What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can improvement be used to reduce delays accessing health and care services'?

Patients are increasingly facing longer waits for outpatient consultation, diagnosis and treatment, with certain groups facing longer waits than others.  While waiting, a patient’s health may deteriorate further, their condition may have improved, or they may have sought treatment elsewhere. Extended waits can lead to financial and social hardship where a patient’s illness impacts their ability to work or interact socially.

The project stems from a collaboration between public health, patient safety and the EPR team. It will tackle the issues identified above by using the Trust’s new EPR and patient portal to better support, track and interact with patients who are waiting for consultation/treatment. Advice will be provided to help keep patients well while waiting, including prehab where appropriate, as well as linking patients to financial and wider social support in their communities. The project will also check if patients still need treatment, potentially reducing non-attendance rates.

What does your project aim to achieve?

The objective is for patient’s health to not deteriorate, and ideally improve, while they are waiting to be seen. This will be achieved through targeted messages and materials being sent to patients based on their illness.

Patients who are waiting for consultation, diagnosis or treatment may be facing financial hardship. The project aims to support these patients through signposting/promoting  financial support, impacting health inequalities by reducing the social impact of poor health.

Interactions will be carried out in a way that is accessible for patients with lower literacy levels. The intervention will primarily focus on using technology, but physical resources will be shared with those who haven’t signed up to the electronic patient portal or who don’t use it, ensuring that people who are less digitally literate or who are facing digital poverty, also benefit from the intervention.

How will the project be delivered?

A specialty will be chosen to pilot this project, with wider roll out contingent on  outcomes.

A MDT will be formed to lead the work, compromising the patient portal team, clinical lead, management lead and public health lead. MDT colleagues will meet regularly and will engage with patients to co-develop the health and social messages and signposting that will be communicated. The MDT will work with partners such as citizen’s advice to develop financial support materials for the patient portal.

Impact will be measured by measuring who has accessed materials via the patient portal and by asking patients via the portal and text message if they found the materials useful in helping them manage their condition.

The investment will deliver value for money as it is scalable to other specialties and Trusts using the materials and technology developed.

Risks will be identified and managed through the MDT.

How is your project going to share learning?

Learning for wider colleagues will be generated by sharing the patient facing content that is developed as part of this work. The outcomes will also be shared, but also reflections on the process used in terms of identifying a specialty, co-creating the content and developing the technology needed to communicate via the portal.

The project will be evaluated, building on the impact measures identified above, and again this can be shared both in writing and via video and Q exchange activities.

Learning will also be used internally to expand the approach to other specialties based on the outcomes achieved in the pilot specialty.