The proposal for a NZEWS was first presented to the Health Quality & Safety Commission
in September 2012. The initial response was encouraging18 and it was suggested this was
a project that may be supported at a later date. In the following twelve months however,
national priorities were assigned to other campaigns. Without the support of a national
organisation, the authors have adopted a more informal networking strategy mostly within
the critical care community. This has included publication of papers on the disparity of
EWS within New Zealand2 as well as the variability in the provision of critical care outreach
services19. The topic was discussed at the National Critical Care Outreach Meeting in
Wellington in November 2012 and will also be discussed at two national meetings in 2014
at which the authors have been invited to speak