Support for local people waiting for surgery wins award

A project that supports local people who are waiting for surgery at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust has won a South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Excellence award for ‘Partnership working excellence’ at a glittering awards ceremony last week (2 May 2024).

The ‘Waiting Well’ project used social prescribing and self-management to support patients from across Wakefield who had waited over 35 weeks for surgery that required an overnight hospital stay. The initiative was also shortlisted in the 2023 HSJ Patient Safety Awards in the ‘patient safety in elective recovery’ category.

Waiting Well used a social prescribing link worker to support people who had waited the longest for surgery to help maintain their independence, mobility, finances, relationships, and mental health, as well as helping to reduce falls, support carers, and reduce pressure on local health and care services.  84 people accessed support through Waiting Well.

Waiting Well was a partnership project across Wakefield District Health and Care Partnership (WDHCP), Live Well Wakefield (Nova Wakefield District, and South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust) and Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust.

Providing personalised support closer to home to help people maintain their independence and wellbeing as they prepare for surgery is just one of the ways WDHCP are working together across the local health and care system to tackle the impact of the pandemic on surgery waiting lists.

Social prescribing is a holistic, person-centred approach to health and wellbeing that puts the person at the heart of their own care. Eligible people who were waiting for surgery who accepted referral through the Waiting Well social prescribing interventions completed a questionnaire before and after accessing the service.  It showed that 97% of people were able to increase or maintain their levels of preparedness and confidence levels for their procedure, 100% achieved their health and wellbeing goals and 100% reported improved wellbeing. The project also supported 192 referrals to other community organisations.