NATCAN publishes Quality Improvement Plans

05.09.24

The National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre (NATCAN) aims to strengthen NHS cancer services by providing information on the care and treatment of patients diagnosed with cancer, so they can deliver improvements in the quality of care to patients, from diagnosis to treatment and longer-term survival.

A Scoping Exercise in 2023 defined the scope and care pathway for the cancer audits and identified five key quality improvement goals. Throughout 2024, the audit teams  continued to work closely with key stakeholders, including people with lived experience of cancer, to define ten performance indicators, and how they map to key quality improvement goals, national guidelines, and standards. These performance indicators will be used by the audits to monitor progress towards its improvement goals and to provide a better understanding of the determinants of variation in the treatment of people with cancer and the outcomes they experience.

The Quality Improvement (QI) Plans published today describe the approach taken across the NATCAN cancer audits to develop the key quality improvement goals and performance indicators, aiming for these to be measurable, actionable and improvable. In addition, the QI plans set out the improvement methods and activities that will support implementation of the plans, including strategies for reporting and disseminating results, in addition to describing the approaches to evaluation.

We are thankful to everyone who contributed to this work and look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with our shared aim to stimulate improvements in cancer care and outcomes that will ultimately lead to significant patient benefits.

The Quality Improvement Plans for the audits can be found below:

‘New’ audits:
• National Kidney cancer Audit (NKCA)
• National Audit of Metastatic Breast Cancer (NAoMe)
• National Ovarian Cancer Audit (NOCA)
• National Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Cancer Audit (NNHLA)
• National Pancreatic Cancer Audit (NPaCA)
• National Audit of Primary Breast Cancer (NAoPri)

‘Established’ audits:
• National Bowel Cancer Audit
• National Oesophago-Gastric Cancer Audit
• National Prostate Cancer Audit
• National Lung Cancer Audit

NB: The QI goals for the NLCA were published in 2023.

Download a Summary of the NATCAN QI goals and performance indicators