NICE is consulting on new draft guidance, aimed at primary care services and employers involved in the management of long-term sickness absence and incapacity for work.

The following are some rather interesting files relating to ePortfolio compiled and composed by the Bradford VTS.

The DH has issued a “Dear Colleague” letter confirming arrangements for “performance sharing” for 18 weeks, as set out in the Operating Framework for 2008/2009.

EPCCS, affiliated to WONCA Europe, will hold its first annual scientific meeting from 20-21 October 2008 in Amsterdam.

Professor Steve Field has sent his monthly message to RCGP Members, outlining the College’s input into the Darzi review; work on lengthening GP training; and the publication of Primary Care Federations: putting patients first and the update of Good Medical Practice for General Practitioners.

The NHS Information Centre (IC) has published annual statistics on drug misuse in England, showing that overall drug use has fallen and the number of people in contact with structured drug treatment services has increased.

NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) has announced that more than 10 million electronic bookings have been made using Choose and Book and that over 90% of GP practices have used the system over the past six weeks.

The DH and NHS Employers have published final guidance on important human resource issues that could arise in the event pandemic flu outbreak.

The Clinical Knowledge Summaries service (CKS) - an NHS funded resource that provides access to reliable clinical knowledge about common conditions managed in primary care – has updated several of its summaries this month.