In the health arena, the new legislation places reciprocal obligations on the WAO to co-operate with the Assembly, the Audit Commission (in England) and the Healthcare Commission (the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection). In Wales a Health Concordat has recently been agreed between external review bodies inspecting, regulating, and auditing health and social care in Wales to support the improvement of services for patients, service users and carers and to eliminate any unnecessary burdens of external review. Click here for the Concordat and here for the accompanying letter. In partnership with the Healthcare Commission the Wales Audit Office deliver the Acute Hospital Portfolio which is a developing reference for practitioners and policy makers on aspects of secondary care in Wales.
Acute Hospital Portfolio
The Acute Hospital Portfolio is a performance improvement tool for NHS trusts in Wales covering issues from A&E departments and Ward Staffing, to Pathology Services and Medicines Management.
Each year between three and four topics are added to the Portfolio or revisited to measure progress. A ‘balanced scorecard’ performance framework is developed for each topic then .data is then collected from all trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or taken from existing national resources, where possible).
The Wales Audit Office auditors then provide each trust in Wales with tailored performance assessment based on a comparison of national data. This analysis takes into account the local circumstances of an individual trust.
Data collection for phase 5 of the portfolio, which covers Accident and Emergency, Day Surgery and Ward Staffing, is now complete.
|
