A new data-driven national report into tuberculosis (TB) services across England outlines measures which can improve services for TB patients and the NHS staff who care for them.
Produced by the GIRFT projects team at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, the review shares critical findings and recommendations to help reduce the burden of TB on patients, their carers, providers of TB services and the local and national health systems.
NHS England’s prevention team commissioned the review to support the implementation of the National TB Action Plan for England 2021-2026 and to identify further improvements to sustain care and highlight good practice. The review was clinically led by GIRFT’s respiratory clinical lead Dr Martin Allen.
The key objectives of the review are to:
- identify how different services are providing TB care, including prevention, detection and control;
- identify good practice for TB;
- help to reduce diagnostic and patient delays;
- improve TB services through appropriate rationalisation and service transformation that future proofs TB services.
The review used the GIRFT methodology of data driven peer reviews of TB services across service providers in England. The final report includes good practice in the key areas of TB care and makes recommendations to improve service quality and address unwarranted variation in practice and / or spending while identifying opportunities for transformation.
The GIRFT projects team at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital have been asked to support and drive the required improvements and have developed an implementation framework which outlines the agreed approach to provide support and oversight for taking forward the recommendations from the national report. More information on this will be shared soon.
