Up until recently, quality improvement in General Practice has been hard work.  Doing big projects and big clinical audits on top of QoF, LES’s, DES’s, Appraisal, GP Training and so on, has made it feel overwhelming and quite frankly HARD WORK!!!   This is because for far too long, the NHS has been too concerned with QUALITY ASSURANCE rather than QUALITY IMPROVEMENT.   Quality Assurance is proving to others that we’re doing a good enough job – and that’s why it feels horrible – we’re proving to others that we are meeting criteria and there’s not much in it for us!   And it’s far too focused on meeting a set of standards defined by someone else rather than just trying to move to a better place than we currently are.   Quality Improvement is more focused on this movement to a better place.  It’s about accepting that we’re not always great, not beating ourselves up about it but actually working towards this better place.  And unlike Quality Assurance, it is a process that doesn’t just happen every now and then, but something that happens in small incremental steps continuously.   As a result, it feels far less overwhelming, far more achievable, far more likely to improve the quality of care we provide as time goes by and far ultimately far more satisfying. 

Isn’t that what you’d like to be a part of?

If you’re still feeling a tad overwhelmed at this stage, it’s probably because all you have ever know is the Quality Assurance model and all the bits and bobs that go with it that cause us all headache.    So, these Bradford VTS pages and the RCGP’s QI Ready Online Toolkit (see below) are provided to help you understand the Knowledge, the Skills and the Attitudes necessary for Quality Improvement.   And when you have that under your belt, you will feel well-equipped to engage!  And if we train GP trainees up for it during their training, then it will them in a positive position to want to continue to engage when they qualify.   Well – we hope so!