Abstract Introduction Patient initiated follow up (PIFU) allows patients to initiate a hospital follow up appointment on an ‘as required’ basis in contrast to the traditional physician‐initiated model. We present a clinical pathway for patients referred with rectal bleeding at a large tertiary public hospital in South Auckland, New Zealand and demonstrate the utility of PIFU and its impact on reducing follow up appointments. Method The purpose of the pathway was to allow standardized care by the clinicians and allow for PIFU. Two separate protocols were developed ‐ ‘Painful PR bleeding’ and ‘Painless PR bleeding’. A new clinic (NC) was started following these protocols, and this was compared to historical controls (HC). The primary outcome was the rate of follow up appointments. Results There were 133 patients in the NC and 135 in the HC, with significantly less follow ups in the NC (6% versus 45%, p?
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