Clinical Audit
Clinical audit is a quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change. Diabetes UK has long recognised the importance of audit to assess diabetes care and has supported several regional and national initiatives.
Clinical Audit in England
The National Clinical Audit Support Programme undertakes the National Diabetes Audit (NDA). This is a national audit service that is sponsored by the Healthcare Commission. Established in 2004, it supports the implementation of the Diabetes NSF and aims to improve the quality of care for people with diabetes in England. The National Diabetes Audit, collects, analyses and reports on diabetes related information in England.
More information about how to get involved in the National Diabetes Audit for both adult and paediatric units is available at the ic services website
The National Diabetes Audit have a National Diabetes Audit (NDA) Toolkit. You can view annual reports that present the main findings of the audit and provide local and national recommendations.
Core Data set for Diabetes
This has been developed to ensure people with diabetes and their healthcare professionals have access to current, relevant, information pertinent to the management of that person’s diabetes. An example of this can be viewed in more detail at the Connecting for health website:
Clinical Audit in Scotland
NHS Quality Improvement Scotland - review of diabetes standards
NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) was established as a Special Health Board on 1 January 2003 as a result of bringing together the Clinical Resource and Audit Group (CRAG), Clinical Standards Board for Scotland (CSBS), Health Technology Board for Scotland (HTBS), Nursing and Midwifery Practice Development Unit (NMPDU) and the Scottish Health Advisory Service (SHAS).
The purpose of NHS QIS is to improve the quality of healthcare in Scotland by setting standards and monitoring performance, and by providing NHSScotland with advice, guidance and support on effective clinical practice and service improvements. A part of this remit is to develop and run a national system of quality assurance of clinical services.
The Clinical Standards for Diabetes (2nd ed.) were published in October 2002 following extensive consultation.
Peer review visits to all NHS Board areas in Scotland were conducted between February 2003 and September 2003 to assess performance against the standards. A local report on each NHS Board visit, including a detailed assessment of their performance against each standard, has also been published and is available on the website or on request from NHS QIS.
This report presents a national overview of diabetes services in Scotland, reporting on performance across Scotland against the standards and including relevant examples of local initiatives.
NHS QIS is currently planning a second round of review visits (due to take place in autumn/winter 2006). Diabetes UK Scotland will be undertaking a concurrent review of patient experience of services.
Diabaud 3 - management of Type 1 diabetes in young people
The aims of DIABAUD 3 were to:
- Provide prospective data on the effectiveness of the clinical care strategies employed in the management of Type 1 diabetes (T1D) in young people (under 15 years of age) in Scotland
- Investigate whether there had been a change in glycaemic control between DIABAUD 2 (completed in 1998) and DIABAUD 3
- Allow each clinical centre to interpret their efforts against the recommendations of SIGN Guideline 55 (Management of Diabetes).
Scottish Diabetes Survey
Annual Survey undertaken by the sub group of the Scottish Diabetes Group and this is based on information returned by Health Boards.