The Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Medefer are delighted to announce that Clinically assessing and mitigating risk for outpatient backlogs - a proactive Covid-19 recovery initiative has been shortlisted for Best Elective Care Recovery Initiative at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2022, recognising their outstanding contribution to healthcare – in what has been an exceptional and challenging period across the sector.
Despite the demanding circumstances of the past 2 years, over 190 entries have been received for this year’s HSJ Partnership Awards, with 123 projects making it to the final shortlist. The volume and standards of applications has been a true testament to those health and social care staff, who continue to push outstanding work and transformational projects across the sector.
The judging panel was once again made up of a diverse range of highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community, including Dr Matt Aiello (National Programmes Lead, Education Reform, Health Education England); Dr Elena Bechberger (National Programme Director – LVHC Programme, NHS England and NHS Improvement); Claire Igoe (Head of Environmental Sustainability - Manchester University FT) and Vinice Thomas (Director of Nursing and Quality, NHS England and NHS Improvement).
Following the intense and in-depth judging process, Medefer was shortlisted, ahead of the official awards ceremony to be held next year (24th March). Standing out amongst tough competition from hundreds of other exemplary applicants, Medefer and Isle of Wight have been selected based on their ambition, visionary spirit and the demonstrable positive impact that their project has had on patient and staff experiences within the health sector.
About the project
In July 2020, the Trust commissioned Medefer to help deliver its virtual outpatient services as part of a proactive Covid-19 recovery programme. The Trust’s primary concern was managing the clinical risk of closing outpatient services during the pandemic due to the emergency reallocation of clinical staff. Teams from Medefer and the Trust worked collaboratively to deliver a virtual patient pathway across urology, gastroenterology and gynaecology.
Headline results for the first eight months of the service going live include: 5800+ referrals, with average new referral triage of 35 hours from referral; 41% of outpatients were returned to their GP and 59% were seen in hospital. However, given that 63% of patients that are not discharged after first review will not need an outpatient appointment, the overall rate is expected to be that 47% of patients will have avoided needing an outpatient appointment altogether. Critically 2.7% of patients were quickly upgraded onto 2 Week Waiting/Rapid access pathways.
“This is a wonderful acknowledgement of the relentless drive from our team to improve patient outcomes over the past 18 months. Healthcare has faced challenges on multiple fronts and our staff have worked tirelessly to respond to the needs of our community. This is recognition that those efforts are indeed considered best practice, and everyone involved should be proud of this achievement,” commented Victoria Lauchlan, Director of Operations Isle of Wight NHS Trust.
Joe Smyth, Chief Operating Officer for the IOW NHS Trust added “Our partnership between our NHS Consultants and Medefer has meant thousands of Isle of Wight patients have had their clinical care far sooner than would otherwise have been possible. The Medefer team are able to order tests at the hospital and request a local face to face appointment for patients who need to be seen urgently by a Trust Consultant, avoiding unnecessary long waits. Working with Medefer has meant that throughout Covid we have been able to restore outpatient care to pre-pandemic levels and see similar numbers of patients as previously”
”Bahman Nedjat-Shokouhi, CEO Medefer, commented: “This shortlisting is the result of two organisations working collaboratively towards a shared vision - to develop a service that runs well for everyone, delivering quality care for patients within days, supporting local consultants and GPs, and producing value and efficiency for the Isle of Wight Trust and its wider stakeholders. Thank you to the Isle of Wight Trust and the CCG for having the vision and mindset to transform patient pathways against a backdrop of very testing times.”
The full list of nominees for the HSJ Partnership Awards 2022 can be found on https://partnership.hsj.co.uk/finalists-2022
The selected winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at Westminster Park Plaza, London on March 24th 2022
