Yorkshire hospitals cutting waiting lists with drive-through service

Cardiac patients can collect an ambulatory echocardiogram (ECG) test when they drive to Doncaster Royal Infirmary or Montagu Hospital and get instructions on how to fit them.

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals says each week it can now conduct around 100 tests, to monitor the rhythm and electrical activity of a person’s heart for up to 72 hours.

The trust says around 80 per cent of people who require an ECG test now use this service and doctors can focus on seeing people who need a face-to-face appointment.

Sarah Ritzmann, chief cardiac physiologist at the trust, said: “Our patients who have used this service so far have all been pleased with how easy it now is to access.

"It reduces the need for a lengthy hospital appointment and is less of an intrusion on their day and a lot of our patients feel more comfortable not being in a waiting room during this time.

"We have also carefully analysed the ECG recordings from a group of patients using the drive through service and a group of patients who attended in clinic and we are confident that this new, more efficient way of carrying out the test results in the same quality of results.”

The trust also said it is looking to build on "similar successes" with their drive-through phlebotomy (blood taking) and Covid-19 swab testing.

Some 5.45m people were waiting to start routine hospital treatment at the end of June, according to the latest figures from NHS England – the highest number since records began in August 2007.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has warned the numbers will keep rising as people who stayed away during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic return for treatment.