Delegates at the 2022 NHS ConfedExpo conference can hear about best practice and innovations from frontline NHS teams who have successfully adopted GIRFT high volume low complexity (HVLC) principles to carry out surgical procedures at scale, helping to reduce their elective backlog. 

GIRFT is hosting an hour-long session at the event at ACC Liverpool (15&16 June), offering practical solutions to support teams and an opportunity to ask questions, as part of the wider elective recovery agenda.

The session – entitled Redesigning clinical pathways to improve productivity and reduce elective waiting lists for high volume, low complexity (HVLC) procedures – takes place on day one of the conference (15 June), from 2.45pm to 3.45pm in Pop-up University Theatre 1 (PUU1).

Attendance at the event is free to NHS colleagues, local government and wider public sector staff. Book your pass online.

NHS ConfedExpo is bringing together thousands of senior leaders from the NHS, SMEs, commercial organisations, charities and more to discuss key issues, share successes and explore how they can support one another to improve patient care.

The GIRFT session highlights the programme’s work to support ICSs and regions to reduce waiting lists for the 50-60% of patients waiting for a high-volume procedure, such as cataract removal, hernia repair or joint replacement. It will offer an overview of the HVLC programme and its objectives, followed by best practice examples from three teams working across England. The line-up of speakers includes:

• Professor Tim Briggs, GIRFT Chair and National Director for Clinical Improvement for NHSE/I 
• Elena Bechberger, HVLC Programme Director
• Thangadorai Amalesh, divisional director of surgery, and Krishna Vemulapalli, consultant orthopaedic surgeon, from Barking Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust (BONES week activity drive)
• Omar Yanni, clinical director for trauma and orthopaedics at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (elective orthopaedic centre) 
• Steve Young, consultant orthopaedic surgeon and enhanced recovery programme lead, and Paul Saunders, clinical lead of the South Warwickshire Accelerated Transfer (SWAT) programme (top decile LoS for hip and knee arthroplasty through an enhanced recovery pathway) 

Since mid-2020, GIRFT has been working to enable health systems and regions to tackle this backlog of patients through its HVLC programme.

Focusing on 29 procedures in six high-volume specialties – ophthalmology, general surgery, trauma and orthopaedics (including spinal surgery), gynaecology, ENT and urology – HVLC supports ICSs and regions to identify and utilise system-level opportunities by agreeing standardised pathways, pooling capacity and resources, increasing capacity through effective surgical hubs, and improving theatre utilisation. More information can be found in the GIRFT Academy here.