Location
Years
2015- 2016
Activity
We brought local people and general practices to work together in small improvement teams on three issues of shared concern, to improve access and reduce demand:
- dealing with minor ailments – by promoting the minor ailments scheme using word of mouth (including a children’s story to encourage ‘pester power’ of children)
- reducing missed appointments – by texting carefully worded appointment reminders to people attending clinics run by practice nurses (based on evidence from Australia)
- piloting ‘asthma parties’ (group consultations) for children aged 5-11 years and their families
We used an improvement model to gather and use local insight, based on three questions: aim; measures; and changes. Key changes were then implemented through ‘plan-do-study-act’ (PDSA) learning cycles.
Impact
The self-evaluation reflected the impact on each of the three issues.
The action project on minor ailments saw a shift in demand from general practices to community pharmacies.
Having tested the wording of the ‘avoiding loss to practice’ message, there was a positive response to text messaging by practice nursing.
There was a strong attendance by parents and children at ‘asthma parties’ piloted in primary schools. This work evolved into the BreathStars project.
Funded by
Innovation Fund of Salford Clinical Commissioning Group
