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Found 208 results
  1. Content Article
    To give patients and their carers the flexibility to arrange their follow-up appointments as and when they need them, NHS England is supporting providers to roll out patient initiated follow-up (PIFU). PIFU is when a patient initiates an appointment when they need one, based on their symptoms and individual circumstances. It can be used with patients with long or short-term conditions in a broad range of specialties including dermatology, rheumatology and cancer. PIFU is not a new concept, and commonly goes by a number of other names including open access follow-up, patient led follow-up, patient triggered follow-up, patient initiated appointments, supported self-managed follow-up, self-managed follow-up, see on symptom, open appointments, open self-referral appointments or patient-activated care. The approach helps empower patients to manage their own condition and plays a key role in enabling shared decision making and supported self-management in line with the personalised care agenda.
  2. News Article
    A heart patient has been left fearing for his health after his life-saving operation was cancelled due to a major cyber attack on London NHS hospitals. Russell Ashley-Smith, 81, is waiting for complex open heart surgery at King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill, south London, without which he may only have up to two years to live. More than 200 emergency procedures were cancelled due to the ransomware hack earlier this month. Mr Ashley-Smith said: “I understand if I don’t [have the operation] it’s terminal. Doctors said you’ll live for one to two years with declining health and become less and less capable of doing things like walking. “I would become more dependent on my wife, and more dependent on being taken somewhere by car if I wanted to go outside. I would be unable to make music – I play the cello and the piano – all the things I like doing and I don’t want to be a couch potato." As well as operations, thousands of patient hospital appointments had to be cancelled across Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust and King’s College University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust due to the cyber attack. The NHS admitted on Friday it would take months for services to recover even once the attack has been resolved, as staff will have to rebook patients for appointments and operations. Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 June 2024
  3. Content Article
     Results of Age UK’s research into the experience of people aged 50 and over accessing health and social care services. This research into older people’s experiences of health and care services has revealed the extent of the challenges they face in accessing and receiving them. These challenges are confronted at a time in their lives when people are likely to be most reliant on such services to keep them well, independent, connected and safe. People from across the age spectrum, from 50 to over 100 years old, told Age UK about difficulties in accessing primary care services, including GPs and dentists. Health problems that could have been quickly and easily resolved have worsened through long waits for appointments and treatment. In some cases, older people have given up seeking treatment and care as they had lost hope of being able to see a clinician at all. For those of working age the problems in accessing appointments, referrals and treatment have had an impact on their ability to maintain good health, to remain in work and to care for others. Lack of access to support for carers has led to deteriorations in their physical and mental health.
  4. News Article
    Millions of people over the age of 50 in the UK have concerns about struggling to access healthcare, according to new analysis by Age UK. It comes as one elderly and disabled patient admitted he cannot afford to wait on hold to his GP practice for an appointment for long due to rising phone bill costs. A new report by Age UK – It’s a Struggle to be Seen – analysed the results of a representative poll, conducted for the charity by Kantar, of 2,621 UK adults over 50, as well as its own online survey which attracted more than 17,000 responses. The report claims less than half (48%) of people over 50 are confident their medical issue would be solved by NHS services. Some 49% – which Age UK equates to 12.6 million people – were concerned about their ability to access their GP, while 42% were worried about access to hospital appointments. The same proportion expressed concerns about access to emergency departments, the charity said. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “Sadly, for some older people, healthcare delayed means healthcare denied, because they do not have time on their side. “Our new analysis highlights just how many are being subjected to distress and, in some cases, enduring pain, because of their difficulties in accessing the GP services that they need.” Read full story Source: Medscape. 17 June 2024
  5. News Article
    HSJ understands that IT systems across the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly ICS went down around midday, prompting the declaration of a major incident. In a statement, a spokesperson for the ICS said the incident was a “local issue” and not a “cyber attack”. As a result of the issue, some planned outpatient appointments, including operations, have been cancelled. The outage is also thought to have contributed to a large ambulance handover backlog. Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust, and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, as well as GP surgeries and community providers, are understood to have been affected by the outage. Read full story (paywalled) Source: 11 June 2024
