Clinical audit

The clinical audit collects a minimum dataset for stroke patients in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in every acute hospital, and follows the pathway through recovery, rehabilitation, and outcomes at the point of 6 month assessment. It is the only national stroke register in the world to collect longitudinal data on the processes and outcomes of stroke care up to six months post stroke. Every year data from approximately 85,000 patients are submitted to the audit webtool for analysis, representing over 90% of all stroke hospital admissions in the NHS.

The aims of the SSNAP clinical audit are:

• to benchmark services regionally and nationally
• to monitor progress against a background of organisational change to stroke services and more generally in the NHS
• to support clinicians in identifying where improvements are needed, planning for and lobbying for change and celebrating success
• to empower patients to ask searching questions

SSNAP reports each reporting period so that timely information on stroke care is made available to clinicians, commissioners, patients and the public. Dissemination of SSNAP reports follows a phased process. This means that participating teams receive their results approximately 3 weeks after each data-locking deadline, providing them with the opportunity to review performance and formulate action plans as necessary. Most of these data are then shared within the wider NHS in the following 2 weeks before being made available publicly thereafter. 

The clinical audit has been running since January 2013. Reports changed from every 4 months to quarterly for April-June 2018. Results are available at national, regional, team and CCG/LHB/LCG level. Clinical audit results can be viewed by clicking here.