The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has granted Scotland’s first accreditation against the Improving Quality In Physiological Services (IQIPS) standard. The award was made to the Audiology Department at NHS Tayside and covers both adult and paediatric audiology services delivered at four hospitals in Dundee, Perth and Brechin.
Jointly launched by The Royal College of Physicians and UKAS in 2012, IQIPS is a professionally-led accreditation scheme, designed to improve the quality of care, safety and service for patients undergoing physiological tests, examinations and procedures. In addition to Audiology, the IQIPS programme encompasses Cardiac Science, Clinical Neurophysiology, Gastrointestinal Physiology, Ophthalmic & Vision Science, Respiratory & Sleep Physiology, Urodynamics and Vascular Science.
NHS Tayside’s Audiology Department with its UKAS certificate of accreditation
UKAS accreditation is recognised throughout the healthcare sector as providing an important and impartial evaluation of the quality of care that patients receive. On receiving the award, Laura Turton, Audiology Head of Service at NHS Tayside said:
“Achieving IQIPS accreditation has been years in the making, and we are proud to say that we are the only department in Scotland to have obtained this level of recognition. It is down to the dedication of the entire team as we wanted to evidence our commitment to quality for our patients.”
Accreditation for IQIPS is assessed against standards that address five ‘quality domains’: patient experience; clinical safety; facilities; resources and workforce; leadership and management. Currently, around 70 health care providers across the UK are accredited under the IQIPS programme, with over 100 differing disciplines participating in the scheme, improving the quality of physiology services for hundreds of thousands of patients each year.
