Website of the Department of Health

We need to develop urgent and emergency care services that are more responsive to people, more efficient in the way resources are deployed and make the most of opportunities from medical and technological advances to deliver better care and support more conveniently for people. This publication sets out our current thinking on urgent care and seeks the views of key stakeholders. See:

Best practice guidance for major incidents involving significant numbers of burn injured patients has been published for consultation. The guidance will help NHS organisations plan, prepare for, and respond to all types of emergencies which create abnormal demands on burns services. See:

This document sets out the vision for how the strategy will develop to reflect growing evidence of what works in areas with declining rates and the underlying causes of teenage pregnancy. It also sets out how support will be focused on areas with high and increasing rates. See the Every Child Matters website.

Hard copy available from Prolog, Tel. 0845 60 222 60 quoting ref. 03905-2006 DOH-EN. ISBN 978-1-84478-818-7, or by e-mailing:

The Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP), on behalf of DH and in partnership with Royal Colleges, has developed a secure dedicated discussion forum for clinicians working to safeguard children and support inter-agency arrangements. Membership is for named and designated clinicians only. CSIP propose to ask Chief Executives to personally endorse individual applications. See:

PCTs' target for recruitment of community development workers for BME mental health has been revised and firmer performance management arrangements put in place. The Minister of State, Duncan Selbie and Louis Appleby have written jointly to SHA chief executives to explain the change.

Best practice guidance has been released that recommends a solution to the requirement to integrate urgent referrals for suspected cancer (two week wait (2WW)) referral pathways into Choose and Book. Available at:

Chief executives should note that the Code of practice was published on 1 October 2006 and it will form part of the Healthcare Commission’s annual health check for the period starting from April 2007. See:

This document gives best practice guidance on enabling doctors or dentists to get safely back to work following a career break, illness, exclusion, suspension or after a local investigation or assessment by the General Medical or Dental Council, a medical royal college or NCAS.

The report gives information on those highly specialised services that were nationally designated under the auspices of NSCAG during 2005/06.

The conferences are intended to raise awareness of the obligations that all public authorities have under the Human Rights Act 1998. This would be extremely useful for Chief executives who may wish to attend or send a deputy to understand their legal obligations under the act. There is no charge for these conferences.

Wheelchair backs – Sunrise Medical Jay® J2

This Medical Device Alert was issued on 28 September 2006 to the NHS for action.

Further information can be found at: