Lansley backs clinical audit drive with national expansion promise

21 July 2010

As Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley singles out clinical audit as key driver for the Government's vision for the NHS, HQIP makes its response to the ‘Liberating the NHS' White Paper

HQIP Chief Executive Robin Burgess outlines clinical audit's central place in the Government's healthcare plans and the strategies HQIP has in place to meet those challenges.

"The New Coalition Health Secretary has set out his vision for the development of the NHS and the changes and implications for all our work are enormous. Those who work on or in clinical audit should recognise that clinical audit is a significant factor within Andrew Lansley's vision. In Section 2.5 of the White Paper, the Minister states:

‘At present, PROMs, other outcome measures, patient experience surveys and national clinical audit are not used widely enough. We will expand their validity, collection and use. The Department will extend national clinical audit to support clinicians across a much wider range of treatments and conditions, and it will extend PROMs across the NHS wherever practicable.'

Burgess continued: "The White Paper emphasises several key principles directly relevant to clinical audit work: patient engagement; accountability and openness; and better measurement and improvement in outcomes. The intention is that data from clinical audits should be available for patients to makes choices about their healthcare and to deliver openness, accountability and transparency.

Read the White Paper: 'Equity & Excellence: Liberating the NHS' >>

"HQIP is working closely with the Department to assist this process. This will involve HQIP making data publicly available on participation of local Trusts in NCAPOP audits, and wider promotion of audit results and outcomes.

"The National Clinical Audit list will be expanded: this data is recognised as invaluable both to clinicians and to central policy makers in relation to outcomes and forms a means of assessing comparative performance of Trusts. We also have to ensure it is of value to local clinicians. This means that audits at both the national level and the local level will need to strive to measure both adherence to standards and the outcomes arising from those changes to practice that mark better adherence. Local Trusts must be prepared to share this data with patients, and also to implement HQIP's guidance on patient involvement in audit if they are to match the aspirations set out in the White Paper.

"As a whole the White Paper presents both opportunities and challenges for clinical audit practice. It is up to those who work in clinical audit and manage local services to rise to meet these challenges of openness, transparency, patient engagement and both measurement and delivery of better outcomes in audit."