NEWS2 is the latest version of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS), first produced in 2012 and updated in December 2017, which advocates a system to standardise the assessment and response to acute illness.
A new working party report from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) says there should be a national system for recognising very sick patients whose condition is deteriorating and who need more intensive medical or nursing care.
The NHS announced plans to roll out the RCP's National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) in hospital trusts in order to identify patients at risk of clinical deterioration due to sepsis.
NHS trusts are being asked to use the RCP's updated National Early Warning Score to identify deteriorating patients sooner, including those with suspected sepsis.
