GP Streaming Service

Description

The "front door" of the A&E department should be managed by the acute trust and fall within its quality improvement and governance systems. Clinical streaming at the front door of ED, including to primary care services, should be an integrated function and always performed by a trained clinician. Where clinicians from other services work within streaming systems there should be joint development of those systems, and shared governance arrangements. Streaming should be performed as soon as possible following the patient's arrival. For this to be achieved capacity must be planned to meet variation in demand, and not average demand. Streaming will typically involve taking a brief history and performing basic observations if appropriate. This information may also be used to support triage prioritisation within streams if required. Streaming should include calculation of an early warning score e.g. the national early warning score (NEWS) for adults or paediatric equivalent for appropriate …