IMPORTANT NOTICE – PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING:

  • REGISTRATION CLOSES AT 12PM ON MONDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2021.
  • JOINING INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE SENT BY 2PM ON MONDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2021.
  • PLEASE REGISTER USING AN NHS OR LOCAL GOVERNMENT EMAIL ADDRESS ONLY

During the response to Covid-19, the health and care system saw unprecedented levels of uptake of digital tools and services, helping keep patients, carers, relatives and clinicians safe and ensuring that essential care can continue.

Digitally enabled services provide an opportunity to create a more inclusive health and care system, creating more flexible services and opening up access for people who might otherwise find it hard to access in person, for example, due to employment or stigmatisation.

The shift, however, needs to be carefully designed to ensure it does not affect health inequalities for others, due to barriers such as access, connectivity, confidence or skills.

Therefore, during our Phase 3 urgent actions and Priority 2 in the planning guidance for 2021/22, we asked all NHS organisations and systems to ensure that no matter how people choose to interact with services, they should receive the same levels of access, consistent advice and the same outcomes of care.

To monitor this, new pathways should be tested for achieving a positive impact on health inequalities, starting with the 4: 111 First; total triage in general practice, digitally enabled mental health and virtual outpatients.

Through this webinar we aim to focus on what systems should be delivering to meet this priority, through the following actions

  • Assess empirically how the blend of different ‘channels’ of engagement (face to face, telephone, digital) has affected different groups, including those who may find any particular channel more difficult to access and put in mitigations to address any issues
  • Ensure providers offer face-to-face care to patients who cannot use remote services
  • Ensure more complete data collection, to identify who is accessing face-to-face / telephone / video consultations (broken down by patient age / ethnicity / IMD quintile / disability status / condition)

Systems reviewed their plans and submitted an update by 31st March, which was analysed centrally and the key findings from this review will be shared at the webinar.

There will be opportunities to ask questions through a chat box, which will be moderated. Due to time, we may not be able to address all questions; key emerging themes will be covered, and any additional questions will be taken away for future consideration.

If you are having trouble booking onto the webinar, please refer to our delegate FAQs in the first instance. You can also find our detailed delegate guidance with step by step instructions here. If you can’t find an answer to your questions and are still experiencing difficulty with your registration, please contact: england.nhsevents@nhs.net

Questions about this event?

Name: Strategic Events Team
Email: england.nhsevents@nhs.net