Healthcare award goes to Queen Victoria Hospital and Feedback Medical
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (QVH) and Feedback Medical were honored with the Most Effective Contribution to Clinical Redesign Award at the 2025 HSJ Partnership Awards on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. The award recognized their successful partnership in implementing a digital breathlessness pathway that has reduced patient wait times and unnecessary hospital appointments.
The collaboration between QVH and Feedback Medical, a public-private partnership, was commended by the Health Service Journal (HSJ) for its innovative approach in providing a straight-to-test digital pathway. This has greatly improved the experience for patients with breathlessness and has also streamlined the working process for clinicians. Feedback Medical’s clinical collaboration platform, Bleepa®, was instrumental in establishing the digital foundation for the pathway, allowing for asynchronous collaboration between clinicians in primary and secondary care through the community diagnostic centre.
The winners were announced during a prestigious ceremony at Evolution London on March 20, 2025, hosted by Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke. The event was attended by representatives from the NHS, private sector, third sector, and key players from non-clinical backgrounds, all coming together to celebrate positive partnerships and their crucial role in the sustainability of the NHS.
The winners were chosen through a rigorous two-stage judging process before the awards ceremony. The judging panel consisted of over 70 highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community. All finalists and winners were evaluated against five criteria: ambition, outcome, spread, value, and involvement, which included details on how relevant staff, patients, and partnerships worked together to achieve success.
The pilot program, which was launched at QVH in Sussex in 2022, has significantly improved diagnostic efficiency and patient care by reducing waiting times and unnecessary hospital visits. By utilizing Bleepa®’s technology for asynchronous multi-disciplinary team collaboration, the pilot achieved an impressive 63% reduction in patient wait times from referral to treatment, surpassing the 18-week national target. This has greatly reduced the number of patients waiting for over six weeks.
Through the primary care referral process, patients were triaged and necessary tests were scheduled together, resulting in an impressive 90% of referrals being managed without the need for in-person specialist appointments. This innovative approach has not only enhanced the patient experience but has also led to multiple efficiency improvements that can potentially be scaled for other pathways.
Dr. Ian Francis, Clinical SRO for Diagnostics and CDC programme for Sussex Integrated Care System, expressed his delight in winning the HSJ Partnership Award for Most Effective Contribution to Clinical Redesign and having the success of the digital breathlessness pathway recognized by the HSJ judging panel. He added that there has been a keen interest in sharing their best practices with others to adopt similar symptom-based pathways, and they have already presented their key learnings both regionally and nationally. This successful partnership demonstrates the potential for maximizing clinical and efficiency improvements for patients, with more pathways still to come.
Dr. Tom Oakley, CEO at Feedback Medical, also shared his joy in winning the HSJ Partnership Award 2025, which recognizes the strength of their partnership with Queen Victoria Hospital and the improvements they have delivered for both patients and clinicians through Bleepa®. He stated that they have revolutionized the approach to outpatient services by providing a seamless digital journey for patients from the initial referral to the conclusion of their pathway. This has greatly reduced waiting times for patients, improved productivity for NHS staff, and reduced unnecessary appointments. He also mentioned that they are working with QVH to expand their success to new pathways and onboard more sites to use Bleepa® in both primary and secondary care. He expressed confidence in replicating their significant impact across other areas of the NHS.
The full list of winners for the 2025 HSJ Partnership Awards can be found at https://partnership.hsj.co.uk/winners-2025
This news story was distributed by https://pressat.co.uk/.