What is planned care?

Planned care refers to healthcare services that are scheduled in advance rather than emergency or unplanned care. This includes treatments such as elective surgeries for hips and knees, diagnostic tests, outpatient services and other non-urgent scheduled medical procedures. The organisation and management of planned care are crucial to ensure that patients receive timely and effective treatment, thereby improving health outcomes and quality of life.

Our planned care is comprised of a team of health commissioners with skills in transformative work and project management.

Our vision is to commission high quality, best value clinical services that will improve outcomes for our population. We want to strive to enable our citizens to be cared for in the most appropriate setting, and wherever possible, out of hospital, by engaging and developing partnerships with a range of providers so residents of Lancashire and South Cumbria are seen as quickly as possible and in a place that is convenient to them. 

We will do this by:

  • Improving access to care and treatment
  • Increasing capacity and productivity
  • Improving quality and addressing health inequalities

Our outcomes to be achieved:

  • Improved access
  • Reduced waiting times
  • Improved choice
  • Improved patient experience

  • Modern technologies, increased capacity and service resilience - new digital services, like the NHS App are empowering people to take more control of their health and care through secure online access to clinicians, personalised health information, digital tools and advice that helps them to better manage their conditions.
  • Outpatient transformation - the introduction of patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU) is an approach the NHS is committed to deliver to help improve clinical outcomes, by giving patients greater control of their elective care by enabling them to initiate appointments only when they need them, such as when their symptoms change.
  • New pathways of care - NHS England Reforming elective care for patients NHS England » Reforming elective care for patients sets out the vision to transform pathways with the opportunity to deliver activity in the community, starting with at least the following five priority specialties; ear, nose and throat (ENT), gastroenterology, respiratory, urology and cardiology. It also sets out plans for giving patients timely local access to diagnostic testing, with straight to test pathways and action to reform outpatient care, including reducing unnecessary follow up appointments, freeing up clinical time for those who need it.
  • New services bridging primary and secondary care - development of community and primary care services to maximise out of hospital delivery wherever possible. Through better integration of services and timeliness of treatment, community services aim to reduce the need for hospital-based intervention and provide better care and services to patients, in the community where possible and appropriate. It is more important than ever that primary and secondary care professionals are working effectively together to ensure that patient's care is appropriate, timely and personalised.

Priorities for 2024/25

  • Musculoskeletal and, trauma & orthopaedic pathways
  • Pain management pathways
  • Gynaecology pathways
  • Neurosciences pathways
  • Referral management centres

  • Dermatology procurement - single provider mobilised.
  • Ophthalmology (Tier 1) procurement
  • Self-referral pathways established for age related audiology and musculoskeletal services 
  • National PIDMAS (patient initiated requests to move provider) programme delivery
Information for patients
Information for professionals

You may also be interested in:

Commissioning policies
Patient choice
NHS Long term plan
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