Clinical Governance
Co-written with Dr. Karanveer Singh Matharu
Clinical Governance is essentially a way to improve the standard of care across the board within healthcare and to minimise the risk to patients.
Scally and Donaldson (1998) define it as:
“A system through which NHS organisations are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence in clinical care will flourish.”
The NHS Clinical Governance Toolkit defines clinical governance as:
“Clinical governance has been defined as a system through which healthcare organisations are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence in clinical care will flourish.
Effective clinical governance ensures that risks are mitigated, adverse events are rapidly detected and investigated openly, and lessons are learned. “
You can find the complete guidance by clicking on the link below.
There are three main strands to clinical governance:
Quality improvement work
Fostering a culture of learning
National and local quality improvement systems and structures
Ultimately this helps to create healthcare system which has the following characteristics of being:
Safe
Effective
Patient Centred
Timely
Efficient
Equitable
The Royal College of Nursing highlights five key principles of Clinical Governance:
“Patient focus - how services are based on patient needs
Information focus - how information is used
Quality improvement - how standards are reviewed and attained
Staff focus- how staff are developed
Leadership - how improvement efforts are planned.”
You can find their complete guidance below:
Good clinical governance is about continual improvement of patient care and of fostering an attitude of critical engagement and reflection. Good clinical governance has the foundation of seven pillars:
Audit
Clinical Effectiveness
Risk management
Patient/ Service user and public involvement
Education and training
Information management
Staff management
These must be continually assessed in clinical practice and any areas of improvement which are identified must be improved upon. In doing so, the overall standard of care for patients will increase whilst the risk in clinical practice will decrease.