National Diabetes Footcare Audit implementation guidance
The National Diabetes Footcare Audit (NDFA) is a national audit. It enables all services that treat diabetic foot ulcers to measure their performance against NICE guidance, to monitor patient outcomes and to benchmark against peer units. NDFA has been designed to limit the burden of local data collection by making use wherever possible of data that is already collected from other sources. All participating services receive annual, comprehensive benchmarked reports.
Background
A national multi-professional group of podiatrists, vascular and orthopaedic surgeons, diabetologists, and service user representatives, chaired by Prof William Jeffcoate, guides the development and delivery of the NDFA.
From May 2017 the legal basis for collecting, processing and holding data within the National Diabetes Audit Programme changed. Since then NHS England has directed NHS England (previously known as NHS Digital) to collect patient identifiable data for the audits from providers in England. Due to how the contract for the NDFA and collection/submission deadlines fall, it was decided to implement the changeover in August 2017. The new legal basis for data to be collected by the NDFA (Direction under section 254 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012) will mean the submission of data for the NDFA audit will be mandated for NHS footcare clinics and specialist MDFT services in England. Therefore, primary and secondary health services which deal with diabetic footcare in England, will need to work with NHS England to supply data from the treatment of their patients.
The NHS England direction only covers service providers in England. For Wales, the legal basis for the collection of data will remain as Section 251and patients will still need to be consented. There will be no change for how organisations participate in the audit for Wales.
The NDFA is delivered by NHS England in collaboration with Diabetes UK and supported by the National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network, part of Public Health England.
Purpose of the collection
The purpose of the National Diabetes Foot Audit is to measure and support improvement in the quality of care of foot ulcers in people with diabetes. The collection seeks to address three main questions
- structures: are the nationally recommended care structures in place for the management of diabetic foot disease
- processes: does the treatment of active diabetic foot disease comply with nationally recommended guidance
- outcomes: are the outcomes of diabetic foot disease optimised
The NDFA will be of importance to the public, especially to people with diabetes, to health planners and policy makers, as well as acute trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), LHBs, Clinical Networks (CNs), primary care teams, and specialist diabetes and foot care services. The results of the audit will be used to monitor the quality of care provided for diabetic foot disease against NICE guidance NICE Guidelines: Diabetic foot problems: prevention and management; August 2015 (updated January 2016).
Scope
The NDFA is part of the Quality Accounts. It is expected that all NHS Trusts in England and Local Health Boards in Wales providing diabetes specialist foot care services within secondary care, primary care and community care participate in the audit.
Last edited: 20 September 2023 3:36 pm