Possible futures of acute medical care in the NHS: a multispecialty approach

Abstract

Changing population demographics and needs are resulting in a continual rise in acute medical admissions. This review draws on the observations of the NHS GIRFT programme across England. Fundamental aspects of acute medical care are not universally provided, resulting in preventable hospitalisation and over-use of emergency departments. Such aspects include care outside hospitals; appropriately sized, staffed, located and configured acute medical units; multispeciality same-day emergency care (SDEC) pathways; multidisciplinary care on wards; and readmission prevention. 'Hospital at home' services are developing, and require local evaluation. SDEC is expanding. Digital technologies make it possible to provide acute care in and across more settings. Addressing the fundamentals of acute medical care, evaluating new service opportunities, strong clinical and managerial partnerships, better data for analytics, and a multispeciality, multiprofessional approach will enable a better level of care to be achieved.