2024 – Our biggest hits

Published: 2nd January 2025
As we start a new year, it’s the perfect time to reflect on an incredible 2024 for Consultant Connect.
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As we start a new year, it’s the perfect time to reflect on an incredible 2024 for Consultant Connect. From launching innovative new service features to triaging more referrals and significantly reducing RTT times, our team has been at the forefront of transforming patient care. Our partnership with South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust, which won a prestigious industry award, and our quick rollout of impactful new projects further highlights our commitment to delivering exceptional healthcare solutions. Read on as we celebrate these achievements and look ahead to how we’ll continue driving positive change this year and beyond.

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What our Advice & Guidance benchmarking data can tell you

We released our ninth 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 42 million patients across the UK, key highlights include:

 

Two million Telephone Advice & Guidance calls placed via Consultant Connect, with:

 

  • 70% of calls to elective specialties result in the patient avoiding a trip to hospital
  • 54% of calls to urgent care specialties avoid an admission
  • 53% of calls from ambulance staff avoid unnecessary patient conveyances

 

Over three million photos have been taken using our app, with:

 

  • One million photos taken in 2024 alone
  • 63% of photo message sessions to Dermatology result in the patient avoiding an unnecessary trip to hospital
  • 39% of photos attached to e-RS 2WW referrals result in the patient being discharged at triage before attending 2WW hospital appointments

 

Rapid 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 that the patient goes to the right team in the right place for their care.

We launched e-RS Connect: A&G Worklists

2024 saw the inception of e-RS Connect – the quickest way for secondary care clinicians to view, respond to and action e-RS Advice & Guidance (A&G) worklists. As they would on the e-RS platform, the feature enables specialists to use Consultant Connect to convert the A&G request to a referral, ask for more information, or return the request with advice.

 

It’s quick and easy to use, with no training needed. Specialists can do everything they can in e-RS but 2-4 times faster, attachments/photos can be viewed on-screen, there is no need to download individual files, and activity reports can be exported immediately.

 

The Haematology Team at South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust was the first specialty team to respond to all requests for e-RS A&G via our new e-RS Connect interface and has embraced the switch, winning them a Consultant Connect Award.

Desktop Calling was switched on

The Desktop Calling feature launched early in the year, enabling NHS clinicians in participating areas to call for specialist input via their computers. The functionality was designed to allow users working in areas with poor mobile signal to access timely advice, with the additional benefit of allowing clinicians to manage Consultant Connect activity from one place. Clinicians simply log in to Consultant Connect in their browser using their credentials for the app or, for users in Scotland, log in via Single Sign-On (SSO).

We triaged more than 70,000 referrals

Our clinically-led Referral Triage and Validation service has continued to support hospital trusts needing additional temporary capacity for referrals. The service uses the clinical expertise of NHS consultants across all main elective care specialties from our National Consultant Network (NCN). Working remotely as ‘virtual locums’, they follow local pathways and protocols, and, under the leadership of the local clinical leads, support with triaging and validating waiting list backlogs in bulk and/or new referrals as they come in. They can also be brought in to review and validate follow-up lists to ensure patients are seen/discharged in the most appropriate way (e.g., face-to-face, virtual, discharged to PIFU pathways, etc.).

 

To date, we’ve triaged more than 70,000 referrals in 17 NHS specialties across 22 NHS Trusts, safely reducing waiting lists by an average of 33%.

The fifth annual Consultant Connect Awards

We continued our yearly tradition of the Consultant Connect Awards which celebrate the achievements of our NHS colleagues:

2024 webinars

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

For more information

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01865 261 467 or email hello@consultantconnect.org.uk.

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