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The National Respiratory Audit Programme (NRAP)

The National Respiratory Audit Programme (NRAP) for England and Wales aims to improve the quality of care, services, and clinical outcomes for people with respiratory disease (including Asthma and COPD).

Spanning the entire patient care pathway, NRAP works closely with patients, as well as healthcare professionals, and aspires to set out a vision for services which puts patients' needs first.

It does this by using data to support and train clinicians, empowering people living with respiratory disease, and their carers, and informing national and local policy, with a strong track record of delivery, critical in assessing progress against national priorities.

NRAP governance

The NRAP governance structure consists of a Board, four workstream-specific Advisory Groups and two patient panels. Ad hoc steering groups also support programme work.

Members of these groups contribute to programme activities and decisions and, therefore, declarations of interests that may conflict with the audit programme are required as a matter of good governance:

NRAP team

NRAP Board

The NRAP Board provides expert direction, operational oversight and performance management of the NRAP programme and consists of stakeholders including patient representatives and national and patient organisations.

NRAP advisory groups

The advisory groups provides operational advice on the individual NRAP workstreams and consist of patients and healthcare professionals considered experts in their field. 

NRAP patient panels 

The patient panels make sure the views, experiences and ideas of people affected by respiratory conditions, who use the NHS, can help shape the audit. 

Information for patients and details about how NRAP works in partnership with patients and carers can be found on the patient involvement and support page.

Communications

We produce regular newsletters providing updates on NRAP and its workstreams. If you would like to receive the NRAP newsletter, or are already on our contact list and wish to be removed, email NRAPinbox@rcp.ac.uk.

    Webinars and learning sessions

    All webinars and learning sesions are recorded. You will find them here along with any supporting resources and slide decks. 

    Webinar - Welcome to NRAP 

    Historic projects, audits and confidential enquiries

    NRAP succeeds a number of historic projects, audits and confidential enquiries:

    • National Asthma and COPD Audit Programme (NACAP) – national audit programme delivering audits in primary, secondary and pulmonary rehabilitation services (2018 - May 2023). 
    • Asthma Audit Development Project (AADP)  – project to inform the specification of, and conduct the foundation work required for, a national asthma audit. 
    • National COPD Audit Programme  – first national COPD audit programme, commissioned to deliver audits in primary, secondary and pulmonary rehabilitation services. 
    • National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD)  – confidential enquiry which looked into the circumstances surrounding deaths from asthma from 1 February 2012 – 30 January 2013.

    Who's involved

    Organisations

    The programme has been commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) as part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) and currently covers England and Wales only.  

    The audit programme is led by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), working closely with a broad range of organisations including Asthma + Lung UK, the  British Thoracic Society,  Primary Care Respiratory Society UK,  Royal College of General Practitioners  and the  Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

    The NRAP webtool is provided by Crown Informatics and data analysis  by Imperial College London.