Queen Victoria Hospital wins prestigious national award

Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (QVH) and med-tech company Feedback Medical have been awarded the Most Effective Contribution to Clinical Redesign Award at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2025 for reducing patient wait times and unnecessary hospital appointments through a digital breathlessness pathway.

The HSJ Partnership Awards celebrate collaborations with the NHS. The QVH and Feedback Medical partnership was also shortlisted in the ‘Best Contribution to Improving the Efficiency of NHS Services’ category for the success of their pilot project providing a straight-to-diagnostic breathlessness pathway using Feedback Medical’s Bleepa software. It has achieved significant improvements in efficiency and patient wait times.

The Bleepa software allows GPs and the multidisciplinary team at QVH to collaborate digitally for patients needing diagnostic tests as part of a breathlessness pathway. The pilot project saw a 63% reduction in patient waiting times from referral to treatment compared to the national target, significantly decreasing the number of patients waiting over six weeks.

Impressively, 90% of referrals were managed without the need for in-person specialist appointments. This approach has improved patient experience and resulted in efficiency improvements which could be applied to other diagnostic pathways within QVH’s Community Diagnostic Centre suite of services.

The winners were selected following a rigorous two-stage judging process ahead of the HSJ Partnership Awards 2025 awards ceremony. The judging panel was made up of a diverse panel of 70+ highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community. All finalists and winners were judged against five clear criteria: ambition; outcome; spread; value and involvement (including details of how relevant staff, patients and partnerships worked together to realise the success).

Dr Ian Francis, Deputy Medical Director at Queen Victoria Hospital, said: ““We are thrilled to win the HSJ Partnership Award for Most Effective Contribution to Clinical Redesign and that the success of the digital breathlessness pathway has been recognised by the HSJ judging panel. We have had keen interest in us sharing our best practice with others to adopt similar symptom-based pathways and have presented both regionally and nationally our key learnings. This collaboration shows the potential there is to maximise clinical and efficiency improvements for patients, with more pathways yet to come.” 

Dr Tom Oakley, CEO at Feedback Medical, comments: “We are delighted to win the HSJ Partnership Award 2025 recognising the strength of our partnership with Queen Victoria Hospital and the improvements that we’ve delivered with Bleepa for patients and clinicians alike. Together we have transformed the approach to outpatient services by providing a seamless digital journey for patients, from the point of initial referral through to the conclusion of the patient pathway, significantly reducing waiting times for patients, improving productivity for NHS staff and reducing unnecessary appointments.”  

The full list of winners for the 2025 HSJ Partnership Awards can be found at https://partnership.hsj.co.uk/winners-2025.

Photo: QVH and Feedback Medical teams receiving their award. Photo credit HSJ.

For more information please email the QVH Press Office at qvh.communications@nhs.net