Consultation on quality standards for stroke and dementia

The first drafts of the NICE quality standards for dementia and stroke are now available for consultation and the RCSLT would value your comments.

Comments are welcome on the first draft quality standards for dementia and stroke care in order to test whether the draft quality standards capture the essence of a high quality service for stroke and dementia. 

Do the statements reflect key areas of the care pathway, are important to the service and patients, are feasible to implement and act as markers of high quality care.

The draft quality standards contain the maximum number of statements. We are keen to hear your views on the optimal number of statements in a quality standard and the best combination of those statements and measures, that when used together represent the ambitions of service providers, patients and commissioners to drive up improvement.

1. Dementia quality standard for consultation

2. Stroke quality standard for consultation

ACTION
General points to consider in each consultation • Clarity of concept and definition of the quality standard • the appropriateness of the statements of quality • their unambiguous description •  their measurable qualities and • the ease of data collection.

In particular NICE are keen to seek your views on:

• Issues of style and format; for example, stakeholders may feel that the information could be made more readable and easy to follow.
• Whether the statement of quality adequately cover the 3 dimensions of quality: safety, effectiveness and experience.
• Any essential aspects of the care pathway not addressed by the quality standard
• Any new evidence or relevant research not considered by the topic expert group that may impact upon the content of the quality standard •  The appropriateness and accuracy of the qualitative statements and quantitative measures.
• The levels of attainment that a high quality service could reasonably be expected to achieve for each of the statements (we have assumed a 100% achievement level).
• The utility of any existing indicators signposted within the quality standard and any gaps in the measures included.
• The suitability of the explanation of what the statements mean for individual audiences.
• Whether the quality standards could be changed to better promote equity of access to high quality services relating to age, disability, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation or socio-economic status. In answering this question, please include details of:

                     •  which particular parts of the quality standards you think affect equity of access
                     •  why and how you think equity of access is affected

RCSLT dementia consultation proforma

RCSLT stroke consultation proforma

Please send your comments in the attached comments form to Policy Officer Claire Moser.  The closing date for comments is 08 January 2009.