Quality in Primary Care Open Access

Getting to Grips with Clinical Governance is a book which has something for all clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals but the focus is for those working in hospitals in England.

Clinical governance is firmly put in the quality arena and after defining clinical governance and tracing its development, all aspects of clinical governance are, in turn, put into their historical and development context, explained or analysed and then practical examples or suggestions used for illustration.

Taking the chapter on risk management, the discipline is explained as a new topic in healthcare followed by a discussion on its interaction with clinical governance. The reduction of the risk of drug errors is used as the working example.

Risk identification, analysis and reduction are explained in more detail using clinical examples relating to documentation, consent and poor performance. This format is used throughout the book.

This style and the forthright approach of the authors shake up the reader and stimulate thought and mental discussion. The authors are positive about the political change of 1997, question the amount of training for clinical audit and state that research and development is the overarching term for evidencebased medicine. The changing face of clinical governance is emphasised.

Each chapter bar one on ‘quality time’ is concluded by a references and further reading section. Many readers struggle to find time for quality let alone ‘quality time’ so the absence of this section at the end of this chapter is an omission. This compelling book needs to be read cover to cover before it is dipped into for reference.

Alan Brown

Newcastle Emlyn,

Ceredigion