Since the COVID19 lockdown last month, we have published four weekly updates. What has become increasingly clear to us is that at present, there is virtually no appetite for QI and clinical audit blogs. In many ways, this is not surprising. The NHS and healthcare providers across the country and further field are focused on controlling this horrible pandemic that has at time of writing claimed over 18,000 lives in the UK (many more if we include those who have died in care / nursing homes, at home, etc.). Sadly, there appears no immediate end in sight and no clear plans have emerged explaining how the UK and its citizens get back to anything approaching a state of normality. These are truly unprecedented and scary times.
The main purpose of this blog is to report useful news and feedback relevant information from national leaders. Initially when the lockdown started there was quite a lot of news to report here, but in recent weeks the flow of information has largely dried up. The national audit programme is suspended indefinitely, and it would appear that many clinical audit and QI staff have been redeployed to help the battle against COVID19. One only needs to look at Twitter to see that very few audit and QI teams are tweeting.
It is worth updating you on a few national leaders this week. In previous blogs we have focused on the amazing work that is currently being carried out by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC). Every few days they add to the data being collected on COVID19 and we would encourage you to keep looking at their website as they update their publications regularly. The latest report focuses on 5578 critically ill patients and you can download this here. We also note that ICNARC have published a file that provides additional data to help explain figures in their report.
We note that HQIP remain fully operational and they confirmed this via a tweet to us last week. However, the latest news section on their website has not been updated since 17 March and their Twitter feed is very quiet. NQICAN have created a blog entitled ‘COVID19: message of support and help’ and you can read it here. The blog is being updated with useful information, but interestingly (like us) NQICAN seem to be struggling for relevant news as there have been no updates for over 2 weeks. We’d also point you towards the NQICAN forum and its dedicated COVID19 section. This is worth keeping tabs on.
With so little to audit and QI news to report at present, now seems a good time for the Clinical Audit Support Centre team to go into temporary hibernation. We have spoken to a number of expert colleagues and our accountants and to protect our business we have decided to furlough Stephen and Tracy from 24 April. This means that we will not be blogging for the foreseeable future. In many ways it is a shame as we enjoy providing updates. Since we launched this QI blog last summer, we have published close to 40 blogs. It will be an odd feeling not writing regular features for a while, but now is the time to focus on staying safe, being with our families and protecting the business we started in 2006.
As a parting gift, we leave you with a few new materials to sink your teeth into. Last week we published a 12-page report reviewing 10 years running our clinical audit and QI competitions for junior doctors. The report includes details of all previous winners, survey data on junior doctor participation in clinical audit, links to eight enhanced podcasts and tips on how to undertake successful audits and QI projects by previous winners. To read the report, click here. In addition, we are delighted to publish the full report from our tenth annual clinical audit survey. We commenced this undertaking in 2010 and the latest 40-page report focuses on the data collected at the end of 2019. For the sake of transparency, the report includes all free-text comments and it provides a valuable insight into the current state of clinical audit. We have also created a number of additional infographics that you may find of interest and we would point you to our new 5-point charter recommending how HQIP and NHS England could make key changes to improve national clinical audit. To access the report and other infographics, click here.
That’s all for now. Stay home, stay safe and stay positive!
STOP PRESS: As fate would have it, we have just noted the publication of a new original paper focusing on national clinical audit which interviewed 54 staff and invited feedback. If you are involved in national audit, then this is well worth a read. The findings and conclusions make very interesting reading. To find out more, click here.