Background

One of these initiatives involved the HPA recruiting clinically trained staff to establish a dedicated resource to support the radiotherapy community, making the HPA an impartial resource equipped with the knowledge and skills to work in partnership with health care professionals within the clinical setting.Interaction with clinical departments depends on the type and needs of individual departments. The provision of advice may be simply in response to a telephone enquiry from a healthcare professional or may involve a site visit. These visits are at the department's invitation and intended to provide independent on site support and reassurance on issues surrounding patient safety and process efficiency within the context of IR(ME)R.

Clinical site visit structure

We offer a tailored service, with visits lasting between one and three days. The visit is planned with a key stakeholder from the department in advance via email contact and a programme drawn up. A site visit usually begins with a meeting with the heads of service and medical and physics leads for the department, to ensure that there is involvement from all involved professional groups. Visits consist of a series of observations of key areas within the clinical department, informal interview of individual members of staff and a review of department procedures. With permission of the clinical department examples of good practice are shared with the radiotherapy community. At the end of the visit, feedback of findings and agreement of an action plan is achieved in consultation with key stakeholders from the clinical department. There is also the provision for support and follow-up to these site visits.

Patient safety monitoring

The clinical site visits also enable the HPA staff to offer support and advice on the implementation of local incident reporting mechanisms and the use of the Towards Safer Radiotherapy[1] classification and coding system.  Learning from the analysis of reported incidents can also be disseminated to staff at the time of the visit.

Stakeholder feedback

The site visits have developed in partnership with the clinical community and are informed through working with key stakeholders. Feedback on the visits from key stakeholders reported that clinical sites valued and benefitted from an independent review of all aspects of the patient pathway without the threat of inspection. The site visit identified redundant processes so resources can be refocused into areas of potential improvement. Practical advice on the implementation of guidance documents was given and learning from shared experience of other clinical sites was valued. The flexible approach to the visit and receipt of achievable advice was also deemed beneficial.

To request a clinical site visit contact the Medical Exposures Department at CRCE: radiotherapy@hpa.org.uk

References

1. Towards safer radiotherapy