Case study: Think NHS 111 First
We worked with NHS South East to introduce major changes to same day emergency services in the region
The NHS South East was tasked with a regional roll-out of ‘Think NHS 111 First.’ The PSC worked closely with senior leadership teams across Trusts, as well as on the ground, to support:
1. Programme Management to ensure tight deadlines were met across 19 NHS Trusts
2. Individual Trusts to develop a new delivery model specifically related to same day emergency services, the emergency department, and the local 111 service
3. Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System to incorporate their digital solutions alongside the new care delivery model
Programme Management
The PSC’s rigorous programme management approach was used to its full potential to tackle this high-profile, tight-deadline piece of work. Our team supported the regional NHS team in two ways:
- Provided a centralised team to coordinate the overall programme
- Deployed multiple local teams to support Trusts to deliver their pathway changes.
Due to the size and complexity of the Think 111 First Programme, governance and assurance processes were established early to allow the region to track progress of implementation at a Trust-level and identify critical path actions. ‘Go-live’ dates were established based on a dialogue between the region and individual Trusts.
New Delivery Model
The Think 111 First programme required each Trust to develop local solutions and changes to patient pathways to allow patients to be booked into ED (and other secondary services) directly from the NHS 111 service.
Our team supported the development of these alternative delivery models by mapping the current state, working with clinical and operational teams to agree the future state, and by facilitating a programme of work to deliver changes on time. The future state designs were designed through a series of workshops where we utilized mapping software to help show how new patient pathways would work.
Digital
The PSC’s Digital offer helps organisations to get digital transformation right, bringing evidence-based and effective approaches to user-led service change.
With these principles in mind, we provided support to the implementation of a portfolio of digital solutions across four Acute Trusts and a Mental Health Trust within the Surrey Heartlands ICS.
The solutions aimed to bring digital booking technology to the programme, easing the burden on both patients and staff.
Several Acute Trusts required different local solutions – some involving the transfer of data between different systems, and others extending the reach of solutions to cover more locations. Our team members supported a multi-disciplinary digital team to solve problems (using our FEP problem solving methodology) and develop solutions associated with implementation (using the double-diamond design methodology).
Outcomes
The regional team was able to roll-out the ‘Think 111 First’ programme at pace, and with success across the region. At the time of writing, all Trusts that were planned to ‘go-live’ had been successful and all milestones achieved.
Digital solutions in Surrey Heartlands had been identified and tested, ready for go-live. Feedback on our work was regular and positive, such as: “Thank you for your exemplary performance and support over the past few weeks. What has been achieved so far this week is extraordinary, and a display of incredible collaboration and team-work.”