December 2023
Price: £95 PLUS VAT
Format: DOWNLOADABLE PDF
This conference focused on priorities for improving urgent and emergency care services in England.
It was an opportunity to examine progress and next steps for:
- the Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services - published by NHS England in January 2023
- the Re-envisioning urgent and emergency care report - published by the NHS Confederation in December 2022
Stakeholders and policymakers assessed key priorities, including implementation and investment of the delivery plan, and the way forward for reducing waiting times and improving patient outcomes.
Further sessions looked at issues surrounding the workforce and service capacity, speeding up patient discharge, next steps for the same day emergency care policy, and the future outlook for virtual wards.
We are pleased to have been able to include keynote sessions with: Ashley McDougall, Director, Health Value for Money, National Audit Office; Dr Adrian Boyle, President, Royal College of Emergency Medicine; Mike Hearne, Managing Director, Taurus Healthcare; Lauren Parry, Medical Director, Taurus Healthcare; and a pre-recorded contribution from Miriam Deakin, Director of Policy, NHS Providers.
Overall, areas for discussion included:
- the delivery plan: progress, trends and challenges in delivering sustainable recovery of urgent and emergency care in England - priorities for improving accessibility
- workforce:
- what will be needed to deliver the aims of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan for emergency care
- strategies for growing the emergency care workforce, as well as training, professional development and retention
- priorities for supporting staff - addressing challenges for the workforce that are specific to emergency care
- waiting times: enabling same day emergency care targets to be met - latest thinking and best practice in effective hospital design - developing capacity and flow - priorities for funding
- hospital bed occupancy: addressing issues with speeding up patient discharge - the role of social care and options for expanding care in the community - progress in delivery of virtual wards
- capacity and accessibility: the role of Integrated Care Systems in developing effective pathways for improving capacity - involvement of the independent sector
- quality: next steps for driving up standards - enabling long-term sustainable system recovery - priorities for aligning needs in emergency care with wider policy developments and initiatives
The conference was an opportunity for stakeholders to consider the issues alongside key policy officials who attended from DBT; DHSC; HM Treasury; Home Office; The Scottish Government; and the Welsh Government.
