Service Redesign

The Consortium has had approval to test in practice for deep vein thrombosis (DVT or blood clots). A few questions and a simple blood test will help to decide more accurately which patients need to attend hospital for further investigation. This avoids the inconvenience and the expense of unnecessary investigations. This test has been available from January 1st 2009.

We have adopted a similar test to identify patients with heart failure in 2009.

We are looking to provide 24 hour cardiac event monitors in Practices to avoid patients being referred needlessly to Cardiology with simple palpitations which are harmless.

We have proposed a way of looking at those outpatient referrals that are not made by GPs so that we can monitor and improve their quality and simplify the journey a patient takes from department to department.

We are liaising with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust and Community Health Oxfordshire as they plan to come together over the following months.

We are trying to improve Access to Psychological Therapies.

All Practices can be rewarded to submit an idea to improve patient services either singly or with other Practices.