Striving to better streamline care
Enabling service users to see multiple healthcare professionals in a single appointment
Solent NHS Trust’s Musculoskeletal (MSK) service recently held their first community assessment day at the Adelaide Health Centre in Southampton. The event, which has been previously trialled by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, addresses the backlog of routine appointments by inviting patients to be seen by various healthcare professionals on the same day.
On the day, patients were greeted by the admin team and seated in a waiting area, where they were given a booklet which would detail their journey throughout the day.
Patients were asked to document their reason(s) for attending, their concerns, what help they had already received, whether they have tried to manage the condition themselves, and what were their expectations of what help they needed. This information formed the conversation for their first station which was a shared decision-making station with a therapist to obtain a history and highlight which other stations on the day may be of use.
In total, there were five stations including a rehabilitation station which showed patients how to combat their problems via targeted exercises in the gym.
Community partners who attended on the day included Active Nation, The Saints Foundation, Solent University Exercise Referral Clinic, Versus Arthritis, Steps 2 Wellbeing and Keeping Pace, in addition to a number of services provided by Solent including podiatry, community independence service, persistent pain team, fibromyalgia service, bladder and bowel service and the community engagement team.
Callum Dixon, MSK Operational Lead, said: “As it was the first time hosting this event, we viewed it as an opportunity to learn. Whilst there are a few things we would do differently if repeated, the feedback we received was hugely positive. Patients valued being able to see multiple healthcare professionals in a single appointment, and frequently praised the quality of care that they received.”
The event saw a total of 406 patients which in return has reduced waiting lists by 6 weeks.
Callum added: “This is an incredible achievement and was only made possible by the multitude of people involved in the planning and delivery of this event. I will continue to monitor data in the coming months; I am keen to understand the long-term impact on patients, and to our service. But right now, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. I played a small part in bringing people together. The success of the day was down to every member of the MSK team, and the Solent and community services who came together to make this possible.”