Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) MSK Fund: Partnering with Portasana
Patient engagement
10 August 2026
By Emily
Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) and NHS England have announced a £4.6 million funding pool to help community musculoskeletal (MSK) services in England tackle waiting lists and reduce 18-week backlogs.
With more than 17 million people in England affected by MSK conditions, community services face unprecedented demand. The funding opportunity, alongside NHS England’s newly published adult community MSK service specification, establishes clear standards for modernising care delivery.
To secure a share of this investment, NHS trusts and commissioned community health teams need more than traditional operational adjustments, they need scalable, digital tools that deliver measurable impact.
Portasana®, Mayden’s patient engagement platform (PEP), is an innovative solution that can be the digital technology partner for MSK providers preparing their funding bids.
What does the £4.6m GIRFT MSK funding mean for community providers?
The GIRFT funding initiative targets commissioned community MSK providers where patients currently wait longer than 18 weeks for care. Building on the success of the MSK Community Delivery Programme (CDP), which demonstrated a 20% reduction in 18-week waiting lists across pilot Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), this funding enables local services to deploy sustainable, high-impact interventions.
Key priorities for successful funding applications include:
- Meeting national minimum standards: Aligning with NHS England’s adult community MSK service specification.
- Rapid backlog reduction: Implementing strategies that streamline triaging, reduce unnecessary appointments, and lower Did Not Attend (DNA) rates.
- Empowering patients: Enabling proactive self-management and digital access in line with integrated care ambitions.
5 ways Portasana strengthens your MSK funding application
Portasana provides an interoperable digital front door and virtual care engine built specifically for modern NHS pathways. Incorporating Portasana into your bid addresses the critical service specification requirements:
1. Supported self-management
Effective MSK care relies on giving patients the knowledge and tools to manage conditions safely at home. Portasana provides:
- High-quality educational libraries: Automatically distribute condition-specific guidance, exercise programs, and instructional media directly to patients.
- Structured digital care pathways: guides patients through condition-specific virtual care journeys, mapping out step-by-step treatment milestones, routine check-ins, and self-care tasks to keep them actively engaged in their ongoing treatment plan.
- Tailored educational resource delivery: The platform provides direct access to condition-specific educational materials, guides, and videos. This increases health literacy and gives patients the knowledge needed to make informed daily health decisions.
2. Connected digital care pathways
Instead of isolated episodic contacts, Portasana delivers structured virtual care journeys:
- Digital pre-assessments & triage: Collect digital intake questionnaires and outcome measures prior to initial consultations, ensuring high-value face-to-face time.
- Risk stratification: Real-time dashboards process patient-reported data to highlight escalating needs early, preventing acute flare-ups and emergency admissions.
- Flexible modular design: Easily tailor pathways for specific MSK sub-specialities (e.g., lower back pain, knee osteoarthritis, post-operative rehabilitation).
3. Patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU)
Deploying PIFU is one of the most impactful ways community MSK services can reclaim clinical capacity.
- Empowering patient autonomy: Rather than scheduling routine, low-value follow-up slots, Portasana allows patients to request appointments only when symptoms worsen or guidance is needed.
- Capacity relief: Transitioning eligible cohorts to PIFU through Portasana can free up up to 30% of clinical capacity, enabling teams to reallocate appointments to high-risk patients on waiting lists.
4. Interactive appointment reminders & management
Failed appointments waste vital clinical hours and drive up waiting list numbers. Portasana streamlines administrative contacts:
- Digital appointment management: Patients can view, confirm, reschedule, or cancel appointments online, lowering administrative friction.
- Automated reminders & digital letters: Timely multi-channel notifications significantly reduce DNA rates (delivering up to a 4% reduction in DNAs) while reducing printing and postal costs through hybrid digital delivery.
5. Secure two-way messaging
Fragmented communication causes unnecessary repeat visits and phone backlogs.
- Direct clinical communication: Secure, compliant messaging allows patients and care teams to clarify treatment plans, adjust exercise routines, or answer queries asynchronously.
- Streamlined admin: Reduces phone queue volumes and frees frontline administration staff for complex coordination tasks.
Designed for NHS workflows & interoperability
A successful bid requires technology that fits into existing NHS infrastructure rather than creating new digital silos. Built to work within frontline clinical environments, Portasana integrates with key Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems. It provides patients with a familiar digital front door through direct NHS App integration, allowing them to access care pathways, messaging, and educational resources effortlessly. Fully compliant with national standards, the platform uses NHS Login for secure patient identity verification and Smartcard authentication to grant clinical staff fast, safe access within their daily workflows.
Partner with Mayden for your GIRFT funding bid
Partnering with Mayden provides a digital framework backed by years of experience delivering secure software across the NHS.
Including Portasana in your GIRFT MSK funding proposal demonstrates to commissioners and national leads that your service has a clear, actionable plan to cut 18-week waiting times, empower patients through supported self-management, and build a sustainable model of community care.
For more information, get in touch with us.