Emergency healthcare in crisis: how managers can help services back to their feet

Healthcare professionals have been under a great deal of pressure of late, but there are things that we can do to help.

According to The King’s Fund, performance in A&E departments continues to decline. Type 1 departments – consultant-led, 24-hour services with full resuscitation facilities and designated capacity to receive A&E patients – have a target to transfer or discharge patients within four hours of being admitted. That goal has not been met since July 2013. In fact, performance figures for December 2022 were the worst ever recorded. 

April 2021 was the last time average ambulance response times for life-threatening injuries met the seven-minute target

Research from the Nuffield Trust shows that the health of the ambulance service isn’t much better. April 2021 was the last time average ambulance response times for life-threatening injuries met the seven-minute target.

Meanwhile, a quarter of organisations inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England, were rated as “requires improvement” or “inadequate”.

• Proof that good management has the power to save lives
• Can better management and leadership nurse the NHS back to health?