Summary

Description

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.