LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Clinical infrastructure specialist Feedback announced the securing of further funding on Monday, to extend its Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) pathway pilot at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) site in Oldham.
The AIM-traded firm said the additional funding, totalling £69,000, would support the continuation of the pilot through to 31 March 2025.

It said the funding came from the 2024-2025 NHS England budget, with an initial 50% already allocated from the first half budget, covering the period up to 30 September.

The remaining balance was expected from the second half budget.

Feedback said the pilot, focusing on breathlessness, aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of a pathway approach in improving CDC utilisation and reducing patient wait times, contributing valuable data to support further expansion and funding.

Additionally, the use of Feedback's Bleepa digital referral system at the NCA had significantly expanded since December.

Initially supporting six specialities at Oldham and one at Fairfield General Hospital, the system now covered 11 specialities at Oldham, including endocrinology and haematology, and five at Fairfield, including cardiology and respiratory.

The board said the number of users increased by 68% between June 2023 and June 2024, with over 1,400 users generating more than 9,200 patient referrals in the period.

A report by Unity Insights, published in October last year, highlighted that NCA experienced a dramatic reduction in clinical response times after switching from paper-based to Bleepa digital referrals.

The report estimated that the time savings could be worth £0.82m to the NCA over five years, with potential savings of £7.7m if the system were adopted across the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board.

"We are extremely pleased to announce the confirmation of the funded second stage of our CDC pilot at Oldham and remain focussed on delivering further evidence that supports the adoption of a pathway approach for CDCs, enabled by the Bleepa platform," said chief executive officer Tom Oakley.

"We see this as further validation of the value the NCA and NHSE sees in our service and will use our findings to support national expansion.

"As use of our digital inpatient referral system expands to cover more specialities, more users and capture more referrals at Oldham and Fairfield, we are eager to build upon the positive findings from Unity's report and deliver much needed time savings to the NHS."

At 0821 BST, shares in Feedback were up 1.62% at 55.89p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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