The RCP’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Audit Programme ends today after a successful decade of influencing improvements in IBD patient care. The work of the programme has transitioned to the UK IBD Registry.
Commenting on the conclusion of the audit programme, Dr Ian Arnott, clinical lead for the RCP's IBD Audit Programme, said:
The IBD Audit Programme has over the last 10 years observed many improvements in the care of people with IBD. Patients with IBD are now much better off than they were 10 years ago – there are now more specialist IBD nurses, pharmacists, dietitians seeing more people with IBD. Mortality in hospital has halved.
The provision and care of people receiving biological therapies has improved and we know that they are generally safe and effective – in particular the new biosimilars that have come to the market in the last few years.
However, there are many aspects of care that still need to be improved. The IBD Audit Programme has demonstrated how widespread data collection has encouraged and driven improvements over time. The transition to the IBD UK Registry is the start of a new phase of ongoing data collection and reporting. The initial focus is on key indicators of quality in the provision of biologics and biosimilars.
We encourage hospital teams to keep participating to continue to build on the successes of the audit programme.
