The department of health have announced that following the success of quality accounts, GP practices will be required to produce a quality account in summer 2012 covering the period 2011/2012.
Visit the Department of Health website which details the letter sent to GPs and a quality account toolkit.
The document highlights are as follows:
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Quality accounts are here to stay and will continue to be a key element for quality improvement.
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All providers of acute, community, mental health, ambulance and learning disability NHS services are statutorily obliged to produce a quality account for the period 2010 – 11. Primary care will continue to be piloted for this period with the quality observatories focussing on how they can support primary care in the development of quality accounts from 2011 – 12. It will therefore be a statutory duty for primary care organisations to produce a quality account in summer 2012 covering the period 2011 – 12.
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Engagement by the provider with its stakeholders continues to be central to the Quality Account development, e.g. patients, Local Intelligence Networks, PCT, Overview and Scrutiny Committee, staff and Governors.
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Trusts must include the measures they reported on last year to show where improvement has been made. A satisfactory explanation must be included if measures reported on last year are omitted for this Quality Account.
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Trusts must also show how engagement with stakeholders has resulted in priority setting for service review.
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Monitor are still testing external assurance mechanisms and will announce a timeframe for the 2010-11 QAs early in the new year.
