Timely and correct diagnosis service is essential for providing high-quality and safe healthcare to patients. A correct diagnosis can help the patient receive the most appropriate and effective treatment, avoid unnecessary harm or complications, and reduce the cost and waste of resources. A timely diagnosis can prevent the delay or loss of treatment opportunities, reduce the risk of disease progression or transmission, and improve the patient’s satisfaction and trust. Therefore, clinicians and health systems strive to achieve diagnostic excellence.
Realizing the importance of diagnosis in continuously improving patient outcomes, a group of clinicians, led by Andile Siziba, established MediServices to offer good value to healthcare providers. Andile and his team believe clinicians are at the forefront of clinical services who work directly with patients and are best placed to improve clinical services. At the core of MediServices is the desire to strive for excellence by continuously improving clinical services.
High-Quality Clinical Services
MediServices provides diagnostic services and works alongside the National Health Service, UK (NHS). The team is committed to providing excellent patient care by integrating with local teams to provide seamless insourcing and outsourcing solutions that are backed by robust clinical governance.
MediServices offer different types of diagnostic services, like neurophysiology and ultrasound diagnostic services. They also provide Intraoperative Monitoring (IOM) a specialist field within neurophysiology. “During spinal surgery or brain surgery, we monitor the nerves coming from the brain and the body to make sure that the physiology of the patient is OK. This helps the surgeon to ascertain that the patient is safe. In the event of significant changes, the surgical neurophysiologist immediately alerts the surgeon, and if necessary, an appropriate intervention is initiated,” explains Andile. Having specialized in neurophysiology, this was also the starting point for him to start MediServices.
Andile initially set up MediServices as a way of supporting neurophysiology services within the NHS. He identified diagnosis as a major problem affecting not just the neurophysiology department at NHS, but also multiple disciplines. He started by providing services to the neurophysiology department and gradually extended it to ultrasound and cardiac physiology. Ultrasound services are offered within the community working with GPs to ease pressure on secondary care.
Finding his Fit
Andile was always interested in the medical field but didn’t have a clear idea about where he would actually fit in the vast discipline. He went to university to study science and complete his degree, still unsure about the direction he would pick up for his profession. He came across information about the discipline of neurophysiology diagnostics within the NHS and that the NHS had roles for practitioners. He somehow knew this was what he wanted. “I found out about Physiology and I did a lot of research on it and I liked the balance that it brought between looking after patient and also working within a science discipline. So, working within a diagnostic field came as a chance to me, and as I understood the problems within neurophysiology, I decided to also find solutions to it,” shares Andile.
While working in the NHS as a neurophysiology practitioner, Andile noticed that there was a big need to meet waiting list targets. Service managers were struggling to meet waiting time targets and he realized that there was a big need for supporting them. “Targets are set by the NHS, if the patient is referred to us, we have to see that patient within six weeks. But due to many factors including Covid and staff shortages it can be difficult to meet targets,” shares Andile.
That’s when he thought of starting MediServices as a way of supporting the NHS by providing additional capacity. So even when the hospital is struggling to provide services, Andile and his team work alongside them, by recruiting staff from across the UK and even across the globe, bringing them into the UK, and then working through MediServices. “ We move human resource across areas and seamlessly integrate our services. We are particularly good at finding solutions for remote areas but also work a lot within major cities. We work alongside NHS Trusts to design solutions that work locally as each Trust has different challenges. We for example run weekend clinics ensuring services become 7 day services or we provide clinics in the community if the Trusts do not have enough clinical space. MediServices has gone from a startup business to where we are right now attending over 30,000 patients in the last 12 months,” exclaims Andile.
As the Founder and CEO of MediServices, Andile faces multiple challenges to keep things running. First off, being a clinician, he had a lot to learn in terms of how to run a business. He did find a problem and a probable solution to it, but establishing a company was stepping out of his comfort zone. He keeps learning every day and has surrounded himself with people who bring complementary skills. He has employed individuals in several executive ranks who are working within the organization and provide skill sets that ensure strong clinical and corporate governance.
Gearing up for the Future
Andile shares that the biggest issue within healthcare at the moment is the effects of COVID-19 and that the world and healthcare service providers are still recovering from its effects. There are loads of patients that are waiting in the background, there are loads of procedures that have to be done. People are waiting on diagnostic services and different treatments that are in one way or the other the effects of COVID-19. As a solution provider, MediServices is trying to overcome them and provide specialty services within the NHS to work alongside the NHS and cater to the additional demands.
MediServices is expecting to continue down the trajectory that they’ve been. Andile and his team want to support hospitals that they’re working with around the country. They want to continue working with their partners and have already been in search of new ones that they can support and offer them solutions to overcome any service provision issues that they may have. They want to expand into new services as well. “We want to provide the best care for our patients. We try our best on a day-to-day basis. We have a strong governance system and are always trying to learn and improve” says Andile.
And of course, the clinicians. MediServices is clinically led with 50% of our board being practicing clinicians. “Our clinicians are important to us and we work very closely with each clinician using their feedback to improve each service. This ensures that our patients receive the best care possible. We will continue to look for innovative ways of working with our partners. And we will continue to build our business, making sure that we have strong systems in place so that we can carry out our clinical services,” concludes Andile.
Words of Experience
In his message to the young entrepreneurs, Andile says:
“Just get started. Don’t overthink. One of the biggest enemies that we have is procrastination. Don’t. There are a lot of young people who think they’re entrepreneurs because they talk about it or because they have an idea in their head and are looking for the best time to get started. However, there’s no best time to get started. There’s never the right time to do anything. So, stop waiting and get going. Don’t be afraid of failure because it’s just a lesson.
When I started, I overthought things. I was young and was used to putting myself under undue pressure. As an aspiring entrepreneur, you want to achieve a lot of things and to overachieve, you put yourself under undue stress. Also, on the opposite side of the spectrum is being idle and not doing anything at all because everything seems overwhelming. So, one must try to find that balance of working to the best of their abilities, but also understanding that it’s OK, if they don’t achieve. They must focus on what they learned out of that situation and bounce back to continue going.
So, my advice is just to try your best, find the right people around you and you’ll be OK. You have to have goals, understand that things may go wrong, you might fail, and use that failure in a lesson to continue pursuing your goals. So don’t procrastinate. I think that’s the worst enemy for success: procrastination.”
“We have an experienced clinical team that leads each service and works alongside senior healthcare managers to ensure high levels of clinical governance.”
“MediServices has worked extensively with NHS providers and commissioners all over the UK to provide clinical services, delivering insourcing and outsourcing solutions, and working with trusts to overcome RTT and capacity issues.”
Our vision is to improve patient outcomes using innovative methods to transform healthcare systems.”