Clinical Governance in the NHS

A practical guide to how the NHS keeps care safe and keeps improving it — and what that means for you as a doctor. Covers the seven pillars, incident reporting and the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), Never Events, duty of candour, risk management, clinical audit and NICE guidance, complaints, raising concerns, appraisal and revalidation, information governance and the Caldicott Principles, CQC, and how to show governance experience in a CV and at interview.

What you'll learn

• Define clinical governance and name its seven pillars
• Explain why the NHS built governance systems after Bristol, Shipman and Mid Staffordshire
• Report a patient safety incident and describe how PSIRF learning responses work
• Apply the duty of candour when something has gone wrong
• Link clinical audit, NICE guidance and risk registers to safer care
• Handle complaints, raise concerns and take part in appraisal and revalidation
• Follow the Caldicott Principles and UK data protection rules day to day
• Describe your governance experience clearly in applications and interviews

Course outline

1. What clinical governance is and why it exists
2. Patient safety: incidents, learning and candour
3. Effectiveness: audit, guidelines and risk
4. Patients, staff and professional standards
5. Information governance and regulation
6. Governance in your career