The report for the third quality assurance review of the Island’s Health Service has today been published by the West Midlands Quality Review Service (WMQRS).
The review, which took place in July, focussed on the clinical governance systems in place across the Island’s health service – including Mental Health Services, Noble’s Hospital and Community Health Services – and found ‘many examples of achievements and good practice’.
Clinical governance is a framework of measures put in place to both maintain and improve the quality of care received by patients.
The Department was assessed against the WMQRS standards which are drawn from the latest guidance for England.
Commenting on the latest report, Minister for Health and Social Care, Howard Quayle MHK, said:
'The review has identified evidence of some extremely good practice by our staff, which is very encouraging and for which the teams involved are to be commended.
'One immediate risk was identified, which relates to the IT systems for Mental Health. Whilst this is outside of the Department’s direct control, we have worked closely with colleagues in the Government Technology Service to mitigate the possibility of any recurrence.'
The Mental Health Service was singled out by the reviewers who were ‘impressed by the extent to which mental health services had developed governance systems’ and the management of the service by ‘an experienced, committed and well-integrated team’.
Other examples of good practice and achievements identified by the WMQRS include:
Noble’s Hospital
- Good infection prevention and control arrangements and ‘enthusiastic leadership’ which has seen an improvement in infection rates
- A ‘good system’ of safety walks that include patient and carer representatives
- The ‘clean, uncluttered and calm’ environment of the hospital
- Development in systems for health records and information management
Mental Health Service
- A high commitment to health and safety
- ‘Very good service user involvement’ through the Service User Network (SUN)
- Effort put into attaining external quality assurance, such as accreditation through the Royal College of Psychiatrists for the Island’s inpatient and memory services
- A fully electronic patient record system
Community Health Service
- An ‘enthusiastic and committed’ team with ‘vision, ambition and clear plans for the development of services and their governance’
- Evidence of a culture of listening to patient feedback and learning, such as a ‘You said, we did’ scheme
- A ‘particularly proactive’ approach by the dental and the podiatry services to patient and carer involvement and in addressing patient concerns
- The ‘Live Well, Stay Well’ programme developed for people with long term conditions.
The review also identified that community health services had considerable potential to provide a wider range of services, which aligns with the Department’s intentions to develop and deliver more services in the community, closer to people’s homes.
The Minister continued:
'Whilst recognising the achievements and good practice identified by the WMQRS, the Department’s attention is on the areas where improvement can be made. That is the primary reason we commissioned these reviews. As with each review in this process, an action plan will be developed so that we can continue our work to further enhance the quality of care for patients and service users.'
An area that the report identifies as needing development and greater clarity is overall clinical governance at a corporate level within the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) rather than within specific service areas. The WMQRS recognised in its findings, however, that the review had taken place ‘at a time of significant change’ for the Island’s Health Service.
Minister Quayle added:
'There has been a seismic but necessary shift in the management and organisation of our health and social care system since the DHSC was formed in April. The Department has been working to develop a structure that is fit for purpose with much clearer lines of responsibility and accountability. I am confident that we can now move to develop a robust and integrated system of clinical governance that can cut across historic silos to focus on high quality outcomes.'
All of the Department’s health services now come under a single Executive Director which will strengthen the ability to integrate clinical governance arrangements across mental health, community health and Noble’s Hospital into an overarching framework. In addition, with health and social care now delivered by a single government department, governance arrangements can be more closely aligned across the entire health and social care system.
A copy of the report can be downloaded here along with the appendix.
The fourth and most recent review by the WMQRS took place at the start of October with the report expected early in 2015.
