National Diabetes Audit - 2007-08, Audit analysis: Paediatric Units

The National Diabetes Audit (NDA) is the largest annual clinical audit in the world, integrating data from both primary and secondary care sources, making it the most comprehensive audit of its kind.

It provides an infrastructure for the collation, analysis, benchmarking and feedback of local clinical data to support effective clinical audit across the NHS. The NDA aims to improve the quality of patient care by enabling NHS organisations to:

• compare their outcomes of care with similar NHS organisations
• identify and share best practice
• identify gaps or shortfalls in commissioning services
• assess local practice against NSF for diabetes and NICE guidelines and drive service improvement
• provide a more comprehensive picture of diabetes care and outcomes in England and Wales

  Through participation in the audit, local services are able to benchmark their performance and identify where they are performing well, and where there is potential to improve the quality of treatment and care they provide. On a national level, wide participation in the audit also provides an overview of the quality of care being provided in England and Wales.

  The majority of participating paediatric diabetes units do not have a clinical IT system that allows them to submit information directly to the audit. Participation is dependent on staff manually inputting data into a spreadsheet or database. This means that not all paediatric units have been able to submit full care process information for the audit year. Analysis on care offered, control of HbA1c and cholesterol is based on those children and young people for whom information has been submitted to the audit. Low results may be due to absence of data, rather than a reflection of practice.

  The National Diabetes Audit analysis is published in the annual reports. You can have easy access to the analysis here.