Novartis UK collaborates with Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust to improve patients’ experience

Novartis UK has been a committed partner to the NHS, particularly through joint working, where both parties – the NHS and Novartis – put forward finances, expertise and other resources to optimise and improve patient care. We recognise that greater collaboration can support the NHS in its Five Year Forward plan ensuring our healthcare service can meet the healthcare challenges of the 21st century. It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure we support this objective and we are proud of our collaborations.

Improving patient outcomes was at the heart of our partnership with the Ophthalmology team at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, which has been included in a new documentary commissioned by NHS Alliance called ‘Combining research and expertise to benefit patients’. The documentary was launched at their 2017 Action Summit held in London on the 6th December 2017.

The joint working project was set up to improve patients’ experience and drive efficiencies by launching a one-stop macular service at Amersham Hospital for patients with wet, age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the UK. Before this service, patients had to attend multiple appointments each month, often experiencing long waits in the hospital and having little contact with their doctor. In addition to this, the hospital was struggling to keep up with the demand of their local population and waiting lists were ever-increasing.

When treating wet AMD, time is of the essence – if there is a delay in tending to a patient whose sight further declines, the consequences are irreversible. The new, one-stop service at Amersham hospital means that patients attend hospital for their eye examinations, consultation with their doctor, and if required, treatment, all in one appointment which lasts, on average, one hour. The clinical team can now see more patients more swiftly creating a more positive patient experience.

Sue Carey, a patient who has wet AMD in both eyes, attends Amersham Hospital for treatment. The streamlining of the service provided has transformed the care she receives: “Instead of having a month of appointments, you have the same visual acuity tests, you have the scans, you see the consultant … he decides there and then if you need further injections. It’s absolutely wonderful, I wish they’d had it years ago.”

Consultant ophthalmologist at Amersham Hospital, Mr. Markus Groppe, hailed the improvements in patient care and efficiency: “I probably spend more time with each individual patient than in a standard clinic but we increase the capacity of patients in a clinic by about 60 percent,” he says. “I think that is a real success and it’s something we will try to implement in other services in our hospital”.

Amersham is just one of a number of partnerships and collaborations that Novartis UK has in place with the NHS. We are committed to working together to redesign services, reimagining every stage of the care process to provide innovative solutions that support the NHS.

Read more about our other joint working projects with the NHS here.