Is the Royal College of Emergency Medicine baseline for safe staffing in NHS emergency departments monitored for each health board, and if so what are the current scores for each health board emergency department in terms of a percentage of the baseline?
Our expectation, as set out in the Quality Statement for Care in Emergency Departments, is that health boards systematically monitor demand and capacity information, with consideration of acuity and complexity of needs, to enable high-quality and highly reliable service delivery through appropriate facilities, informatics and workforce. This should be based on workforce numbers, skills and experience.
Emergency medicine consultant workforce numbers are included in the new Summary Emergency Department Indicator Table (SEDIT), which is live across all 12 emergency departments in Wales and updated monthly by each health board. Through the national Six Goals for Urgent and Emergency Care programme and national strategic clinical network, health boards are supported to critically evaluate their department facilities, informatics and workforce to meet demand, capacity, flow and outcomes. This will consider national recommendations, including those made by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
The number of emergency medicine consultants in Wales has nearly doubled over the past decade.