LAUSR

There has been an increasing demand for rapid access clinic appointments in the Paediatric department in Northampton General Hospital over the past 2 years, which has led to an increase in wait time for an appointment. (21 patients per month on average in 2015 and 34 per month in 2016). This rapid access clinic is led by a consultant, and runs up to two times per day. A large proportion of the patients seen in this clinic have prolonged jaundice, and can be managed by a junior doctor. Therefore, our proposal is to introduce a junior doctor led clinic to see patients with prolonged jaundice, to free up more space in the consultant-led rapid access clinic. The overall aim of the project was to reduce the average wait time for the paediatric hot-clinic to below 2 days by December 2017. Training on running the clinic, using a new proforma, was delivered to support the junior doctors with the new clinic. A process was established to ensure all investigations undertaken after the appointment were discussed with the Consultant of the Week. A patient information document was produced for prolonged jaundice as no current one existed. Furthermore, parent experience was recorded during the introduction of the clinics to ensure they remained satisfied with the service delivered. The new junior doctor-led clinics started in June 2017. Preliminary data has shown the wait time for the paediatric rapid access clinic has already reduced to below 2 days on average for June – August 2017. This compares to 3.5 days on average for the same period in 2016. The introduction of this new junior doctor-led clinic for prolonged jaundice babies continues to provide a high-level service for patients and their parents, whilst reducing the wait time for the consultant-led rapid access clinic to the internal standard of less than 2 days on average.