Training & Education QHA Trent | Sheffield,
the home of QHA Trent
Independent accreditation can help ensure healthcare providers are genuinely fit for purpose and standards are maintained at home and around the world, says QHA Trent’s Professor Stephen Green
Maintaining standards H
ealthcare has a long history of international collaboration and assistance. It is in everyone’s
interests for health standards to be maintained across the globe and while international patients can come to the UK to receive top quality health care, this is not financially viable for all. It is therefore important that the standards of medical and ethical practice in local facilities around the world are kept at an appropriate level. Independent accreditation can help ensure that a “UK standard of care” is brought to the people around the world and enable people to be confident that the healthcare provider they are using is genuinely capable of dealing with their requirements. In the USA the system of healthcare
accreditation is currently much more recognisable than it is in the UK. With the majority of health providers working privately, patients and purchasers of healthcare services (e.g. insurance companies) in the USA require a stamp of approval from a genuinely independent accreditation organisation to confirm that their care will be of a high and recognisable standard. QHA Trent is a UK based organisation
that delivers this type of accreditation service to international health providers. It uses British-based standards and medical expertise to assist and engage with organisations worldwide that are seeking approval as a mark of standard and as a way of improving their
150 Global Opportunity Healthcare 2015 | Issue 01
own service. It aspires to be a completely independent and impartial company that seeks to establish whether healthcare provider establishments are genuinely safe and fit for purpose. In the UK, a somewhat similar
service to accreditation is provided by a regulatory quango, the Care Quality Commission or CQC, which like the NHS is run by departments of the British Government. So there also exists room for independent healthcare accreditation companies to exist in the UK, providing another level of reassurance to international patients and third party payers (e.g. insurance companies) who are used to checking for such accreditation. “If, for example, you were working for
a British embassy or an oil exploration company in West Africa and were having a baby, would your wife or partner have to fly back to the UK to best ensure a safe birth? Or could you do it safely there and if so, how would you know where you could do it safely?” explains Professor Green. “It can be extremely difficult for a person or organisation to assess objectively whether a healthcare provider is truly fit for purpose without some sort of yardstick , so in doing what we do we are trying to help raise standards of healthcare provision around the world. Once accredited, this is an indicator that a hospital or clinic is of a suitable level.” QHA Trent currently has a
roster of around 50 volunteer surveyors who receive training and are sent abroad, most often during their own annual or study leave (or after retirement), to hospitals and clinics that have requested validation. The company has a policy of charging relatively nominal fees to cover costs, aiming to provide assistance for the many hospitals and clinics that do not have large budgets. “Medicine is one big universal family
and we really do favour a collaborative approach between us and hospitals and clinics,” Professor Green says. “The surveyors benefit from new horizons as much as the hospitals and clinics do. We want to encourage the latter to be more adaptable and receptive to change, and to function ethically. We take a very hands-on approach, first looking at what they seek to do then offering advice. It is all about hospitals and clinics trying to be safer, ethical and more self-aware of what is going on in their organisation and beyond.” The ISQua-approved standards
hospitals and clinics are referenced against multiple reputable British sources such as publications produced by the Royal Colleges, the UK’s Departments of Health and the Care Quality Commission, as well as universities, professional societies and scientific literature.
Further information
www.qha-trent.co.uk
global-opportunity.co.uk
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QHA Trent
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