Developing a telephone follow-up service for myeloproliferative disorders

Each year in the NHS there are 37 million follow-up appointments. A significant proportion of these are clinically unnecessary, create inconvenience and anxiety for patients, and waste valuable resources. The nature of haematological disease means that some patients are followed-up on a long-term basis as outpatients at varying degrees of frequency ranging from monthly to annually. These patients often attend hospital for a review and are then advised that their disease is stable and a further follow-up appointment is scheduled. This frequently means that the patient has to travel to the hospital, pay to park, wait for a blood test, wait for the test result and then wait to see the doctor for a very short consultation. This article discusses the development and early evaluation of a nurse-led telephone follow-up service for patients with stable haematological disease. Responses to an initial patient satisfaction survey identified that the majority of patients found the system to be effective and convenient. From this experience it would appear that telephone follow-up positively impacts on the patient and the service. Patients receive appropriate and timely care in the right setting and this in turn has created additional capacity in the outpatient setting for those who require it.