The NHS’s drive to protect and expand elective capacity focuses on Outpatient transformation, with an expectation of freeing up capacity and increasing productivity. Indeed, this is one of the only ways that capacity can be released without a large injection of cash. So Trusts are being asked to provide assurance that their actions will drive outpatient recovery at pace. But how?
The letter from Sir James Mackey asks Trusts to:
- Revisit plans on outpatient follow up reduction, to identify more opportunity for transformation.
- Set an ambition that no patient in the 65-week ‘cohort’… will be waiting for a first outpatient appointment after 31 October 2023.
- Maintain an accurate and validated waiting list by ensuring that at least 90% of patients who have been waiting over 12 weeks are contacted and validated by 31 October 2023.
That is a lot to do in a very short time, especially as we are currently in the middle of the holiday season. Most trusts will probably have to firefight this particular request. But it will not be the last, and data and automation will be key to sustaining the booking and validation effort into 2024.
This is where Patient Pathway Plus (PP+) comes in. PP+ is a powerful data platform that connects directly with all the source systems to extract, check and unify data automatically. Then it tracks patients from referral through outpatients and follow ups to treatment and beyond, providing a reliable and up-to-date ‘single version of the truth’ for staff who track and manage patients.
Addressing the Key Actions
Outpatient transformation
Last year trusts were asked to move 5% of outpatient appointments to PIFU (Patient Initiated Follow Ups) by March 2023 and reduce overall outpatient appointments by 25%. It is crucial to ensure that patients do not get lost in the system when moved to a PIFU pathway. Using a digital solution, such as PP+, that can track and manage all elective activity including PIFU is key. Read our blog on how we are supporting this here.
Targeting the 65-week cohort
Targeting pathways starts with an accurate data foundation. PP+ works by unifying all the necessary data, linking the pathways together in painstaking detail, and meticulously checking them for inconsistencies in a digital platform that includes the LUNA metrics and many more. So when staff select the cohort they want to target, they can be assured that the data is accurate and they are not duplicating the work of their colleagues.
90% of patients who have been waiting over 12 weeks are contacted and validated
It is imperative when contacting patients that you start from an accurate list. Not only does PP+ deliver accurate patient tracking lists for trusts, it can also integrate automatically and bidirectionally with patient communication and engagement solutions, removing manual processes, driving out risks of error, and turning a laborious chore into business as usual.
Self Certification deadline of 30 September
Trusts are being asked to provide assurance and self-certification by the 30th September. While NHS England has many different tools and reports available to help with this task, they are all disparate, and do not offer a local solution that can practically help at an operational level. PP+ can.
PP+ provides an reliable and unified ‘single version of the truth’ for all elective activity, that can be used at trust, regional, or even national level, to show the precise status of all elective patients at any point in time – RTT and non-RTT.
For elective recovery to be achievable and sustainable, organisations need to be able to manage ALL elective patients safely and with confidence that the data is accurate.
