Audit to improve care

Our ambition is to see 3 in 4 people survive their cancer by 2034. We support the NCDA, as it drives improvements in early cancer diagnosis at GP practice, local, regional and national levels.

For GP practices, Primary care Networks and clusters the NCDA:

• Enables evidence to be collated and existing good practice to be shared
• Supports reflection, learning and targeted quality improvement planning for earlier cancer diagnosis
• Helps practices understand how they compare to similar practices  
• Identifies patients for case study discussion and peer learning
• Demonstrates quality improvement to support GP appraisal, revalidation and CQC inspections

For Cancer Alliances, Health Boards and other organisations, the NCDA:

• Provides valuable local and regional cancer intelligence
• Helps monitor the impact of early diagnosis initiatives and interventions
• Contributes towards improving health outcomes locally, and addressing variation between GP practices, especially in relation to one-year survival and the proportion of cancers diagnosed following an emergency presentation
• Identifies where support may be needed
• Helps deliver transformed cancer services, especially in relation to early diagnosis

At national level, the NCDA:

• Helps to deliver strategic ambitions in relation to earlier cancer diagnosis across the UK
• Helps monitor the impact of early diagnosis interventions, such as changes to clinical guidelines and pathways (including changes introduced due to Covid-19)
• Provides large datasets on pathways to cancer diagnosis for research purposes

Continuous cycles of the NCDA will support ongoing quality improvement activity at practice level and beyond.

We have at least two patient representatives on our steering group for the audit. They ensure the audit is informed by the views and experiences of cancer patients, as well as other experts. Currently we are working with two patients, who are part of our UK-wide steering group, as well as a third patient representative in Scotland.

This National Cancer Diagnosis Audit is being operationally managed by Cancer Research UK, but is a broad partnership that involves support and input from: The Royal College of General Practitioners, Macmillan Cancer Support, Public Health England (specifically the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service), NHS England, Public Health Scotland, Scottish government, Public Health Wales (specifically the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit), the Wales Cancer Network, the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (at Queen’s University Belfast), as well as our patient representatives and academic partners.

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