Clinical Standards
About the Draft Standards
In October 2004, Dr Kate McKay, Consultant Paediatrician and Clinical Director, Community Paediatrics, NHS Greater Glasgow, joined the standards development team as clinical advisor to the asthma services for children1 project and undertook a detailed scoping exercise over a 6-month period. The primary purpose of the scoping exercise was to review current evidence relating to asthma services for children, and use clinical knowledge and expertise to provide clear direction over which areas standards should be set, ensuring appropriate links with policy and other relevant work. The exercise included the review of a number of user surveys of patient and carer experiences, as well as existing guidelines and standards.
In June 2005, NHS QIS established a project group, with a remit to develop a set of national standards and an accompanying self-assessment framework for asthma services for children and young people. The group, chaired by Dr John Haughney, General Practitioner, NHS Lanarkshire, consists of a variety of healthcare professionals who are involved in the care of children with asthma, parent representatives and representatives from both Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation (Scotland). The group considered the findings of the scoping exercise, along with a number of other issues relating to children and young people with asthma and their parents/carers/families.
The group agreed that, following the production of draft standards, there should be a full consultation with children and young people with asthma and their parents/carers/families. NHS QIS commissioned Asthma UK and Children in Scotland to take forward this piece of work, which was completed in May 2006. The information collected will be used to inform the content of the final standards. The children, young people and their parents/carers/families involved in the consultation process were also asked for their views on which format the final clinical standards should be presented to ensure that they are accessible.
Consultation
The draft standards were published in April 2006. Comments were invited by Friday 16 June 2006. The draft standards have been revised following the initial consultation exercises undertaken in the spring of 2006.The draft standards now focus on the following seven critical areas for clinical standards:
- organisation of asthma care
- healthcare professional training and education
- schools
- linking care
- high risk asthma groups
- clinical review, and
- emergency care
Pilot peer review visits have been confirmed with NHS Forth Valley and NHS Grampian in October 2006. The final clinical standards are due to be published in March 2007.
