FEATURE ARTICLES

The GS1 UK Healthcare Conference 2025 is leading the charge for a safer, smarter and more connected health service. The Clinical Services Journal provides an insight into this year’s hot topics at the conference, the keynote speakers and the progress that has been achieved across UK Trusts.

This April, Knowlex is hosting four essential conferences dedicated to advancing healthcare through infection prevention, patient safety, and innovation. Taking place over two days at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham, these events will bring together leading experts, groundbreaking research, and the latest advancements to address key challenges in infection control, sepsis management, mental health infection prevention, and decontamination and sterilisation.

Jennifer Moncur, National Lead for Diagnostic Imaging at Nuffield Health, provides an insight into the organisation’s £200m collaboration with GE HealthCare, which aims to expand diagnostic capacity through access to innovative, AI-driven technologies.

Oliver Tierney, the new President of The Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP),the UK’s leading membership organisation dedicated to hospital theatre practitioners and improving perioperative care, has stepped into the role with a clear vision: to influence positive change in healthcare and safety in hospital operating theatres for staff and patients.

Effective communication is essential for a smooth day in the operating theatre. It also plays a vital role in preventing patient harm, minimising never events, and reducing human error. Dora Bilan examines aspects of intraoperative communication – specifically focusing on the contribution and expertise of neurodiverse individuals, and analysing the surgical team behaviour.

Kate Woodhead RGN DMS discusses the opportunities and challenges associated with the vision of moving healthcare away from hospitals and into the community. She highlights some of the schemes that are already in place and outlines some of the main considerations.

A free webinar was recently hosted on the ‘Consensus Guidelines for Best Practices in the Selection and Use of Examination Gloves in Healthcare Settings’, developed by leading IPC associations in Portugal. In this article, we outline the main findings, which can be shared across countries, including the UK, to drive improvement.

Oliver Ledgard provides an insight into the findings of a recent study, which shows that integrating automated and digitised inventory tracking systems is a major priority for healthcare organisations.

CSJ recently hosted a webinar, sponsored by BIOHIT HealthCare, exploring current and future trends in therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) management. Graham Johnson delves into the key points discussed by experts during the session, highlighting the importance of early treatment optimisation, the use of TDM to prevent therapeutic setbacks, and promising new technologies that are advancing patient management.

Each year, we commemorate World Tuberculosis Day on 24 March to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB) and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic. The date marks the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease.

The theme of the Central Sterilisation Club (CSC) Annual Scientific Meeting 2025 is: ‘Risk and Revolution’. The CSC’s Mike Simmons and John Prendergast ask the question: What can Elon Musk teach the decontamination community?

The infection risk posed by water systems in hospitals was high on the agenda at the Infection Prevention annual conference. Should we ‘blindly follow guidance’ or take a risk-based approach to water / wastewater safety? Moreover, should we reduce the number of water outlets in hospitals or eliminate them altogether in some locations? Top experts gathered to answer these key questions, at the ICC, Birmingham.

MPs recently asked the senior leadership of NHS England whether the NHS is well placed to implement the Government’s three healthcare shifts, in an evidence session to the Health and Social Care Committee. The three shifts include: moving care from hospitals to the community, embracing digital transformation, and shifting from treatment to prevention. Louise Frampton reports.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has published a report on NHS financial sustainability which claims that there is a ‘lack of fresh thinking and decisive action’ within NHS England and DHSC, combined with ‘overly optimistic planning assumptions’, as the UK’s financial position continues to worsen.

Women experiencing painful reproductive health conditions such as endometriosis, adenomyosis and heavy menstrual bleeding are frequently finding their symptoms ‘normalised’ and their ‘pain dismissed’ when seeking help, a new report by the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) has warned.

As part of the discussion around International Women’s Day, celebrated on 8 March, Kate Woodhead RGN DMS examines the culture in operating theatres and the uncomfortable truth that women in surgery continue to be subject to sexual misconduct.

How can we ensure the HealthTech sector promotes a culture that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive? As part of International Women’s Day, CSJ invited some top female HealthTech leaders to share their views on why diversity matters in the sector, their leadership vision for the future, and how we can encourage the next generation of women to drive innovation forward in this field.

Having celebrated 40 years of innovation in the decontamination sector, Wassenburg is now unveiling exciting plans for 2025, with major investment in the UK market and an expanding portfolio of pioneering technologies.

The latest digital solutions are empowering clinicians to deliver safer and more effective personalised care. Matt Jeffreys explores how these transformative innovations can significantly improve patient safety outcomes by streamlining processes, enhancing communication and enabling data-driven decision-making.

Flexible endoscope reprocessing is about speed and efficiency. The timespan between pre-cleaning, manual cleaning and high-level disinfection should be as short as possible to ensure that bacteria is effectively removed from an endoscope. However, time management can be a huge hurdle to navigate, as Kerry Dolan explains.