Adult Critical Care Transfer Service to be operational across the whole of the South East
Our NHS England South East Specialised Commissioning team has this week announced the launch of a substantive Adult Critical Care Transfer Service (ACCTS) to be operational across the whole of the South East. This is the first time a substantive service has been commissioned to cover the whole of the South East region, and was only possible due to the outstanding collaboration between providers and commissioners.
Dedicated Adult Critical Care Transfer Services were first introduced as pilots during the pandemic to support safe transfers of patients requiring critical care given the unprecedented levels of demand and need to transfer patients between providers to the nearest available bed. Prior to this, patients requiring transfer to another critical care unit had to be supported by the 999 ambulance service and clinicians from the sending trust, taking them away from their units for periods of time.
NHS England took up the commissioning responsibility for these services, which provide dedicated ambulances, drivers and trained critical care clinicians to support transfers of patients, ensuring that patients receive the same level of care during transfer as within a critical care unit. This enables patients to be moved for specialist care when needed and reduces the pressure on 999 ambulance services and acute providers to support transfers.
A Single Point of Contact for all requests for ACC Transfers has been operating since April, and the services will now start to ramp up to support Trusts with the increased winter surge pressures. Trusts will also be able to access clinical leads to discuss cases and agree an appropriate management plan, including identify patients needing emergency/ urgent treatment, which the SPOC will support coordination of.
We would like to extend our huge appreciation to all our partners that have made this possible. The Adult Regional Critical Care (ARCC) Transfer Service is now provided as a collaboration between Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust working with South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust and South-East Coast Ambulance Service Foundation Trust as delivery partners to provide an aligned service across the region.
Andrew McLaren, Chief Medical Officer at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, and Bill Jewsbury, Medical Director at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, have written to all acute providers across the region to update them on the progress with this service and confirm their commitment to developing the service moving forward:
“We strive to continue to develop and deliver an excellent standard of care to all patients requiring critical care transfer across the South East region throughout their critical care journey, whilst supporting all of our adult critical care unit partners.”
Contracts are in place for a minimum of 5 years, which will enable all parties to develop the service to better meet the needs of critical care patients across the region. The regional Specialised Commissioning team and South East Adult Critical Care Operational Delivery Networks are working alongside the ARCC providers to continue to support the development of this service, which will make direct tangible improvements to patient safety during what can be an extremely complex time for the patient and their family.
“This is an absolutely fantastic achievement – huge thanks to all for everything you have done and continue to do to ensure we have a resilient, region-wide transfer service that will put us in the best possible position as we go into the winter and beyond.” Caroline Reid, Director Commissioning.