1. National Early Warning Scores: National Survey Headline Findings
UCL Partners
January 2018

2. The National NEWS Survey
NHS Improvement tasked the 15 Patient Safety Collaboratives with supporting the NHS in all sectors in their region to adopt the National Early Warning Score
The PSMU ran a baseline survey to map current use of NEWS in acute settings in November 2017

3. The National NEWS Survey
This slide set contains:
Headline results of the survey from a national view point
More detailed results from UCL Partners

4. The National NEWS Survey: national headlines
Of 127 trusts, 82 report using NEWS in all or part of the trust
18 report using adapted versions of NEWS in all or part of the trust
25 using another EWS in all or part of the trust
2 trusts reporting not using any EWS
Variation in NEWS usage between regions
27% of returning organisations use electronic systems, 35% a mix of paper and electronic systems and 37% use paper based systems only to calculate and record EWS
Key themes in challenges of implementation:
Staffing issues (training, engagement and understanding)
Technology (software, hardware, provision and use thereof)
Financial issues
Early warning score methdologies (scoring levels, collection methods and measurement)

5. The National NEWS Survey: local headlines
In UCLP 3 returning trusts report using NEWS across the whole of the trust, 3 reports using an adjusted version of NEWS across the whole of the trust, 1 reports using another EWS across part of the trust and 1 reports using no EWS
33% of trusts use a mix of paper and electronic systems to calculate and record NEWS; 33% are wholly electronic and 33% use paper only systems
Key challenges identified in implementing NEWS were primarily related to technology and staffing issues
A range of support requirements for consideration

6. National summary

7. National detail

8. National detail

9. National detail

10. Local detail

11. Local detail

12. Local detail

13. Next steps
Ongoing analysis of the NEWS survey data; full analysis available on the PSMU website
Ambulance NEWS survey will be sent out in mid to late-January 2018
The Suspicion of Sepsis Dashboard (produced by the PSMU in partnership with Imperial College Health Partners) will also be released an February to give all trusts a clear view of their Hospital Episode Statistics in relation to infection and sepsis

14. Thank you Thanks to all trusts for completing the survey
If you have any questions or queries then please send them to
If you have any specific queries with regard to the data or would like to request any further analysis please contact