Health and Social Care Secretary has welcomed the NHSE’s My
Planned Care platform.
He said: “This first of its kind platform will give millions of
patients more certainty over their own care no matter who they
are or where they live.
“Alongside new surgical hubs to ramp up operations and Community
Diagnostic Centres to provide faster diagnoses closer to home,
the My Planned Care platform will help us put patients in
control. The NHS is here for you and we want people to come
forward, with this site offering crucial advice ahead of
appointments and operations.
“It’s part of our plan to tackle the COVID backlog, backed by
record investment to deliver 9 million more treatments, scans and
operations by 2024.”
NHS Launches Online Platform To Empower Patients As They
Wait For Care
Millions of patients on the waiting list for NHS care will be
able to access support and check wait times at their fingertips
thanks to a new online platform launching today.
Built in conjunction with patient groups, My Planned Care is one
of the latest measures in a major package of moves by the NHS to
tackle the covid backlog.
The platform will allow patients and their carers to access
information ahead of their planned appointment, operation or
treatment through the touch of a button.
In this first stage, around 5.5 million patients - of the six
million on the total waiting list - will be able to search on the
site to find the average waiting time at their local hospital for
the specialist area they need treatment in.
Data from 137 NHS Trusts across England will be on the site,
hosted by nhs.uk, from today, just two
weeks after the Elective Recovery Plan was published.
The platform will be expanded in the coming months to include
personalised advice and support for patients on the waiting list
to help people stay well while they wait and get ready for
surgery, including advice on how best to manage symptoms.
Future expansion of the service will also include advice on
stopping smoking as well as on diet and exercise, to support
patients prior to surgery and help them recover as quickly as
possible.
NHS staff will also be encouraged to consider how they can draw
on social prescribing link workers and care co-ordinators to
support patients while they are waiting for care.
Targeted packages of support will also be rolled out to support
those patients waiting for procedures with the longest waits or
those with the greatest need.
GPs and primary care teams will also be able to access the
information helping them to have more informed conversations with
their patients.
The Elective Recovery Plan set out a blueprint of measures to
address backlogs built up during the pandemic and tackle long
waits for care with an expansion in capacity for tests, checks
and treatments.
Health and Social Care Secretary said: “This first of
its kind platform will give millions of patients more certainty
over their own care no matter who they are or where they live.
“Alongside new surgical hubs to ramp up operations and Community
Diagnostic Centres to provide faster diagnoses closer to home,
the My Planned Care platform will help us put patients in
control. The NHS is here for you and we want people to come
forward, with this site offering crucial advice ahead of
appointments and operations.
“It’s part of our plan to tackle the COVID backlog, backed by
record investment to deliver 9 million more treatments, scans and
operations by 2024.”
Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director at NHS
England, said: “Treating more than 600,000 covid
patients in hospital over the last two years has inevitably had
an impact on routine care and staff are doing everything they can
to reduce the backlogs that have inevitably built up.
“We know that it can be frustrating for patients who are waiting
and so this online site will help to give patients and their
families crucial information about how long they might have to
wait, helping them feel more informed about their treatment plan.
“And, as we have always said throughout the pandemic, it is
vitally important that anybody who has health concerns continues
to come forward, so that the NHS can help you get the care you
need.”
The NHS is committed to improving patient experience and giving
people greater control over their own health, and the My Planned
Care platform has been developed rapidly to help deliver this
service for patients.
My Planned Care forms part of wide-ranging plans to address the
backlog, with more surgical hubs to be added to the network of
122 already operating across the country.
More than 100 diagnostic community centres are also being rolled
out with the NHS aiming to ensure that by March 2025, nobody
waits longer than a year for surgery.
Latest data from the NHS shows that in the whole of 2021, over
two million more people underwent procedures like hip and knee
replacements compared to 2020.
