Working with HBSUK has helped long waiting urology patients get access to the right care and treatment. Virtual Lucy’s integration has greatly improved our ability to onboard patients quickly and efficiently. This streamlined process means our routine referrals patients receive the care they need faster, and our teams can focus on providing quality care for cancer and urgent cases.
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust
HBSUK partnered with NCIC to rapidly reduce the Trust's longest-waiting patient lists across both Neurology (60+ weeks) and Urology (32–65 weeks). By combining our cutting-edge digital outpatient platform with tailored face-to-face insourcing clinics, we successfully triaged and assessed thousands of patients, reducing demand on existing resources, lowering RTT waits, and significantly shortening treatment pathways across Cumbria.
The challenge
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) employs over 6,500 staff and provides hospital and health services to over half a million people. The Trust includes acute and community hospitals, and the community is spread across a broad geographical area, with 51% of residents living in rural settings and over 65s making up a higher proportion of the population than the national average. NCIC approached HBSUK for help with assessing and treating long-waiting routine referral patients who had been left waiting for extended periods due to consultant-level staffing challenges.
To expand Trust capacity and improve care, HBSUK deployed tailored intervention models for each specialty:
- Neurology (Blended Hybrid Solution): In a project starting in May 2024, 1,200 of the longest-waiting neurology patients (60+ weeks) were scheduled for routine first appointments. HBSUK offered a hybrid solution: the HBS Platform which patients could access in their own time, backed by face-to-face insourcing clinics at Penrith Community Hospital and Furness General for patients who did not want to use the digital system. This marked HBSUK’s first project offering a blended service, successfully catering to both tech-savvy and less digitally inclined patients.
- Urology (Interoperable Digital Pathway): Beginning in June 2024, 1,279 long-waiting urology patients (waiting 32 to 65 weeks) were invited to complete a clinically validated online questionnaire on the HBS Platform. HBSUK worked directly with NCIC’s Applications team to seamlessly integrate Virtual Lucy with NHS Patient Administration Systems (PAS) and Electronic Health Records (EHR). This integration automated administrative tasks, minimised internal trust admin, and provided a timely, secure exchange of data complying with HL7 health data standards.
Insights
Neurology Outcomes
Longest-waiting patients on the list quickly triaged and virtually assessed by a team of HBSUK neurologists holding substantive posts in the NHS.
Discharged back to the GP for further treatment after using the HBS platform.
No longer required an outpatient appointment after initial platform assessment.
Completed 450+ clinical case review assessments, allowing consultants to safely review and see patients without the need for an audio/video consultation.
20% of patients who could not or did not want to use the online system were safely seen face-to-face via community hospital insourcing clinics.
Urology Outcomes
451 patients achieved a successful clock stop outcome, meaning a 35% reduction in active patients under the trust’s care.
354 patients were fully discharged without the need for further intervention from the trust (includes patients discharged with reassurance or back to GP care).
The high virtual discharge and reassurance rate directly equated to a reduction of approximately 11 physical urology outpatient clinics.
Saved clinical time resulted in an estimated approximate cost saving of £27,000 in outpatient clinical resources for NCIC.
13 patients with suspected cancer were proactively identified and fast-tracked into the urgent 2ww (Two Week Wait) pathway
Build on these outcomes
Want to explore how these results were achieved – or run a similar programme in your service? Our client engagement team is happy to talk through the operational detail.