This article was written by Kat James, Director of New Projects at Consultant Connect, for Femtech World. You can read their article here.
Cutting down NHS gynaecology waiting times
Almost 600,000 people in England are waiting for gynaecology treatment. It is clear the current system is not fit for purpose, with patients left in limbo, waiting for weeks and often months to see a specialist.
The NHS, across the board, is struggling to reduce waiting lists, but gynaecology health, in particular, has been sent to the back of the queue. Referral numbers are about 60% higher than pre-pandemic, which represents one of the three highest specialties in terms of volume increase since pre-COVID.
Not only are women left feeling neglected, but longer wait times also result in them needing more complex treatment or even emergency admissions to hospital. Then, there is also the impact on family life, work, and women’s mental health. A survey of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists found that Four-fifths (80%) of women said their mental health has worsened due to the wait and that 1 in 4 of those whose mental health had deteriorated, pain was given as a reason. More than three-quarters (77%) of women said their ability to work or participate in social activities had been negatively impacted.
One of the main stumbling blocks impacting patient waiting times is the disconnect between primary and secondary care. Often, patients who have faced long waits for their appointment are discharged after their first hospital appointment and told that their care is best taken care of by their GPs.
The good news is that new ways of working better connect primary and secondary care and ensure patients receive the right treatment first time. If applied at scale, these solutions considerably reduce waiting lists.
For example, giving GPs immediate access to speak to a consultant on the phone for specialist advice and guidance for their patient. In ordinary circumstances, a GP would have to call the hospital switchboard or send a written advice request which might take days to be answered. Often, these queries would go unanswered or aren’t transferred to the correct department, resulting in patients being referred sometimes unnecessarily or presenting at a busy A&E department.
Technology like Consultant Connect allows GPs to directly ‘hunt down’ a specialist consultant from a pre-defined rota for expert advice via a phone call, ensuring GPs can direct their patients to the right care first time. This service is available for gynaecology in almost 50 NHS areas across the country. In Coventry, for example, a 54-year-old patient presented with obvious advanced gynaecological cancer. While the two-week wait referral had already been made, the GP couldn’t move the appointment sooner than 14 days later. Meanwhile, the patient started deteriorating, and the GP considered an urgent admission. The GP used Consultant Connect and, within seconds, was connected to a gynaecologist, who then arranged for the patient to be scanned that day. The patient got the care they needed and avoided an acute admission.
In June 2023, the service expanded to cover a Menopause Advice & Guidance line as referral data in one local area showed increased referrals relating to menopause-specific questions, many of which did not require to be seen in a hospital setting. This meant that Trusts weren’t seeing patients who needed to be seen, and patients with menopause symptoms were on waiting lists for a prolonged duration without management plans.
With the new Consultant Connect Menopause line, GPs can get through to a consultant with special interest in menopause matters within 26 seconds. Data shows that 87% of calls resulted in the GP receiving ‘enough’ advice for their patient to benefit from an immediate treatment plan via their GP rather than waiting for a hospital appointment with a specialist unnecessarily.
Another way to tackle the wait problem is to leverage remote ways of working, which opens access to a new pool of workforce that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Consultant Connect runs a network of NHS consultants who review gynaecology referrals remotely, with no need to travel to local hospitals and with consultants choosing their own working hours. This is often attractive to consultants who work part-time in hospital or are on parental leave, for example.
For patients, it means they get access to treatment plans faster: The remote working consultant determines the urgency of a referral and writes up a management plan, which means that treatment can start immediately. Often, the health problem can be resolved through this plan, and for those still needing to be seen, it means they come to their first appointment on a more informed basis. At the same time, it ensures patients are on the correct pathway, and any diagnostic test needed for a diagnosis are initiated in a timely manner. Last year, Consultant Connect’s team triaged over 5,000 gynaecology referrals across the UK, resulting in 43% of referrals being safely removed from the waiting list. Many of these patients were returned to their GP with a treatment plan devised by the consultant. By fast-tracking urgent cases, women are not put through unnecessary stress and pain while waiting to be referred to a gynaecologist. Among these referrals, one in ten cases were upgraded to the urgent and suspected cancer pathways.
By reviewing current systems to make them more joined up and to allow for efficient ways of working, we can speed up care for women and make sure that clinicians have the right tools to help the NHS deal with the mounting gynaecology backlog.
For more information:
If you have any questions or want to find out more about how our services could help your NHS area, email: hello@consultantconnect.org.uk or call us: 01865 261 467.
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