17th NHS Patient Flow Conference: Improving NHS Pathways

Patient Flow & Care Coordination

08:30 am
03 Jul, 2025
15Hatfields Conference Centre, London SE1 8DJ

17th NHS Patient Flow Conference: Improving NHS Pathways

Patient Flow & Care Coordination

08:30 am
03 Jul, 2025
15Hatfields Conference Centre, London SE1 8DJ

Job titles includes

Patient Flow Clinical Manager

Head of Nursing

Assistant head of transformation

Deputy Service Manager Urology

Deputy Divisional Clinical Director Queen 
Square UCLH

Senior Operational Excellence Manager

Operational flow and capacity manager

Deputy head of transformation

Head of Improvement

Head of Nursing - Patient Flow

Senior Capacity Manager

Service Delivery Manager

Transformation Manager

Associate director of operations

Head of Nursing Site Operations

Deputy DGM

Head of Discharge hub

Patient Pathway Manager

320
Delegates Registered

Organisations Involved

Tees Esk and Wear Valley 

Lewisham Hospital

SWL ICB

Morecambe University Hospital

University College Hospital London Queen Square Division

Medway Community health NHS trust

United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals

ESNEFT

NHSE

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Barts Health  NHS  Trust

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

South West Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust

St. George's Hospital

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

Barts Health NHS trust

Barking Havering and Redbridge NHS

REGISTRATION CLOSED

Current Landscape

The NHS Patient Flow Conference will address the growing challenges facing healthcare delivery, as highlighted by the Lord Darzi Review. Despite a significant increase in the number of nurses—35% more working with adults and 75% more with children over the past 15 years—the pace of appointments, surgeries and procedures has not kept up, resulting in declining productivity. Key factors contributing to this issue include disrupted patient flow through hospitals, a severe capital shortage and a strained social care system. Currently, 13% of NHS beds are occupied by patients awaiting social care or alternative settings, which has led to a 7% reduction in outpatient appointments, 12% less surgical activity and 18% fewer emergency medicine interventions. This conference will explore these challenges and propose solutions to improve patient flow and overall healthcare efficiency.

Importance and timeliness of the event

The NHS Patient Flow Conference comes at a crucial time, as the healthcare system grapples with unprecedented pressure on its resources. The increasing demand for services, combined with rising workforce challenges and a faltering social care system, has highlighted the urgent need for systemic change. The conference offers a timely opportunity for healthcare professionals, policymakers and experts to come together and address the root causes of patient flow inefficiencies that are severely impacting NHS productivity. With patient care increasingly compromised by delays and bottlenecks, it is vital to explore innovative solutions that can improve hospital operations, ensure better patient outcomes and support the sustainability of the NHS in the face of these ongoing challenges. The conference's discussions and recommendations will be key to shaping the future of NHS care delivery.

Key content streams:

  • Optimising Patient Flow Across Healthcare Settings: Strategies to improve patient movement through hospitals, addressing bottlenecks and ensuring timely admissions, treatments and discharges.
  • Addressing the Impact of Social Care Delays: Exploring the critical issue of NHS bed occupancy by patients awaiting social care and the integration of health and social care services to improve discharge pathways.
  • Capital Investment and Infrastructure Needs: Examining the urgent need for investment in NHS facilities and technology to support efficient patient flow and improve healthcare delivery.
  • Data and Technology Solutions for Improving Efficiency: The role of digital tools, data analytics and AI in streamlining patient flow, optimising resources and enhancing decision-making within the NHS.
  • Demand and Capacity Planning: Balancing patient demand with healthcare resources, focusing on forecasting needs, optimising bed management, staff allocation and leveraging data-driven tools and technology to address fluctuating patient volumes.

Why attend

The Patient Flow Conference provides an indispensable opportunity for healthcare professionals to actively participate in revolutionising patient flow within the NHS.

Register now to be a part of this vital dialogue, driving transformative changes within the NHS and advocating for streamlined patient care and optimised resource utilisation.

