Clinical Standards Report
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Development of the clinical standards
In October 2004, Dr Kate McKay, Consultant Paediatrician and Clinical Director, Community Paediatrics, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, joined the standards development team as clinical advisor to the asthma services for children and young people 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 young people, 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.
In June 2005, NHS QIS established a project group, with a remit to develop a set of national clinical standards and 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 and young people with asthma, parent representatives and representatives from both Asthma UK Scotland 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, and identified 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.
Consultation
Consultation on the draft clinical standards took place between April and June 2006, including two open meetings in Nairn and Edinburgh. The draft standards were revised prior to undertaking pilot peer review visits to NHS Forth Valley and NHS Grampian in October 2006, and revised again prior to the publication of the final clinical standards for asthma services for children and young people in March 2007.
The group agreed that, following the production of draft standards, there should be a full consultation with children and young people who have asthma and parents. NHS QIS commissioned Asthma UK Scotland and Children in Scotland to take forward this piece of work. Your Asthma Services Tell Us What You Think: Report of Consultation with Children, Young People and Parents was produced in May 2006. The information collected has been a significant driver for the content of these standards. The children, young people and parents involved in the consultation process were also asked for their views on the format of the final clinical standards to ensure that they are accessible.