Department of Health and Social Care

“I have asked NHS England to provide me with a report from the ICB detailing the local position so that I can understand what actions are being taken locally to prevent such a case from happening again.”

“Call routing enables patients to choose options via their keypad or voice options to enable direct routing to the right person or team. When properly configured, these systems can divert some demand away from phones at busy times, making it easier to get through to someone to book an appointment.”

“The report raises concerns over emergency department capacity, poor patient flow and the use of corridor care at Royal Sussex County Hospital (RSCH) and nationally. I understand that your report and matters of concerns have also been sent to NHS England, and they are best placed to respond with the specific actions being taken locally to improve urgent and emergency care performance at RSCH.”

“the CQC inform us that they are monitoring the service to ensure that children residing there are not exposed to risk or unsafe care, which is of utmost importance so deaths such as [the deceased]'s can be prevented. CQC regulates the premises and the care provided, and they are reviewing any information received to help inform the next inspection.”

“NHSE have provided assurance that their regional team has been working with system and other partners on responding to risks and concerns in a joint approach at this provider, which will be set out in their response.”

“The Government is supportive of the review on the duty it inherited from the previous administration and will consider the findings, recently published on 26 November, following a call for evidence in April this year. The government will consider these findings alongside findings from the ongoing manager regulation consultation as it continues to develop policy on candour in healthcare.”

“On 18th October 2023 CQC requested the outcome of the external investigation from the registered manager at TCT. This wasn't available, but TCT shared the findings with CQC of the internal investigation. Alongside the evidence of findings from the Ofsted inspection the CQC made the decision to await the external investigation findings before scheduling an inspection.”

“making space for a Clinical Decision Unit model, for patients who need more clinical care but don't need to be admitted to hospital”

“converting the Same Day Medical Assessment Unit (SDMA) to a Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) and having a triage process to ensure only patients considered as same day go to the SDEC”

“supporting the move of acute medical resource from the emergency department to Acute Medical Unit with the intention of improving short stay performance at the Acute Medical Unit”

“maintaining capacity gains in acute hospital beds and ambulance hours on the road achieved in 2023-24”

“directing patients to more appropriate services in the community where these can better meet their needs”

“developing local partnership working between the NHS and social care and making sure people get the right support from health and social care services to return home as soon as possible”

“the Mental Health Bill, which was introduced to Parliament on 6 November 2024, there will be new statutory duties placed on the patient's responsible clinician that aim to ensure that, when someone is detained under the Act, their carer is involved in care, treatment and planning decisions”

“I will therefore provide some further information on the work NWAS is undertaking with its partner agencies who are also often called upon to assist mental health patients.”

“The Training Manager for GMP's Force Contact Crime and Operations Branch (FCCO) has confirmed that the Mental Health induction input for their staff is 3.5 hours long. This is included in all new recruit training into Call Handling and Dispatch.”

“England will review and consider carefully the other responses in due course.”

“We have introduced six new evidence categories to organise information under the statements; these are 'Feedback from people', 'Feedback from staff and leaders', 'Feedback from partners', 'Our observations', 'Processes' and 'Outcomes'. This approach will allow CQC to use a range of information to assess providers flexibly and frequently, collect evidence on an ongoing basis and update ratings at any time; tailor our assessment to different types of providers and services; score evidence to make”

“the Greater Manchester NHS Foundation Trust agrees that, although it can take time to complete all the necessary arrangements for a safe and appropriate transfer of care for someone with complex needs, the time from a decision that Mr [name redacted] was medically optimised (18 December 2023) to his actual transfer to Hilltop Hall Nursing Home (11 January 2024) was too long.”

“making space for a Clinical Decision Unit model, for patients who need more clinical care but don't need to be admitted to hospital”

“continuation of 'front-door streaming', which identifies the most appropriate care pathway for each patient at initial assessment. Patients are streamed from A&E to suitable services such as urgent treatment centres, community services, same day emergency care and virtual wards to reduce long waits in A&E”

“Urgent Care Transformation Programme which aims to support patient flow. The programme has helped the Trust to identify priority areas, such as digitally recording of initial time-to-treatment, and has improved waiting times”

“review of the emergency department consultant rota to include 7-day working and extended working hours to support safety in the Department, and all waits over 12 hours are analysed to assess whether clinical harm was caused”

“the Trust's Chief Operating Officer working with Adult Social Care, locality and Integrated Care System colleagues to improve discharge from wards to reduce numbers of patients in beds with 'no criteria to reside'”

“any form of abuse or neglect is unacceptable. The department has legislation and policies in place for escalating concerns if provider action plans are not addressing safeguarding issues effectively”

“The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has also been sent a copy of this Regulation 28 report and will be issuing a response”

“We have given careful consideration to this point and have come to the conclusion that the concerns identified, namely, that Mr [name redacted] spent 22 hours in a corridor despite suffering from a chest infection due to demands on the department and capacity issues, a situation not unique to that particular day or hospital, sits outside of CQC remit.”

“the trust will be responding to you directly on the steps they are taking locally; this includes action to help improve the awareness and care provided in the emergency department for patients with sickle cell anaemia”

“The Department, NHS England, and practices alike must be cognizant of the fact that there are now multiple channels by which a patient may contact a GP practice. This includes by direct face to face contact at a surgery, by telephone, by customised online systems or by email. While more options have opened up more opportunities for patients to access care they need, we understand that it may also open up more opportunity for patients to slip through the cracks, which is unacceptable. We want to”

“we have updated the automated response to clearly reinforce what is commonly understood, i.e. that emails are for non-urgent enquiries only and the emergency services should be contacted in such circumstances. Please”