30 Jan 2023

Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care

NHS England has outlined today, 30 January, its blueprint to tackle the current delays in emergency care and improve waiting times and patient experience.

The plan focuses on increasing capacity, growing the workforce, speeding up discharges, expanding new services in the community and helping people access the right care at the right time.

The Government has committed to £1bn dedicated funding to pay for additional capacity, including 5,000 new beds and over 800 new ambulances. There will also be a targeted campaign commencing in April to encourage retired clinicians, or those nearing retirement, to work in NHS 111 services rather than retire altogether.

In addition to this, new approaches to ‘step-down’ care will be implemented and new information will be published from April to help reduce the numbers of beds occupied by patients ready to be discharged. Working in tandem with this initiative is offering more joined-up healthcare, including the expansion of virtual wards, in order to reduce unnecessary admissions to hospitals and ensuring that NHS 111 is the first port of call, with only the most serious cases being advised to go to A&E.

techUK welcomes the greater focus on the use and potential of digital technology in the blueprint, which recognises the need to take full advantage of new and existing innovative tools to enable people to access care in different ways and support staff in the NHS to deliver and provide the care needed. We also welcome the emphasis on allowing patients to better manage their own health and providing the tools needed for them to do so. In addition, we see a greater recognition of using technology to improve and facilitate collaboration between ambulance services and social care to reduce the need for hospital care due to supported condition management at home.

A key pillar in the delivery of this plan is the expansion of virtual wards, to provide an alternative for admissions to hospital. The NHS has successfully rolled out 7,000 virtual ward beds, with capacity increasing by nearly 50% since the summer. The plan highlights the ambition to scale up capacity ahead of next winter to above 10,000 with a longer-term aim of reaching 40-50 virtual wards per 100,000 people. techUK will be working closely with members providing technology for virtual wards to raise awareness of the great work done so far, understanding how we can build on it according to the ambitions set out by the NHS today. If you are interested in contributing, please contact the team below.

If you would like to learn more about the NHS’s efforts to bring in innovation, please register for our event with the NHS Innovation Service taking place this Wednesday.