National Audit Group

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Membership

• Dr Natasha Astill, Chair
• Dr Vanessa Apea,  Vice-Chair
• Ms Lucie Ralph, Audit Co-Ordinator 

• BASHH Regional Audit Chairs

  Anglia: Helen  Pollitt

  Cheshire & Mersey: Kirsten Michie

  Essex: Malaki Ramogi

  North Thames: Vanessa Apea

  Northern: Rachael Viney

  Northern Ireland: Emma Mccarty

  North-West: Dornubari Lebari

  Oxford: Nisha Pal

  Scotland: Sally Wielding

  South-East Thames: Soe Aung

  South-West: Sophia Davies

  South-West Thames: Ceri Slater

  Trent: Rasha Omer

  Wales: Sian Warren

  Wessex: Alison Blume

  West Midlands: Lisa Goodall

  Yorkshire: Natasha Astill

   

  Reflection from a pre-specialty representative on her reasons for getting involved and her experience in the group

  'Being the inaugural pre-specialty representative for the BASHH National Audit Group has been an incredibly rewarding experience. This unique role reflects the growing recognition of the importance of early-career clinicians in shaping the future of sexual health services.  The role also embodies the value of inclusion and diversity in clinical governance, ensuring that perspectives from all stages of a clinician's professional journey are considered. It has provided an essential platform for me to contribute to national initiatives, and engage in my own clinical development. Participating in the national audit has deepened my understanding of the crucial role audits play in shaping healthcare practices. It has been great for my career progression, continuing education, and leadership development. There is space to progress this role further to act as a conduit between a greater number of pre-speciality doctors and more experienced members of the audit group, fostering an environment of mentorship, knowledge exchange, and collaboration.

   

   

• Objectives

• National audits of clinical practice in sexual health/genitourinary medicine clinics against the BASHH Clinical Effectiveness Group (CEG) National Guidelines
• A forum to discuss national and regional audit programmes
• Response to requests for national audits by the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV
• Specification of key auditable outcomes for the common genitourinary conditions, using the clinical guidelines of the CEG as the standard of care

 

Significant activities

• National audit of management of Mycoplasma genitalium infection completed
• BASHH Board approval for the renewal of the clinical audit coordinator role following the planned retirement of the current coordinator at the end of 2022
• Recruitment of new audit coordinator
• Liaison with Clinical Effectiveness Group and reviewing and advising on auditable outcomes for the management of ano-genital warts
• Ongoing liaison with the UK Health Security Agency and National Chlamydia Screening Programme
• Ongoing liaison with the LUSTRUM project regarding piloting of proposed new partner notification audit measures

BASHH national clinical audit 2024 of first-time sexual health service attendees who do not have an HIV test: information on how to participate

Data collection now open

Performance/Outputs in the year 2023-2024

• Presentation of management of Mycoplasma genitalium audit findings and overview of quality improvement processes at 2023 BASHH conference
• Dissemination of individualised reports from the management of Mycoplasma genitalium audit to participating services

Future plans

• National audit of HIV testing in sexual health services (clinic attenders not tested for HIV)
• originally planned for 2023 but postponed to February 2024 due to delayed recruitment of audit co-ordinator
• Ongoing work to map of key topics for audit based on the HIV Action Plan, BASHH standards, Sexual Health Strategy and PrEP Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, as well as BASHH guidelines

Members