University news

A new patient tool, developed by a Glasgow academic, for measuring standards in care has been launched today as part a blueprint for improving the quality of care people receive from the NHS by Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon.

The CARE measure has been developed by Professor Stewart Mercer, of the university's department of General Practice and Primary Care, and is an approach which will now be considered for wider use throughout the NHS.

The Quality Strategy recognises that the patient's experience of the NHS is about more than being treated quickly.

Now the quality of care provided by the NHS will be measured through the experience of patients and the information will be used to drive up standards.

Patients will be encouraged to be partners in their own care and can expect to experience improvements in the things patients have said they want from their health service. These are: Caring and compassionate treatment Clear communication and explanation Effective collaboration with the clinician Clean and safe care environment Continuity of care Clinical excellence

The work of the Patient Safety Programme and the Healthcare Associated Infection taskforce will also be integrated into the Quality Strategy.

Over the coming months, all NHS boards will be expected to identify steps they can take to improve the quality of care they give.

The strategy was announced this morning at Drumchapel Health Centre in Glasgow, in a GP practice which actively involves patients in improving standards of care. The practice uses the CARE measure, a patient questionnaire used to gather patients' views and improve the quality of service it provides. It also has a patients' representative group which meets regularly.

Ms Sturgeon said: "The Quality Strategy will give the people of Scotland a new confidence in their NHS. Getting treated quickly is important, but the patient's experience of their care and the outcome of the treatment they get is equally important. This is what the Quality Strategy recognises.

"We have always had some genuinely excellent care in the NHS. This strategy aims to ensure that this is provided to every person, every time. Patients may ask why this isn't happening already. What I would say to them is that it is happening, but it needs to happen more reliably and consistently.

"For patients, the Quality Strategy means increasing dignity, being given the opportunity to be partners in their own care, the right to expect clean wards and decent food when you are in hospital. It also means that if a patient has an experience they do not feel was satisfactory, they will be able to make this known and they will see that it is being addressed.

For staff, it gives them the opportunity to do the things that matter to them - provide care which is empathetic, compassionate and clinically excellent."

CARE stands for Consultation and Relational Empathy and is a questionnaire used to measure communication and empathy during a consultation with a health professional.

Prof Mercer added: "Today's launch is an exciting moment for those of us who have been researching empathic, patient-centred approaches in healthcare. The CARE Measure has been developed and validated in both deprived areas and less deprived areas of Scotland, and has been in use with GPs as part of appraisal for several years.

"My hope is that the measure will now be used more widely and more routinely in the NHS in Scotland, so that standardised feedback becomes possible. However, this must be done in a sensitive and helpful way; as  a way of encouraging and supporting practitioners. The worst thing that could happen would be to turn the CARE Measure into some sort of 'league-table'."

The CARE measure asks ten questions which a patient is asked to fill in after their appointment.

Questions include: "How was the doctor / nurse at really listening?" The answers have been designed using patients' own words.

Completed questionnaires are fed back to staff to help encourage consideration of their skills in empathising with patients, which can lead to improvement in the quality of service provided.

The measure was developed with funding from the Chief Scientist Office and is free of charge.

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For more media information please contact Eleanor Cowie, Media Relations Officer at the University of Glasgow, 0141 330 3683 or e.cowie@admin.gla.ac.uk

First published: 8 February 2010