P030 Virtual Biologic Service - innovation and quality improvement: a multi-disciplinary approach in the evolution of service delivery

Abstract Background/Aims Virtual clinics for initiation of biologics ensure streamlining of patient safety processes whilst standardising care meeting the recommended NICE commissioning and BSR guidelines. This also lends to development of innovative care pathways incorporating the multidisciplinary team working towards: Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) recommendations of developing alternatives to outpatient attendance, optimising medicines and extending roles across the skills mix. At University College London (UCH), where ∼400 patients/year require initiation/change of biologics, consultant-led virtual biologics clinic (VBC) for initiation of therapy has evolved since being established in 2019. One of the bottlenecks of this pathway is drug counselling due to limited staff availability. Using the multidisciplinary team, based on patient suitability, three different modalities of drug counselling are now available: face-to-face (F2F) individual drug counselling (traditional-appointment) and fortnightly virtual group drug education sessions on zoom delivered by the clinical nurse specialists; and self-directed learning (SDL) supervised by a specialist pharmacist. This service evaluation presents a snapshot of the efficiency of this innovative care delivery pathway. Methods An audit of 55 patients referred to VBC between January 2024 and June 2024 who had completed initiation of biologic treatment in one cycle of review and prescribe was conducted and compared against 56 patients from June 2018-January 2019. In addition, data from 29 patients who had initiated biologics from July 2025-August 2025 is presented to demonstrate efficiencies in timelines to completion of drug counselling due to introduction of SDL for patients in 2025. Results Patients initiating biologic drugs waited an average of ∼19 weeks in 2018/2019. Data from 2024 has demonstrated the average wait to initiation of treatment as ∼12 weeks. However, this is largely skewed by the waiting times for patients to be reviewed in the VBC at ∼6 weeks which is representative of the increased workload through the streamlined pathway. In comparison to the previous pathway, time to drug education has halved to a median of ∼2 weeks from ∼4 weeks and start of treatment from completion of drug counselling has significantly improved from an average of ∼9 weeks to ∼3 weeks. In the current pathway, comparing median duration between review in VBC to completion of drug counselling through the three different pathways: F2F (16.5days), fortnightly virtual group education (14.5days) and SDL (4days) suggests further efficiencies to the pathway through innovation. Conclusion In keeping with the GIRFT recommendations utilising and expanding the skill mix within the multidisciplinary team has reduced waiting times by ∼35% in a large secondary care trust. This service evaluation presents the potential for further efficiencies within the care pathway without compromising patient safety through innovative transformation of outpatient care in line with the NHS Releasing Time to Care ambitions. Disclosure A. Abraham: None. P.B.D. Carvalho: None. H. Dhillon: None. Z. Hammoud: None. S. Mouratidis: None. K. Goveas: None. S.D. Seegoolam: None. A. Madenidou: None. M. Leandro: None. S. Moore: None. M. Castelino: None.