NICE is developing Quality Standards – a set of qualitative statements and quantitative measurements that act as a final distillation of clinical best practice – and is now requesting comments on 20 quality statements on end of life care.

The aim of the standards is to clarify what high quality care looks like in relation to the three dimensions of quality – ‘safety, effectiveness and patient experience’.

Over the next five years, NICE plans to publish 150 standards. It has been suggested that these standards will be used by the CQC as part of the assessment process, and by local commissioners as part of their service level agreement in contracts.

Click on the links below to preview the relevant documents:

End of life care: draft quality standard

End of life care: comments proforma

Document on NICE end of life care webpage

Comments should be sent to QSconsultations@nice.org.uk. Consultation ends at 5pm 22 July 2011.

General points to consider in each consultation

• Clarity of concept and definition of the quality standard;
• the appropriateness of the statements of quality;
• their unambiguous description;
• their measurable qualities; and
• the ease of data collection.

In particular NICE are interested in views on:

• Issues of style and format; for example, stakeholders may feel that the information could be made more readable and easy to follow.
• Whether the statement of quality adequately cover the 3 dimensions of quality: safety, effectiveness and experience.
• Any essential aspects of the care pathway not addressed by the quality standard.
• Any new evidence or relevant research not considered by the Topic Expert Group that may impact upon the content of the quality standard.
• The appropriateness and accuracy of the qualitative statements and quantitative measures.
• The levels of attainment that a high quality service could reasonably be expected to achieve for each of the statements (we have assumed a 100% achievement level).
• The utility of any existing indicators signposted within the quality standard and any gaps in the measures included.
• The suitability of the explanation of what the statements mean for individual audiences.
• Whether the quality standards could be changed to better promote equity of access to high quality services relating to age, disability, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation or socio-economic status. In answering this question, please include details of:
  • which particular parts of the quality standards you think affect equity of access
  • why and how you think equity of access is affected.