Care quality: are we getting better?

While there are some areas of improvement, such as lower rates of hospital-acquired infections, increasing levels of avoidable emergency admissions and poor outcomes for patients with dementia continue to present challenges.

The first annual assessment of the quality of care in England as part of a new research programme, QualityWatch,1 has found the quality of care delivered to NHS patients and service users in England has improved in many key areas over the past decade; however, concerns have been raised over urgent care and the prevention of emergency admissions, as well as continuing challenges in health inequalities.

A five-year collaboration project between independent health research organisation the Nuffield Trust and healthcare improvement charity the Health Foundation, aims to assess whether the quality of Government funded health and social care services is improving or worsening over the next five years. This period will be characterised by significant challenges on care services: spending constraints, organisational change and growing care needs in an ageing society. However, there will also be significant opportunities to improve care through innovation – in part driven by necessity.