The Urgent Care Workstream formed late in 2009 to look at the overall programme of urgent care in Canterbury, including revisiting the successful work done in the acute demand portfolio of work.
Urgent Care Workstream Members
| Name |
Role |
| Al Duncan |
Analyst |
| Angus Chambers |
GP |
| Carolyn Gullery |
GM, Planning & Funding |
| Greg Hamilton |
Team Leader |
| John Coughlan |
GP |
| Karen Kennedy |
Community Pharmacist |
| Louisa Sparrow |
Nurse Leader, 24 Hour Surgery |
| Martin Than |
ED Physician |
| Paul Abernethy |
Manager, 24 Hour Surgery |
| Rachel Nicolson-Hitt |
Project Manager, St John Ambulance |
| Sandra White |
Practice Nurse |
| Scott Pearson |
ED Physician |
| Shelley Louw |
GP |
| Sheree East |
Nurse Maude |
Frequent Attender Subgroup
| Name |
Role |
| Anne Esson |
Nurse Manager, ED |
| Barbara Nelson |
Nurse, ED |
| Greg Hamilton |
|
| Lucy Fife |
Nurse Maude |
| Paul Abernethy |
24 Hour Surgery |
| Rachel Nicolson-Hitt |
St John Ambulance |
| Sandra White |
Practice Nurse |
| Scott Pearson |
ED Physician |
| Shelley Louw |
GP, Clinical Leader |
| Sue Peddie |
ED Physician |
Self-Referrals Subgroup
| Name |
Role |
| Al Duncan |
Analyst |
| Angus Chambers |
GP, Clinical Leader |
| Anne Esson |
ED |
| David Brydon |
Manager, Christchurch Hospital |
| Jan Armstrong |
Nurse Manager Orthopaedics Outpatients |
| Rachel Nicolson-Hitt |
St John Ambulance |
| Shelley Louw |
GP |
| Stuart Barrington-Onslow |
ED Physician |
Urgent Care Workstream Goal
To provide the most appropriate urgent care options for the patient need at a given time, contributing to the aspirational targets of:
- Reducing ED attendances from the current 2.9% p.a. growth rate to zero
- Reducing acute hospital admissions from the current 2.1% p.a. growth rate to zero
- Increasing access to general practice care (24/7) for people requiring urgent access to care.
Key Initiatives to Achieve the Goal
- Expand the nurse-led rural after hours phone triage service to become a whole of Canterbury service. The service which directs callers to the most appropriate urgent care option will be fully operational by July 2010.
- Further develop community-based urgent care options in 2010/11, including community observation unit(s), packages of care, acute nursing teams, access to urgent diagnostics and service coordination.
- Utilise the nurse-led telephone triage service to triage high needs people requiring urgent access to care and arrange lower cost access as part of their care plan
- Redirect people from ED to attend existing extended and 24 Hour General Practice facilities through the use of vouchers and other mechanisms.
- Expand the capacity of integrated health and social services networks in defined communities to respond to patient requirements (i.e. providers in clusters working together to provide urgent response ‘capacity’).
- Increase GP access to urgent specialist advice / acute clinics, starting by July 2010.
- Develop and promulgate acute clinical pathways to encourage referrers (including residential care providers) to use the most appropriate urgent care options, starting in 2010. (web-based on HealthPathways)
- Extended treatment pathways for conditions that commonly lead to urgent referral such as TIA and DVT.