National Diabetes inpatient safety audit: Implementation guidance

This implementation provides guidance to eligible secondary care services to support implementation and use of the audit. 

The National Diabetes Inpatient Safety Audit (NDISA) forms part of the National Diabetes Audit (NDA).

The National Diabetes Audit (NDA) is managed under an agreement by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) on behalf of NHS England and the Welsh Government. The NDA is delivered by NHS England , in partnership with Diabetes UK and the National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network (part of Public Health England).

The NDISA audit is part of HQIP's National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP). NCAPOP audits measure healthcare practice against evidence-based standards, providing patients, the public and clinicians with a clear picture of the standards of healthcare being achieved. They also give healthcare provider’s benchmarked reports on their performance, with the aim of improving the care provided.

The NDISA audit has been designed to limit the burden of local data collection by linking to data that is already collected from other sources. Originally known as NaDIA-Harms the NDISA Audit started on 01 May 2018. All harms included in the audit were those where the first contact with the acute secondary care service was no earlier than the 01 May 2018.

Development and delivery of the NDISA audit is guided by a multi-professional national group of diabetes specialist nurses, diabetologists, public health physicians, analysts, and service user representatives chaired by Doctor Alistair Lumb.

The legal frame work to collect patient data comes from NHS England via their powers under the Health and Social Care Act Section 254 to direct NHS England to collect, analyse and disseminate the data for the NDISA audit.

Further information and all NDISA documentation are available. 

If you have any queries, please email the NDISA audit team at [email protected]. 

The objective of the harms collection is to reduce the rates of serious inpatient harms (severe hypoglycaemia, DKA/HHS, new foot ulcer) by collecting and providing regular feedback to hospital trusts to inform QI work on a monthly basis.

The audit and its findings will matter to the public, especially to inpatients with diabetes, to health planners and policy makers, as well as acute trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups, clinical networks, and specialist diabetes services.