National Bowel Cancer Audit 2023: NHS England and Wales Care Quality Metrics

The National Bowel Cancer Audit (NBOCA) measures the quality and outcomes of care for patients diagnosed with bowel cancer in NHS hospitals in England and Wales. Commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, the data file contains audit participation, process of care measures, and treatment outcomes for patients diagnosed up to 31 March 2022. The data is aggregated at the organizational level and contains no patient-identifiable information.

Use Cases

• Benchmarking NHS trust performance based on audit participation and data completeness metrics.
• Analyzing care process adherence for colorectal cancer patients based on reported measures.
• Modeling correlations between treatment pathways and care outcomes based on aggregated organizational data.

Strengths

• Data is commissioned by an official healthcare quality partnership (HQIP) and involves major clinical bodies.
• Covers patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer up to a specific cutoff date (31 March 2022).
• Focuses on organizational-level metrics for audit participation, care processes, and outcomes.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI), NHS England, Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Collection Method

Clinical audit data collection from NHS hospitals in England and Wales.

Time Range

Patients diagnosed up to 31 March 2022.

Freshness

Data reflects patients diagnosed up to 31 March 2022; report published in February 2024.

Geography

NHS hospitals in England and Wales.