Out of Hours Clinical Audit Toolkit
Being ill in the middle of night can be a frightening
experience for patients. Patients expect a responsive
service that will establish a prompt and accurate diagnosis. The
quality and safety of care out of hours is therefore all important.
Providers need tools to monitor clinical outcomes to ensure
compliance with the National Quality Requirements in the
Delivery of Out of Hours Services published by the Department
of Health in October 2004.
The Department of Health and the Royal
College of General Practitioners are aware that standards must be
met to ensure a high quality and safe service for the
public. With this in mind this Out of Hours Audit Toolkit
has been produced to monitor and improve out of hours services.
This is an independent toolkit, and standards have been developed
by experienced clinicians who have first hand knowledge of
commissioning and providing out of hours services.
The RCGP was commissioned by the DH in 2007 to
develop this toolkit to support Out of Hours (OOH) service
providers in delivering effective clinical audit, complying with
OOH quality requirement four. The toolkit lays out a series
of steps, allowing service providers to improve the quality of
their service. This project was led by Dr Agnelo Fernandes,
the RCGP Clinical Champion for Urgent and Emergency Care.
About the Author
Dr Agnelo Fernandes is Clinical Champion for Urgent and
Emergency Care. More information on Dr Fernandes, and
other achievements he has made in his time as Clinical
Champion, can be found on his Clinical Champion profile page.
circ@rcgp.org.uk
0203 170 8231