Wound care pathways project paves the way for improved treatment and NHS resource

Since the general election, the Labour government has brought NHS waiting times to the forefront of conversation, pledging to clear the NHS backlog within five years. The NHS waiting list in England has currently around 7.5 million cases, with nurse care appointments contributing to the figures.

Wound care is one such area contributing to the waiting list. In a study by the NHS Benchmarking Network (2017/18), it was estimated that wound care costs the sector £8.3 billion each year, taking up 50% of community nurse time.

Wound care within the primary care setting remains and a complex and challenging area for clinicians, with community nurse time spent caring for and managing lower limb wounds, ulcers, and surgical wounds. However, by improving wound care, it’s possible to speed up healing time, and reduce the recurrence of wounds for patients, making their recovery shorter and more comfortable, while saving resources and time to improve productivity in the NHS.

To support the national agenda of improving NHS productivity, waiting times, and patient outcomes, HIWM worked in collaboration with Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (ICS) launching a wound care pilot project.

The project aimed to ensure that clinical staff received robust, evidence-based local training that complemented the National eLearning for Health programme. The project developed an educational programme supporting primary care networks (PCNs) in delivering evidence-based wound care, including a 1.5-hour e-learning course and in-person training, improving knowledge of wound care pathways based on best practices.

Additionally, the programme included the development of a resource package to support the assessment, diagnosis, and onward referral of wounds. To address more complex cases, a dedicated wound care clinic was established to further support PCNs in delivering the best possible wound care to patients.

During the project, a real-life case study highlighted the benefit of the improved wound care pathways. A male patient aged 45 – 60 with a traumatic wound on his left leg was referred after his GP had tried to independently manage his care for several weeks.

The nurse initially recognised the necessity for additional evaluation and referred the patient to the dedicated wound care clinic as part of the pilot programme. Following assessment and treatment, after nine weeks the wound was considered healed, an improvement of a third compared to the average healing time of three months for this type of injury. The patient was discharged back to his GP for ongoing hosiery management to reduce the likelihood of recurrence.

The patient described his experience with the service as “absolutely excellent”, praising the advice provided and finding a sense of relief in having a management plan in place.

Joanne Terry, Project Lead for the Wound Management Project, described the wider impact of the project: “By adopting a collaborative, system-wide approach to wound care this project has developed training and resources that has made a significant difference in the patient outcomes and nurse experience in the care pathway.

“The pilot project outlined learnings around best practice approaches that can be adopted on a wider scale, across ICBs, having a positive impact on both waiting times and productivity in the NHS.”

The next steps for the project are currently in discussion with HIWM happy to support further work.

To learn more about the wound care pathways project, and how the project is supporting the NHS, click here.

Alternatively, get in touch with Joanne Terry: joanne.terry@healthinnovationwm.org