About Patient Flow: Health and Care Improvement for Urgent and Emergency Care

Each year the NHS provides around 110 million urgent same-day patient contacts. Around 85 million of these are urgent GP appointments, and the rest are A&E or minor injuries-type visits. Some estimates suggest that between 1.5 and 3 million people who come to A&E each year could have their needs addressed in other parts of the urgent care system. They turn to A&E because it seems like the best or only option.

The rising pressures on A&E services also stem from continued growth in levels of emergency admissions and from delayed transfers of care when patients are fit to leave hospital. Working with NHS England we are opening open up valued discussions between peers and demonstrating the great work that is already being done across the UK

What’s been achieved in England over the past three years?
Cared for 23 million A&E attendances in 2016/17, 1.2 million more than three years ago.
Boosted the capacity and capability of NHS 111, which now takes 15 million calls each year, up from 7.5 million three years ago.
Expanded “Hear and Treat” and “See and Treat” ambulance services so that they now cover 3.5 million people, with the provision of telephone advice and treatment of people in their homes saving needless trips to hospital.
Developed an integrated urgent care model, offering a single point of entry for urgent care via NHS 111, and rolled it out to 20% of the population.
Increased NHS staff uptake of winter flu vaccinations from 49% last year to 63% this year – the highest ever.