Dr Thippeswamy Billahalli and Raja
Rajakulasingam
The IQAS programme coordinator Laura
Bewley, spoke to Allergy lead nurse Thippeswamy Billahalli and clinical lead Dr
Raja Rajakulasingam from Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
about their accreditation journey.Homerton achieved the IQAS accreditation in
April 2022.
LB: ‘How did the accreditation process
benefit your service? Were there any unintended benefits?’
TB: The process was hectic but exciting too. It was good to
get formal recognition for the service that we are delivering. The whole
process of making sure that the service documents, policies and procedures were
up to date was useful. We were fortunate that we could make protected time
during COVID-19 due to cancellation of clinics, as the process requires a
considerable time commitment.
RR: It required a year and a half of work from the time we
started. As we went through the standards, we identified areas which would be
challenging to meet. During that time, we were able to initiate several enhancements
which we wouldn’t have done if it had not been for the IQAS accreditation
process. This included a new space for delivering services, a dietician session,
and a pharmacist session. Being able to communicate to our management that these
enhancements were necessary to meet the IQAS requirements meant it was easier for
them to understand and appreciate our need for them.
LB: ‘How did you keep your team on track
and motivated?’
RR: We are a small team, and we all know each other well. We
were on the same wavelength when it came to the accreditation process, everyone
wanted to help. We are the second clinical service in the whole trust to be
given RCP accreditation, so it was something we aspired to. The difficultly was
with management as COVID-19 was a big problem. It was a big ask for them to be
involved with IQAS, but they really did do their part to support us.
LB: ‘How did the team feel when they were
awarded? What does it mean to you?’
RR: Initially, we were deferred, but we were still very
happy to get to the end of the process.
TB: It was clear it was quite an emotional day for the team.
The way the service user feedback was delivered to us gave us more confidence
that we are doing the right things for our service users. Patient satisfaction
is what matters to us, and it is nice that this is acknowledged by the external
team. The positive feedback was motivating for the staff. On the day everyone
was there, including the management team, and they heard the feedback about our
service straight from the horse’s mouth.
LB: ‘What did you find challenging about
the process?’
RR: Collating the information and putting all the documents
together required extra hours. Since being accredited, we don’t have to make
that extra time, but we must remember we still need to continue to meet those standards,
so we have reformatted the way we work. We do a lot by default now, so we have
documents ready for our annual review.
LB: ‘What advice or top tips would you
give other services on their accreditation journey?’
TB: I would advise services to try and make protected time.
Also, go and visit a service which has been accredited and learn from their
experience. It was reassuring to see that we were not doing anything different
to them and it gave us the confidence to go through with IQAS accreditation.
RR: Do a self-assessment first and identify where the gaps
are. Ask yourself if you have the manpower and the resources to fulfil the
requirements.
Thanks for reading this blog, and a big thanks to Dr Thippeswamy Billahalli and Raja Rajakulasingam and the immunology team at Homerton for their input and answers.