How digital innovation is reducing NHS wait times to preventative care
New research shows how digital innovation is reducing NHS wait times to preventative care
Reed in Partnership has today published new research demonstrating how digital innovation has reduced healthcare wait times and improved access to a critical preventative health service.
With an estimated 6.3 million people in the UK living with non-diabetic hyperglycaemia, more commonly known as prediabetes, timely intervention is critical. Left untreated, prediabetes can develop into Type 2 diabetes, a serious but largely preventable condition that is a significant financial and operational burden on the NHS. Diabetes care accounts for nearly 6% of the total annual health budget.
Reed in Partnership’s subsidiary health and wellbeing company, Reed Wellbeing, has delivered the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP) for more than 10 years. The service provides critical support to people diagnosed with prediabetes to help them make long-term health improvements and reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Their new AI-enabled onboarding approach has enabled people referred to the NDPP by their GP to access this potentially life-saving service quicker.
Addressing core government health priorities
The report explores Reed in Partnership’s implementation of a proactive AI agent across its in-house Contact Centre, through which prediabetic patients are referred to the NDPP by their GP.
The proactive AI agent works by automating initial patient contact via SMS or email once the Contact Centre receives a GP referral – which happens more than 300 times per day.
It means that contact – which is tailored to age profiles and was previously done manually by phone call – is quicker and has resolved the time wasted on unsuccessful outbound call attempts made to potential participants. Crucially, this approach, which always offers the option to speak directly to a Contact Centre adviser, has given the team more capacity to prioritise supportive, human conversations based on individual participant needs .
Results
√ The average time from referral to a patient’s initial assessment – their first step in the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme journey – reduced from 13 days to seven days
√ The number of initial assessments delivered increased by six per day per Contact Centre adviser
√ Patients were booked on to their local service nine days quicker
√ The overall time from GP referral to programme start decreased by eight days
As well as reducing wait times, the approach has increased the proportion of people referred to the service taking up the offer of an initial assessment.
On average, participants accessing the diabetes prevention service are now attending their first programme session within 30 days of their GP referral.
Faster access to preventative services like NDPP is vital to improving health outcomes and reducing avoidable demand on wider healthcare services.
To download the full report from Reed In Partnership Click Here
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For additional information on Reed Wellbeing visit their Website
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