NEW: Best Provider of Elective Care

Best Provider of Elective Care
NEW: Best Provider of Elective Care
Read more

How to apply

  1. Register an account.
  2. Start your entry (save it in-progress).
  3. Submit your entry to be in the running.

Best of luck!

Start your entry

Reducing the elective care backlog remains one of the NHS’s most urgent national priorities. The Medium Term Planning Framework restates the commitment to restore the constitutional standard, returning to 92 per cent of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by 2028/29. Long waits for treatment continue to have a serious impact on outcomes, staff workload and system efficiency. Health systems are under pressure to recover capacity, treat more patients and deliver earlier access to care, while laying the groundwork for more sustainable, responsive services.
 

This award recognises an independent healthcare provider that has helped the NHS reduce elective waiting times and treat more patients, whether through a formal partnership or as a standalone initiative serving NHS patients. Projects might include additional surgical or treatment capacity, high-volume low-complexity pathways, improvements to day-case and theatre productivity, surgical hub models or recovery-focused redesign that gets patients to treatment faster. Judges will be looking for entries that respond to a clearly defined need, demonstrate impact at scale and show measurable benefits for patients, staff and services.
 

Eligibility

  • Open to independent healthcare providers delivering elective care services free at the point of care to NHS patients, in any setting. 
  • Projects can be conducted independently or in collaboration with an NHS organisation. While a partnership with the NHS is encouraged, it is not mandatory; however, all projects must serve NHS patients. 
  • Evidence of outcomes and measurable impact must be provided from the past two years up until the awards entry deadline.

Ambition

The challenge and context within which your project, person or organisation is set alongside your goals and targets whether quantitative or qualitative, and how this aligns with national priorities.

  • Describe the elective care challenge you set out to address for NHS patients, including the scale of the backlog or capacity gap and the specialties or patient groups affected
  •  What were your goals and targets for reducing waits or adding capacity, whether quantitative or qualitative, and how did you define success?
  • What was the context for the work, and what made your approach the right way to get more patients seen and treated?

Collaboration

The stakeholders’ involvement in co-designing and delivering the project. How have patients, staff at all levels, communities and other parties worked together to realise the outcomes?

  • How did you involve your clinical and operational teams, and where relevant any NHS partners, in designing and delivering the service?

  • How were patients involved in shaping access, communication or follow-up?

  • What challenges arose during delivery, and how were they overcome?
     

Impact

The measurable benefits delivered to patients, staff, your organisation or the wider system. Provide data and evidence showing improvements to outcomes, quality, access, equity or efficiency.

  • What measurable improvements have you delivered for NHS patients, such as shorter waits, additional treatment capacity or better outcomes? Quantitative evidence is essential, but qualitative feedback is also welcomed
  • What changed in practice as a result of your work, and how do you know the improvement is attributable to it?
  • What value did the work deliver for the NHS, including any efficiencies or savings?

     

Scale

How your work has been shared, adopted or replicated beyond your immediate team or organisation. This includes dissemination through publications, presentations, toolkits, partnerships or inspiring similar initiatives elsewhere.

  • How has your model been adopted, replicated or adapted beyond the original service, site or specialty?
  • What tools, systems or service designs made it possible to scale or share the approach?
  • What evidence is there that it could deliver similar results elsewhere?
     

Sustainability

The potential for the project/work to continue and create lasting impact. Evidence of how it can be sustained or built upon.

  • Describe how the service can be sustained or built upon beyond the initial period. 
  • How have the improvements been embedded so they continue to benefit NHS patients?

NEW: Best Provider of Elective Care

Start your entry

Be an event partner

Partnership opportunities:  Sponsorship Sales team
Awards entry enquiries: Support Team
Judging and event management: Awards Support