Emergency care systems ‘require urgent overhaul’

The College of Emergency Medicines has urged the government to take immediate action to reform NHS accident and emergency services, which are facing potentially critical pressures.

According to a new report from the college, emergency care systems in the UK and Ireland are now facing their biggest challenge in more than a decade, due to unmanageable workloads and a lack of middle-grade doctors and emergency medicine consultants.

As such, a number of urgent recommendations have been made, such as redesigning systems to reduce workloads, creating sustainable working practices for staff, revamping the funding setup and developing new ways of measuring performance.

College president Mike Clancy said: "We ask for timely action by NHS England and also policymakers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to review our recommendations and collaborate with local emergency medicine experts to help solve this very serious situation."

Earlier this month, the chairman of the Care Quality Commission David Prior suggested that the number of emergency hospital beds needs to be reduced, as well as broadening the range of other NHS services, to counteract this trend.