Feedback Medical and Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (QVH) have been shortlisted in two categories for reducing patient wait times and unnecessary hospital appointments through a breathlessness pathway.
The groundbreaking public-private partnership in the NHS has been nominated for two awards at the forthcoming HSJ Partnership Awards: Best Contribution to Improving the Efficiency of NHS services and Most Effective Contribution to Clinical Redesign. This recognises the success of their pilot project providing a straight-to-diagnostic pathway which achieved significant improvements in efficiency and patient wait times.
The collaboration between Feedback Medical and QVH has reimagined both the breathlessness pathway for patients and ways of working for clinicians. It has been built around Bleepa® which means that the patient pathway for breathlessness patients at QVH is now underpinned by digital foundations.
Improved productivity
The breathlessness pathway pilot at QVH, part of its community diagnostic centre services, enhanced diagnostic efficiency and patient care by reducing waiting times and unnecessary hospital visits. Utilising Bleepa®’s technology for asynchronous multi-disciplinary team collaboration, the pilot achieved a remarkable 63% reduction in patient waiting times from referral to treatment compared to the national target, significantly decreasing the number of patients waiting over six weeks.
Impressively, 90% of referrals were managed without the need for in-person specialist appointments. This innovative approach not only improved patient experience but resulted in multiple efficiency improvements with the potential to be scaled for other pathways.
Helping the NHS with simple-to-use digital solutions
“We are delighted to be shortlisted for two categories at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2025. The announcement is testament to the hard work, dedication and collaboration of both teams at Feedback and QVH.
“Together we have transformed the old analogue approach to outpatient services by providing a seamless digital journey for patients, from the point of initial referral through to the conclusion of the patient pathway, significantly reducing waiting times for patients, improving productivity for NHS staff and reducing the number of duplicate – or unnecessary – appointments.”
“Both the government and the NHS are crying out for digital solutions that are simple-to-use and can deliver significant productivity improvements. This partnership has already been recognised as a national exemplar within the industry, and I believe similar improvements using Bleepa® can be made across the NHS.”
CEO at Feedback Medical
“We are pleased the success of the pilot programme has been recognised by the HSJ judging panel. We have had keen interest in us sharing our best practice with others to adopt similar symptom-based pathways and have presented both regionally and nationally our key learnings.
“We are looking forward to the next stage of rolling out additional pathways to maximise clinical and efficiency improvements for our patients.”
Clinical SRO for Diagnostics and CDC programme for Sussex Integrated Care System
Now in their eighth year, the HSJ Partnership Awards have become the most recognised and respected mark of the strongest relationships between suppliers and the NHS.
The selected winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at Evolution London on 20 March 2025.
The full list of nominees for the 2025 HSJ Partnership Awards can be found at partnership.hsj.co.uk/finalists-2025