The Minister for Health Dr. James Reilly today (17th October 2013) opened the first National Clinical Effectiveness Symposium in Farmleigh House.
Clinical effectiveness is a fundamental component of building a culture of patient safety and quality in the Irish health system. Of primary importance to achieving clinical effectiveness is the implementation of national clinical guidelines and national clinical audit.
The Chair of the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee, Professor Hilary Humphreys, said “the clinical effectiveness agenda will significantly strengthen the evidence base for clinical care leading to improved outcomes for patients and providing them with reassurance about the quality of their care through evidence based quality assured national clinical guidelines”.
The symposium will identify that through the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee, Ireland as a matter of priority needs to develop a set of national clinical guidelines that are of an international standard of excellence to underpin patient safety and quality in our health system.
The Minister stated “I have mandated that four national clinical guidelines are immediately commissioned and quality assured through the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee as a matter of urgency for the Irish health system. These guidelines are a National Maternity Early Warning Score Guideline, a National Paediatric Early Warning Score Guideline, a National Sepsis Management Guideline and a National Clinical Handover Guideline. The latter two guidelines will ensure the implementation of a number the key patient safety recommendations in the recent HIQA Report into the death of Ms. Savita Halappanavar at University College Hospital Galway”
Delegates will hear that endorsed and published National Clinical Guidelines will inform patients about the care they should be receiving and empower them to make more informed healthcare choices.
Minister Reilly concluded “in a similar manner to how I endorsed the National Early Warning Score Guideline as policy in February this year, I will insist that the implementation of these guidelines is monitored and reported publically on an on-going basis through an agreed accountability framework between the HSE and my department”.
ENDS
Note to Editors:
The National Clinical Effectiveness Committee
1. The National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC) was established as part of the Patient Safety First Initiative in September 2010. The NCECs mission is to provide a framework for national endorsement of clinical guidelines and audit to optimise patient and service user care. The NCEC has a remit to establish and implement processes for the prioritisation and quality assurance of clinical guidelines and clinical audit so as to recommend them to the Minister for Health to become part of a suite of National Clinical Guidelines and National Clinical Audit.
2. The NCEC, chaired by Professor Hilary Humphreys, is made up of key stakeholders including clinicians, patient representatives, the Department of Health, patient safety experts, health managers, regulatory bodies, training and education bodies, insurance and clinical indemnity agencies and private healthcare.
3. The NCEC through the processes of prioritisation and quality assurance of a clinical guideline reach consensus as to whether the clinical guideline has been developed using a quality methodology, is based on evidence and is important for the Irish Healthcare system.
4. Clinical guidelines that meet these criteria are then recommended to the Minister for Health through the CMO for endorsement.
5. Professor Hilary Humphreys is Professor of Clinical Microbiology and Consultant Microbiologist, The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Beaumont Hospital
National Clinical Guidelines
6. National Clinical Guidelines are “systematically developed statements, based on a thorough evaluation of the evidence, to assist practitioner and service users’ decisions about appropriate healthcare for specific clinical circumstances across the entire clinical system”. The implementation of clinical guidelines can improve health outcomes, reduce variation in practice and improve the quality of clinical decisions.
7. The aim of National Clinical Guidelines is to provide guidance and standards for improving the quality, safety and cost effectiveness of healthcare in Ireland. The implementation of these National Clinical Guidelines will support the provision of evidence based and consistent care across Irish healthcare services so that patients, regardless of where they are in the country or the service they attend, will experience the same high quality, safe, evidence based care.
8. The implementation of these National Clinical Guidelines also supports services in meeting HIQA’s National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare and anticipated future licensing requirements.
Information on the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee and National Clinical Guideline is available at: www.patientsafetyfirst.ie