RCOphth secures National Ophthalmology Database (NOD) Audit Project contract

3 November 2014

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) is delighted to announce that we have been awarded a contract to manage the National Ophthalmology Audit Programme (RCOphth NOA). The RCOphth will deliver this vital initiative which is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership as part of the National Clinical Audit Programme.

Building on the achievements of the previous RCOphth National Ophthalmology Database (NOD), the new audit will be delivered over 3 years (2014 – 2017) and will further develop and utilise validated quality standards to benchmark cataract surgery outcomes between centres and individual surgeons across England and Wales.

The analysis of the data from over 255 units, will be completed by the NOD Delivery Unit, and will help hospital eye service teams (HES) understand performance levels of cataract surgery undertaken and include leading causes of complications and adverse visual outcomes, both at a local and national level.

John Sparrow, Clinical Lead for the RCOphth NOD Audit commented ‘The National Ophthalmology Audit is a welcome opportunity for ophthalmologists to demonstrate the high quality of the NHS services they deliver. It is vitally important that this type of data is collected to provide standardised benchmarking and quality assurance and to understand and minimise complications in the future.  These valuable data will help to improve standards of care and patient safety and will have knock-on benefits for surgical training.’

Full press release: HQIP_Award_to_RCOphth_FINAL_031114