Clinical Audits

The NHS Information Centre (www.ic.nhs.uk)  runs a programme of nine national heart disease audits.  Each audit offers reliable information to help health professionals continually measure and improve care by comparing their work to specific standards and national trends.  The Welsh Government contribute to the funding of these audits.

The following heart disease audits are being run:

Adult cardiac interventions, cardiac rhythm management, adult cardiac surgery service, ambulance outcomes, cardiac rehabilitation, congenital heart disease, heart failure, infarct angioplasty and myocardial infarction.

The audits look at specific aspects of heart disease as well as aiming to link the audits together to follow a patient's treatment and outcomes throughout their lifetime.  This is done without being dependent on where they received treatment, who provided their care and what treatment they received.

Participating in the audits has a number of benefits including:

• allowing healthcare professionals to examine the management of patients with heart disease and use findings to identify and maintain improvements

• the potential to improve the quality of life and survival outcomes for patients which will also have a positive impact on NHS resource management

• providing evidence that local services are clinically and cost effective by meeting the standards set by the Department of Health, the Healthcare Commission and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).