MediFormatica’s Post

The Prime Minister’s latest plan earlier this week to restore the 18-week treatment standard is a pivotal step towards alleviating the strain on NHS services. The initiatives announced include: - 2 Million Additional Appointments: Creating capacity for an extra 40,000 weekly appointments in the first year. - Expansion of Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs): Bringing tests and diagnostic services closer to patients’ homes, reducing unnecessary hospital visits. - More Surgical Hubs: Protecting routine surgeries from seasonal pressures and improving operational efficiency. - Empowering Patients: Enhancing the NHS App to provide greater choice and convenience for patients managing their care. (Gov.UK: https://lnkd.in/eAdZEdxp) Our role as a clinical insourcing provider is to complement these efforts, offering additional capacity and expertise where it’s needed most. By delivering elective care solutions directly within NHS facilities, we help reduce waiting times while ensuring patients receive the highest standards of care in a familiar environment. Working Together for Better Outcomes The NHS’s partnership with private sector providers is also a key part of this strategy, enabling more complex cases in areas like gynaecology and orthopaedics to be addressed promptly. This collaborative approach is a testament to the power of combined efforts in delivering meaningful change for patients. (BBC News: https://lnkd.in/eVWMBWQ3) Driving Systemic Change The recent "Reforming Elective Care for Patients" report highlights the need for a patient-centred approach, greater use of technology, and systemic reform to meet growing healthcare demands. We share this vision and are committed to supporting these transformations with our flexible, scalable solutions. (NHS England: https://lnkd.in/eyxChzGS) medcareworld are proud to partner with NHS Trusts to provide innovative clinical insourcing solutions that help tackle the pressing issue of elective care backlogs and waiting lists across the UK. With millions of patients waiting for essential treatment, we understand the urgency of delivering efficient and high-quality care. As we work together with the NHS and other healthcare partners, we remain dedicated to improving access, reducing backlogs, and ultimately enhancing outcomes for patients across the UK. For information on our elective care services or to speak to us about the ways in which our healthcare solutions can help your NHS Trust, please contact us at [email protected]. #ElectiveCare #NHSBacklog #ClinicalInsourcing #NHS #HealthcareSolutions

Addressing the Backlog: Effective Strategies for Managing Large Waiting Lists   With over 7.4 million people currently waiting for elective procedures in the NHS, addressing the backlog has become a critical priority. Prolonged waiting times not only affect patient outcomes but also strain the healthcare system. To effectively manage these large waiting lists, NHS trusts are exploring a range of strategies.   1. Expansion of Virtual Consultations: Leveraging telemedicine can free up physical clinic space and reduce the burden on in-person services. Virtual consultations allow healthcare providers to manage more patients efficiently, particularly those who do not require immediate or hands-on treatment. This strategy is not fool-proof and still leaves many patients without appointments which is making our population sicker. https://lnkd.in/eFJF-q9G.   2. Enhanced Resource Allocation: Targeting resources to the most critical areas can significantly impact waiting times. By prioritizing high-demand specialties and allocating additional funding or staff to those areas, trusts can address bottlenecks more effectively.     3. Clinical Insourcing: This approach involves bringing in external medical professionals to perform procedures within NHS facilities, often outside regular hours. By utilising existing infrastructure and maximising the workforce, clinical insourcing helps reduce waiting times without the need for permanent staff increases. This method has proven effective in rapidly decreasing backlogs, ensuring patients receive timely care.     Clinical Insourcing can help the NHS navigate the current backlog crisis and improve patient care outcomes. Get in contact with RTT Support today.   #ClinicalServices #HealthcareSupport #NHS #MedicalRecruitment #NHSFramework #NHSStaff #health #nurse #NHSEngland #NHSWorkforceAlliance #Insourcing #PatientWaitingList #NHSWaitingList #ClinicalInsourcing #NHSsupport #ReduceWaitingLists #PatientCare #HealthcareSolutions #RTTSupport #EfficiencyInHealthcare #NHSInnovation #HealthcareEfficiency #ReduceWaitingTimes #HealthcareManagement #MedicalStaffing 

**Private Providers Set to Amplify Care for NHS Patients Under New Government Initiative** Experts caution that a significant increase in the private sector's involvement in elective NHS care could divert crucial staff and resources from other areas. The data comes from the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), which represents independent healthcare bodies throughout the UK. This calendar year has seen over one million patients removed from NHS waiting lists via the private route – at a rate of around 15,000 a week. https://shorturl.at/Vec3S

Freestanding healthcare centers are improving access, lowering costs, and easing strain on urban hospitals. These outpatient facilities—ERs, diagnostic, and surgical centers—bring high-quality care closer to patients while reducing expenses. Here at The Christman Company, 60-70% of our healthcare projects focus on these facilities, enhancing efficiency and continuity of care. As healthcare evolves, expect more strategically placed centers improving convenience and sustainability. #HealthcareConstruction #AmbulatoryCare #BuildingBetterCommunities https://lnkd.in/guDVtnJj

