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<p>In August 2015, NHS England published <em>Safer, faster, better: good practice
in delivering urgent and emergency care. </em>A copy is attached. This provides guidance
to help frontline providers and commissioners re-design urgent and emergency care
services, including considering locating urgent care centres in emergency departments.</p><p><em>Safer,
faster, better</em> notes that urgent care centres co-located with emergency departments
provide an opportunity to stream patients with less serious illnesses and injuries
to a service that is resourced to meet their needs, while reducing crowding in emergency
departments. It also sets out that to preserve flow, urgent care centre staff and
cubicles must wherever possible be entirely separated from the majors/admission stream
and that where urgent care centres are co-located with emergency departments, there
must be appropriate integration, with shared governance arrangements and clearly defined
protocols for the two-way transfer of patients.</p>
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