Headline Sponsor

Speakers

Sponsors & Partners

The programme

08:30

Registration & Networking

Registration & Networking

09:30

Chair Opening Address - Chris Morrow-Frost, National Clinical Advisor to Secondary Care, NHS England (Confirmed)

Chris Morrow-Frost
National Clinical Advisor to Secondary Care
NHS England

Chair Opening Address - Chris Morrow-Frost, National Clinical Advisor to Secondary Care, NHS England (Confirmed)

09:50

Optimising Demand and Capacity: Strategies for Effective Patient Flow Management Panel Discussion

Andrew Stradling
Chief Medical Officer
NHS LPP; M&S H&CP; HCSA National Council
Sai Khunpha (Keith)
Senior Analytical Lead, Clinical Analytics and Reducing Variation Team
NHS England
Sarah Williams
Associate Director for UEC and Patient Flow
Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB
Catherine Withers
Assistant Director of UEC Improvement
NHSE

This panel discussion will focus on the challenges and strategies related to balancing patient demand with healthcare resources. Experts will explore how hospitals can better forecast patient needs, optimise bed management and allocate staff effectively to reduce wait times and improve patient outcomes. The discussion will also cover the integration of data-driven tools, technological innovations and collaborative approaches to ensure that capacity aligns with fluctuating patient volumes, particularly during peak periods.

Panellists:

  • Andrew Stradling, Chief Medical Officer, NHS LPP, HCSA (Confirmed)
  • Sarah Williams, Associate Director for UEC and Patient Flow, Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB (Confirmed)
  • Sai Khunpha (Keith), Senior Analytical Lead, Clinical Analytics and Reducing Variation Team, NHS England (Confirmed)
  • Catherine Withers, Assistant Director of UEC Improvement, NHSE (Confirmed)
  • Hadi Chami, Information & Data Visualisation Lead – Costing and Income, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Provisionally Confirmed)

10:30

Headline Sponsor - Engaging Patients, Accelerating Flow: A Scalable Model for NHS Trusts

Headline Sponsor - Netcall

In our session, “Engaging Patients, Accelerating Flow: A Scalable Model for NHS Trusts”, we’ll explore how early, consistent engagement helps prevent delays before they start.

  • Reaching patients at the right time, through the right channel
  • Building consistent processes around choice and access 
  • Using the right technology to make it all work at scale

10:50

Morning Break & Networking

Morning Break & Networking

11:50

Chair Morning Reflection - Chris Morrow-Frost, National Clinical Advisor to Secondary Care, NHS England (Confirmed)

Chris Morrow-Frost
National Clinical Advisor to Secondary Care
NHS England

Chair Morning Reflection - Chris Morrow-Frost, National Clinical Advisor to Secondary Care, NHS England (Confirmed)

11:55

Case Study - Empowering Personalised Patient Journeys

Rob Hurrell
Senior Business Development Manager – Health
Enovation UK Limited

Case Study - Enovation

We know that, patients who are informed and can make choices about their treatment have better outcomes, improved experience, and reduce cost and pressure on NHS services. The same is true for clinicians who have access to relevant, timely information about patient progress and recovery.

Join us as we talk through the history of Patient Journey App and how ‘patient empowerment through timely information’ began life as a PhD thesis but now, over a decade later, is transforming outcomes for patients in the UK and elsewhere.

12:15

Case Study - Re-Designing the Patient Journey for patients with a Short Bowel: A Case Study on Integrating Value-Based Healthcare and Human-Centred Design

Lorenzo Rimoldi
Head of Strategy
Your Business Partner
Dr Simon Gabe
Consultant in Gastroenterology & Intestinal Rehabilitation, Chair of the Lennard-Jones Intestinal Rehabilitation Unit
St Mark's Hospital

Case Study - Your Business Partner

In this session, Lorenzo and Dr. Simon Gabe will present a case study from The Human Journey project, where they re-designed the patient pathway for individuals with a Short Bowel. This collaborative effort combined the principles of Value-Based Healthcare (VBH) and Human-Centred Design to create a patient pathway that improves clinical outcomes, healthcare experience and operational efficiency along the cycle of care.

12:35

Fireside Chat: Real-Time Operational Management, Discharge Optimisation, and Medical Operations Leadership (Confirmed)

Dr Mark Simmonds
Deputy Medical Director
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

Within this fireside interview we will be Covering real-time operational management, discharge improvements and medical Ops leadership.

