The NMPA will carry out a continuous clinical audit of a number of key interventions and outcomes which will identify unexpected variation between maternity service providers or regions.
The reference standards for these audit measures encompass a large range of documents, including but not limited to NICE and RCOG guidance. However we do not propose to limit the set of indicators to those that have ‘auditable standards’ as we believe that maternity units will benefit from being able to consider a wider set of performance indicators to compare their antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care patterns, which will prompt units to reflect on less common patterns, even in the absence of evidence-based guidelines.
Data collection is now underway for the financial years 2014/15 and 2015/16. Further information about the data requirements can be found on the Resources page.
The audit measures for the first report are yet to be finalised and further announcements will be made once data quality assessments have been completed.
The first NMPA continuous clinical audit report will be published in late 2017 and results will be accessible in an interactive format on this website. Units will have an opportunity to inspect their data prior to publication.
View the first interactive NMPA continuous clinical audit data here
You can read about the RCOG’s previous work related to this topic here and view the interactive results of this feasibility project here.