Objectives

NATCAN’s objectives

NATCAN is part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP). Its overall aim is to drive improvements in cancer care and outcomes by bringing the standard of all cancer teams in England and Wales up to that of the best. NATCAN will deliver quality improvement (QI) in cancer care by:

1. Providing regular and timely evidence to cancer services, which will allow them to see where patterns of care in England and Wales vary.
2. Supporting NHS services to identify the reasons for the variation in care in order to improve quality, and create change where it is needed.
3. Using data to help create more effective methods of detecting and treating cancer, and to improve outcomes, including better rates of survival.

NATCAN will also play an important coordinating role. Individual audits will collaborate closely with all relevant stakeholders to help improve the quality of care in their individual cancer areas, while NATCAN will provide additional value. It will ensure that there is consistency and standardisation in the delivery of cancer audits; and it will promote learning across different audit topics by sharing skills, expertise and knowledge among all its audit teams.