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About the service:
The Consultant Connect service is the UK’s most widely used Enhanced Advice & Guidance service, connecting healthcare professionals and patients across the NHS.
Covering over half of the NHS across England, Scotland and Wales, the service enables clinicians to use a unique Dial-In Number, the secure Consultant Connect App, or their desktop computers to call specialist NHS clinicians for pre-referral advice and guidance. Clinicians can also use Consultant Connect via the app or in their browser to send photos and/or messages directly to specialist NHS clinicians for pre-referral advice and guidance. All calls are recorded for medico-legal purposes, and photos and messages are saved in a secure cloud and never stored on phones.
Since 2016, we have been publishing the definitive data of the impact of non e-RS Advice & Guidance. This includes all the cumulative data from the last 9 years for every phone call, message and photo taken*.
* 9 year review period from June 2015 to June 2024.
Download the full report
Take a deep dive into the definitive data of the impact of Enhanced Advice & Guidance:
Take a deep dive into the definitive data of the impact of Enhanced Advice & Guidance:
Key Trends
‘If our GP hadn’t had access to Consultant Connect, I think I’d feel really frustrated because we most likely would still have been in the same position: going backwards and forwards, trialling treatments until we received a hospital appointment. I think for the GP, it reassured him, too, because it allowed him to provide visual context to Charlotte’s condition, which would have been difficult to describe verbally. I don’t think we would’ve received the appointment as quickly as we did had the dermatologist not been able to see how bad her skin condition was.’ Find out more.
‘Utilising Consultant Connect saved an ambulance being used for patient conveyance, it eliminated his ED wait, and, most importantly, it eradicated the delay in his care.’ Find out more.
‘The similarities between advice from a local consultant and an out-of-area consultant are greater than the differences! What Primary Care clinicians will receive is a sense of how urgent the problem is, and it’s usually a lot less urgent than they initially thought. We provide them with reassurance and advice that will often allow them to manage the patient in a Primary Care setting without needing to refer them to Secondary Care.’ Find out more.
Core Performance Data: Elective Care
‘I recently saw a three-year-old child in practice with a urine infection. However, mid-way through the consultation, they became very distressed, complaining of neck pain. I was concerned as to what could be the cause and decided to utilise the Paediatrics advice line via the Consultant Connect App. A paediatric consultant answered immediately, and agreed that this was unusual and advised the patient and their parent to attend A&E for further assessment. It was so reassuring to have specialist advice and a second opinion so quickly.’ Find out more.
‘I used Consultant Connect to call a local respiratory consultant who was extremely helpful. He looked at her previous history and scans, and suggested a steroid and different inhaler that could be prescribed in the interim. He also advised that he would ask the secretary to expedite the patient’s appointment as she was most likely suffering from long Covid. After prescribing the steroid and inhaler, I followed up with the patient two weeks later. She was like a completely different person. Her life had changed dramatically; she was going for walks, sleeping better, and considering going back to work. Although her appointment with the Respiratory Team had been expedited, she wasn’t as concerned as before because she felt such a difference. She was so thankful for the specialist advice, which allowed her to get the care she needed fast, and I found it a truly rewarding experience.’ Find out more.
‘I had a patient who was referred to Endocrinology for hyperthyroidism and was started on carbimazole in the meantime. I was periodically monitoring her thyroid function tests on the new medication, and her results consistently improved. As she had still not received an outpatient appointment from Endocrinology, I used Consultant Connect to speak with a consultant endocrinologist for advice on the medication dosage and how to reduce it.’ Find out more.
Core Performance Data: Urgent Care
‘I use Consultant Connect all the time, especially at night; because we’re lone workers, it’s a valuable link to access another level of decision-making. It’s great that we can contact our emergency medicine colleagues in this way to support our decisions and access patient notes. As mobile clinicians, we don’t have access to the full platform of portals to read patient notes, so this service is vital, especially if the patient has a cognitive impairment or is a poor historian. It’s like having the specialist sat next to you, and they have access to other information you might not.’ Find out more.
