Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQuIN)
The CQuIN scheme is intended to deliver clinical quality improvements and drive transformational change and will impact on reducing inequalities in access to services, the experiences of using them and the outcomes achieved. Our CQuINs are agreed with our commissioners as part of our contract negotiations and have traditionally been a mix of nationally mandated and locally determined Quality and Service Delivery Improvement Programmes.
EEAST has been extremely successful in delivering these for many years, however since the Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted all health and social care services in 2020/21, CQUIN deliverables were largely suspended by NHS England. This pause was to ensure the NHS focus remained very much on addressing the pressures caused by the pandemic without distraction, and more recently on the recovery from the pandemic to return services to sustainability.
As such, there were no locally determined CQUINs in 2022/23 as this approach continued, and the only national CQUIN for Ambulance Services related to the uptake of the flu vaccine, as there is each year in support of the protection against infectious illness. EEAST achieved 86% uptake, which was very much in line with the national average for frontline staff.
