The Summer Society for Acute Medicine Benchmarking Audit (SAMBA) 2023 provides a snapshot of the care provided for acutely unwell medical patients in the UK over a 24-hour period on Thursday 22nd June 2023.

The audit also highlights a growing reliance on Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) services. These services consistently demonstrate superior performance compared to traditional Emergency Department pathways, offering a more effective alternative for managing acute care delivery.

Despite these advancements, delays in consultant review persist for patients initially assessed in the Emergency Department. This highlights the need for targeted strategies to optimise patient pathways and further enhance overall care quality.

It includes 9,612 patients in the SAMBA dataset, containing unit structure and staffing levels, patient demographics (age and gender), severity of illness at presentation using an early warning score (e.g. NEWS2), frailty and pathway of care through the hospital and readmission.

Geography: Recruitment to SAMBA audits are open to all hospitals in the UK receiving acutely unwell medical patients. Non-acute and community hospitals were excluded. The SAMBA dataset draws on contributions from across all four nations of the UK. In 2023, patient data was submitted by 140 hospitals in England, 6 in Northern Ireland, 4 in Scotland, and 9 in Wales, as well as 1 hospital in Jersey. The dataset has grown each year, reflecting increasing engagement from healthcare providers across the country.

Data set availability: Data access is available via the PIONEER Hub for projects which will benefit the public or patients. This can be by developing a new understanding of disease, by providing insights into how to improve care, or by developing new models, tools, treatments, or care processes. Data access can be provided to NHS, academic, commercial, policy and third sector organisations. Applications from SMEs are welcome. There is a single data access process, with public oversight provided by our public review committee, the Data Trust Committee. Contact pioneer@uhb.nhs.uk or visit www.pioneerdatahub.co.uk for more details.

Available supplementary data: To supplement the national audit data, PIONEER can provide more granular, longitudinal patient-level insights. This includes matched controls, ambulance and community data, and unstructured data (such as images).

Available supplementary support: Analytics, model build, validation & refinement; A.I. support. Data partner support for ETL (extract, transform & load) processes. Bespoke and “off the shelf” Trusted Research Environment (TRE) build and run. Consultancy with clinical, patient & end-user and purchaser access/ support. Support for regulatory requirements. Cohort discovery. Data-driven trials and “fast screen” services to assess population size.