Partnership: United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Gastroenterology patients in Lincolnshire will have shorter waits for outpatient appointments thanks to a new partnership
DMC Healthcare is supporting United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) to reduce its longest waiting patients for gastroenterology outpatient appointments. By working together, the aim is that no patients will be waiting longer than 78 weeks for a gastroenterology outpatient appointment. The Trust is continuing to run the service, with support from DMC Healthcare at weekends. DMC was able to rapidly mobilise the weekend service, seeing patients within just two weeks. The first weekend clinic was delivered on 24/25 June and already by the end of July, 250 patients had been seen.
Becky Briggs, Head of Contracting, ULHT
“Working with DMC Healthcare has been a positive experience so far. They are communicative and from the very first discussions to mobilisation, it has been a frictionless process with any concerns rapidly addressed.”
DMC Healthcare had already been running a community dermatology service in Lincolnshire since 2017, so there was a certain degree of knowledge about the organisation within the ULHT business unit. It made sense to ask DMC to set up Gastroenterology Outpatients weekend clinics.
Aims:
Advantages of working with DMC
Through our partnership, ULHT has highlighted key advantages of working with DMC:
Within just 2 weeks from the commencement of initial discussions to the operational launch, DMC and ULHT efficiently completed the entire mobilisation process.
DMC maintains a consistent schedule of meetings prior to and following weekend clinics, ensuring seamless resolution of any potential issues.
Anthony Norman, Consultant gastroenterologist, Head of Service at ULHT
“I have found the engagement with DMC very positive. The mobilisation of the service was rapid and smoothly undertaken. DMC are seeing around 80 patients each weekend. There is simply no way we could have generated that throughput internally. My advice to other Trusts considering outsourcing is to make sure your business units have the IT, admin and the diagnostics lined up before work commences.
Having a single point of contact for both operational and clinical issues is extremely helpful. It is refreshing to see the passion and commitment shown by the individuals we are working with, and I have a great deal of confidence in the quality of the work coming through. With an older patient population, the conversion to diagnostics and discharge is in line with our own outcomes.”
It’s been a pleasure to be able to expand our service beyond community dermatology and rapidly support Lincolnshire further in the field of Gastroenterology Outpatients with our existing, highly skilled team of gastroenterologists. This is very much a partnership and I look forward to helping and supporting the Trust wherever we can.”
Patient Feedback
Although the service is based in Grantham, DMC is supporting patients throughout the county. Patient feedback has been extremely positive so far:
DMC’s recent patient survey also contained many positive patient quotes, including:
Pritika Gupta, COO, DMC Healthcare
“It’s been a pleasure to be able to expand our service beyond community dermatology and rapidly support Lincolnshire further in the field of Gastroenterology Outpatients with our existing, highly skilled team of gastroenterologists. This is very much a partnership and I look forward to helping and supporting the Trust wherever we can.”
