Pre-pandemic, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Trust (BHRUT) had the forsight to seek to reduce waiting times to improve patient care.

Medefer established a partnership with the CCG in March 2017, tasked with building a Gastroenterology Virtual hospital for BHRUT outpatient services.

To this day, Medefer supports gastroenterology across BHRUT by managing outpatient appointments – support that proved critically important during COVID-19.

The goals

Improve patient outcomes, reduce waiting times, and provide quality care for patients closer to home
Alleviate issues BHRUT faced with recruiting gastroenterology staff
Educate GPs to manage gastroenterology conditions in primary care
Reduce rates of cancer through early detection

Building a virtual hospital for BHRUT:

Following implementation of our model, we have delivered:

99% of referrals were triaged within 48 hours.
Overall, 71% of patients did not need a physical outpatient appointment.
6166 patients referred to Medefer (Mar 2017– Jun 2019).
Reduced the initial consultant triage time from weeks or months to an average of 10 hours
Within this time, 3% of referrals were upgraded to urgent and 2% were upgraded to the cancer pathway.
After consultant triage:
- 8% were discharged to GP with simple advice
- 13% were deemed too complex and reviewed in outpatient clinics
- 79% entered the virtual hospital pathway
Follow-up review of tests in the virtual hospital led to 82% being discharged back to the GP, and the rest were pre-optimised for a first physical outpatient appointment.

Our virtual hospital model has created exceptional impact:

There is currently no waiting list for BHRUT clinics (despite shutting down for six months)
It was the only gastro department during COVID-19 that had no referral to treatment (RTT) issues
No waiting list for endoscopy
No waiting list for cancer services