National system for monitoring vital signs

Posted 29/07/2012

An NHS expert has said that the way vital signs, such as blood pressure and temperature are monitored in hospitals needs to be standardised across the NHS.

Currently over 100 different models are used, causing confusion and sometimes delays in patients getting help. A joint group of senior doctors and nurses said that moving to a national system would save thousands of lives each year.

The group has put forward a system it wants to be adopted in the UK within a year.

The scheme, called The National Early Warning Score has been drawn up by the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Nursing after a review of many bedside chart models currently used in the NHS.

It is based on a scoring system for six measures: respiratory, oxygen levels, temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate and level of consciousness.  

Julie Crossley, a medical injury lawyer at Ashtons Legal, comments: “It would make perfect sense to have a universal standard of monitoring across the board so that nurses and doctors are clear about monitoring and have the ability to pick up a deterioration in a patient’s condition without delay.”