The Royal College of Physicians supports its fellows and members, and the organisations and teams in which they work, to improve the quality of clinical care they deliver to patients. We work collaboratively with fellows and members, specialist societies, the NHS and related bodies, and patient groups to improve the standards of patient care through the setting, monitoring and implementation of clinical standards.
The RCP is engaged with an extensive programme of national comparative audit and to develop standards and tools in collaboration with our partners. The following are the particular areas in which we seek to improve clinical quality.
We seek to improve the quality of care delivered to patients in the National Health Service, concentrating on ensuring best practice and evidence-based approaches to care.
The RCP develops standards for recording and communicating information about patients and supporting the introduction of the electronic patient record.
We carry out national organisational and clinical audits in order to raise the profile of health and work in the national quality agenda and we develop evidence-based guidelines, as well as engagement activities such as conferences and workshops.
The NCGC develops clinical guidelines on behalf of the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) to describe care for long term conditions delivered across primary and secondary care.
The RCP has been taking an integral role in defining the process of revalidation, or professional appraisal and assessment for Doctors, including presenting a timeline and producing tools and pilot schemes.