  6. News Article
    People attempting to contact their GP practice are almost three times as likely to report failing to get through in some integrated care systems (ICS) than others, according to NHS England-commissioned data. The survey figures, collected for the first time by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), show 8.5% of people nationally who tried to call their GP between mid-January and mid-February this year said they could not reach the practice. This equates to 1.5 million people across England, according to the ONS. In Northamptonshire – the worst performing ICS – 14.7% of callers did not manage to make contact. That is the equivalent of around one in seven people. By comparison, only 3.9% of callers in Gloucestershire, the best performing ICS, could not get through. The findings are broadly similar when population and age are accounted for. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 12 April 2024
  7. News Article
    NHS leaders have warned that Royal Mail’s plans to cut second-class deliveries to two days a week could risk patient safety. The changes are part of wider measures announced by Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services (IDS), including cuts of up to 9,000 routes, which could take more than two years to implement, saving £300m a year. IDS has assured the Royal Mail workforce that there will be no compulsory redundancies and they will request only 100 voluntary redundancies. In a letter sent to the Telegraph, executives from the NHS, Healthwatch England, the Patients Association and National Voices said the Royal Mail proposals would increase the cost of missed appointments, which already exceeds £1bn. The letter said: “Provisional Healthwatch data suggest that more than 2 million people may have missed medical appointments in 2022-23 due to late delivery of letters, and this will only deteriorate under the proposed new plans.” Sir Julian Hartley, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said the proposed delays were “extremely unhelpful”. “It’s really important that patients be updated at the earliest opportunity on developments in their care and treatment,” he said. “An efficient, punctual postal service remains a key part of that process. At a time when far too many patients already face long delays – the last thing any trust leader wants – anything that adds to that uncertainty, and possibly the worsening of conditions, would be extremely unhelpful.” Jacob Lant, the chief executive of health charity National Voices, said: “The proposals being consulted on risk further delaying vital communications and worsening digital exclusion, therefore unfairly widening health inequalities. NHS mail must remain a priority service.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 6 April 2024
  8. News Article
    The NHS is set to roll out artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the number of missed appointments and free up staff time to help bring down the waiting list for elective care. The expansion to ten more NHS Trusts follows a successful pilot in Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which has seen the number of did not attends (DNAs) slashed by almost a third in six months. Created by Deep Medical and co-designed by a frontline worker and NHS clinical fellow, the software predicts likely missed appointments through algorithms and anonymised data, breaking down the reasons why someone may not attend an appointment using a range of external insights including the weather, traffic, and jobs, and offers back-up bookings. The appointments are then arranged for the most convenient time for patients – for example, it will give evening and weekend slots to those less able to take time off during the day. The system also implements intelligent back-up bookings to ensure no clinical time is lost while maximising efficiency. It has been piloted for six months at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, leading to a 30% fall in non-attendances. A total of 377 DNAs were prevented during the pilot period and an additional 1,910 patients were seen. It is estimated the trust, which supports a population of 1.2 million people, could save £27.5 million a year by continuing with the programme. The AI software is now being rolled out to ten more trusts across England in the coming months. Read full story Source: NHS England, 14 March 2024
  9. News Article
    Patients in parts of England are facing an uphill struggle to see a GP, experts say, after an analysis showed wide regional variation in doctor numbers. The Nuffield Trust think tank found Kent and Medway had the fewest GPs per person, followed by Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes. It comes as ministers have struggled to hit the pledge to boost the GP workforce by 6,000 this Parliament. But the government said it had plans in place to tackle shortages. However, Dr Billy Palmer, of the Nuffield Trust, said: "Solely boosting the number of staff nationally in the NHS is not enough alone - the next government should set a clear aim of reducing the uneven distribution of key staffing groups and shortfalls to tackle unfairness in access for patients." The think-tank report found while the government had met its target to increase the number of nurses by 50,000 this Parliament, the rises had not been felt evenly, with some specialist nurse posts, such as health visitors and learning-disability nurses, seeing numbers shrink. Dr Palmer said minimum numbers of GPs may have to be set for local areas - and better incentives to attract them to those with the fewest. Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 March 2024
