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 Doctors, nurses and other NHS staff in England are helping to develop new standards to measure and improve the quality of care in the NHS.

Local NHS organisations are being encouraged to engage with staff to help develop a framework for a new generation of indicators that will measure quality at local, organisational, regional and national levels.

Some of the regional indicators will also be used to measure the implementation of the local visions for improved healthcare produced by every Strategic Health Authority (SHA) as part of Lord Darzi's NHS Next Stage Review - 'High Quality Care for All'.

The Department of Health has identified a list of existing indicators used by various parts of the NHS to measure performance. Staff are being invited to comment on the usefulness of each indicator which applies to their specialism and to suggest other measures they may already use but which are not on the list. The indictors are listed on the NHS Information Centre website, which staff can use to feedback online.

Health Minister Professor Lord Darzi said:

"We can only improve the quality of care we give to patients if we constantly and methodically measure it. Developing a set of quality indicators in partnership with frontline staff will allow clinicians to measure their team's performance in a constant strive to improve and compare it with their peers across the NHS. These indicators will soon become a resource to challenge and stimulate NHS staff to drive up standards in healthcare.

"I want NHS staff to work together to develop useful and meaningful measures of their work. This will help improve the entire patient experience by delivering safer and more effective care."

The results of regional and online engagement will be used to develop a range of indicators to be introduced from 2009.