NHS quality accounts
From April to June each year we consider and comment on the draft quality accounts for our local NHS providers.
What is a quality account?
A quality account is a report about the quality of services by an NHS healthcare provider. The reports are published by 30 June by each provider including those from the independent sector. They are available to the public on the NHS website
Providers are required to ask for comments on their draft quality accounts from NHS England or relevant clinical commissioning groups, Overview and scrutiny committees and local Healthwatch. Comments received from these stakeholders must be included in the final published quality accounts.
Change to quality account requirements for 2019/20
The Quality Account Amendment Regulations removed normal deadlines because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Providers of NHS services are now being encouraged to work to a new deadline of 15 December 2020 for the publication of their 2019/20 quality accounts. Stakeholders (including Healthwatch) will be given the opportunity to comment on draft quality accounts in the normal way, with draft quality accounts being shared with Healthwatch by 15 October 2020.
Read more about the requirements for Quality Accounts 2019/20
How are Healthwatch involved?
By 30 April each year local NHS providers should share a draft quality account with Healthwatch. They will usually ask for a response within one month of sharing the draft quality account. We will add our responses to this page.
Local Healthwatch should consider:
- Does the draft quality account reflect people’s real experiences as told to local Healthwatch by service users and their families and carers over the past year?
- From what people have told local Healthwatch, is there evidence that any of the basic things are not being one well by the provider?
- Is it clear from the draft quality account that there is a learning culture within the provider organisation that allows people’s real experiences to be captured and used to enable the provider to get better at what it does year on year?
- Are the priorities for improvement as set out in the draft quality account challenging enough to drive improvement? Is clear how improvement has been measured in the past and how it will be measured in the future?
Read the latest quality accounts for local NHS trusts:
Go to quality accounts for Northumbria NHS Trust
Go to quality accounts for Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust