Planned or ‘elective’ care is treatment that people choose to have to help manage a health problem, rather than treatment that is required urgently or in an emergency.
Planned care includes scheduled operations such as hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery. People are usually referred onto planned care by their GP or other health professional.
The overall aim of this programme is to deliver the most appropriate and effective planned healthcare for the people of West Yorkshire, and achieve the best value in how we use our resources to deliver that healthcare.
This programme can only be progressed through collaboration with those who deliver planned care services. The West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (WYAAT) brings together the NHS hospital trusts in West Yorkshire to drive forward the best possible care for local patients.
Along with WYAAT, the involvement of GPs and other healthcare professionals enables us to look at how things are done now, what works well and not so well, how things need to change and what benefits those changes could bring for patients and staff.
We serve a diverse range of communities and recognise that people have different needs that require different solutions. A big part of this is not presuming we know what people think, but asking, involving and listening instead.
You can find details of all involvement work that has taken place across West Yorkshire relating to this programme of work.
Our West Yorkshire commissioning policies
Reducing variation by having standardised commissioning policies for the whole region is a key priority for the Improving Planned Care Programme. This approach means that access to health services, and the eligibility criteria for them, is the same for everyone, regardless of where they live in West Yorkshire. Please see Treatments paid for by the NHS.
These single commissioning policies reflect the most up-to-date clinical evidence, best practice and patient insight. All the single (standardised) commissioning policies that have been approved for implementation across West Yorkshire, and any supporting information, can be accessed from our West Yorkshire commissioning policies page.