A PIONEERING referral scheme which sent North-East patients to see a private physiotherapist at their local GP surgery instead of hospital has cut waiting times and saved the NHS thousands of pounds.

It is thought the scheme could save hundreds of thousands of pounds if it was rolled out to cover a larger area.

The pilot scheme, introduced by the Newcastle West Clinical Commissioning Group, involved commissioning the private therapy company, Connect Physical Health, to provide a range of services closer to where patients live.

This allowed more serious cases to been seen more quickly at the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Improvements introduced between 2010 and 2012 included the setting up of a call referral management centre to decide how patients would be referred.

Patients either received physiotherapy, or saw a specialist, at their local GP surgery or were referred to hospital.

A one-to-one physiotherapy advice line was also set up allowing patients to receive immediate guidance at home A study of the pilot scheme revealed that 96 per cent of patients rated the care they received as excellent or very good and 97 per cent of GPs said the service was better or much better than it was in 2010.

The pilot meant that 62 per cent patient care was delivered in 2012 compared to 2010.

The results were taken over a six month period and catered for a population of 77,000 patients.

However, if the same system was applied to a typical CCG patient population of 200,000 - it is thought that estimated savings could reach around 220,000 in just one year.