NBOCA Quality Improvement Plan 2024
NBOCA Quality Improvement Plan
The National Bowel Cancer Audit (NBOCA) Quality Improvement Plan sets out the scope, care pathway, five quality improvement goals and ten performance indicators for the Audit. The indicators aim to better understand the determinants of variation in the treatment of people with bowel cancer and the outcomes they experience.
The Audit covers the care pathway, from diagnosis to end of life care, for people diagnosed for the first time with bowel cancer in NHS hospitals in England and Wales.
The following quality improvement goals have been identified for NBOCA:
- Improving the diagnostic pathway
- Improving perioperative care
- Improving oncological care
- Improving management of stage four disease
- Improving end of life care
NBOCA has identified ten performance indicators, mapped to these five quality improvement goals and clinical guidelines. This Quality Improvement Plan sets out improvement methods, improvement activities and approaches to evaluation of these goals and activities. Further information on the rationale and calculation of the ten performance indicators is available to view in the Explanation of NBOCA Performance Indicators [Metrics].
Explanation of NBOCA Performance Indicators [Metrics]
The NBOCA QI Diagram of the Key Goals and Performance Indicators can be found here
NBOCA QI Diagram of Key Goals and Performance Indicators
For any queries relating to this please contact [email protected]
Introduction to Quality Improvement
Links to organisations providing essential reading and background to Quality Improvement
| Source | Title |
| Royal College of Surgeons of England | Quality improvement in surgery |
| Royal College of Radiologists | Quality Improvement in Clinical Radiology |
| HQIP | HQIP eLearning |
| Hughes, RG | Tools and strategies for quality improvement and patient safety |
| Health Foundation | Quality improvement made simple |
| NICE | Putting NICE Guidance into practice |
| NHS Wales | Improvement Cymru |
Quality Improvement Methods and Tools
Links to useful Quality Improvement methods and tools including templates
| Source | Title |
| NHS Improvement | Quality, service improvement and redesign (QSIR) tools by stage of the patient pathway |
| NHS Improvement | Quality, service improvement and redesign (QSIR) tools by type of task |
| Institute for Healthcare Improvement | Quality Improvement Essentials Toolkit |
| HQIP | Clinical audit: a guide for NHS Boards and partners |
| East London NHS Foundation Trust | Quality Improvement Resources |
| National Institute of Clinical Excellence | Quality Improvement resources for commissioners |
National Quality Improvement programmes
National programmes working to improve the quality of care and use the findings from the NBOCA to underpin their work
| Source | Title |
| National Clinical Audit Benchmarking | Benchmarked NBOCA data utilised for CQC hospital inspections |
| Getting it Right First Time | Variation in general surgery delivery and clinical practice |