Early Implementation Case Study at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust were the joint first clinical site to adopt the digital C19-YRS platform for their NHS Long Covid service alongside Airedale and Leeds in May 2021.
The team at Salford and later, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (serving Bury, Oldham and Rochdale), who merged into the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust provided crucial input to the development of the digital platform prior to its launch by involving clinical staff, patients, and information governance specialists to ensure its swift development met the relevant NHS standards and was easy-to-use and appropriate for patient use.
“There had been very little digital development to support us dealing with long Covid, so we were keen to get involved in this research project. The C19-YRS [outcome measure] was a good approach to support our initial assessments of patients and gave us a good holistic view, but it was tiring for patients, so we started looking into the [digital] app.
It’s great to have been involved in developing the app and our patients told us they wanted it too.
It will really help patients visualise their progress and let them have informed discussions with their clinician. It will also increase GP knowledge around the progress their patients are making as we can send information electronically to them too.
“It will also help the research agenda, as long Covid is so new we don’t know to what extent people will suffer and how long it will take them to recover. We can contribute to national and local research and also improve our local knowledge to make sure we have the right people in the right service to support our patients.”
June Roberts
Consultant Nurse and Associate Director of Transformation
Outcomes:
Within just 4 months of adopting the platform, the successful implementation at Salford and Pennine Acute, BBC News North West and ITV News Online picked up the story and conducted an interview with clinicians and patients locally.
Ground-breaking new app to help Long Covid patients first used in Salford
ITV News Online
"I found the app easy to download and very user friendly. I’m looking forward to using it more and intrigued as to the next step, hoping it will help me to get the right support and care."
Sarah Bleasdale
Long Covid Patient
“The app means information can now be sent electronically direct to the Long Covid Clinic Team, so they have information ahead of appointments. We can even decide on the length and type of appointments using the tool to match the needs of the patient."
“The tool will also help with reporting data required for long Covid at a national level.”
Sarah Cannon
Programme Manager
“The symptoms of long Covid can be devastating for many people and we can now better understand people’s complete range of symptoms. Our patients are very keen to use the app as another tool."
"By inputting the information themselves, they will be able to see how their health is improving over time and use the information to form a discussion with their clinician, as well as to show their family. Previously we were making calls and asking people around 30 questions over the phone with the varying responses."
Taruna Patel
Salford Single Point of Access Team