Emergency services lack coordination, says healthcare watchdog

Urgent and emergency care services are performing well against individual targets, but the whole system is not working together as well as it could, says England’s healthcare watchdog. Patients are often left feeling confused and frustrated after having to repeat their details several times or are referred to services that don’t exist, the Healthcare Commission found.

The commission gathered data from out of hours GP services, emergency ambulance services, accident and emergency services, and urgent care centres serving the 152 primary care trusts in England. The areas were scored according to 36 indicators, including whether they were meeting the various national targets …