Recognition for our volunteer work in ophthalmology
Noel Burkett, our director of transformation, improvement and programme management, recently attended a meeting at the House of Commons hosted by Anne Dixon MP (Lab, Shipley) on the subject of ‘Unlocking the Power of Volunteering’.
At this event, our Trust received special recognition for work we have done with the Hillingdon-based care partnership, H4All, on a scheme for checking in on people waiting for ophthalmology appointments.
Here Noel describes in his own words how the scheme is set up.
“The project focused on areas with high levels of deprivation and health inequity. The initial focus was on ophthalmology which had a high level of missed appointments, with potentially significant consequences if people don’t get the right treatment at the right time.
“We established what could be called a community based call centre, to help people ‘wait well’.
“We used volunteers to call patients, to understand how the patient has been managing while waiting, and any difficulties they have in accessing their appointment.
“The volunteers take any necessary actions, such as providing guidance about the appointment, reassuring patients, and identifying any necessary referrals to community services. Additionally, volunteers helped patients access appointments by arranging transport, an interpreter or asking the clinical lead to contact the patient.
“An ophthalmology clinical lead was seconded (funded externally) to the project from the Trust and was instrumental in supporting the volunteers.
“We saw a 22% relative reduction in the level of missed appointments, from a 12.8% to a 10% DNA rate.
“There was emerging evidence of a positive impact on health inequalities with a 38% reduction among patients in the most deprived part of the target area. Most importantly, we have seen significant positive feedback from patients.
“We are working to gather further information and understand the reasons for missed appointments, with initial feedback around an inability to get through on the phone, to changing appointments, information on patient letters causing confusion with regard to appointments, and the patient having no transport to get to an appointment.
“We are still running the ophthalmology pilot and are now developing plans to run a similar pilot within the urology service.
“If you are interested to hear more or would like to see about getting your speciality engaged with this project, or any project that can be supported by volunteers and our colleagues at H4All, please let me know.”
Noel can be emailed on noel.burkett1@nhs.net.