2022 – A year in review

We released our seven-year ‘anniversary’ report. The data is the most complete record of the impact of Enhanced Advice & Guidance on the NHS. As well as the fact that we are now covering over 38 million patients across the UK, key highlights include:

Over 1,000,000 Telephone Advice & Guidance calls placed via Consultant Connect, with:

• 67% of calls to elective specialties result in the patient avoiding a trip to hospital
• 55% advice calls to urgent care specialties avoid an admission
• 36% of calls from ambulance staff avoid unnecessary patient conveyances

Over 1,000,000 dermatology photos have been taken using our app, with:

• 67% of photo messages sessions to Dermatology result in the patient avoiding a trip to hospital
• 28% of photos attached to e-RS 2WW referral result in the patient avoiding a trip to hospital

Advice & Guidance means that patients can have the input of a hospital specialist without having to wait for an outpatient appointment or go to A&E. If a patient does need to go to the hospital, though, the specialist will be able to tell the patient’s GP, and ensure the patients go to the right team in the right place for their care.

Find out more and access the full report.

Our solutions have been adopted and applied to the continued challenges we face. Some of our approaches have been rolled out in as little as 72 hours, meaning they can still make an impact this winter. Find out more.

Since January 2021, Consultant Connect has been part of the Teladoc Group – the global leader in whole-person virtual care.

Teladoc myStrength has two access points – the emotional wellness section designed for people (16+) and a Mental Health section for people (18+) who need structured Mental Health programmes for anxiety and depression. The Mental Health section is accessed by GP prescription only.

The launch of the Teladoc myStrength in South Yorkshire caught the attention of the press. Find out more.

State-of-the-art ‘virtual presence’ devices allow a specialist clinician to deliver critical support to colleagues without being physically at the patient’s bedside.

The versatility of the devices allows for them to be effectively deployed over a range of healthcare settings.

Current examples of usage include large multi-site NHS Trusts, such as University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust (UHL), who have optimised their available clinicians, cut down travel time between sites, reduced emissions, and increased patient-facing time – improving chances of earlier discharge.

For more information, click here.

This integration means that all Primary Care Consultant Connect activity and data can be automatically logged in the patient’s record. A Primary Care clinician must enter a valid NHS number for their patient for this to work. This applies to:

• All photos that Primary Care clinicians save via Consultant Connect
• All closed Messaging Advice & Guidance sessions that Primary Care clinicians have shared with a specialist and subsequently have an outcome left
• All Telephone Advice & Guidance calls between Primary Care clinicians and specialists placed via Consultant Connect that have an outcome left

For Practice Administrators, this integration has removed the need for the process to be conducted manually.

This, in turn, frees up valuable clinical and administrative time whilst also ensuring accurate documentation of a patient’s condition/concern.

*Please note that integration is currently only available in England.

We recognised the achievements of our NHS colleagues:

•  ‘NHS Advice & Guidance: Best Overall Projects 2022’  – find out more about the winners and their stories.
•  ‘Special Achievement 2022′ – find out more about the winners and their stories.

We brought the health experts to you in our free online webinars. Our speakers shared their expertise and practical advice on:

• Paediatrics – Suspected Childhood Cancer (2WW) New Pathway
• Efficiency gains in urgent and elective care pathways | what works?
• Using Consultant Connect for Ophthalmology Advice & Guidance
• New Innovative Pathways in NHS Scotland
• Validation, Triage and PIFU pathways in Elective Care – best practice examples

You can access all our previous webinar recordings and sign up for future webinars here.

Below are just some of the articles we were featured in:

• Digital Health: Industry news in brief: Consultant Connect platform helps avoid unnecessary hospital trips
• Smart Futures: One million calls between primary carers
• London Daily News: Monkeypox advice line set up for GPs
• Femtech world: Menopause waiting list reduced by remote consultant pilot scheme
• Oxford Mail: Oxford tech company Consultant Connect helps NHS to reduce waiting lists
• Maddyness: Meet Consultant Connect, the platform connecting GPs and consultants to reduce patient waiting times
• ITV Calendar Watch | ITV Calendar: Teladoc myStrength Emotional Wellness App available to over 16s in South Yorkshire
• Warwickshire world: New health technology can cut out 50 per cent of unnecessary A&E referrals for the over 80s in south Warwickshire

You can access all the articles, audio and video clips we were featured in on our ‘In The Press’ page.

Consultant Connect services can now be procured via two new Frameworks:

• G-Cloud 13 – Lot 2: Cloud Software
• Insourced Services to Support the Provision of Healthcare (including Clinical Insourcing)

Getting on to these frameworks requires a lot of hard work. Approved suppliers are evaluated against rigorous criteria, meaning your procurement department has a more straightforward job when looking for a compliant procurement process with a reliable partner. You can find out more here.

We’ve been shortlisted for two Awards:

• South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust and Consultant Connect: ensuring frail older adults in crisis receive the right care at the right time and in the right place, finalists for the HealthTech Partnership of the Year Award.
• 6 NHS Trusts/Hospitals and our Referral Triage service: eliminating long waits and ensuring patients are seen in priority order and at the place most suitable for their care finalists for the Best Elective Care Recovery Initiative Award.

We will be continuing to support hospitals in reducing their RTT waiting times by using the expertise of the NHS consultants on our National Consultant Network (NCN). We expect that our Clinical Validation service, also delivered by the NCN, will support more areas with validating follow up lists to ensure patients are seen/discharged in the most appropriate way (F2F, virtual, discharged to PIFU etc.). Find out more.

When Consultant Connect first started providing rapid Advice & Guidance to the NHS it was just GPs that used the service. We are now providing access to a wider range of medics and community healthcare providers, such as; Paramedics, Nurses, Pharmacists, Nurse Prescribers, Dentists, Mental Health Clinicians, and Social Workers via Telephone, Messaging and Photo Messaging.

Why? Advice & Guidance from Consultant Connect solves the difficulty of contacting the right person when timely advice is really needed – especially if a patient’s needs are complex or urgent.

In 2023 we are expecting Advice & Guidance coverage to expand significantly as NHS areas communicate with an even wider range of stakeholders.