National Early

Warning Score
(NEWS) 2
Standardising
the assessment
of acute-illness
severity in the NHS

Updated report of a working party

Executive summary and recommendations
December 2017
The Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) plays a leading role in the delivery of high-quality patient care by
setting standards of medical practice and promoting clinical excellence. The RCP provides physicians in
over 30 medical specialties with education, training and support throughout their careers. As an
independent charity representing over 34,000 fellows and members worldwide, the RCP advises and
works with government, patients, allied healthcare professionals and the public to improve health and
healthcare.

Citation for this document

Royal College of Physicians. National Early Warning Score (NEWS) 2: Standardising the assessment of
acute-illness severity in the NHS. Updated report of a working party. London: RCP, 2017.

Copyright

In order to encourage as many people as possible to use the material in this publication, there is no
copyright restriction, but the Royal College of Physicians as copyright holder should be acknowledged on
any material reproduced from it. Note that high-quality versions of the charts and their explanatory text
are available to download, photocopy or print direct from our website at www.rcplondon.ac.uk/
national-early-warning-score. Please do not use the lower-quality versions of the charts shown in the
report itself. The charts must be reproduced in colour and should not be modified or amended.

© Royal College of Physicians 2017

ISBN 978-1-86016-682-2
eISBN 978-1-86016-683-9

Review date: 2022

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Executive summary

Background

This document summarises the update to the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2). The NEWS was
developed to improve the detection of and response to clinical deterioration in patients with acute
illness. The original NEWS was released in 20121 and has been widely implemented across the NHS and
in other healthcare settings across the world (see Appendix A for details of the NEWS Development and
Implementation Group). The NEWS was created to standardise the process of recording, scoring and
responding to changes in routinely measured physiological parameters in acutely ill patients. The NEWS
was founded on the premise that (i) early detection, (ii) timeliness and (iii) competency of the clinical
response comprise a triad of determinants of clinical outcome in people with acute illness.

At the time that the NEWS was developed, numerous publications and national reports on acute clinical
care had advocated the use of so-called ‘early warning scores’ (EWSs), ie ‘track-and-trigger’ systems to
efficiently identify and respond to patients who present with or develop acute illness.2–11 A number of
EWS systems were already in use across the NHS; however, the approach was not standardised.12 This
variation resulted in a lack of familiarity with local systems when staff moved between clinical
areas/hospitals and impeded attempts to embed training in the detection and response to acute illness in
a standardised way, across the NHS workforce. Put simply, when assessing acutely ill patients using these
various scores, we were not speaking the same language, which led to a lack of consistency in the
detection of and response to acute illness.

Building upon recommendations in its 2007 Acute Medicine Task Force report Acute medical care: the
right person, in the right setting – first time,11 the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) commissioned a
multidisciplinary group to develop a National Early Warning Score (NEWS). At this time a review of the
NEWS was scheduled for 2015, which has been conducted by the NEWS Review Group. This current
report presents the conclusions of that review, culminating in this update to the NEWS: the NEWS2.
This report includes a comprehensive review of the original justification for the NEWS and a discussion
of the rationale for the updated sections of the NEWS. Updated sections of the document are indicated
as ‘NEW’ and shaded.

Remit

Following its launch in 2012, the NEWS has been widely adopted across the NHS, and
over 122,000 NHS staff have completed online competency training in the use of the
NEWS. After launching the NEWS, the RCP encouraged feedback on user experience of
the NEWS in routine clinical practice, and suggestions for improvement in any of the NEWS-related
processes. The remit of the NEWS Review Group was to review these suggestions and decide whether
any changes to the NEWS process and charts were necessary. This review was enhanced by inclusion of
numerous peer-reviewed research publications, evaluating and validating the NEWS in various clinical
settings in the NHS and beyond.

For this NEWS update and based on feedback from users, particular attention was paid to four
important themes.
⇒ Determining how the NEWS could be used to better identify patients likely to have sepsis who
were at immediate risk of serious clinical deterioration and required urgent clinical intervention
⇒ Highlighting that that a NEWS score of 5 or more is a key threshold for an urgent clinical alert
and response

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National Early Warning Score (NEWS) 2

⇒ Improving the recording of the use of oxygen and the NEWS scoring of recommended oxygen
saturations in patients with hypercapnic respiratory failure (most often due to COPD)
⇒ Recognising the importance of new-onset confusion, disorientation, delirium or any acute
reduction in the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score as a sign of potentially serious clinical deteri-
oration, by including new confusion as part of the AVPU scoring scale (which becomes
ACVPU).

