UHNM named as the ‘Biggest Growth Award’ winner in the Consultant Connect annual awards

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust has been praised for almost doubling the number of GPs accessing rapid access to speciality opinions in a bid to help avoid unnecessary attendances to emergency departments and hospital admission.

UHNM was named as the ‘Biggest Growth Award’ winner in the Consultant Connect annual awards. Consultant Connect was launched at Royal Stoke University Hospital in November 2020 and enables GPs from Stoke-on-Trent to connect directly with UHNM hospital specialists, predominantly consultants, to obtain advice and guidance and sign-posting on urgent patient issues, therefore improving patient experience by reducing overcrowding in the hospitals’ waiting areas.

The Trust has seen an 153 % increase in calls from GPs from 2022 to 2023. A large part of the increase is due to the fact that, in May of this year, it was decided that all calls for Ambulatory Emergency Care Admissions must be routed via Consultant Connect. Of all queries received for acute services, only 62% required an admission. Similarly, for calls to elective care, 41% resulted in the patient avoiding a referral or an admission.

Hayley Kassam, Account Manager at Consultant Connect, said: “It is a pleasure to work with the team at UHNM. With an open approach to technology adoption, the team always shares new ways to increase the service offering through Consultant Connect across primary, secondary, community and ambulatory care. There are always new and exciting discussions about how Consultant Connect can be integrated to streamline existing pathways, and the growth this year is a testament to the team’s enthusiasm. Congratulations!