Q lab teams tackle delays in elective pathways

Four innovative projects have reached the end of their Q Lab journeys. Each team has achieved impressive results and generated some valuable insights and practical learning in reducing waits and delays in elective care. 

With NHS waiting lists at record levels, the need for timely, efficient and safe care has never been more urgent. Between 2023 and 2025, the Q Lab brought together teams from across the UK to explore how the lab approach could help address these challenges.

Over the past 2 years, our funded test teams worked with patients, professionals and co-researchers to understand the root causes of delays and test innovative solutions in their local contexts. Each team followed the Q Lab’s structured design process – the Double Diamond – to explore their challenges, define problems, develop ideas and deliver real-world interventions.

We’re excited to share four new case studies from our latest Q Lab exploring how we can reduce delays in elective care pathways.

Each team was supported by a volunteer co-researcher with lived or professional experience, helping to shape and share learning throughout the process.

The projects highlight the power of slowing down to understand complex problems before jumping to solutions, a key principle of the Q Lab approach. While each team faced different challenges, they all made progress in building collective responsibility and testing changes to interventions that are making a difference to patients and staff.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing the lab teams’ experiences and learning as case studies. Each case study offers practical insights and inspiration for others tackling similar challenges. Whether you’re working on elective care, service redesign or system-wide improvement, we hope these stories spark ideas and action.

Faced with long waits post-COVID-19, South Doc Services redesigned the urology pathway to deliver care earlier and in enhanced primary care settings. Through this new pathway, the pilot cohort demonstrated that almost 90% of patients do not need to go to secondary hospital care for urology care. This approach is helping patients access support sooner, relieving pressure on secondary care and improving outcomes.

University College London Hospitals collaborated with young people and clinicians to understand and address the high rate of missed outpatient appointments among 16–24-year-olds. Using a systems-thinking approach, they identified practical changes to improve attendance and access to care. Monthly did-not-attend rates dropped by 33%, with a record low of 5.2% in April 2025 – the lowest in 6 years.

This project focused on reducing waits for people suspected of having head or neck cancer. Through targeted changes, the team reduced the average time to diagnosis from 62 days to 28.

This project aimed to reduce waiting times for patients living in pain and dependent on high-dose opiates. The project reduced waiting times from 8 months to 23 days, helping ensure patients are better prepared for surgery.