Synertec’s partnership with

East Cheshire NHS Trust

“The Synertec team have boundless energy and have made sure everything was a smooth process for us.”

Key Takeaways

Digital transformation of East Cheshire NHS Trust's communication processes has reduced admin workload, allowing staff to focus on core responsibilities.
Streamlined process and other services provided by Synertec has resulted in more efficient and better-quality patient communications.
The partnership saved costs for the trust and ensured patient communications are meet the Accessible Information Standards (AIS).

Synertec have been working with East Cheshire NHS Trust since 2019, initially introducing hybrid mail options for three departments. The success of this implementation has led to Synertec expanding its solutions to various other departments, showing the positive impact their services have had on the trust.

One of the services Synertec helps the trust with is formatting documents so that they can be uploaded to a Patient Engagement Portal (PEP), which patients can then access digitally. This significantly reduces the administrative workload that the trust would have been required to do for the PEP provider. This streamlined process and other services provided by Synertec has resulted in more efficient and better-quality patient communications.

How does it work?

Previously, the department's administrators and booking teams had to go through a laborious and time-consuming process of producing, printing, and stuffing letters into envelopes. These letters would then be to be collected by the porters and delivered to the post room, franked, and collected by the post service, and then be sent out for delivery to the patients. The manual nature of these tasks meant issues arose where letters were in the wrong format for patients, missed, or not delivered on time. Consequently, the service was not robust.

East Cheshire NHS Trust decided it was time to re-evaluate, streamline and digitalise their communication processes. The set-up process began with a Synertec Regional Account Manager conducting a thorough survey of their current processes. Kerry Gibson, PEP project manager at East Cheshire NHS Trust explained “they walked through everything we needed from the survey, and what the outputs needed to be.” This collaborative approach ensured that the digitalisation process aligned with the trust's specific needs. The service manager gathered essential information such as volumes, templates of potential letters, any training needs, and preferences for audit reports.

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Whilst staff do not see the physical end product, they can track the journey of the document through the Prism software, and they are much happier to be saving time.

- Kerry Gibson, East Cheshire NHS Trust

Key Benefits

East Cheshire NHS Trust have found the outcome to be far more efficient than their previous process, benefiting both their patients and staff. By utilizing the services of Synertec to handle digital and physical letters, patients can access their important healthcare communications at a much faster rate. Digital letters are available almost immediately now via the PEP. Rather than waiting for a letter to be delivered by post, this instant access allows patients to quickly confirm appointment details, procedure dates, and clinical information, on the same day. This provides reassurance and enables patients to make travel arrangements and plan their appointments accordingly.

Additionally, the new process has relieved a significant amount of stress and anxiety for the admin staff who previously struggled with the pressure of ensuring that all communications were sent out in the correct formats and on time. Now that the process is managed by the Prism printer, they can simply click ‘print’ instead of the lengthy process that they had to do previously. Kerry Gibson told us, “Sometimes if there were a lot of GP reports that needed to be sent in one envelope, they would have to spend time folding them like origami, so it would all fit and then hand write the address on to the envelope. They can’t believe they waited this long to have this system in place.”

The digitalisation process prompted East Cheshire NHS Trust to review their previous letters and leaflets. Chrissie Smith, PEP project coordinator at East Cheshire NHS Trust, explained how “it made us address what was is in letters and leaflets, and also what they looked like too, we wanted them to look uniformed and be more professional.”

Financially the trust has been able to save money by streamlining their communications process. Synertec can offer competitive pricing that would have been spent on their manual processes. In addition, they have also been able to redirect staff resources to other important tasks within the trust. The new processes also support meeting the carbon agenda for the NHS.

In addition, Synertec were able to help East Cheshire NHS Trust meet the Accessible Information Standards (AIS), with options for patients to have yellow paper and Clear Read letters for improved readability. Synertec offers a range of AIS- compliant letter formats, which means patients with additional needs can choose the communication style that best suits their requirements. This service did not add to the admin staff’s workload at East Cheshire NHS Trust, as the process is automated. This guarantees that the letters will be sent out in the correct format and in the same timeframe as standard letters.

“

The staff can’t believe they waited this long to have this system in place!

- Kerry Gibson, East Cheshire NHS Trust

Working with Synertec

The collaborative and dedicated relationship that Synertec and the trust have, has played a pivotable role in the success of the transformation. “The level of attention from the start is amazing, you are assigned a regional account manager, project manager, customer service executive, and nothing is too much trouble. They have boundless energy and they made sure everything was a smooth process for us.” Chrissie Smith also shares how “some of our staff weren’t sure about the change to digital, but now they are so pleased with it!” It has been pivotal for Synertec to ensure that they helped East Cheshire NHS Trust to reduce the administrative burden they were faced with.

We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with the Trust in the future, finding new ways to reduce their overall costs and supporting their focus on patient engagement.