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Teesside University and NHS partners provide Hong Kong consultancy

08 August 2012

 

A Teesside University academic’s book played a pivotal role in the University being invited to provide consultancy to the Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HKHA).

A senior representative of the HKHA approached Teesside University academic Professor Rob McSherry to raise the subject of the University tendering to provide consultancy, after reading Clinical Governance: A guide to Implementation for Healthcare Professionals, a book by Professor McSherry and Paddy Pearce.

The HKHA has a workforce of over 60,000 staff, manages 41 public hospitals and institutions, along with 49 specialist out-patient clinics and 74 general out-patient clinics across seven clusters. Overall, HKHA has 27,000 hospital beds, with around 1.4m in-patients/day patients per year.

The tender contained a detailed technical proposal between the University’s School of Health & Social Care and senior NHS colleagues. Selection for the work also included a number of Skype interviews, including one with the HKHA Clinical Governance Review Task Force.

As part of the successful tender to provide the consultancy, Teesside University is also undertaking an Independent Clinical Governance Review of the HKHA. Professor McSherry explained that clinical governance is about patients and carers receiving the right care at the right time from the right person in a safe, honest, open and caring environment.

The Independent Clinical Governance Review commenced in April this year with the establishment of a Clinical Governance Review Team comprising:

Professor Robert McSherry, National Teaching Fellow and Professor of Nursing and Practice Development, School of Health & Social Care at Teesside University

Professor Aidan Mullan, former Executive Director of Nursing and Patient Safety for the North East Strategic Health Authority and now a University member of staff

Jenny Kell, Principal Lecturer Service Improvement, School of Health & Social Care at Teesside University

Paddy Pearce, Health Care Governance Consultant and former Assistant Director of Governance National Health Service North Yorkshire and York Healthcare Governance Consultant , PKP Consulting

Chris Stanbury Executive Director of Nursing and Governance, Tees, Esk, and Wear Valleys National Health Service Foundation Trust

Laura Robson former Director of Nursing, County Durham and Darlington National Health Service Foundation Trust

Dr Mike Laker former Medical Director, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust and Medical Advisor, NHS North East Strategic Health Authority.

The team was involved in a ten day visit to Hong Kong earlier this year, where they conducted a documentary review of policies/documentation, set up one-one interviews and focus group interviews of executives, senior managers and front-line staff – from clinical and non- clinical including users representatives - in hospitals from the ‘boards to the wards’. An online clinical governance awareness questionnaire was made available for completion by all staff working in the seven cluster hospitals and observation visits were undertaken at seven hospitals representing the clusters.

Following the review the team provided the HKHA with a detailed report highlighting areas of commendation and those requiring improvement.

Three review team members revisited HKHA this summer to provide briefing sessions to staff across the hospitals within the seven clusters and to present the findings to the HKHA board. A final visit is scheduled for September 2012 to finalise the sharing and learning from the review.

Professor McSherry has written a number of books, including the third edition (2011) on clinical governance, based on his close involvement in practice through secondments to work with the NE Strategic Health Authority and the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.

He said: 'This is a significant personal achievement for Paddy Pearce and I, as seeing your work becoming internationally recognised and having the potential to influence national policy and practice after years of investment in scholarly activity, research and teaching and learning is truly rewarding.

'Furthermore, for Teesside University and the School of Health & Social Care, achieving international recognition and the opportunity to develop new and exciting partnerships reaffirms our widening excellence in teaching, learning and research appeal.'

Professor Paul Keane, OBE, Dean of the University’s School of Health & Social Care, who also led with some of the members of the review team on the tender submission, said: 'This is an excellent achievement which recognises Professor’s McSherry’s work and the outstanding reputation we have with regard to the partnership between service and education in this area. It will also provide a great opportunity to learn and share good practices on health care delivery.'

Laura Robson former Director of Nursing, County Durham and Darlington National Health Service Foundation Trust said: 'It has been an incredible experience and a privilege to work with the team from the University in Hong Kong. Winning the tender against international competition was an excellent achievement. While the culture is very different, the challenges to provide excellence in health care are very similar to those in the UK. The team from the University were able to provide an independent assessment and expert advice to the hospital authority in Hong Kong, assisting them to improve care through robust systems of clinical governance.'


 
 
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