In some clinics we offer a different way of arranging follow-up appointments, called patient initiated follow-up (PIFU).
Normally, follow-up appointments are booked by the hospital at set times, such as every six months or every year. Some people find this helpful, but others may not need a routine visit and can find it stressful or inconvenient.
With a PIFU plan, you decide when you need a follow-up. You can contact your hospital team if your symptoms change, get worse, or if you need advice. This gives you more control and makes sure you get support when it is most helpful for you.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
If your hospital care team think that PIFUs might be suitable for you they will discuss this with you and you will be placed on a PIFU plan. This means you may not receive regular follow-up appointments anymore and you will need to contact the hospital if you feel you need one.
Your hospital care team will tell you how long your plan will last for and you will be on a dedicated PIFU plan list which will be checked regularly. For some patients, the PIFU plan might be open-ended. In most cases, if you don't need to see your hospital care team at all within this time period you will be discharged back to your GP, who will refer you back to the hospital if you need to be seen again in the future.
There will be some exceptions to this for patients with certain long term conditions where it may not be appropriate for them to be discharged from the hospital. Your hospital care team will discuss this with you and make you aware of what will happen at the end of your PIFU plan. If you are under the care of more than one department, it is important to remember that your patient initiated follow-up plan doesn’t apply to all of them.
Some departments may still send you regular follow-up appointments and it’s important that you attend these so that they are able to monitor your condition.
If you are placed on a PIFU plan, your hospital care team will discuss which symptoms you should look out for and give you this information in a written format so you can refer back to it. If you experience any of these symptoms, please contact the service as soon as possible to arrange an appointment.
The service will provide you with the relevant contact details.
If your condition worsens or causes concern while you are waiting to be seen by the hospital specialist, please contact your GP who can request advice from one of our clinicians if necessary.
If you feel that you are seriously unwell, please call 111 or, in an emergency, call 999.
Visit the NHS website for advice on helping you take control of your health and wellbeing.
This type of follow-up offers a number of benefits:
- You have more control over your follow-up appointments and when you have them
- Appointments are made based on your individual needs
- For many people it will mean they don’t need to come to hospital as often, meaning less time off work and travelling
- With fewer patients coming in when they don’t need to, we can make appointments available more quickly for those that do need them
- We can also reduce our carbon footprint by lowering the number of patients travelling to the hospital unnecessarily
To book an appointment, please contact the number provided by your hospital care team.
At the time you requested your PIFU appointment, you will have been provided with an estimated response time, usually between three and 14 days. This is to allow the administrator time to speak to your clinician and agree the most appropriate action to deal with your request. This could result in advice given to you and/or your general practitioner (GP), or an outpatient consultation delivered either by telephone, video or face-to-face in one of our clinics.
If your condition worsens or causes concern while you are waiting to be seen by the hospital specialist, please contact your GP who can request advice from one of our clinicians if necessary. If you feel that you are seriously unwell, please call 111 or, in an emergency, call 999.
If you need to be seen because your symptoms have worsened, you will be given priority and offered an appointment within the timescales agreed with your hospital care team. This is usually at the next available date as this service is not for urgent or emergency care.
However, if your condition worsens or causes concern while you are waiting to be seen by the hospital specialist, please contact your GP who can request advice from one of our clinicians if necessary.
If you feel that you are seriously unwell, please call 111 or, in an emergency, call 999.
Your plan will last for a specific amount of time. Your hospital care team will talk to you about how long you may need to keep your plan open depending on your condition and their clinical judgement of how long you may need before you can be discharged back to your GP, if this is appropriate.
If you need to arrange an appointment, this may be a face-to-face or a virtual (video or telephone) consultation. Your hospital care team will talk to you about the most appropriate way for them to see you.
Please visit the online video consultations page for more information on virtual appointments.