Almost 80,000 people across the North West avoided an unnecessary trip to hospital last year thanks to enhanced telephone assessment and advice from the ambulance service.
As part of its two-year ‘Transforming Patient Care’ programme, North West Ambulance Service focused on introducing initiatives to ensure patients who called 999 but did not need emergency hospital treatment could receive the right care and support in the community.
This included developing the 24/7 Clinical Hub to have more clinicians available to offer support to people who need clinical assistance but do not require an ambulance.
In 2018/19, NWAS was able to provide ‘hear and treat’ support 38,000 more incidents than the previous year, reducing the number of people taken to hospital in an ambulance.
This approach freed up more than 19,000 hours of emergency ambulance time.
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