The impact of changing workforce patterns in emergency and out of hours care on patient experience, staff practice and health system performance

The Project Aim is to...

describe how changing workforce configurations in emergency and urgent out-of-hours care systems are having an impact on staff practice, patient experience of service delivery and health system performance.

Since the introduction of the new General Medical Services contract in the UK, which allowed general practitioners to 'opt out' of their responsibility for out-of-hours care, concerns about workforce arrangements and skill mix have been heightened.  The Universities of Aberdeen, Southampton, Glasgow, Bristol and Warwick are working collaboratively on a new SDO funded research project to investigate changing workforce patterns in emergency and urgent out-of-hours care.  The impact on the patient experience, staff practice and health system performance will be investigated.  The study was conducted in six sites in England and two in Scotland and was completed 2008.

For further information please contact David Heaney d.heaney@abdn.ac.uk

Project funded by the Service Delivery and Urgent Care Workforce (SDO)