The Strategy Unit, with our partners Ipsos, has been commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) to provide a long-term national evaluation of the Urgent Community Response programme rolled-out across England. The programme aims to shift resources to home and community-based services as part of the NHS commitment to providing the right care, to the right people, at the right time. And there are a range of outputs from the early work that provide learning for local systems as they develop their services.

From our previous work, with Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation, we know that lockdown had a significant effect on attendance at Emergency Departments (ED). We also know that this effect was very unevenly distributed: some demographic groups stayed away far more than others.

Whether or not to admit a patient is one of the most routine yet important decisions a doctor in an Emergency Department (ED) makes. We might like to think that this decision is dependent solely on the clinical characteristics of the patient. But this is not the case.   

Earlier this year, the Strategy Unit reported how levels of attendances at consultant-led emergency departments dropped dramatically in the early days of the COVID pandemic. Rates crept back up during the first lockdown but never reached pre-pandemic levels, and rates fell away again as the local tiered and subsequent national lockdowns were imposed. 

We know that patterns of access to healthcare have changed during the pandemic. We know this will affect people’s health. And we also know that this will be unevenly felt. The more precisely we can analyse these problems, the better our ability to respond appropriately.

Our analysis of access to emergency departments (ED) during ‘Lockdown 1’ contributes to this evidence base. It shows that there was a radical fall in activity, but that this was concentrated in specific ethnic, age and diagnostic groups.

The Strategy Unit, the Health Economics Unit and Leicester Clinical Trials Unit have been announced as evaluation partners to support success in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health and Care Awards.