NHS Scotland redesign of urgent care: second national staging report

5. Summary and Next Steps

The recommendations have been developed to inform the Scottish Government Urgent & Unscheduled Care Programme and NHS Boards on the next steps of the RUC programme as it continues to evolve. Ahead of further development, the RUC Programme needs to obtain full compliance from NHS Boards with the recommendations in the RUC First National Staging Report (Appendix M) and consider how best to integrate FNC roles into the broader health system and reduce delays in the care pathway.

The potential benefits of the RUC programme to date are as yet not realised. Assurance of the responsiveness and resilience of the individual components of the patient pathway is required, prior to increasing activity through any of the patient pathways (touchpoints).

Phase 2 (Appendix N) is currently in development and design and should consider the recommendations fully. The plans for phase two correlate with consistent engagement from a number of stakeholders as part of the focus groups who will be essential partners in the next stages of development, in particular Community Pharmacy, GP's and SAS.

Mental health pathways will continue to be an important part of future developments. Improvement goals will need to be developed for all pathways with ongoing evaluation and monitoring.

To fully understand the effectiveness, efficiency and user experience of the current RUC pathway, it is recommended that the RUC Programme supports all NHS Boards to undertake a pathway review, taking forward the approach and learning from the NHS GG&C test. This will enable the necessary improvements in the patient pathway, ahead of Phase 2 launch and further investment by Scottish Government.