In early 2022, Medacs began working with an NHS Trust in the East of England that provides a wide range of specialist elective care services to well over a million people. With an elective care backlog of more than 75,000 patients, including 1200 waiting longer than two years, the Trust was under significant pressure and urgently needed to ramp up surgical activity.

Key Features

  • 4200+ long waiting patients cleared including over 700 complex procedures (ASA3+)
  • 260-strong dedicated insourcing workforce built
  • 15% more patients treated per session on average
  • Trust on track to meet March 2024 national performance target

The Solution

Using the pioneering new ‘allied’ staffing model, Medacs mobilised a new insourcing service for the Trust in just 3 weeks.

A dedicated workforce of over 260 was quickly built, with large numbers of Trust staff signing up to work ‘out-of-hours’ theatre sessions alongside Medacs’ own clinical support teams.   

Led by experienced local NHS staff, these ‘allied’ teams delivered a rapid increase in surgical activity, with several concurrent theatre sessions running every weekend.

Building a Robust Service

After an initial discovery exercise, patient pathways were ‘walked’ and fully documented, and onboarding days were held onsite to induct local staff.   

At the same time, a clinical support pool of over 60 external candidates with the right skill sets was engaged and onboarded, with site-based training and clinical safety inductions.

A Hands-on Approach

Senior Medacs staff are present every weekend to support theatre floor management, with staff briefings and rotas issued well in advance to avoid any disruption to scheduled sessions.

Communication lines are open 24-7 to the senior executive team and all surgical sessions are reviewed and audited the following week by Medacs’ independent clinical governance team.

Rapid Outcomes

The initial three-month contract agreed for General Surgery, Orthopaedics, Gynaecology and Urology was quickly extended, based on prompt results. Three further specialties were added (ENT, Oral, and Vascular surgery) and in-week sessions added to boost volumes.