Clinical governance in the West Midlands and South West regions: Early progress in NHS trusts

At the heart of the new quality agenda lies the concept of clinical governance. The research described here was undertaken to provide empirical evidence of the progress being made in the implementation of this initiative across NHS trusts throughout the West Midlands and South West regions of the UK. A postal survey was undertaken which revealed that trusts in both regions had taken key steps towards meeting the objectives to be achieved by April 2000. The findings demonstrate that this progress is variable and also highlights some important perceptions about possible barriers to local clinical governance implementation