Elective care
We are working to provide more joined up services across primary and secondary care. For example in musculo-skeletal conditions we are introducing ‘First Contact Practitioners’ who will work across both primary and secondary care to improve people’s access to early diagnosis, physiotherapy and hospital (surgical) procedures.
We are also working to transform the way we deliver outpatient care – seeking to increase the number of patients we can see, reducing both long waits for appointments and the inconvenience of outpatient appointments by providing ‘virtual’ appointments through telephone, letter and even ‘skype’.
As we mentioned above we are also working to ensure we take a more personalised approach to elective care services, providing more information to patients to help with their decision making and better support to self-manage their own conditions.