Streaming and redirection

The brief

At some point during the blur that was COVID-19, a team was commissioned to create a tool that would help manage demand at A&E. The drivers included:

  • a need to reduce unheralded in-person attendance at A&E during the pandemic
  • a desire to reinforce the “111 First” campaign

The work

[still thinking]

Challenges

  • the obvious challenge was that the product already represented an unhappy path in a wider healthseeking journey
  • success was contingent on extremely strong behaviour change messaging around “111 First”
  • the commissioning-led nature of the NHS meant the central product proposition had already been decided at a high level
  • time pressure
  • little opportunity to do in-person research in the runup to pilots due to pandemic

Successes

Working in tandem with clinical authors. Being able to influence implementation of the product somewhat within the wider service environment. Success in being able to push the value of usability really hard due to the context.

Conclusion

[still thinking]

NHS Digital product information