What is Clinical Governance?

Accountability principles

Nexus has established a comprehensive organisational and local committee structure to support its corporate and clinical governance framework. Each hospital within the Nexus Group has a Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) and other committees pertinent to the patient services provided at each facility.

Medical Advisory Committees (MACs) – Each Nexus hospital is supported by a MAC, which includes independent medical specialists representing the hospital’s various specialties, together with the General Manager/Director of Nursing. The MAC at each local hospital serves as the highest level of governance within the facility. Its responsibilities include overseeing doctor credentialing, conducting clinical reviews, evaluating patient outcomes, reviewing patient and consumer feedback, and hospital performance in line with national accreditation standards. The MAC provides recommendations to the hospital’s General Manager/Director of Nursing and the Clinical Governance Committee.

Clinical Governance Committee – The National Clinical Governance Committee at Nexus provides support to each MAC. This Committee comprises national representatives from medical, nursing, and operational roles and is chaired by the group’s Medical Director. It reports directly to the Nexus Group Board, providing updates on performance and outcomes relative to the organisational clinical governance framework, which encompasses patients, staff, and doctors.

Nexus Group Board – the Nexus Group Board holds ultimate responsibility to ensure the clinical governance systems are in place and functioning effectively at each facility within the group.

Driving high quality care

We actively engage with three groups to continuously evaluate and improve our systems and processes, creating a continuous feedback loop, driving the standard and quality of patient care in our hospitals:

• Medical specialists, including surgeons and proceduralists, haematologists, oncologists, anaesthetists and surgical assistants
• Internal clinical caregivers, including nursing staff, employee medical practitioners, allied health practitioners and technicians, and support and executive staff
• Consumers, including patients, their carers and family, and the broader community

This extends beyond everyday interactions. For example, we formally involve consumers in advising hospital and group leadership, and actively involve Nexus staff, executive and board in the broader community.

Our 5 Pillars of Clinical Governance

Our Clinical Governance is supported by five Framework Pillars, underpinned by core principles that are incorporated into the systems comprising our clinical governance.

Our continuous feedback loop

With strong Local Hospital clinical governance engagement, and direct communication between those operating at a Local Hospital and the committees overseeing governance at Nexus Group level, we ensure effective communication to Nexus Group bodies responsible for clinical and other governance activities.