The passage in 2003 of Spanish Law 16/2003 on Cohesion and Quality in the National Health System paved the way for the Quality Plans. The first Quality Plan was mentioned in the inaugural address given by the President of the Government in 2004 and formed part of the accords of the II Conference of Presidents of the Autonomous Communities of Spain, in September 2005, where it was allocated 50 million euros annually. The Quality Plan for the National Health System (NHS) is designed to benefit citizens and promote high quality health care focused on patients and their needs. It supports health care personnel in the promotion of clinical excellence and in the adoption of best practices based on the best scientific knowledge available. The plan has been in effect for three years and it is now time to present a review of activities undertaken thus far and a summary of the actions planned for 2009 and 2010.
The Quality Plan covers six large action areas that are divided into 12 strategies, 41
objectives and 189 action projects. The areas and strategies are:
1. Protection, health promotion and prevention.
-Health and lifestyle.
-Protecting people’s health.
2. Working towards equity.
-Promoting health policies based on best practices.
-Analysing health policies and proposing actions to reduce health inequities, with
special emphasis on gender inequality.
3. Support for human resource planning in the field of health.
-Adapting the human resources of the NHS to the needs of the health services.
4. Achieving clinical excellence.
-Evaluating clinical and management technologies and procedures.
-Accrediting and auditing health care facilities and services.
-Improving patient safety in NHS health care facilities.
-Improving the care given to patients with certain pathologies.
-Improving clinical practice.
5. Using Information Technology to improve care provided to citizens.
-Health Online.
6. Increasing transparency.
-Designing a NHS Health Information System that is reliable, appropriate and accessible.