The Health & Social Care Bill 2011 - will control over quality suffer?
The proposed changes to the healthcare system within England will come with many associated risks, the strict maintenance of a quality product for the end user being perhaps the most crucial. Continual improvement through the control of processes and associated document management are crucial to successfully maintain quality during a period of fundamental change such as the one the NHS in England is going through.
The Health & Social Care Bill of 2011 has recently passed the first hurdle towards full acceptance, with the start of February 2011 seeing a long-awaited first draft being presented to Ministers. The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, promises that changes to the way healthcare is commissioned and managed in the future will make the service offered to the end user timelier, with an increased cost effectiveness, have a greater relevancy and above all improve upon the quality of service already received by an ever critical public.
The proposed changes hand control to GP consortiums, groups of regional doctors practices who's task it will be to ensure that the quality of service expected of healthcare professionals within England remains consistant.
The quality of service to be provided by GP’s will come under scrutiny from a number of directions:
- The creation of an independent body to monitor standards and service levels, ensuring quality is maintained to a recognised standard.
- Competition from private sector healthcare providers, meaning a greater choice for an increasingly choosy customer.
- Pressure from opposition political parties and the mainstream media, where the common consensus seems to be that the Health & Social Care Bill is an exercise in money saving rather than quality improvement.
Lansley hopes this new operational structure will bring ‘empowerment to the frontline staff,’ and ‘new leadership’ to the forefront. Whoever ends up managing the new regional set-ups successes will depend on the rigid control of the change-over, with the employment of proven methods and devices to maintain quality across these vast organisations whilst they are in a state of flux.
Qualsys have developed strong working relationships with a number NHS Trusts (Birmingham Children’s Hospital NHS Trust, Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust amongst others) and private healthcare suppliers (2 Care, Bettal) over the last 15 years, providing quality via document control, assisting compliance with complex standards and regulations (MHRA, GCP, GLP, CQC) and supporting teams of healthcare professionals during these stressful periods of transition.
The EQMS document management tools allow organisations to provide timely and controlled information to their users, utilising a web application that:
- Promotes best practice through the enforcement of strict compliance frameworks
- Controls documentation in one central point
- Provides full audit trails
- Controls version changes
- and provides in-depth management reporting
EQMS is at the heart of change management within a number of high profile healthcare organisations. Click here to read an in-depth case study on how the pathology department within Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust utilises EQMS for compliance with Clinical Pathology Accreditation (CPA) (UK) Ltd’s standards.
To discuss options available for the intergration of EQMS into your change management processes to assist with maintaining and improving quality across your organisation call us on +44 (0) 114 282 3338 or fill in a contact form and we'll get back to you.
For information about Qualsys contact Robert Oakley on +44 (0)114 282 3338.
Email robert.oakley@qualsys.co.uk
3rd February 2011
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