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Public consultation opens on pulmonary rehabilitation clinical dataset

The National Asthma and COPD Audit Programme (NACAP) is inviting comment on the draft clinical dataset for the pulmonary rehabilitation audit, which is due to launch in March 2019.

This dataset has been designed for continuous audit and therefore, once launched, will be used to collect data on all adults with a diagnosis of COPD who have attended an initial assessment for pulmonary rehabilitation in England, Wales and Scotland.

The consultation is open to:

  • all healthcare professionals, managers and commissioners
  • patients, their families, carers and friends
  • any member of the public with an interest in the condition and its treatment.

Professor Sally Singh, clinical lead (NACAP pulmonary rehabilitation workstream), said:

The new national pulmonary rehabilitation audit is an opportunity to collect data continuously on the quality and care of the service provision for individuals with COPD. We know that pulmonary rehabilitation is a highly valued and effective treatment for participants. This audit will allow us to support the development of the service, identifying areas of good practice and others where the services do not meet the expected standards.

This consultation is crucial to define the dataset and we would invite all stakeholders to contribute to this consultation, to ensure that the dataset is capturing information that is relevant and will make a big difference to rehabilitation services nationally.

The consultation will run until 9am on Thursday 9 August 2018.

Notes to editors

NACAP is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership. The project is led by the Royal College of Physicians of London, working closely with stakeholders including:

  • British Thoracic Society
  • Asthma UK
  • British Lung Foundation
  • Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
  • Imperial College London
  • Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
  • Royal College of General Practitioners.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, is a group of lung conditions including bronchitis and emphysema. They make it difficult to empty air out of the lungs because the airways have been narrowed. There are treatments to help people with COPD breathe more easily, but they can’t reverse the damage to the lungs, which is why early diagnosis is so important.

Pulmonary rehabilitation or PR is a programme of exercise and education designed for people living with COPD. It combines physical exercise sessions with advice and discussions about your lung health.

There is strong evidence that people with COPD benefit from PR and exercise more generally. Most people find PR improves their ability to exercise and their quality of life.

About HQIP and the National Clinical Audit Programme

The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) is led by a consortium of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the Royal College of Nursing and National Voices. Its aim is to promote quality improvement, and in particular to increase the impact that clinical audit has on healthcare quality in England and Wales.

HQIP holds the contract to manage and develop the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcome Programme (NCAPOP). The NCAPOP is a set of around 40 national clinical audits (NCA) and clinical outcome review programmes (CORP). These programmes measure the quality and outcomes from healthcare practice against explicit standards, and result in national reports designed to stimulate improvements in care. The programme is funded by NHS England, the Welsh Government and, with some individual audits, also funded by the Health Department of the Scottish Government, DHSSPS Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands.