What is IQILS?

'IQILS' stands for Improving Quality in Liver Services. It is an accreditation scheme for UK hospitals that care for people with liver conditions to drive up standards in the quality of care provided by UK hospitals for liver disease patients. This includes clinics and inpatient and outpatient services. PSC Support is part of the IQILS steering committee and has worked with clinicians to develop these standards.

There are now 56 liver services working towards full accreditation. You can see which ones here.

How does IQILS work?

Liver services across the UK are registering to work towards IQILS accreditation. To be accredited, they must meet high standards of care. These standards have been developed with patients to ensure that accredited liver services are truly meeting patients’ needs.

The IQILS scheme ensures that each hospital service measures the different elements of the service that they are providing so that they can see how they are doing compared with others. It enables them to share knowledge and resources and embed what works into their daily practice.

What will IQILS mean for me?

If your liver clinic is accredited it means that your hospital meets the rigorous IQILS standards and has demonstrated that it is delivering high quality care. This accreditation is not a one-off badge; your hospital must be inspected by the independent IQILS team and its processes scrutinised closely. For the next 5 years this will take the form of a remote assessment and then in year five a full inspection will take place again.

If your liver clinic is working towards IQILS accreditation, it means that there is a commitment from your hospital and the liver team to provide a high level of service. It is a new scheme so don’t worry if your service is not yet accredited. However, if your hospital is not working towards accreditation, ask them why not and if they intend to sign up. They might be interested in the following IQILS training session for hospital liver services.

Introduction to IQILS

The Improving Quality in Liver Services (IQILS) accreditation team is running an introductory session for hospitals not yet registered with IQILS to find out more about the programme and how it can help liver services to enhance quality.

Date: Tuesday 20 April, 9:30am – 10:30am

The session will cover:

• What accreditation is and how it can add value to your service
• The process and logistics involved in accreditation
• The benefits of registering
• A Q&A led by clinical lead Dr James Ferguson, quality lead Dr Andrew Yeoman and the accreditation unit manager Camilla Townsend.

If you are a healthcare professional, click here to register for the session.