Recommendation BRIS-144: Trusts must fully support clinical audit with resources and a central co-ordinating office
From Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report, published 18 July 2001.
Recommendation
Clinical audit must be fully supported by trusts. They should ensure that healthcare professionals have access to the necessary time, facilities, advice and expertise in order to conduct audit effectively. All trusts should have a central clinical audit office which co-ordinates audit activity, provides advice and support for the audit process, and brings together the results of audit for the trust as a whole.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say in progress (27 February 2026)
Please refer to our response to Recommendation 143 above.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Implemented – Ongoing”. Table row: section 6.2 No. 144, PDF page 135.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
The Government agreed in principle with this recommendation.
In its January 2002 response, the Department of Health said that each trust had a lead individual with responsibility for clinical audit and all doctors were required to participate in clinical audit programmes. The Department considered it was for individual trusts to decide how clinical audit activity should be supported locally.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 6.2 No. 144, PDF page 118-119.
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding