Elective care refers to the services, like surgery or specialist medical treatments, planned in advance by hospitals for patients.

In South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw we are working towards the NHS' Long Term Plan, which aims to ensure that people are not needlessly travelling for hours to a hospital appointment. This is especially true for medical appointments that last a few minutes or could be delivered differently, such as by video call.

We want to reduce the amount of unnecessary or inappropriate follow up appointments and work towards providing care closer to home where safe to do so.

Not only will this provide a better patient experience, it will also enable hospitals (NHS acute trusts' manage hospitals in our region) to free-up capacity for other medical care.

We will collaborate with appropriate community services, including those that might be better at offering alternative care that is more suitable to the condition and the patient's needs. 

To ensure that specialist aftercare is delivered consistently - regardless of where you live in our region - we will work even more closely with our partner organisations.

We'll also support community services to look after people when they go home from hospital. This is to make sure patients are getting the follow-up and after care they need, whether that is at home or closer to where they live.

Put simply, we want to improve the elective care 'pathway' for everyone - from start of your care to end.