Clinical Governance: An Overview

Clinical Governance is a notion that is core to the management and leadership of health services. In its simplest form, it is a system of checks and balances that helps ensure health services are governed and operated in a safe and effective manner, with the delivery of high-quality patient care. It provides a framework for the prioritisation of decisions and actions based on their impact on patient safety. Clinical governance comprises the combination of several constituent parts: systems, processes, leadership, and staff with clear accountability for providing safe, effective, appropriate, and patient-centred care, built on an organisational culture of continuous quality improvement.