Find out how Scottish Health Boards and the Scottish Ambulance Service are using Consultant Connect to transform communication and improve patient care.

As part of the redesign of urgent care in Scotland, NHS Lanarkshire wanted the option for hospitals to call back non-emergency patients directly at home to avoid emergency department attendance. They needed to be able to do this in an IG-secure and GDPR-compliant way, the solution was to launch Consultant Connect’s Virtual Consultation Service – Patient Connect.  Since the service launched in December 2020, over 4,000 calls have been placed, with 30% of calls resulting in the patient being kept away from EDs.

The National Consultant Network (NCN) comprises out-of-area NHS consultants who can answer pre-referral Advice & Guidance calls or review photos. The consultants can act as a backup for local teams and provide locally unavailable specialties. If you are short of staff, the NCN can be switched on in just 24-48 hours. It can also be switched off that quick when it’s no longer needed.

Our state-of-the-art virtual care devices allow NHS specialists to be fully available in the care of patients, without having to be physically at the bed side. The devices are easily replicable across a number of settings, whether it is instant access to prof to prof clinical decisions to help resuscitate a baby, or for routine ward rounds, the timely delivery of safe care is a key factor. As well as providing remote support and reassurance to colleagues the devices help make job planning far more efficient with the reduction in cross-site travel, enabling self-isolating or shielding consultants to participate and a reduction in locum costs.