GIRFT has expanded its on-the-ground support to NHS trusts through the GIRFT Further Faster Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) programme.  

Through a team of colleagues with practical experience of delivering improvement and change within the UEC pathway – including clinicians, operational colleagues and nursing colleagues from emergency medicine, acute medicine, geriatric medicine and mental health services – the programme is supporting 20 acute providers across England*. 

GIRFT is working closely with these providers to build on their existing efforts and strengthen UEC pathways ahead of the winter period, with a particular focus on:  

• improving Category 2 ambulance response times;  

• enhancing 4-hour emergency department performance;  

• reducing long ED waits;  

• shortening length of stay to improve patient flow.  

Support is being delivered by GIRFT’s clinical leads for emergency medicine, acute medicine, geriatric medicine and adult mental health, along with 10 GIRFT Clinical Associates – all with backgrounds in urgent and emergency care – who are being deployed to support providers on a weekly basis through hands-on projects and accelerate improvement efforts. 

Providers taking part are supported to implement targeted actions designed to improve patient flow and care quality, with actions introduced incrementally to help reduce delays and ensure consistent standards of care across all sites.  

*Providers being supported by Further Faster UEC are: 

• Bedford Hospital, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 

• Darlington Memorial Hospital, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust 

• Furness General Hospital, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust  

• Great Western Hospital, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 

• Kettering General Hospital, Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 

• Leicester Royal Infirmary, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust 

• Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 

• Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust 

• Northampton General Hospital, Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust 

• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust 

• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust 

• Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust  

• Royal Lancaster Infirmary, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust 

• Royal United Hospital, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust 

• Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust  

• Southmead Hospital, North Bristol NHS Trust 

• South Tyneside District Hospital, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust  

• Sunderland Royal Hospital, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust  

• University Hospital Lewisham, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust 

• University Hospital of North Durham, Country Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust