NHS Improvement - Heart
Latest news
2 April - BACPR standards and core components
2 April - Latest from BACPR
12 March - Payment by Results arrangments for 2012-13
11 March - NHS Improvement scoop Sunday Times Best Organisations honour
9 March - Latest news from the BACPR
Find out more about the work of NHS Improvement - Heart
Extract taken from The best of clinical pathway design: practical examples delivering benefits to patients
Anticoagulation in Practice 2012
The sixth scientific meeting of Anticoagulation in Practice (AiP) (formerly the Anticoagulation Working Party of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society) will be held on 17 and 18 May in Birmingham.
General Practitioners, Practice Nurses, Biomedical Scientists, Pharmacists and Patients are all invited to attend the meeting.
Find out more and register for this conference.
New publication
Growth of Primary PCI for the treatment of heart attack patients in England 2008-2011: the role of NHS Improvement and the Cardiac Networks
Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) is the optimum reperfusion treatment for patients presenting with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). During the third quarter of 2008, just 46% of those STEMI patients in England who received reperfusion treatment were being treated by PPCI while the remaining 54% were treated with thrombolysis. By the second quarter of 2011, 94% of patients were treated with PPCI. This document describes the role of NHS Improvement and the Cardiac Networks in achieving this rapid change in clinical practice. (Published January 2012)
GRASP AF update
A new version of GRASP-AF is now available which includes the following features:
-
The ability to swap between CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc
-
The ability to look at the use of ‘AF Resolved’ codes. The data sheet can be set up to more closely reflect the practice’s QOF register
-
New anticoagulants (eg Dabigatran) will be included, and counted alongside warfarin
-
The number of patients with a CHADS2 score recorded on their electronic records will be shown in graphical form, and in the data sheet – this could be used to assist with the upcoming QOF changes around atrial fibrillation patients being assessed using the CHADS2 scoring system, and then treated depending on the score. NHS Improvement will be publishing a guide on using GRASP to help with achieving the new QOF targets soon
PRIMIS+ and NHS Improvement encourage updating to the new version as the current version will not be supported beyond Thursday 22 December. We also request you to upload your latest results to CHART Online before updating.
If you have any issues with GRASP-AF please consult the GRASP-AF help page, or contact Ian Robson.
What we do
Our work is closely aligned to the National Service Framework for CHD, and the team works closely with clinical leads and the Department of Health to implement policies and strategies to improve services for patients, carers and staff.
Supported by national clinical leads until 2011, Heart mprovement will be prioritising the following areas of work over the coming year and beyond, in line with key national priorities:
- Heart failure
- Cardiac rehabilitation
- Atrial fibrilation
- non-elective inpatient waits.