The kit behind same-day access
Every patient an urgent treatment centre can safely assess and treat is a patient who does not wait in A&E. Relieving hospital pressure — a central aim of Better Health for London — is, in practice, a question of how same-day services are equipped to triage, image and treat.
What a same-day service needs to keep people out of A&E
Urgent treatment centres only relieve pressure if they can do the work in front of them. Four equipment areas decide how much they can take on.
Triage & assessment equipment
The observation and assessment kit that lets a centre stream patients safely and quickly — the difference between a centre that absorbs demand and one that refers it onward.
Minor-injuries unit essentials
The treatment kit that lets a unit definitively manage the injuries that would otherwise occupy an emergency department.
Diagnostic imaging for UTCs
On-site imaging that turns a referral into a decision — the single biggest determinant of how much an urgent centre can resolve itself.
Same-day-access capacity planning
How equipment, space and flow combine to set a service's real same-day capacity, borough by borough.
Pressure, in numbers
The right care in the right place is rarely the most expensive care. It is care that has been equipped to make a decision early — before a minor problem becomes an emergency.