A series of ‘urgent and emergency care (UEC) improvement guides’ have been designed for providers and systems to consider embedding as good practice to reduce ambulance handover delays.

The contents have been drawn from the Winter Improvement Collaborative which was set up to identify solutions to the problems facing the system over the winter period. Members of the collaborative were asked to co-design a series of plans and potential improvement measures, to be adapted and trialled at local level.

Throughout the process there were opportunities to understand what is working and what is proving challenging, and to iterate the approach to ensure it has maximum benefit. The learnings from the programme cover a range of areas including the flow of patients within hospitals from emergency services to wards, streaming patients into the most appropriate services, and standardising operational processes to be as efficient as possible.

The example trusts used in these documents have been anonymised.

Each trust is different and will need its own bespoke approach; examples are provided to inform local decision-making and action.

• UEC improvement guide to contact hubs for primary, ambulance and clinical calls
• UEC improvement guide to direct access
• UEC improvement guide same day emergency care flow
• UEC improvement guide same day emergency care pathways
• UEC improvement guide specialty support to the urgent and emergency care pathway/internal professional standards