Various additional refinements to the NEWS chart were also considered and implemented.

The National Early Warning Score

The NEWS is based on a simple aggregate scoring system in which a score is allocated to physiological
measurements, already recorded in routine practice, when patients present to, or are being monitored in
hospital.1 Six simple physiological parameters form the basis of the scoring system:

1 respiration rate
2 oxygen saturation
3 systolic blood pressure
4 pulse rate
5 level of consciousness or new confusion*
6 temperature.

*The patient has new-onset confusion, disorientation and/or agitation, where previously their mental
state was normal – this may be subtle. The patient may respond to questions coherently, but there is
some confusion, disorientation and/or agitation. This would score 3 or 4 on the GCS (rather than the
normal 5 for verbal response), and scores 3 on the NEWS system.

A score is allocated to each parameter as they are measured, with the magnitude of the score reflecting
how extremely the parameter varies from the norm. The score is then aggregated. The score is uplifted by
2 points for people requiring supplemental oxygen to maintain their recommended oxygen saturation.
This is a pragmatic approach, with a key emphasis on system-wide standardisation and the use of
physiological parameters that are already routinely measured in NHS hospitals and in prehospital care,
recorded on a standardised clinical chart – the NEWS2 chart.

NHS England and the NEWS

NHS England and NHS Improvement have approved and endorsed use of the NEWS as
the recommended early warning scoring system for use in adults across the NHS in
England, to standardise the approach to detecting and grading the severity of acute illness.
The NEWS has also been endorsed as the recommended early warning system to detect acute clinical
illness/deterioration due to sepsis in patients with an infection or at risk of infection.

Evaluation of NEWS

During its original development, the NEWS was evaluated against a variety of other EWSs in use at the
time. The NEWS was shown to be as good at discriminating risk of serious clinical deterioration and

4 © Royal College of Physicians 2017

 Executive summary

acute mortality as the best existing systems and better than most.13 Furthermore, at the recommended
trigger level for an urgent clinical response (NEW score of 5 or more), the NEWS was more sensitive
and specific than most existing systems.13 Thus, the NEWS provided an enhanced level of surveillance
of patients, with greater specificity in identifying those at risk of serious clinical deterioration.
Subsequent experience in the use of NEWS in clinical practice and formal research-based evaluations
have reaffirmed that the NEWS performs very well. Also, unlike other EWSs, the NEWS has now been
validated in many settings within the NHS and internationally, including emergency departments and
in the prehospital setting, ie by ambulance services.14–34 In these studies, the NEWS has been shown to
be a strong indicator of increased risk of serious clinical deterioration and mortality in patients with
sepsis and a variety of acute medical illnesses, surgical patients and patients with acute trauma. There
are two important caveats to this conclusion: (i) concern about the potential impact of the NEWS to
inadvertently promote the overuse of oxygen therapy in patients with hypercapnic respiratory
failure,35,36 which is dealt with by this update, and (ii) the potential unreliability of the NEWS in
patients with spinal cord injury, especially tetraplegia or high paraplegia, owing to disruption of the
autonomic nervous system and resulting fluctuations in pulse rate, temperature or blood pressure that
can lead to both increased and reduced sensitivity of the NEWS.37

Using the NEWS

This report recommends that the NEWS be used to standardise the assessment of acute-illness severity
when patients present acutely to hospital and in prehospital assessment, ie by the ambulance services.
NEWS should also be used in emergency departments and as a surveillance system for all patients in
hospitals, to track their clinical condition, alert the clinical team to any clinical deterioration and trigger
a timely clinical response. This report also recommends that the NEWS should be evaluated with a view
to extending its use to primary care, to aid triage and communication of acute-illness severity to
ambulance and hospital services.

The NEWS clinical observations chart

To facilitate a standardised and nationally unified approach to recording vital signs data, a colour-coded
clinical chart (the NEWS chart) was developed for use across the NHS to record routine clinical data and
track a patient’s clinical condition. This has been widely deployed. The purpose of this tracking system is
to alert the clinical team to any untoward clinical deterioration and to monitor clinical recovery. The
NEWS should determine the urgency and scale of the clinical response.

