Healthcare Commissioning Forum

These service developments have led to increased benefits for patients by reducing inpatient moves, ensuring that the right patient is in the right place and also reducing infection risks. This can be demonstrated by a 29% reduction in GP and 999 chest pain admissions through the Emergency Department (ED) within the first year of the CPAU being operational.

This improved patient flow and reduction in ED admissions has led to an improvement in the door and call to balloon times for patients, with the RBFT reporting the quickest times for a 24/7 PPCI centre (National MINAP Report 2010). These reduced times result in improved patient outcomes, including reduced mortality.

There has also been a reduction in bed days since the introduction of the nurse-led ETT out of hour’s service, with 32 bed days saved from April to June 2011. This has benefitted patients by expediting their medical treatment/management and/or facilitating earlier discharge.

All patients within cardiology have access to a senior medical clinician on a daily basis for decision making regarding treatment and discharge. Furthermore, this access to senior clinical medical opinion is extended to all patients with a cardiology referral on a daily basis, throughout the hospital.

For further information go to: http://www.nhsiq.nhs.uk/media/2396697/acute_cardiology.pdf]] http://www.nhsiq.nhs.uk/media/2396697/acute_cardiology.pdf