NHS England publishes Urgent and Emergency Care Plan

NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, announced last week (6 June), pledges to increase the number of patients receiving urgent care in primary, community and mental health settings.

The announcement comes ahead of the 10-Year Health Plan, which is due to be published this summer following the release of the Spending Review yesterday (11 June).

While the 10-Year Health Plan will set a new course for the delivery of health and care services, the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan states, “there are things we can and must do now to ensure our patients receive a better service this coming winter.”

Exploring overall hospital to community care, and increasing the number of patients receiving care in community settings, the plan highlights that at least one in five people who attend the emergency department do not need urgent or emergency care.

“An even larger number of attendees could be more efficiently managed by growing community capacity,” it added.

The plan has been welcomed by Primary Eyecare Services (PES) and The College of Optometrists.

The College of Optometrists’ director of policy and strategy, Dr Sarah Cant, said: “[Today’s] urgent and emergency care plan announcement from the NHS is an encouraging opportunity to ensure all integrated care boards (ICBs) commission vital community minor and urgent eye care services across England.”

Cant highted that while the College welcomes the Government’s commitment to increase the number of patients receiving urgent care within primary care settings in England, she said: “It should be made clear that extending community urgent eye care services will help ease further pressures on A&E services by enabling urgent ocular cases to be seen promptly by primary care optometrists.”

“These services fill a critical gap between routine sight tests and hospital emergency care, and universal commissioning would end the postcode lottery for access to urgent eye care and significantly reduce unnecessary GP and A&E visits. This would free up hospital clinicians to focus on more critical emergencies and complex cases,” she added.

Responding to the plan’s requirement for the NHS to focus on how systems intend to expand access to urgent care services at home and in the community, PES emphasised the support that can be provided through Community Urgent Eyecare Services (CUES).

PES highlighted that CUES utilises optometry practices in local neighbourhoods to manage urgent eye care needs close to home, avoiding unnecessary demand on GP, A&E and hospital eye services.

“This is an opportunity to ensure CUES is fully integrated into the wider ICS urgent and emergency care plan in all local systems for the benefit of patients across the country,” PES said.