Our updates

Team Service Planning change package - New resource

We have published a new resource, The Team Service Planning change package was developed in collaboration with the Scottish Access Collaborative (SAC) to support NHS boards to use quality improvement (QI) expertise to implement Team Service Planning across their service. (Published 05 May 2021)

Recruitment is open to join cohort 1 of Access QI

We are currently recruiting 25 elective care or planned mental health services to join Access QI to use quality improvement to improve planned care pathways to help reduce waiting times. For more information and to apply click ‘Join us’ now! Recruitment closes on 9 April 2021 at 16:00.

Improving planned care pathways toolkit

We have taken our learning from phase one and developed an 'Improving planned care pathways toolkit' (aligned to the improvement journey) to support planned care services to improve pathways, balance their demand and capacity and reduce waiting times. (Published 15 March 2021)

Staff safety and wellbeing infographic

Ensuring staff stay safe and well is essential to their ability to deliver the best care to patients. We have gathered innovations from our learning system to create an infographic full of ideas and ways that services can help maintain, monitor and improve staff safety and wellbeing. (Published 08 March 2021)

Updates from December 2020

Stay informed on the latest from our accelerator sites, learning system and recently published tools in our December update. Wishing all a peaceful and happy festive break. (Published 21 December 2020)

Sharing updates from our ihub colleagues

The Mental Health Improvement Portfolio led a national Mental Health Access Improvement (MHAIST) collaborative between June 2018 and November 2019. The team have launched a quality improvement toolkit sharing learning from the collaborative and providing teams with tools and resources aimed at improving access and reducing waiting times. (Published 17 December 2020)

Hosting our fourth ‘Remobilising elective care’ Access learning system webinar

On 3 December the ihub's Access QI programme hosted their fourth national learning system webinar. This session focused on the four key themes identified in the Access learning system. Continue reading...(Published 10 December 2020)

COVID-19 outpatient physical distancing change package

We recently developed and published a quality improvement change package containing the key resources and guidance required to run an improvement project to maximise outpatient appointments while maintaining physical distancing during COVID-19. (Published 3 December 2020)

NHS Grampian: Patient engagement guide

To engage with patients despite COVID-19 restrictions, NHS Grampian Dermatology and Plastics services used NHS Near Me to conduct in-depth interviews with patients who had received care as part of the Urgent Suspected Care (USC) pathway. The team shared some helpful tips and recommendations in this patient engagement guide with a case study to follow early 2021 (Published 20 November 2020)

Hosting a virtual learning session for our Accelerator sites

We held our first virtual learning session with our accelerator sites in November 2020. This session focused on a year in review, looking at what had gone well, the challenges that were faced etc. The session (normally face to face) was designed to give sites the opportunity to come together, ask questions and learn from one another. (Published 10 November 2020)

Join us for the fourth webinar in our series - Remobilising elective care: Sharing innovations from across Scotland on 3 December 10:30-12:00. This session will look at the four key themes identified in our Access learning system. This session aims to continue to share learning and best practice examples of ways to overcome COVID-19 related challenges in an elective care setting. Register to attend the webinar. (Published 6 November 2020)

Hosting our third ‘Remobilising elective care’ Access learning system webinar

On 28 October the ihub's Access QI programme hosted their third national learning system webinar. It focused on two key themes: Measuring and understanding capacity and maximising service capacity and capability. Continue reading...(Published 5 November 2020)

Join us for the third webinar in our series - Remobilising elective care: Sharing innovations from across Scotland on 28 October 13:00-14:30. This session will look at maximising service capacity and capability. This session aims to continue to share learning and best practice examples of ways to overcome COVID-19 related challenges in an elective care setting. Register to attend the webinar. (Published 13 October 2020)

Hosting our second ‘Remobilising elective care’ Access learning system webinar

On 29 September the ihub's Access QI programme hosted their second national learning system webinar. It focused on two key themes: service user engagement, and how teams can best manage their physical environment whilst delivering essential care. Continue reading… (Published 12 October 2020)

Join us for the second webinar in our series - Remobilising elective care: Sharing innovations from across Scotland on 29 September 13:00-14:30. This session will focus on managing the physical environment and service user engagement. This session aims to continue to share learning and best practice examples of ways to overcome COVID-19 related challenges in an elective care setting. Register to attend the webinar. (Published 11 September 2020)

Introducing our Access learning webinar series

The first Access learning webinar took place on 2 September and focused on sharing learning and best practice examples of ways to overcome COVID-19 related challenges in an elective care setting. Staff from across Scotland came together virtually to discuss the challenge of remobilising elective care, and share their local innovations with others. Continue reading… (Published 11 September 2020)

NHS Tayside: Remobilisation toolkit

To support the remobilisation process, NHS Tayside have created Remobilisation toolkit. The toolkit outlines a process and key considerations to help NHS boards safely remobilise elective care. (Published 2 September 2020)

Join us at our upcoming webinar Remobilising elective care: Sharing innovations from across Scotland on 2 September 14:00-15:30. This session will share learning and best practice examples of ways to overcome COVID-19 related challenges in an elective care setting. Register to attend the webinar. (Published 11 August 2020)

Last 10 patients tool

Mapping the last 10 patients can help understand patient flow within a pathway and identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement. You can see the last 10 patient tool we developed with NHS Lothian, and a summary of the NHS Lothian Dermatology experience on our Tools and Resources page (Published 6 August 2020)

We're back and we need your help!

After four long months of hibernation, Access QI is back. We entered hibernation in March as COVID-19 started to place pressures on our health and social care system. But the world has literally changed since then, and so has Access QI. We are changing to help boards respond to COVID-19 and we want to showcase how you have used local innovation to adapt your elective care services to be safely delivered in this new world. Continue reading... (Published 3 August 2020)

COVID-19

Unfortunately the Access QI programme has been suspended due to COVID-19. We hope suspending the programme will free up capacity in hospitals to respond to the crisis. We look forward to restarting the programme at a more suitable time in the future. (Published 20 March 2020)

The first accelerator site learning session

The first Access QI learning session took place on 3 March, where our accelerator sites came together to share learning and discuss challenges and successes. Continue reading... (Published 17 March 2020)

Using quality improvement to improve waiting times

Learn from our National Programme Director, Thomas Monaghan, about Access QI, a national programme that supports NHS boards to use quality improvement to sustainably improve access and reduce waiting times. Continue reading... (Published 6 March 2020)

Measuring for Access QI

Hi, I’m Alison. I’ve worked with data to support improvements in healthcare for over 10 years now, so you’d think a new project would be straight forward; it never is. Here are a few examples that have been taxing from a data perspective. Continue reading... (Published 24 February 2020)

Knowledge Sharing with the Scottish Access Collaborative

We delivered a WebEx for Accelerator Sites on 20 February. Lindsey Mitchell from the Scottish Access Collaborative presented an overview of the background and founding principles of the Collaborative. She also discussed the concept of “Team Service Planning”, which is a multidisciplinary approach to defining, developing, and delivering clinical capacity within a defined service or team in order to provide optimal service with limited resources. (Published 24 February 2020)

Access QI reflections

Hi, I’m Toby and I recently joined Healthcare Improvement Scotland from working as an analyst at Information Services Division (ISD). Given that Access QI is my first major project here I was asked to share with you some of the things I’ve learned along the way as we developed the measurement guide. Continue reading... (Published 19 February 2020)