Resources

Clinical governance might be considered as being about “how we control, regulate direct or oversee the assessment and management of a person’s health to support optimal outcomes”, where outcomes encompass the person’s “experience of care”.  In the context of palliation, while we cannot alter the outcome, we can certainly aim to enhance a person’s end-of-life experience.

Robust clinical trials drive learning, innovation and hence continuous improvement in evidence-based care.  Not only do clinical trials promote good clinical governance in this way, but good clinical governance must underpin clinical trials. 

Prof Andrew Wilson walks us through and reflects on some of the clinical governance challenges that emerged and were observed during peak COVID times. What areas were impacted, is there an indication of recovery, and what does it mean for the future of clinical governance? 

The term ‘clinical governance’ was first coined in the context of the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom, being ‘a system through which NHS organisations are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence in clinical care will flourish.'

Unlike clinical governance, there is no national framework for social care governance in Australia, nor definition. The Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE) of the UK (Northern Ireland) has described the requirements of social care governance as follows (emphasis added): 

The Victorian Clinical Governance Framework (VCGF) developed by Safer Care Victoria (as a result of recommendations made in ‘Targeting Zero’) has been a well-adopted state-based clinical governance framework. A recent review by the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) of four state health services against the Victorian Clinical Governance Framework offers a useful illustration in assessing the extent to which frameworks align - noting that whilst Victorian health services must have individual clinical governance frameworks suited to their local needs, these must also comply with the VCGF.

What do we mean by a clinical governance framework? What should a clinical governance framework do?

One way we can learn from failings is by drawing parallels and considering how lessons of others might apply to your organisation. A vast amount of work has been done around clinical governance in recent years (particularly in Victoria), from which all organisations can continue to benefit regardless of jurisdiction or sector, through a process of analysis and extrapolation.

In this webinar recording, A/Prof Debora Picone, CEO at Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare, paints a holistic picture of clinical governance across all sectors and explains why Standard 1 is so important. She discusses the cross-sector health and care workforce in the context of clinical governance, highlights the learnings of the review of Standard 1 and provides her key takeaways for health and care workers to pursue safe and quality care.

Clinical governance (the concept of which emerged in the 1990s in the context of health care) has traditionally attracted less attention in the care of people living with a disability, with a noticeable dearth of research specific to this sector. Such oversight has been highlighted in the recent draft report by the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission), which inquired into the Federal Government's approach to the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to disability care residents and workers.