10.05.13
Putting the ‘emergency’ in A&E
Failings in A&E have hit the headlines this week, as CQC chairman David Prior highlighted the need to close beds and concentrate resources on community care.
Reducing demand before patients become emergencies is obviously preferable to crowded departments that can only react, rather than predict.
Does the NHS have the resources, and the management capability, to undertake this shift? The issue has been well discussed, but efforts to integrate health and social care have proved very difficult.
Establishing urgent care boards could help to stem growing waiting times in A&E, but there are questions over funding available to support this.
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