Reports Hub

From letter to appointment:
A volunteer-led project analysing the outpatient journey at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust

Healthwatch Kirklees and Healthwatch Wakefield worked with Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust to gather patient feedback on hospital outpatient appointment letters. We aimed to understand patient experiences and improve the overall impact of the information provided by understanding how patients go from receiving a letter to getting to their appointment. We visited Dewsbury District Hospital, Pinderfields General Hospital, and Pontefract Hospital to navigate how patients find their way from the hospital entrance to the outpatient departments; we also conducted paper surveys during visits, online surveys, and reviews of appointment letters.

In this report, you’ll find:
• Feedback and recommendations about appointment letters
• Feedback and recommendations about booking lines and booking team
• Feedback and recommendations about navigation, signage and environment

Healthwatch, working together across West Yorkshire, has highlighted a range of challenges and issues being faced by members of our communities to those responsible for planning health and care services.

Healthwatch was asked by West Yorkshire and Harrogate health services to talk to patients, carers and the wider public, about what people thought about possible new ways of providing the care that they need when they have a stroke or care for someone who has.

The work was aimed at people who have experienced a stroke but did include methods to capture the views of the wider public also.