Aerial view of Hull Royal Infirmary, a part of Hull College Educating Hospitals NHS Belief (Credit score: Shutterstock.com)
NHS Humber Well being Partnership (HHP) has partnered with DrDoctor to launch a variety of patient-facing digital instruments aimed toward bettering communication and outpatient engagement.
The partnership will see NHS HHP’s Hull College Hospitals NHS Belief (HUTH) and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Basis Belief (NLaG) go stay with a set of digital providers together with notifications and reminders, digital letters, primary rescheduling, broadcast messaging and the ‘Fast Query’ software, which will likely be accessible by way of the NHS App.
Rollout begins on 6 August 2025 with a two-week pilot programme within the neurology speciality at HUTH. The pilot contains all instruments apart from patient-led scheduling, which can comply with later.
Andy Haywood, group chief technique, partnerships and digital officer at NHS HHP, mentioned: “Our new affected person led reserving service will rework the way in which during which our sufferers work together with their care.
“This new service will see an finish to sufferers receiving a letter with an appointment they’ll’t make after which having to attend lengthy durations on the cellphone to attempt to rebook.
“We’re actually excited to be commencing rollout of digital, affected person led reserving which can deliver our providers according to what we anticipate in each different facet of our every day lives.”
The instruments will likely be accessible on an opt-out foundation, making the service automated for sufferers, empowering them to self-manage their care and rising attain for the belief.
Following the preliminary pilot, the instruments will likely be rolled out throughout HUTH and NLaG.
NHS HHP’s contract with DrDoctor is about for 3 years, with choices for 2 additional extensions.
The belief will have the ability to ship messages straight to a affected person’s cell phone, akin to notifying if clinics are being held in a special location within the hospital, and if there’s an earlier appointment slot opening up which a affected person might need to benefit from.
The service will also be used to ask a affected person easy sure or no questions, akin to checking if they’ll nonetheless attend an appointment, permitting the hospital to supply it to another person if they’re unable to make it, which in flip is predicted to cut back ready instances.
In the meantime, in June 2025, Higher Manchester Psychological Well being NHS Basis Belief awarded a affected person engagement portal contract value £572,000 to DrDoctor.
The belief hopes to make use of DrDoctor’s resolution to introduce a hybrid mannequin of care that fuses digital instruments with in-person providers to enhance communication with sufferers, scale back missed appointments, and help sufferers throughout their care journey.
