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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hospital Authority (HA) Board today (September 27) discussed and endorsed the Consultancy Report on a Review of Clinical Governance in the HA, to be followed by the setting up of an Implementation Group to engage relevant stakeholders to deliberate the report recommendations and formulate improvement actions.
The HA Chairman, Mr Anthony Wu, said, "We are delighted to learn that the consultancy team from Teesside University / England National Health Services (NHS) has commended HA staff as being highly committed, conscientious and diligent."
Mr Wu also noted that the team commended the HA for the progress in ensuring quality systems and patient safety at the forefront of service delivery. "In particular, the framework and many elements of clinical governance were in place in the HA, including incident management, infection control and emergency planning, surgical outcome monitoring, external hospital accreditation, and a well-developed clinical information system."
The external consultancy was engaged by the HA Task Force on Clinical Governance Review (Task Force) in December last year to conduct a third party assessment.
The recommendations identified by the consultancy team are consolidated under seven themes:
(i) Align and promote understanding of clinical governance;
(ii) Strengthen Quality and Safety structure to integrate different elements of clinical governance;
(iii) Enhance the role of professional committees (Co-ordinating and Central Committees) in areas of professional standards and performance management;
(iv) Enhance incident reporting and learning;
(v) Manage service demand and enhance capacity planning;
(vi) Strengthen patient engagement in service planning and evaluation; and
(vii) Enhance performance monitoring and management.
"Modern health care is an extremely complex business with inherent risks. While there is an array of established mechanisms within the HA to enhance clinical governance, it is timely and appropriate to review the current measures with a view to strengthening public confidence in the HA and to promulgate internally the culture of accountability and continuous quality improvement," remarked Mr Wu, who expressed appreciation to members of the Task Force for overseeing the consultancy review.
The Clinical Governance Review Report (English only) has been posted on the HA homepage (www.ha.org.hk) under "Special Reports" in the "Corporate News" section for public viewing.
Ends/Thursday, September 27, 2012
Issued at HKT 20:15
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