Our healthcare system is a high quality, highly reliable and safe system that avoids preventable harm, maximising the things that go right and learning from when things go wrong to prevent them occurring again. People’s health, safety and welfare are actively promoted and protected; risks are identified and monitored and where possible, risks to safety are reduced or prevented. We promote and protect the wellbeing, and safety of children and adults who become vulnerable or at risk at any time. Where children or adults may be experiencing or are at risk of abuse or neglect, we take appropriate, timely action and report concerns.
Our healthcare system ensures people have access to the high-quality advice, guidance and care they need quickly and easily, in the right place, first time. We care for those with the greatest health need first, and where treatment is identified as necessary, we treat people based on their identified and agreed clinical priority.
Our healthcare system ensures decision-making, care and treatment reflects evidence-based best practice, to ensure that people receive the right care to achieve the optimal and possible outcomes that matter to them. We design transformative, evidenced-based, whole-of-life pathways that cover prevention, care and treatment, rehabilitation and embed these into local service delivery.
Our health care system takes a value-based approach to improve outcomes that matter most to people in a way that is as sustainable as possible and avoids waste. We make the most effective use of resources to achieve best value in an efficient way. We only do what is needed and undertake treatments that ensure any interventions represent the best value that will improve outcomes for people.
Our healthcare system provides everyone with an equal opportunity to attain their full potential for a healthy life which does not vary in quality by organisation providing care, location where care is delivered or personal characteristics (such as age, gender, sexual orientation, race, language preference, disability, religion or beliefs, socio-economic status, political affiliation). We embed equality and human rights in our health care system.
Our health care system meets people’s needs and ensures that their preferences, needs and values guide decision-making that is made in partnership between individuals and the workforce. We care about the well-being of individuals, their families, carers and our staff. We ensure that everyone is always treated with kindness, empathy and compassion and we respect their privacy, dignity and human rights. We are committed to working better together to put people and their families at the centre of decisions, seeing them as experts working alongside professionals to get the best outcome and experience.
Our health care system has visible and focused leadership at all levels, with its activities driven by the organisations’ vision and values for quality. Our leaders and managers take a long-term, stakeholder-centric view to develop a clear organisational vision. They have the appropriate skills and capacity to create the conditions for a functioning quality management system. We ensure our governance, leadership and accountability is effective in sustainably delivering care.
Our healthcare system recruits, retains, develops and extends roles to ensure we have enough, confident people with the right knowledge and skills available at the right time to deliver safe care. We value our people and the commitment and resilience they demonstrate in the care they provide. We care about their wellbeing, protect their rights and support them to feel well and happy at work; and provide them with the tools, systems and environment to work safely and effectively. Our workforce planning focuses on investing in our people and nurturing, growing and transforming our workforce to create a sustainable workforce for the future.
Our healthcare system creates the right climate and culture to nurture and encourage quality and system safety, valuing people in a supportive, collaborative and inclusive workplace so that our people feel psychologically safe to raise concerns and try out new ideas and approaches. Relationships within teams and with the people we serve are effective and based on transparency, accountability, ethical behaviour, trust and just culture, where people can thrive.
Our healthcare system ensures information is available and shared appropriately for all who need it. We turn data to knowledge by triangulating quantitative and qualitative performance, experience and outcome measures to understand the quality of services, efficacy of improvement work and impact of decisions made. We monitor, report and escalate indicators through our governance structures to ensure that appropriate action is taken at every level in terms of learning, improvement and accountability.
Our healthcare system creates the conditions and capacity for an organisation and system-wide approach to continuous learning, quality improvement and innovation, which it actively promotes. We use new knowledge to influence improvements in practice and to inform our decision-making. We ensure our learning and improvement activity is linked to our strategic vision to deliver transformational, organisation-wide change. We commit to participating in research because research-active organisations provide improved quality of care and outcomes for people.
Our healthcare system ensures safety in healthcare goes beyond individual patient safety. We will look within and beyond our organisational boundaries to learn how we can continually, reliably and sustainably meet the evolving needs of people. We will strengthen relationships and work with all of our partners to achieve good outcomes. Our policies incorporate the broader ambitions within the seven well-being goals and five ways of working in the Well-being of Future Generations Act.