Allied Health Professionals
National AHP Workload & Activity Project
The AHP Workload and Activity Project is working to improve AHP information in Scotland.
National AHP data currently consists of the ISD(S)1 return, which records new and total contacts. There are some concerns over the quality of these data.
As part of a project funded by the SGHD Chief Health Professions Officer to address the information gap for AHP services, the National AHP Workload and Activity Project has developed a Recommended Allied Health Professionals National Minimum Dataset for Scotland.
This work has been completed by ISD under the direction of a National Implementation Group (NIG), which was made up of representatives from Scottish Government, AHP Professions and eHealth. The dataset has been endorsed by AHP Directors and Leads in NHS Boards.
The next step is implementation across NHS Boards and this has been raised and discussed in a number of settings including a presentation to eHealth Leads. The longer term aim will be to capture the data through clinical or PAS systems in all sectors where AHPs deliver patient care to enable consistent reporting of demand, capacity and waiting time statistics. Until systems are in place, interim arrangements for collecting data are being explored. This includes a waiting times census to capture baseline information on how long patients wait for AHP treatment and an evaluation of local data collection systems that could potentially collect the recommended dataset for other NHS Boards without their own system.
