A NEW unit helping people attending the emergency department get the treatment they need sooner has opened at Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

The Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) unit, which is located next to the newly redeveloped emergency department at the Winchester hospital, allows patients to be seen and assessed by specialist clinicians sooner, reducing the likelihood of them requiring an overnight stay.

Alex Whitfield, chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Winchester hospital, as well as Andover War Memorial Hospital and Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, said: “I’m really pleased that we have the unit set up and it is already a big difference to our patients.

“Not only does SDEC reduce the amount of time that patients spend in the emergency department, it also gives patients access to many of the services available to inpatients, such as assessment by senior clinicians and diagnostic scans, without needing them to be admitted to the wards.”

As well as being identified as suitable in the emergency department, patients can also be directly admitted to the unit by their GP or the ambulance service.

Patients suitable for treatment in the unit are mainly those who need to be assessed urgently, but may not require a hospital stay. This includes patients showing symptoms of conditions such as appendicitis, blood clots, gallstones and pneumonia.

This new way of caring for patients follows the success of an Ambulatory Care Unit and Emergency Surgery Ambulatory Clinic (ESAC), which opened at Basingstoke hospital earlier this year. It is hoped that opening a similar model of care in Winchester will mirror the results, reducing the time patients spend in the emergency department and in hospital.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a population of some 570,000 people in Hampshire and parts of west Berkshire.

The trust has around 6,000 staff and a turnover of £385million a year.

As a Foundation Trust, HHFT is accountable to the local community through a system of local ownership with members and elected governors. HHFT has around 18,000 staff and public members. Foundation Trusts are free from central government control and can reinvest any surplus to develop clinical services. They are authorised and regulated by NHS Improvement, an independent regulator.

Hampshire Hospitals Charity is managed by the Foundation Trust itself and is split into ward and department funds. The funds are used to provide items that will benefit both patients and staff as well as to brighten up patient treatment areas and staff facilities. Most wards and departments have their own funds and the decisions as to how the funds are to be used are made at ward and departmental level, subject to guidelines issued by the Charity Commission.