Virtual clinician support service avoids unnecessary patient waits

The Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) referral hub at Whiston Hospital – part of Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust – is a clinically-led patient streaming service, which primary care, community clinicians and ambulance staff can use as a single point of access to discuss their patients and collectively agree a decision about the best course of care, prior to a hospital attendance.

The MDT hub is delivered as a virtual offer, with calls taken via video call and staffed by the hospital’s Urgent Care Consultants and Advanced Clinical Practitioners from Monday to Friday between 8am and 8pm. The team provides a rapid response, and always aim to answer all calls within a maximum of two minutes.

The Hub has been live since 13 March 2023, and to date has handled nearly 3,800 calls to provide advice and support to clinicians. It is helping patients to:

• get the right care, at the right place – first time
• avoid unnecessary hospital attendance
• avoid long waits in ED when they are taken to hospital, since they can be referred straight to the right speciality ward

Some of the key patient groups that the service supports include:

• Medical or surgical same day emergency care
• Acute or community frailty services
• COPD / respiratory care

Improved outcomes so far include:

• 76% of all patients assessed by the hub have been referred straight to a specialty assessment unit or clinic, bypassing the need to attend the Emergency Department (ED).
• 76% of all patients have been referred into community services or managed at home, avoiding an unnecessary hospital attendance completely. This is equivalent to nearly 900 saved hours of patient time (based on the average length of stay for a non-admitted patient).
• Just 28.47% of patients assessed by the hub were directed to attend the ED, and since these patients were pre-triaged by the MDT, they also benefitted from a reduced length of stay (an average of 2hrs 52 mins less per patient). This equates to a total saving of 6,831 patient hours.