Patient experience of delays in Hospital Treatment Pathways

Patient experience of delays in Hospital Treatment Pathways -

The project outputs propose to inform on health, care, and support services needed for “Patients in waiting” for hospital treatment and seek to recommend improvements to ensure an “Integrated Care Service” experience for patients going forwards.

The project aims to look at pathway experiences of “Patients in waiting” for hospital treatment (i.e., referred from primary care services, awaiting hospital treatment):

  • impacts of delays in hospital treatment on health and well-being

  • interim health, care, and support services

  • communication, information, and contact points

  • progressing delayed hospital treatment

  •   preparation for hospital treatment

  •   treatment pathway options

Additionally, Healthwatch Sandwell intends to work collaboratively with Healthier Futures to explore the picture of hip treatment pathways in Sandwell. Data indicates that there are inequalities in treatment routes and timeframes for hip conditions between deprived and affluent areas of Sandwell. The project will seek to identify and engage with people across areas of Sandwell with a hip condition irrespective of whether they have been referred to secondary care.

The project plan is to identify and engage with residents of Sandwell who are on a waiting list for hospital treatment or operation or have a hip condition. A general questionnaire will be created to capture a picture of the overall experience and position for “patients in waiting” focused on the outputs listed above. The questionnaire will promote Focus Group conversation events.

Focus Group conversations with “patients in waiting” will be organised and held to look in more depth at:

  • Waiting for hospital treatment – “What health, care and support services are needed?”

  • Planning for hospital treatment – “What does good preparation look like?”

  • Hip condition treatment pathways (co-hosted with Healthier Futures) – “Is hip condition treatment consistent across Sandwell?” (tbc)

  • TBC – possibly a further group with a focus on inequality of access to services (yet to be identified/confirmed)

Individual interviews will be held with some willing patients to gain deeper insight and create case studies.

The project is seeking to engage with relevant members of the public of Sandwell rather than the whole population. It is proposed to seek to pre-identify individuals where possible and routes to targeting access to individuals or groups. The project requires collaborative working with key stakeholders, the project report outputs should provide useful insight for primary, secondary, and care services within Sandwell and could help inform the Black Country Integrated Care System. The communications and action plan outlines key steps in the project scoping phase.

Working with key stakeholders a range of engagement methods and tools are proposed to be used to promote and achieve engagement in the project and to capture additional insight such as:

  • Verbal feedback through direct engagement

  • Communication Boards

  •   Pop up conversation booths

  • Social media insight capture

  •   Written/audio/video case story submissions

For more information or to express an interest in being involved in the project: 

Patient experience of delays in Hospital Treatment Pathways please contact: 

Sophie Shuttlewood, Projects and Partnerships Lead, Healthwatch Sandwell.  

Email: Sophie.shuttlewood@healthwatchsandwell.co.uk  Tel: 07732 683483 

ECS