What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to your chosen theme?

For instance, in Gastroenterology we know that demand for services is increasing and there is no additional capacity. As a result, there are long waits for first assessment and a growing number of patients receiving regular follow up for long term conditions.  The Q member would work with the identified Gastroenterology clinical leads to apply QI tools to understand the current condition and to facilitate the development and delivery of cross-system solutions.

What does your project aim to achieve?

Historically, the arrangement of ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ care services has led to actual and perceived boundaries between GPs and Consultants. As a consequence relationships are strained, bottlenecks are created and patients experience inadequate services. The aim of this project would be to ‘bring down the barricades’ through an alignment between primary and secondary care. That is, a Consultant and a GP (either a PCN lead or a GP with a specialist interest) would be partnered to focus on a Specialty. These clinical pairings would collaborate to shed light on the blockages and wastes in the existing pathway and illuminate opportunities to create flow – either through improved communication or through changes to the arrangement of services to better meet patient need.