Clinical Scientist led clinics for severe sleep apnoea patients: a solution to a growing problem

Background

Obstructive sleep apnoea is an increasingly common, life altering condition with an efficacious treatment option in the form of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Unfortunately, after diagnosis there can be issues and delays establishing patients on therapy. At Leeds, patients can wait 8 months after having a confirmed diagnosis of sleep apnoea to having a clinic appointment with a medical consultant. This is clearly an unsatisfactory length of time to wait for explanation of the results, with further waiting list time for establishing on treatment after the medical appointment. To improve this, a system has been implemented within our service. Whereby, a triage process identifies higher risk patients and they are established on a one-stop pathway, allowing for an appointment with a Clinical Scientist the day after their sleep study and establishment on CPAP, if appropriate.

Aim

To assess the efficacy of Clinical Scientist led ‘one stop pathway’ in improving patient experience and time to treatment.

Method

Data from patients from the historic system and patients from the one-stop system were compared for key waiting list milestones.

Results

The median time to sleep study was comparable, at 45 days and 46 days respectively. Whereas, the time to clinic appointment was significantly shorter for the patients on the one-stop pathway, reducing the median time waiting from 118.5 days for a clinic appointment to 47. Additionally, the median total time to establishment on treatment was reduced from 236.5 to 47 days.

Conclusion

Increasing availability of appropriately trained staff to deliver expedited CPAP for severe OSA patients has significant reduction in time to treatment.

Outputs

Poster presented at ERS conference in Amsterdam in September 2025, will be published in ERJ supplement in November 2025