Patient Initiated Follow-up Appointments

What is Patient Initiated Follow-up (PIFU)?

Evidence has shown that many patients with long-term conditions, or following hospital treatment, do not need regular follow-up appointments with our hospital team. As part of your consultation, your clinician may discuss whether being put on a Patient Initiated Follow-up pathway is right for you. Being on this pathway will empower you to book a follow-up appointment within a set period, if and when you need one, rather than at routine intervals. This means you avoid unnecessary appointments, saving you time, money and stress.

How it works

If Patient Initiated Follow-up is available and suitable for you and your condition, the healthcare professional responsible for your care will discuss this option with you and, if you are happy, will add your name to the Patient Initiated Follow-up appointment list. As an outcome of your consultation, you will receive a PIFU patient information leaflet which will contain the following information:

• what to expect following your consultation
• how to get in touch with your service if you need to/symptoms to look out for
• the timeframe in which you can book a follow-up appointment.

If you do not need an appointment within the specified timeframe, you will be discharged from the service. If you have any issues after you have been discharged, you will need to contact your GP and they will re-refer you if you need to be seen again.

For more information on how PIFU works and how it could benefit you, please visit our website at www.dchft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/patient-initiated-follow-up

The benefits

Patient Initiated Follow-up has been demonstrated to offer a number of benefits which include:

• empowering you to book follow-up appointments when it is relevant to you and your condition eg with a flare-up of symptoms
• reducing waiting times and helping you get more timely access to our services
• reducing unnecessary visits to clinics for follow-up appointments, saving you time and money
• if appropriate, your follow-up appointment can be offered as a video or telephone consultation, making your appointment more convenient and further increasing accessibility to our services
• shared decision-making between patient and consultant.

Contact numbers

We hope that you have found this information useful. If you have any questions or are worried about anything, please speak to Central Appointments by calling 01305 255779.

About this leaflet

Author: Marie Dorton, Project Support Officer, Transformation and Improvement Office
Written: June 2021
Approved: August 2021
Review date: August 2024
Edition: v3

If you have feedback regarding the accuracy of the information contained in this leaflet, or if you would like a list of references used to develop this leaflet, please email patientinformation.leaflets@dchft.nhs.uk