The NLCA Quality Improvement priorities were developed in consultation with stakeholders in the Clinical Reference Group and are described in the NLCA Healthcare Improvement Plan.
Link to download the NLCA Healthcare Improvement Plan
The NLCA Quality Improvement priorities focus on
- Increasing the proportion of patients who receive treatment with curative intent. This will reflect NICE recommendations for patients with NSCLC undergoing resection surgery and adjuvant therapy. It is also related to two NICE 2019 Quality Standards: increasing the proportion of patients encouraged to seek medical advice if experiencing symptoms (statement 1) and ensuring that patients suitable for curative treatment have their stage and lung function established (statement 4+5)
- Increasing the proportion of patients who are assessed by a lung cancer nurse specialist – NICE 2019 Quality Standard (statement 3)
- Reducing the number of patients diagnosed after an emergency presentation. These patients usually have advanced stage and poor prognosis. This goal will form part of the NLCA reporting of routes to diagnosis and will be reported to primary care and cancer alliances to complement the work of the NHS England’s Lung Health Checks initiative, part of the NHS Long Term Plan to improve early diagnosis and survival for those diagnosed with cancer.
- Improving compliance with the National Optimal Lung Cancer Pathway, which sets timeframes for each stage of the care pathway, enabling treatment for patients to start within 49 days of lung cancer being suspected.
- Reducing variation in quality and improving timeliness for patients undergoing predictive molecular marker analysis – NICE 2019 Quality Standard (statement 6)
We will add updates on our quality improvement work here.
Introduction to Quality Improvement
Links to organisations providing essential reading and background to Quality Improvement
| Royal College of Surgeons of England | Quality Improvement in Surgery |
| Royal College of Radiology | Quality Improvement in Clinical Radiology |
| Health Foundation | Quality Improvement resources and publications |
| HQIP (Professionals) | Introduction to quality improvement for healthcare professionals |
| HQIP (Patients) | Introduction to quality improvement for patients and public |
| National Institute of Clinical Excellence | Putting evidence based guidance into practice |
| NHS Wales | Improvement Cymru |
Quality Improvement Methods and Tools
Links to useful Quality Improvement methods and tools including templates
| NHS Improvement | Making data countQuality Service Improvement and redesign toolsCancer resources |
| Institute for healthcare improvement | Model for ImprovementQuality Improvement essentials toolkit |
| HQIP | Good governance handbook |
| HQIP | Clinical audit: a guide for NHS Boards and partners |
| HQIP | A guide to quality improvement tools |
| National Institute of Clinical Excellence | Quality Improvement resources for commissioners |
National Quality Improvement programmes
National programmes working to improve the quality of care and use the findings from the NLCA to underpin their work
| National Clinical Audit Benchmarking | Benchmarked NLCA data utilised for CQC hospital inspections |