Patient and Staff Experience of Ambulatory Emergency Care on the Surgical Admissions Unit (SAU)

Emergency ambulatory care ("day-case" care that does not involve staying in a hospital bed overnight) is now well-established for medical patients and is being used increasingly for surgical patients. However, it is not known how emergency surgical patients feel about being managed in this way compared to being admitted to a hospital ward. The investigating team believe that some people will find it easier and would prefer to be able to stay at home overnight but others may find this difficult or dislike this method of care. The investigators want to explore staff and patients' experience of this type of care with semi-structured telephone interviews. The interviews will take around 20-30mins each. The anticipated number of patient participants needed is 20 and 12-15 staff members.