From NASGP blogger John Pike
There has been some anxiety about clinical audit in revalidation for peripatetic locum GPs. However, NASGP recently agreed with Professor Mike Pringle (RCGP lead on revalidation) that prospective audits are acceptable. Simply decide what you will audit, collect data on patients as you see them and then enter the data onto a spreadsheet or Word document when you find time. When you have 10 or more patients, you can summarise the findings (you can tabulate these automatically if you use spreadsheet software) and then start on the second set of data collection. I recently became aware of a few prospective audits that you can do on the web at: http://www.guideline-audit.com. The site has a separate section for sessional GPs. I signed up for the chest infection and asthma exacerbation audits and entered data on the first 3 chest infection patients today. I asked permission from a partner yesterday to do the audit on patients in that particular practice and to print off my consultation records, which I have since shredded after entering data. I got a bit of a shock when I first saw the 5-part data entry form but, in reality, it did not take long to enter the data for each patient. The time was well worth it, since I was immediately able to view tables comparing my performance with other practices globally and the learning has already begun. I will really enjoy doing this audit.
