About us
Measuring and improving our healthcare services
| The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, established in 2007 and led the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Royal College of Nursing. A long-term partner of NHS England, our primary aim is to support improved health outcomes for everyone through evidence-informed, patient-centred quality improvement. In practice, this is achieved by commissioning national clinical audits and outcome review programmes, registry data and resources as well as a range of other quality improvement and patient engagement activities. |  |
Working in partnership to support quality improvement
The data and insights that HQIP commissions help to deepen understanding of healthcare services. It shines a light on what is working well and what is not, enabling changes that also have a real impact on patient outcomes. Working in partnership is central to HQIP’s role in supporting the health and care system to achieve evidence-informed, patient-centred improved services and health outcomes for everyone. Whether working with audit and service providers, who measure and deliver healthcare, or engaging patients to ensure those improvements meet their needs, we understand that our unique value lies in bringing the parts of the ‘quality improvement jigsaw puzzle’ together.
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.