Healthy London Partnership, a collaboration between all London CCGs and NHS England London region, has today set out in its report how London’s urgent and emergency care services will become coordinated, consistent, clear and available seven days a week. View the document: Coordinated, consistent and clear urgent and emergency care.

Once implemented it would mean three standardised centres for urgent and emergency care: urgent care centres; emergency centres; and emergency centres with specialist services.

Like the rest of England, London’s Urgent and Emergency care (U&EC) system is facing many challenges. Professor Sir Bruce Keogh’s National Urgent and Emergency care review in 2013 called for the transformation of services to address the unsustainable pressure on the system.

With an ageing population, more people need urgent or emergency care, but a confusing and inconsistent array of urgent care services means Londoners often struggle to find and access what they need and we’re responding to this with consistent specifications. Through a survey of 1,000 Londoners and interviews with over 800 individuals attending emergency departments it was found that:

• three in five Londoners find urgent care services confusing
• 68% do not know difference between ‘Urgent Care Centres’, ‘Walk in Centres’, ‘Minor Injury Units’ and ‘GP-led Health Centres’

From the engagement conducted by the London Health Commission we know:

• 94% strongly think U&EC services should be consistent across the whole week
• 86% think the ability for healthcare professionals to access their up-to-date health information is important

Conor Burke, Chief Officer of Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge CCGs and Co-Chair of the Urgent and Emergency Transformation Programme, said: “Londoners have told us they want urgent and emergency care to be available, clear and consistent, and coordinated so they can have confidence they will be seen quickly by the right person the first time around. This vision for urgent and emergency care in London will mean Londoners experience shorter queues, longer opening hours and efficient coordinated systems by 2020.”

Dr Andy Mitchell, Medical Director for NHS England London and Co-Chair of London’s Urgent and Emergency Care Transformation Programme, said: “We have made significant gains in improving London’s urgent and emergency care services with some of the best services in the world. We need to build on this work to accelerate transformation and deliver high quality, safe urgent and emergency care seven days a week. Commissioners and clinicians right across London have already committed to the implementation of the London Quality Standards and are in an excellent position to make this vision for urgent and emergency care a reality through the delivery of these specifications.”