Clinical assessment hub helps patients access treatment sooner

An innovative clinical hub is ensuring that patients can avoid busy emergency departments and access the care they need, first time.

The West Kent Single Point of Access (SPoA) Hub supports paramedics on scene with a patient and directs them to the most appropriate service for the patient’s needs. This could include an urgent treatment centre, same day emergency care unit, emergency department or a specialist community service.

The SPoA Hub, also known as the Unscheduled Care Navigation Hub by the South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb), aims to refer patients to the correct service first time, enabling them to be treated sooner and avoiding emergency departments when appropriate. This helps ease pressure on busy A&E departments and ensures patients arriving there can be seen more quickly.

Set up by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW), in partnership with SECAmb and Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT), the Hub is open seven days a week, from 8am to 6pm.

Located at SECAmb’s Paddock Wood Make Ready Centre, it is made up of a multidisciplinary team of senior paramedics, and clinicians from MTW and KCHFT. The team speak with ambulance crews on the ground and make joint decisions on the best treatment service for patients’ needs.

Launched a year ago, the Hub has already helped avoid more than 3,000 emergency department attendances, with over 800 people being referred to a more appropriate service in the community for their care, including the Home Treatment Service. The Home Treatment Service allows patients to avoid emergency departments and long hospital stays by providing hospital-level treatment in people’s homes.

Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Deputy Medical Director at MTW, Dr James MacDonald, said: “The Hub is helping patients get the right care, in the right place, first time. Working in partnership with SECAmb and community teams means patients can get a community referral with the urgent care team or an urgent treatment centre if it is more appropriate for them, easing pressure on our busy emergency departments. This helps make sure that A&E is there for those who really need it.”

As the NHS heads towards its most challenging months, Hub will continue to develop the support it provides, helping as many patients as possible to access treatment in the right place, at the right time.