A series of blitz clinics and each clinician having a target of seeing six children from the waiting list each day, has resulted in children getting to see the dentist sooner.
Eager to reduce waiting times, the North East London Dental Team at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) introduced a series of targeted initiatives, resulting in waiting times for initial assessment appointments being halved. Their practical and innovative changes also included making referral criteria clearer and insisting referrals included all the information needed such as x-rays.
The result? Average wait time reduced from 36 weeks to 18.
It was a multi-team effort, with the work led by Practice Manager Nagis Patel and Dentist and Assistant Clinical Director Lindsy Vallayil.
Nargis said: “When we tried to match demand with capacity, we knew there was a problem, so we knew we had to do things differently.
“We communicated better with our stakeholders about our criteria and educated our dentists on which children should be seen and who should stay with their regular dentist. We also tried to understand why families did not attend appointments, rather than penalising them or just booking another appointment for them, not knowing if this would be convenient for them.
“The whole team came together and worked collaboratively to help reduce the list. There was involvement form many teams in outer London dental service and our referral team in Kent. A few staff members even volunteered to do extra sessions after hours.”
The team is now trying its best to sustain the improvement. There are regular team meetings and reports to help them stay on track. Spaces continue to be reserved on waiting lists for new patients.
Nargis and Lindsy worked with the KCHFT quality improvement (QI) team on the project. Nargis said: “Jo, one of the QI advisors, was really helpful, as were the QI tools. We used plan do, study, act (PDSA), a driver diagram and a fish bone to help us look at the problem and work out a solution.”
Click HERE to read and download the full project report
