Services Requiring Significant Improvement

One of the key priorities set out within our strategy is Taking Action That Matters;  we will take action to improve the quality and safety of healthcare for the future of Wales. The Service of Concern process, established under our previous strategy, supports this priority by improving transparency and providing clear assurance to the public about the quality and safety of NHS healthcare services.

We will use this Service of Concern process when it identifies significant singular service failures, or cumulative or systemic concerns regarding a service or setting. Our escalation and enforcement process for independent healthcare currently utilises such a process.

This process will allow us to identify and highlight any ‘Service Requiring Significant Improvement’, increasing transparency around how we discharge our role, and ensuring that focused and rapid action can be taken by a range of stakeholders, including health boards, to ensure that safe and effective care is being provided.

Our intention in introducing this process, is to support improvement and learning, both for the service in question, and across NHS services more broadly.

The Service of Concern process and subsequent ‘Service Requiring Significant Improvement’ designation is distinct and separate to the NHS Escalation and Intervention arrangements. However, this process will inform our view and contribution to the discussions on overall status of NHS bodies.

If a ‘Service Requiring Significant Improvement’ is identified, we will communicate this on our website, alongside the reasons for this determination, in addition to any report that relates to an inspection or review of a health board/trust.