The King's Fund responds to the Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan update
Responding to the publication of the second part of NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan, Siva Anandaciva, Chief Analyst at The King’s Fund, said:
‘This updated NHS recovery plan contains many sensible proposals to deliver better urgent and emergency care for patients. The increased spotlight on the longest waits in A&E departments, for example, should be welcomed.
‘The efforts to deliver more care in the community through virtual wards has great potential to reduce avoidable admissions and help patients when stepping up or down from hospital care, as long as this approach also comes with investment in staff skills and infrastructure. Many people end up attending A&E after experiencing difficulties accessing GP appointments or other local avenues for care, exacerbating already high demand for urgent and emergency care. It is good to see national decision-makers and politicians make a strategic decision to bolster community services as part of their solution to free up overcrowded hospitals.
‘But this is a plan for gradual improvement at a time when the NHS is in crisis. It has been nearly a decade since A&E performance targets were reliably met, and there is little prospect of performance substantially improving in the near future. It is patients and staff who are bearing the brunt of the sharp deterioration in NHS performance over the past ten years.’
Notes to editors
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