Clinical Governance at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust
What is Clinical Governance?
Clinical Governance is the way for organisations and individuals to make sure they deliver the highest quality healthcare. Improving the quality of care is an important part of this process. Clinical Governance identifies clinical service excellence, along with the patients' experience of the treatment services they receive, as central issues for the NHS. All of us at the Tavistock & Portman as committed staff would share this aim.
The Department of Health has set out the level of quality that healthcare organisations are expected to meet in the following seven areas:
1. Safety
2. Clinical & cost effectiveness
3. Governance
4. Care environment & amenities
5. Patient focus
6. Accessible & responsive care
7. Public health
The Trust has continued to implement its Clinical Governance action plan since the first review in 2003 and we have continuously improved our standards which are one of the indices which enabled the Trust to achieve 3 Stars in 2005 under the star rating system (this is the highest level achievable).
Clinical Governance at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust
Most of the procedures of clinical governance are based upon paying close attention to well-established, common-sense knowledge about how to run a good clinical service. Here at the Tavistock & Portman there are four committees which are responsible for different areas within Clinical Governance and which develop policies and procedures related to the seven areas listed above. These committees are:
1. The Clinical Governance Committee
2. The Clinical Services Governance Committee
3. The Learning Strategy Committee
4. Patient & Public Involvement Committee
In practical terms Clinical Governance policies cover the following:
The Trust produces a Clinical Governance Handbook for all clinical staff which contains the policies developed within the Clinical Governance committees to enable them to provide a high quality clinical service. Those staff new to the Trust need to refer to this handbook as soon as they start work and all clinical staff attend a clinical induction training day.
Patient & Public Involvement
The types of psychological therapy most commonly offered here - talking treatments of various kinds - cannot be done without patients' active involvement as partners in the treatment process. One of the aims of treatment is to gain the ability to grow psychologically, to become freer and more mature, through a process which often involves talking openly and frankly about difficult matters. This can mean that in the treatment issues are considered which may be, or be felt to be, critical, of oneself, or of other people, including the therapist.
Getting feedback generally, constructive criticism and comment, through consultation with patients and users, and with the local community in general, combined with greatly increased responsiveness, is one of the main ways the Government hopes to improve the Health Service.
Given its core values, The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust support this idea. We have set up a Patient Advice and Liaison Service, and have a PALS Officer as well as an active Patient's Forum. We have an annual Patient Survey, regular focus groups and conferences for service users. We recently held an Autism Users Conference which proved extremely popular and which gained very positive feedback. In the near future we will be holding similar events for users from other departments in the Trust. The Trust also has lectures and open days which the public can attend to understand more about the work that we do. All feedback gained from these events is very important in helping us improve and develop our clinical services and we value it highly.
Evidence Based Practice
Other important areas linked to Clinical Governance are Clinical Effectiveness and research. The Trust has a comprehensive programme of outcome monitoring which is concerned with identifying the kind of problems patients come to the Trust with and with evaluating how much they have been helped by the treatments offered at the Trust. This is done through patient questionnaires which are completed at different stages of their treatment.
There are also various important research projects taking placing including a long term study in adult depression with similar plans being developed for a study of depression in children.
Contact Us
Clinical governance is continuously evolving. Everyone can play a part in its development. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please feel free to contact any of those listed below.
The Clinical Governance Support Office
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust
120 Belsize Lane
London NW3 5BA
Tel: 020 8938 2487
Email: MDirectorPA@tavi-port.nhs.uk
Key Contacts:
David Taylor - Medical Director & Trust Clinical Governance Lead Mdirector@tavi-port.nhs.uk
Louise Lyon – Deputy Trust Clinical Governance Lead LLyon@tavi-port.nhs.uk
Jane Delafons – Executive Assistant, Clinical Governance JDelafons@tavi-port.nhs.uk
Hitesh Raval – Head of Clinical Audit & Clinical Effectiveness HRaval@tavi-port.nhs.uk
Sally Hodges – Trust Patient & Public Involvement Lead SHodges@tavi-port.nhs.uk
Debbie Lampon – Patient Advice & Liaison Service (PALS) pals@tavi-port.nhs.uk
