The NHS response to Covid-19 has been widely praised and there are signs that concerns of the service being overwhelmed won't materialise. Many now feel it is time to start switching our attention to the elective backlog. We have started working on this and will be releasing analytics, tools and methodologies as part of our free Digital Coaching toolkit for the NHS to conduct their own Outpatients Recovery Programme.
The operational challenges
Trusts need to examine scenarios that they are now faced with. Compared to life before Covid-19, it is much less predictable. The usual impact of prioritisation, changes in working practices and disruption to the workforce are usually reflected within the historical trends that most Trusts rely on for capacity planning. However, when nothing is normal during Covid-19, with no clear end in sight, it becomes more difficult to plan based on historical trends.
The usual capacity levers that are available to the NHS are also being limited as clinicians and clinical resources for outpatients are diverted to maintain a safe capacity to deal with any Covid-19 related surges.
Trusts that are ahead of the game and have started working on estimating the number of patients they might have will be moving onto the next stage of their planning:
- Understanding the capacity they now need for outpatients appointments;
- Working out how best to prioritise their patients; and
- Identifying the levers that are still available to them.
This planning is in the full knowledge that the existing capacity will not allow them to see all their patients in a reasonable timeframe. So, how best can they reduce the overall waiting time for the majority of their patients?
The considerations for Outpatients Recovery
Trusts will need to understand the impact of Covid-19 on their elective patients and the outpatient services. They will need assessment tools that can reflect, quickly and easily, changing assumptions and better information into any planning process.
Next, Trusts will need an agile programme management approach that is based around a strong continuous improvement culture to enable them to move quickly, react appropriately and improve through regular iterations.
Free materials and toolkits for the NHS
"As Digital Coaches to the public sector and organisations delivering positive impact to society, we believe the organisations we support should have access to free material and toolkit to help themselves."
To support Outpatients Recovery, we are will be releasing free material and toolkits, available digitally, that can be tailored to your organisation’s digital readiness. The initial toolkit will include:
- Complete agile continuous improvement methodology to manage Outpatients Recovery
- Outpatients Recovery Management tool that helps Outpatient Managers understand outpatients demand and capacity in this new and challenging environment
- Microsoft Teams enabled recovery programme collaboration tool that helps Trust co-ordinate and manage the entire Outpatients Recovery Programme remotely
Our free materials and toolkits are based on best practice operational guidelines provided by NHS Improvement, agile continuous improvement methodologies tailored for healthcare and our team’s decades of experience in supporting NHS operational teams manage demand and capacity.
Anyone with an NHS email address can have access to any Digital Coaching material we release. So please grab a nice cuppa, breathe and let us help you through your Outpatients Recovery.