The NEWS2 chart update

The NEWS chart has been updated. In the NEWS2 chart:

i the recording of physiological parameters has been reordered to align with the Resuscitation
Council (UK) ABCDE sequence
ii the ranges for the boundaries of each parameter score are now shown on the chart
iii the chart has a dedicated section (SpO2 Scale 2) for use in patients with hypercapnic respiratory
failure (usually due to COPD) who have clinically recommended oxygen saturation of
88–92%
iv the section of the chart for recording the rate of (L/min) and method/device for supplemental
oxygen delivery has been improved

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National Early Warning Score (NEWS) 2

v the importance of considering serious sepsis in patients with known or suspected infection, or at
risk of infection, is emphasised. A NEW score of 5 or more is the key trigger threshold for urgent
clinical review and action
vi the addition of ‘new confusion’ (which includes disorientation, delirium or any new alteration to
mentation) to the AVPU score, which becomes ACVPU (where C represents confusion)

viii the chart has a new colour scheme, reflecting the fact that the original red–amber–green colours
were not ideal for staff with red/green colour blindness.

Clinical response to NEWS

Depending on the NEW score, the report provides recommendations for the frequency of clinical
monitoring, the urgency of clinical review, and the competency requirements of the clinical team needed
to undertake that review and respond. The report emphasises the importance of ensuring that acute care
response teams, with the appropriate competencies in acute clinical care, are available 24/7 in acute
hospitals and free of other clinical responsibilities. This is especially important for patients with a NEW
sore of 5 or more. Likewise, for primary care, prehospital or community care, clinical care pathways that
ensure urgent access to an appropriate level of care should be defined for such patients. For patients with
the highest NEW scores, ie the most seriously ill, the report provides recommendations regarding the
most appropriate clinical environment for ongoing critical care.

The NEWS provides the basis for a unified and systematic approach to the first assessment and triage of
acutely ill patients, and a simple track-and-trigger system for monitoring clinical progress for all patients
in hospitals. This is allied to recommendations on the urgency and competency of the clinical response,
as well as the most appropriate environment for ongoing care of the most acutely ill patients. In so
doing, the NEWS provides a template for the staff and infrastructure requirements for modern acute
clinical care.

NEWS and training and education

The NEWS provides the basis for standardising the training and credentialling of all staff engaged in the
care of patients in hospitals and the prehospital assessment of patients. We recommend that this should
be extended to undergraduate education for all medical, nursing and allied healthcare professionals. The
NEWS is supported by an online training module and certification of completion of training
(http://tfinews.ocbmedia.com). We also recommend that the NEWS becomes part of mandatory training
for NHS clinical staff.

The NEWS in a digital healthcare system

The NEWS can be readily transported into electronic health record and app-based
systems. This has already happened in some NHS hospitals with mature electronic health
record systems. There are potential advantages of automated calculation of the NEW score
and automated alert systems. Wherever this occurs, it is important that the standardised scoring systems
and alert thresholds that underpin the NEWS remain unaltered.

An app is being developed to facilitate the use of the NEWS in hospitals and in primary care.

6 © Royal College of Physicians 2017

 Executive summary

The NEWS and research and innovation

The NEWS provides standardised data on regional variations in illness severity and resource
requirements, as well as objective measurements of illness severity and clinical outcomes – the latter
providing an invaluable research resource to evaluate the efficacy of new systems of care and novel
diagnostics and interventions.

Conclusions

The NEWS has driven a step-change improvement in safety and clinical outcomes for acutely ill patients
in our hospitals by standardising the assessment and scoring of simple physiological parameters and the
adoption of this approach across the NHS. This update refines and improves the NEWS without
changing its core principles.

© Royal College of Physicians 2017 7

Recommendations

1 We recommend that the routine clinical assessment of all adult patients (aged 16 years or more)
should be standardised across the NHS, with the routine recording of a minimum clinical dataset
of physiological parameters resulting in the National Early Warning Score (NEWS).

2 The NEWS should not be used in children (ie aged <16 years) or in women who are pregnant,
because the physiological response to acute illness can be modified in children and by pregnancy.

3 The NEWS may be unreliable in patients with spinal cord injury (especially tetraplegia or high-level
paraplegia), owing to functional disturbances of the autonomic nervous system. Use with caution.

4 The NEWS should be used as an aid to clinical assessment – it is not a substitute for competent
clinical judgement. Any concern about a patient’s clinical condition should prompt an urgent
clinical review, irrespective of the NEWS.

5 We recommend that the NEWS is used to improve the following:

i the assessment of acute-illness severity
ii the detection of clinical deterioration
iii the initiation of a timely and competent clinical response.

