The Liberal Democrats have ramped up criticism of the government’s management of the NHS by highlighting the waiting times endured by cancer patients and 999 callers.
The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation have released a report titled A Vision for the NHS Ambulance Sector.
NHS England has published a short guide to the principles behind rapid assessment and treatment (RAT), which provides early senior assessment of ambulance arrivals, and sometimes walk-in arrivals, to add value-adding steps sooner and avoid unnecessary investigations and tests.
New weekly data from NHS England shows hours lost to ambulance handover delays were 56% lower than the same time last year at 24,384 (54,853 last year), despite last week being the busiest this winter for ambulance arrivals at hospital (93,576).
New monthly figures from NHS England show that the number of patients awaiting elective care in October was down to 6.44 million, with waits for procedures and appointments down to 7.71 million (7.77 million in September).
A report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned of wide regional variations in the quality of patient access to urgent and emergency care.
The Scottish government has announced £50m of new funding for Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) recruitment and up to £12m to expand treatment at home.
The Northern Irish government has published its plan for managing the pressure that winter is expected to place on the health service this year.
Urgent at-home care teams can significantly reduce emergency admissions, according to the first evaluation of two-hour urgent community response services.
The NHS faces a ‘significant challenge’ to improve urgent care services with no straightforward solution to improving a complex system.