Welcoming the progress report from NHS England on the Keogh Urgent and Emergency Care Review, NHS Confederation director of policy Dr Johnny Marshall said:
“The unprecedented demand currently facing the NHS manifests itself most visibly in emergency departments and urgent care services across the country, but anyone with common sense can tell you that this really is a symptom of the whole service facing the biggest set of challenges in its history. The Review being led by Professors Keogh and Willett is right to take a whole-system approach to addressing the situation, and to involving commissioners, providers, patients and leaders in how to tackle it.
“Our members welcome the Review’s direction of travel, including the role set out for urgent care networks, increased collaboration across organisational and professional boundaries, and developing new ways for patients to access urgent and emergency care, such as the role paramedics can play in shifting care out of hospital. It is critical that we get clarity as soon as possible on how the various levels of co-ordination, strategic planning and on-the-ground delivery will work together, and how these will interact with existing and newly-emerging ways of working across local health communities.
Space and readiness to change
“A key element of the 2015 Challenge calls for NHS organisations to have the space to change – and be ready to change – as soon as next year’s General Election is out of the way, which means all levers of change, including reforms to the payment system for urgent and emergency care, need to be in place on a similar timetable.
“In Ripping off the sticking plaster, which the NHS Confederation published earlier this year, we called for an end to short-term solutions that plug gaps or provide temporary relief for the emergency NHS services. The urgent and emergency care system in this country needs a holistic, long-term care programme if it is going to be around in the future in any currently recognisable form.”
