Publishing quality performance should help patients and their carers' make better informed choices about health care and allow clinical teams to benchmark, compare and improve their performance.
The Department of Health introduced legislation to require all acute, mental health and ambulance trusts to publish quality accounts from June 2010 to provide the public with information on the quality of care they provide. This duty was extended to cover community providers in 2011.
For 2009/10 the East Midlands piloted how to publish quality accounts for organisations working in primary care. We tested the feasibility for organisations such as GP practices, dentists and nursing care homes to publish their own reports.
