including EDs, ambulances have had to cope with rising demand. More than 9 million emergency calls were made last year – more than double the figure a decade ago.