NHS trusts have increased operating capacity, while more safely and accurately prioritising patients for surgical procedures, with the help of AI technology that is preventing avoidable harm and saving surgeons many thousands of hours as they deal with a growing national backlog.
Surgeons across several NHS trusts have improved surgery waiting times and reduced A&E admissions, especially for the highest-risk patients, after successful clinical trials of an AI decision support model that is helping to make prioritisation safer and more equitable for patients.
The approach is now seeing uptake in dozens of NHS trusts, as integrated care systems prepare to implement elective recovery plans.
Through the Cheshire and Mersey model and our work with C2-Ai, surgeons have granular intelligence to plan our workforce, reduce the admin burden, and prioritise patients
The Cheshire and Merseyside model, pioneered by clinicians and operational teams at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, uses a system created by healthcare analytics and AI company, C2-Ai, to allow surgeons to more accurately prioritise patients according to their specific clinical risk and impact of delays in treatment.
The tool applies robotic process automation to build on and enhance a prioritisation model from the Royal College of Surgeons.