Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve NHS triage systems.

Mr Philip Dunne

As part of NHS England’s review of urgent and emergency care, the intention is to develop a clinical decision support system to enable patients to be directed to or connected with the right service to meet their needs, rather than being sent or taken to accident and emergency unless absolutely necessary.

Commissioners, clinicians and the wider governance of urgent and emergency care have requested a next generation system that builds on the success of NHS Pathways but recognises the needs of individuals on the basis of the language they use, links to patient records and crisis plans and has the potential to factor in phenotypic data from wearables and remote monitoring devices.