  10. News Article
    Same-day access hubs will not be mandated in North West London as the Integrated Care Board (ICB) bows to pressure from GPs and patients. In a letter to GP teams, seen by Pulse, the ICB said that their controversial same-day access programme "will not form part of the single offer for enhanced services for 2024/25". Instead, ICB leaders said they want to work with PCNs "to consider how access can be improved" and that they do not have a "presumption" about a "particular model" all PCNs should adopt. They are now aiming for a new model to be implemented from April next year instead. The hub model aimed to "deliver a single point of triage for same-day, low complexity" demand for all 2.1 million residents within the integrated care system, leaving GP practices with only longer-term, "complex" care. But London GP leaders, as well as patients, raised "immense concern" with the plans, including patient safety, quality of care, and logistics. In response to these concerns, the ICB confirmed yesterday that it has "adjusted" the same-day hub programme, and that it wants to "move forward collectively" to address both patient access issues and GP pressures. Read full story Source: Pulse, 6 March 2024
  11. Content Article
    Healthwatch and national organisations representing patients and NHS leaders express concerns over Royal Mail plans to delay bulk mail of NHS appointment letters from two days to three days. 
  12. Content Article
    Continuity of care, defined as an ongoing therapeutic relationship between a patient and a physician, is a defining characteristic of primary care. However, arranging a consultation with one’s regular doctor is increasingly difficult as practices face physician shortages. Kajaria-Montag et al. studied the effect of declining care continuity on the productivity of physicians by analysing data of over 10 million consultations in 381 English primary care practices over a period of 11 years. Specifically, they examined whether a consultation with the patient’s regular doctor is more productive than with another doctor in the practice. The authors found that the time to a patient’s next visit is on average 18.1% longer when the patient sees the doctor they have seen most frequently over the past two years, while there is no operationally meaningful difference in consultation duration. The data show that the productivity benefit of care continuity is larger for older patients, patients with multiple chronic conditions, and patients with mental health conditions. The authors estimate that the total consultation demand in their sample could have fallen by up to 5.2% had all practices offered continuity of care at the level of the top decile of practices while prioritising patients expected to yield the largest productivity benefits.
  13. News Article
    Seeing the same GP improves patients’ health, reduces doctors’ workloads and could free up millions of appointments, according to the largest study of its kind. Research has previously suggested there may be benefits to seeing the same family doctor. But studies have mostly been small or covered a short period of time. Now University of Cambridge and Insead business school researchers have analysed data from 10m consultations over more than a decade in the most authoritative study on the issue yet. They found that if all GP practices moved to a model where patients saw the same doctor at each visit, it would significantly reduce doctors’ workloads while improving patient health. Multiple benefits emerged when patients had a long-term relationship with their doctor, researchers found. Seeing the same GP – known as continuity of care – meant people waited on average 18% longer between visits, compared with patients who saw different doctors. People did not take up more GP time in each consultation and the findings were particularly strong for older patients, those with multiple chronic illnesses, and people with mental health conditions. Although it will not always be possible for people to see their regular GP, researchers said the findings would translate to an estimated 5% reduction in consultations if all practices provided the level of continuity of care of the best 10% of practices. That suggests millions of appointments could be freed up. The researchers added: “Importantly, if patients receiving care from their regular doctors have longer intervals between consultations without requiring longer consultations, then continuity of care can potentially allow physicians to expand their patient list without increasing their time commitment.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 February 2024
  14. Content Article
    ‘Patient-initiated follow-up’ (or PIFU, for short) is not a new idea and has been referred to in different ways over time, such as open-access appointments, self-managed follow-up, and see-on-symptom appointments. However, this approach has been given renewed attention given rising waiting times and the backlog of care that built up throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.  Moving outpatient attendances to patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU) pathways is considered a key part of plans to reduce outpatient follow-ups. But what exactly is PIFU? In this Nuffield Trust explainer, Sarah Reed and Nadia Crellin describe more about what it is, the problems it could solve, and what is known so far about how well it works.
