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capcity management system
Case Studies: Capacity Management
System
Greater Manchester Emergency Care System
The Greater Manchester Health Control (GMHC) is a partnership between Greater Manchester
Ambulance Service (GMAS), Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority (GMSHA) and
Greater Manchester Health Protection Unit (GMHPU) to provide a coordinated health response,
strategic leadership and control of any incident that affects, or is likely to affect healthcare
providers and most importantly patient care.
Greater Manchester is a heavily urbanised area, which incorporate areas of deprivation, social
developments and transient population all of which place major stresses on our health economy.
This project was started when through process review, it was identified that better use could be
made of information being collected if a more collaborative and structure approach could be put in
place.
The Health Control desk has been resourced to provide an operational service and is manned 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. The desk is positioned in the Ambulance Service Command and
Control room facilitating verbal exchange of information between the Operational functions of the
Ambulance Service and the Health Control desk staff. The desk itself is equipped with high
specification IT equipment which enables rapid access to information sources in order to monitor
the pressure situation in Greater Manchester in real time.
Capacity information sources and monitoring functions are present in the NHS, however we
believe this is an innovative approach to real time management of pressure. In working
collaboratively, a Greater Manchester agreed escalation process, with support structure and
appropriate positioning of the pressure monitoring function has proved to be hugely influential in
improving our system.
In order to determine system pressure the following information is collated from every Trust within
GM at several intervals over a day:
• Bed availability by Speciality
• A&E major and minor capacity availability
• Patients awaiting admission
• GP patients expected
• Waiting times in A&E
• Paediatric bed availability
• Critical Care availability
• Discharges
• Cancelled ops
• Ward/ Bed closures and reasons
• Diversions in place.
GMHC has contributed to more effective management of resources across multiple health
organisations to relieve pressure and improve the flow of patients within the system. The patient
journey is enhanced as ambulance resources are redirected from a central point to most
appropriate access points. This framework for pressure management influences patient flow.
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Diet choices 'written in genes'
Experts from Kings College London compared the eating habits of thousands of pairs of twins.
Identical twins were far more likely to share the same dietary patterns - like a penchant for coffee and garlic - suggesting tastes may be inherited.
A health psychologist said this meant childhood food foibles might be harder to put right than previously thought.
We have assumed that our upbringing and social environment determine what we like to eat. This has blown that theory out of the water
Lead researcher Professor Tim Spector
Identical twins have exactly the same genetic make-up as each other, so scientists, by comparing them to non-identical twins, can work out the likelihood that their characteristics are due to "nature" or "nurture".
The Kings College researchers looked at a total of more than 3,000 female twins aged between 18 and 79, working out their broad preferences using five different dietary "groups".
These included diets heavy in fruit and vegetables, alcohol, fried meat and potatoes, and low-fat products or low in meat, fish and poultry.
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