NWAS Awarded for Outstanding Contribution to Improving A&E Care

NHS teams from across the North of England have named North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS) as ‘The Trust We Learned the Most From’ after an eight week ‘Action on A&E’ project organised by NHS Improvement.

An Outstanding Contribution Award was presented to the Trust in December at an event in Leeds as more than 200 people from the NHS met for an event to mark the end of Phase One of the project which is aimed at tackling issues and improving emergency department care across the North.

Leaders from NWAS, including Chief Executive, Derek Cartwright, contributed to the project across the eight weeks by presenting to NHS colleagues.


In Derek’s presentation he spoke about how the Trust works together with partners to provide additional care to patients through numerous schemes which also aim to relieve pressure on emergency departments.

This includes a dedicated falls car for the team which helps identify and care for patients who need extra support around the home to help them get around more easily.
David Rigby, Service Delivery Manager, said: "We received some great feedback from colleagues throughout the project who were impressed with the amount of involvement NWAS has in working to relieve emergency departments and provide care for patients closer to home.

"It was an honour to be voted as ‘The Trust we Learned the Most From’ as there were some fantastic contributions from other Trusts and it’s great to know that they could take away something useful from us as we did from them."

David Radcliffe, Medical Director for NWAS presented at the closing event in Leeds and spoke about how the Trust’s 111 and 999 services work to reduce hospital admissions whilst dealing with a 10 per cent increase in serious or life-threatening incidents in 2016 compared to the previous year.

The Trust has various schemes including ‘Hear and Treat’ and the ‘Acute Visiting Scheme’ which aim to refer people to the most appropriate care where possible, reducing the pressure on A&E departments.

The ‘Action on A&E’ scheme is now looking forward to launching Phase Two in the coming months.