An Introduction to New Ways – A guide for NHS Staff and Contractors

The New Ways team have developed a leaflet which provides a summary of the New Ways changes. 'An Introduction to New Ways - A guide for NHS Staff and Contractors' is available to download from the Resources area of the New Ways website. The team will shortly be taking delivery of copies for distribution.

The leaflet is aimed at contractor staff such as GPs, GDPs and Opticians as well as NHS staff who need to have awareness of the introduction of New Ways.

The team will be undertaking a central distribution with the help of colleagues in the Practitioner Services Division to GP practices, General Dental practices and Ophthalmic practices – this will be happening towards the end of July.  

The team have been in contact with the New Ways leads across all NHS Boards to identify requirements for each area.

If you would like to find out more about receiving copies of this leaflet please e-mail newways@isd.csa.scot.nhs.uk .

Business Objects and Data Warehouse: Workshop and Training

The management of waiting times nationally and locally under New Ways will be achieved through local waiting times information stored in a national data warehouse. Data will be extracted on a frequent basis into a data warehouse, which has been developed by ISD .

Workshop: On 1 June a group of staff from the Service met to discuss the New Ways Data Warehouse with ISD. A report from event and presentation given that day are now available on the New Ways website:

New Ways Data Warehouse Report ( 300kb)
New Ways Data Warehouse Presentation ( 46kb)

Training: There are national arrangements in place for training in Business Objects at reduced cost through the training company Eclectic. Training should be booked through Nadia Mackinder who can be contacted on 0141 243 4812. Further information on the training course recommended by ISD for end users can be found on the Data Warehouse section of the New Ways website.

Sharing Learning

We are keen to facilitate the exchange of learning and best practice for New Ways across NHSScotland. Last month the newsletter featured Test Scripts from NHS Highland and NHS Lanarkshire, and this month we are delighted to publish work by NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Lothian:

Policy and procedures

It is recognised that updating local policies and procedures to incorporate New Ways is helpful as a means of embedding good practice. Carol Golding of NHS Ayrshire and Arran has very kindly offered to share their local policy and procedure documents with NHS colleagues and these can be accessed on the NHS Ayrshire and Arran policies and procedures page. Many thanks to Carol for sharing her work with us.

Flow Charts

Flow charts can be useful for communicating how processes work, and documenting how a particular job is done. Mapping out a process in a flow chart format can help clarify understanding of the process, and helps identify where processes can be improved.  NHS Lothian have developed a number of flow charts describing patient pathways including Patient Focused Booking (PFB) and unavailability. These are available in the Flow Charts area of the New Ways website. Many thanks to Peter Gilfoyle of NHS Lothian for sharing this work.

Communications Update: Patient Information

The New Ways team are developing an information leaflet and poster for patients. The latest draft is currently being reviewed by Health Rights Information Scotland. The team will be finalising the material during July and August and identifying requirements for each NHS Board area. If you have any enquiries regarding patient information please contact Joyce Anderson at joyce.anderson@isd.csa.scot.nhs.uk or telephone 0131 275 6022.