A small number of people make a large number of visits to emergency departments (EDs), and also call NHS 111 and 999. These people, who are referred to as ‘frequent users’, have different physical, mental health and social problems. EDs have been encouraged to set up services for frequent users, and there are now 80 such services.
This study is looking at how these urgent and emergency services currently look after frequent users, how the services bring about change and what difference they make. This will enable us to develop ideas (programme theories) about change which includes which aspects of services are important, how they work and which patients they help most. We can then develop guidance in the form of a framework to help new services get started and current services focus on activities likely to bring benefit.
