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An outpatient department or outpatient clinic is the part of a
hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergen ...
designed for the treatment of
outpatients A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health ca ...
, people with health problems who visit the hospital for diagnosis or treatment, but do not at this time require a bed or to be admitted for overnight care. Modern outpatient departments offer a wide range of treatment services, diagnostic tests and minor surgical procedures.


Department

The outpatient department of a hospital provides diagnosis and care for patients that do not need to stay overnight. The departments are also sometimes called outpatient clinics, but are distinct from clinics independent of hospitals, almost all of which are designed mostly or exclusively for outpatient care and may also be called outpatient clinics. The outpatient department is an important part of the overall running of the hospital. It is normally integrated with the in-patient services and staffed by consultant physicians and surgeons who also attend inpatients in the wards. Many patients are examined and given treatment as outpatients before being admitted to the hospital at a later date as inpatients. When discharged, they may attend the outpatient clinic for follow-up treatment. The outpatient department will usually be on the ground floor of the hospital with car-parking facilities nearby. Wheelchairs and stretchers are available for non-ambulatory patients. Patients will register at a reception desk and there is seating for them while they wait for their appointments. Each doctor will have a consulting room and there may be smaller waiting areas near these. Paediatric clinics are often held in areas separated from the adult clinics. Close at hand will be X-ray facilities, laboratories, the
medical record The terms medical record, health record and medical chart are used somewhat interchangeably to describe the systematic documentation of a single patient's medical history and care across time within one particular health care provider's jurisd ...
office and a pharmacy. In the main waiting area there are a range of facilities for the patients and their families including toilets, public telephones, coffee shop or snack bar, water dispenser, gift shop, florist and quiet room. Not all hospitals have separate outpatient departments, so outpatients may be treated in the same departments as patients that stay overnight.


Reform

The
Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...
said that UK outpatient clinics were stuck "in the 18th Century" and an expensive waste of time and money. There were 127 million appointments in 2017 and about 20% of them were cancelled or the patient did not turn up. 57% of them ran late. They wanted more use of remote monitoring, telephone and video consultations and senior nurses running clinics closer to people's homes. The NHS Long Term Plan proposed that up to a third of face-to-face outpatient appointments should be done by video link by 2024. The
COVID-19 pandemic in England The COVID-19 pandemic was first confirmed to have spread to England with two cases among Chinese nationals staying in a hotel in York on 31 January 2020. The two main public bodies responsible for health in England are NHS England and Public ...
spurred radical shifts to video appointments as most routine appointments were cancelled. The
Attend Anywhere Attend Anywhere is a web-based video conferencing tool which is used to provide video consultations to patients and service users through virtual clinics known as 'waiting rooms'. It is produced by a not-for-profit organisation within the Austral ...
digital healthcare service was installed across NHS organisations in England in March 2020 with backing from NHSX and by May 2020 had been used for more than 79,000 consultations. Sir
Jim Mackey James Alfred Mackey (25 November 1897 in Ryton, Tyne and Wear, Ryton, County Durham – 1990) was an English professional footballer as an Forward (association football), outside-right. Career Mackey joined Coventry City F.C., Coventry City ...
is leading a drive in 2022 to increase the number of patient-initiated follow-up appointments, where patients “take ownership of their care,” arranging follow-up appointments and diagnostics themselves and reducing the number of “pointless reviews”. He wants patients to be offered virtual consultations elsewhere in the country if there is a long wait at their local hospital. An
NHS England NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the ...
review in August 2022 reported that the number of patients moved or discharged to PIFU pathways across the 34 providers monitored increased from 53,000 to 118,000 in the nine months up to May 2022. This was an increase from 0.7% to 1.5% in the overall proportion of total outpatient appointments across those trusts. Jacob Haddad, the co-founder of AccuRx, argues that much more should be done to empower patients. He says that "NHS providers should use PIFU to open a digital channel of communication which allows patients to get the specialist support or advice they need, without needing to book an appointment at all if it’s not needed."


Payment

NHS England NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the ...
proposed changes to payment systems in 2018 aimed at reducing the number of consultant-led appointments and incentivising hospitals to conduct more appointments remotely.


References

{{reflist Types of health care facilities Clinics Hospital departments