BACKGROUND In order to scale up mental health care nationally, barriers to health services utilisation need to be identified and addressed. AIM The aim of this study was to identify barriers to mental health services utilization in Sudan from the perspectives of carer's of mentally ill patients and psychiatrists and to make recommendations to address the identified barriers. METHODS Mixed r...

OBJECTIVES to describe variation in utilisation of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) within two English health regions and explore relationships between use, need and proximity to services. DESIGN consecutive case series of operations. Comparison at a population level with district stroke mortality, hospital admissions and material deprivation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES standardised utilisation rate...

BACKGROUND There are on-going initiatives in Scotland to improve the quality and efficiency of prescribing in primary care. Activities to enhance prescribing of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) versus angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) include prescribing guidance, guidelines, benchmarking, prescribing targets and financial incentives. These measures stabilised reimbursed expe...

Background Policies assigning low-priority patients treatment delays for care, in order to make room for patients of higher priority arriving later, are common in secondary healthcare services today. Alternatively, each new patient could be granted the first available appointment. We aimed to investigate whether prioritisation can be part of the reason why waiting times for care are often...

Although the complications of immobility are well-described in the literature, critically ill patients are often subjected to prolonged periods of bed rest. Nurses, by virtue of their expertise in preventing iatrogenic complications, are in an ideal position to prevent the adverse outcomes associated with immobility. This article describes how nurses can use a mobility protocol to increase the ...

BACKGROUND Increased ambulance utilisation is closely linked with Emergency Department (ED) attendances. Pressures on hospital systems are widely acknowledged with ED overcrowding reported regularly in the media and peer-reviewed literature. Strains on ambulance services are less well-documented or studied. AIMS To review the literature to determine the trends in utilisation of emergency ambu...