Each winter, emergency healthcare services need to cope with rising demand, termed ‘winter pressures’, but over recent years the winter pressures have been getting more and more intense. Alternative models of healthcare based outside of a traditional hospital are one potential solution to ease the pressure on Accident and Emergency Departments.
Dr Dan Lasserson, Senior Clinical Researcher at the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences has been involved in the design and delivery of the award winning Emergency Multidisciplinary Unit (EMU), at Abingdon Community Hospital, which offers a rapid assessment and treatment for some conditions that affect older people. Without the EMU, patients would need to be admitted to hospital to get the medical treatment as well as nursing and therapist care that they need. The EMU uses innovations in diagnostic technology to deliver this service, and with the help of the Department’s NIHR Diagnostic Evidence Collaborative we will be able to develop urgent community diagnosis for the future. The Department’s NIHR Oxford CLAHRC will undertake an analysis of the EMU model of care, with a focus on the experience of patients and their carers and the effects on GP practices and hospitals, so that commissioners of healthcare will have evidence about cost-effectiveness to determine the future direction of community healthcare.
Hear more about this story at BBC South Today [c.1:06 on the clock]