Quality Improvement

Quality improvement (QI) is at the heart of our service delivery, postgraduate training, undergraduate education, and continuing professional development. As a department, we have realised that although individual audit is valuable, the benefits to our wider service delivery and patient care can better be achieved by using a collaborative approach.

In addition audit, to date, has not delivered on expectations; it hasn’t closed the loop and has been ineffective in providing sustained change in behaviours. Having that in mind, a departmental QI group has recently been formed with the aim of encouraging a departmental team approach to QI projects, highlighting and driving the QI agenda, and encouraging teaching, training and continuing professional development in quality improvement.

There are well-established links between the group and local and national patient safety initiative, critical incident reporting, audit activities, and service development. Our trainees are also taking their first steps towards forming a well-structured trainees’ network for undertaking audit, research and QI projects. The QI lead for the department is also the Quality Audit and Research Coordinator (QuARC) providing a link with the national institute of academic anaesthesia health services research centre for national audits, quality improvement projects, multicentre research and other academic issues.