What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can improvement be used to reduce delays accessing health and care services'?

A Health Inequality analysis of our waiting lists across Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSEFT) has confirmed that working-age women are likely to experience longer waiting times in several specialisms. There are no identified clinical reasons why this should be the case and it has therefore been concluded that patient behaviour and potential Health Inequality barriers may be the cause.  A questionnaire survey on working-aged women within the MSE catchment was conducted to identify the reasons for barriers to their care. 335 women responded and the data analysis identified some common themes. This project will work with service users to implement improvement ideas which have been developed to improve access and reduce the inequality.

What does your project aim to achieve?

The aim of this project is to remove the barriers faced by working-aged women to improve their health equality and experience with an outcome to reduce the overall waiting times and resulting health inequalities.

Objectives:

• To engage service users in co-production of improvement ideas
• To develop project plans to reduce barriers identified through the data analysis
• To implement improvement ideas to improve access and reduce waiting times

How will the project be delivered?

Following analysis of the data and focus groups, a driver diagram and change ideas will be developed into a project plan which will be delivered by a project manager who will be responsible for the project delivery and monitoring against key quality indicators linked to the project.

Utilising additional resources and QI methodology, such as the quality improvement team and the patient experience team, this model will be co-produced with service users to help identify and deliver improvements which reduce barriers to access and improve waiting times within this group.

How is your project going to share learning?

Learning will be shared with the Q community via the online platform. We will also share the learning through internal communications channels and via the regional learning networks. Where possible, opportunities for contributing at conferences and presenting posters or applications for awards will be sought to share with the wider system.

We would also like to utilise patient’s stories to share the impact of the changes with our service users.