The team at Kingston Hospital have introduced a variety of new ways for the ambulance service to hand over patients. The London Ambulance Service (LAS) and South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAMB) can now refer patients directly to the hospital’s Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) and Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) teams as well as utilising the waiting room where appropriate.
These new pathways ensure patients are not waiting in a long queue to be assessed in majors and are instead seen by the right clinicians the first time. Since implementing these pathways, we have seen an improvement in our 15-minute handover performance as well as an increase in the number of patients referred to SDEC and UTC – improving patient experience, helping to reduce admission to the wards, and ensuring safe and effective care.
