Welsh hospitals to introduce telephone triage service

Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething has announced that people will be asked to phone first before going to A&E as emergency services are remodelled to respond to coronavirus.

The telephone triage service will direct to people to the right service for their condition or injury instead of everyone automatically seeking care at their local A&E department.

The changes, which will be trialled at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, are modelled on a successful Scandinavian scheme, and are part of a new approach to delivering safe, person-centred health and care services.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) and the Royal College of Physicians have both expressed concerns about the safety of people and staff if emergency departments become over-crowded.

Gething said: “The NHS has had to adapt quickly to respond to the pandemic, while keeping staff and patients safe and continuing to deliver the urgent and emergency care services people need. We have looked very closely at how people access urgent and emergency care services, in response to the risks and restrictions the pandemic has brought.

“Lockdown saw a sharp reduction in attendances at emergency departments, and a large increase in people accessing support and advice remotely via NHS 111 and online services. As attendances begin to return to more normal levels, these changes in how people have been accessing services over recent weeks is something leading clinicians say must be maintained.”