Should locum agencies be offered the opportunity to appoint a responsible officer subject to demonstrating good clinical governance systems?
Locum agencies should be offered the opportunity to establish effective clinical governance systems and then to appoint their own responsible officers. Question 2.3: To the extent that some form of quality assurance of clinical governance systems in some or all designated bodies is desirable, who should this be carried out by? The agencies responsible for quality assuring local clinical governance systems should include: • the regulators (ie GMC, Healthcare Commission/Care Quality Commission) • standard setting bodies including the Royal Colleges and (in Scotland) NHS QIS • accreditation bodies for various services • Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts and Health Boards It is important that organisations understand the boundaries of their contributions to overall QA to avoid confusion and minimise duplication. Question 2.4: In determining the way in which individual doctors should be linked to a responsible officer, which options do you prefer? For the majority of doctors
