eBooking will help cut waiting times

Electronic booking could cut hospital waiting times, say pioneering test sites.

The Department of Health has just begun the hunt for a supplier to manage the development of ebooking systems across the country's 28 strategic health authorities, as reported in Computing last week.

The system is the first major element of the National Programme for health service technology overseen by NHS IT director general Richard Granger.

Five major pilot schemes have been in place for the last 12 months and will work closely with the supplier chosen to oversee the national system.

Electronic booking means GPs no longer need to send letters of referral to hospital clinics and wait for a postal response before letting patients know the date of their appointment with the consultant.

By post the booking process can take up to four weeks; electronically, it can be instant, says Mel Fish, deputy manager for patient access at Dorset and Somerset health authority, one of the ebooking trial sites.

'Ebooking will probably reduce waiting times because the patient is getting into the system quicker.

'If you follow process of letter the amount of hands it goes through it is scary.

'By using an electronic solution, in one minute the referral is in hospital so patients will be seen more quickly,' said Fish.

The system could have an even greater impact on non-attendance. Each time a patient doesn't turn up to an appointment, it costs the hospital £280.

'If the patient has mutually agreed the time and place and made a contract with their GP, face to face, then they are more likely to turn up,' said Fish.

At Bournemouth hospital, out of 240 bookings made electronically since January last year, only two patients have not attended. This is a significant reduction, says Fish.

Clinics will benefit from the increased certainty, says Ray Wagner, programme manager for the SE London pilot.

'Giving the patient the choice reduces non-attendance, which helps clinics manage their time better because they don't have to put in so much provision for non-attendance,' said Wagner.

The pilots will inform the national project, he says.

'A lot of lessons are being learned very quickly.

?When the contractor is on board for the national project, what we are learning about how to configure and structure the system will help inform them,' he said.

Colleen Milligan, associate director of the ebooking programme at the NHS Modernisation Agency, which is responsible for the initiative, said: ?It will be a national service rather than a national system and the contractor will be responsible for the smooth implementation and running of that service.?