JAG Standards and Evidence: A Deeper Understanding

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has a long history of driving up high quality care by setting standards against what good practice should look like. The Accreditation Unit (AU) at the RCP manages a range of accreditation programmes, with the aim of improving the quality, safety and experience of patients and improving service delivery.Accreditation is a supportive process of evaluating the quality of clinical services and promotes quality improvement through highlighting areas of best practice and areas for change, encouraging the continued development of the clinical service. We do this by developing standards with a multi-professional group of clinicians, managers and patients and working to an accreditation pathway which involves self-assessment and improvement against the standards. Accredited services submit evidence annually to demonstrate that they are continuing to meet the standards and have a 5-yearly on-site assessment carried out by our experienced assessment team.The AU also supports the quality assurance process and certification of endoscopy trainee practitioners.