Urgent and emergency care in mid and south Essex
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Engaging the public in policy deliberation about urgent and emergency care in mid and south Essex
IRAS ID
215415
Contact name
Alexandros Georgiadis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Healthwatch Essex
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 18 days
Research summary
The demands being placed on urgent and emergency care services are growing. Recent evidence has highlighted that relative to population size, older people are most likely to attend A&E, and that among working age people, those in their twenties are most likely to attend. An NHS England Review has suggested that this growth in demand is set to increase as people live longer with increasingly complex, and often multiple, long-term conditions.
Within mid and south Essex there are plans to reform Urgent and Emergency care under the Success Regime. Introduced as part of the Five Year Forward View, the Success Regime aims to improve care and sustainability in challenging areas. One of the aims locally is to accelerate plans for changes in urgent and emergency care in line with national recommendations.
The study will explore how patients make the decision to visit A&E, factors that are involved in the decision making process, and allow the public to deliberate on ideas for implementing the reforms given the pressures A&E is facing. The proposed research will utilise primarily qualitative methods with embedded quantitative methods. This research will focus on the three hospitals in the Essex Success Regime: Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, and Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. It will involve an anonymised survey, followed by a deliberative workshop with a purposively sampled sub-set of participants. The findings will provide local evidence on public views and experiences of A&E to help inform the implementation of the reforms to urgent and emergency care in Essex.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/WM/0429
Date of REC Opinion
4 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion