Quality in the new health system – Maintaining and improving quality from April 2013

The National Quality Board (NQB) has published a report setting out how quality will be maintained and improved in the new health system. The NQB brings together the national organisations across the health system responsible for quality including the Care Quality Commission, Monitor, the NHS Trust Development Authority, NICE, the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the NHS Commissioning Board Authority and the Department of Health. The report focuses predominantly on how the new system should prevent, identify and respond to serious failures in quality and provides a collective statement from NQB members as to: the nature and place of quality in the new health system the distinct roles and responsibilities for quality of the different parts of the system how the different parts of the system should work together to share information and intelligence on quality and to ensure an aligned and coordinated system wide response in the event of a quality failure the values and behaviours that all parts of the system will need to display in order to put the interests of patients and the public first and ahead of organisational interests. The report is in draft form and the NQB would welcome views on the approach it describes from those working in or with an interest in the health system.  Please send any views to nationalqualityboard@dh.gsi.gov.uk by 30 September 2012.