Wrightington Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) recently introduced new electronic communication to our patients across all WWL services, offering digital letters, text reminders, broadcast messages, quick questions, online pre-op assessments and the utilisation of the NHS Wayfinder app.
The adoption and use of digital communication in healthcare is steadily increasing with the Trust’s Digital Outpatients team collaborating with various external companies to introduce and implement electronic communication. These services will enable WWL to engage with patients in diverse ways, making healthcare information, such as appointments, more accessible, efficient, and easier to manage.
Expanding the use of electronic communication offers several benefits. Patients can perform tasks such as accessing health information, managing and rescheduling appointments, and, in some cases, completing pre-operative questionnaires using only their smartphone, eliminating the need to wait in long call queues and providing better convenience for patients. Additionally, developing the digital communication platform has other advantages, such as reducing the carbon footprint and CO2 emissions, which aligns with WWL’s commitment as an Anchor Institution within the Wigan Borough.
One patient shared glowing feedback about the effortless experience of rescheduling an appointment through a simple text message from WWL. Sarah shared her experience of swiftly rescheduling her appointment after receiving the original date via text message link. Within minutes of receiving the text message, she accessed the appointment date and time, and with, as Sarah described, ‘just a few clicks’, secured a new appointment time that better suited her schedule. Eliminating the need to wait in a call queue, this hassle-free process left her thoroughly impressed.
Between January 2024 and July 2024, a total of 305,097 digital letters were sent out by various services across WWL, with 63% of them being successfully converted to digital format. This means that patients have been able to access their letters online without the need for a physical paper letter to be sent via post. While ongoing efforts are being made to further improve and expand this communication service, and we are always looking for ways to improve the experience for our patients, we will still provide paper options for those patients who prefer to receive it this way.
One new initiative, involving the use of electronic pre-operative assessments sent via text message, was tested at the Leigh Surgical Hub at our Leigh Infirmary site. In July, 79% of the 91 patients who were contacted completed the pre-operative assessment using the Dr Doctor platform after accessing the text message, which is an excellent pick up, but trials will continue to ongoing before further rollout of this platform begins to more services.
Another patient, Ian, recently started using the Trust’s award-winning app, My Recovery, to support his ongoing orthopaedic health needs. Matt explained that there were clear and easy instructions to set up the app and he has been impressed with the information found within the app, including exercise instructions tailored to his specific health needs.
WWL will be sharing a series of Digital Awareness updates and materials with patients over the next few months. These updates aim to educate patients on how to access and utilise various digital tools available to manage their healthcare. WWL will continue to provide alternative ways of communication to support those who may not have digital access.