6 7 Meet the unsung heroes in the outpatient appointments centre Before a patient even gets to meet with a consultant, an allied health professional from the fracture clinic or perhaps a clinical nurse specialist, their journey within the RFL has already begun. Every month thousands of patients need to be registered, appointments booked and clinics scheduled to ensure care is delivered in a timely way by the correct speciality. That’s the work of the 140-strong teams which make up the outpatient appointment centre (OAC), many of whom are based at Enfield Civic Centre (ECC). These unsung heroes are dealing with unprecedented volumes of referrals and helping services to manage their often challenging waiting lists. For many patients speaking to someone from the OAC will be their very first experience of the RFL and the focus is on making it the best it can possibly be. rescheduled. We get approximately 2,300 cancellation requests a month which translates into approximately 4,000 patients being affected and needing to be rescheduled. In the February industrial action 350 clinics were cancelled. Staff worked extra hours at weekends and did overtime to make sure those cancellations were rebooked.” The whole system is geared towards ensuring the patient can manage their booking in a way that suits them. From an out of hours voicemail service which enables people to be called back in office hours, to an SMS reminder service, the aim is to ensure patients can get an appointment that they can attend. It’s now also possible for patients to cancel and rearrange for themselves – via the patient portal. Empathy towards the patient and great communication skills are key to being successful in all the roles. Kebera Baptiste, co-ordinator for the team’s automated service, said: “I used to work for the civil service and prison service but now I’ve got this job I’m never leaving, I love it. You need to put yourself in a patient’s shoes. I’m contacting people who’ve requested a call back. They might be anxious and frustrated that they are struggling to get an appointment and you need to work through it with them.” Another vital part of the jigsaw is the clinic template team. Shirley Jacome, template service manager, leads the 15 strong team. She said: “We have 36 different templates for clinics. From annual leave and study leave to industrial action or sickness there are lots of reasons why clinics may need to be cancelled and Chanelle Lubrun, assistant operations manager, who oversees the OAC and who started out in the call centre herself, said: “We’re the service provider for the whole trust when it comes to booking, cancelling or moving outpatient appointments. We’re the team that help services manage their patient waiting lists and meet their targets. We are also the experts and gatekeepers for services when it comes to systems such as Cerner and e-RS. We hold a lot of knowledge.” There is also real passion and excitement around the OAC’s commitment to wellbeing. There’s a monthly newsletter for the whole of the ECC and an emphasis on wellbeing champions and mental health first aiders. Chanelle said: “We listen to staff and they tell us what they want and we do our best to help support it. We’ve got a knitting club and bake club and this year we’re focusing on fitness so now we’ve got several groups undertaking a step challenge. Staff also work together to support charities of their choice and we’ve also got a wellbeing room on the 10th floor with a The template team Working together for patients: (L-R) seated: Chanelle Lubrun, assistant operations manager and Pat Archibald. (L-R) stood: Shirley Jacome, template service manager, Nicola Churchill, service manager for the outpatients appointments service and Migena Cupi, service manager for the bookings team Nicola Churchill and colleagues Kebera Baptiste, co-ordinator for the team’s automated service The outpatient appointment team “ We’re the service provider for the whole trust when it comes to booking, cancelling or moving outpatient appointments” “ The team are brilliant at getting the answers our patients need” virtual reality (VR) machine and other relaxation aids. “The pandemic had a profound effect on everybody working here and things have changed for ever — from more flexible working to a recognition of how important wellbeing is. But we know there is still so much more we could do such as working alongside other teams to develop improved systems. We definitely want to be part of those conversations.” Migena Cupi, is service manager for the bookings team, which at 69 is the largest team. They manage 36 specialities and on a monthly basis process 24,000 first outpatient referrals, but before booking there is also validation work to be done to ensure that patients who are getting an appointment really need one. The team also manage and ensure that follow up appointments are booked. “We do have to make sure that everything is completed and monitored properly so that patients don’t find themselves lost in the system,” she said. Migena added: “We’re currently working alongside the transformation team and the services to digitalise as much as possible of the patient’s journey, to give more patients the ability to rearrange or cancel their own appointments. It’s really exciting to see how things could develop going forward.” From start to finish the numbers involved are mindboggling but it is clear that these teams never forget that each one of those numbers is a patient who needs a helping hand. “We receive around 2,000 calls a day so we’re busy but the team are incredibly committed, answering approximately 100 calls a day each,” explained Nicola Churchill, service manager for the outpatients appointment service. “A patient might be calling because they’ve been given an appointment date which doesn’t work for them so we will need to help them navigate getting a new one. Although patients are encouraged to use our automated services, the bulk is still done over the phone. Patients could also be querying their waiting time or outcomes of test results – both of which might mean us reaching out to the relevant service to check. It’s not necessarily straightforward but the team are brilliant at getting the answers our patients need.” Even before getting a patient booked in it is the job of the registration team to interrogate the referral form to ensure all the necessary information is available as a missing medical record number (MRN) or NHS number could lead to problems further down the line. “We have to be detectives and piece together the information,” said Pat Archibald, who manages the four-strong team. “It’s vital we get the right information to ensure there are no identity mix-ups.”
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