by Imran Rahman
As of December 2022, 7.2 million people were on National Health Service waiting lists for consultant-led elective care, up from 4.5 million just before the pandemic. During this period of growing pressure, local community providers can offer vital reinforcement to support the NHS in supplying consistent, efficient healthcare services, without compromising on quality or diligence.
Community providers channel healthcare resources into local areas, delivering quality testing and treatment where it’s needed most. Yet, while backlogs for certain services are more severe in some areas than others, the healthcare needs of individual communities is never going to be limited to one field of medicine. For this reason, it is important for local providers to expand their services wherever it’s both feasible and beneficial for the community.
The demand for expansion
While the early years of the NHS witnessed the locus of medical treatment move from community practices to regional hospitals, the changing landscape of British healthcare is now reversing that trend. Partnered with the NHS, local healthcare providers offer free-of-charge testing and treatment which parallels and reinforces the health service’s work. In particular, these local healthcare organisations can offset regional disparities in provisions, with Birmingham currently facing the highest rates of backlogs, Northumbria the lowest.
Local communities need across-the-board healthcare provisions. While trauma and orthopaedic treatments have the biggest share of the backlog, with 794,000 people awaiting treatment as of October 2022, eye disorders and gynaecology follow closely behind, with waiting lists of 642,000 and 543,000 respectively. Community providers which specialise in a range of services help to tackle medical backlogs not merely in one area of healthcare, but in many. So long as delays continue to hinder a wide variety of care services, local providers should consider if and how they can expand their offering and provide comprehensive healthcare.
Targeted services
Expansion is what’s needed for community healthcare providers, yet expansion for the sake of expansion is not enough. When diversifying their offering, providers should consider carefully which services are most needed, and which services they’re best placed to provide. CHEC, for example, which began as an eyecare provider, has expanded into endoscopy in response to the high rates of backlog in this area. Indeed, endoscopy activity has dropped by 90% since before the pandemic. By targeting expansion so that it’s aligned with the particular needs of a community, local providers can channel the additional support they offer into the places that need it most.
Beyond what is needed, healthcare providers should consider which services they are most suited to providing. Technical resources, infrastructure, and expertise should all be taken into consideration by organisations when deciding on the direction of their expansion. Keeping current services in mind when choosing a new specialism allows healthcare providers to deliver swiftly and effectively on their new offerings at a time when speed is crucial.
Ensuring standards of care
While communities need a wide variety of healthcare provisions, this breadth should not come at the expense of quality. The challenge for providers lies in administering consistently effective care while simultaneously diversifying their offering. Before embarking on expansion, organisations must ensure they possess the resources and expertise to do so. This involves reflecting on budget, creating a thorough strategic plan, and anticipating any challenges peculiar to their new specialism.
With vast pressures weighing on UK healthcare and the fallout of the pandemic aggravating already severe backlogs, local community providers offer a buttress for the National Health Service in supplying high-quality, efficient healthcare. Through diversifying their offerings, organisations set themselves up to provide widespread care and shrink backlogs across a range of much needed healthcare.
