Royal College of Surgeons supports launch of major healthcare accreditation initiative

The Royal College of Surgeons is pleased to support the launch of a major health accreditation initiative today, designed to improve patient care, provide consistency for clinicians and reduce the burden on healthcare regulators.

The Royal College of Surgeons has been part of a collaboration of professional bodies forming the Clinical Service Accreditation Alliance (CSAA). Today sees the launch of resources to provide a full support suite for the set-up and management of accreditation schemes for specific clinical practices and for use in a number of ways, including service redesign.

The remit of the CSAA since its 2013 inception has been to ensure all affiliated schemes are patient-focused and clinician-led.

The CSAA’s original work is now complete, with day to day development of its remit being taken on by The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), with governance from the CSAA Sponsor Group members (as well as The Royal College of Surgeons, this comprises the Allied Health Care Professionals, Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society).

Mr Ian Eardley, Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons, said:

“As a member of the CSAA’s Sponsor Group, the Royal College of Surgeons is very pleased to see the launch of this suite of resources today. The standards for clinical service accreditation schemes which form part of this suite will help provide consistency for clinicians and lesson the burden on healthcare regulators. Most importantly we hope they will lead to improvements in patient care.”

The CSAA website and resources can be viewed here: https://csaa.uk/

Notes to editors

1.    The Royal College of Surgeons of England is a professional membership organisation and registered charity, which exists to advance surgical standards and improve patient care. www.rcseng.ac.uk

2.    Media enquiries: RCS - Press Office, 020 7869 6047/6052 or pressoffice@rcseng.ac.uk; HQIP – James Thornton, communications lead, 07984 383346 or james.thornton@hqip.org.uk.

3.    About the CSAA: The Clinical Service Accreditation Alliance (CSAA) was created following an agreement in 2013 for a core group of professional bodies to work with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), commissioners, the third sector, patient representatives, providers and local government organisations, to develop an overarching strategy for clinical service accreditation. The CSAA has developed a suite of resources to support professional bodies who wish to develop professionally-led and patient-centred clinical accreditation schemes. The CSAA identified the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) to host and continue to build on its work in October 2016. HQIP aims to facilitate and enable established and emerging clinical schemes to ensure that clinical service accreditation, as an improvement approach, is used to maximum effect to enhance patient outcomes.

4.    About HQIP: The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) is led by a consortium of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the Royal College of Nursing and National Voices. Its aim is to promote quality improvement, and in particular to increase the impact that clinical audit has on healthcare quality in England and Wales. HQIP holds the contract to manage and develop the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme, comprising 40 clinical audits and outcome review programmes that cover care provided to people with a wide range of medical, surgical and mental health conditions. The programme is funded by NHS England, the Welsh Government and, with some individual audits, also funded by the Health Department of the Scottish Government, DHSSPS Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands. www.hqip.org.uk