DHU Healthcare is supporting East Midlands Ambulance Service in a focused initiative to help reduce the number of A&E visits in Derbyshire.
Representatives from DHU and EMAS will be at Chesterfield Royal Hospital and Royal Derby Hospital A&E each Wednesday for five weeks, to speak with ambulance crews about how they are using Derby and Derbyshire’s Single Point of Access within its Central Navigation Hub (CNH).
The service helps crews with their on scene decision making, advising where the best place for treatment might be for patients who fall in between emergency, life-saving care and those that can be treated at the scene, providing an alternative to A&E.
Supporting our partners
Kirsty Osborn is Deputy Director of Urgent Care Derbyshire, she said: “We have paramedics, nurses and advisors who can help crews by discussing a patient’s condition. These discussions can help advise a decision about whether the patient needs A&E care or if they can be better supported by a minor injuries unit, urgent treatment centre, pharmacy or community pathway.
“A traffic light system has been introduced for crews. Green patients can be treated at the scene or at home, red patients are urgent and can go to A&E, but some will fall into the amber group which is when crews are encouraged to call our CNH team for a clinical discussion. The hope is that this will reduce the number of patients ambulanced to A&E and help to free up crews sooner.”
This initiative is part of EMAS and DHU’s wider commitment to improve patient outcomes and help with the decision-making process on scene through being able to look at available patient pathways in real time. Patients often have an expectation that they will be taken to A&E – but this relaunch seeks to embed the CNH’s team as a source of routine clinical advice for more personalised, effective care decisions.
The campaign will culminate in a Patient Pathways Week, a concentrated effort where on-site staff will not only continue to promote the service, but support reflective discussions about instances where patients might have benefited from an alternative to A&E.
“Working closely with our partners…”
Martin Coleman, Derbyshire Head of Operations at East Midlands Ambulance said: “As demand for our service continues to grow, working closely with our partners has never been more important. The CNH is just one way we’re supporting our ambulance crews to provide the best possible care and service for patients with increasingly complex healthcare needs, while avoiding busy A&E departments unless absolutely required.”
Kirsty added: “We’re proud to be working in partnership with EMAS and Derby and Derbyshire ICB on this initiative. The CNH is designed to support crews with real-time clinical conversations that help improve patient journeys and outcomes, supporting ambulance crews to make the, sometimes difficult, decision of an alternative place of care to A&E.”
This collaboration underlines DHU, EMAS and Derby and Derbyshire ICB’s commitment to ensuring that patients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time – improving the outcome and experience for patients, the overall system flow and helping ambulance crews return to service more quickly.
Pictured above, from left to right, is: Sarah Suubry (EMAS Duty Commander), Gemma Payne-Wright (DHU Services and Pathways Manager) and Lindsey Walker (EMAS Station Manager)