Join Access QI

Recruitment to join cohort two of Access QI is now open. 

Benefits of joining

By joining Access QI, planned care services will gain access to:

• a QI toolkit tailored for improving access
• a seven module training course to develop the skills to use the Access QI toolkit
• project workshops to support the delivery of a QI project to improve waiting times in parallel to the training course
• peer to peer learning from services in other NHS boards, and
• support to write up and share their improvement project, for example, in a case study supported with data.

In addition to support provided to planned care services, Access QI will also offer:

• QI coaches in NHS boards (such as ScIL alumni, SQSF alumni or Improvement Advisors) advanced QI training as a QI coach for improving access and the option of 1:1 coaching support to enable QI coaches to provide QI coaching to the planned care team, and
• analysts in NHS boards with advanced training on QI data for access improvement and the option of 1:1 coaching support to enable them to provide data support to the planned care team.

This will be the final cohort of recruitment this financial year.

Joining criteria

Planned care services are asked to meet five joining criteria to ensure they have the conditions for change to successfully deliver sustainable improvements in waiting times. They are:

Criteria 1: A planned care service that is part of NHSScotland this can include:

• diagnostic, inpatient or outpatient hospital-based elective care specialities,
• a planned Mental Health services, or
• a community-based planned care service such as physiotherapy.

Criteria 2: The NHS board’s QI lead and lead for waiting times performance supports the service involvement in the programme.

Criteria 3: The NHS board identify an analyst and a local QI coach to support the planned care service. The QI coach could be an alumni of a QI course such as ScIL or SQSF or be a local improvement advisor. The QI coach and analyst would each need approximately 1 day a week to support the planned care service.

Criteria 4: The planned care service has the capacity to deliver a QI project to improve waiting times while part of the cohort. Planned care services already part of national improvement programmes, such as another ihub programme or the Bringing it Together programme from the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, are unlikely to have the capacity to commit to both programmes.

Criteria 5: The planned care service would create a core project team to lead the improvement project. This would include:

• at least three staff members who are involved in delivering the service/pathway
• at least one member of the core team should have the authority to make changes to the service/pathway
• at least one member of the core team should be a clinician, and
• staff that have the capacity to attend training and deliver an improvement project.

Primary care services, such as GPs, cannot directly apply to join the cohort as a standalone service. However, primary care services can form a partnership with planned care services and be part of the core team to enable a team-based approach to whole pathway working.

Selection process

Access QI would like to welcome as many planned care services to join the cohort as possible, however capacity constraints means the current cohort is limited to no more than 25 planned care teams.

If the cohort is oversubscribed, each board will be guaranteed at least one planned care service in the cohort. The remaining places will be distributed to planned care services based on the level of demand from each board and their current waiting times challenge.

More information

You can find detailed information about the programme, such as the programme content and keys dates, by downloading the Information pack for joining Access QI.