Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS FT has added live waiting times for its accident and emergency department to its website.
The webpage shows live wait times for minor injuries, the majors wait time, the number of patients in the department, and the number of patients to have arrived in the last hour.
When discussing the benefits of this new addition to the website, chief operating officer, Nicola Costin-Davis, said: “By adding this information to our website, we are giving people in our communities the ability to view current waiting times in our A&E department so that they know what to expect during their visit as well as encouraging everyone to consider whether they could receive appropriate care at an urgent treatment centre, through their GP, or at a pharmacy.”
Communicating wait times wider trend
In January 2023, analysis published by CQC following a 6-month pilot project where an app shared waiting times for A&E and urgent treatment centres across east Kent and Northamptonshire noted: reduced minors’ profile across all sites of 5%; 11% reduction in minors’ attendances at A&E departments; and 3% to 4% reduction in proportion of minors’ attendances out of all attendances in A&E departments and MIUs – the observed reductions vary dependent on the day of the week.
HTN recently reported on Northern Ireland’s Department of Health announcing their own initiative around the improvement of patient appointments and waiting times. The introduction of My Waiting Times NI has provided patients with real-time information on average waiting times for first outpatient hospital appointments. This has been distributed across multiple sectors, including health and social care trusts and different clinical specialties.
Using AI to improve the patient experience
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals have also been looking at ways to reduce waiting times, with an aim to reduce waiting times for x-ray results, and support cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment.
In October we also saw University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire using AI to focus on reducing the number of missed appointments and enhancing the overall patient experience. The trust identified an opportunity to switch automated text reminders from four days to 14 days before the appointment. There was a reported reduction in missed appointments or last-minute cancellations.
