RCoA and CPOC to Lead First National Clinical Audit of Perioperative Care

The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) has been appointed by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) to deliver the first National Clinical Audit of Perioperative Care (NCAPC).  

As the home of The Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC), the RCoA is best placed to lead this work. CPOC will be supporting the Centre for Research and Improvement (CR&I) who will be driving this work. 

NCAPC is part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) overseen by HQIP and funded by NHS England. It will be initially delivered for NHS-funded care in England and publicly funded care in Jersey.  

The audit aims to improve patient outcomes and experiences by reducing unwarranted variation in evidence-based best practice standards of care throughout the perioperative pathway. It will help shape national practice by developing a healthcare quality improvement plan for perioperative care.  

The audit will run from 01 October 2025 for three years.

• Year 1: Defining clear healthcare quality improvement goals, identifying the most impactful evidence-based standards of care and deciding what data to collect
• Year 2: Gathering the data
• Year 3: Publication of the first national report 

Dr Dave Selwyn, Director of the Centre for Perioperative Care, said: 

“Good perioperative care is fundamental to safe, effective surgery. CPOC is committed to improving the surgical whole patient experience and this audit will help provide us the evidence of the impact as well as help us focus on areas which require further support, helping us to raise standards nationally.   

“By identifying what works best and where improvements are needed, NCAPC will drive meaningful innovation across the entire surgical pathway.”   

Clinical Recruitment

To oversee this work, the RCoA is recruiting for two clinical co-leads for NCAPC. More information is avaliable on the RCoA website.