Improving patient flow: maternity services

[Susanne Cox]

I've recently got hold of a copy of the Improving Patient Flow DVD (as sponsored by Yorkshire & Humber, East of England, South West and West Midlands SHAs) which has helped me to understand the importance of managing demand and capacity in the NHS. Whilst I appreciate that this approach has been used by many NHS trusts to address A&E and waiting list targets, to what extent has this approach been used to improve patient experience and improve workforce productivity as the key drivers? I'm specifically interested in applying some of the principles to maternity services where waiting lists are not an issue but managing capacity and demand to optimise patient experience and ensure maximum productivity is a real challenge. Has anyone in the UK used this approach to improve the delivery of maternity services?

[pharriman]

We have done some work on identifying demand streams and their associated patterns. From this we've calculated capacities required to cope with the variability. Part of that capacity has now been changed (for new referrals) and we are now trying to look at follow up capacity. In addition we are looking to change the patient flows in order to reduce the number of steps and create accurate "right time" data. I wouldn't say we've finished but are well on the journey.

Paul