Last December we shared news about a new central outpatient booking project which aims to make booking outpatient appointments quicker and easier.

Since then, teams across the Trust have been working together to get the project moving, bringing together expertise from operational, clinical and booking colleagues. This has included detailed pathway mapping, agreeing standard ways of working, building workflows, and ensuring the right infrastructure and support is in place to enable a smooth transition.

Thanks to all their hard work, the first Speciality Booking Hub will go live today (Monday 1st June) to help support Families and Specialist Services (Paediatrics and Gynaecology). This marks an important milestone for the programme and is a testament to the commitment and collaboration of colleagues across these services.

The introduction of the hub will:

• Provide a more standardised and efficient approach to booking appointments
• Create a dedicated team with specialist knowledge of the services they support
• Improve visibility and management of capacity, helping us prioritise patients more effectively
• Support a more consistent patient experience, ensuring people are booked into the right clinic, at the right time

Head of Planned Access, Kim Scholes, said: "Thank you to everyone who has contributed their time, insight and energy into developing this first hub. Your input has been crucial in designing a model that works for both patients and staff.

"This is just the beginning. We will continue to work with other services across the Trust to roll out additional hubs in phases, learning from this first implementation and refining our approach as we go."

Further updates and opportunities to get involved will be shared in the coming months. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact Nick Buckley - nicholas.buckley@cht.nhs.uk - or Kim Scholes - Kimberley.Scholes@cht.nhs.uk