Quality, safety & clinical governance in NHS and independent hospitals
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Quality, safety and clinical governance in NHS and independent hospitals: lessons from the interface
IRAS ID
322163
Contact name
Kieran Walshe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 1 months, 30 days
Research summary
Every patient has the right to expect safe, high quality care whether they are treated in an NHS hospital or an independent hospital. We propose new research to help understand and improve the quality and safety of patient care in NHS and independent hospitals. Independent hospitals are private sector organisations which provide health care to patients who pay, directly or through private insurance, and which are often also contracted to provide care for some patients funded by the NHS. We will learn about the systems which oversee the quality and safety of patient care, which are often termed “clinical governance”. Good clinical governance is the foundation of good patient care.
There are longstanding concerns among policymakers and leaders in both the NHS and independent healthcare sectors about the quality and safety of care, and the need for improvement has been highlighted. For the first time, in 2022, information about all patients treated in both NHS and independent hospitals will be brought together in one dataset, and we plan to use this to compare quality and performance and provide information for better clinical governance. The main aim of our research is to understand how quality and safety is monitored across both NHS and independent hospitals. To meet this aim, we will we will analyse the new national dataset covering all patients in NHS and independent hospitals. We will also send questionnaires to the staff who lead clinical governance in NHS and independent hospitals, and researchers will visit hospitals, which we will identify with our project advisory group and other stakeholders, to conduct interviews and focus groups with patients and carers who have experience of care in both settings, and to observe and interview doctors and other professionals who work across both NHS and independent hospitals. This study is funded for two and a half years and will begin as soon as ethical approval is granted, which we hope will be by the 1st of May 2023.REC name
East of England - Essex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/EE/0104
Date of REC Opinion
17 May 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion