Bradford District & Craven Long Covid Pathway

Clinicians at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust were some of first to recognise Long Covid as a new condition that patients and health care providers would face as a result of the pandemic.

Community Advanced Practitioner and Long Covid Service Lead, Jeremy Gee, worked closely with the Long Covid research team at University of Leeds to help develop the Covid-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale (C19-YRS) which has since been iterated, validated, adopted, and recommended internationally.

Airedale NHS Trust is a digital exemplary paperless NHS site that was quick to establish a specialist Long Covid service which serves the wider Bradford & Craven region and patients from Bradford Teaching Hospitals and Bradford District Care NHS Trusts.

In February 2021, Airedale engaged ELAROS to contribute to the development of the digital platform ahead of its launch and adopted the solution in May 2021.

Early Problem Statement:

"From experience in the first wave of the pandemic, 88 patients were screened by phone by a member of the Trust totalling on average of 1 hour each.

With the number potentially now totalling a minimum of 10x this and with the need to complete 3x assessments per patient, the time taken and cost to the Trust will be extensive." 

Jeremy Gee

Community Advanced Practitioner
(2021)

The Solution

ELAROS worked with Jeremy to design a digital pathway that aligned with the local clinical pathway to enable referrals from primary care and patients discharged from regional hospitals to enter the Long Covid community service in order to:

  • Screen for initial symptoms and any red flags
  • Record primary language to identify which patients might support from a relative or interpreter ahead of time
  • Support patients and manage expectations whilst waiting for an appointment or between appointments
  • Collect routine outcomes as desired by the clinic
  • Scale all of the above whilst reducing staff time and save money

Outcomes:

"On average the app takes admin 10 minutes or less to set a patient up to self complete assessment. This also significantly reduces clinician time required to assess the patient.  Information from the app alongside the medical record are used to ensure red flags are screened and appropriate baseline investigations are completed.

Reducing clinician and admin time at the front end has allowed for a larger amount of the funding allocation to be utilised on rehabilitation for people with Long Covid."

Jeremy Gee

Community Advanced Practitioner
(2024)

  • Patients are initially screened using the C19-YRSm, EQ-5D-5L, MFIS, MRC and a demographics form, then followed up with repeat measures including the Self-Compassion Scale Short Form, depending on the individual’s needs
  • A significant increase in capacity, allowing for an increase in referrals and a reduction in waiting times for first appointment
  • 96% completion rate of PROMs for patients using the mobile app, web app, or via remote assessment by a clinician
  • Virtual assessments take clinicians 10 minutes or less to complete assessments with those who need direct support, a reduction of 83% in time spent compared to before adoption

Future Plans:

Airedale is now focusing on building a Long Covid Service legacy in the NHS with three pilots, two of which are supported via ELAROS’ platform.