Welcome to the second edition of the New Ways of Defining and Measuring Waiting Times e-newsletter which will keep you up to date with news and progress on the introduction of New Ways.

New Ways National Event

On 7 February, a New Ways event was held at the Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre in Clydebank. This was sixth in a series of events designed to help prepare for a successful transition to New Ways. The event offered an opportunity to learn from early implementer sites and to hear from the ISD team who are supporting the implementation of New Ways.

Evaluation of the event was very positive:

• 96.4% of delegates reported that they now know more about New Ways as a result of this event
• The same percentage have stated that the event helped answer their questions about New Ways
• 93% stated that they felt the event gave them opportunity to network with colleagues
• Plenary presentations and workshops have all been rated as either good or excellent
• 84.5% stated that there should be another New Ways event in 2007

Given the keen interest in a further event, the New Ways Programme Board will be giving consideration to running an event later this year.

Notes from each of the workshops and the plenary sessions are being published on the resources area of the New Ways website.

New Ways Specification of Data Required and Extraction – V1.1a

The latest specification for data required and extraction was issued on 28 February 2007 and is available on the guidance section of the New Ways website.

This single document brings together all the elements previously distributed separately i.e. the data items specification; the data extraction specification and associated appendices. This will be a definitive statement of requirement and should any substantial changes be necessary in the future, these will be managed through a formal change control process.

New Ways Communications

At the National Event on 7 February, Joyce Anderson, Communications Manager for ISD Waiting Times Programme and Richard Buchanan, ISD Publications Designer, presented draft communications and training material for consideration. This included:

• ‘Applying the Scottish Executive Health Department Guidance’ publication
• Desktop Guide
• Key Facts for General Practice Teams leaflet
• Introduction to New Ways for hospital staff
• Patient Leaflet
• Patient Poster

A number of very useful comments and suggestions were made by those who came along to the Communications workshop presentation. This feedback is being used by the team to review and develop the communications material.

The first of these publications to be revised following the workshop is the ‘Applying the Scottish Executive Health Department Guidance’ [1.04MB] publication. This is now available online as a PDF for use in staff training.

Feedback from the workshops indicated that the service would like to receive ‘Applying Guidance’ in hard copy. This is currently under consideration and should a print run be approved, the team will be in touch to get an estimate of how many copies would be needed by each health board. Joyce is happy to take further comments on the ‘Applying Guidance’ publication -  up until 14 March 2007.

Notes from the Communications workshop have been published on the resources area of the New Ways website.

If you wish to know more about the communication material or you wish to give comments on the ‘Applying Guidance’ publication you can contact Joyce Anderson by e-mail at joyce.anderson@isd.csa.scot.nhs.uk or by telephone on 0131 275 6022.