The My Planned Care digital platform gives people waiting for a hospital appointment, operation or treatment direct access to the latest wait-time information and support. It provides people with direct access to average wait-time information at a speciality level (excluding cancer) for all hospital trusts in England, as will also provide supporting information to help them manage their health and wellbeing whilst they wait.

With the pandemic inevitably impacting on the amount of routine and elective procedures hospitals could perform and people now coming forward, the number of people on the waiting lists has increased to around six million.

The platform will provide information to help people manage their pain, mental health, and healthy living, as well as access to financial help and tips on how to access local support, such as through local patient support groups and social prescribing services.

The site also helps people to prepare for their appointment/operation, including how to make a plan for their care and treatment alongside their healthcare professional.

It will be available for all at a speciality level for each of the 137 NHS acute providers across England, with a unique URL for each trust and a link to the site via NHS.uk.

Waiting time information is drawn from the Waiting List Minimum Data Set and will be updated weekly.

The first phase of the platform went live at the end of February, with the average waiting time for treatment’ information for each trust and generic supporting health advice and support.

The next phase will be available at the end of May and will see the expansion of the site to include specific clinical guidance and advise for each trust, as well as other locally available support and information that people can access whilst they are waiting. Each trust is responsible for uploading this additional supporting information.  Clinical teams in secondary and primary care will be able to sign-post patients to this information, to provide additional support whilst they are waiting for treatment.