Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 18 May 2024 at 07:09
Success for access to the stack
Following a successful pilot in the Herts and West Essex area in late October, our digital ambulance portal had rolled out across Suffolk and North East Essex and Mid and South Essex. This week it has gone live in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes, before going live in Norfolk and Waveney by the end of the month.
The portal passes appropriate lower acuity cases to our system partners within the community - initially in urgent care two-hour response - who will help our patients access alternatives to an ambulance and hospital attendance, or emergency admission, reducing ambulance handover delays.
It is early days, but initial feedback has been really encouraging. Users tell us that the digital portal is easy to use; all system go-lives to date have been straightforward and we are already seeing a high level of joint learning. More than 450 calls have already been passed over to community providers and while the average acceptance rate is understandably low at the start of the programme, at around 30%, some providers are already beginning to have significantly higher acceptance rates. This will mean patients aren’t having to wait extraordinarily long times for an appropriate response due to system pressures.
This is the start of an exciting piece of integration work with EEAST and our ICSs and will be built into the EEAST clinical strategy. Everyone involved has gone above and beyond the call of duty to deliver the roll out, particularly the digital, EOC clinical management, operational and partnership teams. It is a remarkable achievement in such challenging times.
Support from mobile units
I’m sure all of us are aware that tackling hospital handover delays could have a real impact for our patients and all those crews who are impacted and unable to get back out on the road quickly to answer other emergency calls. Alongside the benefits we’re seeing from access to the stack we are also benefiting from the introduction of mobile units at several trusts.
Although the temporary structures have been met with mixed feelings from some areas of the community, the clinical and emotional benefits to our patients of being transferred to a mobile unit rather than waiting in the back of an ambulance cannot be underestimated. Through all of this, our main aim is to provide the best possible care for our patients. As we begin the winter period, having the units up and running is a step in the right direction when we’re looking at improving the overall patient journey.
Business units
We are continuing to work with our system partners to look at we work together more closely in each of our six localities. Through our Time to Lead programme we are looking at developing Business Units to help teams in working with their local partners to support their communities and to deliver our Clinical Strategy. Each of our integrated care systems are looking to establish new leadership teams for urgent care across their whole footprint. As part of the development of our Business Units, we are looking at the possibilities for joint posts at a senior level in these new urgent care teams. Pilots are due to take place in Herts and West Essex, Mid and South Essex and Suffolk and North East Essex.
Thank You Thursday
This week we received some great feedback from the Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) who cover the Palliative Hub 111 option 3. Their comments really highlight the difference our Advanced Practitioners are making in preventing unnecessary hospital admissions and crews being sent to calls that don’t require an emergency response.
‘We acknowledged an increase in calls to 111 option 3 recently which is excellent and one of the reasons that the service was set up. The CNSs wanted all at EAAST to know the crews are always ‘a pleasure to deal with’, professional, caring, and great advocates for the patients. The CNSs have done some excellent collaborative work with the EAAST team around preventing avoidable hospital admissions. Our recent data shows that in the last 18 months since the phone line has started it has avoided 290 hospital admissions. This is a great example of joint working and benefits our patient and families, long may this working relationship continue to flourish.’
And finally, as we’re talking about moving forward as a Trust I’m delighted to tell you that Dr Simon Walsh has been appointed as our permanent Medical Director. This is such a crucial role within the organisation and one that is really important to us continuing to move in the right direction, so welcome Simon.
To everyone else, thanks for all that you’re doing to help us move forward as a Trust.
Kate Vaughton
Deputy CEO and Director of Integration
IMPORTANT TRUST NEWS FOR CASCADE
Published 17th November 2022