Royal Devon and Exeter Healthcare NHS Trust, NHS Hospitals and hospices work continuously to improve quality services and minimise errors.
The NHS ensures that services are driven by a cycle of continuous quality improvement. Quality is not just restricted to the clinical aspects of care, in wards or as hospital out-patients, but also includes quality of life and the entire patient experience. NHS healthcare organisations and professionals establish ways to identify procedures that can be modified or abandoned and new practices that lead to improved patient care. All those providing care work to minimise errors and make it ever safer, and support a culture where they can learn from and effectively reduce mistakes. The NHS continuously improves its efficiency, productivity and performance.
The NHS works together with others to ensure a seamless service for patients. The health and social care system is shaped around the needs of the patient, not the other way round. The NHS develop partnerships and co-operation at all levels of care – between patients, their carers and families and the NHS hospitals and NHS staff; between the health and social care sector; between different Government departments; between the public sector, voluntary organisations and private providers in the provision of NHS services – to ensure a patient-centred service.
