Access is a key ingredient of quality and the Improvement Foundation is the world leader in helping general practices and primary care trusts to improve access for patients to primary care services.

Because we established through our work that it was possible to radically improve access (from long waits to same day appointments), and measure that improvement, the government selected access to general practice as one of its key reform targets incorporated into the NHS Plan (known as the ‘24/48 hour' target).

Through our National Primary Care Collaborative, and through tailored support delivered locally through our 10 regional centres, we have worked with over 5,000 practices covering 32 million patients in England (achieving over a 70% improvement in waiting times to see a GP). This large scale impact is being repeated by the Improvement Foundation in Australia.

The Improvement Foundation is currently proposing to support the vision for responsive primary care emerging from the National Improvement Team (NIT) and the NHS Next Stage Review, led by Lord Darzi, with a new programme on Primary Care Access and Responsiveness.

The same principles for improving access into primary care, based on ensuring a balance between demand for services and the capacity of the provider to deliver them, are also being applied by the Improvement Foundation to achieve improvements in access in secondary care. We are currently working with the NHS on a Delivering the 18-Week Target  programme.

If you are interested in working with the Improvement Foundation please go to How we can help or click here to contact us.

Completed programmes

• Improving Access