What is the National Audit of Schizophrenia?
The National Audit of Schizophrenia (NAS) is
an initiative of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Centre
for Quality Improvement (CCQI). It is part of the National Clinical
Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP), funded and managed
by the Health Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP).
Participating in NAS enables clinicians who treat people with
schizophrenia in the community to assess the quality of their
prescribing of antipsychotic drugs and of their monitoring of
service users’ physical health. It also supports them to monitor
service users’ experience of treatment and its outcome plus carers’
satisfaction with information and support.
Local services can compare their performance with
national standards and to benchmark with other services. In
addition, they can identify what they do well and where there
is potential to improve. Wide participation in the audit also
creates an overview of the quality of care being provided
nationally.
It is expected that all Mental Health Trusts in England and
Health Boards in Wales who provide community based care and
treatment to service users with schizophrenia will participate
in NAS.
Sixty Trusts/Health Boards participated in the first
round of this audit (list of
participating organisations).
The second round of audit
The second round of
audit will take place in 2013-2014.
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