Provision of Consultancy for Pathway Assurance & Validation for Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board

Tender description

BCUHB has encountered a number of data quality & operational performance challenges concerning the waiting list management for planned care access. This tender specification focuses on the management of the follow up backlog. A review completed in November 2018 (with support from the Wales Delivery Unit) identified a number of issues with follow up lists relating to data quality and in some cases, the need to deal with duplicate entries made as a result of WPAS upgrade implementation (such as in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd). Whilst the follow up list contains data quality issues, there are patients who may require urgent review as well as those who could be discharged back to primary care with alternative care models such as seen on symptoms and virtual clinics. There is therefore an urgent need to stratify patients on the follow up list for targeted appointments based on clinical priority and chronological wait exceeding the due date. A more detailed understanding of the follow up patient tracking list (PTL) cohorting target patients in priority order of clinical urgency is required across the Health Board enabling better planning, clinical prioritisation and resource allocation supported by a quality assured process for managing patient pathways safely. There is an immediate need for commissioning a quality assured framework for the effective cohorting of all patients to direct the clinical prioritisation in appointing patients whilst identifying pathways with lower clinical priority to be managed appropriately applying agreed clinical protocols including the appropriate removal of pathways from the waiting list. The Health Board needs to deploy a process that will identify patients requiring appointments in the current backlog, address any data quality issues through validation and manage the demand whilst putting in place sustainable capacity for follow up pathways as we plan for stabilisation in 2020/21.