Abstract
Introduction. “See and treat” one-stop clinics (OSCs) are an advocated NHS initiative to modernise care, reducing cancer treatment waiting times. Little studied in plastic surgery, the existing evidence suggests that though they improve care, they are rarely implemented. We present our experience setting up a plastic surgery OSC for minor skin surgery and survey their use across the UK. Methods. The OSC was evaluated by 18-week wait target compliance, measures of departmental capacity, and patient satisfaction. Data was obtained from 32 of the 47 UK plastic surgery departments to investigate the prevalence of OSCs for minor skin cancer surgery. Results. The OSC improved 18-week waiting times, from a noncompliant mean of 80% to a compliant 95% average. Department capacity increased 15%. 95% of patients were highly satisfied with and preferred the OSC to a conventional service. Only 25% of UK plastic surgery units run OSCs, offering varying reasons for not doing so, 42% having not considered their use. Conclusions. OSCs are underutilised within UK plastic surgery, where a significant proportion of units have not even considered their benefit. This is despite associated improvements in waiting times, department capacity, and levels of high patient satisfaction. We offer our considerations and local experience instituting an OSC service.
Highlights
Dating back to the mid-1990s, plastic surgery units have reported issues dealing with growing number of patient referrals in a timely fashion
The aims of this study were to conduct a nationwide survey of plastic surgery one-stop clinics (OSCs) utilisation and present our local experience setting up an OSC to manage minor outpatient skin cancer surgery
This was due to improvements required in patient selection and the fact that the number of OSCs operating per week increased over the first
Summary
Dating back to the mid-1990s, plastic surgery units have reported issues dealing with growing number of patient referrals in a timely fashion. A thorough Medline search indicates that despite such support and evidence of improved service (e.g., cost savings and patient satisfaction) when instituted, OSCs seem to be rarely implemented within plastic surgery [1, 2, 7]. The reasons for this and actual uptake levels across the UK are unknown. To address these questions, the aims of this study were to conduct a nationwide survey of plastic surgery OSC utilisation and present our local experience setting up an OSC to manage minor outpatient skin cancer surgery. Alongside the primary outcome measure, 18 ww performance, patient satisfaction was surveyed
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