University Hospital Dorset’s outpatient assessment clinic only opened in Beales in the Dolphin shopping centre last year, but already it has been selected as a finalist in the Patient Experience Network National Awards.

In response to the long waiting lists caused by the pandemic, it is helping to reduce waiting times and to increase the accessibility to life-saving screening. It is one of a number of clinics across the county that make up the Dorset Health Village – the other in South Walks House, Dorchester – and together they give patients the opportunity to also access free health and wellbeing support from LiveWell and Active Dorset in a community setting.

Since opening, as well as delivering thousands of Covid vaccinations, the clinics have seen over 10,000 patients, have had great feedback from patients, and received a number of high profile visits to see how the model could be adopted elsewhere across the country, including from Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of the NHS.

Mark Mould, chief operating officer at UHD, said: “We’re delighted to be finalists for these awards, especially as our focus has always centred around the patient experience. By moving some of our services closer to the community, we had the opportunity to not only reduce waiting times and increase access in these areas but also enable earlier identification of disease and improve outcomes for our patients.

“The impact of Covid has demonstrated the importance of good health and wellbeing and it’s fantastic to see wellbeing services fully integrated and embedded in these clinics, support people to make healthy behaviour changes and to ‘wait well’ for any procedures they are waiting for.”

The clinic has been shortlisted in the following categories – Partnership working to improve the experience; Integration and Continuity of Care; and Using Insight for Improvement. The winners will be announced in September.