The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has published new survey findings about experiences of delivering outpatient care.
Between 3-16 February 2025, the RCP carried out a member snapshot survey. It included questions to gather insights into the delivery of outpatient care and the barriers faced.
The findings on outpatient care have been published as part of the RCP’s Prescription for outpatients: reimagining the future of planned specialist care report, developed in partnership with The Patients Association.
The RCP is calling on the government to make outpatient reform a central part of its 10-year plan for health due out later this year.
The RCP’s snapshot survey findings on outpatient care show that more than two thirds (67%) said their ability to deliver outpatient care was limited by the availability of rooms while over half (57%) did not have the adequate resources to deliver outpatient activity remotely.
Delivering advice and guidance
- 80% said they delivered advice and guidance as part of their role. 20% said they did not. [683 responses]
- Of those 80% who delivered advice and guidance, 50.2% said that they did not have time in their job plan for this – 49.8% said they did have time in their job plan to do this. [540 responses)
- 52.2% of those who were job planned to deliver advice and guidance felt it was adequate, compared to 47.8% who felt it was not adequate. [268 responses]
Shared decision making and risk management
- 83% of respondents felt equipped to deliver shared decision-making to patients, while 17% did not. [667 responses]
- A majority (69%) said they did not have the time and information to risk stratify patients on follow up waitlists [606 responses]
Having the right resources to deliver outpatient care
- 67% of respondents said their ability to deliver outpatient activity was limited by the number of rooms in their place of work. [662 responses]
- Almost three quarters of respondents (73%) said that their ability to deliver training in outpatient care limited by the availability of rooms in their place of work. [655 responses]
- Over half (57%) did not have the adequate resources to deliver outpatient activity remotely. [654 responses]
- When asked about the resources that respondents did have to help them deliver outpatient care remotely, the most commonly cited responses were the necessary hardware (62%), useable software (59%) and a private environment (52%). 16% said they had none of these.
- Over half of respondents (67%) said that they did not have time in their job plan to deliver the outpatient work that occurs outside of an appointment, for example validation, reviewing remote monitoring, patient not present clinics and desktop reviews. Just over a third (34%) said they did. [663 responses]
If you are a physician, and did not get a chance to respond to the survey, but would like to share your experiences of delivering outpatient care with the RCP, please contact policy@rcp.ac.uk.