Restoring the 18-week standard for planned treatments by 2029 is a key focus of NHS England’s Elective Reform Plan. However, achieving this ambitious goal requires addressing the persistent bottlenecks in referral management. Currently, many referral processes are inefficient: ➡️ Referrals often come through fragmented channels like email, fax, and even paper, making them difficult to track. ➡️ Referrals frequently come in with key information missing, delaying patient flow and disrupting timely care. ➡️ Ungoverned referral systems and missing details make triaging difficult. Streamlining referral management is critical to reaching the 18-week target, especially to ensure patients can access care in community settings like CDCs and surgical hubs. Read our latest blog to learn how referral management can help meet this target. 👇 https://lnkd.in/edqtmFyN #electivecovery #nhsreformplan #nhs #nhstargets #18weekstandard #referralmanagement #electronicreferralmanagement #digitalsolutions #digitalhealth #healthtech #healthcare #technology

The ambitious plans announced by the Prime Minister today to target the waiting lists are brave and bold. https://lnkd.in/eixxsUKZ However, the well known and well documented challenges around workforce and underlying technology availability aren’t easy fixes. Moreover, they are definitely not quick fixes! The reality is that workforce in the short term has to be considered fixed so it’s doing more with the same, which comes down to effective organisational design, use of the very capable independent sector and efficient location utilisation. Mike Richards report from 2020 perfectly articulated the value in taking elective diagnostic activity away from hospital sites and in simple terms……that remains a great plan and needs implementing. Imaging Matters Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN) NHS England

A new agreement between the NHS and the independent healthcare sector aims to tackle the ongoing backlog of hospital waiting lists, a key focus of the government's healthcare reform. This deal will increase patient access to care, particularly in areas like gynaecology and orthopaedics, where waiting times have been longest. The independent sector is expected to provide up to one million additional appointments annually, helping the NHS meet its goal of reducing waiting times to a maximum of 18 weeks, a target that has not been met since 2015. The agreement also offers patients more choice in where they receive care, especially in underserved areas, and will improve digital integration between the NHS and private providers, making it easier for patients to access appointments and results through the NHS App. This digital streamlining is key to delivering better care more efficiently. At Careo.AI, we recognise the importance of matching the right talent to the right roles, especially in high-demand sectors like healthcare. Just as the NHS and independent sector are collaborating to optimise resources, Careo.AI helps agencies streamline their hiring processes by using AI to match candidates to the right healthcare roles. This ensures that agencies can quickly fill critical positions and keep pace with the growing demand for healthcare professionals, much like the independent sector’s role in expanding treatment capacity. Ultimately, the NHS’s partnership with the independent sector aims to reduce waiting times and provide patients with more options for care, while Careo.AI helps agencies build a skilled workforce to meet these evolving healthcare needs.

We welcome the announcement today of the UK government’s elective reform plan, and its ambitions to cut waiting times, provide convenient access to care and improve patients’ experience of the NHS alongside more support for hardworking NHS staff. In particular, we welcome the plan’s goals around reforming outpatient care and providing timely access to diagnostic testing by facilitating new straight-to-test pathways, utilising capacity from community diagnostic centres (CDCs), and maximising advice and guidance opportunities. We believe that shifting the approach to bring diagnostics to the start of the patient journey is a vital part of eliminating unnecessary outpatient appointments and referrals to streamline patient pathways. Whilst we are encouraged by plans to optimise CDCs and help them deliver additional diagnostic capacity, supporting the existing workforce to improve productivity remains key – by providing them with the tools they need to meaningfully action those diagnostic results quicker. Working with Sussex Integrated Care System to redesign a breathlessness pathway, we have been able to deliver significant reductions in referral to treatment times compared to the national 18-week target and reduce outpatient requirements. By providing the digital infrastructure to connect care providers in primary and secondary care, we bring together two-way clinical communication and diagnostic results via #Bleepa to expedite patient care. https://bit.ly/4h0PLpX

NIHR People on long waiting lists use more healthcare resources than others   People waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatments used more healthcare resources than others, research found. Healthcare resource use differed depending on what treatment people were waiting for.   The researchers say initiatives to reduce waiting list backlogs should consider the extra healthcare use among people on the waiting list alongside the costs of the treatment.   https://lnkd.in/ebWq5YnS

In the UK, independent healthcare providers treated over 750,000 #NHS patients in the first five months of 2024. These providers see over 100,000 patients weekly, a 30% increase in just three years, which enhances patient care and reduces wait times. As we continue to navigate challenges in the US around patient access and wait times, I believe we can learn a lot from the UK's success. By expanding capacity and supporting healthcare providers in private practice, we can empower similar improvements in our own #healthcare system. #IHPN #PatientCenteredCare #IndependentHealthcareProviders