Currently, within the NHS there is a need to improve efficiency to maximise quality of care, patient experience and outcomes, within the constraints of a limited budget. At the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, the cost of wound care was increasing year on year, and in order to drive efficiency, procurement of dressings was switched from supply chain to ONPOS. Over a 12-month period, the use of ONPOS has resulted in 100% formulary compliance for adult community services. The number of brands of products used by the service has almost been halved, and the number of individual dressing units purchased has reduced by 36,000. Finally, cost savings are predicted for the adult community service in 19/20, after a five-year growth in costs year on year.
The current state of district nursing reminds me of the Rocky films of the 70s and 80s, where the plucky young boxer repeatedly climbs off the canvas to battle on while taking hit after hit, seemingly oblivious to pain and humiliation. While district nurses might not view themselves as heroes of the silver screen, the way they have absorbed blow after blow in recent years but continue to turn up and provide a service for patients deserves a Hollywood script all of its own.
Healthcare professionals are under increasing pressure to justify the quality of their work (Vowden and Vowden, 2010; Wound Care Today, 2020). To do so, comprehensive, accurate and current data which details and supports cost-effectiveness and the quality of the service provided is required. Audit and ongoing clinical data capture can provide the evidence to do this (Vowden and Vowden, 2010).
Sepsis is the body’s overreaction to an infection where, instead of fighting an infection, the immune system attacks the body’s own organs and tissues.
Sepsis can occur as a result of any infection, from a small cut or insect bite, to a chest or urinary tract infection (UTI). It is more common than heart attacks and kills more people each year than bowel, breast and prostate cancer and road accidents combined (Fleischmann et al, 2016).
This year brings international recognition of the contribution that the profession of nursing makes to global health. The executive board of the World Health Organization (WHO) met in Geneva on 30 January 2019 and designated 2020 to be the ‘Year of the Nurse and Midwife’, in honour of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale (WHO, 2019a). This coincides with the publication of ‘The state of the worlds nursing report’ (WHO, 2019b), which was developed in collaboration with the Nursing Now Campaign and the International Council of Nurses (ICN).
