🩺 Clinical Governance: The Missing Piece in Sri Lanka's Private Healthcare Quality

• Sri Lanka’s private healthcare sector has grown rapidly, but this expansion is accompanied by a quality gap, particularly in small and medium-sized clinics. • Unlike large hospitals, most smaller facilities lack formal quality departments, relying instead on informal systems, leading to reactive incident responses rather than structured prevention. • Clinical Governance is essential—it’s a framework for accountability, safety, effectiveness, and continuous improvement. Key components include: • Clear, accessible policies and procedures. • Incident reporting focused on learning, not blame. • Regular clinical audits and risk registers. • Constructive utilization of patient feedback. • The lack of governance creates risks like wide variation in patient care standards, limited accountability, and reduced public trust in private healthcare. • Small clinics can implement governance simply by: assigning a quality/safety lead, holding weekly "governance huddles," and documenting improvements. • Outlook: For responsible growth, governance must shift from being optional to a core value, protecting patients and strengthening the national health system.