Community Director for Quality Improvement & Innovation in Primary Care

Dr Sue Goodfellow has been appointed to this new role, within Cardiff & Vale UHB Primary, Community & Intermediate Care clinical board.  Sue has an established track record in Quality Improvement, and also works as:

• Faculty Tutor in Quality Improvement Skills Training at HEIW (a National role teaching the Silver IQT curriculum to GP Registrars & Trainers across Wales.)
   
• GP Partner. West Quay Medical Centre, Vale of Glamorgan.

Sue’s introduction to the role and its purpose:

The new GMS contract offers a unique incentive for Primary Care teams to develop skills in Quality Improvement, and apply these to the QAIF aspects of the contract, as well as improvement projects that are meaningful to their patients and staff. Quality Improvement should be regarded as a ‘Team Sport’, in order to achieve maximum gains, and I would urge GPs to enable all their Primary Healthcare Team (PHCT) members to gain foundation skills in this area.

The two main purposes of the CD role are:

• To support Practices with the QAIF and Access aspects of the new GMS contract.

• To foster a culture of Quality Improvement within Primary Care within C&V UHB
   

QI Training in Cardiff & Vale:

With short timelines for compliance with the new GMS contract, it is inevitable that GPs and managers will be concerned about QI training, as a first step. This summary below is what the GMS contract requires: (Remember the payment of 60 points per Practice for this training is only available until September 2020, and not beyond)

85% of all registered healthcare professionals and all Practice Managers within a practice, are expected to train to Bronze IQT level by 30/09/2020.

In addition, it is recommended (but NOT mandatory within the GMS contract) that One Lead clinician per Practice, and one Practice Manager per practice trains to Silver IQT level.

Bronze IQT can be accessed and completed online via the following link:

https://iqt.wales.nhs.uk/

Sue has organised sufficient Silver IQT Training places in March 2020 for each Practice to have one clinician and one Practice manager trained (It is not mandatory for PMs to obtain Silver Training, but it makes sense to do so, as they hold a key role in reporting QI activity within the Practice to enable payment to be made.)

These courses will be co-facilitated by Nick Tyson, of C&V Improvement & Implementation, and Sue Goodfellow.

If you are interested in attending one of the Silver IQT Training sessions please contact lee.virgo@wales.nhs.uk

 Developing a practice culture in which Quality Improvement can flourish:

It may be worth considering the following as you start to develop QI within your Practice or Cluster:

• Agree a designated QI lead (not necessarily a GP, but should be a QI enthusiast)
• Treat QI as a team sport, which includes all PHCT members, plus the patient voice  
• Train in Quality Improvement skills
• Make QI visible within the Practice/Cluster
• Try to find regular protected time for Quality Improvement
   

The RCGP QI Ready toolkit includes a very useful check-list that I recommend using to identify the strengths and weaknesses of QI capability within your Practice/Cluster. This can be accessed regardless of having membership of RCGP or not, via the link below:

https://qiready.rcgp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Context_Checklist.docx

 Next Month:

QI tool box- useful QI tools and how to apply them