£140 million in funding will be invested in 14 new urgent care schemes across England to help tackle winter pressures, the government has announced, aiming to increase capacity and improve patient flow. These schemes include ED improvements, new urgent treatment centres, and enhancements to digital systems.
The funding is announced ahead of what is likely to be a “tough winter”, according to Emma Rowland, NHS executive director for performance and delivery, who adds: “Investment in same day emergency care and urgent treatment centres will help more patients get the right care in the right place, at the right time.”
At Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, £7.7 million in funding across four years will be used toward coordination centre digital development, supporting better coordination of beds, discharges, and urgent admissions.
In London, £18.4 million has been committed over three years to improving digital systems for emergency departments across the city, with digital triage and check-in tools planned to identify patient’s needs earlier and ensure they are directed to the right services.
£42.1 million is to be used for transformation of A&E at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, London, with the focus said to be creating a modern ED with improved patient flow, refurbishing children’s A&E, and enhancing digital systems to help reduce waiting times whilst improving patient safety and experience.
£10 million will go toward a new urgent treatment centre at James Paget University Hospital; £12 million will be used for a replacement ambulance operational hub in Shrewsbury; and £6.35 million will see the addition of 40 double-crewed ambulances to boost capacity for East Midlands Ambulance Service.
On other planned improvements, the government shares that the 25 new or expanded urgent care sites announced in April are set to be “open for winter”, with 18 already open for business, and the remaining 7 to launch by January 2027. It also notes that the Pharmacy First scheme will be expanded to support a wider range of common conditions, and digital tools will be rolled out across the NHS to simplify the vaccination booking process.
Wider trend: Digital in urgent and emergency care
Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust has kicked off its emergency department digitisation programme, embracing digital tools and systems with support from teams at University Hospital Southampton. In a LinkedIn post, DGT CxIO Julia Scott thanked digital and emergency department teams from University Hospital Southampton for their support, including hosting a visit to demonstrate Alcidion’s Miya emergency module in action. Scott further highlighted the benefits for ED colleagues in seeing the system in live use, outlining plans for its use in supporting clinical documentation and flow management.
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust has outlined progress, emerging opportunities, and next steps from its digital collaboration agreement with West Midlands Ambulance Service. Having undertaken a review of IT contracts at both trusts, the board acknowledges immediate savings from major services are “likely to be limited” as a result of existing commitments, technical dependencies, and operational risk. A baseline of contracts including costs, expiry dates, and scope, has been developed, and opportunities for alignment will be assessed on a case-by-case basis for areas such as shared specifications and potential joint procurements.
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is looking to “the road ahead” in its latest trust strategy, recognising the increasing role that tech, data, and AI will play in shaping urgent and emergency care delivery. Over the next decade, the Emergency Operations Centre will increasingly be used as the front door to urgent and emergency care, the trust states, and as demand becomes more complex, the ability to assess need, coordinate care, and make clinical decisions at the earliest opportunity will be central. “Doing more of the same is not a viable option,” the trust reports. “As demand continues to grow and evolve, relying on models designed for a different context would place increasing pressure on patients, colleagues and partners. NEAS must therefore adapt by design rather than by circumstance.”
