WG introduces new NHS goals
ACCORDING to Wales’s Health Minister, Eluned Morgan, new quality standards will help improve the country’s emergency departments in several ways.
The new standards include using “evidencebased” approaches to speed up assessment times, reducing the time people wait to be admitted to the hospital, and focusing on “sustainability.”
Health boards will be expected to deliver the Quality Statement for Care in the Emergency Department, which Health Minister Eluned Morgan launched on March 15, to improve outcomes and the experience of everyone attending Wales’ emergency departments.
The statement complements the Six Goals for Urgent and Emergency Care programme, which has developed new services to ensure people can get the right care in the right place for the first time.
The Minister did not announce any new money to help meet the goals
Health Minister Eluned Morgan said: “Building on the improvements we’ve delivered through the Six Goals for Emergency Care programme, the Quality Statement will provide health boards with clear direction on what good care looks like within our emergency departments across Wales.
“Our Six Goals programme has helped to ensure that people are being seen in the right place by the right person – that doesn’t mean that everyone always has to go to an emergency department when they need urgent care.
“It has also helped our major emergency departments outperform their counterparts in England in 14 of the last 17 months about the four-hour target. We are pleased that the Office for National Statistics has recently confirmed that the published performance statistics for major emergency departments in England, Scotland, and Wales are broadly comparable.
“But we know there’s much more to do to improve the standard and timeliness of care people receive when they go to emergency departments.
“We’ve listened to staff and the public in developing this Quality Statement. The public wants clear and frequent communication, to feel comfortable and warm, and to be treated quickly but sensitively.
“And we know the dedicated and skilled staff working in these busy departments want a focus on the timely flow of patients from departments into hospital wards and access to better quality data to drive improvements to patient care.
“These will be our priorities in the year ahead, and I expect our national programme, clinical network, and health boards to support their delivery.”
The Welsh government is funding a new national ‘Green ED’ scheme, in collaboration with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), to embed sustainable working practices and reduce emissions, waste, and costs in Wales’ 12 emergency departments.
The Minister has also established a national task group to review emergency department measures.
The Welsh
Government claims it will consider whether there are better measures of quality, value, experience, and outcome for care provided in emergency departments to help inform the Welsh public about what to expect when accessing these services and drive improvements. It will focus on what matters most to people and what is clinically meaningful.
However, data show that between 2007 and 2016, performance levels were moderately consistent, and fourhour performance rarely dropped below 80%. However, since January 2017, the number of people waiting four hours or more increased by 64%, the number waiting more than eight hours by 100%, and the number waiting more than 12 hours by 143%. This is despite attendance increasing by only 0.9% in the same period.
Whatever else is going on, increased demand for emergency services cannot be wholly behind the catastrophic increase in waiting times.
The National Clinical Lead for Emergency Care, Tim Rogerson, added: “Emergency department staff work tirelessly 24/7 to deliver patients the best possible care under relentless pressure.
“It is recognised that many of the challenges we face have causes and solutions outside of the emergency department footprint. However, clinical leaders are pleased to have a Quality Statement that focuses on emergency departments, allowing us to prioritise our gifts and drive the quality of emergency care provided across Wales.”
Russell George MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister, said: “These expectations from the Labour Government ring hollow without the funding to meet them.
“Years of Labour and Plaid diverting money from our health service to their vanity projects have led to long waits for Welsh patients.
“The Welsh Conservatives want to see the full Barnett uplift for health spent on our Welsh NHS to fully resource it and our workforce boosting plan enacted to improve patient waiting times.”