Slashed Waiting Times and Carbon Emissions
Back in 2018, The Office of National Statistics pointed out that there is growing pressure on the NHS to transform services and look at innovative ways to make efficiency gains, whilst improving performance and enhancing patient experience. The high volumes of referrals to UHP’s skin service were beginning to cause long waits for benign and malignant diagnoses, but the UHP’s pioneering Skin Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialists have significantly reduced these waiting times by switching to telephone appointments.
Patient suitability for a nurse led telephone clinic is now assessed following a histology review by a consultant and an appropriate follow up plan is identified. Feedback from the patients concluded that telephone consultation is often more convenient and less stressful for patients as the anxiety associated with attending appointments face to face is eliminated. Patients were also appreciative of the reduction in waiting time for their follow up appointment. Indeed, prior to switching to telephone consultations, the high volumes of referrals caused waiting times of up to:
- Six months for a benign / pre-cancerous histological diagnosis
- Three months for a malignant diagnosis
In contrast, the waiting times for malignant lesions has now reduced to 1 month and benign lesions to 2 months. What a difference!
From a sustainability perspective, carrying out 460 telephone consultations rather than face to face appointments saved 3.6 tCO2e of carbon emissions and approximately £5,900 in patient fuel costs. This is due to the reduced travel to the hospital and patient footfall onsite. As such, these nurse-led telephone consultations are supporting the Trust’s aim to reduce our carbon footprint by 20% by 2025.
Nurses Sarah and Sarah-Jane displayed their findings at the UKONS (UK Oncology Nurse Specialist) conference on 17th-18th November. Go team!
Have a sustainability success story to share with us? Get in touch plh-tr.sustainability@nhs.net
