This page contains our guidance related to COVID 19 and crowding.
The coronavirus pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to our health service and is currently subject to a public enquiry, which we have contributed to. We await the outcomes of the enquiry and any impact it may have on our work.
With crowding returning to many Emergency Departments after the pandemic, we released guidance on what to do if your department is becoming crowded again.
Crowding is a real concern to patients and staff alike and we must do all that we can to eliminate it.
Our guidance aims to support leaders in systems, organisations, and Emergency Medicine to consider their current position, and work together in the face of this re-emerging problem.
‘What to do if your ED is becoming crowded again after the initial COVID period’ outlines the questions Departments should ask to ensure that they have adopted relevant good practice and whether the organisation is doing everything it can to reduce crowding.
It also provides key points around advocacy and explores what local EM leaders should do if they feel that organisations are not responding effectively.
We continue to lobby to end overcrowding in Emergency Departments and ambulance queues outside of hospitals as part of our Roadmap to Recovery | RCEM campaign as we know that crowding and corridor care is severely detrimental to patient health, not least because social distancing cannot be maintained, thereby impacting infection control.
Below you can read position statements, guidance and information previously issued in relation to COVID19, from us and other organisations.
Data, Statistics and Data Sets for England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland.
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Shaping health policy by campaigning for change and working collaboratively with key stakeholders.
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The system is under enormous pressure, but the problems are fixable. We urge the Government to #ResuscitateEmergencyCare
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