  15. Content Article
    Millions of people use hospital services as an outpatient, with numbers of appointments rising rapidly over recent years. Patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU) is a relatively new initiative in the English NHS, and the NIHR RSET team has conducted a mixed-methods evaluation as the process develops to understand how it's working and what impact it's having on health care systems and the staff and patients involved.
  16. News Article
    NHS England’s drive to encourage patient-initiated appointments is only having a marginal impact on reducing overall outpatient follow-ups, a major study suggests. NHS England currently has a target to have 5% of outpatients on patient-initiated follow-up pathways, and hopes this can be increased substantially in future years. The headline finding in a study by the Nuffield Trust think tank, which analysed almost 60 million cases, was that for every 5% on PIFU pathways, this roughly corresponded to 2% fewer outpatient follow-up attendances overall. It suggests PIFU implementation would need to be dramatically expanded to get anywhere close to a 25% reduction in total follow-up activity, which NHSE had previously targeted by March 2023. As previously reported, there has been little to no reduction so far. Chris Sherlaw-Johnson, senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust, said: “As few patients are currently on PIFU pathways at present, it’s not going to have that noticeable impact on the overall number of follow ups.” He also stressed it was not clear whether the reduction was caused by the genuine elimination of unnecessary follow-ups or if patients were not returning for care despite needing it. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 25 January 2024
  17. News Article
    One in 20 patients has to wait at least four weeks to see a GP at a time when funding for family doctor services is falling, NHS figures show. In November 2023, 1.5m appointments in England at a GP surgery took place four weeks or more after they were booked, 4.8% of the 31.9m held that month. In one in six appointments, 5.4m (17.3%), the patient was forced to wait at least two weeks after booking it to see a GP, practice nurse or other health professional. “Millions of people are being left anxious or waiting in pain because they can’t get an appointment with their GP,” said Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who highlighted the latest evidence underlining the long delays that many patients face to see a GP. “Staggering” numbers of patients now have to wait a long time, he said. GP leaders blamed the situation on the widespread shortage of family doctors, which they said was making it impossible to keep up with the rising demand for appointments. Burnout due to intense workloads is prompting more GPs to work part time. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 22 January 2024
  18. News Article
    Long Covid costs the UK at least an extra £23m in GP and other primary care consultations each year, according to estimates in a new study. The University of Birmingham said extra appointments cost between £23m and £60m a year. The study examined more than 950,000 electronic healthcare records since the start of the global pandemic. People with Long Covid report symptoms including persistent coughs and brain fog. The condition is defined as having symptoms three months after the initial infection, which last for two months or more. Factors found to increase primary care costs included being older, female, white, obese or someone with long-term health conditions. Co-lead author Dr Shamil Haroon, from the university, said: "We might expect that patients who are older or who have long-term health conditions will need additional primary care support, but we have also seen additional costs associated with being white and female." Read full story Source: BBC, 11 January 2024
  19. Content Article
    The economic impact of managing Long Covid in primary care is unknown. In a study published in BMC Primary Care, Tufts et al. estimated the costs of primary care consultations associated with Long Covid and explored the relationship between risk factors and costs. The study found that costs of primary care consultations associated with Long Covid in non-hospitalised adults are substantial. Costs are significantly higher among those diagnosed with Long Covid, those with Long Covid symptoms, older adults, females, and those with obesity and comorbidities.
