Emergency departments must not return to pre-covid days of overcrowding and lack of safety, says college.

Abstract

UK emergency departments must never return to their previous state of being overcrowded, as well as being sources of hospital acquired infection and unsafe for staff to work in, experts have said. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine issued a position statement on 6 May1 in which it warned that, if the NHS allowed hospitals to return to the old model of emergency care as covid-19 cases start to fall, patients’ lives would be put at risk. The need for a “reset” in how care is delivered in emergency departments is vital to prevent a resurgence of covid-19 cases and to leave a permanent improvement in the care provided overall, it said. Since the covid-19 pandemic began, emergency departments have …