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'?

Despite all women experiencing the menopause at some stage in their lives, there is still a lack of tailored support available at a Primary Care level. The degree of input and the speed in which they receive advice and treatment largely depends on the knowledge and confidence of clinicians to provide this, and more often than not, whether there is a female GP available. This in turn delays access and can result in poor experience and outcomes for these patients.

This project aims to accelerate access to specific support by offering a Primary Care Network Menopause Clinic. These clinics would run regularly and could be accessed by patients within any of our member practices, meaning a vast reduction in waiting times. The clinics would be hosted by GPs and nurses with a specialist interest and skill set in Menopause management, and there would be additional specific MDT support were required.

What does your project aim to achieve?

The overall aim of this project is to improve access and support for women experiencing symptoms of the Menopause. Outcomes would include:

• Reduced waiting times for GP/Nurse appointments for menopause assessment, advice and treatment
• Tailored support and treatment resulting in better symptom management and greater patient experience
  • We will be looking at baseline data, i.e. number of women on HRT and anti-depressants/ number of appointments before menopause diagnosis and comparing at the end of the project
  • A full measurement plan will be developed in line with PCN and ICB colleagues
• Raised awareness of how best to support women during menopause and upskilling of more clinicians, which in turn will support with sustained better access and treatment

How will the project be delivered?

In this current ‘idea forming stage’, the following elements of the delivery model have been established:

• We have identified clinicians within the network that already have a speciality in menopause and offer training to those that wish to support the project.
• We will set up the “PCN Menopause Clinic” and all practices in the PCN will have the ability to book patients directly
• Once patients are booked in, they will also be sent an information pack in advance of their appointments to support with their understanding of what the appointment will entail and assist with the consultation
• Patients will be treated, monitored and reviewed as appropriate including access to the supporting MDT – i.e. mental health practitioners, social prescribing link workers
• We will have in-kind support from our ICS Locality Innovation and QI team to develop tests of change and ensure robust QI processes, measurement and evaluation

How is your project going to share learning?

• As part of this project, we will be encouraging a representative from each practice to play an active role in this project so that they can feedback and share learning at a practice level
• We will be surveying patient experience of this project as part of the evaluation and learning from a patient perspective
• Following the one-year pilot, we will feedback all findings at our PCN Educational Event
• Our Innovation & QI team colleagues can support to share learning post-project via any relevant/appropriate conferences through academic style posters or presentations
• We would also seek to share findings with any relevant Q special interest groups (such as Primary Care QI)