Clinical governance in primary care: early impressions based on Bradford South and West Primary Care Group's experience

Author: Walsh Matthew J   Small Neil  

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd

ISSN: 1466-4100

Source: British Journal of Clinical Governance, Vol.6, Iss.2, 2001-06, pp. : 109-118

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Abstract

The experience of implementing clinical governance in Bradford South and West Primary Care Group illustrates how an emphasis on cultural change rather than on target setting, scrutiny and enforcement is both more consistent with the primary care context and more likely to create lasting improvements. The emerging focus on governance is reviewed and its implementation in one PCG via baseline assessment, strategic planning and innovative practice is presented. Linking clinical governance with a reduction in medical autonomy, as some commentators have done, does not allow for the complexity of power and responsibility characteristic of primary care. Alternative analytic models that draw on organizational theory and on sociology are offered.

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