12:55

Case Study - Using Data and AI to Unblock Patient Flow and Relieve A&E Pressures

Mike Cawthorn
Managing Director
Catalyst BI
Noel Watson
Senior Pre-Sales Consults
Catalyst BI

Case Study - Catalyst

Using the right Data and AI to support decision making in Urgent and Emergency Patient Flow is an important part of the solution to unblock delayed discharges and relieve pressures on A&E departments.  Join Catalyst BI and our NHS partners to understand how the cost effective Athena Command Centre can deliver:

  • Real time predictions for inbound patients that require a bed before being seen in A&E (86% accuracy)
  • Improvements in ambulance handover effectiveness (avg time 11mins)
  • Immediate access to bed availability and bed status at ward level with instant writeback capability
  • A fully digital and visual view of non elective patient flow across the ICB and Trusts A&E departments

13:15

Lunch & Networking

Lunch & Networking

14:00

Chair Afternoon Address - Chris Morrow-Frost, National Clinical Advisor to Secondary Care, NHS England (Confirmed)

Chris Morrow-Frost
National Clinical Advisor to Secondary Care
NHS England

Chair Afternoon Address - Chris Morrow-Frost, National Clinical Advisor to Secondary Care, NHS England (Confirmed)

14:05

Workshop - Seamless Care: Optimizing Patient Flow Through Integrated Systems (Confirmed)

Jason Greasley
Leadership Consultant & Head of Coaching and Leadership Transformation
Buckinghamshire Health & Social Care Academy

How do supermarkets keep the shelfs full, how does the military keep spare parts, food and water to the front-line, goods that flow effortlessly from the warehouse to those that need it. This is achieved through excellent market research, responding to their customer needs and thinking about flow. Imagine a situation in your service where satisfied users flow with ease from one department to the next with no waiting or delays.

Staff need to be involved in analysing the flow of patients through whole healthcare systems: from the GP, via the ambulance services, through secondary care, tertiary care and out again to primary care and social services. This work has shown that improving patient flow across health and social care systems is beneficial to patients and staff in many ways.

In healthcare, flow refers to the movement of patients, information, or equipment between departments, staff groups, or organisations as part of their care pathway. Ideally, patients should transition from one step in their care to the next without delay, known as continuous flow.

Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs)

INTs represent a significant shift in health and social care, aimed at improving outcomes, preventing issues, reallocating resources to the community, and addressing health inequalities. For INTs to succeed, all stakeholders must abandon outdated models of working and build strong relationships and trust across their systems. Those we serve must be at the heart of every decision and involved in the decision-making process, as it is their life and community.

A multidisciplinary approach from all services and sectors is essential, moving towards a "teams of teams" approach to support patient flow.

14:25

Case Study - This is a promotional meeting and will contain discussion of Napp/Mundipharma products

David Enoch
Consultant Medical Microbiologist
Cambridge University Hospitals NHSFT

Case Study - Napp Pharmaceuticals

This is a promotional meeting and will contain discussion of Napp/Mundipharma products.

14:45

Leveraging Data and Technology: Innovating Patient Flow Efficiency with AI and Analytics Panel Discussion

David Sgorbati
Chief Analyst
Health Economics Unit
Alison Johnson
SVP UK Health
ORCHA Health
William Lumb
Chief Clinical Information Officer
Lancashire & South Cumbria ICB
Altaf Sadique
Non Executive Director (Digital)
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Mark A.M. Ragoo
Emergency Medicine Consultant & Medical Informatics Officer
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust

This panel discussion will focus on the transformative role of data and technology in improving patient flow within the NHS. Experts will explore how digital tools, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) can be leveraged to streamline processes, optimise resource allocation and enhance decision-making. By integrating these technologies, the panel will discuss how to reduce delays, improve efficiency and ultimately provide better patient outcomes across the healthcare system.

15:20

Drinks & Networking

Drinks & Networking

17:00

End of Day

End of Day

Our accreditations

abpco 2021
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CPD Member
Living Wage Member
Good Employment - Sponsor
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Armed Forces Covenant
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IHSCM
FSB
Ban The Box
Stockport County
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