This page is for the use of health and care professionals. If you’re a member of the public and want to raise a concern, please visit our patient experience and making a complaint pages.
The ICB offers support to all providers with the Provider Quality Queries process. Our Patient Safety team manage this process and can liaise between providers to:
- resolve pathway issues
- investigate quality concerns
- offer support at the point at which the patient’s care transitions from one provider to another.
Historically this service has been known as QAS, QRS, Quality inbox and GP Hotline in the former Clinical Commissioning Groups before becoming an Integrated Care Board. We have now brought all these processes together into ‘Provider Quality Queries’.
There are a few changes being made to the process. These are:
- implementing a two-way process for secondary care and community providers to raise queries concerning primary care providers (this was already in place in some place areas) and so we will be asking GP practices to respond to queries in the same way
- asking for all providers to comply with the deadlines set out, or to let us know where this is not possible.
How to raise a query
Provider colleagues can contact the team to raise a query, concern or give feedback about the quality of care or the service from other providers or sectors. Please contact the Patient Safety Team’s quality email address: [email protected].
When contacting the team, please provide detailed information on the template form (below) or in an email, including the patient data and attach supporting documents where relevant. Please also outline what steps you have already taken, so that the team can follow up your query.
We would ask providers to please try to resolve a concern locally before raising it through the Provider Quality Queries Process (unless you are making us aware for information only).
Please use a generic team or organisation NHS.NET email account to send your query. Unfortunately, we are unable to process queries sent using AccuRx or similar packages. The team do not have access to this software.
The Patient Safety team log all the queries we receive on our Datix system, contact the relevant provider to give feedback, or request a response, which is then shared with the enquirer. We ask for queries to be responded to within 20 working days for routine queries. For more urgent queries, we’ll ask for a response in 5 working days.
Queries can be about individual patient care or a wider care pathway.
Data received and logged in this way is collated and analysed quarterly and fed back to appropriate forums such as the primary/secondary care interface meetings, and ICB quality meetings. This enables the ICB to identify themes and prioritise areas for improvement.