Engaging with Quality in Primary Care

Why this programme?

Assessments such as clinical audits show there are wide variations in the quality of primary care. Given that 80% of contact between the public and the health service takes place in primary care settings, it is clear many patients are receiving lower quality care than they should be entitled to expect.

Why is best practice evidence not being universally applied by frontline clinicians who should be best placed to deliver it?

There are a number of reasons. Some clinicians may lack the time or resources to get involved in quality improvement projects. Some may be aware what methods work best but be unsure how to get improvements started. Others may lack confidence or the specific analytical and change management skills required.

This programme helps primary care clinicians become engaged more fully, to increase their capacity, capability and responsibility for clinical quality improvement. It enables them to contribute to the knowledge base and potentially influence changes in healthcare policy.

In order to improve the quality of patient care, clinicians need a good understanding of existing quality levels and know how to implement and measure changes in practice. Without this, interventions designed to produce clear improvements for patients may not be realised.

A development programme, devised by the Improvement Foundation, is a key part of the EWQPC programme.

Each clinical team received coaching to build their quality improvement and leadership skills. This helped them to set up processes to measure the current quality of clinical care in their area, and then implement activities to change clinical practice and monitor the results.