Quality Priorities

Thank you to everyone who attended this event.

Quality Conversation Event 2022 video - YouTube

Working together to achieve quality

The Trust has a Quality Strategy aimed at building high quality healthcare based on national and international comparisons and to improve our performance in three key domains:

• Patient Safety
• Patient Experience
• Clinical Effectiveness and Outcomes

Our vision for quality is to be:

Recognised as one of the UK's highest quality healthcare providers. All our clinical services will provide high quality healthcare; some will provide care that is internationally outstanding.

Our quality domains apply to all staff and departments. We strive for excellence in healthcare by encouraging a culture of support, respect, integrity and teamwork; by monitoring and assessing our performance against national and international standards of care; by learning from our successes and setbacks; by striving to improve what we do through innovation and change; and by ensuring we work in partnership and collaboration with all local agencies of health and social care.

Our Quality Strategy has also been informed by both staff and patients through a number of workshops. We need to understand not only what quality means to us as healthcare professionals, but also what matters to our members, patients and their families. All service areas have developed posters outlining their quality priorities specific to their patients' needs and these are displayed in service areas.

Our aim is to deliver continuous improvement at all levels in the quality of our services in the pursuit of the best patient-centred care.

Our quality goals and priorities

We have always been committed to providing the highest standard of care and we listen to the views of our patients, our staff, our commissioners and other stakeholders to ensure we continue to deliver improvements.

Twice a year, we invite public and patients to tell us what matters to them to help inform our quality goals. Those attending highlight issues ranging from clinic appointment times to better communication and greater involvement in Trust service development.

Quality Priorities 2022/23

Patient safety

Triangulation of complaints, claims, incidents and inquests

All complaints, legal claims and inquests that have been identified as entailing the highest risk will be reviewed to identify learning to their history to reduce the possibility of recurrence.

Reducing pressure ulcers

Harms associated with pressure damage can have a lasting effect on patients and their carers.

Insulin safety

Insulin errors remain widespread around the country.

Reduce opioid use

To ensure safe monitoring of patients and adequate, but not excessive, discharge prescribing.

Clinical effectiveness

Results endorsement

Ensuring that the results of requested investigations are seen and acted upon is important to avoid serious findings being missed and patients coming to harm.

Introduce and embed use of a surgical Morbidity Dashboard

To identify and understand any areas with higher rates of readmissions and returns to theatre across the Trust.

Embed QI methodology more widely in the Trust

To embed the culture of improvement by providing a platform for further training, support, mentorship, and system change.

Patient experience

Reduce incidents of violence, aggression

Improve staff support for those who have been subject to these incidents.

Transition of children to adult services

To provide a framework by which the Trust can ensure that children and young people receive a quality service when transitioning from child-centred services to services for adults.

Staff health and wellbeing: Growing stronger

To look after the wellbeing of our people and teams and enable their recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic and transition into a 'new normal'.

Further information

For further information about our Quality Priorities, please see our Quality Accounts.