Clinical governance in primary care: early impressions based on Bradford South and West Primary Care Group’s experience

Abstract

The experience of implementing clinical governance in Bradford South and West Primary Care Group illustrates how an emphasis on cultural change rather than on target setting, scrutiny and enforcement is both more consistent with the primary care context and more likely to create lasting improvements. The emerging focus on governance is reviewed and its implementation in one PCG via baseline assessment, strategic planning and innovative practice is presented. Linking clinical governance with a reduction in medical autonomy, as some commentators have done, does not allow for the complexity of power and responsibility characteristic of primary care. Alternative analytic models that draw on organizational theory and on sociology are offered.

Citation

Walsh, M.J. and Small, N. (2001), "Clinical governance in primary care: early impressions based on Bradford South and West Primary Care Group’s experience", British Journal of Clinical Governance, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 109-118. https://doi.org/10.1108/14664100110397278