Skip to main content Skip to footer

Planned Care Programme

Planned Care Programme

Trauma and Orthopaedics

  • National peer review visits to Boards were undertaken, involving 300+
    staff and 30+ peer reviewers, sharing best practice and generating
    200+ recommendations.
    These reviews drove service redesign, reduced inpatient waiting lists, and
    supported workforce expansion to improve both inpatient and outpatient
    care.
  • Held monthly meetings with Boards to proactively monitor and identify
    early issues and provide tailored support and effective mitigation to reduce
    waiting lists.
  • Ensured that National Treatment Centre capacity was maximised by carrying
    out collaborative planning with Boards, allocating 10,000 orthopaedic
    cases for next year, and conducting continuous monitoring.
  • Conducted the Scottish Hip Fracture Audit, which supports national
    benchmarking and planning.
  • Developed the National Trauma and Orthopaedic Plan on behalf of the
    Scottish Government. The plan incorporated local Board input and
    recommendations, and highlighted current service challenges and
    opportunities.
  • Developed National Treatment Centre pathways in collaboration with Boards.
    This focussed on streamlining processes, addressing clinical concerns, and
    improving patient access.

Ophthalmology

  • 175,000+ patients on-boarded onto the Once for Scotland Electronic Patient
    Record (EPR). The EPR has enabled 1 Health Board to eliminate case notes
    across multiple sites.
  • Worked with multidisciplinary colleagues to update 2 Ophthalmic referral
    pathways which will enable more efficient ways of working and reduce
    avoidable referrals.
  • Responsible for drafting the National Ophthalmology Plan, which was approved
    by the Scottish Government and shared across NHS Scotland.
  • Delivered 2 poster presentations at the NHS Scotland event, which highlighted
    recent improvement work around:
    • Cataract referrals.
    • National Workforce review across eye care services (this was the first time
      such a survey has been carried out in the UK).
  • Carried out 6 clinically led peer reviews. The findings of the reviews were
    then used by Health Boards to develop action plans across their hospital eye
    services.
  • Publication of ‘The community optometry workforce in Scotland:
    supporting sustainable eye care delivery’ in Eye Nature Journal. This
    provided detailed information about the community optometrist workforce and
    activity data at a national level for the first time.
  • Supported Boards to develop new initiatives designed to enhance eye services
    and reduce waiting times. This included implementing recommendations from
    clinically led peer reviews, such as promoting use of clinical pathways across
    ocular sub-specialities and extending roles for non-medical staff.

Radiology

Additional investment supported:

    • 139,000+ additional imaging scans delivered
    • 15,900+ reduction in patients waiting over 6 weeks
    • 7,600+ reduction in Radiology waiting list
    • 11% improvement in patients seen within 6 weeks
    • 302 additional cardiac CT scans delivered

National Ultrasound Training Programme:

  • Delivered 7,900+ additional ultrasound scans
  • Supported training and workforce expansion to help reduce waiting times

Optimising Capacity:

  • Optimised MRI capacity in one National Treatment Centre, resulting in 7,200+ scans delivered (114% of planned activity)

Other Key Achievements:

  • Established local cardiac CT services in 2 Boards, ensuring all NHS Boards now offer local access
  • Supported 11 Boards to develop and complete efficiency and waiting list improvement plans
  • Worked with Boards to secure additional funding for backlog clearance and development of sustainable capacity plans
  • Supported delivery of 142 new learners trained through the National Ultrasound Training Programme and masterclasses (in sonography and advanced practice)
  • Collaborated with NHS Golden Jubilee to expand specialist scanning capacity and ensure full utilisation

Planned Care Performance

  • Supported improved access and reduced waiting times by regularly engaging with all territorial Boards and National Treatment Centres.
  • Focus areas included activity monitoring, strategic planning, optimal use of resources, and support for patient prioritisation.
  • Emphasis placed on a collaborative, data-driven approach to tackling system challenges.
  • Supported Boards to deliver key Planned Care activity, resulting in:
    • 1,240,000+ new outpatient appointments - over 35,000 more than planned
    • 237,707 inpatient/day cases
  • Monitored additional Board funding, which led to:
    • 15,000+ new outpatient appointments
    • 10,000+ surgical operations
  • Engaged with National Treatment Centres (NTCs):
    • Supported NHS Fife and NHS Highland to agree a fair and efficient method of allocating capacity.
    • Enabled NTCs to deliver 113% of planned joint and cataract activity.
    • Supported NHS Highland to expand cataract surgery to 7-day delivery.
  • Worked with the Scottish Government to:
    • Ensure robust monitoring, reporting and governance mechanisms were in place.
    • Highlight and help address emerging and ongoing challenges through data analysis and evidence.

Spotlight