Our consultant-led long waiter Referral Triage and Validation service is supporting systems across the country. Cases are prioritised according to urgency, and patients receive treatment plans ahead of their appointment for a large majority of cases (our data shows that 30%-45% of long-waiters receive treatment plans ahead of their first outpatient appointment). This leads to some patients no longer needing their appointment and better informed first appointments (as treatment has commenced/ diagnostics have been performed).
Alongside a number of our NHS partners, this service has recently been shortlisted for the Best Elective Care Recovery Initiative at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2023 for eliminating long waits whilst ensuring patients are seen in priority order, in the place most suitable for their care.
How it works
The service uses the expertise of the NHS consultants from our National Consultant Network (NCN) and is available to work through backlogs in bulk or back-up local clinicians (for backlogs and/or new referrals as they come in). The service can also be used for clinical validation. All consultants work as part of the local team and are briefed to follow local protocols and pathways.
Our switch-on/switch-off model means as local capacities change, the service can be reduced or turned off completely with 72 hours notice.
Referral Triage project examples
Below are examples and results from recent projects across different specialties:
50% of cardiology referrals no longer need outpatient appointment
Outcomes and impact of 1,000 Cardiology referrals triaged:
The data shows that 250 Cardiology referrals were sent back to GPs with Advice & Guidance and 29% (290) of the referrals were booked for diagnostics only. This represents a significant freeing up of outpatient capacity with over 50% of the referrals reviewed not requiring a first outpatient appointment. Although some patients may require an outpatient appointment after having diagnostics, this will be on a more informed basis with the additional information from the investigations being available to clinicians. As a result of this 7-week review of 1,000 Cardiology referrals, waiting times were reduced from 48 weeks to 41 weeks.
Read the Referral Triage in Norfolk case study.
32% of gynaecology (menopause) referrals returned to Primary Care with written Advice & Guidance
Outcomes and impact of two Gynaecology waiting list triage pilots:
Gynaecology (Menopause) waiting list triaged – Pilot Area 1:
- 64% of referrals are booked directly into a routine outpatient appointment
- 4% of referrals upgraded to a two-week-wait (2WW) pathway
- 32% are returned to GPs in primary care with advice
Gynaecology (non-Menopause) waiting list triaged – Pilot Area 2:
- 87% of referrals are booked directly into a routine outpatient appointment
- 1% of referrals upgraded to a two-week-wait (2WW) pathway
- 4% of referrals are upgraded to urgent and booked directly into an outpatient appointment
- 9% are returned to GPs in primary care with advice
Read the ‘Tackling gynaecology waiting lists’ blog article.
25% of ENT referrals returned to clinicians in Primary Care with Advice & Guidance
Outcomes and impact of ENT waiting list triage:
- 25% of ENT referrals were returned to clinicians in Primary Care with Advice & Guidance
- 6% of ENT referrals were marked as urgent and prioritised for a consultation, either with or without additional diagnostics
- 1% of ENT referrals were upgraded to a two-week wait (2WW) pathway
For the full breakdown of the outcomes of the triage work, read our article.
15% of urology referrals returned to Primary Care with written Advice & Guidance
Outcomes and impact of Urology waiting list triage:
- 15% of urology referrals were returned to clinicians in Primary Care with Advice & Guidance
- 19% of urology referrals were marked as urgent and prioritised for a consultation, either with or without additional diagnostics
- 1% of urology referrals were upgraded to a two-week wait (2WW) pathway
For the full breakdown of the outcomes of the triage work, read our article.
NHS areas using our Referral triage service comment:
“Those patients that did need to be seen were triaged into urgent and routines, and into whether they needed to be seen face-to-face or virtually. We’ve managed to reduce the demand, but also managed to fast-track patients who are potentially acutely unwell into the hospital for urgent treatments.”
“Our work with Consultant Connect has been incredibly effective in driving more efficient patient pathways and ensuring the most effective use of our clinical resources. The operational team have always been very responsive and flexible to our needs, and all the clinicians who delivered the referral triage provided excellent input, in some cases going above and beyond the ask and offering suggestions as to how we could improve our patient pathways to reduce the time to diagnosis and treatment. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with Consultant Connect in the coming months to support our work to reduce the time our patients are waiting for their initial consultation or diagnosis.”
“As an ICB we have worked closely with Consultant Connect and our Provider Organisations for referral validation and triage. Consultant Connect are a responsive and professional organisation. They have gone out of their way to provide timely support and services to set this project up.
They always have been flexible to our needs working around our systems and processes to help deliver our projects. Their team of staff are friendly and knowledgeable and always engage to provide the best service possible.
They deliver a service in the background that has assisted us to improve the delivery of our services and ultimately more timely care to our patients.”
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