6 In hospitals, the NEWS should be used for initial assessment of acute illness and for continuous
monitoring of a patient’s wellbeing throughout their stay in hospital. By recording a patient’s NEW
score on a regular basis, the trends in their clinical responses can be tracked to provide early
warning of potential clinical deterioration and provide a trigger for escalation of clinical care.
Likewise, the recording of the NEWS trends will provide guidance about the patient’s recovery and
return to stability, thereby facilitating a reduction in the frequency and intensity of clinical
monitoring towards patient discharge.

7 The NEWS should be used in the prehospital assessment of acutely ill patients by ‘first responders’,
eg ambulance services, primary care and community hospitals, to identify and improve the
assessment of acute illness, triage and the communication of acute-illness severity to receiving
hospitals.

8 The NEWS should be used in emergency departments to aid the initial assessment of patients,
ongoing monitoring and patient triage decisions.

The NEWS physiological parameters and scoring system

9 We recommend that the NEW score should be determined from seven parameters (six
physiological, plus a weighting score for supplemental oxygen):

Six physiological parameters routinely recorded:

i respiration rate
ii oxygen saturation
iii systolic blood pressure

8 © Royal College of Physicians 2017

 Recommendations

iv pulse rate
v level of consciousness and new confusion (‘C’), thus AVPU becomes ACVPU, where C
represents new confusion
vi temperature.

In addition, a weighting score of 2 should be added for any patient requiring supplemental oxygen
(oxygen delivery by mask or nasal cannula) to maintain their prescribed oxygen saturation range.

10 Each of the six physiological NEWS parameters are allocated a score according to the magnitude of
disturbance to each parameter. The individual parameter scores should then be added up, along
with a score of 2 for use of supplemental oxygen, to derive the aggregate NEW score for the patient.

11 We recommend four trigger levels for a clinical alert requiring clinician assessment based on the
NEWS:

• LOW score: an aggregate NEW score of 1–4

• A single red score: an extreme variation in an individual physiological parameter (a score of 3
in any one parameter, which is colour-coded red on the NEWS2 chart)
• MEDIUM score: an aggregate NEW score of 5 or 6. A NEW score of 5 or more is a key
threshold and is indicative of potential serious acute clinical deterioration and the need for an
urgent clinical response
• HIGH score: an aggregate NEW score of 7 or more.

12 We recommend that these triggers should determine the urgency of the clinical response and the
clinical competency of the responder(s).
• A low NEW score (1–4) should prompt assessment by a competent registered nurse or
equivalent, who should decide whether a change to frequency of clinical monitoring or an
escalation of clinical care is required.
• A single red score (3 in a single parameter) is unusual, but should prompt an urgent review by
a clinician with competencies in the assessment of acute illness (usually a ward-based doctor)
to determine the cause, and decide on the frequency of subsequent monitoring and whether an
escalation of care is required.
• A medium NEW score (5–6) is a key trigger threshold and should prompt an urgent review by
a clinician with competencies in the assessment of acute illness – usually a ward-based doctor
or acute team nurse, who should urgently decide whether escalation of care to a team with
critical care skills is required (ie critical care outreach team).
• A high NEW score (7 or more) is a key trigger threshold and should prompt emergency
assessment by a clinical team / critical care outreach team with critical care competencies and
usually transfer of the patient to a higher-dependency care area.

The NEWS observations chart

13 We recommend the use of the standardised NEWS2 observation chart for the routine recording of
clinical observations, across the NHS. This should eventually replace the existing NEWS chart.

14 The NEWS2 chart should replace the wide variety of temperature, pulse and respiration rate (TPR)

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National Early Warning Score (NEWS) 2

charts currently in use, to provide a standardised system for recording routine clinical data for all
patients in hospital. A consistent format will provide easier recognition of a patient’s clinical status,
and facilitate national training in the measurement and recording of such data for all NHS staff
(http://tfinews.ocbmedia.com).

15 The NEWS2 chart is colour-coded to provide both visual and numeric prompts to aid
identification of abnormal clinical parameters.

16 The core of the NEWS2 chart for recording and scoring the NEWS physiological parameters should
be consistent nationally. It is recognised that the rest of the chart area will be customised to reflect
other key parameters not incorporated in the NEWS, eg urine output and pain scores, according to
the clinical environment.

17 The NEWS can and should be used alongside validated scoring systems such as the Glasgow Coma
Scale (GCS) or disease-specific systems as dictated by patient need.

Using NEWS in clinical practice

18 We recommend that the NEWS is used to determine the urgency of clinical response and the
clinical competency of the responder(s) according to acute-illness severity for patients in hospitals,
or in prehospital assessment.

