Planned care

Planned care is the name the NHS gives to health services and treatments that are required following a referral from your GP or another community health professional. Appointments and treatments, including surgery are pre-arranged and planned in advance.

Our vision for planned care is a clear treatment pathway for your health condition which is easy to access and understand.

We will make improvements in the way referrals to specialists are managed from your GP or care provider, ensuring all patients are sent to the person best able to address their needs first time.

We will support specialist clinicians to deliver the right course of treatment in a timely way and without unnecessary red tape.

We want to ensure the systems and processes supporting a patient journey in planned care have support from primary and community services instead of in a hospital setting where possible. What does this mean?

By reducing the number of inappropriate referrals, improving the quality of care in the community, supporting the preventative care agenda and focusing our services in the best possible place, we will reduce waiting times and reduce the number of cancelled operations.

Example

Transforming Outpatient Care

One of the commitments of the NHS Long Term Plan is to transform outpatient services. We have established a programme of work that will:

– Improve and standardise outpatient services at our three hospitals so that patients have a better experience

– Offer different methods of consultation to suit the needs of our patients e.g. through digital channels.

– Improve the responsiveness of our services and ensure that we have the capacity to deliver outpatient services closer to home.