Quality and Standards

We are proud of the quality of service that we provide and we endeavour to maintain standards in a variety of ways, as set out below.

Professional standards

All qualified staff working for the department are required to be registered with the appropriate UK body or recognised international equivalent; these include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, some other Commonwealth and EU countries, and the USA, depending on the profession.
As far as possible, we seek to employ staff who are familiar with the professional culture and approaches of the UK NHS so that they can be assimilated easily into our own service. All staff also undergo a police check and those who work with children must have an enhanced disclosure.

Professional development

We provide training and development opportunities for our staff, both locally and overseas. Our accredited trainers offer ILS (Immediate Life Support) courses and a local version of the ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) course, and suicide and self-harm awareness training (STORM). We also have an NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) programme, and a number of our healthcare and social work assistants have achieved NVQs at levels 2 and 3.

Healthcare governance

As we are not part of the NHS, we are not obliged to follow UK guidance or adhere to UK standards, however we endeavour to do so as far as is reasonably practical given our location and resources. For example, we have a healthcare governance framework which is drawn from UK models and best practice, which is in place to ensure that patients receive safe and high quality healthcare.

Infection prevention and control

We have stringent infection prevention control standards which are monitored by our infection control team.

These practices include:

  • regular hand washing
  • respiratory hygiene, including cough etiquette
  • the use of PPE (personal protective equipment)
  • the safe use and disposal of sharps
  • routine environmental cleaning
  • aseptic non-touch technique
  • effective waste management
  • appropriate handling of linen
  • screening for MRSA and Covid-19