We’ve opened a Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) unit in our Emergency Department (ED) at King George Hospital. In just the first few weeks of opening it has already seen our performance against the four-hour standard improve by almost 20 per cent for type 1 (patients with life threatening illnesses or injuries).

Before, our type one performance at King George was around 28 per cent. Within days of opening SDEC, which aims to provide same day emergency care for patients, most of whom don’t need to be admitted to hospital, it went up to 47.24 per cent.

SDEC, which opened on Friday 9 June, is run by our ED team and overseen by a nurse in charge. It’s to benefit those patients whose treatment or observations means they’re likely to be in hospital more than four hours, however, they most likely don’t need to stay overnight.

 Patients who need diagnostic tests can be cared for in SDEC as they await their results, while those with low-risk chest pain, headache, or cellulitis, are also suitable for SDEC. Currently, around 50 patients are being cared for there each day. 

Mus Hussain, our Clinical Director for Urgent and Acute Care, said: “The success has been down to teamwork and organisation. I couldn’t have done it without every member of the team, we all want to progress and support each other.

“Having a nursing lead has been critical, and how our site and clinical leadership teams came together to make it happen made a huge difference. Initial patient feedback has been very encouraging, which is the ultimate test for us, as that’s the reason we’re doing this.”

Emma Beard, ED matron at King George Hospital, added: “We’re working together to ensure the right patients are cared for in SDEC and there is flow in and out as patients are discharged, like there should be.

“The staff are happy and are really keen to work there.”

We also opened an extended SDEC in the ED at Queen’s Hospital in April. This helped us achieve our best type 1 performance at Queen’s Hospital since August 2019 (not including lockdowns), at 47.9 per cent in May.

Pictured above are members of our SDEC team at King George Hospital