DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release issued by The Government News Network on 23 October 2007
High Level Group
on Clinical Effectiveness sets out recommendations to improve
patient care
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Professor Sir John Tooke
today launched recommendations on how the NHS can ensure that more
patients receive the most effective treatments.
By better harnessing the expertise of medical staff and relevant
bodies the NHS will be able to enhance and incentivise more
effective and efficient clinical care.
These recommendations come from the Report of the High Level
Group on Clinical Effectiveness, which the CMO asked Professor Sir
John Tooke to set up following on from his 2005 report Waste not
Want Not.
Sir John and the group found that there is no single solution to
address the issue of clinical effectiveness but that national
co-ordination of activity and support for sharing of activity and
information at local level are both vital.
The group has made recommendations for action and these have been
accepted by the CMO on behalf of the Department of Health. They include:
- Alignment of national activities and support - We will take
this forward through the new Health Innovation Council which Lord
Darzi announced in his interim report on Our NHS, Our Future. NICE
and NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement will be members
of the Council and are already committed to working for better
integration of workstreams and more joined up work.
- Promoting local ownership - The Health Innovation Council has a
key role to play in providing leadership to encourage innovation
at a local level as well as local clinical and management ownership.
- Ensuring clinical engagement - Sir John Tooke has already taken
this up with a range of relevant bodies such as the Medical
Schools Council and the GMC.
- Harnessing the capacities of academia -DH is calling for
proposals to pilot Academic Health Centres for the Future, which
will ensure better working partnerships between Universities and
the NHS to better translate research into practice.
- The research agenda - Professor Martin Eccles will chair a
small expert group to define the research agenda and inform the
NHS R&D Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO)'s
commissioning considerations.
Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer said:
"Improving the outcomes for patients and maximising the use
of NHS resources is a key issue. That is why I focused in my 2005
annual report on the issue of variation in clinical practice.
"I am very grateful to Professor Sir John Tooke and his
colleagues for their report and recommendations which responds to
the issues I raised in my Annual Report. These show how complex
this issue is and suggest a practical and sensible approach to
addressing it.
"I am pleased to accept the recommendations and that we will
be able to take this agenda forward through the next phase of the
NHS Next Stage Review, being led by Lord Darzi, and the Academic
Health Centres of the Future. Clinical staff want to do the best
for patients and we will provide the leadership and support they
need to improve quality and outcomes for patients."
Professor Sir John Tooke said:
"Access to clinically effective care is the cornerstone of a
high quality NHS. I was therefore delighted to be invited to chair
the High Level Group on Clinical Effectiveness to explore ways in
which more effective and efficient healthcare could be achieved
for the benefit of patients. We discovered a plethora of valuable
activity but also the need for greater co-ordination and alignment
as well as local clinical engagement. The educational demands are
profound and it is crucial that the measures employed to promote
clinical effectiveness are as grounded in evidence as treatments themselves.
"I am very pleased that Sir Liam has accepted our
recommendations and that the Department of Health is committed to
taking forward the co-ordinating function through the new Health
Innovation Council. I am also delighted that our recommendation
for a new model of community-wide 'academic health
centres' to drive evidence into practice has been accepted.
"I am very grateful to the experts on the Group and the many
professional bodies and other stakeholders that contributed to
this important agenda."
"Improving the quality of care, including its effectiveness,
is the central aim of the NHS Next Stage Review, being led by Lord
Darzi. The findings and recommendations in this report will now
feed into the next phase of the Review which will culminate in the
publication of the Final Report in June 2008.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
1. A full copy of the report is available at: http://www.dh.gsi.gov.uk
2. The Department of Health is announcing a call for proposals to
pilot 'National Institute for Health Research Academic Health
Centres of the Future'. These will bring together academia
and the NHS across the health community covered by the Centre.
These will develop innovative models for conducting research and
also translating research into practice and improving outcomes for
patients. Funding of up to £50 million will be available for the
pilot phase with each Centre getting between £5 -10 million over
the funding period.
[ENDS]