A team supporting NHS patient services is looking back on the progress to date – just seven years after first being set up.
The specialist services admin hub and the children’s services admin hub at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust was formed to support teams across the community.
The service acts as a first point of contact for patients for all new referrals and clinic appointment and outcomes for clinical teams in areas like musculoskeletal advanced assessment, physiotherapy, surgical Services, community pain management, podiatry, orthotics, adult and children’s speech and language, nutrition and dietetics and community paediatrics.
First launched in April 2017, with a team of just two senior admin staff and a small support team, the service has grown and taken on duties traditionally carried out by the clinical teams.
As an example of how it has grown, the specialist services admin data activity has increased by nearly three times in as many years – with the team completing more than 500,000 tasks a year.
Rachael Briggs, service manager, said: “From where the service started to where it is now, it is fantastic to see how far it has progressed.
“The service was set up to act as a first point of contact for all patients who have been referred, as well as co-ordination of clinics for all services across both admin hubs
“But since then the team has continued to develop, now supporting 19 clinical teams using many different systems.”
Among the tasks the team perform are providing reception cover for seven community bases, taking patient calls, managing a staff absence reporting line, managing referrals, audio typing, batch reports, referral to treatment tracking and batch reports, monitor waiting lists, co-ordination of medical assessment and reports liaising with local authorities , schools and nurseries and managing many requests for all services.
Rachael added: “The staff in the team have excellent transferable skills – they are using different systems and need to learn and understand different processes and pathways for each individual service.
“New starters are supported with induction and a six to eight week training programme followed by competencies. We have also supported the development of clinical support officers and additional senior admin staff.
“There are so many other ways the service has evolved – we now have two menopause champions and a wellbeing champion along with NHS ambassadors plus a quality improvement lead.
“We strive to support staff with professional courses, including apprenticeships in leadership and management and any other courses staff express an interest in – medical terminology, business administration and so on.
“The team’s progress was highlighted when it won the ‘supporting services team’ category at the staff annual awards.
“There have also been other individual achievements in the team, such as one winning the ‘star of the month’ award and another team member presenting progress at the Trust’s ‘Celebrating Excellence in Care’ event.
“We work really closely with clinical teams, attending their team brief and support staff with shadowing within teams to get a better understanding of the services.
“And in the last 12 months, we have implemented many quality improvements and have transformed to a more digital way of working. We also support a flexible way of working, supporting agile working which benefits both the service and staff members wellbeing.
“I am proud of the team in how they have grown together and how they have supported each other through challenging times, as well as successes.”