Conceptualising social prescribing in urgent and emergency care

This paper examines how social prescribing could be implemented across urgent and emergency care (UEC) systems by examining potentially viable referral pathways and the salient challenges and barriers to implementation. In doing so, we consider a range of services involved in the broader UEC system to include emergency departments, emergency medical (ambulance) services, out-of-hours general practitioners, telephony-based urgent care, urgent treatment centres, and community pharmacy. This paper aims to encourage further debate on this topic, including around the nuances of UEC services that may influence implementation of social prescribing.