National strategic direction on quality

National level leadership, ownership and action are required to guide, support and sustain quality improvements, including important efforts to highlight and explain the national strategic direction on quality health services. The WHO Handbook on national quality policy and strategy is a key resource that supports this process. It provides an overview of eight interrelated elements that countries can consider when developing national policy and strategy on quality:

Other relevant resources in the Toolkit support tasks and actions related to these eight elements. In unison‚ these elements comprise a strong strategic foundation for coordinated improvements in quality health services nationally. It is also vital to integrate other existing initiatives into strategy development from across the health system‚ notably any ongoing initiatives related to quality of health services for specific conditions, populations and/or settings.

A multi-level set of interventions for improving quality of care must be selected and developed across this eight−element framework. While the selection of interventions often takes place nationally, their implementation has implications across each level of the health system. For this reason, specific implementation tools for quality improvement are also highlighted in the sub−national/district and facility sections of the Toolkit.

Nationally relevant tools have been included to support stakeholders working on national policy or strategy development, as well as associated operational planning and implementation. These tools will be of particular interest to ministry of health staff but would also be important for entities supporting this work‚ such as supporting agencies, partners and a range of stakeholders (including civil society and communities).

Although these tools are largely targeted at the national level, they may also be applicable at other administrative levels in the health system, particularly in decentralized health systems where sub-national authorities may set strategic direction on quality.

Adapted approaches are also needed for setting strategic direction for quality in fragile‚ conflict−affected‚ and vulnerable (FCV) settings‚ where national authorities may not function as they do in stable settings. Considerations for adapting the national approach to FCV settings are outlined in Quality of care in fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings: taking action and its associated Tools and resources compendium.