Torbay Hospital would like to improve the proportion of Cardiology patients that are seen within the 18 week target. Currently, there are six Cardiology consultants. Consultants are able to freely choose when to take their accrued lieu (leave) time, and only four of the six consultants are placed on rotation for the Coronary care Unit. In addition, referrals are allocated to consultants with the highest perceived workload capacity, but before the referral’s potential time impact has been assessed by the consultant. It has been proposed that a change to these working practices might lead to improved consultant capacity, and consequently fewer Cardiology patients waiting more than 18 weeks from referral.
Using Discrete Event Simulation, we aim to create a model of the processes for Cardiology patients and working practices of Cardiology consultants at Torbay Hospital. Using this model to carry out “what if” analysis, we can predict the impact on 18-week waiting times and the time patients spend in the Cardiology processes of each of the following proposed future scenarios : 1) Consultant lieu time is partially fixed 2) Consultant lieu time is completely fixed 3) Five consultants are on rotation for the Coronary Care Unit 4) Six consultants are on rotation for the Coronary Care Unit 5) Patients can be referred to another consultant once the initial referral has been assessed by a consultant