How can emergency admissions be reduced?
A quarter of hospital emergency admissions could and should have been avoided and were a consequence of the government’s failure to properly fund and co-ordinate preventive health and social care, says chair of the Public Accounts Committee Meg Hillier.
In its report Reducing emergency admissions the committee calls it lamentable that nearly 1.5m people could have avoided emergency admission in 2106/17 if hospitals, GPs, community services and social care had worked more effectively together.
‘Preventive care outside hospitals must be improved’, says the report. ‘And NHS England must deliver on its five-year plan to move care into the community and out of hospitals.’
The report states that although some progress had been made on reducing the impact of emergency admissions, when they did happen the benefits would inevitably be limited until the level of avoidable admissions came down.
NHS England and NHS Improvement must take the lead in identifying ways of reducing emergency admissions and targeting ‘scarce resources effectively,’ said Meg Hillier.
Further information
Parliament.uk: Government must improve preventive care outside hospitals
National Audit Office Reducing emergency admissions