The College of Optometrists has launched its updated Clinical Governance Guidance to provide members with a robust framework that aligns with the healthcare landscape and primary care optometry workplace practices of today - and into the future. The guidance will support optometry professionals in maintaining and enhancing standards of patient care.
This updated guidance builds upon the College’s previous Clinical Governance Guidance, published in 2015, to integrate advances in clinical practices, regulatory expectations, and patient safety strategies.
The Guidance is centred around four key themes of safety culture and systems, insight, involvement, and improvement. This approach underscores a shift from traditional compliance-focused guidance to a system that actively promotes innovation, learning, and collaboration.
The updated guide provides user-friendly clinical governance checklists for individual optometrists, contractors and practice leaders. It also signposts members to practical tools for quality improvement, from clinical audit cycles to advanced incident reporting systems in the College’s Guidance for Professional Practice and CPD courses.
Daniel Hardiman-McCartney MBE FCOptom, Lead Clinical Adviser at The College of Optometrists, said: “I encourage all optometrists to read and familiarise themselves with our updated Clinical Governance Guidance as soon as possible. By embracing the principles of the updated guidance, optometrists can all play their part in collectively delivering enhanced standards of patient care. Our revised and updated Clinical Governance Guideline is designed to ensure that optometry remains at the forefront of patient-centred, high-quality primary healthcare.”
The new framework supports each UK nation’s Quality in Optometry toolkit and employers’ internal clinical governance standard operating procedures, providing a high-level overview of current culture and good practice.
View the College’s updated Clinical Governance Guidance here: Quality improvement and excellence in optometry - College of Optometrists.
