Changes to emergency care for our patients

University Hospital has changed the way some patients are cared for in A&E. From Monday 4 October a new system will ensure appropriate care is delivered in the most appropriate setting. Patients with life-threatening conditions will be taken from the ambulance straight to the resuscitation bay as normal to be treated by our specialist emergency team.

All other patients brought to the department by ambulance will be assessed on arrival as currently happens. Patients with severe illness or injury will be transferred into the Emergency Department, while patients with more minor conditions (usually those not needing to lie on a trolley) will be taken through to the Urgent Care Centre.

Mark Mould, acting chief operating officer, said: "Our Emergency Department was originally designed to take around 30,000 patients a year. We have expanded the department as far as possible but we now see more than 100,000 patients in A&E every year. There have been occasions when there were simply too many people in the department and we were not able to provide the level of care and quality of environment that we and our patients would wish.

"Analysis shows that, on average, 30 of the 110 patients arriving by ambulance each day do not need to be on a trolley or in a bed and do not need the level of care provided in the resus or majors area of the emergency department. Re-directing these patients to the Urgent Care Centre next door should speed up their treatment and help to avoid waits for patients who arrive with more severe conditions."

The Urgent Care Centre is the new name for the 'minors' area of A&E. Staff in the Centre will see patients coming with less serious illness and injury, whether they arrive on their own or by ambulance. Patients will be seen by senior level nurses and GPs who will diagnose, treat and, where appropriate, make arrangements for further support by other agencies. The vast majority of patients using the Urgent Care Centre will go home after they have been seen. Only very occasionally will any of these patients need to be admitted.

Children will continue to be seen in the Children's Emergency Department until 10pm, after which they will also be seen in the Urgent Care Centre or main A&E. In a further improvement, patients arriving with a minor injury to the lower arm or lower leg can go straight to the 'See and Treat' area once they have booked in.  This will avoid waiting to see the triage nurse and should speed up the time they wait in the department.

Mark Mould said: "Our aim is to provide the right care for all our patients in the shortest possible time and in the right setting. We want to give the best service we can throughout our very busy A&E and make the best use of the full range of skills of our staff."