Primary Care Access Programme Updates
Primary Care Access Programme Cohort 5 Infographic (October 2023 – December 2023): The third cohort of PCAP where we supported 10 primary care teams to identify the root cause of access issues, prioritise changes and use quality improvement methodology to test and embed changes to improve access to care. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Cohort 4 Infographic (May 2023 – June 2023): The third cohort of PCAP where we supported 10 primary care teams to identify the root cause of access issues, prioritise changes and use quality improvement methodology to test and embed changes to improve access to care. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Cohort 3 Infographic (March 2023 – April 2023): The third cohort of PCAP where we supported 25 primary care teams to identify the root cause of access issues, prioritise changes and use quality improvement methodology to test and embed changes to improve access to care. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Brief Insights: Increasing referrals to physiotherapy (December 2023): A Highland Medical Practice created a patient information poster and developed guidance to help the administrative team refer more patients directly to physiotherapy. The number of patients referred increased from 0 to 10 by the second week of testing, meaning those 10 patients did not use a same day GP appointment slot. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Brief Insights: Reducing phone call volume with email fit note requests (December 2023): A Forth Valley medical centre created a new process for patients to request fit note continuation by email. This significantly reduced the number of phone calls about fit note continuation and the number of tasks sent to GPs. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Brief Insights: Reducing the triage list with same-day appointments for children (December 2023): A Greater Glasgow and Clyde medical centre introduced same-day face to face GP appointments for children under eight years old. Over three weeks, 63 children who would have been added to the daily triage list received a same-day face to face appointment instead. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Evaluation Report (July 2023): This report is an evaluation of cohorts 1, 2, and 3 of the Primary Care Access Programme. From October 2022 – April 2023, we supported 78 primary care teams from 11 NHS boards to rapidly improve an aspect of access over a 7-week sprint. The report summarises participant feedback and key learning from our evaluation of the programme. It also highlights the teams’ hard work, the changes they made, and the resulting impact on access. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Brief Insights: Increasing access to face-to-face appointments (June 2023): A Lothian medical practice changed its ratio of face-to-face to telephone appointments from 40/60 to 60/60. This increased the practice's capacity and allowed more patients to receive the most suitable appointment type for their request. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme - Learning from teams (June 2023): This page holds a number of PCAP resources to demonstrate the work of the programme, share learning and highlight the impact of our work. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme National Sharing the Learning Webinar (May 2023): We hosted a webinar showcasing previous participants of PCAP where they shared their experiences, reflections and discussed the challenges they faced and how we've worked with their teams to begin to address them. To access individual presentations or the slides visit the PCAP - Learning from teams webpage. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Podcast: 'Improving access to Primary Care' (May 2023): The fourth episode of the Healthcare Improvement Scotland Podcast features previous participants of the Primary Care Access Programme discussing the challenges they've faced and how we've worked with their teams to begin to address them. You can listen to the episode using Podbean or the podcast app of your choice. Continue reading…
Primary Care Access Programme Brief Insights: Reducing phone calls with an online prescription request form (April 2023): A visual case study demonstrating what a GP practice in NHS Lothian achieved during a 7-week sprint, including examples of changes and the impact they made. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Cohort 2 Infographic (April 2023): A visual summary of the second cohort of PCAP, focusing on who we helped, what the teams worked on and examples of impact. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Brief Insights: Reducing acute prescription demand with permissible repeats (April 2023): A visual case study demonstrating what a GP practice in NHS Ayrshire & Arran achieved during a 7-week sprint, including examples of changes and the impact they made. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Brief Insights: Creating a minor illness clinic to reduce daily triage list (February 2023): A visual case study demonstrating what a GP practice in NHS Grampian achieved during a 7-week sprint, including examples of changes and the impact they made. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Brief Insights: Increasing access to routine appointments (February 2023): A visual case study demonstrating what a GP practice in NHS Tayside achieved during a 7 week sprint, including examples of changes and the impact they made. Continue reading...
Primary Care Access Programme Cohort 1 Infographic (February 2023): A visual summary of the first cohort of PCAP focusing on who we helped, what the teams worked on and examples of impact. Continue reading…
Primary Care Access Programme Cohort 2 (January 2023 – February 2023): The second cohort of PCAP where we supported 31 primary care teams to identify the root cause of access issues, prioritise changes and use quality improvement methodology to test and embed changes to improve access to care.
Primary Care Access Programme Cohort 1 (October 2022 – December 2022): The first cohort of PCAP where we supported 22 primary care teams to identify the root cause of access issues, prioritise changes and use quality improvement methodology to test and embed changes to improve access to care.
Improving Access to General Practice Test Sprint (June 2022 – October 2022): Improving Access to General Practice was a prototyping programme which supported GP practices to identify the root cause of access issues, prioritise changes and use quality improvement methodology to test and embed changes to improve access to care.
Development and spread of Acute Prescribing Tools (November 2021 - present): This toolkit is designed to help primary care multidisciplinary teams, including pharmacotherapy services, safely improve their acute prescribing processes in line with the Essentials of Safe Care. Continue reading...
Rapid testing with practice teams to develop Demand, Capacity, Availability, Queue (DCAQ) (November 2021 - June 2022): We worked with six practices to test and develop a range of analyst tools to help understand demand and activity to improve access to general practice. This lead to the development of GP Access Tools resources. Continue reading...
Rapid testing and spread of Near Me Implementation Tools (March 2022 - October 2022): When Scotland went into lockdown, Healthcare Improvement Scotland quickly reprioritised existing work so we could support health and care services with what they needed most during COVID-19. One of the most significant pieces of work undertaken was to support the roll out of NHS Near Me, a national video-conferencing platform across Primary Care, Mental Health Services, Maternity and Paediatric Care. Continue reading...
Development and spread of Serial Prescribing Tools (January 2022 - present): This resource is for practice managers, administrative staff, GPs and pharmacy teams to support the implementation of safe and effective serial prescriptions. Continue reading...
Development and spread of Workflow Optimisation Toolkit (March 2018 - present): A Workflow Optimisation Digital Toolkit and accompanying motion graphic was created to support practice teams to develop, test and implement processes to improve their correspondence management. Continue reading...
Development and spread of Care Navigation Toolkit (March 2018 - present): A Care Navigation Digital Toolkit was created which provides a step by step guide to implementing care navigation within GP practices. Continue reading...