Clinical Governance

Together with patient safety and experience, clinical effectiveness is an essential element of any healthcare organisation. The ability to turn learning, experience, evidence and research into better outcomes for patients and service users is key to the success of such bodies, but it requires careful planning, innovative thinking and the ability to overcome challenges to meet these goals.  With tight budgets and increased demand on services due to a range of factors, the need to strategise effectively is more important than ever. For example, NHS England has ambitious targets for reducing the time patients spend waiting for treatment. In December...

Clinical governance is essential for creating a framework in which healthcare organisations can align their efforts to enhance outcomes for patients and service users. It provides a lens through which healthcare boards must view their decision-making to ensure their organisations deliver high-quality care as a matter of course.  However, in order to break down the concept of clinical governance into manageable and actionable elements, there are the 7 pillars of clinical governance on which organisations must focus their efforts. Each of these pillars plays a role in improving patient safety, improving care, maintaining transparency and creating an efficient and effective...

A multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting in the NHS is not only a valuable opportunity to develop the best possible quality of care for patients, but also a productive environment in which stakeholders can learn from each other and share expertise. This may include consultants and other specialists who do not have a patient of their own to discuss, but who want to make themselves available to support their colleagues and improve patient outcomes in general.  The outcomes of an MDT meeting are literally a matter of life and death, which is why NHS entities need to ensure they run as...

Meetings are essential elements of governance when they are managed effectively. Although you sometimes hear of meeting fatigue and stakeholders complain about the number or length of meetings they attend, this is generally a sign that planning or execution could be improved. When you streamline your processes, you can create a vibrant, collaborative environment that leads to better decisions to the benefit of your organisation.  However, iBabs’ State of Meeting Management survey found that healthcare groups, such as the NHS in the UK and blue light organisations, were falling short in some key areas of meeting management. For example, only...

The NHS guidance on good governance and collaboration, released in October 2022 following the implementation of the Health and Care Act 2022, signalled a major step in the road towards integrating the health and care systems in England.  They placed a range of requirements on the stakeholders involved with healthcare, public health and social care in each area of the country in order to help them promote equality and address health challenges by working together. As such, these parties should utilise a clinical governance checklist to ensure they are contributing to integrated care systems (ICPs) in the most effective way. ...

The Health and Care Act 2022 has been hailed for allowing NHS and care services across the country to collaborate and integrate care for those patients who use multiple different services.  Under the new structure, NHS, social care and public health services can join together to provide targeted solutions in local areas, but this brings with it the need to create a governance framework to ensure they manage risk and make effective decisions to enable the best possible outcomes. This article explores these new NHS governance guidelines.  Goals and objectives of the NHS governance guidelines These guidelines dictate how local...