People who need urgent treatment will soon be able to benefit from an online ‘streaming tool’ which aims to reduce waiting times and make sure those who need immediate attention are seen first.
The new system launched at the urgent treatment centre at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital will take patient details via a smart device when they arrive and, depending on their illness or injury, provide a time to come back and be seen.
The idea is that people who need immediate attention got straight in, whilst those who can wait a short time are asked to come back later.
Dr Georgina Robertson, Clinical lead for Emergency Medicine at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, explained: “This new system will be launched on Monday, 14 February, and replicates the streaming tool in place at the urgent care centre at Burnley General Teaching Hospital, which has been a great success.
“The benefits to patients are clear. In the first week it was working in Burnley 682 patients provided their details via the smart device and 630 were given an allotted appointment time to come back.
“Alongside this, the average time to triage each patient was 15 and a half minutes, with time waiting to see a clinician averaging at 46 minutes. This is a real improvement to this service. We also consistently managed 95 per cent of non-admitted patients at Burnley within four hours, which is the national standard. This is a really positive step forward in urgent and emergency care.”
Dr Robertson added: “I want to add that the tool is secure so any information shared is protected.”
“We have seen huge demand for our services and in particular urgent and emergency care recently and I would urge everyone to use our services appropriately. In future, we are hoping to use the streaming tool to redirect patients attending urgent care or the emergency department to the most appropriate service so checking with NHS 111 online first is always recommended.”
Urgent treatment centres are for conditions suitable for an urgent assessment or urgent appointment, such as minor injuries (including head), sprains, cuts and scrapes, bites, eye problems and rising temperatures.