The Welsh Government have announced they’re accelerating the levelling up process of their services with increased staffing high on the agenda, as they move forward with the Six Goals for Urgent and Emergency Care programme.
The programme is designed to help people as close to home as possible and keep people out of hospital as much as possible with patient backlog still running rampant.
An extra £25m will be invested every year to support the Six Goals programme, as the NHS continues to battle and be subjected unprecedented pressure.
For 2022-23 the funding includes around £20m for health boards and partners to increase urgent primary care and same-day emergency care capacity. It also includes a new £4m innovation and delivery fund, which will support the delivery of the Six Goals programme.
Health Minister Eluned Morgan said: “The NHS is under a lot of pressure at the moment but every day it provides life-saving and life-changing care for tens of thousands of people across Wales.
“The Six Goals programme is designed to help improve access to urgent and emergency care for all those people who need this care and ensure there are alternative services available for those people who need a different type of response – we want everyone to get the best possible care, as quickly as possible and as close to home as possible. But it’s also important they get it from the right service the first time.”
Each health board will be asked to submit plans evidencing how they are meeting the programme’s requirements, which includes setting up urgent primary care centres and same-day emergency care centres as well as recruiting new Six Goals improvement teams.
The six goals for urgent and emergency care are:
- Coordination, planning and support for people at greater risk of needing urgent or emergency care.
- Signposting to the right place, first time.
- Access to clinically safe alternatives to hospital admission.
- Rapid response in a physical or mental health crisis.
- Optimal hospital care following admission.
- Home-first approach and reduce risk of readmission.
Included in the launch of the plan was the nationwide roll out of the 111 service – a service ran by the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust dedicated to providing the public with up-to-date health advice and guidance about what NHS service is the most appropriate for them.
The service is available by telephoning 111 or visiting 111.wales.nhs.uk.
More information about the Six Goals programme and what else it entails is available here.
