Annex A > Chapter 18 - Medical and Clinical Audit > Introduction

Introduction

1 The practices and systems in use for informing the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS), Department of Social Security (DSS), Department of Health (DoH), National Health Service Management Executive (NHSME), National Health Service Executive (NHSE), the regional health authorities (RHAs) and district health authorities (DHAs) of the performance of units for which they had responsibilities are of such importance that they call for separate consideration.

2 In the first part of this chapter the development, over time, of ideas and practices of what has become known as audit is charted. A definition of audit is given at para 5 below.

3 The way in which these developments at a national level found reflection in the practices and systems applicable to the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) and Bristol Royal Hospital for Sick Children (BRHSC) throughout the period of the Inquiry's Terms of Reference is set out in the second part of this chapter. (The collection of data by Dr Stephen Bolsin and others, with specific reference to paediatric cardiac surgery, is dealt with from Chapter 26 - Concerns 1991, when the evidence as to the expression of concerns and the grounds for those expressions is set out.)

4 In the final part of this chapter we set out the extent to which there was audit of paediatric cardiac surgery in Bristol.

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