About us
Measuring and improving our healthcare services
| HQIP is an independent, not-for-profit long-term partner of the NHS that is led by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Royal College of Nursing |  |
Every patient deserves safe, high quality care, and national clinical audits and similar programmes (such as the NCAPOP and the National Joint Registry, both run by HQIP) help to make that happen, by measuring the quality of care across hospitals and services. These programmes collect and analyse data to show what is working well in healthcare, and where improvements are needed.
We ensure that those working in healthcare have the best information to improve treatment, make services safer, and deliver better outcomes for patients. By using real world data, HQIP helps the NHS and other healthcare providers to raise standards, reduce variations in care, and ensure every patient gets the best possible treatment.
As a long-term partner of the NHS, we understand the complex challenges that healthcare providers and commissioners face. That’s why we also provide tailored, expert support in quality improvement, clinical audit, patient engagement, and value-based procurement – helping organisations drive real change.
Our vision: Improved health outcomes for everyone through evidence-driven healthcare
How do we support the healthcare sector?
National clinical audits and clinical outcome review programmes play a vital role in improving patient outcomes, supporting clinicians, and strengthening the NHS by delivering robust, data-driven insights that drive quality improvement. As the organisation responsible for commissioning and managing the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) on behalf of NHS England, HQIP ensures that healthcare quality and outcomes are measured against explicit standards, providing actionable insights that enhance care at both national policy and local patient levels. As such, HQIP works in partnership to enable those who commission, deliver, and receive healthcare to harness clinical data to drive meaningful, lasting improvements in patient safety and care quality across the UK.
Our work
Find below examples of our work and activities, designed to support quality improvement:
- Deliver the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) on behalf of NHS England and other national healthcare bodies. The largest programme of its kind in the UK, this enables the collection and analysis of critical data on patient outcomes, supporting continuous improvement in clinical standards and patient care across the NHS and beyond.
- Host the National Joint Registry (NJR), which plays a crucial role in monitoring the performance of joint replacement surgeries and implants, driving advancements in orthopaedic care and improving patient outcomes.
- Publish data from the NCAPOP and NJR on the National Clinical Audit Benchmarking (NCAB) platform, a public portal hosted by HQIP of benchmarked results that are searchable by project name, trust, hospital or unit.
- To support the use of the data we commission for public benefit eg research, we operate a Data Access Request Group (DARG).
- Ensure that patients and carers remain at the heart of our work through continued, strategic involvement in our projects at all levels, from helping to develop programme specifications through to evaluating resources (and a wide range of other activities in between). To facilitate this, we run a Service User Network (SUN), an advisory group of patients, carers and others with lived experience of healthcare services who actively input into our work.
- Support healthcare professionals to review and improve by sharing current best practice, through guidance, case studies, elearning and other resources designed to support evidence-informed quality improvement.
- Run Clinical Audit Awareness Week, featuring the Clinical Audit Heroes Awards, to celebrate the value of clinical audit and quality improvement in healthcare.
- Provide a range of quality improvement services to support healthcare providers and commissioners to address the complex challenges they face.
- Inform and influence national healthcare policy by effectively communicating our work and that of our partners.
Our achievements
Our performance and achievements are detailed annually in our Trustees’ reports. To read them in full, click here.
To find out more about us and our work, use the navigation bar at the top of this site.