title: How to assess quality in your sexual health service.
abstract: Previous improvements in NHS have largely focused on increasing service capacity to ensure the provision of universal, comprehensive healthcare at the point of need in the UK. However, public expectations of the NHS are changing, triggered by increased access to information and media coverage of a series of lapses in quality and geographical inequity of care. The NHS also faces the challenges posed by a changing family structure, an ageing population, advancing technology and economic uncertainty. To meet these challenges, improvements in quality rather than just quantity have become a focus of the new NHS. This article provides an overview of quality and how to measure it in sexual health services.
authors.affiliation: Whittall Street Clinic, Whittall Street, Birmingham B4 6DH, UK. emma.hathorn@nhs.net
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hathorn
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Land
authors.forename: Jonathan D C
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Ross
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006296:Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D017751:Safety Management; D013222:State Medicine / Q000592:standards; D006113:United Kingdom; D014686:Venereology / Q000592:standards*