Clinical Audit

You will be expected to complete two complete clinical audits during the revalidation cycle. One should be completed by year 3 and the second in year 4 or 5. This must include your initial audit, change implemented, and a re-audit to demonstrate improvement.

A description of a clinical audit should include:

Title of the audit

The reason for the choice of topic

Dates of the first data collection and the re-audit

The standards set and their justification (reference to guidelines etc)

The results of the first data collection in comparison to the standards set

A summary of the discussion and changes agreed, including any changes to the agreed standards

Changes implemented by the general practitioner

The results of the second data collection in comparison to the standards set

Reflections on the clinical audit in terms of:

Knowledge, Skills and Performance
Safety and quality
Communication, partnership and teamwork
Maintaining trust

Once again these fields will be present in the e.Portfolio.

Clinical audit may be difficult for locums so some suggested areas for audit are:

Antibiotic prescribing
Investigation and imaging
Prescribing for pain
Referrals
Cancer diagnosis e.g. breast/lung/prostate
Depression case handling
Medication reviewing
Hypertension management

Practical Advice

You may be required to carry out clinical audit, but that does not mean that you need to manually extract the data - make your IT work for you.

The LMC will develop some examples of clinical audits and publish them on the website. (Work in progress).

Remember the PCT does require a number of clinical audits in support of GMS or PMS contracts and some examples of these include:

Minor surgery
Osteoporosis
Use of beta blocker in heart failure
Inadequate smears
Referrals and admissions for PbC

Use these audits in your portfolio, remember you need to be able to identify the part you play in the clinical care being audited and that any action implemented should have an impact on your provision of care.

NFW April 2009