A major concern in cardiology in the UK has been the waiting times for patients referred from primary care to secondary care, which are often long. We have addressed this problem in our Trust. At various times the Trust had funded waiting list initiative clinics but, apart from small and transitory improvements, the situation continued to worsen. Various solutions to the out-patient services problems have been implemented. However, there is a lack of published information about system redesign.
In this article we present some of the principles we are currently employing to redesign our out-patient service with a view to improve its efficiency. Our results are being published separately.
