NHS South Gloucestershire is responsible for buying or commissioning healthcare for the population of South Gloucestershire and we must ensure that the healthcare residents receive is of a high standard.

One of our aims as an organisation is to Improving the experience of local patients when they use health by making sure that health services are provided promptly, safely and effectively.

NHS South Gloucestershire ensures the quality of healthcare services by monitoring the quality of care and by building quality measures into our contracts with healthcare providers. Each year the annual health check rates the quality of care commissioned by NHS South Gloucestershire.

 Vital signs

Key aspects of the delivery of NHS primary care are measured to “vital signs” metrics to help PCTs monitor the contracts they have commissioned.

Annual health check

The annual health check rates the quality of care commissioned by NHS South Gloucestershire. During 2008/09 we scored “good” for the quality of our services.

The annual health check conducted by the Healthcare Commission provides a comprehensive assessment of the performance of the NHS and every one of the country’s 391 NHS organisations is involved. Each organisation receives two ratings on a four-point scale of ‘excellent’, ‘good’, ‘fair’ or ‘weak’.

The good score for quality of services reflects our work to improve the health of those living in our area, reduce health inequalities, develop more primary and community based services and ensure that health services are provided promptly, safely and effectively.

Monitoring and ensuring quality

Good quality must run through all of our work. We know from feedback that patients want high quality care and we want to ensure good value for the public money we spend.

Healthcare acquired infections are something that patients worry about and in response we monitor good practice and rates of infection closely. We work with neighbouring PCTs to monitor local hospital trusts to ensure they comply with the hygiene code and meet national and local targets for reducing healthcare acquired infections. Trusts’ and PCTs’ compliance with the hygiene code now forms part of their registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide NHS services and therefore is central to their ongoing viability. 

We also closely monitor the infection control practices of other independent providers and consider this and other quality and safety measures when we commission services. Our contracts with some acute providers penalise them if they do not reduce hospital acquired infections in line with national and local targets and also reward them if they reduce infections beyond these requirements.

NHS South Gloucestershire is the lead commissioner for Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and takes a lead role in monitoring the quality and safety of the care the trust provides, its performance and the quality of patients’ experiences. As lead commissioner, we monitor patient safety by monitoring unexpected events to ensure that robust investigations occur, lessons are learnt and shared and appropriate measures are put in place. 

Commissioning for quality

As the organisation responsible for buying or commissioning healthcare for the population of South Gloucestershire, we are building quality measures into our contracts with healthcare providers.

Here in South Gloucestershire we have identified a range of measures that address safety of services, effectiveness and patients’ experiences. Each of these is written into our contracts. These range from reducing hospital acquired infections, improving communication between primary and secondary care, improving access to smoking cessation services, improving access to brain imaging for stroke patients, improving disability monitoring and improving feedback from patients.

Vital signs 2011

Vital signs 2010

NHS South Gloucestershire Community Health Services

NHS South Gloucestershire Community Health Services is the main provider of community health services in South Gloucestershire, with 515 staff (approximately 400 whole time equivalents).  The organisation delivers a comprehensive range of high quality, responsive and flexible services in partnership with a number of health, social care and third sector organisations.

NHS SGCHS Quality Account 2011