People who have used outpatient services in north Cumbria in the last 12 months are being asked for their views as part of an improvement programme.
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust provides outpatient services across the organisation and processes well over 100,000 referrals each year.
Dean Oliver, director of strategy, performance and planning said: “We have recognised that the way in which referrals are received and scheduled needs to be improved to provide a better experience for our patients.”
“Some steps to improve the experience of our patients are already in place including a text message reminder service.
“Further improvements are being planned from April to allocate appointments in six-week blocks, rather than being issued with appointments up to 12 months ahead.
“This will enable patients to choose the clinic closest to them improving patient choice and experience. It will also reduce the number of cancellations and re-arrangements that take place depending on capacity and demand for the specialities.
“However, it’s clear that a much wider improvement programme is required and so the trust has commissioned the North of England Commissioning Support Unit to develop an improvement programme based on best evidenced practice.
“As part of that review, we would really welcome views from our patients so we can ensure we have captured all issues.”
The improvement programme will:
- Review the issues affecting the delivery of outpatient services – expanding on the work completed to date by reviewing specific specialty areas;
- Improve the experience of patients using outpatient services to look develop a single point of access for patients and consolidating the current number of booking teams;
- Develop initiatives which will provide improvement to processes and the utilisation of outpatient capacity.
