To ask the Minister of Health to detail any long-term plans in place to improve Emergency Department capacity and reduce prolonged waits.

My Department recognises the significant and sustained pressures facing Emergency Departments (EDs) and that prolonged waits for assessment, admission and discharge are not acceptable. Improving patient flow and ensuring timely access to urgent and emergency care remain key priorities.

Analysis undertaken through Getting It Right First Time Summary Emergency Department Indicator Table (GIRFT SEDIT) indicates that EDs have sufficient core capacity relative to the level of demand presenting at hospital. The assessment takes account of a range of capacity measures, including resuscitation and majors cubicles, ED consultant and nursing staffing, and acute and elderly care bed stock. These findings provide useful evidence that ED performance cannot be considered in terms of physical ED capacity alone and reinforce the importance of whole-hospital patient flow and the effective utilisation of available capacity.

Long-term improvement in ED capacity cannot be achieved through additional ED capacity alone. The focus is on a whole-system approach that addresses demand before patients reach an ED, improves flow through hospitals and ensures that patients who are medically fit can be discharged safely and without unnecessary delay.

This includes work to:

strengthen alternatives to ED attendance, ensuring that patients are directed to the most appropriate service for their needs;

improve hospital capacity and patient flow, including more effective use of available beds and reducing delays between assessment, treatment, admission and discharge;

develop same-day and ambulatory emergency care, where clinically appropriate, so that more patients can be assessed, treated and discharged without requiring an overnight admission;

improve discharge arrangements and integration with community services, recognising that delayed discharge reduces available hospital capacity and contributes directly to congestion within ED;

support appropriate workforce planning, ensuring that urgent and emergency care services have the skills and staffing required to meet changing patterns of demand; and

continue the reform of urgent and emergency care services, with the aim of creating a more sustainable model that provides patients with timely care in the most appropriate setting.

The Department continues to work with Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts and other partners to identify opportunities to improve performance and address the underlying causes of long waits. The available evidence supports the need for sustained improvement across the entire HSC system rather than a single intervention or additional physical capacity within EDs.

While these challenges cannot be resolved immediately, the longer-term objective is to develop a more resilient and sustainable urgent and emergency care system, reducing avoidable ED attendance, improving patient flow and discharge, and minimising the number of patients experiencing prolonged waits.