Merton Council bolsters winter resilience with new urgent care hubs and enhanced community response services
Merton Council has significantly strengthened its winter resilience with the establishment of new urgent care hubs and an expanded community response service, aiming to reduce unnecessary A&E attendances and improve patient flow.
The Merton Health and Wellbeing Board met on Thursday, October 1, 2020, to approve plans for the upcoming winter season, focusing on strengthening urgent and emergency care services. Key initiatives include the introduction of two new Access Hubs offering same-day primary care appointments, an expanded Urgent Community Response (UCR) Service, and a Discharge Credit Card Scheme.
These measures are designed to reduce avoidable emergency department attendances and admissions, improve patient flow, and support vulnerable populations.
Specifically, the Therapy Supported Urgent Community Response (UCR) Service is intended to enhance admission avoidance and discharge pathways,
and the Discharge Credit Card Scheme
aims to remove barriers to discharge, reduce delays in transfers of care and improve patient flow across the health and care system.
The Access Hubs are intended to reduce avoidable attendances at the Emergency Department, improve access to timely urgent care and support wholesystem resilience during periods of peak winter demand.
Urgent Care Enhancements
The new Access Hubs, located at Wideway Medical Centre in the east and Nelson Health Centre in the west of the borough, will operate seven days a week, including bank holidays. Staffed by GPs and Advanced Nurse Practitioners, these hubs will offer both face-to-face and remote consultations, providing additional same-day appointments accessible via NHS 111 and St George's Hospital Emergency Department.
Furthermore, the Therapy Supported Urgent Community Response (UCR) Service will be expanded to include therapy-based interventions. This service aims to prevent hospital admissions and facilitate quicker discharges by providing assessment and treatment at home. The expanded service is expected to provide capacity for an additional eight UCR contacts per day, supporting referrals from GPs, Emergency Departments, SDEC, Integrated Care Centres and care homes, helping more people to be assessed and treated safely at home.
Supporting Discharge and Flow
A Discharge Credit Card Scheme has also been introduced to address practical barriers that can delay patients leaving hospital. This scheme provides a small investment pot for people that need to fix something at home so that they can get home very quickly.
It is not a physical card but rather a little bit of funding to just enable the discharge to happen quickly.
The criteria for accessing these funds are when a blocker and it is a key safe or whatever, the hospital will access the funding to make that happen.
During the meeting, Councillor Tony Reiss inquired about specific metrics for children during winter months. While the primary focus of winter funding is on frail populations, work is ongoing to understand children's attendance at emergency departments. It was noted that all practices have been doing an improving access scheme again for a number of years within that scheme they're asked to prioritize appointments for frequent ED attenders and also children because you know that often children have flu-like illnesses during the winter months.
St. George's has also started a transformation program focused on children, and Bev Hendricks is leading work around children's Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) in Merton.
Winter Planning Context
Mark Creelman, Place Executive for Merton Place, presented the winter planning report, highlighting that the schemes align with national NHS England winter planning expectations. These expectations focus on protecting vulnerable populations, maintaining urgent and emergency care performance, maximising system capacity, improving discharge and patient flow, and strengthening workforce resilience. The report can be found in the Public reports pack.
Councillor Usaama Kaweesa raised concerns about the impact of freezing temperatures and high energy costs, which were noted as being addressed through wider council initiatives and a cost of living hub. The board also discussed the importance of vaccination uptake, with a strong emphasis on promoting flu and COVID-19 vaccinations to reduce hospital admissions.
The meeting agenda and minutes are available on the Merton Council website, with the agenda frontsheet accessible here and the Minutes of Previous Meeting also available.