"The number one issue facing the NHS in England is reversing the ‘unsustainable’ rise in emergency hospital admissions"

Nuffield Institute, 2010

One of the key pressures facing emergency services is that of managing the increased demand for emergency care within a reducing resource of in patient beds and staff.

AEC is an approach which results in a significant proportion of emergency adult patients being managed safely and efficiently on the same day avoiding admission to a hospital bed. 

AEC - delivery network

In 2011/12 the NHS Institute worked with Trusts, commissioners and Primary care teams in a network designed to support and accelerate the local development of ambulatory care  through the spread and adoption of good practice and utilisation of improvement methodologies.

This cohort was very successful, with teams reporting significant progress in converting emergency admissions into ‘same day’ emergency episodes, reducing avoidable admissions, and we will be running a second programme starting in the Spring 2013. This has now reached its maximum capacity of 16 organisationsal members but you can register your interest in joining the Spring 2013 Cohort.

“We consider that the AEC delivery network has been fantastic value for money.  The cost of membership is less than we would pay for a project manager for a year, and being part of the network has meant that we have made rapid progress in getting our AEC services going in a short period of time”

Programme Lead, Whittington NHS Trust

Thoughts from previous AEC delivery network

AEC - delivery network - new cohort starting in Spring 2013 - apply now!