NHS Highland video service discussed at international conference
The thinking behind NHS Near Me was outlined at the International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, held in Glasgow.
During a keynote speech lead officer Clare Morrison spoke about how it is addressing challenges faced in delivering health care across a sparsely populated area.
"One area is out-patient appointments," she said. "Most take place in our main hospital in Inverness. That’s fine if you live nearby, but in the rest of the Highlands, it’s a very different story.
"If you’re relatively healthy, then it means taking a day off work to attend your hospital appointment – an inconvenience but not the end of the world.
"But if you are frail or in pain, then the journey is a real challenge. Patients describe taking several days to recover afterwards."
The Near Me service provides video links to consultants or other specialists and talking about the set-up at Caithness General Hospital in early 2018 she said: "We spent six months co-designing the service with clinicians, patients and staff involved in outpatient services.
"This co-design was essential, as was the principle of testing small so we could quickly change the service multiple times until it worked for everyone involved."
Patients can "attend" appointments at home or in a local Near Me clinic.
Clare said: "One of the things we found during the test phase was that not every patient has a smartphone, so clinics were set up which ensured equitable access. We started with one clinic and now we have 13 across the Highlands.
"Patients can attend outpatient appointments for up to 19 different clinical specialities, including haematology, oncology, colorectal, psychology, and the numbers grows every day.
"Patients told us they wanted a simple system so every patient, no matter where they are or which specialist they are consulting, enters via a single point of entry website where they are greeted by a receptionist – a real person – as if they have walked through the hospital door. The receptionist then transfers them to a virtual waiting room for their specialist."
"We are still in the scaling up process, but we have a couple of services providing about 15 per cent of outpatient appointments by NHS Near Me Highland-wide; and in our starting location of Caithness 10 per cent of all out-patient appointments are now provided by NHS Near Me."
