Understanding the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan
On 30 January, NHS England and the government published a two-year plan which aims to help urgent and emergency care services recover following record demand since the pandemic.
The College has been working to influence the plan and ensure that mental health is well represented within the recovery. Following publication, College President Dr Adrian James welcomed its proposals.
We were especially pleased to see the increase in mental health expertise for ambulance services, including ensuring that mental health professionals are embedded in all Emergency Operation Centres.
We were also glad the plan included:
- continued support to upskill staff to improve care for people with co-occurring mental health needs, people with a learning disability and people with autism, including ensuring the uptake of existing offers such as the Oliver McGowan training
- a commitment to work towards implementing new response time standards for people requiring urgent and emergency mental healthcare in both A&E and in the community
- continuing transformation of community mental health services and plans to build on the recent expansion of community-based crisis services. As part of this, NHS England will undertake further evaluation of crisis assessment suites that have been opened in several areas as an alternative to emergency departments
- a commitment to work in collaboration with social care partners to ensure appropriate processes are in place to facilitate prompt discharge, including in community and mental health trusts
- support for access to 24/7 liaison mental health teams (or other age-appropriate equivalent for children and young people) that are resourced to be able to meet urgent and emergency mental health needs in both A&E and on the wards, within one hour and 24 hours respectively
- a continued commitment to expand the mental health workforce within UEC and mental health services, including peer support workers and lived experience practitioners
- the continued use of ‘system control centres’ (SCCs) which use data to respond to emerging challenges and bring together experts from across the system to make better, real-time decisions.
The College will be working to ensure the plan is backed by sufficient resources so it can be implemented properly, and we look forward to seeing NHS England’s longer-term Urgent and Emergency Care Strategy.