Acute respiratory infection hubs: impact evaluation
Background
Acute respiratory infections are one of the main reasons people need to access NHS care – especially during the winter. To help manage the demand, and to reduce both the demand for appointments at GP surgeries and the number of inappropriate attendances at emergency departments (EDs), Acute Respiratory Infection hubs (ARI Hubs) were introduced in England in 2022.
The ARI Hub model is influenced by the type of care that was delivered through COVID-19 assessment hubs during the pandemic, and although it could potentially help to reduce some of the pressure on the NHS, we don’t yet have enough information about how these ARI Hubs have been set up, how they work, and the impact they are having nationally.
CARE-NET (the Cambridge and RAND Europe National Evaluation Team) is a collaboration between THIS Institute (The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute) at the University of Cambridge and RAND Europe. As part of the CARENET programme, we are working with RAND Europe to carry out an evaluation of ARI Hubs across England. The evaluation is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and is divided into two phases.
- The first phase was a 12-month process evaluation – the findings were published in a report for NHS England.
- The second phase is this 12-month impact evaluation.
Approach
The aim of this impact evaluation is to find out what difference ARI Hubs make, and their potential value for money. To do this, we will use routine data from NHS England and ARI Hub providers to tell us about the ways that people use health services. We will compare the areas that have ARI Hubs with areas that don’t have them, mainly focussing on the number of visits to EDs.
We will also be looking at:
- waiting times – both in GP surgeries and EDs
- ambulance callout times
- the numbers of people who are taken to hospital
- the number of people admitted to hospital
- the length of time they stay in hospital
- whether they are prescribed antibiotics.
We expect that the health outcomes for people with respiratory illnesses will be broadly similar whether they use an ARI Hub or not. The main potential benefit of ARI Hubs is likely to be reducing pressure on other parts of the health system.
If we find that people in areas with ARI Hubs use health services less, we will look at whether they save the NHS money or are, at least, cost-neutral – and don’t cost any more.
Related links
Funding for five-year CARE-NET programme announced
The Cambridge and RAND Europe National Evaluation Team (CARENET)
The national evaluation of Acute Respiratory Infection Hubs
Funding and ethics
Have a question?
CARE-NET is funded by the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme (HSDR Project: NIHR164029 – The Cambridge and RAND Europe National Evaluation Team (CARE-NET).