A profile of family planning audit in England 1994-1997

Abstract

Audit has been entered into enthusiastically by most of the multidisciplinary teams giving family planning services but the nature of the subject makes audit particularly difficult in this field. In many cases it has been used as a tool for determining standards rather than a tool for determining compliance to them. If family planning audit and evaluation is to substantially improve in quality, a great deal of work needs to be done, particularly in the formation of appropriate guidelines and in the increased utilisation of audit/research specialists to advise on methodology. It is hoped that the new clinical effectiveness committee of the faculty will take a lead in this; if so it will undoubtedly gain support from faculty members.

PIP: The British government invested considerable resources in clinical audit during 1994-97. While by 1993/94, 83% of consultants and 86% of general practitioners had contributed to 20,000 different audit projects, few data were available on the participation of other health care professionals. Recognizing that a sizeable percentage of these latter practitioners work in the field of family planning, the National Coordinating Unit (NCU) for Clinical Audit in Family Planning established a national database of unpublished clinical audits in the field of family planning and reproductive health care, which was subsequently passed onto the Faculty of Family Planning Effective Health Care Unit. Since late 1994, practitioners have been encouraged to submit audits for inclusion in the database as a resource for faculty members and others interested in auditing their own services. The national family planning audit database is now comprised of over 300 unpublished audits of varying complexity. Findings are presented from an analysis of the database with regard to the number of audits submitted annually, the choice of topics for audit, progression around the audit cycle, the disciplines involved in conducting audits, and the challenges of family planning audit. Work remains to be done in order to substantially improve the quality of family planning audit and evaluation.