Priority 7 - National Endoscopy Programme
Support the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan across five key areas: balancing demand and capacity; optimal clinical pathways; improving quality and efficiency; workforce development; and infrastructure, innovation and redesign.
Responsible Team: National Endoscopy Programme
The Endoscopy Programme transitioned over from the Scottish Government during the year.
Establishment of Programme
The team have commenced a series of on-site visits to all Boards. These visits have included identifying local issues, offering Boards support to develop DCAQ/ capacity planning, and promoting alternatives to traditional endoscopy such as CytoSCOT. This work will continue into next year, and will support the future development of Board action plans for endoscopy.
Programme Governance and controls
As part of the transition from the Scottish Government, the team reviewed and refreshed the programme governance and controls to meet the requirements of the new organisational structure.
This included updating the Terms of Reference for the Endoscopy Programme Board, carrying out stakeholder mapping and engagement work, and reviewing the Programme risk register.
Improving Quality and Efficiency
The REDCap surveillance database was successfully developed and launched across 12 Health Boards. This system includes detailed patient information that can be used to help manage waiting lists and identify high-risk patients. Over the next year, work will continue to promote the database and support Boards to use it.
A Programme Board and User group to support the development of the new Endoscopy Reporting System (ERS) have been formed. These will help to support Boards as they start to go live on the system over the next year. In addition, the team have carried out work to ensure that TrakCare, the main patient information system, can provide the necessary endoscopy surveillance functionality.
Workforce Training and Development
The team have worked in partnership with NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) to develop a new national endoscopy training programme. These courses aim to deliver a national accelerated approach to NHS Scotland workforce priorities.
To date, over 40 staff from 10 Boards have completed the training course. The programme team have also helped to raise awareness of the non-medical endoscopy and cystoscopy training courses and have supported staff to access this training.
Infrastructure, Innovation and Redesign
A national qFit event was held in March 2023. The team will continue to progress the outcomes and actions from this event during the next year. Initial priorities will include updating the existing qFit guidance for Primary Care clinicians, and developing proposals for updating the current cancer guidelines.