Waiting times for mental health care improving in Bridgend
Outpatients in the Bridgend area are receiving mental health care and support more quickly, with waiting lists and times reduced following a comprehensive review by Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board clinicians.
The refreshed approach has seen improvements including a reduction in patients’ average wait for follow-up outpatients appointments from over 20 months to seven*.
When lockdown initially limited services to emergency-only last year, the Bridgend Locality Mental Health team looked at how they could do things differently to treat people more effectively when services restarted.
They started by looking at outcomes and found that, although most outpatients were automatically given a follow-up appointment, many no longer needed it when the time came, while those who did were waiting much longer than expected.
Charlotte Higgins, Deputy Clinical Service Group Manager, explains that the review was a real team effort between both the clinicians and the admin team.
“First of all, our clinicians developed new guidelines that ensure patients are given the outcome appropriate to their clinical need - for example, a follow-up appointment or an annual review or to be discharged,” she said.
“Our consultant adult psychiatrists then clinically validated their waiting list using the new outcome criteria, with most remaining on the waiting list.”
Then it was over to the admin team to contact the rest of the patients with a letter asking, if they still required an appointment, to inform the department within three months. If the patient did not make contact within three months, they were then sent another letter saying that they would now be discharged but, importantly, giving all the details of whom to contact if ever they needed more support.
“It means we can effectively prioritise those in most need of support, but we also had to make sure no-one slipped through the net,” said Charlotte.
“So we also reminded patients of our crisis services and advised that they could refer themselves back in at any time through our single point of access service., as well as letting their GP know that they had been discharged.
“Our outpatient improvement officer routinely monitors the waiting list, identifies the longest waits and helps utilise all slots to full capacity.
“The digital aspect has also helped, with people being much more used to online appointments. We now ask for their preference, and many actually prefer a video or voice call to face-to-face, finding it reduces their anxiety.”
Charlotte said the aim was for the new approach to eliminate the backlog and allow the team to see the majority of patients within their target date.
“Delayed follow-up appointments have negative outcomes on some patients’ safety and experience while others no longer want them,” she said.
“Long waits may mean that a patient’s mental health worsens due to anxiety, and could lead to a higher risk of harm and poorer outcomes. We hope that the improvements we have made, and continue to make, will help enable those in need to have an outpatients appointment when they need it.”
* between April 2020 and April 2021