Planned care

We firmly recognise the need to improve planned care performance. While progress has been made in particular for those with the very longest waits, there are still too many patients waiting long periods for planned care interventions. We also needs to change the approach in some areas of planned care to be better prepared for current and future demand.

The plan sets out a range of activities that will lead to reductions in overall waiting list sizes and lengths of wait, with particular focus upon the longest waiting patients. These activities will result in improved patient experience and less unnecessary travel. Our resources will be better used, allowing more care to be delivered.

Some of this work will require the reconfiguration of services to improve the effective and timely delivery of care. We will undertake work to identify the potential for different service configurations and the impact they would have for people living with multiple long-term conditions, seeking to deliver more coordinated care resulting in less hospital visits.

Unlike other organisations, we do not have dedicated ‘cold surgery’ sites at present. These are sites where surgical activity can be protected from the impact of urgent and emergency care pressures. This will be partially addressed when the additional theatres and ward space in Llandudno become available. We will continue to explore the potential of cold-site surgical and diagnostics capacity.

Alongside this, improvements will be made to the way appointments and procedures are booked to make this more efficient and more convenient and accessible for patients.

We need to change the approach in some areas of planned care to be better prepared for current and future demand.