…The Vital Solution to a Burnt Out Workforce and Waiting List Like Never Before
There is little doubt that the NHS’s digital system is in dire need of modernisation. In an age where businesses and organisations across the country operate digitally and remotely, the NHS falls notably short of the new common standard. Even now, it frequently relies on long-outdated technology – fax machines were only phased out of use in 2020. The current way of working is, in many ways, unsustainable.
Over the course of 13 years spent working at the heart of the NHS as a surgeon, I gained first-hand experience of the administrative barriers which prevent our healthcare system from functioning to its best ability. As readers will know, healthcare principally works as a combination of primary and secondary care, whereby the primary care worker (e.g., a GP, a paramedic or optometrist) makes the initial diagnosis, before referring you to a secondary care specialist (e.g., me, an ear, throat and nose surgeon) who works in a hospital.
It goes without saying, that communication is a fundamental part of the process. Yet there is one major catch – the entire process is either analogue, relying on traditional letters, or dependent on emails or other clunky technology to connect primary and secondary care workers.
We can all agree that this is an archaic method of communication. Emails often end up being printed rather than integrated electronically with patients’ records – leading to tedious duplication and wasting both the care worker and the patient’s time. Worse still, in the cases which require urgent attention, the cost of avoidable delay can be fatal.
What’s more, by the nature of their job a GP’s expertise is drawn from their broader knowledge of medical practice, rather than the unusual or minute detail – this is what specialists are for – deep knowledge of their speciality. So, if the GP is unsure of the exact diagnosis or treatment plan, the current system makes it very hard to refer the patient straight to the correct specialist. As a consequence, within patients are often sent from one department to another, at great waste of time and money. Even more crucially, referrals are often made on a precautionary basis when, with the right specialist advice, they could have been prescribed the right treatment by the GP in their surgery to avoid placing an often-unnecessary burden on NHS staff at a time when their services have never been more stretched, or more critical.
In short, the system has no place in the modern world of remote, collaborative working, and is undermining the heroic work of the NHS.
We need to modernise the technology of triage. It became clear to me during my time on the front line that med-tech would lead the way towards a better resourced, more efficient NHS. It was an inevitability, and something I knew I had to be part of. For this reason, I developed Cinapsis, a smart referrals platform which integrates patient data and works as the much-needed digital link between clinicians working in primary and secondary care, allowing patients to receive efficient and accurate diagnoses without having to make unnecessary hospital visits. We are already well on the way to achieving what we set out to do. In one NHS trust we have already reduced A&E visits by 83% and cut the time specialist doctors spend on triage by half.
By avoiding unnecessary hospital visits and implementing a sophisticated system of triage technology, you also free up the NHS’s invaluable time to treat the most time-sensitive cases. The British Medical Association estimates that, while the NHS battled with Covid-19 between April 2020 and March 2021, there were 3.37 million fewer elective procedures and 21.4 million fewer outpatient attendances. The pandemic has left in its wake a case backlog of over 5 million people. That’s 5 million people, many with life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, who currently have no access to the treatment they so urgently require.
The risk is the negative feedback loop that can be created. As frontline workers become swamped by caseload through precautionary or inaccurate diagnoses and referrals, their ability to perform well in their jobs is impacted. Needless to say, in a profession in which performance can mean the difference between life and death, this is very concerning.
Here the vicious cycle continues – as increasing numbers of NHS staff succumb to exhaustion, more staff become unable to work. According to a report by the Nuffield Trust earlier this year, the staff shortage rate in April 2020 was the highest since records began in 2007. Concerningly, this exceeds even levels typically seen during the winter peak. The more staff that are unable to work, the greater the pressure becomes on those remaining, and ultimately the less time and attention they are able to dedicate to individual patients, despite their best efforts. It’s simple – if we do not look after our NHS workers, they cannot look after us.
While the Government’s call to ‘Stay Home, Save Lives’ has eased over the past year and has an end in sight, ‘Protect the NHS’ will remain a priority for many years to come. As our frontline staff continue to battle through the pent-up backlog of operations, appointments and as yet unmade diagnoses, it will be more vital than ever that we show our support if we wish for the NHS to continue to provide the high quality service we depend upon.
The NHS has been under immense pressure since long before the coronavirus entered the UK – the pandemic has simply served to highlight the cracks in the system. I cannot claim to be offering a cure-all solution – the backlog will take years to clear and much needs to be done to address the issues facing frontline workers. However, it seems to me that improving vital communications at the heart of the system is a good place to start. Going forwards, I hope that we are able to take what has been the greatest challenge we have collectively faced for two generations, and use the experience to provide the NHS with the support it deserves.
Article be Dr Owain Hughes, Founder and CEO of Cinapsis