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How NHS Operational Teams Are Accelerating Elective Recovery with Trusted Analytics

Strategy   |   Alteryx   |   May 29, 2025 TIME TO READ: 3 MINS
TIME TO READ: 3 MINS

With backlogs growing and operational pressures mounting, National Health System (NHS) organisations are under renewed pressure to recover elective services safely, sustainably, and with the flexibility to adapt week by week.

That’s no small task — whether you’re a Director of Performance, Divisional Operations Manager, or leading elective programmes at Trust or ICS level. Expectations are rising. Margins for error are shrinking. And most teams are still working with the same core data and systems they’ve had for years.

The question isn’t “do we have the data?” — it’s “can we move fast enough to use it meaningfully?”

Rapidly Model and Compare Recovery Scenarios

Every Trust and ICS is being asked to model multiple elective recovery scenarios — clearing 78-week, 65-week and 52-week backlogs while balancing urgent care, cancer pathways, workforce gaps and theatre constraints.

With Alteryx, operational teams can rapidly model clearance strategies and adjust assumptions in real time:

  • Clock-time models – prioritizing by length of wait
  • Clinical urgency models – driven by acuity, readiness and diagnostic status
  • Resource-constrained models – based on theatre availability, diagnostics or workforce

No need for bespoke tools or analyst bottlenecks. Alteryx enables teams to co-develop and test scenarios in hours, not weeks — a critical difference when agility matters. Explore more in our NHS Hub.

Use the Data You Already Trust – Without Rebuilding Anything

The data you need to make these decisions often already exists — just not in one place.

Alteryx connects and blends data across:

  • Referral and PTL systems
  • RTT clock data
  • Clinical flags and diagnostics
  • Theatre, workforce, and outpatient capacity

With blended data in governed, auditable workflows that flex with your operational pressure points, there’s no need to rewire your data estate or wait for a central refresh — giving your teams autonomy to act, faster.

Automate the Admin – and Free Up Time to Lead

Too often, ops teams spend hours refreshing dashboards, chasing exceptions, or preparing breach reports.

Alteryx lets you automate that work — triggering reports, updating dashboards and flagging risk patients daily. Once it’s built, it runs. When priorities change, you can adapt it in minutes — not escalate a ticket.

That means more time spent managing services and less spent formatting spreadsheets.

Make Insight Shareable – Not Specialist-Only

Alteryx workflows are designed to be built by analysts but easily used by operational teams. No coding required.

This makes insight more accessible and action more consistent. When performance leads, clinical ops and exec teams are all working from the same evidence base, decisions happen faster and with greater confidence.

From Reactive to Proactive

Elective recovery will remain a defining challenge for NHS operational leaders through 2025 and beyond. But the organisations that shift from reactive reporting to proactive modeling will be better placed to:

  • Clear backlogs more efficiently
  • Allocate resource more effectively
  • Reduce pressure on staff and services

We’re already supporting NHS teams doing just that. If you’d like to explore what this could look like for your Trust, division or ICS – we’d be happy to show you.

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