Experts set out health recommendations

The High Level Group on Clinical Effectiveness has set out its recommendations to improve patient care.

The group has stressed the need to harness the expertise of medical staff and relevant bodies in the NHS in order to boost effective and efficient clinical care.

Led by Professor Sir John Tooke, the group was set up at the chief medical officer’s (CMO) request following Sir John’s 2005 report Waste Not Want Not.

While Sir John found no single solution to improve clinical effectiveness, an emphasis on more national co-ordination and sharing of information on a local level was deemed essential.

The CMO Sir Liam Donaldson has accepted the recommendations on behalf of the Department of Health.

He stated: “I am very grateful to Professor Sir John Tooke and his colleagues for their report and recommendations which respond to the issues I raised in my Annual Report. These show how complex this issue is and suggest a practical and sensible approach to addressing it. “

Other recommendations set out in the report include the introduction of a small expert group to define the health service’s research agenda.

Also this week, the Department of Health published its annual health profile for England, with the figures showing the highest recorded life expectancy.