NEWS2, patient safety and hypercapnic respiratory failure.

The National Early Warning Score (NEWS) has been widely adopted for use in clinical practice in the UK since its introduction in 2012. It is designed to improve patient safety. The original score was adapted in 2017 to improve patient safety further by introducing a separate score for oxygen saturation to be used in selected patients with respiratory diseases. In this article, evidence for the effectiveness of the improved score is reviewed.