Published 21 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3878
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3878

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More clinical audits are key to improving quality of care, says NHS audit chief

Helen Mooney

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The government should increase funding for national clinical audits to improve the quality of care and cost effectiveness in the NHS in England, says Nick Black, chairman of the Department of Health’s National Clinical Audit Advisory Group.

Speaking to the BMJ, Professor Black called on the government to increase funding for national audits, which he said were "absolutely central" to improving the quality of care.

His comments come after the announcement on 15 September of six additional national clinical audits in the NHS’s national clinical audit and patient outcome programme.

Professor Black said: "Virtually all activity to drive up quality depends on good quality data that does not already exist. Hospital episode statistics are limited in what they tell us, and national audits are key.

"Many activities and service improvements are held back because of the lack of good quality clinical data."

He added that the choice of new . . . [Full text of this article]


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