Public Funding for Healthshare Limited

**Need/Vision:** Elective surgery across all NHS Trusts is suspended whilst front-line services prioritise escalating coronavirus admissions. This news is devastating to the 4.42 million patients who have sat on a long waiting-list, especially the 1.1m Musculoskeletal (MSK) patients waiting for joint-replacement or spinal-surgery, unable to walk, work, live independently or suffering significant pain. In January 2020, 22% of patients were waiting longer than the Governments maximum 18-Week Referral-to-Treatment targets and now because of pandemic impact, wait-times will soar further. According to Royal College of Surgeons statement in the Health Service Journal on 14.04.20 **_'Mountain wait-lists will take up to 5-years to catch-up'_**. Healthshare therefore want to offer a **'digital safety-net'** that cares for MSK waiting-list patient's physical health, mental health and wellbeing during this unprecedented time for the NHS. **Focus/Objectives:** To combat the harmful impact of delay on waiting-list patients, we will rapidly develop and roll-out a multi-media, online **Digital MSK Wellbeing Platform** that will reach-out to and support patients in their own home whilst they wait for surgery. Our principle aim is to ensure NHS patients do not feel forgotten, loose hope, deteriorate or develop avoidable co-morbidities whist they wait for a procedure. Additionally, the programmes within the Digital Wellbeing Platform will ensure patient's pre-operative health and holistic wellbeing is maximised, so they can achieve the best clinical outcome from their MSK procedure when they eventually get it. **Innovation:** The Digital MSK Wellbeing Platform will feature the following innovative digital programmes: * **Condition Specific, Preoperative Exercise and Wellbeing Programmes -** led by leading Orthopaedic and MSK Specialists, expert Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy Practitioners and experienced Biopsychosocial Wellbeing Coaches to maximise pre-rehabilitation activity, mobility levels, motivation and emotional health to minimise patient's symptoms, pain and analgesia usage * **Condition Specific Videos, Podcasts, Presentations, Infographics and Easy to Read Patient Information and Guidance -** to improve patient-literacy and achieve and maintain optimum health awareness, so patients are clear about the healthy lifestyle choices they need to make to remain 'fit for surgery' and become prepared and resilient enough to make an uncomplicated and speedy recovery when their time comes for a procedure. Patients can access the Digital MSK Wellbeing Platform via a simple URL-link, from any device, PC, laptop, tablet, SMART-television or SMART-phone. The service will be free to any NHS patient waiting for joint replacement or spinal surgery, without any commercial implication or obligation to Healthshare whatsoever. The 'extension for impact' would enable Healthshare to reach the audiences we are having difficulties engaging, due to COVID-19. We have found limitations in our approach and its subsequent impact. Therefore, we wish to formalise the ‘awareness’ of the platform with dedicated PR and marketing support. We have identified a prestigious PR agency who has extensive contacts within the media and through the NHS and other care organisations. We wish to use part of the additional funding to instruct this agency and expedite awareness of the platform at the highest levels of the NHS as well as end-user uptake. The additional funding would also enable us to act upon early feedback to amend some original content and improve user experience in the platform. The result of the funding would realise platform exposure and elevated patient experience.