In most regions, primary care providers (physicians and nurses) as well as hospital providers (physicians and nurses at A&E departments) were involved in providing out-of-hours care.
Harmoni was the largest private firm providing out-of-hours services for the NHS and funded by the taxpayer.
Many doctors have come out of the woodwork, who have been providing out-of-hours services in one form or another for years.
The fact is it's providing out-of-work journalists with a wage, albeit a small one, and new journalists with a stage and an audience.
Emergency medical services (EMS) are a type of emergency service dedicated to providing out-of-hospital acute medical care, transport to definitive care.
The figures cast serious doubt on health secretary Jeremy Hunt's recent claims that the rise in A&E attendances was due to Labour's "historic mistake" in 2004 of letting GPs no longer be responsible for providing out-of-hours care.
GPs yesterday overwhelmingly reiterated their opposition to taking back responsibility for providing out-of-hours care, with some predicting that many older family doctors would quit if that was imposed on them.
These figures cast doubt on health secretary Jeremy Hunt's claim that the rise in A&E attendances was due to Labour's "historic mistake" in 2004 to let GPs no longer take responsibility for providing out-of-hours care.
The report said the cost of providing out-of-home care – mainly foster home placements – had risen sharply since the government began transferring responsibility to non-government organisations in 2012.
Of the £1.96bn provided by the chancellor earlier this month, £1.5bn will go on frontline services, the rest on developing new ways of providing out-of-hospital care, with financial incentives given to experiments such as having on-site pharmacists or mental health specialists working alongside GPs.
Community psychiatric nurses are now employed in multi-disciplinary rapid-response teams for care homes, while advanced nurse practitioners are supporting vulnerable patients in the community who might otherwise end up in hospital; others are helping to redesign services where primary care meets secondary care, or providing out-of-hours emergency services.
