With 50 clinical pages live within six months of launch, the HealthPathways Cardiff and Vale team are going strong and have 100 well on the horizon.

Since passing the 50 clinical pages mark in August, the team has continued to gain momentum and are increasingly productive as they approach 100, says HealthPathways Cardiff and Vale Project Lead, Trisha Osborne. Including other page types, they are nearly at 100 pages live in total.

Initial pathway focus areas included Cardiology, Child and Youth Health, ENT, Gastroenterology, Nephrology, and Sexual Health.

The Cardiff and Vale team has learned some valuable lessons early in their HealthPathways journey, says Trisha.

“Primarily, we focused on getting a set number of pages finished so that we could take our website live. We soon learned how important it was to complete the associated request pages, and there was a bit of a rush to get these done,” says Trisha.

“We now give equal priority to the request pages, and take a wider view of pathway development,” she says.

Proud to be leading in Wales

The Cardiff and Vale HealthPathways team are very proud to be leading the way in health reform in Wales, says Trisha.

To help build engagement with local general practitioners and their teams, HealthPathways team members attend GP Continuing Professional Educational Training (CPET), and GP training sessions, and post on Twitter when new pathways go live.

“Feedback from local practitioners starting to use the pathways has been positive, with usage growing steadily,” says Trisha.

Celebration ahead for 100

The Cardiff and Vale team marked their 50 clinical pages milestone with a celebratory cake, and are planning for a bigger event in when they reach the 100 mark, which they hope to be in March or April.

The Cardiff and Vale team from left to right: Stephen Parnell, Assistant Director of Organisational Systems Change; Khurram Hashmi, Clinical Editor; Hannah Brayford, Head of Programme Management Office; Wyn “the prototypical patient”; Maria Dyban, Senior Clinical Editor; Trisha Osborne, HealthPathways Project Lead; Karen Pardy, PCIC Community Director; Anna Kuczynska, PCIC Clinical Board Director.

Local feedback informs future priorities

The Cardiff and Vale team will use feedback from local practitioners to inform planning for future pathway development priorities. 

“In December, we sent a questionnaire sent to local GPs, nurses, and other practitioners, and asked them what they would like to see us work on next,“ says Trisha. 

“In January we’ll share the results of the questionnaire, and the plan we’ve developed based on this feedback,” she says.

Building local engagement

For tips and resources to help you build HealthPathways engagement in your area, see Getting General Practice Engaged with HealthPathways, or Engagement and Education. These resources have been provided by members of the HealthPathways Community.