Primary Care and EDs

Primary Care Foundation report: Primary Care in A&E (March 2010)

in 2010 the Primary Care Foundation was commissioned by the Department of Health to undertake a stocktake/study across England of GPs and GP services working alongside, within, and with ED Services.

The work consisted of a number of components. The PCF have gathered information from ED services, GP providers and PCT commissioners via questionnaire and visits to a number of departments and providers. In addition the PCF asked the service across England to tell them about good practice.

The information gathering phase of the project is complete and the report is now available  here:

• Report: Primary Care and Emergency Departments
• Press Statement - PCF and CEM
• CEM response statement
• www.primarycarefoundation.co.uk

Minimum requirements for units which see the less seriously ill or injured (July 2009)

Click here to download the document (PDF)

The College of Emergency Medicine, together with the Faculty of Emergency Nursing and the Emergency Nurse Consultant Association, have set out what we consider to be the minimum requirements of units which see the less seriously ill or injured, so that they can provide safe, high quality, appropriately supervised and cost efficient care for patients. 

Unscheduled care facilities, including minor injury units, walk in centres and urgent care centres, often lack the full facilities and support services of acute trust Emergency Departments. The standards we recommend are relevant to both stand-alone units and co-located Urgent Care Facilities.

Unscheduled care facilities (UCFs) differ widely in resources, services provision and staffing, thus also the range of unscheduled work that they can safely carry out. It is of paramount importance that the local population, primary care trusts and health commissioners clearly understand the limitations of a given unit and use it appropriately.

We urge all providers of UCFs to implement the minimum requirements outlined in the document. We welcome any thoughts and comments you may have about the standards. Please write to: College of Emergency Medicine, 7-9 Breams Buildings, London, EC4A 1DT, or e-mail cem@collemergencymed.ac.uk

July 2009