Page last updated: 19-JUN-2007

New Ways

NHS Ayrshire & Arran - Policies and Procedures

The policies and procedures that follow set out the Hospital Services approach to ensure efficient and effective use of the resources available within NHS Ayrshire and Arran, thus making the provision of a seamless service to the patient - involving the least number of 'hand-offs'.

Waiting lists are used to ensure that patients are offered appointments, for outpatient clinics or elective admission, at the appropriate time.  Clinical need and then strict chronological order are used to prioritise patients. The only exceptions to this will be patients attending for a planned sequence of events, such as dialysis or check cystoscopy, where the timing of admission is a pre-determined interval.

Waiting lists will be managed to ensure that local and national targets and waiting time standards are met and follow the guidelines set out by:

  • The Royal College of Surgeons "Guidelines for the Management of Surgical Waiting Lists"(June 1991)
  • National Waiting Times Unit "Managing Waiting Times - A Good Practice Guide" (2003)
  • SEHD, Performance Management Division "New Ways of Defining and Measuring Waiting Times: Interim Definitions" (March 2005) and update to Definitions (May 2006)
  • New Ways of Defining and Measuring Waiting Times: Applying the Scottish Executive Health Department Guidance (version 2.0, March 2007)

Waiting List Training

Medical secretaries with responsibility for administration of a waiting list will receive mandatory training specific to the software in use in their area, as part of their initial induction.  Following this they will also be required to attend an annual refresher and update session for which a central record of attendees is kept by the Assistant General Manager (AGM) - Waiting Times/Patient Access.  Such sessions will include details of current targets and any changes in waiting list practice.  Note that in times of radical change, e.g. implementation of New Ways, such sessions will be held on a more frequent basis.

Audit

It is the responsibility of every member of staff accessing the waiting list systems to ensure the audit trail for each patient is accurately recorded and reflects the sequence of events and actions taken (e.g. every TCI date offered should be recorded along with the appropriate reason for any cancellation).  It is also essential that where a delay has occurred in adding a patient to a list (e.g. awaiting test results, or awaiting patient decision) that the reason for this is recorded in the patient's case-notes.  The line manager and/or AGM - Waiting Times/Patient Access should be alerted to any omissions or instance of incorrect data being recorded.

Monitoring utilisation of waiting list policies and procedures will be undertaken by the AGM - Waiting Times/Patient Access and in addition policies will be subject to scrutiny as part of any internal or external audit.  Any issues of non-compliance or training requirements will be reported via the Internal Waiting Times Group.

Review of Policies and Procedures

It is proposed that a regular review of each Patient Access Policy will take place in order to keep them in line with current protocols and provide up to date information for new users of the systems.  Each individual policy has its review date on the Meta Data (page 2).


Main contact: Email Joyce Dalgleish