Quality Improvement Strategy 2025-2028
The RCoA is dedicated to upholding the highest standards in anaesthesia, perioperative care and patient care, while actively collaborating with our members to enhance the quality of the service they provide. Improving quality is the cornerstone of the College and is supported through examinations and training, setting evidence-based standards for clinical practice and funding world-class research.
Quality improvement ensures that anaesthetic services remain high-performing, robust, and capable of delivering excellent patient care. To deliver safe and effective care with a decreasing resource, anaesthetists must adopt continuous improvement to maintain the delivery of safe, effective and efficient care.
Our vision
To ensure continuous improvement is adopted throughout anaesthetic and perioperative care services to improve the way we deliver care to our patients.
Our mission
It is our goal to enhance services and ensure better patient outcomes through collaborative and sustainable improvement, using data together with improvement science.
Purpose of the strategy
This strategy sets out the vision for the College’s quality improvement programme over the next three years and agreed priorities to enable the College to develop its role as a leader in quality improvement.
The audience for this strategy is those who have an interest in quality improvement, including the Quality Improvement Working Group, the Quality Network, the Quality Audit and Research Coordinators (QuARCs), the Centre for Research & Improvement, the Clinical Quality & Research Board, the Education, Training and Examinations Board, Council and Board of Trustees. It is intended for this strategy to support the College in achieving its overarching goal in the RCoA Strategic Plan 2022-2027 to:
- pursue excellence through the delivery of sustainable change and reduce variability in services through our quality improvement programme
- be innovative and progressive through the commitment to innovation and development to drive continuous quality improvement.
There is currently variation across the country in quality improvement practices, including disparities in training opportunities, study leave, event attendance, and national engagement. This strategy aims to reduce this variation and promote equity across all regions.
The Quality Improvement strategy spans 2025–2028. It has been reviewed by the Quality
Improvement Working Group, approved by the Centre for Research & Improvement Board and updated where necessary.
Aims of Strategy
We will:
- Strengthen relationships among local quality improvement leaders by offering networking opportunities, and ensuring each department has the opportunity to contribute to quality improvement. Opportunities such as the career development programme, Quality Network and Quality Audit and Research Coordinators (QuARCs)
- Encourage and support the future quality improvement leads
- Broaden engagement across
We will:
- Offer educational resources on quality improvement within the anaesthetic curriculum and other speciality specific topics, including webinars, podcasts, quality improvement study days, and training on assessing quality improvement
- Equip anaesthetists with the skills and knowledge to undertake quality improvement work, providing clarity on the difference between audit and quality improvement
- Link the anaesthetic training curriculum with quality improvement resources such as the Raising the Standards: Quality Improvement Compendium
- Link quality improvement to safety and understanding safety culture, in collaboration with the Safe Anaesthesia Liaison Group (SALG)
- Present at key trainer and national events
- Support local trainers in formally assessing quality improvement
- Support local, substantive anaesthetists to undertake quality improvement projects by raising the profile of quality improvement methodology outside of the Quality Network and making quality improvement accessible to everyone
We will:
- Leverage the College’s reach and social media platforms to promote the importance of best practice quality improvement
- Publish quality improvement articles and newsletters
- Promote the use of validated quality improvement methods as criteria for assessing quality improvement projects
- Harness local digital innovations and utilise this data
We will:
- Conduct a stakeholder mapping exercise to identify relevant speciality organisations to help us achieve our goals
- Collaborate with key stakeholders such as the Centre for Perioperative Care and patient codesign via the PatientsVoices@RCoA, to advance quality improvement priorities
- Support the Centre for Research & Improvement in delivering national level quality improvement projects
- Ensure the College’s partner organisations, their members, and the patient voice are central to influencing quality improvement and policy project
