Best UK hospitals to get more money

Main Category: Mental Health
Article Date: 03 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Hospital trusts (in the UK) providing faster, better emergency care for patients will be able to access £500,000 ($800,000) each to develop services across the hospital, UK Health Secretary John Reid announced today.

Every hospital trust in England delivering faster care in accident and emergency will be able to access the £500,000 in stages between April 2004 and March 2005.

Ninety per cent of patients are now seen, treated, admitted or discharged within four hours of their arrival at A&E. Trusts have been asked to set out how they will ensure that all patients spend less than four hours in A&E.

Ambulance trusts which consistently reach 75 per cent of life threatening cases within eight minutes and trusts providing lead responsibility for mental health services and improving their 24/7 crisis care for patients with mental health problems will also be able to access extra money.

John Reid said:

'Better, faster emergency care for patients is one of my top priorities for the NHS and this new package reinforces that. Services have already improved dramatically over the last year, for example, ambulances are reaching more patients more quickly, and A&E departments are treating 100,000 more people every month within the four hour target time.

'But patients expect and deserve more. That's why this Government set such challenging targets for emergency services, and why we will give front line NHS staff the support they need to reach those targets.

Now trusts that deliver real, significant and sustained improvements will get financial rewards that match their achievements and help them to carry on improving their services and facilities.

'This package also recognises that there is more to emergency care than A&E and ambulances. Not every patient gets equally good services and we're determined to do something about that. Mental health patients can find it especially difficult to get urgent care when they need it and that's why we're focusing new resources on improving 24/7 crisis care.'

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

1. Details of the A&E scheme:

The scheme will apply to all trusts with a type 1 A&E;

Trusts which miss a threshold will not be ruled out for future payments, but will not be able to receive retrospective payment for the threshold missed; Payments will be made once each measurement period is complete and the data validated.

2. Details of the ambulance scheme:

It will apply to all 32 ambulance trusts;

Trusts will be banded based on the total number of emergency calls received during 2002/03 that resulted in a response arriving at the scene of the incident;

Initial payment will only commence when trusts achieve 75% of Category A calls within 8 minutes for three consecutive months after 31 March 2004; Once the initial three month threshold has been triggered further payments will be awarded for each remaining month during 2004 where the Category A 8-minutes standard is reached.

3. Details of the mental health scheme:

The scheme will apply to all 85 trusts or PCTs with lead responsibility for the provision of mental health services;

Criteria for achievement will be evidence of progress in achieving effective, co-ordinated 24/7 crisis services for people with recognised mental health problems against an agreed plan and trajectory;

There will be a single measurement period and single payment;

The measurement period will be March to December 2004;

Payment will be made once the full measurement period is complete and the information validated;

Strategic health authorities will agree plans and trajectories, supported by the National Institute for Mental Health (England) Development Centres.

4. The payments under all three schemes will be non-recurrent capital, which trusts will be able to use at their discretion to develop services and facilities.

5. NHS Trusts already receive support from The Emergency Services Collaborative, a national programme run by the NHS Modernisation Agency. Its aim is to support local NHS organisations in meeting the four-hour A&E total time target by December 2004 and helping them improve the experience of patients and carers.

The Intensive Support Programme (ISP) provides individualised support and advice to organisations and health economies facing challenges with patient experience and delays with emergency access.

The amount of input ranges from a full intensive support team to providing advice about a particular issue or sign posting to other examples within the service of good practice. The ISP works closely with other partners such as the local SHA, the Change Agent Team and the Emergency Services Collaborative.

6. For further information, media enquiries only, please call Ben Lewis, Department of Health media centre, on (UK)020 7210 5229.

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