Sunak’s NHS crisis plan to provide more ambulances, hospital beds and care at home
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak will attempt to reassure voters on Monday that he has a plan to address the NHS emergency care crisis in England, with a blueprint to speed up ambulance response times and cut hospital admissions.
Under the two-year plan, ambulance response times for category two calls, which include suspected strokes and heart attacks, will be kept to an average of 30 minutes over the next year, with further improvement the following year.
This compares with an average ambulance response time of more than 90 minutes during high demand in December, against a standard of 18 minutes.
More urgent care will be provided in the community in an attempt to increase the number treated at home, avoiding hospital. These services will be available for at least 12 hours a day, and officials said they would mean people who had fallen or were injured could get treatment at home within two hours. Such calls would otherwise have required an ambulance.
At the same time, all hospitals with a major A&E department will have same-day emergency care units, staffed by consultants and nurses. Officials said this would allow thousands of people each week to avoid an overnight hospital stay.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Sarah Neville
