Project Name: St George’s MS Capacity redesign
Project Summary:
The Project aims to redesign the MS service across the CW Partner Trust with the addition of an MS Disease Modifying Therapy (“DMT”) coordinator to support the management, monitoring and onward referral of DMT patients. This will address the capacity issues being experienced by the CW Partner, help to tackle the backlog of patients and address the risk of delays in starting and switching treatments. Furthermore, it will also support the welfare of the staff as the current patient numbers passing through the service are unsustainable and unmanageable for the NHS staff. The addition of this role will allow the clinical work to be more evenly distributed throughout the team, thus allowing increased time for other activities, such as, presence on the ward, educational activities and general patient care.
Specifically, via integrating the MS DMT coordinator into the service, the CWP aims to:
- improve patient outcomes and experience by reducing time between referral, diagnosis, and treatment, and increasing awareness of the MS pathway and their care options;
- supporting the NHS team with management of patient databases
- ensure essential safety monitoring for MS treatments, and reduce the risk of delays in repeat prescriptions
Planned Milestones:
- Project kick off meeting and set up of subsequent quarterly reviews
- Recruitment of DMT coordinator with baseline measurements submitted. Define roles and responsibilities of DMT coordinator
- 6 month data collection
- 9 month data collection
- 12 month data collection
- Business case written & submitted
- Project Outcomes Summary completed
Expected Benefits:
Anticipated benefits for patients:
- Improved patient outcomes due to faster time from referral to treatment time;
- Improved access to NICE recommended therapy;
- enhanced patient experience of the NHS MS service by reducing unnecessary waiting times.
Anticipated benefits for the CW Partner:
- Improved quality of care;
- Reduction in patient waiting lists;
- Improved MDT efficiency and outcomes;
- Improved experience of staff by spreading workload.
Anticipated Benefits for Novartis
- Learnings relating to the involvement of MS DMT coordinator at MDTs;
- Better understanding of overall customers’ and patients’ needs;
- Optimal use of medicines (including Novartis medicines) in appropriate patients.
Start Date & Duration: May 2023 for 18 months
UK | May 2023 | UK2305244957
Project Name: St George’s MS Capacity redesign
Partner Organisation(s): Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Limited, 2nd Floor, The WestWorks Building, White City Place, 195 Wood Lane, London W12 7FQ, (“Novartis”), and, St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Blackshaw Road, London, United Kingdom, SW17 0QT (the “CW Partner”)
Completion Date: January 2025
Outcomes Summary:
Improved patient outcomes and experience by reducing the time between treatment decision and treatment implementation.
It also helped reducing the backlog of patients and led to a reduction in the risk of delays in starting and switching of treatments.
Key Project Outcomes Data:
Reduced time from the Multi-Disciplinary Team’s treatment decision to implementation of treatment, from 18 weeks to 9 weeks.
The MS DMT Coordinator role supported the welfare of staff by enabling clinical work to be more evenly distributed throughout the team.
Outcomes:
The addition of an MS Disease Modifying Therapy (DMT) coordinator in the redesign of the CWP's MS service has had several positive effects. Firstly, the coordinator has provided support in the management, monitoring, and referral of DMT patients, helping to alleviate capacity issues within the service. This has also helped in addressing the backlog of patients and reduce the risk of delays in starting or switching treatments, if clinically appropriate.
Furthermore, the Collaborative Working Project (“CWP”) has had a positive impact on the welfare of existing staff who were previously affected by the high number of patients passing through the service. The coordinator and CWP design have enabled a more even distribution of clinical work, freeing up capacity for other activities. This includes increasing presence on the ward, engaging in educational activities, and providing general patient care.
Project outcomes have been evidenced through data sets that captured the following throughout the 12-month period:
- Number of patients seen through the service: 3,301
- Average time from MDT to implementation; Reduction from 17 weeks at baseline to 9 weeks
- Number of patients starting NICE approved treatment: 260
- Number of new prescriptions completed: 299
- Number of patients seen in clinic: 3,095 (with an increase from the mean monthly baseline of 233 patients per month before of the start of the project, to a mean monthly figure of 258 patients per month by the end of the 12-month project.
Conclusion:
The successful implementation of the CWP has demonstrated the positive impact of having an MS DMT Coordinator within the St George's MS Service. The CWP outcomes data have played a crucial role in persuading the Trust to approve a business case for converting the coordinator role into a permanent position. This is a testament to the value of the coordinator's contributions to the service.
FA-11451734 | June 2025