In February we launched a pilot of a new Medical and Urgent Same Day Emergency Care (M/U SDEC) at HRI. Last month we extended the pilot to CRH, and it’s already having a huge impact on patient flow. 

The aim of the M/U SDEC is to triage and treat people who attend with a non-critical diagnosis, get them on the right pathway sooner and avoid admission into hospital where possible.

Across CRH and HRI more than 100 patients each day are now being seen by the M/U SDEC. The service is relieving pressure on both A&Es and avoiding admissions with 90-95% of patients seen through the SDEC pathway being discharged home. 

Before the trial at HRI, the average minutes a patient would be in A&E was 368, this has now drastically reduced to just 82. It’s a similar picture at CRH where the average minutes in A&E was at 167 but is now just 86.

The work has also seen us jump ahead in the last month on our four-hour performance, putting us 15th out of 127 Trusts across the country, where pre-trial, we were 73rd.

Director of Operations for Medicine, Helen Rees, said: “The initial outcomes from our M/U SDEC pilot have been fantastic! I would like to thank all colleagues involved in this pilot who have embraced this new way of working which is having such a positive impact on relieving pressures and improving patient experience.

“Over the coming months we will be looking at how we further integrate our M/U SDEC teams to bring closer collaboration and ensure we can sustain these pathways for the long term.”