  20. News Article
    Patients who feel fortunate to get a doctor's appointment then find they are in and out of the GP surgery in less than five minutes. A fifth of the consultations in England last year were done within that time. Dennis Reed, of the Silver Voices campaign group for over-60s, said: "It is hard enough to get a face-to-face appointment with a GP these days, without being shown the door before you have had a chance to take your coat off. "The public wants the family doctor back, who knows your family history and has the time to chat about your general health and wellbeing. "A revolving door policy, with the patient exiting after a couple of minutes clutching a prescription, is not the way to run a primary care service." Research from the House of Commons Library, commissioned by the Lib Dems, found 22% of GP appointments between January to October 2023 lasted five minutes or less. Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse said: "Seeing a GP is the most vital contact for people to address their health concerns, seek help and start treatment. "Not having quick and easy access to a GP and not having sufficient time for patients during an appointment leads to huge problems later on, let alone the anxiety and additional pain people suffer because of delays." Read full story Source: The Express, 31 December 2023
  21. News Article
    An alarming number of Britons are turning into “DIY doctors” because of the struggle to get an NHS GP appointment in 2023, new polling has revealed. Some 23% of those surveyed said they could not get an appointment, while three in 10 (33 per cent) said they had given up on booking one altogether, according to a Savanta poll commissioned by the Liberal Democrats. Many said they had resorted to “DIY” medical care or gone to A&E instead. One in seven (14 per cent) said they had been forced to treat themselves or ask someone else untrained to do so, with the same proportion seeking emergency care. One in five people said they had bought medication online or at a pharmacy without advice from a GP, and one in three had delayed seeing a doctor despite being in pain, as pressure on the NHS mounts. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey described the figures as “utterly depressing” and said they should serve as an “urgent wake-up call for ministers asleep on the job”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 1 January 2024
  22. Content Article
    Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in telehealth use for patient evaluations. The US Veteran Health Administration (VHA) has tripled phone and video visits across several specialties. Although there are hesitations in phone-call-based communication for procedural subspecialties, phone calls to veterans have proven safe and efficacious after general surgery procedures. Telehealth has additional benefits, including reducing transportation barriers, improving access to care and reducing delays in medical care. This article in the journal Surgery aimed to evaluate clinic access after the establishment of routine telehealth use through phone calls by the surgeon.
  23. News Article
    A trust is reviewing more than 100,000 patients on its outpatient lists, after concerns emerged that some had ‘been lost whilst on hold’ for follow-up appointments. A report from Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust, leaked to HSJ, found 116,575 patient records without a scheduled follow-up after an outpatient consultation, with more than half of those left inappropriately without action, some dating back a decade. The review was triggered after staff spotted cases in which patients had been “lost whilst on hold”, the report said. The trust this week told HSJ that, since the initial discovery in the summer of last year, it had been validating the lists and reduced the number of outstanding records to 47,778. It aims to complete the reviews in the next two months. It told HSJ it had undertaken a harm review and found no “systemic harm”. Concerns have been raised over several years about the extent of overdue and unreviewed patients on follow-up lists, and the potential for them to deteriorate and come to harm. There are no national figures monitoring the patients, many of whom have long-term health needs. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 15 December 2023
  24. Content Article
    Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) is the independent inspectorate of the NHS and regulator of independent healthcare in Wales. The findings of their Annual report outline the sustained pressure on healthcare services across Wales, highlighting risks relating to emergency care, staffing concerns, poor patient flow and the accessibility of appointments. It sets out how the HIW carried out their functions across Wales, seeking assurance on the quality and safety of healthcare through a range of activities. This includes inspections and review work in the NHS, and regulatory assurance work in the independent healthcare sector. The report provides a summary of what HW's work has found, the main challenges within healthcare across Wales, and HIW's view on areas of national and local concern.
  25. Content Article
    Patient-initiated follow up (PIFU) is an appointment process that helps hospitals manage capacity and puts patients in control of making appointments, when they need them. In traditional care models, patients who have had treatment or surgery, or suffer with chronic conditions are provided with a set care plan and offered scheduled follow-up appointments either conducted in person, or remotely. PIFU offers an alternative way of organising planned follow-up care for patients following their elective procedures, rather than automatically being scheduled for appointments. This aims to give greater control to patients over the timing of their follow-up appointment based on their health status needs, helping patients save time, money and the inconvenience of travelling to pre-arranged appointments they may not need.
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