Image: © Drazen Zigic | iStock Marie Loizides, Associate Director of Performance Analytics at Barking, Havering, and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, explains how the digital transformation of MSK referrals helped GPs & hospitals work smarter to cut patient waiting times As the elective care backlog surpasses the seven million mark, it is clear a multi-pronged approach to tackle long patient waiting times is needed. National strategies from reducing no-shows to eliminating waits of over 78 weeks to zero by April, have been introduced to help tackle the long wait times for care. Much can be done on a local level too. For many of our patients, the chronic pain and fatigue caused by arthritis or other musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions can make everyday tasks, like cooking, a struggle. Due to organisational boundaries and historical funding issues, some patients were facing long waits to access physiotherapy services . It was our goal to shorten the time between referrals to treatment by reducing incorrect referrals. We set out to speed up MSK referrals by ensuring patients had access to the right service or consultant the first time. Our road to digitalisation in patient care Before digitising the MSK referral process, GPs […]
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