NHS Cheshire and Merseyside have said that a new Patient Initiated Follow-Up (PIFU) system has meant more than 200,000 unnecessary hospital appointments were avoided last year.

PIFU appointments gives people the option to book their follow up when required, as opposed to having a routine follow up.

More than 90 percent of outpatient departments across the region are now offering patients specialist advice and PIFU pathways in 14 priority specialities, which the care board says frees up more appointments for those who need them most and goes some way to reducing the number of missed appointments.

GPs have also been given access to specialist clinical advice from hospital clinicians, through the Advice and Guidance system, which they can pass on to patients without them automatically needing to visit hospital.

Figures for 2023 show that 119,554 patients were able to choose when they needed a follow-up appointment, while there were 427,411 specialist advice requests from GPs to hospital clinicians, which prevented 90,527 hospital visits.

Mother-of-two Emma Hurst, from Chester, used PIFU when her daughter was referred to the specialist team at her local hospital.

She said: “The patient-initiated follow-up pathway means that I'm in control of my daughter's appointments, if there's a flare up in her condition or her symptoms become unmanageable, I can telephone or email the specialist team to make an appointment.

“I think this is great because it means that I don't have to travel or take my daughter out of school, and it also means that the team at the hospital aren't wasting their time on an appointment that's not necessary. I think it's a personalised and flexible way for me to be in charge and look after my daughter's care going forwards.”

Professor Rowan Pritchard-Jones, Medical Director at NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, said:

“We know patients don’t always need or want to go into hospital for their outpatient appointment which is why we want to empower them to manage their scheduled appointment in a way that suits their lives.

“Introducing these options effectively is helping us to deliver personalised care and means patients only go into hospital when they really need to."