Promoting Good Medical Care

This paper sets out the policy of the Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes/ European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) on quality assurance (QA), which is defined here as the regular review against defined standards of medical care. Its aim is to provide a framework for confirming the good quality of healthcare in Europe and, specifically, of the contribution of specialist doctors. The paper provides guidelines that can be adopted for use in QA systems in all European countries. It will show that this can best be achieved when QA is based on valid evidence, which can also facilitate improvements in medical care and justify the provision of necessary resources.