IN THE PRESS
Mental health trust is first to use streamlining system to better treat patient’s physical illnesses
When a health professional sees a patient that appears to have complex mental health needs, the natural inclination is often to refer to a NHS specialist. Yet in many instances, an immediate verbal conversation with a NHS specialist can render a referral unnecessary – improving patient care and providing system efficiencies.
Consultant Connect’s technology platform enables that near-instant sharing of such advice and guidance over the phone.
Benchmarking Data Report
Read our new report which includes this data on Mental Health Advice & Guidance and much more:
5 minutes with a CMHT old age consultant and Clinical Director
“We’ve had a number of patients who we have been able to give advice about, who otherwise would have needed a referral to our service. Consultant Connect has resulted in these patients getting the same treatment, but with advice on the day rather than having to wait, whilst freeing up hours of clinicians time.”
Dr Funnell talks to us about her personal experience of answering Advice & Guidance calls through the Consultant Connect service… Read the full case study.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust – improving the physical health of patients with serious mental illnesses
Ray McGrath, lead nurse for King’s Health Partners Integrating our Mental and Physical HealthcareSystems (IMPHS), shares his reflections on improving communications between clinicians across King’s Health Partners to provide physical health advice for patients with severe mental illnesses.
“The project picked up quite a pace, not least because the service provides timely access to advice and guidance for people with mental illness who already experienced increased physical health risks, but also because as a result of the pandemic, there was an even greater challenge in avoiding transferring patients to acute hospitals unnecessarily due to risks associated with COVID-19 transmissions.” Read the full blog post here.
You can watch Ray talk about the project during our webinar Consultant Connect in Mental Health Webinar, click here.
Why is it so helpful for Commissioners and Health Professionals?
Why is it so helpful for patients? Patient case studies revealed
%
%
of calls about medication result in no need for referral to secondary care
of calls on mental health general referral advice line result in patients avoiding a referral
92% of calls about medication result in no need for referral to secondary care
61% of calls on mental health general referral advice line result in patients avoiding a referral
Route calls the way you want
The service is highly flexible and easily tailored to complement the mental health services being provided in your local area. And, because calls are generally routed to mobile phones, there is no need for NHS specialists to be desk-based and no need to change job plans.
If your local services are struggling with resources, Consultant Connect offers a back-up service where calls are answered by out-of-area NHS specialists. This works particularly well for areas such as Medication Advice, that do not necessarily need to be locally provided. Find out about our National Network.
Why it works
- Specialists do not need to be job planned and desk based
- Healthcare professionals will use it because it’s fast and reliable
- No need for new hardware or software. No need to integrate with legacy systems
- Implementation is rapid and low cost
- All call data is recorded and easily accessed for training/review
Most popular call routing configurations
We’ll work with you to design a service that meets your specific local needs – it’s that flexible! The three options below show the most requested configurations:
Clinician to Local Specialist
Clinician to National Network Specialist
Use our out-of-area NHS specialists to support your service