Keywords
Citation
(2007), "UK - The Health Foundation calls for more support to help NHS trusts improve quality and safety", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 20 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2007.06220aab.009
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
UK - The Health Foundation calls for more support to help NHS trusts improve quality and safety
Keywords: NHS performance, Benchmarking, Quality Training and Development
More than half of the NHS trusts in England need to improve either the quality of their services or their financial management, new figures released by the Healthcare Commission show. The Annual Health Check, which combines hospital self-assessments with patient reports, financial and quality data, aims to provide a more accurate picture of NHS performance than the previous, much-criticised “star ratings” system.
The Commission ranked 60 percent of trusts as either “fair” or “weak” for quality of services, while 84 percent were ranked fair or weak for financial management. Eight trusts received the bottom ranking of weak on both quality of service and financial management. All trusts given at least one weak rating will now need to put action plans in place within 30 days, setting out how they will improve.
The Health Foundation’s chief executive Stephen Thornton stated that the report provides a useful snapshot of NHS performance and welcomed the tougher, more robust system which replaces the outdated star ratings. Without benchmarking the NHS cannot make improvements to the quality of care provided.
However, the Foundation also called for more support and training to help Trusts improve the quality and safety of their services. Improving the quality of patient care is hard to do and from experience it takes a long time. Few trusts can do it on their own, and more support and training in quality and safety improvement is needed for NHS professionals.
As an example it is known that patient safety rates dramatically improve when hospital staff and visitors wash their hands more frequently. Actually making this happen in all hospitals requires a sustained change in working practices to guarantee it will happen reliably every time. Staff will find it difficult to interpret performance data such as the Healthcare Commission’s report. They need support to use it locally to improve the care they deliver to patients.