NHS Hampshire and Southern Diabetes Medical Services Gets Smart With Orange Smartnumbers

New service ensures immediate access to clinical specialists to provide enhanced care for diabetes patients

Orange announced that Southern Diabetes Medical Services, in conjunction with NHS Hampshire has rolled-out Orange smartnumbers.  The service, powered by Orange partner Resilient Networks plc, provides GPs and Practice Nurses from 51 surgeries across Hampshire with access to specialist support from dedicated diabetes consultants.
With 15,000 diabetic patients across NHS Hampshire, delivery of specialist clinical advice was identified as an area of priority. Orange smartnumbers gives callers instant access to the best placed diabetes expert available; providing GPs and other healthcare workers with the ability to reach an expert, first time, and every time they call.  Previously, there was no guaranteed access to specialist diabetic support.
The Orange smartnumbers service provides healthcare professionals with specialist assistance and guidance in the management of a patient’s diabetes care. This will  result in improved patient care, whilst at the same time reducing costly referrals and unnecessary appointments with consultants. The smartnumbers service delivers calls to a team of specialists based on availability and regardless of their location. If a specialist is not available a voicemail is captured and a record of this is then emailed and texted to the team.
Kate Jack, Head of Public Sector and Health at Orange, said, “We are all too aware of the strains currently being placed on the healthcare sector. With expectations across the NHS to lower costs and referrals to secondary care, the sector is under a significant amount of pressure. Orange smartnumbers offers a real solution to both of these requirements. It not only ensures that patients with a real need for specialist care or advice can be dealt with more quickly, but also helps to reduce cost and administration time otherwise incurred through unnecessary referrals.”
Dr Partha Kar, Clinical Director Endocrinology/Diabetes at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and Partner, Southern Diabetes Medical Services, said, “In the UK, 4.45 per cent[1] of the population are currently affected by diabetes. Managing the illness is important, and for many, this involves regular doctor appointments. With Orange smartnumbers such care is enhanced through greater levels of access to diabetes specialists as and when required.
Primary care are doing a phenomenal job in spite of the odds and any service designed to give them quicker and easier access rather than costly follow-up appointments with consultants has to be a step in the right direction. Not all patients with diabetes need to be necessarily seen by a consultant and an advisory service, in certain cases, may indeed be more appropriate. The availability of immediate advice has started to reduce referrals and speeded up patient care. So far, we have seen an extremely positive response and hope to extend the principle wider across NHS Hampshire and surrounding Trusts in the near future. We hope this will improve the delivery of care to the 15,000 diabetic patients living in the county.”