PatientPath 2026: Optimising NHS Pathways to Improve Patient Flow
Patient flow is the central challenge, and opportunity in modern NHS operations. From the “front door” of emergency departments to the “back door” of discharge and community care, every handover determines both efficiency and experience.
With emergency attendances and delayed discharges at record highs, the NHS is under renewed pressure to manage capacity, streamline pathways, and integrate care across acute, community, and primary settings. The 2025 Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan and the NHS Workforce Plan both highlight system-wide flow improvement as a core national priority for the coming year.
This event brings together operational, clinical, and strategic leaders to share what’s working, what needs to change, and how local teams can build the capability to deliver safe, efficient, and patient-centred flow at scale.
8 CPD Points Per Delegate.
Summit Focus:
The conference is designed as a skills-based, outcome-driven forum focused on system coordination, digital enablement, and workforce empowerment. Delegates will engage with real-world frameworks, tested improvement models, and peer learning to translate strategy into operational reality.
Dedicated Skill Clinics will explore front-door streaming, discharge innovation, and digital integration. Lessons Learned Sessions will offer candid accounts of challenges, recovery, and leadership under pressure.
This is not a showcase of what to achieve, but a collaborative exchange on how to achieve it, translating national ambition into measurable improvement.
What’s New for 2026?
This year’s summit introduces a sharper focus on practical capability-building and applied system learning, aligning directly with the NHS Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan and NHS Workforce Plan.
- Skill Clinics on Flow Fundamentals: Delegates will participate in immersive sessions covering real-world implementation of front-door streaming, workforce culture, digital visibility, and discharge integration.
- Lessons Learned from National Exemplars: Live reflections from NHS systems that have transformed urgent care access and discharge flow, sharing both successes and setbacks.
- Operational Leadership Sessions: Focused dialogues exploring how COOs, Chief Nurses, and Clinical Leads are embedding flow improvement into daily operations and ICS governance.
- Community Coordination in Practice: Fresh insight into how UCR teams and primary care are being digitally connected to reduce hospital attendances and improve patient experience.
- Digital Flow Capability Frameworks: Step-by-step tools for operational teams to evaluate data readiness, analytics maturity, and digital command-centre models.
These updates ensure every attendee leaves with clear, actionable outputs and operational artefacts, ready to translate national priorities into measurable improvements across patient flow, discharge, and system resilience.
This year’s event is structured around clear outcomes. Delegates will leave understanding:
- The optimisation of front-door streaming and triage models, including UTC integration and digital pre-arrival platforms.
- The embedding of attendance avoidance through strengthened community and UCR coordination.
- The design of integrated discharge models that unite acute, community, and care teams.
- The enhancement of digital visibility across patient flow using analytics and shared dashboards.
- The development of workforce and cultural alignment across departments and specialities to support whole-system flow.
Why Attend?
- Strengthen leadership confidence in managing whole-system flow.
- Access practical frameworks for triage, discharge, and community coordination.
- Gain peer-tested insights from trusts leading on flow transformation.
- Take away ready-to-use templates, governance checklists, and improvement guides.
- Earn 8 CPD Points while joining a community focused on sustainable system performance.
Who Would Benefit?
This summit is designed for COOs, Chief Nurses, Flow and Discharge Leads, Operations Directors, AHPs, and Community Integration Managers working across acute and system settings. It will also benefit ICS and ICB transformation teams, urgent and emergency care leads, and primary/community service directors seeking scalable approaches to managing demand, flow, and discharge.
Organizer