19 Concern about a patient’s clinical condition should always override the NEWS if the attending
healthcare professional considers it necessary to escalate care.

20 Clinical response to the NEWS should be recorded on the NEWS chart. This will provide a
continuous record of actions taken in response to variations in the NEWS and act as a prompt for
escalating care if necessary.

21 When clinical teams decide that the routine recording of data for the NEWS is not appropriate, eg
for patients on an end-of-life care pathway, such decisions should be discussed with the patient (or
their family/carer as appropriate) and recorded in the clinical notes.

The NEWS and sepsis

22 We recommend that sepsis should be considered in any patient with a known infection, signs or
symptoms of infection, or in patients at high risk of infection, and a NEW score of 5 or more –
‘think sepsis’.

23 We recommend that patients with suspected infection and a NEW score of 5 or more require
urgent assessment and intervention by a clinical team competent in the management of sepsis and
urgent transfer to hospital or transfer to a higher-dependency clinical area within hospitals, for
ongoing clinical care.

The NEWS, supplemental oxygen and hypercapnic respiratory failure

24 We recommend that when supplemental oxygen is being used to maintain the desired oxygen
saturation, the rate of oxygen delivery (L/min) and the delivery system/device should be
documented on the NEWS chart using the British Thoracic Society oxygen delivery device codes.

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 Recommendations

25 For patients confirmed to have hypercapnic respiratory failure on blood gas analysis on either a
prior or their current hospital admission, and requiring supplemental oxygen, we recommend (i) a
prescribed oxygen saturation target range of 88–92%, and (ii) that the dedicated SpO2 scoring scale
(Scale 2) on the NEWS2 chart should be used to record and score the oxygen saturation for the
NEWS.

26 The decision to use SpO2 scale 2 should be made by a competent clinical decision maker and
should be recorded in the patient’s clinical notes.

27 In all other circumstances, the regular NEWS SpO2 scale 1 should be used.

28 For the avoidance of doubt, the SpO2 scoring scale not being used should be clearly crossed out
across the chart.

The NEWS and new confusion or delirium

29 We recommend the inclusion of ‘new confusion’ (including disorientation, delirium or any acute
reduction in GCS score) as part of the assessment of consciousness on the NEWS chart. The AVPU
term has been amended to ACVPU, where ‘C’ represents new confusion.

30 We recommend that new confusion scores 3 on the NEWS chart, ie a red score for a single score of
3, indicating that the patient requires urgent assessment.

31 We recommend that, if it is unclear whether a patient’s confusion is ‘new’ or their usual state, the
altered mental state/confusion should be assumed to be new until confirmed to be otherwise.

Clinical response to the NEWS

32 The organisation of the clinical response to acute illness should be reviewed and agreed locally to
ensure that the speed of response and clinical competency of the responder(s) match that
recommended for each of the grades of acute-illness severity as defined by the NEWS.

33 We recommend that, in acute hospitals, local arrangements should ensure an appropriate response
to each NEWS trigger level and should define:
• the speed/urgency of response to acute illness, including a clear escalation policy to ensure that
an appropriate response always occurs and is guaranteed 24/7
• who responds, ie the seniority and clinical competencies of the responder(s)
• the frequency of subsequent clinical monitoring
• the appropriate settings for ongoing acute care, including availability of facilities, trained staff
and timely access to higher-dependency care, if required.

Clinical competencies of the responders to the NEWS

34 All healthcare staff recording data for, or responding to, the NEWS should be trained in its use and
should understand the significance of the scores with regard to local policies for responding to the
NEWS triggers and the clinical response required.

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National Early Warning Score (NEWS) 2

35 The clinical responders to critical NEWS triggers (score of 5 or more) should have the appropriate
skills and competencies in the assessment and clinical management of acute illness.38 In hospitals,
team members should be clearly identified and provide coverage 24/7.

36 There should be locally agreed mechanisms for timely alert of the critical care teams responding to
a critical NEW score (score of 5 or more). Members of these teams should have overriding
responsibility to this role with regard to other duties, 24/7.

The NEWS and frequency of clinical monitoring

37 The NEWS should be used to inform the frequency of clinical monitoring, which should be
recorded on the NEWS chart.

38 We recommend that for patients scoring 0, the minimum frequency of monitoring should be 12
hourly, increasing to 4–6 hourly for scores of 1–4, unless more or less frequent monitoring is
considered appropriate by a competent clinical decision maker.

