A Quality Alert is a systemic issue, generally affecting a service, or the ability to deliver a high-quality service. In our context, this normally refers to external services such as community services or secondary care.
Why are Quality Alerts Important?
Quality alerts (QA) help improve our awareness of any problems in the practice. Being aware of issues helps us improve our quality of care, efficiency and organisation. We are always looking to improve all aspects of our practice in order to give the best possible care to our patients.
It is the responsibility of all staff to raise any concerns in the workplace regarding the quality of services
The Integrated Care Board (ICB)
- The ICB has a statutory duty to support the NHS with the continuous quality improvement of primary medical services
- Their Quality Team triages QAs and incidents reported by GPs/Provider organisations
- A Reverse Quality Alert (RQA) is an issue or incident occurring between a GP Practice or other provider (e.g., hospital trust) which can primarily impact the respective ICB’s services/patients
- These are raised with the ICB’s Quality, Governance & Patient Safety Team.
For the ICB to triage quality alerts and incidents reported by GPs and providers, the ICB quality team may require the relevant individual’s NHS number to investigate the quality alert or incident.
Raising an Alert
Quality Alerts should be submitted to the ICB through the form here:
https://selciscs.gateway.prod-uk.datixcloudiq.co.uk/capture/?form_id=2&module=INC
If the form isn’t working you can flag a quality alert by emailing the following information to the email address below:
📧 qualityalerts@selondonics.nhs.uk
The following information is needed:
- Name of the hospital, clinic, NHS Trust, Organisation or GP Practice
- The main issue(s)
- If the alert is regarding a patient, an NHS number is ONLY required (patient identifiable data is not required, but may be requested only if there is no other option)
Once a QA is received, a reference number will be provided and used in all correspondence subject headings.
References:
- To read more about The ICB statutory duty please refer to the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and the Primary Medical Services assurance framework