Quick guides: transforming urgent and emergency care services in England

"NHS England and partners have published a series of quick guides to support local health and care systems. The guides provide practical tips, case studies and links to useful documents, which can be used to implement solutions to commonly experienced issues. Use the information to manage upcoming winter pressures and plan for 2016 and beyond."

• Better use of care at home 
• Clinical input to care homes 
• Identifying local care home placements
• Improving hospital discharge into the care sector 
• Technology in care homes
• Sharing patient information 

Quick guide: Transforming urgent and emergency care services in England
NHS England
2015

All six guides can be accessed here.

Good practice in ambulance commissioning

"The National Ambulance Commissioners Network (NACN), which is part of NHS Clinical Commissioners, brings together individuals from across the country with an interest in ambulance commissioning to share learning, provoke discussion and work together to find solutions. As part of that we have collected and brought together a number of good practice examples to contribute to the ongoing debate on finding new approaches to the provision of emergency services, and the role that clinical commissioners can play in driving those new approaches forward."

Good practice in ambulance commissioning
The National Ambulance Commissioners Network
NHS Clinical Commissioners
June 2015

Read more here.

RCS commissioning guide: emergency general surgery

"Emergency General Surgery (EGS), and specifically acute abdominal pain, represents a huge inpatient burden of heterogenous diagnoses. Historically, the care of this group of patients has been underfunded and overlooked and there has been resultant variability in the quality of care provided." 

Commissioning guide: emergency general surgery (acute abdominal pain)
Royal College of Surgeons, Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland
April 2014

Read more here.

The NHS payment system: evolving policy and emerging evidence

"This research report takes a comprehensive look at different approaches to payment and how they function in the English NHS. It then brings together and summarises the available evidence on whether recent payment initiatives have met their goals."

The NHS payment system: evolving policy and emerging evidence
L Marshall, A Charlesworth, J Hurst
Nuffield Trust
February 2014

Read more here.

Focus On: Distance from home to emergency care

"This QualityWatch Focus On report examines the typical distances from home that people travel to receive emergency care, and how this has changed over time. It explores the distances between a person’s home and the hospital at which they attended A&E, or received an emergency inpatient admission, using Hospital Episode Statistics."

Focus On: Distance from home to emergency care
A Roberts, I Blunt, M Bardsley
The Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust, London
February 2014

Read more here.

Government response to the House of Commons Health Select Committee Report into Urgent and Emergency Services

"There is a pressing need for clearer information to be produced which can detail where urgent care cases present across the system and the case mix of urgent patient presentations; it is also important to monitor waiting times for urgent and emergency services in order to ensure that services are accessible to patients in urgent need of care."

Government response to the House of Commons Health Select Committee Report into Urgent and Emergency Services (Second Report of Session 2013-14)
Department of Health
October 2013

Read more here.

Emergency preparedness, resilience and response

"This Briefing supports commissioners by outlining the scope and importance of EPPR and their own role in it, key questions and answers regarding EPRR, and sources of further information and guidance."

Emergency preparedness, resilience and response: a guide for ambulance commissioners
National Ambulance Commissioners Group
NHS Confederation
March 2013

Read more here.