Clinical governance is important because it establishes the systems and processes to support consistent clinical quality and safety in often complex environments.

Patients, consumers and the community trust clinicians and health service organisations to provide safe, high-quality health care. Implementation of effective clinical governance can help identify and manage clinical risks for consumers, prevent harm, and improve the processes of clinical care.

This contributes to better clinical outcomes and improved wellbeing.

Clinical Governance ensures that everyone – from frontline clinicians to managers and members of governing bodies, such as boards – are accountable to patients and the community.

This accountability is for the provision of health services that are safe, effective, integrated, high quality and continuously improving.

Primary Health Tasmania encourages commissioned service providers to consider how clinical governance may apply to their organisation.
Consider this.

Example One.
A patient arrives at a suburban primary care clinic.  She is clearly distressed but unable to engage with the team, and then the GP, regarding the source of her distress. She says she is in pain, primarily in her back.

Examined by the GP, she is provided with some options regarding the pain and advised to rely on over-the-counter pain medication. “If you aren’t better in a couple of days, then come back and see us”, she is told.  

Example Two.
In a practice where there is a Consumer Charter, the GP and practice nurse worked with the patient to answer a few questions. They were able to establish that was in a violent relationship that she was unable to leave. 

The Clinical Standards allowed a series of health questions to be asked that, in parallel with the Consumer Charter, enabled the practice to understand what is going on and work with the patient to find her a safe way out, supported by community organisations through a multidisciplinary team approach.

As we can see from these two examples, the service with a stronger focus on clinical governance was able to deliver a safe, quality health care outcome for the patient.

Source: National Model Clinical Governance Framework