Professor Keith Willett, NHS England’s Director for Acute Care, who is leading the Urgent and Emergency Care Review. Millions of pensioners sadly will endure a lonely and cheerless Christmas this year and indeed spend many long winter’s days alone. According to recent research for the charity Age UK, as many as 60 per cent, or […]

Delivery of NHS 111 and General Practice Out of Hours services are to be brought closer together to provide patients with a “new front door” to urgent health care services. The new service will offer patients improved access to a new 24/7 urgent clinical assessment, advice and treatment service – bringing together NHS 111, GP […]

NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens and the NHS Five Year Forward View partners today (Friday) announced eight new vanguards that will launch the transformation of urgent and emergency care for more than nine million people. This comes as NHS England also revealed the success of Regional Major Trauma Networks which, after they were set […]

The NHS today (20 May) invites expressions of interest from hospitals across England interested in developing new ways of delivering and improving their local acute services. The aim is to enhance the viability of local hospitals through new formal shared working arrangements between clinical specialists at different hospitals, and to improve efficiency by sharing back […]

Sir Bruce Keogh has paid a return visit to Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital as the impressive £75million development prepares to open this summer. NHS England’s National Medical Director met some of the doctors and nurses who have helped design the hospital and who will be caring for seriously ill or injured patients from North […]

The NHS has today announced two new pilots that aim to reduce wasted ambulance journeys and improve the quality of care for all patients contacting 999. The proposal has been recommended by doctors and the ambulance service and agreed following expert advice from senior clinical experts at NHS England. This clinical advice has been published today. For the most serious calls, where every second counts, […]

Responding to the media coverage today (14 January 2015) on NHS 111, Professor Keith Willett, NHS England’s Director for Acute Care, said: “NHS111 is doing an excellent job in terms of protecting both A&E and ambulance services from unnecessary attendances and call outs. “Doctors and nurses in A&E work incredibly hard to provide patients with […]

This summary offers an overview of the system and pulls together information on waiting times in A&E, ambulance response times, daily situation reports from the NHS, and information on flu rates. Winter health check report – 9 January 2015 (document available on our archived website).

THE weekly A&E figures for the weeks ending December 21st 2014 and December 28th 2014 have been published today. Commenting on the figures, Dr Sarah Pinto-Duschinsky, Director of Operations and delivery for NHS England, said: “Today’s figures show that in the three months to the end of December more than nine out of 10 A&E […]

The impact of loneliness and isolation on older people at Christmas can cause a major spike in admissions to A&E, England’s top urgent care doctor has said. Professor Keith Willett, NHS England’s Director for Acute Care, said studies show people left on their own over the festive period are more likely to end up in […]