Making clinical audit data transparent
In his transparency and open data letter to Cabinet Ministers on 7 July 2011, the Prime Minister made a commitment to make clinical audit data available from the national audits within the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme.
What information is being made available?
Audit participation by NHS Trust and network, and data completeness for the key fields.
Measures of aspects of the care given to patients.
Information about care outcomes and treatment.
These data do not list individual patient information, nor do they contain any patient identifiable data.
The National Head and Neck Cancer Audit focuses on cancer sites within the head and neck (excluding tumours of the brain and thyroid cancers). It describes a group of cancers (larynx, oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, nasopharynx, major salivary gland nose and sinuses and cancer of the bones of the jaw) that have many common features but also important differences in biological behaviour.
The Head and Neck Cancer Audit database contains a vast amount of information on more than 54,000 head and neck cancer cases, with 7,700 cases of cancer of the glottic larynx, more than 7,500 cases of oral tongue cancer, more than 14,000 cases of larynx cancer, and almost 17,500 cases of oral cavity cancer.
The National Head and Neck Cancer Audit 2014, Tenth Annual Report provided information that represents 7875 cases of head and neck cancer from England and 554 cases from Wales. The report, therefore, represents a comprehensive overview of head and neck cancer care, and this supporting dataset contains those England indicators in the main report and supplementary report files.
The National Head and Neck Cancer Audit was commissioned and sponsored by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and developed in partnership with the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists (BAHNO). The Health and Social Care Information Centre provided project management and technical infrastructure.
Accessing the data
Each year data from the National Head and Neck Cancer Audit is made available in CSV format. The data are also being made available on the data.gov website.
Which level of data is being reported?
Trusts and networks within England are included.
Trusts and Strategic Clinical Networks / Integrated Cancer Systems are identified by name and their national code.
What period does the data cover?
The National Head and Neck Cancer Audit 2013-2014 covered the time period from 1st November 2013 to 31st October 2014.