Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.
— W. Edwards Deming

Is “quality assurance” a separate stage in your software development pipeline? This is a “smell”, an indicator of deeper problems. It’s non-agile. In fact, it’s the epitome of waterfall! It may not be wise to immediately remove this stage, but you should begin looking for ways to eliminate “quality” as a stage, by finding ways to build quality in from the beginning.