Delivering continued improvements and positive outcomes for patients

The publication of the next stage review report, ‘High Quality Care For All’, led by Lord Darzi, was an important milestone in England's National Health Service (NHS) as it brought into focus the need to improve the quality of care provided to patients. The report emphasised the three strands of quality: patient experience, patient safety and clinical effectiveness and resulted in boards of NHS organisations considering ways of implementing the recommendations. While governance structures and processes go a long way in delivering high-quality care, ensuring continuous improvement and positive outcomes for patients requires far more than structures and processes. This paper will share the author's experience of the journey of delivering high-quality care over time and what the author considers to be fundamental factors that organisations should focus on to get this going, recognising, of course, that it never stops. No doubt, there are people who will argue for more or other factors, but the critical ingredients are collecting and using feedback from users of services and their carers, and having engaged and motivated staff and good leadership that provides direction and the enabling environment for continuous improvement. The reader will gain a better understanding of how service users and their carers can contribute to service improvement and the co-design of services as well as benefits of staff engagement and ways to engage staff, including the role leadership plays in engaging staff, motivating them and setting direction.