Acute Network – our impact
Read about our achievements on behalf of members across the acute sector.
We continue to support members to respond to the challenges facing the health and care system, and to advocate on your behalf for the changes you need. Here are just some of our key areas of impact in 2024/25 through the Acute Network.
- Our work on the causes of increased waiting times in A&E and the benefit and net financial gain of increasing investment in out-of-hospital care was cited in Lord Darzi’s independent investigation into the NHS, leading to it becoming one of the government's three key shifts for reform.
- We partnered with Carnall Farrar to analyse the nature and extent of the elective backlog, showing that doing more activity without changing the way that we work will not solve the problem of ever-increasing demand. The report and our recommendations were publicly welcomed by health and social care secretary Wes Streeting, influencing the government's two other shifts towards digitisation and prevention.
- To help members understand the changing landscape of shared leadership models, we commissioned former NHS chief executive Paul Roberts to conduct interviews and prepare a report on the nature, benefits and challenges associated with group working.
- Our Interface Improvement Programme, delivered with the Primary Care Network, supported 11 teams to understand, develop, implement and sustain solutions to the challenges of working at the interface of primary and secondary care within their areas.
- Our six-part webinar series on Health Economic Partnerships helps acute trusts articulate their critical role in driving economic and social development. Topics include the role of trusts in anchor systems, what devolution means for the NHS, quantifying the economic impact of the NHS, and how to bring health to the high street.
- Feedback from partners across the system has informed the new interface improvement programme, in partnership with the NHS Confederation's Mental Health Network, to support teams to plan and implement their own solutions to the challenges around supporting the needs of mental health patients within A&E departments.
