Further funding to extend NHS Trust pathways

Feedback plc (AIM: FDBK, "Feedback" or the "Company"), the clinical infrastructure specialist, is pleased to announce that it has secured further funding to extend the delivery of its Community Diagnostic Centre ("CDC") pathway pilot at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust ("NCA") site in Oldham.

Feedback has successfully supported Oldham CDC's application for further pathway funding from the 2024-25 NHS England budget, securing a paid contract extension as outlined in the original pilot announcement, on 21 March 2024. This further funding is for £69,000 with an initial 50% paid from the NHSE H1 budget to 30 September 2024, with the balance expected from the NHSE H2 budget to continue the pilot to 31 March 2025. The pilot is focused on breathlessness, further demonstrating the impact of a pathway approach on CDC utilisation and wider patient wait times. The data generated will complement positive findings from past and ongoing pilots, building the business case for further expansion and funding.

The coverage of the NCA's Bleepa® based digital referral system, which is based on a separate Bleepa® contract with Feedback, has also been significantly expanded since December 2023, when it supported six specialities at Oldham and one at Fairfield General Hospital. Its total user number has increased 68% between June 2023 and June 2024 with over 1,400 users at the sites now generating over 9,200 patient referrals during this period alone. It now supports eleven specialties, including Endocrinology and Haematology at Oldham, and five specialities, including Cardiology and Respiratory at Fairfield.

An independent report by Unity Insights published in October 2023 found that the NCA identified a dramatic reduction in clinical response times after switching to Bleepa® from paper-based referral systems, after examining 10,000 referrals made between July 2021 to April 2023. The report estimated that the collective time savings would be worth £819,000 to the NCA over 5 years and, if adopted across the whole Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board, could free up £7.7m in savings over the same period.

Tom Oakley, CEO of Feedback plc, said: "We are extremely pleased to announce the confirmation of the funded second stage of our CDC pilot at Oldham and remain focussed on delivering further evidence that supports the adoption of a pathway approach for CDCs, enabled by the Bleepa® platform. We see this as further validation of the value the NCA and NHSE sees in our service and will use our findings to support national expansion.

"As use of our digital inpatient referral system expands to cover more specialities, more users and capture more referrals at Oldham and Fairfield, we are eager to build upon the positive findings from Unity's report and deliver much needed time savings to the NHS."

Anand Iyer, NCA CDC Programme Lead at the Northern Care Alliance said: "We are thrilled to collaborate with Feedback to deliver a clinically transformative breathlessness pathway at the Oldham Community Diagnostic Centre. This new pathway enables patients to undergo multiple diagnostic tests in a single visit, with the Bleepa® system accelerating clinical response times. As a result, patients will experience significantly reduced waiting times and receive faster diagnoses."

Georges Ng Man Kwong, Chief Clinical Information Officer (Bury, Rochdale and Oldham) at the Northern Care Alliance, said: "We are delighted that clinical engagement and onboarding of additional specialities in response to positive user feedback has led to ongoing systems optimisation, benefits realisation and value for patients, staff users, our care organisation and the wider NHS.'"