Seven day hospital services: challenges and solutions

Learning from other trusts who have identified key challenges in implementing seven-day hospital services.

Evaluating Weekend Handover in General Surgery Using a Bespoke Proforma Tool

International Journal of Surgery , Volume 47 , S60 

The weekend is potentially a vulnerable period for patients in hospital. The GMC requires all doctors to ensure safe and effective handover. We evaluate the use of a weekend handover proforma in general surgery.

UHCW Research: Z. Mughal, R. Payne, and H. Zaidi

Quarter of hospital patients denied rapid review – even on weekdays

More than one in four patients do not see a medical consultant within 14 hours of being admitted to hospital – even on weekdays, new data from NHS England reveals.

The information shows that on weekdays across all trusts, 73 per cent of patients see a consultant within the period, which is a key requirement under national “seven day service” standards.

The figure is even lower – 70.3 per cent – at weekends.

To obtain this article copy and paste the post into an email and send to: libraryw@uhcw.nhs.uk

Seven Day Services Clinical Standards

This document from NHS England provides details of the seven day hospital services clinical standards.

Seven day hospital services: autumn 2017 survey (clinical standard 2 only)

The spring 2017 survey showed that providers are making progress towards meeting all four priority clinical standards for seven day hospital services.

As clinical standard 2 remains the most challenging to implement, for the autumn 2017 survey we'll only measure you on this standard. The data collection will run between 20 September and 18 October 2017 and the submission deadline is midnight, Wednesday 29 November 2017.

Seven-day Services - England, October 2015 - September 2016, Experimental statistics

This report from NHS Digital on 7-day services includes indicators on the following topics: Mortality within 30 days of admission by week-part of admission to hospital, emergency readmissions within seven days of discharge from hospital by day of discharge, length of stay following an emergency admission to hospital.

Seven day hospital services: improving weekend care

Watch NHS improvement's new video ‘Challenging poorer weekend care' featuring NHS staff sharing their stories about how they've improved patient care and experience at weekends.

Seven day self-assessment: update to collection period and deadlines

The latest seven day self-assessment data collection is underway. The new and shorter data collection period runs from 15 March to 12 April 2017.

To give you enough time to complete the work, we’ve increased the data collation time from three to six weeks. The submission deadline is now 24 May 2017.

Seven day services in the NHS

New collection from NHS Improvement on seven day services in the NHS:

• What does it mean to provide seven day services?
• The 10 clinical standards
• The four priority standards
• What do seven day services mean for patients?
• Related content
• Resources

See also some shared learning case studies: 

• Implementing a central urgent advice line
• Improving access to urgent and emergency care
• Introducing seven day services to pharmacy roles (video)
• Introducing seven day services to a diagnostic team (video)
• Introducing seven day services - a transformation viewpoint (video)
• Seven day services learning and sharing event: challenges and solutions
• Providing seven day services for urgent and emergency care
• Providing 24/7 emergency care
• Introducing seven day services - a nursing viewpoint
• Introducing seven day services - a medical viewpoint
• Introducing seven day services to clinical support roles
• Introducing seven day services to therapy teams

Seven day services animated film and case studies

NHS Improvement has produced an animated film to explain what seven day hospital services are and the potential benefits to patients and staff. It explains the four priority clinical standards for urgent and emergency care which are expected to be met every day of the week.

The film is also accompanied by 17 video case studies of NHS staff, from pharmacists and porters to therapists and consultants, explaining the challenges, benefits and top tips for moving to seven day hospital services.

The London Quality Standards: A Case Study In Changing Clinical Care

This review by the Nuffield Trust of the London Quality Standards (LQS), the London-wide precursor to the Seven Day Services Standards, argues that using seven-day standards as the basis for downgrading or closing hospital services is unjustified and counterproductive. The LQS aimed to reduce excess weekend deaths in hospitals and to improve access to services for patients.

Standards for providing a 24-hour interventional radiology service

Second edition of Standards for providing a 24-hour interventional radiology service, published by the Royal College of Radiologists.

Seven-day services: clarification of the four priority clinical standards

In response to clinical feedback, NHS Improvement has clarified its guidance on the clinical standards for providers completing the self-assessment survey.

Exploring the case for seven-day services

The evidence for and against seven-day NHS services is explored in a new report from the NHS Confederation.

Commissioning and delivering enhanced seven-day NHS services looks at the ongoing debate, analysing what is already known about seven-day provision and exploring what the evidence tells us about the case for an enhanced seven-day.

Taking on board evidence around issues such as workforce planning, the analysis looks to determine what is best for the NHS, arguing that local decision makers are best placed to decide what is needed to meet the changing health and care needs of their local communities.

Three hospital trust indicators published to aid research into seven-day NHS provision

The experimental statistics provide a starting point for discussions on how to effectively measure improvement and variation in care provision across the week.  

The report, published by NHS Digital, is presented at trust level and includes the following indicators for the period between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016:

• Mortality within 30 days of admission by week-part2 of admission to hospital
• Emergency readmissions within seven days of discharge from hospital by day of discharge
• Length of stay following an emergency admission to hospital by day of admission

Always open, always ready

Dr Juliane Kause – lead consultant, out of hours care and seven day services blogs on the journey University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) is on as it progresses at pace towards delivering quality services, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Transformation of seven day clinical pharmacy services in acute hospitals

This document sets out NHS England's vision where hospital pharmacy services could operate more efficiently and safely, and 13 key recommendations of how clinical pharmacy services in hospitals can be strengthened – particularly at weekends – to benefit patients.

The NHS if...

A collection of essays published by the King's Fund exploring hypothetical scenarios for the future of health and care.