39 We recommend that the frequency of monitoring should be increased to a minimum of hourly for
those patients with a NEW score of 5–6, or a red score (ie a score of 3 in any single parameter)
until the patient is reviewed and a plan of care documented.

40 We recommend continuous monitoring and recording of vital signs for those with an aggregate
NEW score of 7 or more.

The NEWS and clinical settings for acute clinical care

41 The NEWS should be used to aid decision making with regard to the most appropriate clinical
setting for ongoing care. Local policies should define pathways for efficient and seamless escalation
and transfer of care, including:
• access to clinical monitoring in hospitals, ie monitored beds, with staff trained to interpret and
respond appropriately
• timely access to staff trained in critical care, ie airway management and resuscitation and, when
required, access to higher-dependency / critical care beds
• timely access to specialist acute care, ie acute cardiac, respiratory, neurological, liver or renal
support.

The NEWS – education and training

42 Education, training and demonstrable competency in the use of NEWS should be a mandatory
requirement and form part of mandatory training for all healthcare staff engaged in the assessment
and monitoring of acutely ill patients across the NHS.

43 We recommend that education regarding NEWS should form part of undergraduate nursing,
paramedical and medical training.

44 We recommend that the clinical responders to NEW scores of 5 or more must have competency in
the assessment of acutely ill patients. Responders to a NEW score of 7 or more must also have
competency in critical care skills and airway management.

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 Recommendations

The NEWS and research and development

45 We recommend that future research be directed towards evaluating the efficiency of the NEWS in
improving clinical response times and clinical outcomes in patients with acute illness – including in
the primary care setting.

46 We recommend that the NEWS be used to catalyse an expansion of research into the effectiveness
of novel interventions, diagnostics and care pathways in acute care in the NHS.

© Royal College of Physicians 2017 13

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© Royal College of Physicians 2017 15

 NEWS key FULL NAME
0 1 2 3 DATE OF BIRTH DATE OF ADMISSION

DATE DATE
TIME TIME

3
A+B
≥25 ≥25
21–24 2 21–24
Respirations 18–20 18–20
Breaths/min 15–17 15–17
12–14 12–14
9–11 1 9–11
≤8 3 ≤8

A+B
≥96 ≥96
94–95 1 94–95
SpO2 Scale 1 92–93 2 92–93
Oxygen saturation (%) ≤91 3 ≤91

SpO2 Scale 2† ≥97 on O2 3 ≥97 on O2

Oxygen saturation (%) 95–96 on O2 2 95–96 on O2
Use Scale 2 if target
range is 88–92%,
93–94 on O2 1 93–94 on O2
eg in hypercapnic ≥93 on air ≥93 on air
respiratory failure
88–92 88–92
86–87 1 86–87
†
ONLY use Scale 2
under the direction of 84–85 2 84–85
a qualified clinician
≤83% 3 ≤83%

Air or oxygen? A=Air A=Air

O2 L/min 2 O2 L/min
Device Device

3
C
≥220 ≥220
201–219 201–219
181–200 181–200
Blood
pressure 161–180 161–180
mmHg
141–160 141–160
Score uses
systolic BP only 121–140 121–140
111–120 111–120
101–110 1 101–110
91–100 2 91–100
81–90 81–90
71–80 71–80
61–70 3 61–70
51–60 51–60
≤50 ≤50

3
C
≥131 ≥131
121–130 121–130
111–120
2 111–120
Pulse
Beats/min 101–110 101–110
91–100
1 91–100
81–90 81–90
71–80 71–80 National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) © Royal College of Physicians 2017
61–70 61–70
51–60 51–60
41–50 1 41–50
31–40 31–40
≤30
3 ≤30

D
Alert Alert
Confusion Confusion
Consciousness V V
Score for NEW P 3 P
onset of confusion
(no score if chronic) U U

2
E
≥39.1° ≥39.1°
38.1–39.0° 1 38.1–39.0°
Temperature 37.1–38.0° 37.1–38.0°
°C 36.1–37.0° 36.1–37.0°
35.1–36.0° 1 35.1–36.0°
≤35.0° 3 ≤35.0°

NEWS TOTAL TOTAL

Monitoring frequency Monitoring

Escalation of care Y/N Escalation
Initials Initials

NEW_NEWS!_v4.indd 1 11/07/2017 15:14

 ISBN 978-1-86016-682-2
eISBN 978-1-86016-683-9
Royal College of Physicians
11 St Andrews Place
Regent’s Park
London NW1 4LE
www.rcplondon.ac.uk

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