Our new Endoscopy Training Academy comes to Wales

(published 14 March 2024)

Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) is delighted to announce the opening of our new Endoscopy Academy, working in partnership with all Health Boards and units across Wales.

Through the Endoscopy Training Academy, training is provided to the whole endoscopy workforce, including nurses and support staff, in a multi-disciplinary educational environment.

Endoscopy is a key and rapidly growing diagnostic specialty. The NHS Executive National Diagnostics Program recognises that endoscopy education and training can help, recover, expand, and transform the service by recruiting more and retaining the workforce, increasing the quality and safety standards of care, improving population outcomes, and increasing service capacity and sustainability. HEIW has supported the Endoscopy Training Management Group, and this has now migrated into the formalised Endoscopy Academy of Wales (January 2024) and is responsible for the delivery of Royal College of Physicians accredited courses. All training is now under the remit of HEIW. The Endoscopy Academy has a programme team with specialist expertise in endoscopy to deliver the endoscopy training model and an has an ambitious outlook for the future.

Endoscopy has a significant increase in demand for the diagnostic, therapeutic and screening interventions. Endoscopy now provides a greater range of more complex procedures across a wide age range and often for patients with significant health concerns.

There is a recognised need that increased capacity in staffing to scope and care for patients is required, but this needs careful strategic and operational high quality, accelerated multi- professional education - for all groups in endoscopy medical endoscopists, clinical endoscopists, nurses, HCSW, managers and admin and clerical staff, and training plans that are based on data and expert knowledge of the landscape, issues and potential solutions.

An All-Wales solution has been created with a model of training to ensure equity for all staff and patients. The Endoscopy Academy sits alongside others within the UK and beyond – 7 in England, 1 in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.

Dr Phedra Dodds leads the Academy, and we are delighted given Phedra’s extensive experience and achievements in the Endoscopy community in Wales, nationally and internationally.

Phedra said “The Endoscopy Academy is committed to ensure that the workforce have the right skills, competencies, and confidence to respond to the service need and create innovation and new opportunities via the rapid scale adoption of technology enhanced learning and multi-disciplinary models, so all staff can build life-long careers in Endoscopy. I am so excited we now have the Academy in Wales. My hope is that the current and next generations of staff in endoscopy will benefit and take up the mantle and keep striving forward and speak up for themselves, our community, and our patients”.

Alex Howells, Chief Executive said “We are delighted to have established an Endoscopy Academy in NHS Wales. We know that advances in endoscopy education and training that we will provide, will benefit our learners and in turn our patients here in Wales. By sharing skills, we can ensure we improve patient care now and, in the future, enhancing current and future workforce skills using the latest scoping technologies. This is just the start and we will continue to build on this first step over the next few years”.

For more information and details on all training courses planned this year, see; https://heiw.nhs.wales/our-work/endoscopy-training-in-nhs-wales/