On 9 December, a training meeting for the Bacteremia Zero Project was held in Madrid. This project, undertaken in cooperation with the WHO and with Spain as a demonstration country, is being carried out with the participation of all of the Autonomous Communities under the technical leadership of the SEMICYUC (Spanish Society of Intensive and Critical Medicine and Coronary Units). Several workshops were held to examine in depth a range of aspects of the project with a view to improving its development. The data obtained so far show that the principal objective of the study has already been attained on a national level, although aspects still remain to be improved in some ICUs.The next follow-up meeting will be held in early April, coinciding with the  SEMICYUC Infectious Diseases Working Group (GTEI ) meeting

The meeting of the Autonomous Communities’ reference group on patient safety was held in Madrid on 16 December, with the objective of reaching a consensus on financing lines in PS for 2010

The report on the analysis of results and proposals for improvement of the project: “Safe Equipment in Rectal Cancer Surgery in Spain”, prepared by the Asociación Española de Cirujanos (Spanish Association of Surgeons) is now available on the Internet

On 15 December, the Minister for Health and Social Policy, Trinidad Jiménez, handed over the prizes for quality in the National Health System 2008. The awards ceremony was held in the Auditorium at the Ministry with the attendance of one hundred and fifty public figures in the field of healthcare. Entities receiving awards

The documentation used during the Technical Meeting on ICD 10 held on the 15th and 16th of September 2009 is now available 

The software for consulting the CMBD (Minimum Basic Data Set) advanced indicators has been updated, enabling access to the  SNS hospitalisation Indicators and Analysis Axes Model. The current version includes the series of data and indicators from 2001 to 2007 inclusive and has restricted access by means of user name and password, which must be requested

The 7th  edition of the International Classification of Diseases 9threv Clinical Modification in Spanish (Clasificación Internacional de Enfermedades 9ª rev Modificación clínica (CIE9MC) enters into force in January 2010. The edition, coordinated by the Technical Unit of the ICD9CM for the National Health System has been published by the Ministry for Health and Social Policy and can be purchased at the publications service

Charts are available for the advance of the European Health Survey in Spain 2009 (EHIS 2009), with provisional results from partial data collected between April and October 2009

The National Health System’s COPD Strategy was presented at the 7th Joint Winter Meeting of SEPAR Areas, held in Palma de Mallorca, on the 27th and 28th of November 2009, at the Meliá Palas Atenea Hotel

The  2nd Cáritas Meetings on Mental Health were held in El Escorial, Madrid, 30 November-2 December 2009, under the theme “Vulnerability and Exclusion”, with the presence of the National Health System’s Mental Health Strategy

The meeting of the Open Forum on Health was held on 14 December 2009 at the Ministry of Health and Social Policy, where, among other topics, the Assessment of the National Health System’s Mental Health Strategy was presented

[+ Highlights]

 A Legal Frame for Notifying Errors (Diariomedico.com, 14 December 2009)

The OECD presented its report Health at a Glance 2009 on 8 December 2009

• 11th edition of Grants awarded by the REAP for research in Primary Care. The deadline for sending research projects is midnight, 23 January 2010

• 4th edition of the Ángeles Durán Prize for Scientific Innovation in the Study of Women and Gender, awarded by the University Institute of Women’s Studies (IUEM), Universidad Autónoma de  Madrid. Papers must be submitted on or before 29 January 2010