Providers Deliver: Better Care for Patients and Service Users - a report from NHS Providers.
The first in a new publication series from NHS Providers in which they celebrate and promote the work of NHS trusts and foundation trusts in improving care for patients and service users.
The NHS serves over one million patients a day, providing an efficient and equitable service despite the growing pressures it faces. Trust leaders and staff are committed to continually improving the quality of care they provide, and for all major conditions, results for patients are now measurably better than a decade ago, with annual cancer survival rates improving and decreases in heart attack and stroke deaths.
This publication explores how varied trusts have delivered improvements such as these by exploring the leadership approaches and frontline initiatives that underpin improvements in quality. It takes, as a starting point, CQC ratings to demonstrate improvements in the provider sector. As the independent quality regulator, CQC sets out what good and outstanding care looks like and makes sure services meet fundamental standards below which care must never fall. CQC’s ratings, based on rigorous inspection and monitoring processes, are important to trusts, commissioners, the public and staff. A CQC rating has implications for a trust’s regulatory status, its reputation (locally, regionally and nationally), staff morale and the confidence of patients, services users and the public.
This Providers deliver publication considers both the leadership approaches and frontline initiatives that underpin improvements in quality. Through 11 case study conversations, it considers some of the frontline work that has contributed to trusts’ improvements in ratings, as well as exploring the role of trust leaders in providing an enabling, supportive environment in which this work has been possible.