The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the delivery of elective care services leading to over 538,000 people in Scotland waiting for outpatient appointments or day case/inpatient treatment by the end of December 2021. This is a 35% increase in people waiting for outpatient appointments and 55% increase in people waiting for day case or inpatient treatment compared to the pre-pandemic December 2019 (Public Health Scotland).

As services re-start their efforts to recover from the pandemic, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland are inviting Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), Gynaecology and Urology services to join the Scottish Patient Safety Programme-style improvement collaborative to use quality improvement methods to sustainably improve waiting times. 

The collaborative will help ENT, Gynaecology and Urology service use quality improvement methods to undertake a diagnostic exercise to identify and implement the changes that will lead to a sustainable reduction in the number of people waiting to access care. 

You can find out more information and join the collaborative on the Join the Access QI Collaborative page. 

You can also speak to someone from Healthcare Improvement Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland to discuss the potential to join the collaborative by emailing us at his.accessqi@nhs.scot.