Planned care is also known as ‘elective’ care. It is treatment that people decide to have to help manage a health problem, rather than emergency treatment for an urgent medical condition, or following a serious accident for example. People are usually referred for planned care by their GP or other healthcare professional.
Planned care covers many different treatments. It also includes diagnostics which are tests that are carried out to detect diseases such as cancer and other serious medical conditions. Most planned care treatments are done as day cases, where patients leave hospital on the same day. Sometimes patients have to stay in hospital overnight or a bit longer if necessary.
The aim of the planned care programme is to deliver the most appropriate and effective planned care services for the people of West Yorkshire, and achieve the best value in how we use our resources to deliver those services.