News

Urgent Field Safety Notice from NHS England: ICU Medical Bivona Tubes

• 13/06/2024

Smiths Medical has identified that the securement flange of specific lots of the Bivona® Neonatal/Pediatric and Adult Tracheostomy products may tear because of a manufacturing defect. See image for an example of a torn flange.

NHS England Report into tracheostomy care published

• 02/10/2023

NHS England's new case study explains how we worked with @AHSNNetwork to support NHS staff to provide safe tracheostomy care during the pandemic. According to @ARC_GM_ research, this resulted in an estimated notional saving of £346.5 million.

Safety Notification: Smiths Bivona® Tracheostomy tubes

• 24/02/2023

There have been reported incidents of Bivona silicone tracheostomy tubes deteriorating, and in some cases breaking, leading to risks to individuals

Clinical risk stratification tool during Smiths Bivona® Tracheostomy paediatric range supply disruption

• 28/02/2022

Rapid consensus document from BAPO and NTSP regarding the temporary shortage of Smiths Bivona® Tracheostomy paediatric range. Full document is available in the resources section, or read more below.

National Honour for NTSP SLT lead Sarah Wallace

• 31/12/2020

We are proud to congratulate Consultant Speech & Language Therapist and NTSP SLT, Mrs Sarah Wallace, on her award in the Queen's New Years Honours List 2021. Sarah was awarded the prestigious Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE.

NTSP win another national award!

• 20/10/2020

The NTSP won the prestigious Improvement Project Award at the Inaugural Intensive Care Society Awards 2020 for their 2016-19 program implementing the Global Tracheostomy Collaborative into 20 diverse UK NHS hospitals.

NTSP wins prestigious BMJ Award

• 07/10/2020

The NTSP team, based at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, won the prestigious BMJ Anaesthesia team of the year award for 2020. The award recognises the impact of the 2016-2019 Improving Tracheostomy Care program.

Getting children with tracheostomies safely back to school

• 31/08/2020

The NTSP releases expert consensus guidance on helping children, families, carers and schools enable children with tracheostomies and those requiring long-term ventilation to get safely back to school.

New disposable Bubble PAPR PPE hood developed by NTSP team.

• 26/08/2020

Personal Protective Equipment has been a challenge for staff and patients, with communication a particular problem for those with tracheostomies. The NTSP team have collaborated with researchers at the University of Manchester and designers and engineers at Designing Science Ltd to create the Bubble PAPR.

New Tracheostomy Guidance launched for UK Critical Care

• 20/08/2020

We are pleased to announce new tracheostomy guidance for critical care in the UK. This guidance was produced by the Short-life Standards and Guidelines Working Party of the UK National Tracheostomy Safety Project on behalf of the Intensive Care Society (ICS) and has been endorsed by the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM).

Global Tracheostomy Collaborative saves lives

• 25/06/2020

New research shows significant improvements in tracheostomy care. 170 lives per year could be saved, along with faster returns to talking, eating, drinking, and reduced ICU and hospital stays

Webinar: Tracheostomy in the COVID era: problems & solutions

• 24/06/2020

The NTSP and a panel of UK experts representing tracheostomy care in the COVID era discuss the problems and solutions encountered with coronavirus.

Medical Literature

• 23/06/2020

Latest tracheostomy and laryngectomy publications from the Medical Press. Click to read this week's pick of the PubMed trawl. This week sees some big news for consensus guidelines from the UK and also from around the world.

COVID Response

• 18/05/2020

The NTSP has been working hard to keep staff and patients as up to date as possible with COVID-19 and the impact on patients with new or existing tracheostomies.

COVID Tracheostomy Podcast

• 04/05/2020

NTSP Chair Brendan McGrath discusses the role of tracheostomy in the COVID pandemic with the Intensive Care Society Podcast team.

National Tracheostomy Safety Project's SLT team wins best poster award

• 21/09/2019

Sarah Wallace, Consultant SLT and NTSP SLT lead, won the best abstract at the recent European Society for Swallowing Disorders Congress in Vienna. Sarah presented her work on the efficacy pf pharyngeal electrical stimulation (PES) treatment for dysphagia in patients who had been managed in critical care. This small group of patients all had prolonged critical illnesses and tracheostomy. Sarah's work demonstrated that PES using the Phagenyx device (http://www.phagenesis.com) had a positive impact in the majority of cases. Certainly much more to explore in this fast changing field.

Health Foundation publishes NTSP Evidence into Practice award details

• 20/08/2019

The Health Foundation, a charity dedicated to improving the health and healthcare of UK patients, has launched a further round of the Evidence into Practice program, highlighting the National Tracheostomy Safety Project's 2018 program as an example of what can achieved when developing resources and targeting front line healthcare staff.

First results from Improving Tracheostomy Care

• 05/07/2019

National Tracheostomy Safety Project releases the headline results of the Improving Tracheostomy Care program.

National Tracheostomy Safety Project publishes results of our social media strategy, reaching 1.1 million users in 2018

• 27/06/2019

From smartphone to bed‐side: exploring the use of social media to disseminate recommendations from the National Tracheostomy Safety Project to front‐line clinical staff. Published in the Journal Anaesthesia at the end of June 2019.

National Tracheostomy Safety Project launches new paediatric video library

• 24/05/2019

The stars of our new paediatric videos got the Red Carpet treatment as the new paediatric films made their worldwide premiere!

National Association of Laryngectomee Clubs update

• 30/03/2019

National Association of Laryngectomee Clubs (NALC) brings together patients from the UK who have experienced a laryngectomy, providing services, support, advice, friendship and advocacy. This bulletin explains their work with the ambulance service to improve care.

Improving Tracheostomy Care with the Royal College of Anaesthetists

• 04/12/2017

ITC presents update at the Royal College of Anaesthetists’ Winter Symposium 2017.

NTSP publishes details of key MDT roles

• 04/12/2017

The UK National Tracheostomy Safety Project has published a summary of the roles of the multidisciplinary team members who are involved in delivering high quality tracheostomy care.