Best Contribution to the Improvement of Urgent and Emergency Care

NEW this year
Best Contribution to the Improvement of Urgent and Emergency Care
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The NHS Long Term Plan outlined an ambitious commitment to transform urgent and emergency care services to ensure patients receive timely, high-quality treatment. In 2024/2025, the NHS is focusing on expanding virtual wards, increasing productivity in acute and non-acute services, and enhancing hospital and intermediate care capacity to meet growing demand and improve patient outcomes. This award will recognise private sector or independent healthcare providers that have partnered with the NHS to deliver significant improvements in these areas. We are looking for projects that demonstrate innovative use of digital tools, seamless integration of community and hospital-based services, and effective resource management. Successful initiatives will showcase measurable improvements in response times, patient outcomes, and overall service delivery, highlighting the critical role of collaboration and innovation in advancing urgent and emergency care.

Eligibility

  • This award is open to any private sector or independent healthcare provider that has worked in partnership with the NHS to improve urgent and emergency care services
  • Projects must demonstrate significant improvements in response times, patient outcomes, or service delivery with evidence from the past two years up until the awards deadline date

Ambition

  • Provide a clear rationale for the initiative including the context of care provision
  • Explain how the project aimed to improve urgent and emergency care, and simultaneously improve financial value and efficiency
  • Explain how the project was informed by existing best practice or evidence
  • What targets were set and what measures were put in place to measure success? 

Outcome

  • Evidence that the project has led to an improvement in patient care, and a resulting improvement in value for the local care economy
  • Include a quantitative aspect but can also include qualitative measures such as patient feedback
  • What has been the result for the patient experience?

Spread

  • Judges are looking for initiatives that have embedded and perhaps spread beyond their original setting to other departments or organisations, or evidence the work is potentially replicable and scalable
  • How are the project team using their achievements to inform others in the organisation or within the local health economy? 

Involvement

  • Provide clear evidence that all relevant parties were involved in the initiative, including patients, collaborating organisations, key stakeholders and staff
  • Demonstrate how strong partnerships across and beyond the hospital, with a common understanding of the challenges faced by emergency and urgent care have been developed

Value

  • Provide clear evidence the redesign has improved value in emergency and urgent care.  
  • Consider the impacts of the initiative on reducing attendance and bringing care closer to the patient
  • Provide testimonials from patients and stakeholders to help support the entry
  • Provide evidence that enhanced processes and procedures provide staff more time to deliver quality effective care. How has morale improved, what evidence can you provide to support this?

Best Contribution to the Improvement of Urgent and Emergency Care

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To find out more

For entry enquiries, contact James Elliot on james.elliott@hsj.co.uk