Quality Accounts

Quality Accounts are annual reports to the public from providers of NHS healthcare about the quality of services they deliver (Equity and Excellence: DH December 2010). From 2011, all organisations that provide NHS services are required to assess the quality of all of the services that they offer and in doing so, and making the information public, which allows healthcare providers to demonstrate their commitment to continuous quality improvement, that is evidence based.

Because this information is in the public domain, it allows healthcare providers to demonstrate to the commissioners of their services and to their patients and the public, that they are aware of areas within their service where improvements can be made and to demonstrate progress in developing and improving services.

The Lister Surgicentre has begun gathering the data required to prepare and publish annual Quality Accounts using the DH 2011-12 toolkit. Our first Quality Account will be published in June 2012.

The clinical teams delivering the surgical and Ophthalmology services within the facility, are fully engaged in developing meaningful metrics to enable them to undertake an assessment of their performance which will be used to focus on improving outcomes and which can ultimately be used benchmarked against other providers, when nationally comparable data becomes available.

In line with the requirements set out by the Department of Health, the Lister Surgicentre Quality Accounts will include:

  • a statement from the Lister Surgicentre Board that summarises the quality of NHS services provided
  • the Surgicentre’s priorities for quality improvement for the coming financial year
  • statements from the Board using the format and information required and as set out in regulations

A review of the quality of services delivered by the Lister Surgicentre, set out using the three domains of quality:

  • patient safety,
  • clinical effectiveness, and
  • patient experience

Please check back here in June 2012 to read our Quality Account for 2011/12.