Welcome
to the Lancashire and South Cumbria Diagnostics Collaborative
Who We Are
The Lancashire and South Cumbria Diagnostics Collaborative is a partnership between four NHS provider trusts that are working together to improve diagnostics services for our local communities.
The Collaborative consists of three networks aiming to deliver a consistent standard of service for everyone, whilst ensuring every pound spent counts. It is also overseeing the creation of Community Diagnostics Centres (CDC's).
You can see more about each network and their shared goal to deliver the right test, in the right place, at the right time below:
The work of this Collaborative also contributes significantly to other workstreams including elective recovery, cancer and stroke.
Our Communities
Together with our four member trusts, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, we serve a population of 1.8 million with 20.4% of those living in rural areas which is above the national average of 17%.
Nearly one-third of our residents live in some of the most deprived areas across England.
Our Objective
The primary objective of the Diagnostics Collaborative is to deliver a suite of transformation projects in line with the NHS England and Improvements - National Diagnostic Transformation Programme to support improvements in the delivery of our services for the benefit of the patient, the provider organisations, the integrated care system and the wider population.
Our Vision
Working collaboratively with stakeholders across the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System to support the transformation of our Diagnostics services, achieving high-quality, effective and accessible services that are financially sustainable.
Our Strategy
There is a continued focus nationally and locally on transforming diagnostic imaging, endoscopy and physiological sciences through, but not limited to:
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Development of system-wide models for monitoring and managing capacity versus demand
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Development of workforce strategies and investment plans to ensure a robust and futureproof workforce moving forward
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Sharing knowledge and best practice with other improvement programmes such as planned care and elective recovery
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Implementation of new technologies to enhance productivity and patient safety
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Providing additional capacity in our eight community diagnostic centres (CDCs),
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Additional investment via 'levelling up' funding to support additional endoscopy suites and imaging assets
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Standardisation of pathways and reduced variation across our services
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Improving access to diagnostics for GPs by enabling direct referrals.
Our Transformation Workstreams
Our programme focuses on six key workstreams across the three networks:
- Digital
- Performance and Productivity
- Procurement
- Workforce
- Clinical Pathways
- Data
How we are transforming your services
and what we have achieved so far:
Investment
The Diagnostics Collaborative secured over £100 million over the past three years which has supported:
- The establishment of eight Community Diagnostics Centres which have provided over 300,000 additional diagnostics tests to date
- Securing additional funding to support new Endoscopy suites and imaging equipment such as CT scanners
- Training and development of the diagnostic workforce
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is a key priority for all networks and projects include:
- Implementing a shared critical alerts/results notification system to communicate urgent findings from diagnostics tests to the referrer
- Developing a shared Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) to allow patient images to be shared between hospitals more easily
- Introduction of Telediagnosis to support respiratory, dermatology and cardiology diagnostics
Productivity and Performance
Earlier diagnosis is essential for securing the best possible outcomes for patients, so performance improvement plans have been developed to ensure at least 95% of patients referred are seen in less than six weeks by March 2025
Procurement
Value for money is a key focus and projects include:
- Standardising and combining contracts, equipment and services where possible
- Reducing costs for items by bulk-purchasing where possible
- Facilitating the joint purchasing of additional and upgraded imaging equipment
Workforce
The workforce is critical to the sustainability of any service so all networks are focussed on developing a five-year workforce plan to support training, recruitment and retention to meet future workforce needs
Clinical Pathways
Clinical Pathways Forums within each network are focused on delivering the right test, in the right place at the right time for patients and standard pathways have been developed across the networks to ensure all patients receive the highest quality of service based on the latest guidance and recommendations
Data
Business Intelligence Data is used to influence the transformation projects undertaken. To ensure any data gathered is as accurate and helpful as possible:
- A Demand and Capacity model has been co-produced with trusts to support current and future service planning
- A performance Dashboard is now being used by the networks to support trusts to monitor waiting times with a view to improving performance and reducing waits for diagnostics
Our Governance
The Collaborative has its own Diagnostics Programme Board (DPB) that reports to the Provider Collaborative Board's Clinical Programmes Board and more recently the Integrated Care Boards System Recovery and Transformation Board.
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