CLINICAL AUDIT 2020
Chair’s Remarks - Louise Hazelwood
Clinical Governance Manager - Lincolnshire PCT
I was delighted to be able to chair Clinical Audit 2020 on 15th November 2007 and what more fitting a venue for a conference looking to the future than the National Space Centre in Leicester. It was a bitterly cold November morning that welcomed over eighty delegates to the first conference for clinical audit professionals to be run by the Clinical Audit Support Centre.
Maureen Manser was the first speaker and shared some of her wisdom from 17 years in clinical audit hitting home one point particularly clearly – why can’t we agree on a clear and unambiguous definition of audit criteria and standards! The confusion has surely lead to some less than effective audit projects being undertaken over the years. Dr David Shepherd had his own views on what makes for effective audit – local ownership for one thing, enabling accurate interpretation of audit data to give meaning to the results.
After coffee Dr Christine Johnson reminded us all of the power of significant event audit to improve quality and safety. Let’s not under estimate what significant event audit can achieve where clinical audit might sometimes fail – GPs tend to embrace it and we perhaps need to capitalise on this more if we are to engage clinical staff in audit activity. This linked very nicely to the next speaker, Anne O’Brien, who gave us all food for thought as to how we could ensure clinical audit effectively demonstrates good clinical governance in action. Stephen Ashmore then took us up to lunch with his own thoughts, including some audience participation, on why we don’t have a strong audit community and what he believes clinical audit will look like in 2020. Crystal ball gazing is not easy in the NHS when the next set of changes are always just around the corner, but I believe that the future will hold opportunities for a new direction for audit and the evolution of a new audit community.
After a well-earned lunch break and some alien-style retail therapy, Heidi Wright and Tracy Ruthven focused on clinical audit training, illustrated with some innovative training tools available to pharmacists. My own view is that training needs will increase, not least because of revalidation for GPs and other health professionals plus the trend towards more clinical staff being expected to carry out their own audits. Robin Sasaru gave us all an insight into the work of the National Audit and Governance Group and offered an opportunity for delegates to state their preferences for future NAGG priorities. With a sense that the audit community is not very strong at the moment, it is perhaps important that groups like NAGG exist to strengthen this in the future. Before tea Michael Wright gave the Department of Health’s view on why it was important to reinvigorate clinical audit now. Of particular interest to me was the formation of the new Clinical Audit Advisory Group as well as a Clinical Audit Forum – will these enable the flourishing once more of an audit community and how exactly will audit be reinvigorated with what appears to be a shrinking audit workforce and consequent loss of audit expertise? Time will inevitably tell, but it was great to end the day on a high with some inspiration from Andy Cope. With all the change and uncertainty around the future of audit it’s perhaps easy to fall into negative thinking processes, but Andy showed us a different way to think in a refreshingly different style that will surely help us along the road to clinical audit in 2020.
My thanks to Stephen and Tracy for a brilliant conference!
Louise Hazelwood, Conference Chair