‘Recently, I visited a patient who was really unwell from the side effects of cancer treatment, but because they were immunocompromised, we didn’t want to transfer them to hospital. I used the Bypass Numbers feature on the Consultant Connect App to speak with their GP, who knew the patient’s history well, and arranged for them to conduct a home visit the same day. This meant the patient could stay at home, avoiding a likely very busy A&E department with long waiting times where they would be susceptible to infection.’ Find out more.
‘I would have had to admit the patient if I hadn’t had access to the Acute Frailty line via Consultant Connect. As a result, this allowed the patient to stay home and avoid an unnecessary admission, improving her care journey.’ Find out more.
Core Performance Data: Dermatology
‘Using teledermatology as part of our 2WW pathway has been a huge success in terms of efficiency and patient experience. Our assessment suggests that in 2023/24, 39% of 2WW patients were discharged on the basis of clinical assessment of their images. This freed up a significant amount of capacity in secondary care and reduced unnecessary anxiety, worry and stress for patients who did not need to be seen on this pathway.’ Find out more.
‘The biggest benefit of Consultant Connect is the access to swift dermatological advice. When seeing patients with lesions, it is not always clear which ones are benign, so Dermatology Messaging Advice & Guidance is a lifeline. Because of the hospital’s geographical location, our nearest dermatology clinic is a three-hour round-trip, and this service has prevented a huge number of unnecessary referrals, reducing elective long waits. I take the patient photos using a dermatoscope and upload them to my computer, where I can safely attach them to the Consultant Connect message in my browser.’ Find out more.
‘Using Consultant Connect for access to rapid advice is significantly easier, especially for Dermatology. When you have queries about the severity of a patient’s condition, trying to get the best care for a patient in the past would’ve usually resulted in a referral. It would have then taken a while to receive a response to this referral, and, in the meantime, the patient would have been struggling and worrying, and there would have also been concern from my side.’ Find out more.
Core Performance Data: Mental Health
‘The service via Consultant Connect has enabled us to have a dedicated staff member to answer calls from practitioners about patients before a potential referral. We can screen in those who are appropriate for the service and offer bespoke support packages for those who aren’t. We can give general advice and guidance for those referrals and ascertain more information as needed. This is so beneficial for the patients as it puts them at the heart of the conversation as opposed to passing them onto another service. The patient receives person-centred support, tailored just for them.’ Find out more.
In 2019, feedback from mental health clinicians at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) was received that communication delays and access to specialist acute advice were creating a barrier to providing mental and physical healthcare. As a result, Telephone A&G provided by Consultant Connect was launched to aid mental health clinicians in seeking advice in the same way it is available for clinicians in Primary Care. Telephone A&G provided by Consultant Connect is now embedded into routine practice in SLaM, two years after it originally launched, with over 500 clinicians from 16 professional groups registered for the Consultant Connect App. More than 70% of A&G queries resulted in the patient receiving physical health care from mental health clinicians, avoiding referrals or transfers. Find out more.
‘I recently received a call from a patient’s mum who stated that the patient was expressing suicidal thoughts, which had happened previously. Their mum was really worried, and the call came through towards the end of the day, so I needed rapid advice. I called the MHAU line via Consultant Connect and discussed the patient with the specialist, and we quickly devised a patient management plan. The specialist advised me on actions to take in the interim as well as a follow-up plan for later down the line. As a result of this call, I was able to give the patient and their mum a definitive plan which they were happy with, and the prompt response put them at ease.’ Find out more.
Download the full report
The gold standard: Don’t just take our word for it
The gold standard: Don’t just take our word for it
What our NHS partners say
Let’s talk
If you would like to discuss how our services can support your NHS area, please give us a call on 01865 261 467, email us at hello@consultantconnect.org.uk or fill in our contact form below:
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