BMJ  2005;331:162 (16 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7509.162

Letter

Clinical leadership in hospital care

The right kind of clinical leadership is needed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Olsen and Neale are right to point to the importance of clinical leadership in reducing adverse events in hospital care.¹ What is required, however, is not the leadership beloved of politicians, where bullish confidence and decisiveness, often in the face of considerable opposition, are the order of the day. Rather, an atmosphere of trust in the clinical team is needed so that the most junior members of staff, or even the patient's relative, have the confidence to raise concerns about the quality of patients' care.

This approach is being pioneered by the Health Foundation in partnership with the Institute of Healthcare Improvement in its safer patients' initiative. Launched in 2004, the £4m initiative involves four acute trusts from across the United Kingdom that will become models of excellence in patients' safety.

The conventional leadership, trust board and clinical directors, has a crucial part to play in encouraging safe . . . [Full text of this article]

Health Foundation, London WC2E 9RA jo.parish@health.org.uk

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Clinical leadership in the provision of hospital care

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