What is JAG?

The Joint Advisory Group on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (JAG) accreditation scheme is a supportive process of evaluating the quality of clinical services by guiding services through a quality framework – our JAG standards. We aim to ensure the delivery of high-quality, safe, and patient-centred care in endoscopy services across the UK through the process of accreditation.

Accreditation promotes quality improvement through highlighting areas of best practice and areas for change, encouraging the continued development of the clinical service. Accreditation is a voluntary process and accredited services submit evidence annually to demonstrate that they are continuing to meet the standards and have a 5-yearly on-site assessment carried out by our experienced assessment team.

We developed our standards with a multi-professional group of clinicians, managers and patients.

Endoscopy service accreditation

The JAG programme assesses endoscopy services that are registered with JAG in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The process of accreditation ensures high quality care is provided to endoscopy patients. The Global Rating Scale, a QI tool for endoscopy services, was launched in 2005 for services to self-assess against, alongside a set of standards. This was rolled out nationally in 2005, when it became compulsory for services who wanted to participate in bowel cancer screening in England.

Over 50% of services in the UK are currently JAG accredited, with a total of 562 services registered with JAG in the UK and Ireland.

JAG training

The JAG programme initially focused on standardising endoscopy training and a review of colonoscopy practice found that training in colonoscopy was often inadequate and improved practice should result from better training. In 2009, the programme created a colonoscopy training pathway to help improve the practice. Alongside this work an OGD pathway was created. Since its inception, we have awarded over 3,000 certifications to nearly 2,000 trainees from the main training specialities: gastroenterology (52.3 %), gastrointestinal surgeons (28.4 %) and clinical endoscopists (16.5 %).

The JETS Workforce programme launched in April 2019, replacing the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy for Nurses (GIN) programme. JETS Workforce supports nurses, operating department practitioners, healthcare assistants and other healthcare support workers in endoscopy and features a new training programme and ePortfolio.

International

In collaboration with national leads, JAG provide the Global Rating Scale (GRS) quality improvement tool and offer quality assurance (accreditation) for Irish endoscopy services. The National Endoscopy Quality Improvement Programme in New Zealand use the Global Rating Scale (GRS) to measure endoscopy services’ performance and to drive quality improvement. JAG has shared learning with countries across the world including Australia, Iraq and South Africa, and has supported training courses in Malawi. JAG’s curriculum has also helped train nurse endoscopist bowel cancer screeners in Hong Kong.