01 August 2004
Dear Colleague,
Historic Audit Project
On 27 May 2004, I wrote to you outlining the Historic Audit Project (HAP) which will compare key information held on the HFEA Register with the corresponding Centre records. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those Centres who participated in the pilot studies, and all Centres for completing the questionnaire regarding the storage of records.
I am now in a position to provide you with further details about this project which is being managed by our Head of Audit, Mike Gilbert, and his team. Planning is at an advanced stage and takes into account the lessons learnt from the initial pilots. The next stage in the project which begins this month is to run a full trial across four Centres to ensure that the statutory data items required to correctly answer the questions outlined within the HF & E Act are confirmed as accurate (see Appendix 1).
During the trial we hope to consult with practitioners, test our planning assumptions & audit methodologies, and refine these in the light of any comments received to ensure that the full audit proceeds as smoothly as possible. Centres involved with the trial have already been contacted and we expect the trial to be completed by the end of the year.
Mike Gilbert and his team will do everything they can to minimise the effect of the audit on Centres. Prior to the start of each audit either he, or one of his regional managers, will contact you to confirm the basis on which you wish the audit to proceed and discuss the detailed arrangements. Those Centres which are known to have reliable Electronic Patient Record systems will be visited shortly to establish the scope for comparison of Centre data with our Register.
Where centres expect to incur "out of pocket" expenses as a result of the project, for example bringing records out of archives, they should discuss these with the HFEA in advance of the HAP visit. The HFEA will then endeavour to reimburse any reasonable costs.
The work on the Historic Audit Project complements our existing audit work in Centres. This is designed to perform checks on current records to ensure that all relevant treatments have been completely and accurately notified to the HFEA and that all fees due to the Authority have been paid. Therefore, some Centres will receive both a current and historic audit between August 2004 and March 2006. Nevertheless, we will work to ensure that the additional workload for Centre staff resulting from the audit activities is minimised.
If you have any questions regarding the Historic Audit Project, please contact our Head of Audit, Mike Gilbert, on 020 7 291 8282 or e-mail him at mike.gilbert@hfea.gov.uk.
Please note that the issuing of forms requiring correction and the associated statistics for the next HFEA Patients Guide requiring verification has been delayed, and will now be despatched to Centres over the next few weeks. I would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Yours sincerely,
Angela McNab
Chief Executive
Page last updated: 24 August 2012