Improving urgent and emergency care

We want our urgent and emergency healthcare services to meet the needs of local people. This is so you get the best possible outcomes and have a better experience when using our services.

People have told us that, with the current mix of services, it’s not always clear which is the most appropriate service to use. This has led to people going to emergency departments (EDs) with more minor conditions, often waiting a long time for treatment and adding pressure to our emergency health services – which could be avoided.

The introduction of urgent treatment centres (UTCs), a national requirement, will help to tackle these challenges and help everyone get to the right place, first time, for the treatment they need. Every UTC will be open at least 12 hours a day, every day, and have a consistent range of services.

We also want to make sure everyone knows about the range of other urgent healthcare services that are available, and how to access them.

You can find out more on these pages of our website or watch our video below.

• the difference between ‘urgent’ and ‘emergency’ healthcare
• the challenges our services currently face
• our urgent and emergency healthcare strategy
• what urgent treatment centres will do and how they will improve urgent healthcare
• how to get involved
• FAQs.