NHS Improvement - Heart

Latest news

7 Feb - Latest heart eBulletin
1 Feb - New publication for long term conditions
31 Jan - Please give feedback on our website
27 Jan - Latest news from BACPR
26 Jan - Growth of Primary PCI for the treatment of heart attack patients

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

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.

Cardiac Rhythm Management

New release: October 2011 - The 2010 Cardiac Rhythm Management National Clinical Audit draft release is now available to download here. This ever evolving invaluable document retains the usual activity information comparable between cardiac networks but also now includes complex device comparisons including aetiology to support clinical audit.

If you have any comments or questions please send them directly to David Cunningham.

British Cardiovascular Society Commissioning Pack

The British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) has produced a resource pack to support the commissioning of cardiac services, providing a summary of existing standards and guidelines that can be used as a basis for commissioning decisions.

Appendix A includes a list of investigations and procedures that the BCS believes should be commissioned for all cardiac patients.

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.