The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7440 p208
24 February 2007

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Quality-of-care data to be kept on health professionals

Health care organisations should maintain files on the quality of the care provided by all professional employees, the Government recommends. In its response to the Shipman Inquiry’s fifth report and to the recommendations of the Ayling, Neale and Kerr/Haslam inquiries, the Government suggests that such a file — either a set of paper files or interconnected electronic files — should hold all the material relating to the quality of services provided by an individual professional. Guidance on the content of the files will be drawn up by the Government, or by an organisation such a NHS Employers.

The Government also proposes developments to improve clinical governance processes and the handling of complaints against health professionals. The aim is to create a complaints system which is: demonstrably independent; simple, integrated and consistent across organisations and agencies; focused on the needs of patients; staffed by well trained people with sufficient seniority to bring about improvement; and supported by managers who are committed to learning from mistakes and to delivering specific and systematic changes to organisations.