National Standards

HIQA Standards

The HIQA have and continue to launch a number of standards that impact on general practice. These include:

• The National Safer Better Health Care Standards
• National Standards for the prevention and control and health care associated infections – under review for primary care settings
• National Standards for Residential Care Settings for older people Nursing in Ireland
• Maternity services – currently in draft for consultation

Where invited, the ICGP attempts to influence the standards to ensure that they reflect the role of general practitioners as a key provider of quality and safe care in the primary care setting.

The ICGP has reviewed the HIQA national standards documents and is progressively developing a suite of practical tools to support GPs with the implementation of these standards. It is useful to note that incorporating these tools into practice not only addresses the regulatory HIQA requirements but the IMC PCS and Health and Safety legislative requirements. Thus meaning one tool addresses the many regulatory requirements.

If you have these tools already in your practice, you don't need to replace them but maybe give them a dust off and include them on your practice meeting agenda. Remember this is not a pass / fail exercise but a quality improvement process.

Click here for useful links and recommended resources.

eResource Toolkit: sample templates

• Patient Satisfaction Survey
• Sample Practice and Patient Information
• Compliance with Legislation
• Sample Patient Record Management Audit
• Antimicrobial Stewardship GP Policy Audit
• Management of sharps and dealing with a sharps injury/contamination incident
• SBH Standards Toolkit of Evidence