Urgent care summit – understanding cause and solutions

The Nuffield Trust hosted an event exploring the severe pressures facing Accident and Emergency departments.

Event

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Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments are under severe pressure, which is causing long waiting times and some cancelled operations. Many hospitals have been forced to declare major incidents as they struggle to cope with the influx of emergency admissions and to prepare patients for timely discharge.  

Much of the current discussions around A&E and hospital emergency care pressures suggest that the causal drivers for A&E pressures are not always well understood. In these situations there is a danger that well-intentioned solutions can make the problem worse.

This event brought together researchers, clinicians, managers and analysts to review what has been happening in A&E and emergency care, why, and what can be done to improve flow through hospitals and ease the current pressures. This event was supported by Monitor.

The aim of this event was to:

  • explore hypotheses about the true causal drivers for A&E pressures; and to identify where we have data to support this and where there are gaps in our knowledge
  • analyse and share solutions for improving flow and other aspects of management of the system and improving care of emergency patients; to identify what works, what hasn’t worked; and why and where there is data missing
  • share analytical and methodological approaches and to agree what needs to happen in order to overcome these problems in practice.

The event was largely interactive with audience participation throughout. We will be providing analysis and case study material on our website in order to create a useful resource for everyone. More information about this will follow.

Chair

Speakers