Invited reviews offer consultancy services to healthcare organisations that require independent and external advice.
Introduction and background
The Invited Reviews Service was formed in 1998 and offers consultancy services to healthcare organisations which require independent and external advice and support. Reviews provide an opportunity to healthcare organisations to deal with issues and concerns at an early stage. The issues considered in reviews include:
- clinical practices and the delivery of care
- patient safety concerns
- increased mortality/’red flags’ in national data
- concerns around adherence to national guidelines
- workload and capacity issues
- individual behaviours/team working
- governance
- patient/family complaints/concerns
- service design.
When and how can a review help?
Medical directors (MDs) or chief executive officers (CEOs) of healthcare organisations can request an invited review when they feel the practice of clinical medicine is compromised and there are potential concerns over patient safety. They may also request a review where there are no such concerns, to seek an external view on how best to design or develop a service. Fellows and members of the RCP may request an invited review, subject to agreement with their trust/health board management.
By dealing with problems at an early stage and seeking external expertise, healthcare organisations can demonstrate a proactive and open approach to reviewing concerns and service development. This may help to reassure regulators such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC), General Medical Council (GMC), Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW), Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) or Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). It may also help establish whether concerns have reached the threshold of involvement of the regulator.
By the nature of the issues involved, each invited review is unique. We wish to ensure that the reviews are open and fair to all. The RCP Invited Reviews Service aligns to the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) framework of operating principles for managing invited reviews within healthcare.
Types of invited reviews
The RCP can offer the following reviews and, in some circumstances, these can be combined to help address the terms of reference for the review. For example, a clinical record review (CRR) may form part of a service review (SR), looking at a series of index and/or a random selection of cases to give the review team a better understanding of pathways:
Learning from invited reviews
The work of the RCP Invited Reviews Service is varied and challenging and continues to demonstrate a direct and positive impact on patient care and provides a supportive framework for change. The ‘Learning from invited reviews’ document brings together our experiences across multiple specialities, identifying common themes and crystallising some of our generic findings, which we hope will prove useful to all in clinical leadership roles.
Learning from Invited Reviews report - July 2022
Further information
To find out more about the RCP Invited Reviews Service and please see our guidance for healthcare organisations.
If you are interested in commissioning a review please contact the team by email at invitedreviews@rcp.ac.uk or phone on +44 (0)20 3075 2383.
Invited reviews: Guidance for healthcare organisations