Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust

Trust increases patient throughput despite infrastructure limitations, while maintaining excellent patient satisfaction

The Challenge

Due to an increase in demand for services, coupled with operational and workforce challenges, Northampton General Hospital (NGH) required extra clinical capacity to increase patient access to endoscopy services. Another contributing factor to the challenge was the impending JAG (Joint Advisory on GI Endoscopy) accreditation visit which meant the trust urgently needed to improve its GRS (Global rating Scale) timeliness scores. 

Our Innovative Partnership Approach 

Xyla Elective Care senior managers met with trust operational and clinical staff to discuss our service model and unique approach to achieving seamless service integration. Our team then mapped the patient journey through the department and considered the limitations to patient flow as a result of the department’s size and footprint. We collected key trust policies, clinical pathway documents, user guides for trust ICT systems and copies of all documentation to be used within the service.  

Following the visit, we created a comprehensive Operations Manual which was then approved by the NGH senior endoscopy sister. The Manual was instrumental in preparing the Xyla Elective Care clinical team prior to attending the trust for service delivery. Service was mobilised in two (2) weeks and commenced in August 2019. Capacity was then increased in the month of September with service delivered consistently every weekend. The clinical team is comprised of JAG-accredited consultant gastroenterologists, Band 7 service delivery leads (SDLs) and highly experienced endoscopy nurses. 

The outcome

  • 683 patients seen over a three (3) month period 
  • Service utilisation 90% 
  • 1 incident (low risk) 
  • No complaints 
  • 98% patient satisfaction 

Testimonials

“As our first experience of working with Xyla after having worked with other insourcing companies, we were most impressed with their Clinical Governance processes which always concern hospital staff where external teams come into the hospital to see ‘their’ patients. The clinical teams have been first class and a pleasure to work with and I expect this to be an ongoing relationship between the two organisations”  
Carl Holland, Deputy Chief Operating Officer 

“Xyla has provided a professional and quality service right from the beginning. They have provided a full Endoscopy service which has focused on good governance and providing excellent patient care which aligned with our own trust values”  
Rebecca Lovatt, General Manager