Invited service reviews (ISRs) are offered to hospital trusts as a way to provide external and independent advice on any issues which are proving difficult to resolve. When the practice of good medicine could be compromised, trust management or fellows and members of the RCP can request an ISR, giving them the opportunity to deal with problems at an early stage. ISRs give fair and independent support and guidance, and are important for protecting patient care and ensuring patient safety.
ISRs can be organised for any specialty, in any part of the UK. Issues which hospital trusts may require independent advice may include:
- Clincial team functioning
- Service delivery
- Concerns over patient safety
- Workload issues
- Clinical practices
- Clinical governance
- Provision of medicine in a merging trust and in small or isolated medical units.
How an invited service review works
The RCP acts independantly of other authorities and is able to offer advice and recommendatinos in an environment of trust. A team of carefully selected visitors with expertise in the relevant clinical area and lay memebers will be coordinated by the RCP. This team will analyse the situation by interviewing trust staff, reviewing documents and other appropriate methods.
The time take to carry out an ISR will depend on local circumstances. A review will typically take around two days, but shorter visits may be appropriate. In addition there is contact before and after the visit itself including both immediate verbal feedback, and later a full written report with recommendations for the trust to consider.
How to request an invited service review
- ISR requests must have the agreement of trust management (normally the chief executive or medical director)
- Enquiries and all relevant information including the reason for the ISR should be addressed to the invited service review manager (contact detials below) who will disucss further with the invited service review medical director.
- Once it has been agreed that an invited service review will take place, the ISR manager will work closely with the trust to organise the review. The RCP will normally require at least 8 weeks to arrange an ISR.
- The trust will be asked to provide a full terms of reference, and work alongside the ISR manager to discuss dates, the composition of the ISR team, who to interview during the ISR as well as the programme for the visit.
For further information please contact
Sally Mussellwhite, invited service review manager
Email: sally.mussellwhite@rcplondon.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 3075 1527
