Alcohol Care Teams: to reduce acute hospital admissions and improve quality of care

"The principal component of this initiative is for a multidisciplinary Alcohol care team in each district hospital, led by a consultant with designated sessions, who will collaborate across hospitals and primary care, to develop a coordinated alcohol treatment and prevention programme. This team would organise systematic interventions and alcohol specialist nurses."

Alcohol Care Teams: to reduce acute hospital admissions and improve quality of care (Quality and Productivity case study)
The British Society of Gastroenterology and the Royal Bolton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
NICE
March 2016

Read more here.

Enabling the local implementation of sustainable urgent and emergency care models

"To break the vicious circle resulting in increased pressures on A&Es, and ensure patients have access to the right care, in the right place at the right time, efforts should focus on building an effective community offer. This will require adequate investment to transform primary, community and social care – while ensuring that acute and emergency care remains sustainable."

Rip off the sticking plaster now: Enabling the local implementation of sustainable urgent and emergency care models in 2015/16
NHS Confederation, Urgent and Emergency Care Forum
April 2015

Read more here.

Community Pharmacy - Helping provide better quality and resilient urgent care

"This document takes examples of innovative practice from around the country and makes the tools available to help others to adopt these services to meet local need or help to manage demand. We encourage Service Resilience Groups and local commissioners to work together to make best use of community pharmacy locally."

Community Pharmacy - Helping provide better quality and resilient urgent care 
NHS England
November 2014

Read more here. Access the tool kit here.

The reconfiguration of clinical services

"This paper aims to help those planning and implementing major clinical service reconfigurations ensure that change is as evidence-based as possible. It investigates the five key drivers – quality, workforce, cost, access and technology"

The reconfiguration of clinical services: What is the evidence?
C Imison, L Sonola, M Honeyman, S Ross
The King's Fund
November 2014

Read more here.

Urgent and planned care: operational resilience and capacity planning

"Guidance to support NHS healthcare providers and commissioners with their planning for operational resilience during 2014/15."

Urgent and planned care: operational resilience and capacity planning for 2014/15
Monitor, NHS England and NHS Trust Development Authority
June 2014

Read more here.

Focus on: A&E attendances

"We explored a range of factors thought to be contributing to increased pressure on A&E in the English NHS and tested whether recent changes in these factors could explain the current pressures observed in the system." 

Focus on: A&E attendances: Why are patients waiting longer?
I Blunt
Nuffield Trust, The Health Foundation
July 2014

Read more here.

Whole-system solutions for urgent and emergency care

"Demand for urgent and emergency care continues to increase year on year and it has been evident for some time that the system for delivering this care must adapt to meet ongoing and new challenges."

Ripping off the sticking plaster: Whole-system solutions for urgent and emergency care
Urgent and Emergency Care Forum
NHS Confederation
March 2014

Read more here.

NHS payment reform: lessons from the past and directions for the future

"To ensure that the long-term reforms to the payment system support the NHS to deliver efficient, high-quality care, Monitor and NHS England need to develop an approach that is:

• Comprehensive.
• Focused
• Aligned with wider system changes
• Transparent and evidence-based
• Predictable and credible"

NHS payment reform: lessons from the past and directions for the future
A Charlesworth, L Hawkins, L Marshall
Nuffield Trust
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.

Stretched to the limit: a survey of emergency medicine consultants in the UK

"This report, the first of its kind, describes the working practices of consultants and other senior decision makers in the Emergency Department (ED), the pressures they face and the impact on their working lives."

Stretched to the limit: a survey of emergency medicine consultants in the UK
TB Hassan, B Walker, M Harrison, F Rae
The College of Emergency Medicine
October 2013

Read more here.

Urgent and emergency services

"Growing demand on A&E departments will make them unsustainable if effective action is not taken quickly to relieve the pressures on them."

Urgent and emergency services
House of Commons Health Committee
July 2013

Read more here.

NHS England: Improving A&E Performance Gateway ref: 00062

"Working closely with other key stakeholders, and building on the views already shared from CCGs and providers, NHS England will put in place an approach that will support the emergency and urgent care system, reduce pressure and ensure that patients do not have to wait longer than the agreed standards as identified in the NHS constitution and thus meet the national operating target of 95%."

Read more here.

Driving improvement in A & E services

"Trusts have reduced reattendance rates by providing comprehensive information and followup advice when patients leave A & E."

Driving improvement in A & E services
Foundation Trust Network
October 2012

Read more here.

Urgent care centres: what works best?

"This paper offers some key thinking points for clinical commissioners to consider as they develop their plans for integrated, 24/7 urgent and emergency care."

Urgent care centres: what works best?
Primary Care Foundation
October 2012

Read more here.

Getting to grips with integrated 24/7 emergency and urgent care

"This report considers the challenges and opportunities facing urgent care commissioners as they strive to develop an integrated 24/7 service while also introducing NHS 111."

Getting to grips with integrated 24/7 emergency and urgent care
NHS Alliance
October 2012

Read more here.

Value of healthcare services

Doctors, nurses and other health professionals are coming together with  patients and their representatives to look at health services in south west London in the Better Services, Better Value review. The following six reports show much of the thinking and analysis that has taken place to understand how people use the south west London health services and the quality of the service they receive in terms of outcomes and experience.

• Long-term conditions and out of hospital care (including mental health) clinical working group: draft clinical report
• Planned care clinical working group: draft clinical report
• Maternity and newborn clinical working group: draft clinical report
• Children's services clinical working group: draft clinical report
• End of life care working group: draft clinical report
• Urgent care clinical working group: draft clinical report

Breaking the mould without breaking the system

"This resource is designed to offer ideas and inspiration to everyone responsible for commissioning urgent and emergency care in the UK, in particular, the new clinical commissioning groups in England."

Breaking the mould without breaking the system: new ideas and resources for clinical commissioners on the journey towards integrated 24/7 urgent care
D Carson, H Clay, R Stern
Primary care Foundation
November 2011

Read more here.