Forwarded message:
>From [log in to unmask] Thu Sep 17 15:57:24 1998
Delivery-Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 15:57:24 +0100
Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 15:54:45 +0100 (BST)
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Subject: A First Class Service: Response of NHS Regional Librarians Group (fwd)
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask] (south thames librarians)
Cc: [log in to unmask]
X-List: [log in to unmask]
X-Unsub: To leave, send text 'leave health-lib-sthames' to
[log in to unmask]
X-List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Sender: [log in to unmask]
Errors-To: [log in to unmask]
Precedence: list
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Dear All,
I thought you might all like to see this sent today from RLG
and LINC Health Panel to the DoH in response to the green paper.
Subject: A First Class Service: Response of NHS Regional Librarians Group
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask] (regional librarians group), [log in to unmask]
Cc: [log in to unmask] (health panel)
Dear A.Burnett
I have pleasure in enclosing the joint response of the NHS Regional Librarians
Group and the LINC Health Panel to "A First Class Service". You should receive
a printed version with covering letters from the two chairs within a few days.
Michael Carmel
A First Class Service
Quality in the new NHS
Response of the NHS Regional Librarians Group
Endorsed by the LINC Health Panel (Library and Information
Co-operation Council)
General
The NHS Regional Librarians Group and LINC Health Panel welcome the
publication of a First Class Service with its emphasis
on clinical and service quality in the delivery of
health care. It demonstrates commitment by
proposing to put in place structures which will ensure a continuing
high profile for quality issues and support the drive for evidence
based healthcare. It has stimulated and informed a wide debate in which the
health care libraries community has participated actively. This paper
represents the consenual response of that community.
Each strand of this quality agenda requires that those concerned
in the delivery of health care have ready access to accurate, reliable
and up-to date information, both scientific and organizational. It
is the role of a modern and effective library and information service
to provide and constantly improve this access using both print and
electronic media.
Our response focuses on the sections concerned with National
Service Frameworks, the proposed National Institute for Clinical
Excellence, clinical governance, and lifelong learning, and we shall
refer to the role of library and information services in underpinning
each of these activities.
National Institute for Clinical Excellence
We welcome the detail here made available on the probable shape,
functions and status of the Institute. To bring together various
nationally funded initiatives in an accountable but independent body
such as a Special Health Authority will offer opportunities to develop
and promote authoritative guidance based on sound scientific and
clinical principles.
The success of NICE will depend principally on the quality of the
initial information input to the process, and on the effective
availability of guidance at the point and time of decision making.
The Institute will need to work essentially by dissemination,
education and persuasion, in which its own scientific credibility will
be its principal asset. Any hint of coercion will be
counter-productive.
The reference in section 2.28 to the importance of a network of
relationships would be strengthened by the inclusion of education and
training networks (basic, postgraduate and continuing) which play a
vital role in disseminating all forms of good practice in health care,
and to the role of library and information networks in
making the NICE output available to all users.
NICE will be highly dependent on the application of information skills
both in the development of its "products" and in their dissemination.
Knowledge management skills will be a core resource and are needed
from the inception of the new body.
We therefore suggest consideration be given to the recruitment of an
information professional (librarian or information scientist) to the
board of the new authority.
National Service Frameworks
We welcome the proposal to issue systematic service frameworks for the
NHS covering key clinical areas, with the inclusion of a statement of
the evidence base, and the educational and information support to
implementation. As with NICE, success will depend in the first place
on the credibility of the Frameworks themselves and therefore on the
quality and completeness of the evidence at the input stage, and in
the second place on their ready availability at the time and place of
decision making by a wide and unpredictable range of users.
Appropriate information handling, collecting and disseminating skills
will be crucial.
"Ownership" of the Frameworks may prove to be an issue in the future,
and it may be appropriate for them to be commissioned by an arms
length governmental body similar to NICE rather than directly by the
Department of Health.
Clinical Governance
We welcome the proposal to introduce a statutory duty on NHS Trusts,
HAs and Primary Care Groups to monitor and report on clinical quality
issues.
Clinical governance structures will help to integrate at the local
level such quality related functions as clinical effectiveness, audit,
evidence based practice, research and development, education, training
and library and information services. These also need to be brought
together at the national and regional levels to ensure compatible
policies and strategies, and to ensure that the disbursement of
national levy funds supports local integration.
Lifelong learning
We welcome the commitment at all levels of government to lifelong
learning and endorse the view that a well educated, motivated and
up-to-date workforce is the foundation of a high quality service.
Access to literature and learning resources through library and
information services is at the heart of all education, and especially
of the open ended, continuing learning agenda of the NHS.
Information technology
The level and quality of IT support services locally in Trusts and
HAs is extremely variable. The increasing potential for electronic
delivery of scientific literature, learning resources and decision
support systems requires that IT be seen as integral to clinical
governance, as well as providing more traditional support to
administrative, financial and quantitative monitoring systems.
We look forward to the forthcoming IM&T Strategy as an opportunity to develop
new and more effective approaches to delivery of information at the point
of need, making particular use of NHSnet and the potential for
developing new knowledge-sets. These will enhance the
value and importance of maintaining a high level of knowledge
management skills locally.
What kind of library and information services
The new Chief Medical Officer* has referred to the need to re-invent
library and information services to meet the needs of clinical
governance. This re-invention has already begun, especially in those
areas of the country with an effective leadership structure for
library and information services. Recent NHS Executive guidelines
[HSG(97)47] have provided a fresh impetus as well as a policy framework
for this effort, which will also be linked locally, regionally and nationally
with the IM&T Strategy.
The issues currently being addressed by library and information
services acrosss the country are:
* multiprofessional use of information
* information skills development for health professionals
* the transition from paper-based to electronic access
* ensuring value for money through co-ordinated provision
* joint working with other sectors (HE, local government)
* improving and applying the evidence base of library and
information services
The NHS regions have a critical role in ensuring progress by
providing:
* strategic direction and leadership
* performance management
* co-ordination of stakeholder policies and local strategies
* continuing professional development of information professionals
* research and innovation.
The Groups:
The NHS Regional Librarians Group comprises all regional library service
directors, co-ordinators and advisers within the NHS, including
representatives from Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The LINC Health Panel, a panel of the Library and Information Co-operation
Council, represents the major providers of health information services
in the NHS, Higher Education, professional associations, local authorities,
and the independent sector, throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland.
MC for the Groups
--
Michael Carmel South Thames Library and Information Service
Director Education Centre
Royal Surrey County Hospital
Guildford
Surrey GU2 5XX
Phone 01483 464082
Fax 01483 455888 e-mail [log in to unmask]
--
Michael Carmel South Thames Library and Information Service
Director Education Centre
Royal Surrey County Hospital
Guildford
Surrey GU2 5XX
Phone 01483 464082
Fax 01483 455888 e-mail [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
