East Yorkshire Tech Firm Keeps Prisoners out of Hospital

The London Lock-Up is pioneering the use of a GP referral technology to help ease the pressure on the NHS.

12:19 18 February 2021

Kinesis Advice and Guidance, an East Yorkshire technology firm, has introduced a GP referral technology that will be used to keep inmates out of hospital to ease the pressure on the NHS.

 

The technology will be used at the London Lock-Up, the second largest in England with more than 1,500 prisoners. It is designed to allow healthcare professionals to request information directly from NHS consultants and to provide expert advice within 48 hours. Patients requiring treatment will be referred to Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust’s prison-based clinical team.

 

Kinesis A&G, which is currently being used by more than 850 consultants and 3,000 GPs across the UK, has helped prevent 47,000 unnecessary hospital appointments thus far.

 

Simon Hudson, director of the North Ferriby firm, said: “The traditional system of GPs referring patients to hospitals is unnecessarily costing the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds annually. It can be drastically reduced simply by GPs being able to communicate directly with consultants.

 

“This online platform gives them a clear, fast route and also improves their skills to help future patients.

 

“It is incredibly easy to use, GPs grasp it after 15 minutes of training and the benefits are enormous.

 

“GPs can treat patients quicker and more directly which is what they want while consultants see a higher proportion of really important cases that genuinely need their specialist help.

 

“More crucially than ever considering the effects of Covid-19, it reduces the strain on NHS hospital resources.”