Quality of care and environment - what this right means for patients

1. You have the right to be treated with a professional standard of care, by appropriately qualified and experienced staff, in a properly approved or registered organisation that meets required levels of safety and quality

What this right means for patients:
NHS staff must treat you with reasonable care (this will be determined by the health professional's practice) in your treatment or when providing other healthcare. The staff who provide NHS services must be qualified and have the experience needed to do their jobs well. They are governed by professional bodies and/or regulators. For example, the Nursing and Midwifery Council is the regulatory body for nurses.

As well as taking reasonable care to ensure a safe system of healthcare and using qualified and experienced staff, NHS and private organisations which have to be registered must register with the Care Quality Commission, and be responsible for meeting safety and registration standards on an ongoing basis.

2. You have the right to expect NHS organisations to monitor, and make efforts to improve, the quality of healthcare they commission or provide

What this right means for patients:
Quality of care is personal to each individual patient - you have the right to high quality care that is safe, effective and right for you.

NHS bodies have put in place systems to measure and improve the overall care they provide so that they can find out how well they are delivering these standards of care. To help achieve this, from April 2010 all PCTs must have arrangements in place to secure continuous improvement in the quality of the healthcare provided by or for them.

Furthermore, PCTs are obliged to ensure that providers of GP services have in place clinical governance arrangements and quality assurance systems.