By Vivienne Russell | 18 January 2013
Urgent and emergency health services in England will be reviewed as part of plans to offer more seven-day services, the NHS Commissioning Board announced today.
NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh will lead the review. He will work with the new Clinical Commissioning Groups to develop a national framework to help ensure consistent and high-quality standards of care across the country.
As well as finding ways to run services throughout the week, the review will attempt to balance the provision of excellent clinical care for serious and complex emergencies with maintaining or improving local access to services for less serious problems.
It will set out the different levels and definitions of emergency care from top-level trauma centres and local Accident & Emergency departments to teams of GPs and nurses offering treatment for more routine health problems.
Keogh said: ‘Treatments for many common conditions such as heart attacks and strokes have evolved considerably over the past decade and are now best treated in specialist centres. Yet we know people want their A&E nearby.
‘This makes me think we need to review the increasingly complex and fragmented system of urgent and emergency care, so that sick, anxious and often frightened people can get what they need when they need it.’
The NHS Commissioning Board added that it wanted to improve public understanding of the best place to go for care. ‘By helping the public to go to the right place first, both they – and those who have very serious illnesses and injuries – will be seen more quickly by specialist clinical teams with the right qualifications and facilities.’
Responding to the review, NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar said there was ‘no getting away from the fact’ that the structure of services needed to change.
‘Advances in medicine mean the best response to a heart attack or stroke might be in a regional specialist unit. This means they will have access to latest treatments by specialists who treat similar patients on a very regular basis, allowing them to develop and maintain their skills to the highest quality standards,’ he said.
‘There is still a vital need for local urgent care services, but the development of a world-class specialist emergency system capable of saving lives also requires having the right expertise, in the right place, at the right time.’
Farrar said Keogh’s review should help clarify the best arrangements but said it was ‘essential’ that patient and community representatives and local and national politicians were involved in the debate.
The review plans to publish ‘emerging principles’ for consultation in the spring. Its terms of reference will be published shortly.
Urgent and emergency health services in England will be reviewed as part of plans to offer more seven-day services, the NHS Commissioning Board announced today.
NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh will lead the review. He will work with the new Clinical Commissioning Groups to develop a national framework to help ensure consistent and high-quality standards of care across the country.
As well as finding ways to run services throughout the week, the review will attempt to balance the provision of excellent clinical care for serious and complex emergencies with maintaining or improving local access to services for less serious problems.
It will set out the different levels and definitions of emergency care from top-level trauma centres and local Accident & Emergency departments to teams of GPs and nurses offering treatment for more routine health problems.
Keogh said: ‘Treatments for many common conditions such as heart attacks and strokes have evolved considerably over the past decade and are now best treated in specialist centres. Yet we know people want their A&E nearby.
‘This makes me think we need to review the increasingly complex and fragmented system of urgent and emergency care, so that sick, anxious and often frightened people can get what they need when they need it.’
The NHS Commissioning Board added that it wanted to improve public understanding of the best place to go for care. ‘By helping the public to go to the right place first, both they – and those who have very serious illnesses and injuries – will be seen more quickly by specialist clinical teams with the right qualifications and facilities.’
Responding to the review, NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar said there was ‘no getting away from the fact’ that the structure of services needed to change.
‘Advances in medicine mean the best response to a heart attack or stroke might be in a regional specialist unit. This means they will have access to latest treatments by specialists who treat similar patients on a very regular basis, allowing them to develop and maintain their skills to the highest quality standards,’ he said.
‘There is still a vital need for local urgent care services, but the development of a world-class specialist emergency system capable of saving lives also requires having the right expertise, in the right place, at the right time.’
Farrar said Keogh’s review should help clarify the best arrangements but said it was ‘essential’ that patient and community representatives and local and national politicians were involved in the debate.
The review plans to publish ‘emerging principles’ for consultation in the spring. Its terms of reference will be published shortly.
